Helpful quicknotes for returning ALFA vets

[Ithildur]

Others are welcome to help with this list, just a quick and dirty list of essentials you might want to know about if you haven't been around for a few years:

- 2 PCs per player, though you cannot have more than one PC on a single server

- PC bios can be submitted to the DM staff of the server you play on for a bonus 250xp

- You gain xp at a slow pace just by being logged in and RPing

- CvC rules have been changed: essentially, CvC can occur only with consent from both parties involved or DM oversight/ruling

- PrC's are treated like extraordinary PCs, i.e. requiring application and approval, rather than a DM run PrC quest

- Automated consumables crafting; DM intervention is not required for crafting potions, scrolls, and wands

- Horses and paladin mounts

- We have tailors/smiths for appearance changing of armor/weapons/cloaks, etc. The ones on BG are free to use, TSM/MS requires paying a cost to use

- Many new (better looking) heads are in our game now. Less monstrous looking elves.

- Travel between servers is less restrictive mechanically (though IC factors should still be taken into consideration; note that travel between BG and WHL is more or less restriction free due to IC distances being no greater than distances between say, BG city and Nashkel)

[kid]

Thanks for this.

[Arianna]

- CvC rules have been changed: essentially, CvC can occur only with consent from both parties involved or DM oversight/ruling

So basically CvC is not really something that happens anymore .....if you have to have the other persons consent first I would say that's not likely to happen on 99.9% of PCs

[kid]

depends.

If someone gives you proper cause all you need to do is PM a DM, i think you'll get a go ahead from most if the reasons are legit.

As far as consent, I know plenty that would give it.

[Ithildur]

- CvC rules have been changed: essentially, CvC can occur only with consent from both parties involved or DM oversight/ruling

So basically CvC is not really something that happens anymore .....if you have to have the other persons consent first I would say that's not likely to happen on 99.9% of PCs

I recall DMing/overseeing a CvC declaration a couple of years ago, and it was quite tense both IC and ooc, so it can happen, but yes, it seems lethal CvC has become very rare - which I believe was partly the intended effect of the rule change.

Figures that someone like Arianna would be asking questions about CvC first and foremost, being the PKing murderhobo she is

[Arianna]

- CvC rules have been changed: essentially, CvC can occur only with consent from both parties involved or DM oversight/ruling

So basically CvC is not really something that happens anymore .....if you have to have the other persons consent first I would say that's not likely to happen on 99.9% of PCs

I recall DMing/overseeing a CvC declaration a couple of years ago, and it was quite tense both IC and ooc, so it can happen, but yes, it seems lethal CvC has become very rare - which I believe was partly the intended effect of the rule change.

Figures that someone like Arianna would be asking questions about CvC first and foremost, being the PKing murderhobo she is

I just remember the lovely days of NWN1 where my PC just paid to have others assassinated , one should never dirty your own hands

[FoamBats4All]

I recall DMing/overseeing a CvC declaration a couple of years ago, and it was quite tense both IC and ooc, so it can happen, but yes, it seems lethal CvC has become very rare - which I believe was partly the intended effect of the rule change.

The goal was more for it to be to cut down on DM headaches, from a time when Ronan was dealing with more CvC requests than he was DM requests. Or something like that.

[Zelknolf]

The policy change was targeting the CvC-related disputes that we had entirely too many of; folk were bringing every scuffle to the bureaucracy, because they had nothing to lose (after all, their character's already gone-- obviously, no one who won their fight brought disputes)-- the changing of implications about CvC from "assuming CvC is a risk of playing" to "assuming that CvC is opt in" was a side effect of it.

In theory, almost anyone can still CvC/be CvCed; in practice, no one has. Most DMs who oversaw such actions felt burdened by it, and granting exception to a consent rule means there's an onus to justify the action and doing so invites scrutiny (read: drama).



But look on the bright side of this-- we have much less B.S. in the forums, and thus more time for actually playing the game. The game that we hopefully find fun.

[Adanu]

I made a CvC request a year or two ago, it was denied and I resolved to not deal with the PC in question again as a result.

If you can't handle IC consequences for your actions, don't directly act against another PC.

[Luther]

Ooh, I've been meaning to start playing again for some time now. Real life has gotten in the way every time, though hopefully, come this summer, I will be able to experience what has happened in ALFA since I was last an active player.

I think the two PCs/player is a good decision, as it will suit my play style very well (i.e. you can have one character you play realistically in the manner that he does not want to die, but at the same time get the chance to try out new character concepts every now and then). I do remember people praising the one PC per player rule as one of the pillars of what made ALFA what it was. I wonder why and when this changed?

