I love ALFA. Seriously. I have played it without a DM for years because the RP is great, the people and those few times i do see a DM, are wonderful. I've tried other games and never quite struck up the enjoyment and sense of adventure i get from alfa.
I like playing from level 1, I like high risk and a good turnover of PCs, and i like adventure focused 'heavy' RP.
However the game I, and many of you, love has changed. We are a modest group of players now and playing a game on a slow decline in gross numbers and DMs. The ones we have left are awesome by the way.
So I am proposing a platform that makes a number of changes that may seem to be controversial, but may also make the place a bit more fun as we hope and pray for the next game to allow PW building and DMing. Central to this platform is a change in direction to evolve the traditional risk-averse mode of ALFA, and see if we can focus on generating a little more fun and variety as live DMing becomes harder to find.
I recognize this is a change from the approach for most 'Lead" admin approaches which are sometimes done as more facilitator/PR roles. But in my experience a strategy requires a leader, even if that elader is part of a team (as the AFLA admins will always be).
I am well aware that some will strongly disagree with some of the below. If we had a numerous community, where CvC and balance was an issue, where pick-up games were easy, and the number of PCs made log checking for cheating onerous for DMs, then I wouldn't support many of the below. I have generally err on the 'conservative' side when it comes to ALFA rules in those situations.
But I think we should change some things now. Its time. And so I propose the below for your consideration. They will not be forced upon the community in the unlikely event that I am successful in this election. I would actively seek feedback from you in finalizing what we would/could do and perhaps put together a team to help admin work through them with the community.
However, knowing alfa as I do I suspect there may be enough in the below to put many off. If that's the case I put forward the ideas for consideration anyway.
Some people may feel angry because of some the below such as those who have put SO much into servers I suggest should be "wound back". I apologies in advance. I've got a lot of respect for all who have put in so much work for our fun. But sometimes to have effective change for the better, difficult decisions need to be made. I'm happy to talk with any of you in PMs if you'd like.
Thanks for reading. I look forwards to playing ALFA with you all until the last gasp! And good luck to shadowfax!!!
Dorn aka Patrick
Let the flames beginVision: a place where players can log in and be fairly confident they can find other people to play with and be able to explore a dynamic world
Mission: to elevate the level of activity and interest in creating that dynamic world
Improve player’s enjoyment –
1) Advancement – triple RP exp rate increase until level 6
2) Advancement – optional bonus 1000xp at char creation
3)Dynamic - encourage set and forgets – use ‘token for turning in to DM’ reward approach to monitor who’s going to them
4) Dynamic - Wandering monsters: establish easily droppable wandering monster spawns
5) Survivability - Drop price of cure light wounds healing potions from 50 to 30
6) Survivability - Provide 1 potion of ‘raise dead’ to all new PCs
Improve the dynamics of the setting -
7) Improve the ‘story’ of our world – create a 2 year story all servers sign up to
Variety – ALFA wide non-combat missions set (Fedex style – LA to write)
9) Variety – ask all capable builders (or a few together) to create one adventure instance (old castle, caverns, deep forest canon f possible). Employ as ‘droppable instances’ (eg HDM loads it and created an AT, DM sets set and forget in it, post message on boards)
10) Variety – Encourage periodic ‘war’ events (eg “call to defend Rauvinwatch Keep – two waves of assault expected (one US time, one Euro timed – all invited comic book time for server hoping) – multiple DMs”
11) Concentration – identify TSM as the low level server. It has good low level content from Silverymoon to Rivermoot) so let’s max that and try and create player numbers. Concentrate efforts in BG on mid-high level challenges.
12) Concentration – slowly convert MS and WHL into campaign servers once current DM/group support ends (campaign = no active support) encouraging ptoential DMs towards TSM and BG
13) Variety – create multiple areas of very high level static content in WHL and Moonshaes (set and forget etc) related to the story
Encourage extra support –
14) Reward key staff – a panel determine reasonable rewards if requested (perhaps in terms of other than exp/gold? – eg titles, property, etc)
15) Reward DMs – 3xRPEXP rate for live DMing, and 50exp for each set and forget, to be allocated to one of their PCs
16) Allow DMing where you play – HDMs/DMAs able to show judgement (obviously cant do own set and forgets)
17) Allow both players PCs to be on the same server (note: for this and the above, with the small player base, if the HDM checks one players logs per fortnight, we’ll pick up any cheating over time
18) Create a ‘static DM’ class (if necessary) to allow people to set and forget without needing to sign themselves up for full DM status
Improve governance -
19) Lead admins charter change - the charter description of Lead Admin should be expanded to establishing (in consultation) a vision and a strategy to achieve it or amending the existing strategy to reflect the best interests of the ALFA community
20) All strikes = lose a level as well as normal penalties
21) Cheating from DMing where play, or 2 players in the same area = ban
PR
I like what shadowfax has proposed
I would add a forum for non-ALFA platforms. The potential to gain people who join or players in GW2 or Neverwinter etc is probably greater than losing people to those games.
