New Factions, or More focus on dm supporting pc factions?
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As it stands, there are in my eyes, four major dm factions.
Mage Guild: Accepts a wide range of characters, yet all with an emphasis on Magic in some way.
Sheriffs: Powerful faction, leaning towards the LN-NE spectrum. In my eyes, a rather narrow concept range.
Red Harts: LN-NG, yet from what I have recently learned, a very strict and narrow character and concept range.
CoG: I dont know, empasis on gnomes and… stuff.
To me, full factions are fun. Alot of player confict, alot of plot pushing, alot of adventure, intrigue and roleplay.
Yet, In my honest view, the current factions only offer faction positions to a very narrow and close spectrum of characters, the rest simply fall through.
The question I wish to ask, in order to discuss the above; Should we as a server focus on some new, perhaps more open factions to get more people into them, change the current ones to open up for alot more concept,s or should there be more support to pc factions? By support, i mean, npc, gear, HQ's, uniforms, whatever?
And should such factions be PLOt factions, the dm i mean, or... what?
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CoG: I dont know, empasis on gnomes and… stuff.
so wrong.
Emphasis on technology (mechanical or not) finding alternatives to magic (any magic. spells, wands potions all of it) Merchant slummers trying to better the world
faction is mainly gnome AND human but accept just about anything. Leaning toward Chaotic. Neutral can fit too.Though yeah, some of the current faction seem restrictive but we had plenty of those in the past that worked out well. You just need a clear definition of what is expected from the Faction members before joining.
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Honestly, as a LG paladin, I find it very difficult to find -any- faction PC or DM at the moment that I can become a part of. Paladin is a very strict class to play and RP and so its very difficult to find others willing to understand that and still work with you. Its a shame the KotMS are gone or it would have been very fun to RP into that faction.
I also notice that DM and DM supported factions all put together do not support every character class. It almost entices people to create the same class so that they can be part of a faction. I feel like Paladins, rogues, monks, rangers, bards, ect are a bit left out.
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Sheriffs are traditionally True Neutral. I would say they're lately anything except lawful good.
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I think Paladin and clerics are ment to be outside factions by and large myself. I'm with O'louth on the sheriffs too. LE in lower case seems the general image I get from the sheriffs.
What could be intrest for a new DM faction is something that includes druids, but a bit different from the normal circle stuff. Some diffrent take on nature with plenty of room for other classes to fit in.
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I'd toss my support in for dm factions that support player factions. That was how it worked best in the past in my opponion. Player factions tend to evaporate when key leaders disappear or are killed. That can leave a lot of support characters hanging with their asses flapping out in the wind. A dm faction seems to offer more stability, yet they can still support the interesting player factions that need some attention. I love player factions, don't get me wrong. I've been in several and had fun. I really like the stability of dm factions and would like to have the best of both worlds.
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Bring back the Noble houses, but have them be a new set instead of the old ones with each having their unique agenda for the city
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Nah, those factions are fine. I'm more into the "plot" factions that crop up from now and then. The four static factions should remain, but more DM plot factions (that typically last a season or so.) Makes the game fresh.
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I will never play in a DM faction the reason being i hate the application process when i want to play a game i play a game,id rather not feel like it's a chore and that i have to do somthing.
Anyhow PC factions i would like to see more dm attension as from a personal point of view it's far more likely one of my characters would get involved with them.
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I think the sheriffs are over done frankly and the concept has become sterile. I quite liked the presumption that central and east Arabel were LG/ NG by default as this was a lot friendlier to both low levels and to players new to the server. The way it was it created a 'safe' zone until players were ready to do something bold. The old days of the stable noble houses, house Bresk for uber awesomeness and the purple dragons was to be fair awesome.
I never especially liked the sheriffs even in the early days truth be told as I felt it encouraged poor OOC respect. I think even now there is the odd sheriff player who confuses playing evil icly (by itself very cool) with being inconsiderate oocly (which is very uncool as it annoys a lot of people).
In the earlier days with the sheriffs I think as well there was far too much doing evil ICLY (makes the server interesting and fun) then hiding oocly behind IC actions, which has made the server poorer by far, as it breaks immersion and blunts rp.
I still very much stand by the principle that if someone does something really dumb icly, they should 'icly' pay the consequences of that action, while instead there is still sadly a little bit of pissing on the statue of bane and expecting to have cute bunnies thrown at you going on.
I think having a really powerful faction like the guards coupled with IC ebol characters is a little off the mark, as with some it encourages poor OOC behaviour. I think that replacing this with a LG/NG good faction would be better as this encourages a better level of OOC neutrality and politeness.
COG I stand by in saying that it is perhaps the most original faction idea we have had as a server, and the inherent creativity and inventiveness of COG goes a long way in improving the richness of the server. COG is team fun and entertainment and I take my hat off to all COG players past and present, as they are all black belt role players.
The Red Harts I like as its a great faction for paladin types. The Red Harts is how I would expect and want knights to be. Unshakably good, even occasionally against reason. Honourable to the the point of utter fearlessness. Principled even when it is hard to be principled. The Red Harts add great reams of depth to the server and make it better.
