So, Wildstar. Glorious MMORPG from bygone days. Beautiful themes, gorgeous setting, oozing with character, great systems design... absolutely terrible endgame. It failed because Carbine Studios were former WoW Devs who felt WoW lost it's "Hardcore Raiding" style and wanted to make a new MMO focused on -that-. Which made end game content into a massive wall for the majority of players that it wasn't worthwhile to climb, and lead to a small and elite community of end-game content players who felt accomplished but lonely in an MMORPG.
Anyone who understands the most basic premise of "Massively Multiplayer" has to understand that in order to succeed you need vast appeal across various levels of skill, drive, and availability. This is -why- WoW moved away from the "Hardcore Raiding" style toward something that would be more appealing to as wide an audience as possible to get as many concurrent users online at all times as they could manage. And they've done it pretty well for the past 18 years.
But Wildstar had some beautiful designs. And one of them I want to share, right now, is Player Paths.
In the game itself, these four paths resulted in players performing an "Extra Set" of sidequests, events, and activities related to their path but divorced from the core story, the main combat loop, or their class and race storylines. Each of the four paths also had multiple activities to do in a given zone, so while it wasn't a massive part of your leveling experience it was certainly a fun little character-detail that helped to flesh out the world.
"But Rachel!" I hear you say. "How does that help us design TTRPG Material and write our own adventures?" And the answer is: Those four paths are player-interest loops.
People who play Wizard or Warlock are often looking for more than Fireball (okay 'often' is a strong word...). They're also looking to play the knowledgeable character, the one who finds secrets in writing and clever loopholes in texts and knows to "Speak Friend and Enter". They want to play the Scientist. The character who is insightful and knowledgeable and uses wit and wisdom to overcome a problem.
The Explorer? Rogues, Rangers, Fighters sometimes, various characters who want to seek out and do the exploring bit. To find the secret treasure or climb to the top of the nearest tree to look out over the forest to figure out where the party is. They're the ones on the lookout for traps and hidden passages and places to sneak through to avoid trouble.
Settlers are the party Parental Unit. Organizing and arranging items, looking for or creating havens, taking the "Cook" Journey Activity all the time. Clerics, Druids, Bards shockingly enough. Yeah, playing music to entertain your party to wipe away (or protect from) levels of strife? That's Settler type stuff. And it's not just buffs and heals in and out of combat, it's a tendency to try and build connections and society.
And, of course, the Soldiers. Always on the lookout for trouble. Trying to find new and interesting ways to fight. Not just "Get into fight" but also "Protect civilians" or "Ambush". While all the martial classes fit into this mindset, so do Wizards and Sorcerers and Clerics and such. These are your players who try the super cool jumping off a cliff to add damage to their attack maneuver. The ones who swing from the chandelier to knock people out the castle window.
Identifying these sort of players is often fairly intuitive based on their class and skill choices. And building encounters for them can range from simple to implausibly difficult... But Wildstar -had- those sorts of encounter designs. And we can crib off of what it did right while lamenting what it did wrong.
So what does this mean for me?
Well. It means I'm going to look at this idea, as well as @xiphumor's "Homebrewing Options" and start developing Exploration Challenges based on these four mindsets, plus his Big, Bad, and Beautiful mindset, plus the Dungeon Delver's Guide's awesome NODES system. Making exploration challenges that apply to these four general archetypes of player and exist in a wider and more developed structure.
What does it mean for you?
It potentially means being able to use another perspective to better tailor your games to your players. Or to better convey your personal desires in TTRPGs to your Narrator during that Session 0.
And thanks to the Internet... we have the full list of every Path quest ever written to use as a reference point.
wildstar.fandom.com
wildstar.fandom.com
wildstar.fandom.com
wildstar.fandom.com
Yeah... I really do love designing stuff for A5e. And this is gonna make it a lot easier to design exploration challenges.
Special thanks to PJ Coffey for helping me break some of my struggles in writing exploration challenges and letting me loop back into MMORPG design in our talk this morning. Dude is amazing and deserves massive credit.
