Regarding the history of Arabel
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I'm curious why more people don't send books to the Library about current events of great note, such as the Siege, Raghat or the rift. These kinds of books would go a long way to preserving all the awesome moments you've experienced, and help other players correlate new information with the old.
In fact, the library pays very well for such books. If you need some information that absolutely cannot be obtained by any existing PCs, then we might possess NPCs for that snippet. (However, that is only if there really is no PC available. Asking a DM should be a last resort, obviously.)
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Well, for me, it is because I have limited time to devote to COA. RL gets in the way.
When I look at the possibilites of things I can do:- write up events, whether recent or further past, of import
- think up and plan plots and interactions (as a player, out of game)
- login and play my char, whether it be RPing with establised people it knows, or meeting new ones, whether it be questing or something tlese.
- read the forums to have a idea of whats going on
and I have perhaps 2.5 hours, every other day, at most, that I can do this.. Well, for me it's going to be 15min of forumizing and the rest being ingame.
hmm. I suppose theres no reason one can't actually write a book in game, lol, as I have "still-living" characters who have witnessed writeable events, and I guess one of them would even IC sit there in the MG or library doing so for hours. But.. Its not as much fun as interacting with people.
I've considered it. Could use the gold :D but it's not as much fun as playing.
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Aren't books already writeable in game by players? Could easily do that
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It's also the problem of IC information:
I'm fairly sure very small amount of people actually know the -whole- picture, and thus, such book might not give out very accurate picture.
Or, sometimes you do know what you think is the full picture, but part of the knowledge comes from OOC sources (like, asking around to fill in the slots that IC knowledge misses), but then again, you shouldn't be using ooc knowledge.
OR, if you do happen to be in the very thick of the events and do know nearly the whole picture (enough to write about it, at least) - do you really want to write about it? I mean, such events likely entail a lot of secrets and plotting your character would not want to reveal, and thus you need to weight what you can, and can not, and what you want, and do not want to write about. It's not that easy.But I think that the biggest part is the fact that very few people know the whole picture. If I tried to write about the siege, it would go like this:
The Red Harts and a bunch of adventurers had a vision, where the mage guild was unable to contain the rift. Apparently the Red Harts thought that swords hold the darkness back better than wards, but the Mage Guild refused to give up, and a siege followed. There was the rift spilling in and all kinds of shenanigans, apparently one of the Mage's Guild set a powerful warlock free from the Rift. The sieges was lifted shortly after an attempt by Venko and a bunch of others tried to break into the Tower of the Mage Guild, and were killed.
I'm fairly sure the librarians would laugh me out of there. Not a very accurate depiction of the events, is it?
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I think all PC characters who actively took part in siege and rift plots are dead. So no memoirs for us. :)
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Most of my characters die too quick! :wink:
Through on that note I think that might be a problem. Character turnover seems quicker these days than the old days, with the exception of people like Rav there hardly anyone from 6 months ago. Its especially more true with people who aggressively push plots (and know what's going off) tend to die quickly.
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Well, clearly the solution would be interact with other people and get said information? It's not like there is no one in the entire current playerbase who is ignorant of the whole situation. In that case, I have said that NPCs would fill the void.
The reward was meant to encourage more PC-PC interaction. The more complete your book is, the more gold you'll get. You can earn several thousand gold by just talking to people. I'm not saying it's easy, said people might not want to part with the information, might need to be persuaded. But that's why you're getting so much gold.
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Disclaimer: I have no idea how much gold the mage guild pays or where to check it.
I think one reason might be that gold is somewhat easy to come by with certain types of characters.
Other problem is that my english is still medicore at best, so I probably shouldn't write books.
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Plus isn't the whole idea of a book to not necessarily be historically accurate? As it's said "History is written by the victors" and the writing of a historical event is sort of a way for your character to spin what happened into his favor.. Whether or not people actually buy it is another thing..
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Just to be clear, the events need to be significant.
No one would legitimately want to read about someone beating down someone else in the street.
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As I see it, the point of such a book would be to describe what happened. I agree, the history is written by the victors, but I feel that kinda defeats the purpose of preserving the knowledge of said events from OOC point of wiev. Perhaps not entirely, but at least in part. I mean, I'd sure want to write a book about the siege and how Venko and Harts used demons and devils and undead in their assault agains the tower to tarnish their reputation and that of the Hart's, but that's… That's not fair. If you can't trust the description of events, what purpose does the book serve, then? Entertainment? I could write lots of stories if I wanted, but how's that going to help preserve the knowledge?
Also, it's not that hard to get people part with the information once you know who has it. It's more of a problem of finding the people with the information. Rumours just don't circulate. I mean, if I had not visited East Haven myself, by chance, I still would not know it has turned into a huge pit. I'd be willing to vager that if I made some sendings and put up a few posters, I wouldn't get much more than "it fell into a sinkhole" out of it. When I did ask the people who were there when it happened, I did get an answer - but it was along the lines of "X did Y to Z and the result is this."
Or, let's look at the rift. Been there for ages. What's important? It's still there. How did it come there? Nobody alive who'd know that. Even of the people who were alive when it did come there, I'd wager not even a quarter knew what really happened. Those who know stuff like this, are so involved in the plot that it's against their agenda to spread the knowledge. Why?
Stuff happens when: A. You succeed. B. You fail.
You succeeded, congratulations. This means you were pushing forward a plot, most likely. Why would you want to share your agenda with everyone? And if your plot was not to make X happen, but to clean away the X, who cares about the reason behind X since it's already gone?
