[Turadis]

This is a very interesting and insightful thread, so +1 from me. Wall time.

My immediate thought is that nobody who falls on either extreme end of this proposed spectrum could likely tolerate SL2 as an enviornment for very long. Full on actors would lose patience with all the figurative paperwork necessary to make almost anything happen, and full on writers would lose patience with the general chaos and clashing ideas/egos that naturally arise from a (relatively) large roleplaying community playing out in real time. So we're probably looking at a situation where everybody in a thread like this falls somewhere away from the extremes of the spectrum, and in that light we're probably looking at a bit of a 'survivorship bias' kind of situation when it comes to the preferences of active members of the community.

That said, even skimming this thread reveals a trend that most people here are leaning towards the 'actor' side of the spectrum, and I'm not here to be contrarian about that because so do I. I do dream of the scenario where we can have immersive, mechanically-driven stories where the systems used are suitably fair and fit to task for everyone involved. Making something like that work flawlessly in an RPG specifically is a game design task so monumental that it might as well be the holy grail, though. So it's not like I don't begrudgingly understand why all this OOC organization and communication is necessary. That being said, it seems like there is a large audience for more spontaneous ways to interact with the game.

I dislike how scripted Korvara is. It is even moreso than G6 was if you ask me, due to the several extra layers of player leadership you must contend with. But rather than go off on that topic again, I'd rather talk about some concepts that might give players who want more spontaneity a bit more to work with. Stuff like the player props system was great, but we can go further. Something like making player antagonism work better would require more of a shift in community perspective and setting, which I can't really supply the means to other than suggesting dev go make SL3 using all we've learned throughout SL2. But I can muse on mechanical additions to the game that could give immersive/spontaneous players more room for said spontaneity.

Back when I roleplayed on World of Warcraft, there was a spell called Mind Vision. I'll gloss over the specifics of how it worked, but it let you see through other player's eyes, even from massive distances. This had great RP potential for me, being able to use it both to simulate magically spying on a character, and psionically communicating with them. I loved weird spells with out-of-combat mechanical effects like that that could serve roleplaying well, or even get me suddenly involved in plotlines when I saw something I shouldn't, or was even sought out ICly specifically for my rare ability. It felt great that my character had a cool, rare power that only my class could learn. Mages, specifically, could make portals that any player could use to warp to towns across the world. So you know everyone loved having a mage buddy around. Some mages would even sell the service in-character. Druids could shapeshift into birds or fish-things that really could fly or breathe underwater with their own unique applications in espionage or travel RP situations. So many weird abilities like that.

I have very few refined ideas regarding how you could specifically integrate non-combat powers into something like SL2, and how you would limit them so not every character can use them. Maybe traits with specific class or stat requirements? Maybe new kinds of professions with a different vibe? Maybe a whole new system? It's the subject for an entirely new thread on it's own, probably. But wouldn't it be cool to be able to Nature Walk, Summon, Blink, Scry, Telepathically Communicate, Shapeshift, Make Portals, or however many new powers we could think of out of combat? And have them actually do something mechanically?

Alternatively, there's always the return of player housing, which we had a thread about not too long ago. I know I banged on about the integration of what eventually became event spaces, and got what I wanted in the end. (Thank you dev you're the best) So it feels a bit cheeky to ask for even more in this regard. But the spaces could reasonably co-exist, and giving players back some means of creating their own spaces helps with the hosting of IC community functions, as well as capital E Events.

Alternatively alternatively, there's potential for a shift in current or future enviornments far from civilization to try and lessen the chokehold that nations could have on them. Perhaps due to incliment conditions, magical bullshit, or just Dev saying 'No.' Creating a larger space where smaller, more spontaneous stories and antagonists could exist more freely without worry of needing to contest with existing authorities.

But overall, what may probably be my least extreme suggestion may be the inclusion of 'examine spots'. Which I'm imagining just being signs that have a different, more abstract graphic, like the unique bookshelf sprite that's just a sparkling spot. Sometimes players put up signs to communicate strange goings on in some parts of the world to passers by. It would be pretty nice to have a more immersive type of sign to use for this purpose.

My overall point isn't really that immersive/spontaneous RP is better and I don't think we should move away from or change our perspective on the value that events and eventmins bring to the table. My point is that I feel like this thread and it's replies evidence that there's a sizable chunk of the player population hungry for more outlets for spontaneous RP, and it may be worth considering methods to further satisfy that chunk of the playerbase.

On the somewhat tangential subject of antagonism--I feel like I'm more receptive to random antagonism than most based on the other conversations I've had. But any shifts towards this being more commonly accepted community-wide would probably demand a shift to a setting with a more 'frontier justice' kind of dynamic than the ultra-lawful dynamic that any player-run civilization is inevitably going to adopt. After all if the players want to run competent characters who get in on the action, and the players want to run the government/guard forces, then the players will want to run the government/guard forces as competent actors who get in on the action. So the kind of narrative situation with absent, lazy or incapable law enforcement that enables vigilante/frontier justice isn't going to arise very easily. And all of that is not even getting into the idea that the characters who would oppose spontaneous antagonists tend to outnumber them by a huge degree and would quickly stomp them through sheer numbers in a fair contest. As it stands, my current perspective on spontaneous antangonism is that I don't think it will work and I don't try to do it.