Moving PCs -

[Ithildur]

This thread, in a nutshell, sums up a significant part of what ALFA is about all too often, just as much if not more from time to time than stuff like solid RP.

Back when it was hundreds of active players and DMs RPing their butts off in high gear it was easier to ignore or downplay the dysfunction, or laugh at ourselves about it, like the crazy drunk eccentric, sometimes productive VP of a big company that's buzzing with activity and making a lot of money. When there's far less actual game going on, that changes; as the company starts to shrink and not do as well that crazy drunk starts to become a more obvious problem and embarrassment which far outweighs his limited productivity.

Of course, the very fact that crazy guy was allowed to stick around for so long inevitably means... a lot of folks see that guy as indispensable/valuable/even likeable.

[danielmn]

I don't care how many of you post, I WILL have the last word.

[Swift]

I am getting rather sick of seeing members who believe rules are there to be followed as being part of the 'anti-fun brigade'.

Believe it or not, our system of rules and our willingness to stick to them and only make slow, evolutionary changes are the reason we are still here as a community when so many other PWs have long since disappeared.

[danielmn]

Last word!

[Heero]

The playerbase and with it the game have changed over the years. This isnt necessarily a good or bad thing, but harping on what used to be isnt helpful.

It is time to remove a lot of the rules. A handful of active DMs with 25 or 30 active players spread over 4 servers is a far cry of what the project was envisioned for, created for, and once contained. In the spirit of fun, just go with the flow.

[t-ice]

It is time to remove a lot of the rules. A handful of active DMs with 25 or 30 active players spread over 4 servers is a far cry of what the project was envisioned for, created for, and once contained.

Mind you it isn't necessarily worse. It is after all far closer to what dnd was envisioned for: This size is far more engage-able to the consistent, all-engaging narrative we profess. It however is certainly a different beast.

[danielmn]

Lastdamnword

[Ithildur]

I don't know if that was (at least partially) a response to my post Swift, but just to clarify, the problem/'crazy guy' isn't the rules themselves or the need for rules; it's the craziness around the rules.

Every organization has rules, whether stated or not; some organizations make the rules smoothly work for what they're trying to achieve, some become destroyed by the rules and by being inept at handling rules, people getting bludgeoned by the rules, etc

We've always been somewhere in between.

This entire issue could've been resolved with a few of discrete posts in the DM forums and some PMs, maybe a couple of irc chats. The fact we often seem incapable of doing that is a major part of the craziness, and I suspect, often fuels a knee jerk reaction of 'f*sk the rules' from folks, which then incites a response from the other side, etc

[Heero]

Mind you it isn't necessarily worse. It is after all far closer to what dnd was envisioned for: This size is far more engage-able to the consistent, all-engaging narrative we profess. It however is certainly a different beast.

Of course not. We seem to be moving towards a more PnP mindset rather than an open world with rules/systems/whatever meant to promote a feeling of persistence. Thats fine, its what many people remaining seem to want.

We dont have a playerbase so large that there are people of varying levels everywhere with new characters constantly springing up. This is partially due to the various rules and systems we've adopted - XP for nothing ala RPXP, -6 damage cap, etc - but its mostly due to just a general lack of a playerbase. Its fine because we dont have the huge world, nor really the capabilities and manpower to make such a huge world, to accommodate a large playerbase as we had in NWN1. Even if we did have the manpower/tools/whatever, I dont really think this is what the current players want. So make it more fun for the small group of PCs to intermingle and find games.

Veilan is absolutely right here in that the 30 day rule is probably not necessary. I am saying this as (I think) the person that suggested 30 days in the original DM discussion. This, and a whole mess of other rules, could probably just be scraped and ALFA would continue on trucking just dandy, at least in terms of the position its in now.

[danielmn]

FUCK THE RULEZLASTWORD

[Heero]

Now you are just being a prick, daniel.

[danielmn]

PRICKHASTHELASTWORD!

[Heero]

Please stop.

[I-KP]

PRICKHASTHELASTWORD!

Denied.

[kid]

Good job.

So just to be clear...
How long do I need to wait?

What? We still don't know... uhm...
Ok, guess i'll just move and see what happens.