shad0wfax DMA Q&A

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Veilan
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shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by Veilan »

Hey hey,

since we, for the first time in a good while, have enough candidates for this to shaping up to be a proper election, I think it deserves a Q&A threads.

Firstly and most importantly, thank you for volunteering your time and effort for our community. Without further ado, here are a couple of questions:

1. Do you currently DM in ALFA, and what is your DMing history (in ALFA)? What is your style?

2. I have long and with some frequency espoused the notion that I think ALFA should be less of a single-platform purveyor of fine entertainment, and rather be a roof for a certain brand of RP/gaming experience, to allow us more flexibility in the game formats we offer (play-by-post, invitation-only campaigns, Aria, Fantasygrounds, NWN 1 & 2, meeting up for WoW, Star Citizen, what have you). What is your opinion on this - how consolidated should we be or how broad? Is there an optimum, do you think there are limitations either direction?

3. Staff. Do you have any lined up - and what head staff positions would you advertise and envision?

4. What do you consider the most important core aspects of the "ALFA experience" that you would wish to maintain (across platforms)?

I think that is quite enough for a start - thank you for your time and answers!

Cheers,
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by shad0wfax »

Veilan wrote: 1. Do you currently DM in ALFA, and what is your DMing history (in ALFA)? What is your style?
I currently DM on TSM, though it's at most once a week and has been less than that recently. Arianna and I are rotating HDM duties between TSM/BG every few months to give us the chance to play on more servers. I've been a DM on ALFA (in BG) for several years continuously and contributed heavily to BG build quality and standardization. As DMA, I've also consolidated DM rules into the ALFA rulebook more recently, to ensure that we have a more clear, concise, and universal DM system across servers.

My DM style is most easily summarized as simulationist. For example, if your PC burns a building down, I'll change the server build to reflect that in an update, and I try to keep as true and faithful to d20 SRD rules as possible in NWN2.
Veilan wrote: 2. I have long and with some frequency espoused the notion that I think ALFA should be less of a single-platform purveyor of fine entertainment, and rather be a roof for a certain brand of RP/gaming experience, to allow us more flexibility in the game formats we offer (play-by-post, invitation-only campaigns, Aria, Fantasygrounds, NWN 1 & 2, meeting up for WoW, Star Citizen, what have you). What is your opinion on this - how consolidated should we be or how broad? Is there an optimum, do you think there are limitations either direction?
We've branched out into a brief 5e roll20 campaign and we're in the very preliminary stages of Aria development. I think that the idea of an ALFA that has an overarching premise of persistent roleplay world gaming is attractive.
Veilan wrote: 3. Staff. Do you have any lined up - and what head staff positions would you advertise and envision?
No, and with our current playing population density, I don't believe that DMA needs staff right now.
Veilan wrote: 4. What do you consider the most important core aspects of the "ALFA experience" that you would wish to maintain (across platforms)?
The Pillars, Charter, Rulebook, and informational Wiki are our tools to ensure that ALFA is consistent to its own design concept, that it's administrators, DMs, and players have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, that rules are clear, concise, and unilaterally and fairly applied and enforced, and that information is available to everyone in a central repository. Although this may sound somewhat legalistic, the benefits to everyone in ALFA are great, and perhaps taken for granted by many. To me, this structure of ALFA ensures consistency, rather than volatility; we have, I believe, an ever-improving player experience that maintains true to its core values.
Veilan wrote: I think that is quite enough for a start - thank you for your time and answers!

Cheers,
Thanks for setting this up.

I've supplemented this response with a list of accomplishments and my platform below. I also corrected an Android auto typo; because posting serious responses from a phone isn't always easy.
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by shad0wfax »

Although it wasn't explicitly asked, I'll add to the above.

During my time as DMA this cycle, some months ago, I standardized the ALFA rules Wiki, expanded forum post story relevance to in game actions, and created new allowances for DMs to award more DM/story XP as standards across all servers to encourage greater character background and more profound character development. I encourage DMs to use these allowances to encourage character growth.

I also standardized server "house rules" allowing HDMs the flexibility to make their server unique in a way that enhances the player experience but also restricted house rules to being compliant with the d20 SRD / 3.5 ruleset to ensure that players can expect the same mechanical rules across servers.

I feel that I have improved the ALFA will, rules, and Charter portions that fall within the DMA domain.

Some of these changes came as a request/suggestion, and some were improvements that I took upon myself to make after reexamining our framework.

I have no intention to mage further changes now, but that is not because I am resistant to change, but is instead because I don't have any current ideas where we need improving.

However, there is always the potential for improvement, and any suggestions will be considered carefully and, if proposals are to the benefit of ALFA, they will be implemented if they are within the DMA domain and conform to the Pillars and Charter.
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by shad0wfax »

See here for the ALFA Rulebook:http://www.alandfaraway.info/wiki/Rulebook

Check out all of the changes in section 8, but in particular, see the following:

DMA Contributing Member Bonus Experience Rules
DMA Character Biography Bonus Experience Rules
DMA Character Journal Bonus Experience Rules
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by oldgrayrogue »

As DMA what, if anything, are you going to do to encourage members to start playing NWN2 again?

