ALFA's Faerun

[loulabelle]

what type of ALFA experience would you like to see, and how do we get there from here?

I do have a utopian vision that I am 100% sure ALFA will never adopt, but since you were asking I feel like saying it.

We should be given level seven when we log in with a new character, minus the ECL of the character. Then there should be no more XP gains ever in game, for any reason. Characters can adventure for profit, or glory or quests to help their faith. Purely IC motives, since they will never be going up in level.

I'd play on a server like that. There's probably other people who would too. (That said I've not been playing at all recently so take it as you will...).

[Adanu]

It misses the point of advancement within DnD, and limits options severely IMO, so I wouldn't. As you say though, plenty who would.

[oldgrayrogue]

My ideal PW would have no magic at all except in the hands of DMs as a rare and, well, "magical" thing. I would love to play in a world that had only fighter, ranger, and rogue as the playable classes, with 99% of the inhabitants being human. It would be a world for "gritty" RP where magic is a thing of legend and when "monsters" are encountered (be it a troll or a dragon or whatever) it is a most momentous event. Wizards, sorcerers and powerful clerics only exist in the hands of a DM, and live in remote towers or fantastic castles and temples. You might encounter an elf, but only in some remote and ancient magical forest, and possibly a dwarf and his horde, but only in some far flung mountain realm leagues from the everyday world. In this world, a magical sword is the object of a quest to defeat a villain, not the next thing on one's "to buy" list.

Alas this is not Faerun, not even close. But as Veilan says DnD and NWN2 and the systems, lore, classes, races etc. in it could be used as a tool to create such a place. Anyway, one can dream.

As far as the DM question, I think the DM presence has been excellent of late. We have several regular campaigns going and more on the horizon. What we could use more of is more regular ad hoc DMing. Just small one off adventures or encounters. This type of DMing brings the world alive. Randomness is the key to reality and immersion in my view. I love campaigns, but DMing that does not necessarily involve a grand plot or campaign can really be a jump off point for RP among players especially when DMs are not around. These type of encounters -- whether it is a battle with bandits on a road or just a chat with a merchant or tavern keeper -- become part of the PCs story and bring the story and advancement of the PCs to life. I would encourage people thinking of DMing to start with this type of ad hoc DMing. Its hard to run a successful campaign, trust me I know. It is tons of work and can often be frustrating for the DM and players on multiple levels. Kudos to our DMs who have managed them so well for so long.

On the player side, if we want more DMage then we need to be more understanding and accepting of what a huge investment of time and effort it is to DM. We need to lower our expectations of them and be thankful for whatever effort they can give, in other words. DMing needs to be fun for DMs as well as players. When DMing turns into a job, a chore, an obligation, or at worst some kind of inquisition, it is no fun. As players, if we recognize this and act accordingly we will see more DMs and individually find that more DMs want to play with our PCs. Its pretty simple. Don't be a jerk or a PITA or a complainer. Go along with their stories and ideas. Cooperate. Don't be demanding and don't second guess or worse bad mouth your DM in chat or on the boards. An environment of respect and gratitude for DMs is the best way to get more DMs IMO. Now, not everyone's DM style is for every player and vice versa. If that should happen its fine, try to find someone you are more in step with to play with. So in short, keep things fun for the DMs and you will likely see more DMage in turn will likely increase your fun.

[orangetree]

To be fair, I do think faerun is supposed to be fairly low magic. Commoners are well... common. We just think there are lots of magic people about, because that is who we interact with.

Take the average population, of a typical city... and suppose they have about 500k of people. you are 1 PC amongst -all- that. Now one could argue that ratio needs to be even lower... but then I think that would mean increasing the commoners population more.

As for the idea of a server where we are high level -already-... I am 'mixed' on it and had to think it over while I mulled on what I was feeling. I can see the appeal. No xp advancement as one is 'already' up there allows player and DMs to tell the epic story they want.... on the other hand, we lose the story of the journey of progression- which to me is quite important. One would need to establish canonically why there are these unique individuals that have such power... and it would alter the nature and history of the world in some way and the individual, setting them apart from the world I suspect. Would there be unique NPCs that have similar power levels too? What would society do with such untapped individuals... its basicly the story of Marvels' Mutants in a dnd style to me. (unless we are 'ignoring' their rapid rise in power as just 'one of those things', for the purpose of playing)

Sorry I ramble a lot... its an interesting idea all the same, and I hate to shoot down interesting ideas. It's just that I would need to feel some kind of gain other then xp, if we were to leave that.

