The Awesome of the DM Faction: A New / Old Player's Thoughts
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I played Arabel over three years ago fairly frequently. For those around back then, when the Three Bars was the home of team evil and people like Anen, Nelson, Pree, and Raven were causing all sorts of fun. I tried out the sever again a few times over the years but could never get myself fully engaged. This time, it has really reached out and grabed me due my involvement with a DM faction. I would encourage all other new players / people having a hard time diving into the server to give the DM factions a look. The best part is that you do not need an Application to become an Applicant / Novice / Auxiliary / Squire etc. Just earn the position IG. This lets you dive right into the awesome from the start and become involved. Then, once you have been around for a bit and earned a promotion you can worry about the DM application. Trust me, there is a massive amount of plot goodness with these factions (and that is based off the little bit I have seen).
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I disagree. My first character was a DM faction one… I think DM factions come with too much expectations from people and responsibilities for a new player.
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I remember the Three bars and Pree in particular very well. A great character and extremely well played.
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I enjoyed DM factions despite being a noob. I learned a lot and despite lots of challenges and hardships it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had here.
I know other people have gone quickly into DM factions with their first (serious) character and succeeded. If you have a character you don't like it doesn't help what you do, but if you have a enjoyable character both for yourself and others, then there's nothing better than hanging around in a DM faction to learn how to work with plots and cooperate. -
The only real expectation when playing in a DM faction is to use the perks given to involve other players in the fun. And have fun yourself.
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I disagree. My first character was a DM faction one… I think DM factions come with too much expectations from people and responsibilities for a new player.
You could try acting as a fringe character for a faction, this may well still get you hooked into things and noticed by the DMs without all the expectations.
I've never been part of a faction or guild I must confess. My time is so limited that it wouldn't be right to get overly involved, hopefully in the future when I have more time to devote to plots and things I'd certainly consider it.
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From the DMs and perhaps the players, yes.
From other characters though? Hah! Yeah right!
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Fringe characters or 'auxiliary' members are the bane of progressive play on CoA, there is a reason they are largely unsupported and should be, for the most part, ignored. This is of course excluding things such as Novice or Squire or whatever the DMs have put in themselves, these are temporary positions anyway. If people crumble from the percieved 'expections and responsibilities' of being in a DM faction than I shudder to think how they hold up in real life, there is really nothing to it.
I mean, you don't always become that great and powerful sage with tons of loot and plots and shit you people seem to think you need to be to be "successful" in this videogame but rather have atleast had a go at it and be consistant in embracing the new and rolling with the punches.
I always bring up Verkosh as my living example. He started CoA without the benefit of being able to string two sentences together. Now, hes got a good bunch of DM faction PCs under his belt and is probably the most improved player simply for rolling with what comes his way and making it somehow revolve around his current version of alister.
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@Broken:
Fringe characters or 'auxiliary' members are the bane of progressive play on CoA, there is a reason they are largely unsupported and should be, for the most part, ignored.
The most elitist comment I've ever read on this server.
And who exactly are these "you people" you speak of?
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And who exactly are these "you people" you speak of?
The ones who create topics about how hard it is to get anywhere, how difficult the server can be to change, how they cannot find people to join their adventures and plots and the sort or how frustrating it is that they cannot seem to gather the necessary backing from DMs to complete goals they feel will generate adventure and excitement to the server.
I have played fringe characters, I have played characters who run fringe or auxilary groups based around an existing DM faction which were built solely on the backs of other players without any DM support. When the Green Dragons were forcefully disbanded by the DMs during the events leading up the civil war, I had disheartned players who eventually quit their characters, now with no goal or set initiative.
Do not misunderstand me and think I am simply saying join a DM faction or be ignored, I know there are players there who thrive in whatever is left of CoA and its social environment and the DMs cater to this, but to be perfectly fair, the server only changes and progresses into new and exciting levels when the players who step forward and take time into communicating, planing and excecuting their next moves with DMs fully aware and able to help in anyway they can. This is why DMs will seem biased; You must be a flame on this server, if you wish to change or develop things and that is a fact.