Why do you think members choose to play on NWN1 rather than NWN2?

With NWN EE coming out soon would you consider making ALFAs primary platform NWN EE, why or why not?
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by shad0wfax »

oldgrayrogue wrote:As DMA what, if anything, are you going to do to encourage members to start playing NWN2 again?

Why do you think members choose to play on NWN1 rather than NWN2?

With NWN EE coming out soon would you consider making ALFAs primary platform NWN EE, why or why not?
1)
Not all members choose NWN1 over NWN2. Of the players active on NWN2, there are some who cross over and play both, and some who do not play NWN1 at all.

There are some players on NWN1 on WD and DF who have either never played ALFA before or have been absent from NWN2 servers for more than five years. There are some players, like yourself, who played NWN2 ALFA more recently, but prefer NWN1 to NWN2.

The best answer is probably he difference in DM style, DM personnel, and the difference in policy. Because NWN1 is not being administrated as a part of ALFA right now, Rick and Ayergo have absolute control over their respective NWN1 servers, and have no expectation to conform to any Pillars, Charter, or Rules. Of those two DMs, one wished to make himself HDM of one server, which was denied, and he was offered a provisional DM role on another sever, which he declined to accept. The other has not expressed an interest in DMing NWN2.

Some of the NWN1 players prefer the nostalgia of the specific people and servers there and some of the NWN1 players prefer the style of DMing and server control there.

As DMA, I can only address the NWN2 DM aspects, and I have attempted to do so. As DMA, to address NWN1 coming under ALFA administration officially would require a very large effort to reconcile the 3.0and 3.5 engine differences of the games, and to standardize creatures, XP gain, loot gain, wealth standards, and more importantly, DM/HDM code of conduct and Rules. The last piece of that puzzle is the Infrastructure Admin aspect of ensuring builder access on GitHub for NWN1 and transparency in build commits. We have discussed this in the past, and the current arrangement is the best compromise.

It is the Lead Admin and LA staff domain to directly address player retention and player recruiting strategies. As DMA, I can indirectly influence that by making NWN2 an attractive place to DM and by encouraging people to DM on NWN2.


2)
NWN2 will remain the primary ALFA platform, for the reasons stated above. To switch all efforts to NWN1 primarily would require all five seated Administrators to change the Charter or would require NWN1EE developers to adhere to ALFA current charter.

As DMA, the best thing I could do there is assist with policy and standard development of a prospective NWN1EE server from the very beginning, so that it fits perfectly into ALFA compliance on Day Zero. I’m absolutely willing to have that conversation.

I’ve expressed before that I’d also welcome the existing NWN1 servers into ALFA if the HDMs can demonstrate that the system (feats, classes, and skills) are 3.5, like NWN2 is, that the creatures, loot, items, and server builds themselves comply with ALFA2 standards, and that the TA concurs that NWN1 has an ACR system compliant with ALFA, and that the IA has the server development structure of ALFA.

That’s no small undertaking, and it’s up to the NWN1 DMs if they want to attempt this.
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by Rick7475 »

shad0wfax wrote:
Of those two DMs, one wished to make himself HDM of one server, which was denied, and he was offered a provisional DM role on another sever, which he declined to accept. The other has not expressed an interest in DMing NWN2.

Well, actually just wanted to DM on TSM which was the popular server at the time. That was denied by the HDM. Now Arrianna DM's there.

I did in fact accept provisional DM on Baldur's Gate, but no one was on because they wanted to play on TSM. I have yet to receive any confirmation that my provisional DM has been removed (though I lost access to the DM boards).

That aside, both Ayergo and I try and stick to ALFA pillars as best we can. I am sure players there can attest to that.


Having said this, what would be your take on DM controlled transfers of players from NWN1 to NWN2 and visa versa? Where Bob's level 3 fighter wants to go from NWN2 to NWN1 for a while. Then after 6 months of playing, wants to go back to NWN2 with a level 5 fighter, with the caveat that the build and equipment would be as close as possible?
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by shad0wfax »

NWN1 is 3.0
NWN2 is 3.5
Skills, feats, and builds are different.

There was a ruling long ago that nwn1 vault characters would not get built into nwn2. That ruling stands.
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by Analogkid »

shad0wfax wrote:NWN1 is 3.0
NWN2 is 3.5
Skills, feats, and builds are different.

There was a ruling long ago that nwn1 vault characters would not get built into nwn2. That ruling stands.

Given our current player base, and if someone is willing to do to the work....would you be willing to reconsider the ruling as part of larger changes to ALFA?
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by ayergo »

On a somewhat related note, I think NWN2 could benefit by relaxing standards on chars level 1-5. What do you think about allowing for faster leveling in that range?

