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Post by SteeleEidos on Mar 1, 2017 20:57:45 GMT
Things such as detect evil might eventually get added as custom spells - and if they do, you can be sure that they will have some manner of saving throw (perhaps will?). We haven't discussed Scrying, or Telepathy yet, but such things might not work as intended in Purgatory. It's a curious place where magic doesn't always... work quite as intended. Typical teleportation is already stated to not work in the lore we're working on, making travel a bit harder for many - though there are a few natural standing gates on the isles that still function... but who knows where such things will take you? As for speaking directly to the gods in the form of divination spells, the gods are oddly quiet in purgatory. Sometimes people get answers - sometimes not - and sometimes those answers seem a bit odd. Almost as if something else was answering them instead... I'm more looking for a general statement letting players know how far they can RP their spell-books. Can we take it to mean "if the spell doesn't exist IG, assume it doesn't work. But if you have a purpose in mind, ask a DM about the specific spell you want to use with the context you want to use it for"? And what kind of RP would be required if a spell that's not in the game, like Scrying or Telepathy, were to be used? Will mages have a free, limitless use of these RP spells per day for simplicity sake? If not, sorcs would presumably be permitted to take a few 'unofficial spells' in their arsenal for RP purposes, those spells should be written down somewhere. Wizards would have to memorize a useless place-holder spell if they wanted to use such spells that aren't in the game. I realize this is pretty detailed and perhaps a little hardcore. Just know that I'm alright with whatever the DM team decides - I'd just like as much clarity as we can get on the topic.
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Post by DM Corruption Overwhelming on Mar 1, 2017 22:28:24 GMT
Things such as detect evil might eventually get added as custom spells - and if they do, you can be sure that they will have some manner of saving throw (perhaps will?). We haven't discussed Scrying, or Telepathy yet, but such things might not work as intended in Purgatory. It's a curious place where magic doesn't always... work quite as intended. Typical teleportation is already stated to not work in the lore we're working on, making travel a bit harder for many - though there are a few natural standing gates on the isles that still function... but who knows where such things will take you? As for speaking directly to the gods in the form of divination spells, the gods are oddly quiet in purgatory. Sometimes people get answers - sometimes not - and sometimes those answers seem a bit odd. Almost as if something else was answering them instead... I'm more looking for a general statement letting players know how far they can RP their spell-books. Can we take it to mean "if the spell doesn't exist IG, assume it doesn't work. But if you have a purpose in mind, ask a DM about the specific spell you want to use with the context you want to use it for"? And what kind of RP would be required if a spell that's not in the game, like Scrying or Telepathy, were to be used? Will mages have a free, limitless use of these RP spells per day for simplicity sake? If not, sorcs would presumably be permitted to take a few 'unofficial spells' in their arsenal for RP purposes, those spells should be written down somewhere. Wizards would have to memorize a useless place-holder spell if they wanted to use such spells that aren't in the game. I realize this is pretty detailed and perhaps a little hardcore. Just know that I'm alright with whatever the DM team decides - I'd just like as much clarity as we can get on the topic. The safest route would always be to ask a dm - or make a Custom Request in the custom requests section on the forum. That'd probably be easiest. That way we can keep track of what spells were given permission for - and to what degree, to prevent multiple dm's from mistakenly contradicting one another when it comes to rp abilities such as that.
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Post by SteeleEidos on Mar 2, 2017 0:31:00 GMT
The safest route would always be to ask a dm - or make a Custom Request in the custom requests section on the forum. That'd probably be easiest. That way we can keep track of what spells were given permission for - and to what degree, to prevent multiple dm's from mistakenly contradicting one another when it comes to rp abilities such as that. Understood. Thank you for your time. I'll hold the rest of my questions for Friday, as they're closely tied to classes.
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Post by SteeleEidos on Mar 9, 2017 1:19:45 GMT
Last week in the Q&A, you mentioned that you wanted to encourage player involvement in the world - to really get out there, promote excellent RP, and make themselves known. Later, in an example, you brought up that players could potentially lose items if they're ganked with the intent of wresting the item from their possession - this would presumably also be in addition to the death penalty tokens they'd incur from the preceding battle. The example was used in the context of discouraging players from recklessly flaunting their DM permitted relic weapon out in the open.
