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The latest Mimesis Online Dev Diary is now online at RPGVault. "On the outside, looking in." is Derek Handley's look at the game as it stands now, and what they implemented in regards to "outsiders". If you are not familiar with this term, Derek has a nice explanation:
Outsiders make observations that can be unbiased truths because they aren't directly and deeply involved in the subject. An art critic can tell you a lot about the pastel and postpost modern quality of your work, but a layman can say whether he likes it or not - that's sometimes more valuable.
The idea of outsiders is a staple of science fiction. Whether they are used for us to identify with in an alien world (John Crichton in Farscape, the scientist in The Time Machine), or to show things from the point of view of someone capable of observing without necessarily being involved (Professor Challenger in The Lost World, Tom Baker's Doctor, the Martian Manhunter in JLA), they are there in almost every form of science-fiction that goes beyond them vs. us or exploring the unknown in a group.
I always felt that Mimesis Online needed outsiders too. Obviously outsiders of the first kind, for purposes of player identification, is unwanted (because role-playing games are about immersing yourself in something different, not being reminded of your own world), not to mention stupid (space time anomaly pulls 21st Century human to 5692? - what is this, the Buck Rogers Revival Show), and unnecessary (role-players have their own character - in the case of our game, three characters. What possible use would they have for a point of identification other than those?) I was thinking more along the lines of species that are outside the rest of society. They can comment without getting involved, have their own priorities, maybe help the player characters see some things like which governor is pulling the wool over his citizens' eyes, or which 'facts' about the wilderness are very convenient for certain organizations…
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Mimesis Online Dev Diary #13