I greatly admire the Mage Guild as well, but didn't agree with giving them law enforcement powers, as it encouraged the type of player (as opposed to character) who confused being wickedly IC and fun evil, with being OOCly inconsiderate and a jerk, or more precisely doing something outrageous ICLY then moaning oocly when a player reacts to their outrageous IC action in a appropriately firm IC way.
I really think that giving a nominally evil and conflict causing faction ICLY (which is I hold a good thing by itself) powers which give them great power ICLY and OOCly is inherently bad. I think the Sheriffs should be scrapped the law powers of the Mage Guild revoked and law powers given to a LG/NG/LN body, lets for arguments sake, call this the 'City Watch'.
This is purely to knock dead all the OOC headaches which come from the present system. There really is nothing wrong with having a faction which is relatively neutral, having as its main plot point, keeping the city safe and nothing much deeper than that, especially with so much going on.
After the replacement of the Sheriffs with a City Watch, I would suggest filling the gap with either something entirely new, or with a clever reinvention of something old. COG shows that it is entirely possible even in relative modernity of this server, to come up with something really very fresh, yet still exciting and interesting. The Red Harts I perceive as a successor spiritually at least, to House Fezznick, yet I think the modern faction is a great improvement on the original and the original had some truly fantastic roleplayers involved.
Spartan
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What could be intrest for a new DM faction is something that includes druids, but a bit different from the normal circle stuff. Some diffrent take on nature with plenty of room for other classes to fit in.
If you are referring to the current 'Circle of the Fallen Leaf' it is open to Druids, Rangers and Barbarians, which are the core classes that would look to keep the Balance in check … depending on the character.
Has it taken off, not really.
Why, because of some of the reasons for this post to be started I guess.
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said stuff…
I don't think you understand what the Sheriffs were, and have become. They were men and women who worked for an individual named Cassiel who was a one-man corporation. They had two jobs, the first of which was to advance Cassiel's power, the other was to protect the city proactively. It's a selfish reason, but ultimately a good act, keeping the city safe. The NPCs and PCs in the faction were extremely varied in their outlooks and goals, and the faction worked extremely well in every sense.
The fact is, they aren't "guards" and shouldn't be played as such, in my opinion. When I played Rabbit, who I think was possibly close to High Sheriff, he had only 1 arrest on his record, which was a major plot point (before quitting the faction). The Sheriffs got us away from the horrible militia faction who just policed players and reacted to everything rather than going out of their way to stop it.
The Purple Dragons and War Wizards were a great once the civil war was introduced, but before then I don't think so. If it wasn't for the civil war I wouldn't realize how much I like Cormyr, but that doesn't mean they were good factions before they had equal competition.
As for some other points you've made, particularly about the Mage Guild having law powers, this (technically) has nothing at all to do with DMs. The goal of the Mage Guild is to rule Arabel. They're another True Neutral faction with the same objectives as Cassiel: power and safety. The Mage Guild only received law powers after Cassiel's council was set up, if I recall correctly, and it was a tooth and nail fight for them to attain it. Not the faction, but the players. The development of all factions is player drive, and the players earned their faction law powers. So you really have nothing to agree or disagree about.
The four noble factions were leftovers from v2, where no plots existed and mostly only light RP. That they're gone is good, because they never worked until the civil war. I personally don't see the knights being the successors of Fezznick at all, despite having been a die hard Fezzer in early v3. The Knights are proactive hunters, warriors and nobles of an order who seek the betterment of the people under their governing while Houes Fezznick was a group of adventurers that wore a uniform and that's about it.
The development of factions has been extremely good over the years, and I'm glad that they have a life span now. If a faction is failing it goes away. If players push hard enough, they can create factions and even see their return (Lhal's Court, Cormyr Embassy, CoG are all factions that spawned completely due to player initiative).
Of the factions today, I would only comment that I'm kind of tired of them. It's been about 2 years that they've (except CoG) been around and I feel like there's nothing new to see of them.
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I am in favour of different factions rather than more or less, along with a new setting.
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@AWESOMEMAN:
The Purple Dragons and War Wizards were a great once the civil war was introduced, but before then I don't think so. If it wasn't for the civil war I wouldn't realize how much I like Cormyr, but that doesn't mean they were good factions before they had equal competition..
I'm going to disagree with this. During the Shadovar war the Purple Dragons and the War wizards really did shine. My character at the time had a lot of interaction with these factions and it was during this time that my eyes were really opened to the magic of role playing on this server.
In my oppinion things after that - the civil war especially - got so complicated that the casual player could never figure out what the hell was going on.
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I don't think golw was around then cause he must have not seen Combs and RwG's war wizards.
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DM Factions that have a major plot that affects the server run Hot, Straight and True. They are remembered and those times become the Glory Days. Factions that provide a place to exist for a player to develop a character have a warmth and cosyness about them that fosters individual characters but does not necessarily foster the faction itself. These kinds of factions are looked back upon by the players within them with a fondness. They are needed for some players who don't enjoy the helterskelter of the huge serverwide plots.
Its the plot that makes the faction successful, not the faction. Any faction can be exciting and delight the playerbase if the plot is interesting and involving, scary at times and full of conflict.
Harking back to those Glory-Days of what ever faction and wanting to recreate it will not really work, because the Plot that made the faction great has closed.
Help us develop that new plot, and the factions will coalesce round it.
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yeah I agree DM with the principle of create the story arc then build up the group.
Spartan