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@Broken:
Fringe characters or 'auxiliary' members are the bane of progressive play on CoA, there is a reason they are largely unsupported and should be, for the most part, ignored.
The most elitist comment I've ever read on this server.
And who exactly are these "you people" you speak of?
Not really. They're stupid and pointless. "Hey guys, we're members of the Red Hart Fan Club. We have all the same principles as the Red Hart, work toward the same goals, and the Red Hart PC members include us and give us a little bit of attention.. or something. But we have no Red Hart status, acknowledgement from the NPCs, loot, faction headquarters, political sway etc."
The branch of factions are pointless almost universally.
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I disagree there, Glow. Fringe characters arn't a bad thing. It's a way to pursue joining a faction IG, and that's always a more organic evolution of things than just seeing new faction characters pop up out of the blue.
BG is correct, though. You need to be a flame to change something on the server, but consider that statement: how would you define a character who is "a flame"? Surely it's someone with revolutionary ideas, someone with plans, someone who wants to change the server.
DM factions do tend to follow a different dynamic I find, but largely this just means that they're always involved in political happenings in the server. It is quite nonsensical to make a faction with no greater ambition than to support a DM faction, but so long as you don't do that, you've not shot yourself in the foot at all and PC factions are as fun now as they were before.
If you want to change something, if you start even being vocal about wanting to change something, things will start to change. Players will talk about how you beat up a legionairre in the Guildhall, how the Sheriffs "forgot" to arrest you, and DMs will take note of who reacted how, and you'll get an "equal and opposite reaction" somewhere, whether through PCs contacting you to join their rebellion or a growing eagerness in the city to toss tomatos at Legionairres because the Sheriffs won't do anything.
My point being, wanting to change something on the server is the first step to playing "a flame" of a character. After that point, whether you're in a DM faction or not, most of the hurdles are much the same. If anything I would say DM factions are less likely to undertake drastic, flame-tastic action that would gain you momentum than PC factions, and that right there is what PC factions have that DM factions don't.
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There are already ways to pursue a faction IG than to make an auxiliary or fringe faction branch. They are useless unless enforced directly by the DMs. Such as the MG Novices or RH Squires. I do not have an opinion on them.
Everything else Lizard said I agree with, give or take a few choice words. He just says things nicer than I do.
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So someone who admired the Hart's but lacks the requirements, both in game and out, to join should go find something else to do since they are then a 'fringe' character?
Fringe factions are very common, yes, but so are they in real life.
You have the National football team, the state one, the city grade and so on.
Just as we have Knights, Squires and the hopefuls that group together to try and impress.So they don't have DM support, or more than 5 people. Maybe they don't really get much done in term of the big picture. Maybe they don't even have a sub-forum of their own.
But when all hell breaks loose and people begin to pick sides, wouldn't it be nice to have a few people who actually like your group and will side with it no matter the odds, rather than pick whoever is going to win?I think I addressed a point in there somewhere, but by all means, look down on those on the edges of your factions.
Just remember that they do outnumber you.
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@Alonsis2:
So someone who admired the Hart's but lacks the requirements, both in game and out, to join should go find something else to do since they are then a 'fringe' character?
Fringe factions are very common, yes, but so are they in real life.
You have the National football team, the state one, the city grade and so on.
Just as we have Knights, Squires and the hopefuls that group together to try and impress.So they don't have DM support, or more than 5 people. Maybe they don't really get much done in term of the big picture. Maybe they don't even have a sub-forum of their own.
But when all hell breaks loose and people begin to pick sides, wouldn't it be nice to have a few people who actually like your group and will side with it no matter the odds, rather than pick whoever is going to win?I think I addressed a point in there somewhere, but by all means, look down on those on the edges of your factions.
Just remember that they do outnumber you.
That. And add in the fact that some people do not have the time to put in the OOC time needed for some DM factions. Such as someone who would like to be a "lawman" but can either do forum paperwork or play, not both.
