#which is also very true for 3l grian and his faux reluctance to kill people on green

[myrmica]

tangotek grian and impulsesv :3

hi jules this ask is from ages ago sorry. i love you

Grian - Which game rules/mechanics would you like to keep, and which ones would you like to change/take away?

the biggest problem with the last life rule set is that it works against the players’ ability to tell a satisfying story (which is the exact reason that the basic concept of 3l/ll is good, because you have a natural mechanism for conflict and a set ending that everyone is working towards so it becomes a story all on it’s own)

this has been brought up by other people, but most things only happen the way they do in last life because The Rules Say So. it’s the difference between jimmy being exiled from the southlands as a consequence for his own actions, and grian being exiled from the southlands because... he got murdered? it strips agency away from the characters. red lives are forced to break alliances for no good reason beyond “well, we have to!”

“red lives are dangerous” is the concept at the heart of 3l/ll. alliance with a red life has a built in risk factor because it forces you to trust someone who has the ability to kill you, it’s that simple. the boogeyman negates this entirely by making that same thing true of any relationship with literally anyone

something like the boogeyman does functionally need to exist. you need to incentivize action in the early game or else it could be god knows how long before people start dying, and early deaths would be primarily a result of mobs or accidents. in 3rd life the lenience towards green/yellow players killing took care of this, so i understand wanting a better solution and the boogeyman does fix this specific problem, but...

my point is that if the most memorable parts of the season end up being when people are working around having to follow the rules... that says something. there's a reason why etho and bdubs were so impactful to the audience.

the way that different characters interact with the rules in last life is what defines them. cleo holding a grudge against bigb despite the rules of the boogeyman mechanic stating that it throws alliances out of the window says something about her as a person, and that’s why it’s so good. i don’t think the players should have to be swimming up stream in order to have moments like this. some characters benefited from bending the rules, but most characters suffered from following them.

(obligatory disclaimer that martyn’s stuff is only as canon as you want it to be, but i enjoy running with it) on an in-universe level the watchers introducing the boogeyman, getting stricter, and certain characters refusing to play along IS satisfying to watch. if you’re deriving themes from last life, the players retaining autonomy and love for each other despite the game working against them in every possible way is the most obvious one. i’m fine with last life the way it is, i just hope a potential season 3 finds a good solution to some of this, especially because martyn has made it clear that they’re aware of the problems with alliances in ll.

as an aside, i also wish life trading was used more sparingly or treated with more weight. it made for a lot of good and/or funny moments, but it removed the level of finality that losing a life had in 3l

TangoTek - Are there any new game rules/mechanics you’d like to see?

this is a harder question because you could do ANYTHING. if we get a season 3 i want it to feel different from the past seasons the same way 3rd life and last life feel different from each other. there are a million possible gimmicks.

i don’t mind the idea of giving the boogeyman “you must kill someone this session OR ELSE” thing to red lives instead because it would make them more active threats, but i’m sure that has it’s own set of drawbacks. saw someone suggest this + the possibility of rolling one life at the beginning of the game which could work

ImpulseSV - Are there any specific features/biomes you’d like to see on a world map (eg. village or no village, there’s an ocean monument, the world is made completely out of biome without much vegetation so the struggle for resources is harder, there’s a wide range of terrain, etc.), if any?

snow biome... entirely tundra. wide open, sparse vegetation and 0 cover. it's a location we haven't seen at all yet in either season, it would create the feeling of a harsher environment (an interesting through-line if you consider the introduction of the boogeyman mechanic in ll as the watchers becoming increasingly cruel with the way they run the game). i just think it would be fun. though practically the new 1.18 world gen is probably enough on it’s own