A Treatise on Server Realism

[BedlamX]

Agreed. Hoods are not masks in my opinion. And covering your face to get out of the elements is fine, too. My problem is when people run through town with a mask on and only stop to RP it when they have passed the gates or something. After about a bazzillion times of being ignored (either the IC asking to remove the mask or the OOC tells reminding them about the guards and law)...it just gets annoying to the point of "why even bother." Ursus is my only character that takes teh initiative to bother people with their face covered (and only in Aquor). It has been about a 50/50 split of them showing their face and him politely thanking them and offering help finding anything and just being ignored or told to go to hells (not usually in those words). Some of these have ran for the gates (past all the knights and blackwood who just stand around looking bored) or used invisible potions to vanish and run away (even though the enclave has, at Ursus' petitioning, issued see invisible potions/tattoos to it's knights on guard...and I have stocked up on them for Ursus after the 3rd or 4th time it happened).

Point is: you wear a face covering in "civilized" areas, your toon knows they are breaking the law. Same goes for having undead or evil critters hanging with you as you stroll through town. You do it, you should expect reprisals (and probably violent ones for the undead critters). Unlike the teaming up with toons you would not ICly hang with or crafting issue, neither of these have anything to do with low server population and/or boredom or lack of crafters/enchanters. I would assume most are due to simply forgetting and a quick reminder would do the trick (though the undead thing is a really bad thing to forget since it can get you outed as evil and/or attacked on sight).

Sorry...don't have many pet peeves about this game, but ignoring NPCs is my big one.

[roguethree]

This is gray area. Without meta gaming most people would have no idea who is in what faction. Knowingly or not you have been in parties with several of my characters that were blatantly evil.

It's not gray at all. You separate your IC knowledge from OOC and act accordingly.

Also, walk. Don't run.

[Thief Of Navarre]

Always a little surprising how willing people are to trust their lives to people they just met and induct them into their little adventuring band.

Wow, if we go by that logic it should be a single player persistant world. No-one would group ~ period!

*Edit* Roguethree has been suprisingly good parlay today. Therefore he gets a rep cookie! Kudos.

[krampsburglar]

What about vampires?

There are vampires that have openly anounced themselves.
There are vampires that have attacked so many that they are quite known.
How can they just openly walk around civilized areas with everyone else?
How does a vampire become classified as KNOWN?
Should known vampires be attacked by npc guards?

[Kaizen]

What about vampires?

There are vampires that have openly anounced themselves.
There are vampires that have attacked so many that they are quite known.
How can they just openly walk around civilized areas with everyone else?
How does a vampire become classified as KNOWN?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lucas_(drug_lord)

Dude merc'd a guy in the middle of the day in Harlem, lots of witnesses. Never went to jail (for that crime, anyways)

Fear's a powerful thing, and guards have feelings too

[BedlamX]

What about vampires?

They are uber bad-asses that the vast majority of the server can't even touch.

There are vampires that have openly anounced themselves.

And can take out almost every other toon single handed.

There are vampires that have attacked so many that they are quite known.

And killed almost every single one they attacked.

How can they just openly walk around civilized areas with everyone else?

See the last two responses and note that most NPCs are weaker than most higher-level PCs. Personally, I tend to avoid "no-win situations."

How does a vampire become classified as KNOWN?
Should known vampires be attacked by npc guards?

First part: someone sees one doing "vampy" stuff and passes the word.
Second part: They probably should...but then who would keep repopulating the freakin server NPCs? And, unless something has changed, don't attack one of these walking gods in town. The whole joint will jump in to defend the "poor" thing from your illegal assault.


---End of Vamp PC rant MKIII---

[Kaizen]

Vampires been getting their asses kicked as of late.

[Sir Kharn]

Vampires been getting their asses kicked as of late.

This is a good thing
I've been guilty of running thru town in my monks ninja outfit (comes with a hood/mask) and if i'm asked about it i just RP it by pulling the mask part down under his chin...pretty dodgy but it works.....i've brought him a hat to wear now so it wont be happening to often in the future

[Catastrophe]

Vampires been getting their asses kicked as of late.

This is true. Dain is definitely the best vampire killer.

[Zoberraz]

Lay on Hand and Smite Evil alone probably give the high-level Paladin an edge in applying damage quickly and staying in the fight. Add to that the Holy Sword spell and undead/evil oriented sword enchants and you probably get something that's pretty nasty.

To my chagrin, by contrast, Maia isn't much of a vampire/undead killer despite having them amongst her favored enemies - most of them have DR that offsets that advantage and most warriors using power attack tend to plow through more effectively than she. When she fought Ruby, most of her potential damage ended up being soaked up by Ruby's relatively good AC, damage reduction and regeneration. There was just no way Maia would win via papercuts through bow-kiting.

Eventually, Maia managed to get silver arrows. Lots of them. A fourth of her inventory, actually (she carries several thousand arrows on her - how's that for realism? =P ). Eventually, she got a vampire to try them on - she was with Tigen in the untrodden grounds when they met with Clive, and Tigen decided he wanted to fight him.

