Come on in people!

[Galadorn]

Dear ALFAns,

Just want to push the fun times happening still on ALFA. I take my breaks as most do, but we're always ALFA and we come back.

All it takes is a fresh idea for a new fun PC, and when you make him or her it's just so much fun those first few mundane items you buy from that first Vendor, as soon as that armor is on, that shield and sword equipped you feel invincible. Get a buddy and start walking around doing those statics... these days there's so much new content, over the first few weeks, of RP and statics (with friends!), you'll enjoy some well earned slow advancement and some really great RP with those who are still on regularly.

If you're reading this and are not playing... get in there! The worst thing that can happen is: You play for 2 hours and quit again. What else you doing? Family? PFT. Sports? You're too old, stop that. Game on!

Weekends are actually half-busy on MS, Arriana is amazing. I had to thank her last weekend, it was only Ith and I (Aglaril and Bu) bloody shopping of all things for hours, and sitting around simply talking-RPing, and she sat through it for literally hours, possessing NPCs, adding atmosphere around our over-worded RP session, which really was appreciated. I always thought the fun of ALFA were the players and RP, not smashing Troll heads all day long (ugh).

If you're reading this and already playing, I ask you to email ONE old friend of yours who used to play on ALFA and just lie your ass off, whatever it takes, to build back that desire to come back and make a new toon and join the fun.

It's not over yet people.

Also, i'm willing to email as many names as you can remind me of, so send me a PM, or post below this with any names you remember that just might come back, I will do the emailing if you don't want to. But most of you will know who just might come back better than I might. So let me know. Do not post email addresses here though as that may be not cool to post them publicly. Send me a PM, and I'll draft up a "WELCOME BACK!" email. Even if this works for 1 old player, then it's worth it to me.

Cheers,

~Galadummy

[maxcell]

good post Bu

[Ithildur]

Good thoughts, I enjoyed the RP between Bu and Aglaril that night as well.

Arri does log in during weeknights btw (see below), even if it's just to check on stuff or watch/listen. If more folks were on I'm sure she'd occasionally throw out a few RP morsels to hook into; I've found myself interacting with her alone on weeknights more than once.

The key is to have reasonable expectations, I think: she's often busy taking notes for constantly building/improving areas, checking broken stuff, and sometimes she's tired and/or doesn't have much up her sleeve, and obviously some types of interactions are more viable than others.

[CloudDancing]

I just can't get over a few things:

1. Wandering around gets you killed in the most boring and mundane way on any server. So standing around or wandering around is rather boring and counter-productive to ever living to meet other characters. Empty endless servers are depressing.

2. Many good people have been run off by unkindness and lack of respect. It is no fun without these people. I really don't get how ten+ years of dedicated service can be snorted at so derisively. They built these worlds from the ground up, the current staff just inherited them and built upon that foundation. You wonder why they don't come back when they have been snubbed.

3. Playing it loose and lazy:

*DnD is meant to be played with dice and the plot is strictly is directed by the skills of each character class. If a Paladin has Diplomacy and makes their dice check, Diplomacy works no matter what. If a Ranger makes their Stealth roll, they can walk right through a Dragon''s lair unseen and unheard. If you don't honor classes and skills, why bother playing DnD?

*There is a specific logic to Dnd that allows the character's life experiences in Faerun to be dictated by constants as defined by the source material. I have experienced the physics and canonical constants being ignored. I have experienced internet "lore" being used as canonical more than once. There are more than a hundred source books to consult to build an accurate adventure so that these people of Toril can function within their life experience growing up in these lands and function with the logic that comes from living in a world with magical and fantastical elements.

I sometimes just log into Baldur's Gate to see Caine's face and remember when she used to be a real paladin on Ronan's campaigns. She's twenty-two years old and she helped kill the Vampire Lord of Baldur's Gate, fought an avatar of Cyric, traveled to the Underdark twice, walked the halls of Delzoun, and lived through the abuse of her Knight to become a Knight herself. She was in love once for a very short time. She lived! By the Gods she lived.

[Ithildur]

What exactly are you complaining about CD? Did you get Caine killed soloing??

