A Land Far Away

ALFA has been around since before the first Neverwinter Nights game was ever released. We have gone through a lot of people coming in and out of our doors since then. A lot of it has to do with events that happened in and out of the game itself and some with the transition to the new game Neverwinter Nights 2.

What I would like to know is this from everyone in the community. We are now at a point where getting folks to actually DM here is very difficult to do. Yes, I understand that we have only one server right now. Yes, I understand that building with the toolset is difficult.

What I would like to know is what can we, the ALFA project, do to bring more people into the DM ranks? Is it about training? Should we have "seminars" every so often to teach and show prospective DMs how to use the DM client and the toolset?

Should we have an open and frank discussion about what drove many former Dms away from Dming here in the past? We have seen a lot of folks leave because of issues with DMAs, policy, or they felt they were slighted by the Server selection teams when we were putting NWN2 servers listings together. If you were a former DM and went elsewhere or arent Dming currently what drove you away? Please be frank. Holding back wont solve the current issue of a lack of Dms in ALFA. If ALFA learns from its mistakes then it can correct them if it truly wishes too.

What can we do to entice new players to DM here? We have talked about opening up to letting DMs Dm on the server they play on (TSM currently). Should we set give those DMs full status rights or hold some information back so it cant be exploited? Should we just trust our new Dms and deal with the issues or problems as they arise?

I want to see what people think. Id like to see ALFA change its ways and be more open. I feel that if it doesnt get off its high horse of old that the project wont grow. We need to recruit new DMs and also do what we can to bring old DMs back to the project. Having an honest and frank discussion is a first step. Lets see where this leads and what can be done to make DMs more common place in ALFA.

Go to the NWNvault, where the nexus of the neverwinter nights community resides, search for the NWN persistant world A Land Far Away, and read the butthurt and often angry remarks from past members and/or hopefuls. I have seen newbies leave because they get pissed off at RP 101. I have seen people leave because of elitists within the community. I have seen people leave because of technical problems within ALFA's servers. This steady decline? Just maybe we did this to ourselves. Maybe this old trail mule still has life in it but I won't hold my breath. All I can say is that we have this great presentation of what we are but we have one server up that wasn't fully beta tested, very few players, and even fewer DMs. So what should we do? Well, let's advertise. Let's try to get as much of the community outside of ALFA behind us as we can. Let's ask around for builders, scripters and modelers. Let's get players, players who may or may not eventually try out for DMs. I don't know how we could get more DMs when we don't have that many players.

I know that there was a slight increase due to some HAZE fellows and some other fellows from exodus who transfered over and that was good, but I dunno if they stuck around.

Ive proposed the same question here on the NWN2 boards:

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/vi ... &forum=118

I hope to attract former Dms and players into the discussion.

Also, Helios. The ALFA blurb on NWvault had all its comments deleted at my request to Maximus long ago. It served no purpose but to have former disgruntled players spew a lot of hatred at the project. (some justified and some not) Wynna put up a new blurb for NWN2 but no comment were allowed. At this time its staying that way.

Hopefully, we get some folks come here and give us their opinions. We need to hear it and that in turn will help us evolve if the Admin are extremely willing to allow change to happen.

What drove me away from DMing were (in no order of importance):
- the lack of players in my timezone (at the times I could DM);
- the complexity of our XP standards and tools (I loved the 100xp/hour rule);
- the complexity of our wealth standards (Veilan can attest that I almost never gave loot because I was so afraid of giving stuff that would be out of line);
- personal issues with some recent DMAs.

The size of the DM base is going to be player base related, in other words increasing recruitment and retention in general should also lead to more active DM's as well. Though after reading Hialmar's post I wonder if maybe we did go too far on the whole "house rules" thing. It's interesting that early ALFA was horribly imbalanced and flawed from a standards perspective, but was much more lively and engaging from a gaming perspective. Perhaps we in effect created such a sterile and restricted environment that hardly anyone wants to play in Nazi ALFA. One thing I learned the hard way admin'ing a now defunct PW was the more rules we created and enforced, the smaller and more frustrated our player base and DM base became.

But mostly we really need a second server.

And as much as I dislike trying to quash comment and debate, I cringed when I read that post on the NWN2 forums.... Smelled too much like dirty laundry. Anyway, spilled milk. It is a discussion that needs to be had.

Hialmar wrote:What drove me away from DMing were (in no order of importance):
- the lack of players in my timezone (at the times I could DM);
- the complexity of our XP standards and tools (I loved the 100xp/hour rule);
- the complexity of our wealth standards (Veilan can attest that I almost never gave loot because I was so afraid of giving stuff that would be out of line);
- personal issues with some recent DMAs.

I and i think many would agree with these. I would add though that i liked the old standards of having +1 magic property per 5 char levels, x2 for skill items (and some banned properties). It was easy and workable.

