Brainstorm: The Next Evolution of Alfa

[dergon darkhelm]

hope for nwn3 (obsidian/paizo) announcement within a year.

Is this really a possibility?

It could be.

That's nice. I'll hold that hope.


Because "half of 2012" must be something like 1/8th of 2010 and 1/32nd of 2008 (and probably 1/100th of November 2004)


I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the sinusoidal swing theory holds true.

[Castano]

Zelknolf wrote: It's likely that Castano will return from his trip still interested in the NWN2 sublicencing idea, so that's a thing, and we'd probably expect an uptick in usual development that aligns (even if it ultimately flops, you try to clean your home before having guests over right?) followed by some attempts to advertise in narrative-focused communities (I will suggest roleplaying and fanfiction forums; generic gaming sites seem to generate very little response). Hard to predict what will happen with the DM team, but it's September now, so I'd predict little change on the ranks for the remainder of the year.

Yes pretty much. thank you all for the discussion I skimmed the posts above and there were many thoughts. I'm having trouble coalescing them into some coherent "change". Change for the sake of change is not a good idea. we've substantially loosened rules around here over the past year or so, and they are largely working - even though we do still get the odd question or two with people who think we are still under the old rule set and asking for exemptions they do not need

I think just logging in and playing the game we have would be a great start

I'll be entering the TSM campaign with my new dwarf PC. He's down the mountain from Felbarr just now so if you see him try to say hi.

[Heero]

There are two talks. First, a partnership with Pathfinder. Second, a talk of revisiting the Neverwinter Nights series.

Unlikely to see a Neverwinter Nights with Pathfinder. Might see a NWN3 and a Pathfinder game.

Well dang. A fresh start on a fresh platform would be nice.

[Zelknolf]

Because "half of 2012" must be something like 1/8th of 2010 and 1/32nd of 2008 (and probably 1/100th of November 2004)

2012 was our peak population in ALFA2. It exploded pretty hard in that brief glorious period when we had active server build from three builders on BG and active tech work from three tech people. I even told everyone about it, posting a charming little graphic about how even the hit we took from Skyrim's release left us substantially better than previous years.

We're at 66-75% of our population from 2008-2010, depending on which season you're measuring from; I suspect that your memory is Gatsbying on you. You'll turn out all right on the end, but you should watch out for that foul dust floating in the wake of your dreams. It might close out your interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.

[trentfrompunchy83]

[Comment removed by DM Admin]

^ my snipe removed but the other poisonous dribble and directed attacks are cool? ALFA admin 4tw.

[Galadorn]

trent! wassup

Good to see you still rarely peruse at the very least.

Cheers and hope to see you someday/soon, etc.

[trentfrompunchy83]

*tackle hugs Bu*

Hey!

Play on another server now that is populated even during our shitty timezones - so not likely.

Maybe we will catch up when ALFA finally gives under its own bloat.

PM me

[Castano]

This thread has served its purpose so I am locking it. Thanks everyone who made useful comments about the community's future.

[FoamBats4All]

While I'm inclined to agree, I'm going to leave that up to the moderating team. Discussion is healthy, and there are useful posts in the last couple of pages.

For those who don't want healthy discussion, well, get lost.

[dergon darkhelm]

We're at 66-75% of our population from 2008-2010, depending on which season you're measuring from; I suspect that your memory is Gatsbying on you.

Maybe so. Perhaps I am beating against the current of ALFA, ceaslessly borne into the past.

But unless you play the time slot of "Night, US East", you could be forgiven for looking backwards, staring wistfully across the bay to see the green light of The Long Road and Waterdeep and Daggerford and Sembia and Daggerdale all with 12+ players and 2 or more DMs each on a regular basis.



______

((But I will definitely use "Gatsbying" in bar talk this weekend ))

[oldgrayrogue]

Castano, in case you missed it:

I think three things can be done by DMs to encourage more PW style play.

1) Log on to a server regularly and actually engage the PCs in RP when you are on. Just drop stuff on them. Don't wait for them to ask you to RP with them.

2) Run more ad hoc character development centered sessions with individual PCs or groups. Snatch hooks from their bios and run with them or present them with moral dilemmas designed to flesh out who the PC is and what makes them tick.

3) Employ the Heegz method of an overarching server wide antagonist with set encounters and forum posts to bring the server alive and provide the PCs with a common back story that all characters regardless of alignment or level can RP around. This is not a campaign, it is merely an environmental context for the PCs to center their RP on.

If these three things were done regularly on every server, I would be willing to wager more folks would log on to RP in a PW style. Without them the only viable way to get any story is in a campaign. Folks just don't seem to have the time or the patience to just RP with each other anymore and make their own story.

[Ronan]

3) Employ the Heegz method of an overarching server wide antagonist with set encounters and forum posts to bring the server alive and provide the PCs with a common back story that all characters regardless of alignment or level can RP around. This is not a campaign, it is merely an environmental context for the PCs to center their RP on.

OGR, you may remember that I did this a lot on BG (I would say I DMed plots, not campaigns). This was also done by JLM and you on TSM, and probably countless other DMs. While it is more "open" than a scheduled campaign, I'm not really sure it entertains more people.

As a player, I ultimately find RPing something with no ability to affect it (due to lack of DM support) extremely frustrating. I would much rather be involved in a 1/week campaign than to log in every night, RPing over the same problems and wondering when a DM would come along so you could have a crack at solving them (which might not ever happen).

It did work a lot better on TSM than BG though. Since half the playerbase didn't hate the other half, players could organize and do stuff without drama. I wanted to do this with the war in Felbarr with HEEGZ, but he's quit and no one else logs in anymore anyhow.

I think you're over-thinking this. If we had two or three campaigns as active as mine on a single server, do you really think the PCs would not be interacting, and logging in to RP? There would be cross-over sessions, inter-session mingling, etc. This has been done with the Knights Draconis, and they've not had a game for a while now. There was even some (limited) interaction between DarkHin's freaks and my less-obvious freaks on WHL. I know my players have certainly spent more time logged in between sessions than in sessions, though sadly Icarium never shows up to give them shit

[Ronan]

Oh for the record, I think you're all crazy to want to move ALFA to another platform. Its not just NWN2 which has aged, but the organization as well. Remake it with a similar vision, sure. But IMO to move to a new platform and take all of ALFA's baggage and bureaucracy with you is nuts.

[kid]

page 10.

[Castano]

I'd much rather focus on a campaign system. I think if we had as a goal getting 10 DMs with 10 groups of players then what ALFA has built will be used for a long while.

I had authorized doing so with servers put up (and not following all the PW based ALFA rules) when Heegz was wanting to do this. Since we've figured out the VM hosting situation is anyone up for putting a server or two online for strictly campaign sessions and trying it out?