Not Exactly DMs

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kid
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by kid »

You can do that without the need to speak in the NPCs shoes.

And I have many times.

"I heard that..." "X told me that..." "Some fella said his boy ran by the..."
As an excuse to get some guys to go explore.
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Brokenbone
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by Brokenbone »

True too. X told me that goblins eat babies and drink pee, let's show them we don't like their kind. Do it for X!
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by oldgrayrogue »

kid wrote:You can do that without the need to speak in the NPCs shoes.

And I have many times.

"I heard that..." "X told me that..." "Some fella said his boy ran by the..."
As an excuse to get some guys to go explore.
I do this all the time. Place some rumor or context around an adventure to inject a little story into RP. If a DM is not there with a hook you have to make your own hooks sometimes. But that is a lot different from folks, who maybe don't want to fully commit as full fledged DMs, contributing to help make the servers come to life. I dunno, I felt it really worked well on the Frontier, where I started online RP, and thought I'd throw it out there.

Zelk is right though, and it brings me back to a post she made not long ago about what works to make ALFA better. The two simplest ways are still:

1) Log in as a DM and DM some players
2) Organize a player group and log in and play

The OP was made as a suggestion on how maybe more of us can be doing both of these at the same time to benefit everyone.

And Kid, I hear you, not everyone is as trusting as me, but when it comes right down to it this is still just a game. As Zelk says, its just not worth it if it ends up causing all sorts of stress and drama. And really, what is an extra virtual 50 XP or GP in the long run?

Gratz on your RL promotion Zelk. I am sure you work as hard on your RL job as you do for us here and it is well deserved.
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kid
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by kid »

Anyways, If I do bite to the "we all trust each other", then we should allow the same privileges/powers/abilities/what-have-yous to all members in good standings.

If we do that (same as with DM where you play - give everyone a wand) then I'm generally good with it.

It's even less a matter of if there will be abuse (same as my issue with the elections) it's a matter of appearance.

When things look unfair, uneven, biased, it just takes away from my enjoyment.

Dunno what's my hangup with fairness/equality, but I always felt that it's very important while playing a group game, the appearance of equal treatment.

I know when DMing my PnP I always made sure all players think I like/dislike their characters equally, and that I judge them and their actions based on the same standard. Otherwise, even though we were all good friends, it got under their skin pretty fast.
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by HEEGZ »

I think we could get by with something like this:

Give DM's PCs a widget that lets them award 10xp cookies. Also, give them a widget that mimics the #setdesc function. This way DMs on a PC could more proactively drive story without a DM. Give a bit of XP for good RP, and also make, name, and describe plot items. It should be technically possible, however...

There is the whole lack of trust issue. The momentum to reduce the time one has to wait from reverting as a DM to player may also preclude all of this anyways. Just thought I'd throw my idea out to the community at large.
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Lokan
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by Lokan »

Im not in favor of DM-like players.

On some level it sounds good to me, but I don't think its necessary. Just RP with each other as players, and advance your PCs personal stories.

In the end all we are talking about are ways to provide more avenues of XP.

The character of Persephone is really the only one I can think of that could fit that bill, right now, anyway. Zelk already has avenues to add XP to the server (if she so desires) in the way of static quests (and is good at it), many that are already on the server, I hear.

Also, I would like some resources on CR and ELC. I've read some of what is on the DM guide, the forums, and what not, but I could use a dummies guide or something. That and a bigger number of NPCs to choose from. The Zspawn is nice, but there are many things we cant do just because the NPCs aren't really available. And before anyone says it, I've been in the toolset (and Ill be in there again trying to figure it out and learn to make more appropriate things to use), but its slow going...Im just pointing out some of the limitations I personally have as a DM trying to lend out some fun.
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kid
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by kid »

as for CR/EL (encounter level) in olden times i just did it on... what's the highest AC dude I got, what's the highest AB enemy I got, them assume what the party can take, roughly.

Lately I used this.... http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/
Or just type "el calculator" in google, and it works out pretty good.

(I hope I didn't misunderstand your question)
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Lokan
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by Lokan »

kid wrote:as for CR/EL (encounter level) in olden times i just did it on... what's the highest AC dude I got, what's the highest AB enemy I got, them assume what the party can take, roughly.

Lately I used this.... http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/
Or just type "el calculator" in google, and it works out pretty good.

(I hope I didn't misunderstand your question)

Thanks, Kid. Ill look this over. After a quick look at the site you provided, I dont know if the CR this is calculating is equal to the CR the NPCs may or may not show in the chooser, or are they?
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kid
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by kid »

Again, not sure I understand the question...

Most critters and NPC in the chooser(or creator? I keep confusing the two) have CR on them (if not they're somewhat buggy).

For Zspawns, im not sure, I used to go roughly 1level=1CR, but maybe Zelk would know better.
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by HEEGZ »

kid wrote:Again, not sure I understand the question...

Most critters and NPC in the chooser(or creator? I keep confusing the two) have CR on them (if not they're somewhat buggy).

For Zspawns, im not sure, I used to go roughly 1level=1CR, but maybe Zelk would know better.
This is what I go by. The zSpawns get built like PCs (excepting commoners I guess). So if I make a level 3 NPC cleric, I assume it is roughly CR3.
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Re: Not Exactly DMs

Post by Zelknolf »

zSpawns are usually a little deadlier than a PC of the same level. The character level ones should CR to about the same as their level, but immersive RP environments usually don't produce PCs who do that well.
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