The "Flash" in the Pan, The Hot Sauce, the Short and Sweet
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Many people aim to play 'long-lived, impactful characters that leave an indelible mark on the server.' Which is the ideal, honestly- who wants to play a PC that will die in 24 hours and be unremembered and forgotten as the server moves on past its next silly villain who declared the formation of Tyrannia, Empire of Kobolds? It's an understandable and reasonable thing to want to avoid in a concept, being hunted from day one by a group of reactive bastards with no plots of their own and seem to gleefully stomp on on such aspirations made by ambitious players who dislike the slow build up and want to jump into a frying pan of conflict, intrigue, and violence in a shady world of the hot sauce driven player.
I am here to argue for it.
It isn't an ideal, it certainly isn't what people should do all the time- but it is amazingly fun and terribly necessary. People who are loud, people are aren't afraid of the fire of high level PCs ready to crush their aspirations, willing to brave the systemic reactionism of lawful characters who, by design, are there to maintain a rough status quo to prevent the rise of Narnia, ruled by Simba in Easthaven from becoming the new Arabel, or the Bear King conquering the Hullack from the werewolves and it becoming utopia of bear and honey. These pcs prevent a much needed barrier to the flash in the pan PC to overcome, and of course, fail against, or in the rare event, succeed in overcoming in creating the elven kingdom of 'death to all non-elves'.
Conflict is best appreciated over a simmering, low roast- with juices steadily dripped in the form of taunts, secret meetings, occasional PvP and ball crushing, and finally dined over as the hero, or villain, gloats over their final conflict atop the mountain peak as they wrestle like men, armor torn asunder and bleeding from a dozen wounds, and die in each others arms like brothers after an epoch spanning over months. Meetings, brotherly laughter, betrayals, and despair- these make an excellent story, and is the ideal we all pursue, but sometimes-
That necromancer is asking to die. That werebear whose roaring about killing every city dweller needs to be turned into a rug, that orcus cultist will look better on a pike. These are the fried food pcs, PCs that are quickly cooked, their flavors combining with everything on the server in a swift conflagration of fire and smoke, they quickly become #1 enemy, because they are not only alone, but low level, and everyone feels like they can possibly take them or appreciate a good fight with them as they struggle to escape, or somehow win after using everything they have. And everyone loves their fried food, despite it being quickly, and cheaply made.
So, when considering your next pc- consider a fried food pc, add hot sauce, make it short and sweet, and jump into the pan and become a fire. Make demands of others, claim a territory, hunt down those blacksmiths on your level 4 ranger pillaging the wilds with their wanton mining and unnecessary forging. Be the Game Hunting PC who will without regard for law and order, pursue the heads of powerful mages to offer up to their aberrant Illithid Gods in the Underdark. Be the Gargosian madman who declares war on arabel, seeking to unite the Old Town gangs in a final climatic battle to decide the future of Arabel, as a freeman's city, where monsters run the streets, whores show their assets, and every noble head is piked upon a stake. Be the Druid who sees the use of mythalite as insanely unnatural, a new lyss, and open a plane into the feywild to swallow the city to be destroyed by the eladrin you allied with- and on't be afraid to let everyone know your intentions either in the hope of garnering allies and support.
Your PC is going to be hunted.
It's going to be killed,
but everyone is going to have a blast, and no weight will be gained either!
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Each to there own, but I like pcs with a history behind there actions, I like to know with Billy MacBanite fights Trevor Tormytrue in a epic fight under the city, that both players have been in conflict for ages, that each has got reasons to hate each other guts, that go beyond there gods hate of each other.
And I really like it when the story get twisted, and pushed down a course that neither player saw coming. I especially love to see a characters evolve and develop past there original incarnation, due to player actions and plot effects. I've played a few flash in the pan characters, and they can be fun, especially when the server at war or something, but those longer stories can get really quiet awesome in my experience.
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If I make a character to cause conflict they are dead within a week.
I love seeing a long going character that has seen many strange twists in their story.
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I like my stories short, gritty and bitter-sweet with a side of personal horror and (personal) conflict - But sometimes it seems to me that the good/lawful/well-established PCs hammer the new/evil/chaotic PC's way too soon. It could be just my point of view, but in general, Good seems a lot more "evil" than actual Evil does.
Maybe next time you do find that necromancer in the sewers, raising undead and causing a ruckus, you beat him down as you always do - But maybe mistake him dead without actually needing to decapitate him and burn his corpse? I mean, "He doesn't deserve a proper funeral - let's let the rats eat his corpse. Seems dead anyway." would allow story to develop further, and characters who are fanatical about pyre-burnings shouldn't be as numerous as they seem to be. As in, you don't drag every single sline to be burned in the pyre, either? Nor emote slashing each and everyone's throat?
Maybe next time you do find that evil were-creature, instead of stomping him down because "We're stronger and we've got the numbers and he needs to be put down" you'd drag him over to the Agents for the Pit? Or better yet, exaggerate his threat - "He's a fricking weredragonthingie, he could likely rip us apart one-handed and blindfolded!" and decide to take more caution that mere lynchmobbing every lycan.There's nothing wrong with long-lived characters, really, but what I've seen, most long-lived evil pc's seems to… Not really do anything? The world seems to be stuck on a setting where either "You don't have any evidence against me because I'm really just plotting instead of doing stuff!" or "Ha! Saw you threaten that random dude, let's burn you in a pyre!" are the only modes of operation.
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Fully approve of spiffy's post when such characters are done well they are awesome and create tons of fun.
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I takes all kinds. I like those flash in the pan characters just as much as the ones that do a slow simmer. The variety is what makes CoA such an appetizing dish.
SenseiiwanttohavefunwithcookinhmetaphorstooTravis
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This would otherwise be cool and fine, but where's even the snack-food fun of beating down an eb0l PC when he's lvl 1 and you are 10 person lvl8+ lynchmob with several mages and clerics and fighters and the kitchen sink?
In short, this sounds like we should play the NPC's on someone else's story so they can be awesome heroes. If someone wants to do this as a public service to others, why not, but it seems more like something a DM should be doing. A Player Character is a PC because he's played persistantly, not because he's a walking sack-o-loot for the first goody-two-shoes gankteam that catches him in an act of public villainy. (Not to mention that most 'evil' actions that could get someone hunted down are also frowned on by DM's, such as summoning undead in the sewers and leaving them there.)
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Yes…the true evil is the good PCs that loves their fire and beheading.
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Summoning undead in the sewers and leaving them there is in no way frowned upon by the DM team, in fact, I like to encourage it.
What is frowned upon is leaving creatures on transitions so people dont have a chance to react before being eaten by your zombie hoard.
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I'm going to app for a sewer bound zombie hoard summoner. He shall be called Fecalore and shall smell of the poo poo.
Seriously though… As long as the entertainment flows, who cares how other people play? You guys and your antics have kept me logging in for years. Keep on keeping on man.
SenseibettershuthisassupbeforehegetsbannedTravis
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Summoning undead in the sewers and leaving them there is in no way frowned upon by the DM team, in fact, I like to encourage it.
What is frowned upon is leaving creatures on transitions so people dont have a chance to react before being eaten by your zombie hoard.
Woo, this used to be quite heavily frowned on some time ago. All right, on with my summoner then! :D
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Summoning undead in the sewers and leaving them there is in no way frowned upon by the DM team, in fact, I like to encourage it.
What is frowned upon is leaving creatures on transitions so people dont have a chance to react before being eaten by your zombie hoard.
Woo, this used to be quite heavily frowned on some time ago. All right, on with my summoner then! :D
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Summoning undead in the sewers and leaving them there is in no way frowned upon by the DM team, in fact, I like to encourage it.
What is frowned upon is leaving creatures on transitions so people dont have a chance to react before being eaten by your zombie hoard.
Woo, this used to be quite heavily frowned on some time ago. All right, on with my summoner then! :D
Only if it was killing new players without any purpose or thought.
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Love evil characters. Griefing is bad, doing awesome risky evil stuff is fantastic. If you're unsure whether something you want to do is acceptable, it's always okay to ask.
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This thread makes me hungry!
Also, to each their own! Everyone plays what they like and things seem to work out pretty fine imo
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yeah, I put in specail dot commands to make leaving undead around more effective, allowing you to leave items in their inventory such as notes, gems, even weapons and armour if you wished. You could probably use them as anonymous delivery of illegal items in combination with anonymous senders, or other notes for instance, or just leave terrible prophecies or sickening books behind with them.
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Is there a post somewhere explaining the new animate dead commands? Couldn't find them on the wiki.
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.staydead leaves any animations where they are as hostile.
make sure you run when you do it!
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Could the .staydead command be midified so that it sets the undead to "attack nearest" AND sets them hostile after that? This way you could tell them to "STAY", go a safe distance away, and then release them?
Normally, if you tell undead to STAY and then remove them from party to make them hostile, they keep their "STAY" stance and do not attack unless provoked.
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Going off-topic. Stick to the main point.
I get the whole slow simmer thing, but both flash and simmer are necessary at times. Everyone expecting the other guy to do the flash ends up with no one doing the flash. Everyone wants to be the long running PC with a big name, which is understandable and natural. It also happens very rarely.
Ends up in three ways
Long + remembered
short + remembered
Long + boring, stale, yawn inducing
short + forgotten quicklyOf the above, the third is the one that gets really intolerable. Also where a lot of PCs end up. The fourth isn't really bad, since it's over quickly. Every story needs a pace, and pacing is really important to keeping interest. There's a reason that 10,000 page books with 2,000 pages of cleaning descriptions aren't ever going to get read by anyone. It's quite easily identifiable; Just ask yourself, "Am I doing something that people would actually want to read about in a book?"
Don't be afraid to mix it up. Try different types of characters, this will push you as a roleplayer. Get stuck in a rut, and you'll get bored pretty quick, because predictability will sink its hooks in you.
The above is of course, assuming you're trying to get a PC memorable. If not, then whatever you want to play is cool. Protagonists need their own story to be in, ambient characters do not. I've done both, and they're both fun in their own way. Just try one or the other if you haven't already, the change is actually quite rewarding.