Improve the Squires Abilities
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I am disappointed in what a squire has access to which is basically nothing. No offense please, I just want to suggest that squires at least be able to see their forum notes. It sucks to be on and not even know what is going on in your own faction. With few members it is not realistic to think they will pass all the needed knowledge on. When we had a militia, even the privates could see faction notes and know who their foes and friends were. That can be crucial in roleplaying.
Also is it realistic to think that most of these towers would not have at least bunks or cots set up to house their squires? Squires usually flock by their Knight's side. It feels like the squires are completely alienated from their factions. I get a hierarchy, but squires should know what their leaders want from them at any given time and be offered some protections or advantages, or what is the point? Just my suggestion.
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In v5 militia privates were the equivalent of Sergeant At Arms/Fang/Apprentice. You needed an app (on creation) or mini app (EiG) to become one after being deputised.
Deputies never got forum access. They just got a helm and told what to do by the full faction members until they earned their spot, which was harder to do back in v5 than it has been in ch1. Back then they didn't even have a private discord channel, so they had less than you have now.
I think it took me 6 days of playing to go from Unproven to Fang and that's the longest I've seen it take, because my PC is pretty polarising.As a squire you get access to the discord channel, which lets you find out what's going on because you can talk to your faction and the DMs there privately.
That's just the OOC side though. IC it doesn't make sense to let everyone immediately have access to a faction's secret files. You need to prove you can be trusted first by impressing your superiors in some way.
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@Miss_Behaviour Actually I've been kicked off the discord channel twice now, I even missed a true sun event because I couldn't see it on the forum and the dm said the other players should tell me about events. She posted the link but not the event in the discord channel and I couldn't see the time or the event. Yea right they will tell me about it when we are all on different tzs. That sucks when a player can't see faction events because they are a squire. Also that isn't true about the deputies of helm. At least at the time when Mildred ran it, the deputies did have access to it.
Look, I get a hierarchy but if you want more players involved in a faction, they at least have to feel like a part of it and know about the events.
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Personally I'm not opposed to Squires having forum/Discord access. The Team will discuss it !
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You are supposed to be a squire (or any rank 1) for a week or less. It is to try the faction out and make for an easier application with an IC recommendation. At any time can you submit an application for rank 2 if there are no PCs in the faction to interact with.
You get discord access starting at rank 1 (squire). Likely you were removed because of inactivity?
Faction perks like resting and wages are for full (rank 2 and greater) faction members.
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The thing is that without any perks or real support, these ranks are just false fronts for the factions. The real meat of the faction only really starts when you hit Rank 2, and there isn't all that much else going for Rank 1 PCs.
Think about it this way-
If you took away this rank, would anything really change? I really don't think so. The process remains the same, get an IC recommendation and submit a basic app.
What the ranks do is raise expectations that aren't really there. Novices, Squires, Bannermen, Unproven and so on don't have the same protections and privileges as the apped ranks and even the Second Rank often gets very little in that regard (The Tower Apprentices were originally expected to sleep in the closet until we broke into the second level, for instance) They don't get real benefits other than a weaksauce item and often tend to spend the week (Or more, if noone realizes how this system works like we did in the Tower initially) doing milk runs for established members while receiving none of the benefits of membership.
Again, I'd just get rid of them especially if the intent is to not give them a tangible benefit. Nothing effectively changes, but it doesn't come with the baggage associated with the non-membership membership that it entails.
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@HellzYeah Well here in lies the problem. So you are supposed to be a squire to try it out, but you're really not because you can't see the perks. I couldn't even see the real inside of the tower.
I not saying squires should be given all rights but I am going to make one major suggestion. I made my character wanting her to earn her rank. That would be her doing events , and then putting an app in with her achievements. Problem was I was so disconnected from events and what was happening within the faction that it was impossible. At the very least, faction events and major updates should be posted fully in the discord channel for the faction so squires can participate. Not links they can't see.
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Rank 1 is non app and its only purpose is to give people a way to more easily earn an IC recommendation. That IC recommendation then makes for an easier app.
Want straight into the faction, write a proper app with goals and give it to a DM. At rank 1 and feel the wait is too long, write an app and send it to the DMs.
Not able to hook up with a PC for whatever reason contact a DM. Have questions about the factions that a PC can’t or is not around to answer contact a DM.
The primary motivation for the DMs to put the non app positions in for those who don’t want to write an app on creation or want help writing apps with an existing character.
Again I cannot emphasize enough that rank 1 is supposed to be a very brief stay. Up or out.
