More ideas, building off of other’s suggestions that have come before.

Posting Speed

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This isn’t my idea. I just want to put it down here for reference, because I think it’s a great idea and leads into some other concepts. Basically, certain types of attacks take longer to type up than others, and allow forums to attack you more or less often. Forums likewise have “forum size” wherin larger forums have more members to flame you, simulating faster posting speed.

“Pets”

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CJLJ’s pet idea is darn good, but I don’t think it goes far enough. Yeah, give Camwhores (and derivatives) a White Knight to take hits… maybe even give trolls sockpuppets for a similar role. But these would be abilities that give you free pets, not the only means of getting a pet. More generally, anyone should be able to manipulate others into behavior likely to cause a forum to fail, creating a pet out of the forum population. Put a limit on the number of pets… maybe make it tied to charisma, or part of an ability. An entire clbum might be based around them, much like a necromancer in Diablo II.

For resource management, in particular, to ensure that flezz is still constantly draining from players, you could manipulate them by sending gifts through the mail, much like you recieve gifts yourself…

Pet -management- should then be key, which is where speed comes into play. There would be abilities to shift blame, to draw attention to a person or idea, abilities to sacrifice one pet in exhange for another. Each pet should have a different skill set, making it important to utilize them wisely. One kind of poster might be very kind, and be able to buff your ego (or the ego of another pet). Another might be charismatic, pulling in respect. Another might just be able to post really fast (but weakly, like a Re-Re), useful because you can wait for the perfect moment, pull him up, sacrifice him to the croud, and swap in your own attacks on his coattails for a good combo (although risky, because it’d bumociate you with the idiot).

Each pet, other than clbum ability pets like a White Knight, which would be special, should be pretty weak… probably falling after only two attacks, or even one attack in certain situations… in order to keep you on your toes. The puppet master should still be vulnerable at times.

Speed and pets combined make for interesting strategy, because you can plan ahead and make certain that others always take the blame, or help absorb “area of effect” attacks a forum might make on your whole posse.