But of course, Clive had Stone Body on... so Maia's multiple 1d8+8 attacks ended up coming up as pitifully small damage (arrows with adamantine and silver properties apparently don't exist, so, kinda screwed there). Once Clive killed Tigen, Maia decided that her longstrider-enchanted legs were her best way to come out ahead - that is: alive.

All in all, Maia's mightiest weapon against vampires might just be that clove of garlic she carries. Or that holy symbol she got off from that guy in the Exigo trading post. ^_^;

[Root]

What, so my druid shouldn't walk around with his Philosoraptor in the middle of town?

I'd never have guessed.

Heh. In all seriousness, I'm glad this has been said. Hopefully now there'll be less random nonsensical buggerance happening everywhere.

[GodBeastX]

Okay, I think some posts are nitpicking.

Me? I'm all about the spirit of an action over the law of an action. Law says you can't wear masks. Cool. If you walk down the street with a mask, then you're breaking the law and someone is going to notice, but if someone was in a mask trying to be inconspicuous about it, I wouldn't even do anything to them. It's not like guards totally notice everyone in the city all the time.

And if you got a zombie walking with you, someone is going to notice and freak the hell out. BUt if you had the zombie in a tranch coat, with a hat, and a fake mustache, then I'm likely to go "Nobody notices the zombie".

Laws can be broken and nothing happen to you, but since the inception of laws in Sundren there's been a very black and white viewpoint on it. Like the law means OOC'ly you'll be punished for doing XYZ but it doesn't, it just means you CAN be punished for it. Laws, like anything, are tools of RP.

[Philosopher]

This is entirely true. I am not saying you can't break laws. Many characters can and do break the laws and it can lead to great RP. But they should also be prepared when a law-enforcer takes them to task on such offenses.

When I spoke of a character walking into a tavern with undead, I didn't mean that they couldn't RP that. What I mean is that they don't RP it. They do it because no one is around to call them out on it. Or when there is, they ignore reactions for the sake of ease, or even expect people to be non-reactive. They just plain don't think about their environments in a living fluid sense. It's all viewed as a static background, with only players, or even just DM's acting as the alarm that provokes RP.

[cdnspr]

Yes, I'm still alive, and apparently trolling the boards. And weighing in.

I get the idea of not ignoring laws in public places. But lets keep in mind that sometimes people forget, or dont clue in to what you're talking about.

I've had it happen to me before where I forgot my pc had a critter following me when confronted by another character. It didn't get across to me or my pc that the critter was being pointed out (rather, I thought my character's boorish nature was being referenced). So I moved along. Only to receive a talking-to by a dm who was made aware of the situation by one of the characters involved. I was a little more than annoyed that a little misunderstanding that could have been resolved with the other player sending a tell wound up with me getting face-time with a dm.

Anyways, my point being, yeah, sometimes you'll notice someone doing something they shouldn't, and that happens. But don't feel like you need to always 'win' every encounter and keep everyone else's play-style in-line with the expectation of somewhat-realism, because you may find yourself with one less person willing to rp with you on a server with an already dwindling population. Please send a courteous tell before running to the dms.

[ThePaganKing]

I agree with many of the points already stated; however, let us please remember that this is a game and most of us play to release the stress of a busy or shitty day.

And, the server is based on gathering together in a party and adventuring as well as RP. The server is built so that you basically have to party to survive, especially higher level areas, so since the most basic human instinct is survival, grouping with people, even if you don't know them that well, is not necessarily a bad thing or out of the ordinary.

Also, as some of you have indicated, how do we know what faction you are in or if you are evil or not? Unless you actually witness an evil act or they tell you, "hey, I am evil," then how do you know, unless you are a paladin? One pet peeve I have is those people that are lawful good, and detect evil or think you are evil, and then just attack and kill you because you are evil. What happened to their lawful nature? If they are not breaking the law or killing children or kittens in front of you, what gives you the right to just kill them? Unless of course there is history there or they are of an opposing faction and you know for a fact they have committed atrocities.

Another pet peeve also is vampires, tieflings, half-orcs, and such just roaming the server like its no big deal and then getting upset when someone doesn't like them, doesn't talk to them, or is hostile to them. Guess what, most people don't like you and a lot of races will actually merely attack and try to kill you rather than talk to you - not withstanding the Anderson Act.

Another factor is sometimes when you are on the server. I am in Europe and many times when I am on the server, I am alone or there are a couple people. Therefore, when the boredom hits, you naturally tend to try and communicate with the other person or people and try to get something going. I see no problem with that.

As to the hoods, I say that a DM should maybe inhabit some guards and put the smackdown on people wearing hoods, or breaking the law and then maybe people will take it a bit more seriously. If there isn't a DM on the server, then there isn't much that can be done, except to alert the person that they are not supposed to do it.