I've always though the "linear" leveling scheme was a bad way to aim. Personally I think it should be exponential instead (i.e. the higher the level the longer it should take to get, with first few levels being very fast).
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by FoamBats4All »

ayergo wrote:On a somewhat related note, I think NWN2 could benefit by relaxing standards on chars level 1-5. What do you think about allowing for faster leveling in that range?

I've always though the "linear" leveling scheme was a bad way to aim. Personally I think it should be exponential instead (i.e. the higher the level the longer it should take to get, with first few levels being very fast).
From a tech standpoint, we've tackled some of these ACR-side in the past. I don't see us changing the leveling xp thresholds, but we have diminishing returns based on level. So a CR 3 repeatable static worth 50xp will give 50xp at level 1, 2, and 3. But at level 4 it gives less. And at level 5 it gives even less. This continues until the quest is all but worthless to a truly seasoned adventurer.

This doesn't work in reverse. E.g. a CR 8 static doesn't give a level 1 character any more XP than a level 3 character.

These diminishing returns do not apply to DM XP, including the rewards given out for character bios, story-based forum posts, or other contributions. This all provides some early incentives to quicken the first levels, while slowing down things as the character progresses.
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by ayergo »

FoamBats4All wrote:
ayergo wrote:On a somewhat related note, I think NWN2 could benefit by relaxing standards on chars level 1-5. What do you think about allowing for faster leveling in that range?

I've always though the "linear" leveling scheme was a bad way to aim. Personally I think it should be exponential instead (i.e. the higher the level the longer it should take to get, with first few levels being very fast).
From a tech standpoint, we've tackled some of these ACR-side in the past. I don't see us changing the leveling xp thresholds, but we have diminishing returns based on level. So a CR 3 repeatable static worth 50xp will give 50xp at level 1, 2, and 3. But at level 4 it gives less. And at level 5 it gives even less. This continues until the quest is all but worthless to a truly seasoned adventurer.

This doesn't work in reverse. E.g. a CR 8 static doesn't give a level 1 character any more XP than a level 3 character.

These diminishing returns do not apply to DM XP, including the rewards given out for character bios, story-based forum posts, or other contributions. This all provides some early incentives to quicken the first levels, while slowing down things as the character progresses.
Cool. So what is the average time to go from level 1 to 2? 2 to 3? 3 to 4? And 4 to 5?
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Relax child, you were there
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by shad0wfax »

Analogkid wrote:
shad0wfax wrote:NWN1 is 3.0
NWN2 is 3.5
Skills, feats, and builds are different.

There was a ruling long ago that nwn1 vault characters would not get built into nwn2. That ruling stands.

Given our current player base, and if someone is willing to do to the work....would you be willing to reconsider the ruling as part of larger changes to ALFA?
This is not DMA scope.

This is a charter change, requiring a vote by all administrators.
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by Galadorn »

((does it matter if some ((hi there, it's just me, carry on)) ...think level 1-5 already goes way too fast? and leveling at mid- to high- level takes WAY too long?))

((why the hell do people hate level 1-3 SO much?? it's BY far the best RP supportive level range...))


((yes, I truly think what most people want: FAST low leveling, and SLOW high leveling is exactly what is wrong...))

((1st-4th level is the true fun times! meeting new PCs, being in true risk, so some people actually do take their time and act like adventurers should act...which is to FEAR life and death combat, etc, .....and high level takes YEARS to level up, which makes it boring... i'm not saying level 10 PCs should level every month....... but.......wait......why not again?
......it's a game... leveling is fun... and the "actual potential difference in power" (i.e. the relative "power-jump") from 1-2 is FAR greater than 9-10, or even 15-16. But it always seemed SO TERRIBLE to level up with any haste here after mid level.....why?))

meh
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Re: shad0wfax DMA Q&A

Post by shad0wfax »

ayergo wrote:On a somewhat related note, I think NWN2 could benefit by relaxing standards on chars level 1-5. What do you think about allowing for faster leveling in that range?

I've always though the "linear" leveling scheme was a bad way to aim. Personally I think it should be exponential instead (i.e. the higher the level the longer it should take to get, with first few levels being very fast).
It's important to remember what the DMA's domain is, and what the DMA's domain is not.

The DMA provides oversight of DMs & Servers including Item Compliance, Global Plots & Quests, DM Approval & Discipline, among others.

The DMA also, via oversight of HDMs & Servers, can constrain XP/wealth gains or encourage greater XP/wealth gains.

However, HDMs still have broad discretion over how they run their servers.

In the past, a former DMA and a former TA worked to create a system that dynamically allocates loot based on your wealth level for a given XP value. The intent was that when a DM was not around, the ACR system would still compensate poor players well and compensate rich players less well, in order to encourage an even wealth advancement that falls within standards.

Similarly, XP was overhauled. As both DMA and a HDM, I have adjusted XP for quests up and down, depending on difficulty/abuse/rarity, etc.

I believe that the leveling rate in ALFA is higher now than it has been in the past.
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