Well, I'm not sure these threads help anymore. But the reason I have decided to quit the DM ranks:

What Hialmar said:
- the complexity of our XP standards and tools (I loved the 100xp/hour rule);
- the complexity of our wealth standards (Veilan can attest that I almost never gave loot because I was so afraid of giving stuff that would be out of line);
- personal issues with some recent DMAs.

And what Ayergo said:
I and i think many would agree with these. I would add though that i liked the old standards of having +1 magic property per 5 char levels, x2 for skill items (and some banned properties). It was easy and workable.


As a builder, I grew tired of having great ideas and creative revelations for ALFA only to have my additions removed because of some standards violations. Instead of correcting the standards (ie lowering the xp and gold), they are simply removed. All that work shitcanned because the exp reward was 10 or 15 over, or the gold was a little high.

Lastly, the sheer volume of administration that seems endless and ongoing for someone who wants to DM with no one in power realizing it is killing the community. And we're not whiny little kids. Some of us are doctors, lawyers, school teachers, school principals, engineers, corporate executives, and so on.

And the typical response to all of it:

"If they really want to be DM's, they'll do this and this and this before being approved."

If they really want to be DM's .... they'll go to Exodus instead.

I play NWN for fun, why would I want to start filling out forms and turn it into a job?

mishmash wrote:I play NWN for fun, why would I want to start filling out forms and turn it into a job?

DMing is rewarding, but I got news for you. In many respects it is like a job. A DM has responsibilites. You have regularly scheduled sessions. You post notes from your sessions in the DM forum. You build in the toolset. You meet deadlines. You rescue PCs stuck in the Q, etc, etc.

Your gaming experience depends on quality DMs, treating you fairly and with respect. So yes, there is a bit of screening involved and a bit of training required.

Everyone has their personal reasons for wanting to DM or not to DM, and we should respect them just as we do the DMs whose hard work we enjoy. I encourage the dialogue here and I am sure our next DMA will be able to pull a few nuggets out to improve his ability to recruit and maintain a healthy DM corps.

As a new member who has spent some time reading through these boards, to attract more players and more DM's it seems pretty obvious that ALFA needs to simplify its standards and administration and trust its members more.

Stopping the flaming and other immature drama on the forums would go a long way to improving the community as well. Seriously, some times it reminds me of High School.

I have been recruiting new players to ALFA since I joined because the TSM server I play on is so beautifully created and the player and DM RP experiences I have had to date have been top notch. The promise of more servers of the same quality is a DnDers dream come true. So far I brought three players over. One has sort of left because of a lack of DM coverage. I am trying to bring over a group of 5 other players I used to play with on other servers. I see one joined today.

Why do I mention this? This is what we all need to do to make ALFA for NWN2 succeed IMO. Recruit and bring over mature like minded players who are interested in serious RP in a quality environment, and then once they are here treat them with trust and respect as a member of the community. If we do that, without all the red tape and the drama, people will stay and naturally want to DM.

mishmash wrote:I play NWN for fun, why would I want to start filling out forms and turn it into a job?

I've already got a full-time job and a family, I don't need another job. Dealing with all the red tape involved with being even an ADM here sucks the fun out of it. I enjoy telling a story and watching as the players make their way through the world I've helped create, but when you don't want to give out rewards that you feel the players have earned because it might be seen as too much by somebody somewhere sometime, and you have things you have worked on for a while pulled or torn apart wholesale because they are slightly off standard it really throws off your enjoyment.

When I look at the rules, regulations, and standards in ALFA I get a mental image of huge stone pillars holding up a dining room table. Sure they do the job, the they get in the way all the time.

I do love to DM, and I would love to do so again in ALFA, one of the reason I am heavily in favor of the RP DM idea. I think that encouraging trust in the community, trust among players, trust among DMs, trust among admin, and trust between each of these little groups would go a hell of a long way in getting more people to want to DM. Think more 'small country town' and less '1984'.

Sintaqx wrote:When I look at the rules, regulations, and standards in ALFA I get a mental image of huge stone pillars holding up a dining room table. Sure they do the job, the they get in the way all the time.

Excellent mental image. One that this behemoth of an organization needs to shed, or should I say sculpt away, to achieve fun times in the end.

While I sympathize with people that think we have too many convoluted rules... and we do, I hardly think (or rather I hope) that anyone wants to go back to the time before we had standards where PCs from server A were dirt poor while PCs from server B shat gold bricks.

Jayde created an excel spread sheet for pricing. Not sure if it's all finished or a work in progress, but it's a way to simplify it.

That said, a second live server will attract more DMs. I don't hold any illusions that they will sign up in droves, but I'm pretty sure we'll have more than we do now.

Oh, and...

Danubus wrote:Should we just trust our new Dms and deal with the issues or problems as they arise?

Yes.