[Xanthea]

Uh I don't think you need to make some sort of story about the PCs being born with great power. You just have to say that every PC's backstory involved them doing things that make them a seasoned veteran by the point you start playing them.

[Adanu]

Uh I don't think you need to make some sort of story about the PCs being born with great power. You just have to say that every PC's backstory involved them doing things that make them a seasoned veteran by the point you start playing them.

Still takes away the option to play out those stories yourself.

[Xanthea]

Uh I don't think you need to make some sort of story about the PCs being born with great power. You just have to say that every PC's backstory involved them doing things that make them a seasoned veteran by the point you start playing them.

Still takes away the option to play out those stories yourself.

And starting at level 1 takes away just as many options.

[Ithildur]

Starting at lvl 1 is rather intentionally about 'sorry, I don't care what you want your silly background to say, you don't get the option to start this story as Superman. You don't even get to be a decent Batman for a while, work your way up to it boyo'.

Starting at lvl 7 is kind of like beginning the story the way early Batman stories did; he more or less kicked ass from the beginning. It's a perfectly legit way to tell a story, as long as there are plenty of developments and challenges ahead of the hero in the story to unfold.

Compared that to the more modern origin stories/movies of guys like Batman; Bruce struggles at first, make mistakes, get defeated and has to retreat and learns from it; eventually they may become '... a legend, Mr. Wayne...". For a lot of folks that's the story they prefer.

And no, just because I used that analogy doesn't mean our toons start with millions of gp and +5 equipment up the wazoo.

[Xanthea]

I see a higher level start being a story like Mass Effect. You start the game already being part of the top special forces in the human race, a decorated elite warrior. And then you move on to even greater achievements from there.

[HEEGZ]

There is some discussion among admin and some of our builders about expanding our persistent world offerings. We are now exploring bringing back some of our dormant NWN1 servers. There may also be a new persistent campaign server option for NWN2 that is separate from our Live servers.

I have read some concerns about thinning our player base. I also know that we can reach out to new members or bring back existing ones by offering more gaming and role playing options. I would like some feedback from the community regarding new servers that aren't tied to our NWN2 live servers. Does anyone have any thoughts on these ideas that you would care to share?

[Swift]

I have read some concerns about thinning our player base. I also know that we can reach out to new members or bring back existing ones by offering more gaming and role playing options. I would like some feedback from the community regarding new servers that aren't tied to our NWN2 live servers. Does anyone have any thoughts on these ideas that you would care to share?

Unpopular though my stance may be, remove the 2 PC rule since you will be able to have a different PC on each platform/offering we have.

[Castano]

I am not opposed to moving the dividing line on 2 PCs to the platform borders as opposed to the current border - it would make things cleaner on the tech side. One of the historical oppositions to multiple platforms that was raised previously was, ironically, the old 1 PC rule. Thankfully we are not rules-lawyering at that level anymore.

[FoamBats4All]

Revoking the 2 PC rule on NWN2 just because we want to do a NWN1 OAS doesn't seem very fair.

I thought NWN1 was going to be a separate project from ALFA, and not change our standards/rules/policies.

[Castano]

I would not refer to the NWN1 plan or our NWN2 campaign server plan as OAS's. The NWN1 plan involves full fledged servers. NWN2 is based on a proposal Regas put forth a while back that we have now picked up to add more gaming areas to ALFA that would not require a full server team, just any DMing logging in to run sessions. None of these projects are separate from ALFA unless you consider the scope of ALFA to be defined by our Vault which I do not.

Other than that yes I do realize it would be unfair to put yet another rule change through on PC numbers on servers, luckily it's not a DMA domain.

[kid]

It means you can't play there with your dude.
It means I can't play there cause I don't have nwn1.
It means separation of our tiny player base not only over servers but over different game engines.
It means more characters per player and means less DMing and games for those of us that stay on NWN2.

So personally I think it's a bad idea and would serve only a handful of us who are nostalgic about it and wanna have fun on the old servers.

But by all means have fun, but I would disagree about it being for the good of ALFA, no disrespect intended.
Hopefully i'll be proven wrong and many aNWN1 players would join the new servers and then move to ALFA2 as well, enriching the gaming experience for all... or whatever.