Also, that some characters might support -some- aspects of a faction but not all of them. Some characters might have some VERY excellent IC reasons to not attempt to "officially" join a faction but rather be a "auxiliary" member - or try to start a whole "auxiliary" corps.
Some might even send in a "app" explaining why such is going on because it looks like the player has gone insane otherwise. -
@Alonsis2:
So someone who admired the Hart's but lacks the requirements, both in game and out, to join should go find something else to do since they are then a 'fringe' character?
Requirements can be bended and shaped. A character, instead of loitering in a branch faction, can adventure out and prove themselves to the Harts through their deeds as either Squires or, if they are unable to do that, as allies. Not a branch-out fringe.
Fringe factions are very common, yes, but so are they in real life.
You have the National football team, the state one, the city grade and so on.
Just as we have Knights, Squires and the hopefuls that group together to try and impress.This is not real life. This is not a National Football Team. Your point is moot on the basis that you are comparing two vastly different things in totally different contexts.
So they don't have DM support, or more than 5 people. Maybe they don't really get much done in term of the big picture. Maybe they don't even have a sub-forum of their own.
But when all hell breaks loose and people begin to pick sides, wouldn't it be nice to have a few people who actually like your group and will side with it no matter the odds, rather than pick whoever is going to win?I think I addressed a point in there somewhere, but by all means, look down on those on the edges of your factions.
Just remember that they do outnumber you.
You are missing the point. I am not talking about allies, I am talking about fringe characters within fringe or branched factions. Allies are a different matter and are perfectly valid. Understand that before you attempt your petty sarcasm.
That. And add in the fact that some people do not have the time to put in the OOC time needed for some DM factions. Such as someone who would like to be a "lawman" but can either do forum paperwork or play, not both.
Also, that some characters might support -some- aspects of a faction but not all of them. Some characters might have some VERY excellent IC reasons to not attempt to "officially" join a faction but rather be a "auxiliary" member - or try to start a whole "auxiliary" corps.
Some might even send in a "app" explaining why such is going on because it looks like the player has gone insane otherwise.Auxiliary factions do not work. They never did, and that is why the DMs cut them out pre-civil war. They had no other use than to do the exact same thing the actual faction did except without any DM support or backing. Attempting to start a splinter or particular field of practice within an existing faction, however, is a different story.
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But then we're back to square one, which is:
Fringe factions no longer exist.
Pre-app status exists in most DM factions now.
Independent but allied factions exist.
Fringe characters are a personal decision for people who don't have time/energy to play high-powered server-changing characters.
You need to be a high-powered server-changing character to change the server.I don't see what the problem is. It's a personal decision, and one made out of not wanting to join a faction for whatever reason but still wanting to be involved with them. If someone plays a fringe character and then complains that no one takes them seriously, it's easy to explain to them why - but even then, close confidants of faction characters are likely to be taken seriously, even if they don't have the final say themselves.
It's a play-style decision, and not one anyone is forced into - or even encouraged to take. Likewise though, there shouldn't be an expectation that if you're involved in a faction then you're wasting your time until you start trying to join it. For instance, my ultra-cormyrian paladin of a time bled purple, but always put off joining the Cormyrian embassy because he didn't want to endanger his code or feel obliged to act by anyone else's command that might contradict it. He was a fringe character, but still fun, and not someone I'm frustrated about at all - so all in all, a good time.
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Exactly, lizard-man.
And sometimes, there might be something new, such as a faction expanding into new areas of influence where an experimental fringe element is exactly whats desired.Example:
Lord Mugwort tells his retainer: "Look into raiding orc strongholds, but do it in a way that we get credit for it, but if we get into trouble with the army bitching, we can say it really wasnt us, just some mercenaries who misunderstood. If it works, we can expand this, and make it better, but if it doesn't we cut our losses" -
Your example is DM backed and not what I am disagreeing with.
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@Broken:
Your example is DM backed and not what I am disagreeing with.
But doesn't that end up with a non-app fringe element recruited by a retainer? Basiclly, an auxiliary ?
I'm confused, isnt that what you are arguing against ?