Also, what is a PrC?

[Ithildur]

Ooh, I've been meaning to start playing again for some time now. Real life has gotten in the way every time, though hopefully, come this summer, I will be able to experience what has happened in ALFA since I was last an active player.

I think the two PCs/player is a good decision, as it will suit my play style very well (i.e. you can have one character you play realistically in the manner that he does not want to die, but at the same time get the chance to try out new character concepts every now and then). I do remember people praising the one PC per player rule as one of the pillars of what made ALFA what it was. I wonder why and when this changed?

Also, what is a PrC?

PrC= Prestige Class

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClass ... lasses.htm
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Prestige_class

Mayhap someone can provide a link to ALFA's custom list of PrC's and details, unless this is it:
http://www.alandfaraway.info/wiki/Playe ... Your_Class

(for some reason the PC I'm on currently seems to be blocking various links from our wiki as spam/hacking related sites...)

[Zelknolf]

(for some reason the PC I'm on currently seems to be blocking various links from our wiki as spam/hacking related sites...)

The wiki includes a lot of technical instructions and code stuff, some of which (#sa rs?) would look pretty dubious if read without context (it's a code injection, yes, and it has all of the terrifying power you'd expect of a tool meant to debug anything and combat skiddies-- but it only works for people who have been explicitly granted access to write such... that is, TA, TA staff, and some HDMs who are logged into the server they HDM).

If it's work computer, you might be able to explain to the IT folk that these wikis are more like ALFA's msdn (and our technical/toolsetting forums being ALFA's stack overflow). If it's a personal computer, I've had no luck talking to antivirus people.

[Brokenbone]

Another quick note - there are swimming (and drowning) systems in place. Spells like water breathing or "having a good CON and not going into water with heavy armor" are worth looking into, surely documented somewhere...

(So if your PC likes long walks on beaches but all of a sudden is struggling and frantic messages keep popping up, they maybe stepped into a swim trigger and might be holding breath)

[Zelknolf]

Another quick note - there are swimming (and drowning) systems in place. Spells like water breathing or "having a good CON and not going into water with heavy armor" are worth looking into, surely documented somewhere...

... bler... yeah, documentation is a little scattered.

ALFA swimming is more merciful than PnP swimming-- failing a check severely reduces, but does not completely stop, movement, so even a fellow with -30 to swim can eventually get out of the water, if he can hold his breath long enough. We also have a quasi death floor in the system (by PnP, the round after you fall unconcious you die, regardless of what healing is applied to you; in ALFA, drowning costs you all of your hit points if you have any, and if you're out it kills you, with a "tick" happening every round-- so a hero can dive in, heal you, bear's endurance you, heal you again, and then you can wobble toward land again).

And of course you still need a DM for creative problem solving or actual rescue diving (in the "just grab the drowning guy and pull him to shore" sense). We generally don't have automatic systems for "I need to move this other person around."

[Mirabai]

Most of these changes are in fact really old news. Some of them are things I pushed for as an admin so that tells you how old it is. I came sniffing around because I got the recent letter, however it really needs an update rather than just tacking on info about an upcoming event to the existing form letter which was written years ago. I'm not trying to get on anyone's case, just saying if you really want folks to come back, more pertinent information to offer would be what current, active, ongoing campaigns are happening, at what times and with what DM, as well as how many active DMs you've currently got going on on what servers, and when I can generally expect to find them IG, available and potentially interested/able to run even simple things or one-offs.

I spent a couple hours cruising the forums looking for this information and all I could find that was current were the dates for Greengrass - which is a great start- but speaking for myself, Jayde, and the couple other people I may bring with me from *redacted*, not enough to compel us to go through the hassle of getting NWN2 on our current machines, downloading haks, etc etc. I asked in IRC if there was anyplace the information I sought could be found and was told there wasn't.

ALFA's greatest strength, IMO, has always been its DMs, and the DM-driven content it provides. Static quests, action, and quality player/player RP I can find elsewhere. Not that ALFA doesn't have all those things as well, but quality DM events and campaigns are where it truly shines and is the allure that time and again makes one of us ask "I wonder what's going on with ALFA these days..."

So if there are campaigns going on or DMs putting time regularly and consistently behind the client, I would love if someone could enlighten me with the needed information, and maybe even sticky a post or add that information to your "come back" letter. If, however, things are far more erratic than that and mostly what's going on is the one event, then that's information I think it's only fair to share as well. Much better to have it all up-front than to have folks buying NWN2 all over again, taking the time to get it all running, then get IG only to find that they'll only rarely see a DM or an event.

Regardless, it's nice to see all of your names again (well, most of you )