You failed, shame on you. Do you really want to be spreading around the tale of your failure?
Or, a more concrete example. Let's talk about Raghat. Avarage adventurer's interest: There's an orc army, and it needs to be stopped.
Let's say someone would want to write a book on Raghat.
What everybody knows?
He gathered favor in the slums through cage fights, and then he raised an army.
How did he make this happen?
If you were not with him, you'd likely not know. If you were with him, why'd you spoil his secrets?
Who did he ally with?
Sure, you might know his allies, but again, why and how are hidden.
As soon as the plot has ended, if Raghat's forces are defeated: Everybody who'd know is either: Dead, or "Who cares, we defeated them."Or the Ortrant. I'd wager a good portion of plots IG right now circle around it at least in part.
Those who know, only tell those who they trust. Or, even if they are like me and tell about it to everyone who listens, I wouldn't write a book about it because stuff like that isn't "supposed to be public knowledge", no matter how big part of the player base knows about it.//end rant. Sorry.
EDIT: That' s a horrible amount of ranting and frustration and the point was not entirely clear.
My point is: Information is damned hard to get hold of, and when you do, it's not likely the sort you want to share easily, or even if you do, you do not want to share all parts of it. -
I got a couple of books which I will PM to a living character who took some of Erih's books, sadly most are unfinished as my character died but I really do hope people will actually write down what they experience somewhere. Books are a fantastic source for inspiration and to leave a mark in the world, it only takes 30min to write up what a complete plot was about!
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I would have written about Raghat's death had I been there. =P
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Like to see my Tormite musings see the light of day! Since Erih and Solider are both dead, it unlikely to do so unless someone "finds" Erih swag of unfinished texts :cry:
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. If you can't trust the description of events, what purpose does the book serve, then? Entertainment?
Yes.
Rumours just don't circulate. I mean, if I had not visited East Haven myself, by chance, I still would not know it has turned into a huge pit.
Isnt that the point of teh Rumors forum? I'm sure its mentioned there.
Or, let's look at the rift. Been there for ages. What's important? It's still there. How did it come there? Nobody alive who'd know that.
untrue, i believe. Maybe he doesn't want to burned alive, so he only lets a very few people know he knows of it…
Even of the people who were alive when it did come there, I'd wager not even a quarter knew what really happened.
so? why can't there be 2 or 3 different books on something, each wrong in their own way. It's Entertainment.
Those who know stuff like this, are so involved in the plot that it's against their agenda to spread the knowledge. Why?
if i recall from the announcement a year or so back, books can be written and turned in AFTER the PCs are gone. Usually no reason to be secretive if the plots long gone. of course, the Rift is a poor example, its still there.
You succeeded, congratulations. This means you were pushing forward a plot, most likely. Why would you want to share your agenda with everyone?
Hmm. One of the more commonly complaints a lot of people voice is about elitism and horading of information. If it's done, why NOT share it?
And if your plot was not to make X happen, but to clean away the X, who cares about the reason behind X since it's already gone?
See#1. Entertainment.
Not quoting the Raghat/Ortrant stuff, since it's just a example of stuff already mentioned.
EDIT: That' s a horrible amount of ranting and frustration and the point was not entirely clear.
Ranting? Unclear? Nah, just stuff i disagree with.
My point is: Information is damned hard to get hold of, and when you do, it's not likely the sort you want to share easily, or even if you do, you do not want to share all parts of it.
Often, yes, But what is wrong with sharing it AFTER the plot/whatever is done?
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Books that are a copy and paste of exactly what happened don't really interest me much. I'd rather read about an event in the bias and distorted view of the author. It's not like our media these days tells the unaltered truth in its stories.. Then a player that wanted to or had reason to seek out the truth of the tale, he would have to seek out those involved, those that may have known those involved etc, which for me would be far more interesting then "I've read six pages of this event, now I know exactly how it went down". Isn't the whole idea of history being recorded to get people talking and debating about it?
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@Alice:
Like to see my Tormite musings see the light of day! Since Erih and Solider are both dead, it unlikely to do so unless someone "finds" Erih swag of unfinished texts :cry:
It's being dealt with IC by one of Erih's friends who got the fun duty of doing it. ;)
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@Alice:
Like to see my Tormite musings see the light of day! Since Erih and Solider are both dead, it unlikely to do so unless someone "finds" Erih swag of unfinished texts :cry:
It's being dealt with IC by one of Erih's friends who got the fun duty of doing it. ;)
Yus! Hopeful in 12 months time some other Tormite will find it and go "this is heresy!" write his own piece that conflicts it and then 12 months latter a huge Tormite faction will have a dogmatic civil war over it :mrgreen:
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Example of a player written book.
That's not all accurate, definately not. In fact some of it is partial fabrication based on the characters view point. there are some 'facts' in there, and the general thread is 'correct' but it's a perspective, as all books are, as they are written by characters, not robots.
So yeah, write a book about an event and make your god look awesome while doing so (even if in reality your god had nothing to do with it, and neither did their followers) as long as the general thread of history is somewhat in tact, the Library may well take it, and then people will think your god was awesome in the future etc etc. Someone else might write opposing accounts. Someone might even mention some artifact that was trying to be found during the event, which never was, and some character down the line could attempt to uncover it… it's good stuff, books.
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I hate to be cynical, but I have to agree to some of the things Tomppa said. That said, I guess Zool now provides a different perspective on what is required of books in the future. I'mma roll a librarian!