Are you one of those people that have been run out of town? I sort of get this one, but this doesn't have to stop you or anyone from logging in and RPing? You kind of mysteriously dropped out of the current MS plot and moved to BG, seemed to be playing alone a bit before being gone. I can't imagine anyone from MS these days actually ran you off.

Is someone's interpretation of canon lore or 3.5e mechanics (neither of which ALFA DMs are 100% strictly beholden to, let's not kid ourselves, otherwise you and 90% of the people that ever played/DMed here would have been run out of town years ago...) ruining the game for you?

Just log in and RP; the ability to do that has never been taken away by anyone at any point, and there is a currently active plot that for some reason you chose to walk out on with a PC that fits the ethos and level range, something people would've given their right arm for in the past; I'm pretty sure that had nothing to do with the reasons you cited for being unhappy. If there's some disagreement over mechanics talk it over with the DM like ... sane adults?

I guess I'm just ... *scratches head* baffled at what people will find to complain about when they make the choices they do.

[CloudDancing]

Actually all of the reasons above are why I left the plot and have let Alfa fade into my background.

Its too easy to slip in nostalgia and say it was better way back when. It really wasn't so much better in regards to dming. I mean half the time we had to postpone games for players that would forget about Ronan's games and he wouldn't go one without them. People made interesting choices, had tantrums, and actually committed PvP. On TSM Dms would disappear for months and if someone found a +1 sword it was taken away for being too OP. You were always subject to any ol' person with a Dm hats whim. Weird, silly, and disturbing events happened.

BUT what made it great every time, even when Dms hadn't logged in for months, was the people. There was an endless parade of interesting people doing interesting things all by themselves with the server as the backdrop.

Then the people grew up, had kids, got jobs, got promotions, and no one had six hours a night to spend wandering the endless looking for the next biggest monster to kill or the next impossible kama sutra moment.

That is, everyone but me. I never grew out of it, even though I go out on Friday nights now and have offline friends and games. So when I plan on Sigil or the Shining Sea or on Realms of Darkness, I am there because of the people. And people are there for a reason.

[Ithildur]

Those are... interesting observations.

Good luck with Sigil, and the rest. You're a nice person and I hope you'll find something that fits you better out there, and more importantly, fulfillment and happiness in real life. Cheers.

[Galadorn]

Thanks for replies!

No PMs yet. Did you email an old ALFAn yet people?! (neither did I... oops!)

I'll be trying smoothie first, as he's still in China and I chat rarely with him still.

Any other suggestions welcome!


~G

[Analogkid]

Sorry to see you go CD...hey I feel the same way and yet the people who still draw me in are in on ALFA actually, theres a ton of crap on here for sure but theres still a lot of people trying their best. As for the rest of us....

I'm still the same guy who first logged as a college student, and now I got kids who play D&D with me..and i'm still here... all of our experiences and hopes are different and I can still find fun on here.....but I wish you luck with the casual RP/social RP elsewhere

[Arianna]

Thanks for replies!

No PMs yet. Did you email an old ALFAn yet people?! (neither did I... oops!)

I'll be trying smoothie first, as he's still in China and I chat rarely with him still.

Any other suggestions welcome!


~G

I have no one's email . .considering I only came back to ALFA about a year and a half ago myself

and the few I have prodded in PMs have not picked up their mail

[Ithildur]

Couple of links that might be useful (not the first time similar efforts have been undertaken):

http://www.alandfaraway.info/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=372

http://www.alandfaraway.info/phpBB3/vie ... 20&t=51338

[orangetree]

I feel for you cd.

I always loved RP with you and my characters almost always have a deep respect of Paladins. Hope I get to see you again.

[Heero]

I sent emails to Mr Duncan, Aitana, Thinkpi, et al to see if we cant get some good ol' fashioned evil cults running about again to shake things up a bit.

[Zelknolf]

I hope you didn't actually send that email. Duncan is banned, and an invitation is likely to ring as mockery. Banned for good reason, yes, but needless cruelty is just cruelty.

[ImStrokerAce]

Yay for evil cults!