While I agree with maintaining the threat that such a powerful item could still be lost, I'm wary about what this approach could do to RP. I think most of us would agree that we want loss to mean something on IoP - it deepens to the immersion, and makes success all the sweeter. But losing a fight sucks, especially when it involves the character you've spent months working on building a reputation with. The penalty of loss should be just great enough to invoke caution and a sense of threat - but ideally not much farther. My concern is that I don't want to see the penalties for loss discourage RP, turning previous excellent RPers into recluses, too afraid of losing their hard earned 'Sword of a Thousand Truths'.
Do you feel that in addition to the disheartening feeling of loss to an opponent, and the death penalty tokens, that there should still be further threat of loss? And if so, can you help alleviate some of my concern?
Personal thoughts: My first, and favorite NwN RP server also involved commending veteran players for excellent RP, and rewarding them with the ability to request locked (commonly overpowered) subraces, and playing them if approved. For me - someone who hadn't had previous experience in RP servers - coming across such a character was exciting - "this is a veteran player, known for his/her ability to RP... and this character almost certainly has the strength to match that." I quickly became fond of this game-designed imbalance when moderated well. But I understand the necessity of balance that the developers face. Ultimately, I was pleased to see indicators of RP promotional rewards in IoP. And though I would understand if such relic weapons were approached as more of a temporary benefit, I'd like to see most of them intended for long-term use, and only revoked following DM discussions.
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sol
Woke Up Somewhere Strange
Posts: 2
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Post by sol on Mar 9, 2017 4:43:19 GMT
What I would say to that is, perhaps if someone has said artifact for a certain amount of time or researches a fashion to bind the artifact to their character IC-wise then it would be more appropriate than simply retaining it when other high-risk items are lost upon death(pk?)
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Post by DM Corruption Overwhelming on Mar 9, 2017 14:19:39 GMT
I may have not been clear enough when stating that such extremely rare items would be lost on death: typically such items would be lost if the character is permanently dead, as in not able to be resurrected, for any number of reasons. Furthermore I believe someone stated that such people who would have earned, or come across such items would also have enough time invested - and typically be of the roleplay calibur, to not make rash, stupid, or otherwise foolish decisions without knowing the heavy consequences they can carry. There are certainly other means by which such items could be taken as well - but we're in the realm of story elements and long term rp here. This isn't the kind of thing we'd want to let some nobody pickpocket off of you because " I put a lot of points into pickpocket and it's super easy". The reason for such items dropping if a character is perma-dead, or that they can be taken away at all is that they're fundamentally important items. These items that we're discussing aren't just run-of-the-mill, 'really good' weapons you might find at a super low rate in a high tier dungeon: these are artifacts. One of a kind items with a huge tie in with the lore. These are items that can completely shape the future of the server itself if used correctly - or doom it if they're lost.
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Post by Kittenfish on Mar 9, 2017 20:08:23 GMT
.... Well I guess Azzy had to put his two cents in. (I'll get Corruption to fix this soon.) Here would be mine. When it comes to great RP, I've found that the best RP partners you can find are the ones that except major losses and continue to strive to right the wrongs that have been done. The players that tend to take such bad events, because here they are likely to happen, and strive to improve or fix said things are likely to strive better here then someone who quiets right after such losses. Part of playing in a living world means that there are some things you can't fix or prevent. Sometimes the good guys loss, some time the bad. It's something good RPers will take in strides. Loosing a major battle shouldn't deter a person, it should push them forward. The same way such set backs IRL would. A great example of a person who continues to push forward despite setback is Samurai Jack. He continues to go after Aku even after failing so many times. As Corruption has stated above, such items are giving to help move stories along. The idea isn't to give a player an awesome sword so they can wave it around and flaunt it as proof they are great RPers, but to instead provide them with a piece of lore that they have worked hard for. To give them the chance to RP something more then they could before. Yes, they might loose it eventually, but it really wouldn't be fair to the other side if the 'Sword of a Thousand Truths' couldn't be taken away. It would mean they would need a 'Sword of a Thousand Lies' to counter. I might also make it feel like the DM's are favoring sides, which we don't want to do in any way. By playing here you are taking part in a story, and sometimes it's not a very pretty one with happy endings. The experience we want to provide is a realistic RP setting, where bad shit happens from time to time. Even the most careful players can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm not saying that we're going to go out of our way to make players lives miserable, but we want to make sure that everyone understands. Bad shit happens, that's life. This concept allows Evil Characters to strive here just as well as Good ones. It allows the story to move forward without always having to have a DM controlling such things. It allows the players to feel as if their part in things make at least a little bit of a difference. We talked about the Dread event in the Q&A, and how the other side felt jipped when we destroyed the island. We had been talking about the event for weeks in advance and only the day of the event had someone decided to set up a counter defense for it. So, in a couple of hours the other side attempted to set up against a team of players who where to infiltrate the strong hold and kill the nameless many. The team was made up of people who had put in several hours of RP over the span of a month, plotting what route to take so on and such forth. The other side only took hours. So when the team slipped by with out being noticed because they took a back path, it caused some issues with the players who hadn't spent time mapping out the area or planning for such things. It really wouldn't have been fair for the DM to give the same amount of reward to the players who only worked hours on such things vs the ones who spent months moving the story along. Had the team been stopped by the other side, well the story would have ended differently. The nameless many would have taken over the entire island, making it uninhabitable. This would have required the 'Good' guys to come up with another plan to kill them, leading to more RP. (And a new dungeon/leveling area that wasn't planned for.) That's how a living world works.
