How to add School Names in a 'family friendly' way
Methamos, suggested I make this it's own post and I appreciate the encouragement.
Having a means to symbolize a school so that it can be recognized or named in some way would be awesome. However, naming can be very hard if you let people use freeform text in the game. All kinds of negative speech infuses it over time. So I have been cooking how to get around that elegantly and have an idea to share here.
Since you need to constrain the terms used in game so that people don't curse or fill the world with hate speech... leverage the stylized and symbolic nature of the game for a narrative that gives you the constraint you need. For example, the narrative could go as follows:
With the appearance and subsequent destruction of Arcel, the Etheran have been revealed to the Absolver Guides. Absolver Guides are banding together through their schools of combat to defend the world from Etheran threats within the Fold. Some have abandoned the Guides only to follow new Etheran Leaders disguised as Absolver Guides. Trust is at an all time low across the land of masks and the Mentors need an assured way to recognize their
Students and Disciples, so they invent one using the magic of the very masks they wear.
Each mask is crafted by combining the magic of Essence with the magic of the Etheran. Therefore each mask possesses a tiny bit of the psyche of the Etheran, and it is connected by the true name of the mask. By combining the magic of two different masks a new mask could be created from the names of the old ones. Appearance was arbitrary, but it's true name is always the same.
with that said, so in game terms:
This consists of creating a new mask with a name taken from the very words in the previous mask names. For example combining the "Helm of Talem" with the "Mirror Mask" could yield the "Mirror of Talem" or the "Mask of Helm" as a result. Combine and craft them as desired, but never let the players alter the words used within the titles. (using translation tokens may be the trick here) They may arrange them as they see fit, with maybe one word from each mask, but they are therefore limited from using inappropriate language. You literally gain control of the entire vocabulary with translation even. Couched in the narrative it works well and the players still have enough freedom to have fun with it. This also give you an excuse to add masks for backstory (adding to the vocabulary as well) and such so that you could even have a school called the "Forest Dancers of Arcel" or the "Helm of the Oration Mirror" etc... Automatically allow for articles and prepositions within the translation space for flexibility since the dictionary is reasonably limited there. Oh and this creates a cool reason to collect masks off of anyone really.
Now comes the really fun part, this narrative also allows for the resulting mask to be used as the Mask awarded by the School. See what I did there? No other changes to the game, but once you earn the mask you have proven your training and get a mask with the proper name. I'm actually using a fairly uncommon mask in a similar way now. Naturally you should not be able to craft a mask until you master the game enough to create a school. Meet someone wearing your school's mask and you know they respect your school. They probably got your back as well.
What do you think? I'm dying to create a Named Mask for my school, but I'm not saying what so that no one steals it. :-)
Having a means to symbolize a school so that it can be recognized or named in some way would be awesome. However, naming can be very hard if you let people use freeform text in the game. All kinds of negative speech infuses it over time. So I have been cooking how to get around that elegantly and have an idea to share here.
Since you need to constrain the terms used in game so that people don't curse or fill the world with hate speech... leverage the stylized and symbolic nature of the game for a narrative that gives you the constraint you need. For example, the narrative could go as follows:
With the appearance and subsequent destruction of Arcel, the Etheran have been revealed to the Absolver Guides. Absolver Guides are banding together through their schools of combat to defend the world from Etheran threats within the Fold. Some have abandoned the Guides only to follow new Etheran Leaders disguised as Absolver Guides. Trust is at an all time low across the land of masks and the Mentors need an assured way to recognize their
Students and Disciples, so they invent one using the magic of the very masks they wear.
Each mask is crafted by combining the magic of Essence with the magic of the Etheran. Therefore each mask possesses a tiny bit of the psyche of the Etheran, and it is connected by the true name of the mask. By combining the magic of two different masks a new mask could be created from the names of the old ones. Appearance was arbitrary, but it's true name is always the same.
with that said, so in game terms:
This consists of creating a new mask with a name taken from the very words in the previous mask names. For example combining the "Helm of Talem" with the "Mirror Mask" could yield the "Mirror of Talem" or the "Mask of Helm" as a result. Combine and craft them as desired, but never let the players alter the words used within the titles. (using translation tokens may be the trick here) They may arrange them as they see fit, with maybe one word from each mask, but they are therefore limited from using inappropriate language. You literally gain control of the entire vocabulary with translation even. Couched in the narrative it works well and the players still have enough freedom to have fun with it. This also give you an excuse to add masks for backstory (adding to the vocabulary as well) and such so that you could even have a school called the "Forest Dancers of Arcel" or the "Helm of the Oration Mirror" etc... Automatically allow for articles and prepositions within the translation space for flexibility since the dictionary is reasonably limited there. Oh and this creates a cool reason to collect masks off of anyone really.
Now comes the really fun part, this narrative also allows for the resulting mask to be used as the Mask awarded by the School. See what I did there? No other changes to the game, but once you earn the mask you have proven your training and get a mask with the proper name. I'm actually using a fairly uncommon mask in a similar way now. Naturally you should not be able to craft a mask until you master the game enough to create a school. Meet someone wearing your school's mask and you know they respect your school. They probably got your back as well.
What do you think? I'm dying to create a Named Mask for my school, but I'm not saying what so that no one steals it. :-)
Comments
Thank you for sharing this idea as a separate post and giving more explanations. I have passed it along to the dev team, but I can't promise it will be implemented in the game. Anyway, thank you for sharing your thoughts and being an active part of the community!