Anyone who understands the most basic premise of "Massively Multiplayer" has to understand that in order to succeed you need vast appeal across various levels of skill, drive, and availability. This is -why- WoW moved away from the "Hardcore Raiding" style toward something that would be more appealing to as wide an audience as possible to get as many concurrent users online at all times as they could manage. And they've done it pretty well for the past 18 years.
But Wildstar had some beautiful designs. And one of them I want to share, right now, is Player Paths.
In the game itself, these four paths resulted in players performing an "Extra Set" of sidequests, events, and activities related to their path but divorced from the core story, the main combat loop, or their class and race storylines. Each of the four paths also had multiple activities to do in a given zone, so while it wasn't a massive part of your leveling experience it was certainly a fun little character-detail that helped to flesh out the world.
"But Rachel!" I hear you say. "How does that help us design TTRPG Material and write our own adventures?" And the answer is: Those four paths are player-interest loops.
People who play Wizard or Warlock are often looking for more than Fireball (okay 'often' is a strong word...). They're also looking to play the knowledgeable character, the one who finds secrets in writing and clever loopholes in texts and knows to "Speak Friend and Enter". They want to play the Scientist. The character who is insightful and knowledgeable and uses wit and wisdom to overcome a problem.
The Explorer? Rogues, Rangers, Fighters sometimes, various characters who want to seek out and do the exploring bit. To find the secret treasure or climb to the top of the nearest tree to look out over the forest to figure out where the party is. They're the ones on the lookout for traps and hidden passages and places to sneak through to avoid trouble.
Settlers are the party Parental Unit. Organizing and arranging items, looking for or creating havens, taking the "Cook" Journey Activity all the time. Clerics, Druids, Bards shockingly enough. Yeah, playing music to entertain your party to wipe away (or protect from) levels of strife? That's Settler type stuff. And it's not just buffs and heals in and out of combat, it's a tendency to try and build connections and society.
And, of course, the Soldiers. Always on the lookout for trouble. Trying to find new and interesting ways to fight. Not just "Get into fight" but also "Protect civilians" or "Ambush". While all the martial classes fit into this mindset, so do Wizards and Sorcerers and Clerics and such. These are your players who try the super cool jumping off a cliff to add damage to their attack maneuver. The ones who swing from the chandelier to knock people out the castle window.
Identifying these sort of players is often fairly intuitive based on their class and skill choices. And building encounters for them can range from simple to implausibly difficult... But Wildstar -had- those sorts of encounter designs. And we can crib off of what it did right while lamenting what it did wrong.
So what does this mean for me?
Well. It means I'm going to look at this idea, as well as @xiphumor's "Homebrewing Options" and start developing Exploration Challenges based on these four mindsets, plus his Big, Bad, and Beautiful mindset, plus the Dungeon Delver's Guide's awesome NODES system. Making exploration challenges that apply to these four general archetypes of player and exist in a wider and more developed structure.
What does it mean for you?
It potentially means being able to use another perspective to better tailor your games to your players. Or to better convey your personal desires in TTRPGs to your Narrator during that Session 0.
And thanks to the Internet... we have the full list of every Path quest ever written to use as a reference point.
Explorer missions
Explorers have several missions they can unlock in each zone. Completing all the missions in a zone unlocks a reward.
wildstar.fandom.com
Scientist missions
Scientists have several missions they can unlock in each zone. Completing all the missions in a zone unlocks a reward.
wildstar.fandom.com
Settler missions
Settlers have several missions they can unlock in each zone. Completing all the missions in a zone unlocks a reward.
wildstar.fandom.com
Soldier missions
Soldiers have several missions they can unlock in each zone. Completing all the missions in a zone unlocks a reward.
wildstar.fandom.com
Yeah... I really do love designing stuff for A5e. And this is gonna make it a lot easier to design exploration challenges.
Special thanks to PJ Coffey for helping me break some of my struggles in writing exploration challenges and letting me loop back into MMORPG design in our talk this morning. Dude is amazing and deserves massive credit.
Last edited:
