Applications - an alternative?
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Apps are important to keep the vibe of the server alive and stories in check.
But the whole process can be frustrating, daunting and long winded for some people - and I am sure DMs would rather be bringing the awesome than discussing applications.
So, is there an alternative that would do the same thing and keep stories real and in keeping with the server?
Should / could DMs do more to offer more stuff app free? I know lots of moves have been made to reduce the amount of apps needed, but how much further could (or should) it go?
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A lot of time the problem comes in when DM's still need to set you up for something (like wanding you for nobility, for example or giving you subrace traits), so it doesn't really eliminate a lot of issues.
The whole Provider thing that seems to have been dropped (correct me if I'm wrong) looked like a step in that direction; imagine you throwing an app in and all your gear/perks ready to be picked up from the Provider NPC? That'd save so much time and headache for all involved!
but! You still /need/ to inform DM's of what you're doing and why it makes sense in the setting. It might feel arbitrary at times, but realistically nobody here reads minds. You don't necessarily want Crystal Half Dragons wandering around the city if they're not meant to be a thing in CoA's cannon any more than you want new people just rolling up Drow thinking 'hey this'll be fun!' and then wondering why they were accosted or even FD'd in the spire.
I do agree there should be a faster method and something easier and smoother to get this stuff done with, but there's also a lot of practical stuff that has to be worked around in order to make the server work for the community on both sides of the DM client.
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So what else could be done to ease the burden and make it more fluid?
I agree the “provider” thing seemed really cool, then Sith vanished and it all went quiet.
Do we make some subraces non-app? Leave faction positions totally in the hand of PC recruitment and admin?
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I would suggest having a month with no apps and see what happens
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I'm getting old. I feel like posting conservative comments in every thread.
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We've done appless periods before. The last one was in July 5-12th)
That week we had:
6 for Battlemage/Purple Dragons/Royal Scouts/Road Captain
3 for Militia
6 for Tiefling
3 for Aasimar
1 for Githyanki
1 for Jynx
1 for Dragonborn
6 for Wererat
1 for Githzerai
1 for Water Gensai
1 for Air Gensai
3 for Werewolf
1 for Werecat
3 for "Special Backgrounds"Within a week, 3 of those were dropped. Of all those listed above, only 1 that I know of is still around.
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But good times were certainly had :grinning:
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@echo said in Applications - an alternative?:
6 for Battlemage/Purple Dragons/Royal Scouts/Road Captain
It's the same for current applications.
How many warforged are left who didn't drop right now? One I believe. :( Sad days for mechanos like Etho. :D (My +25 craft armor, skill focus and stuff, is less usefull sudently! XD)
They were four at one point.
The thing with characters on COA, is that most of them don't last so long. It's semi-short lived, either by death/retirement or the player takes a break. So I guess it doesn't really matter if these weeks of no app would come in more often, as characters don't last so long anyway.
My personal preference though, I'll post it on the threat about subraces.
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I'm torn between apps and appless, during appless week people opted to play what would have been app concepts not because they wanted to...but because they could, as a result of which they really weren't into their own characters and dropped them very quickly.
It could be reasoned that if it were app-less always, people wouldn't play these things on principle but only because they wanted to... But I've also seen servers where weird subraces required no apps and stuff got very immersion breaking there... Driders walking down the street, social justice warriors berrating militiamen for being racist about said driders.
All of the warforged that dropped, dropped for the same reason. The "you've got no memory" part of the warforged made it difficult to roleplay them or develop a personality for them, because they have a clause in their story who's sole purpose is to make them difficult to concept around (Memory loss doesn't really add anything to stories, concepts or fun for players) But I digress there...
Point being some subraces are harder to roleplay than others due to their background, and going into them without understanding that can lead to a bad time.
If things were app-lite (meaning you just need to bring your idea to at-least one dm and have them give you the greenlight)
That would be good enough to insure that the players idea at-least fits the subrace, sort of a quality check without as much formality required. -
I feel like we already see this type of behavior with duergars and deep gnomes and followers of bane walking inside the citadel of a city in a mostly lawfull good setting.
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deep gnomes arent inherently evil just ultra rare on the surface, we just had a bunch that were well pressganged into being evil ;)
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@chips said in Applications - an alternative?:
All of the warforged that dropped, dropped for the same reason. The "you've got no memory" part of the warforged made it difficult to roleplay them or develop a personality for them, because they have a clause in their story who's sole purpose is to make them difficult to concept around (Memory loss doesn't really add anything to stories, concepts or fun for players) But I digress there...
It's been changed since, actually. It's now entirely optional.
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Deep gnomes aren't inherently evil because they're inherently good :P
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@joekickass said in Applications - an alternative?:
@cadiz_stoker said in Applications - an alternative?:
deep gnomes arent inherently evil just ultra rare on the surface, we just had a bunch that were well pressganged into being evil ;)
Are they not really paranoid though? Or is that just the wiki? I, mean, they are from the underdark afterall.
Deep gnomes in general are extremely paranoid yes.
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Off topic. Get back on the rails.
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I think opening up more subraces that didn't require an application would be good.
I'd like to see those subraces be the same power level as the rest of the base races though.
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I'm fine with scripting in more ECL 0 subraces. Suggest some.
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Like... half elves!
They would be very nice to play, but they are so inferior mechanically... -
We should just make half elves +2 CHA and -2 CON
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@king-dobby said in Applications - an alternative?:
We should just make half elves +2 CHA and -2 CON
Nopls.
They already lose out on literally everything that makes humans preferable. It's why they're terrible.
I made a suggestion over here: https://nodebb.cityofarabel.com/topic/39008/half-elf-changes so as not to polute this thread.