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Post by SteeleEidos on Mar 10, 2017 5:50:27 GMT
A great example of a person who continues to push forward despite setback is Samurai Jack. He continues to go after Aku even after failing so many times. ... Little envious of Corruption about now. As Corruption has stated above, such items are giving to help move stories along. The idea isn't to give a player an awesome sword so they can wave it around and flaunt it as proof they are great RPers, but to instead provide them with a piece of lore that they have worked hard for. To give them the chance to RP something more then they could before. Yes, they might loose it eventually, but it really wouldn't be fair to the other side if the 'Sword of a Thousand Truths' couldn't be taken away. It would mean they would need a 'Sword of a Thousand Lies' to counter. It might also make it feel like the DMs are favoring sides, which we don't want to do in any way. Again, I can understand and respect that. I didn't play on Amia for very long, but the approach a few powerbuilders eventually took to the server somewhat discouraged me. To keep it short, they'd farm bosses for a week or two on a new set of characters, and only then engage in RP, frequently provocative, resulting in conflict. A few Hellballs, other well placed spells, and OP front-liners to mop up, and you've cleared out literally armies. At one point it pissed off the DMs enough to teleport a large group of demigod equivalent city guards directly on top of them when they were unprepared. Technically everything was IG, but perma deaths and bans were tossed anyway. I suspect that in a fight between the server veteran, High Inquisitor Von Ix Burgenhoffer -- the commander who held the line against the forces of Vecna, the peacemaker who mended the broken bonds between the Scissor and Rock tribes, the man who talked the orc king down from whatever "WAAAGH" was -- and some unknown guy named Bob, whose only history with roleplaying was " ohh hi. Uhh.. Sorry, I'm really busy right now. *Thumbing over his shoulder to the nearby dungeon*" that between these two characters, nobody wants to see Burgenhoffer lose because he didn't have enough skill points to spare into Tumble and Discipline. While Bob mops the floor with him going "Lololololo, POWA BUIIIILD" ... I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea. I'd like to see Burgenhoffer, despite his criminally terrible name, win - and demonstrate clearly to everyone that RP has tangible benefits. But I realize that this puts a lot of pressure on the DMs to properly manage, and we're all only human. Issues would likely arise, and nobody wants to hear players shouting "favoritism."
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Post by Kittenfish on Mar 10, 2017 8:22:48 GMT
A great example of a person who continues to push forward despite setback is Samurai Jack. He continues to go after Aku even after failing so many times. ... Little envious of Corruption about now. Well, I hate to bust bubbles, but I wan't a big fan of the cartoon. It was a great story, don't get me wrong, but I never really got into it like some did. (Waits to be hated on like normal.) It just happens to be the best example that most people tend to know when referencing something like that. Another good example is Zuko from the last Airbender. Though eventually he switches sides. Sadly it doesn't matter how hard we work, there will always be people yelling Favoritism. This is why we will be working to make everything open, bans, events, ect., when needed. Even I'm not immune to such things as being kicked off the team, or banned. It's something we strive to make clear.
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