What discourages you from playing/making a main PC in UD?

[Sun Wukong]

The very setting itself is too wrapped up in fetish for me to take seriously. As stated, it's just contrived and forced.

How is Sshamath wrapped up in fetish? I don't get it.

It is the Lolth side of drow culture, based on Drizzt Do'Urden novels, which were based on a Drow city absolutely dominated by Lolth. Something that Sshamath is not.

Now, I just pulled this from the Forgotten Realms Wiki:

Sorcerers, bards, and divine spellcasters are treated as secondary citizens because magic that is earned through work is much more respected than magic that comes naturally or from deference to another.

It really makes it sound like that Sshamath is a wizard supremacist system with a focus on meritocracy rather than the more usual system of theocratic matriarchy where your place is determined only by whose boots you manage to inhabit.

[The Oblivious One]

I tried a few years ago and here are my observations:

1) RP'ers are good there, and it is intimidating. I don't know the lingo like Vendui and whatever else so that discourages me from playing drow because I feel like an ass saying "Hail, well met, or hello." And every drow there uses that lingo and I have to google what was just said.
2) I played a deep imaskari and invited IRL friend to play because
3) It was dark, depressing, and lonely, and you think everyone you do come across is going to yell at you ICly and/or threaten to kill you. Either you act all nice, and get your ass beat, or act all high and mighty and get your ass beat or keep your head down, avoid eye contact and grind solo.
4) Contrary to number 3, actually my deep imaskari and duergar buddy were "welcomed" by a drow couple who sort of showed us the areas, and helped us get some xp/loot. OOCly quite nice without having to break character for them.
5) The truth is the players are very helpful and will somehow come up with a IC way to help you out a lot, even if they are murderous backstabbing scum.

[chad878262]

Echoing Kleomenes, that is really awful Xorena and I'm glad it didn't put you off from the server completely. My few encounters with your Priestess of Umberlee were quite enjoyable with my Thayan Knight and it'd be a loss to the server to lose someone who RPs with your respect for the setting. Also, he's right that it's unfortunate such things don't get reported as they are far more prevalent then they should be. I'll never understand if that is what someone is looking for why they don't play on Haven where it is perfectly acceptable. Here it is against the rule and, taking things to the extreme it is possible that someone is propositioning a minor which I would hope is enough for folks to reconsider before trying for that type of RP on this server. I imagine if this happened to Aarons nephew he'd likely go full Orc on them!

[thids]

Aside from the ECL +2, and the stat attributes that doesn't fit in your build as well as the recent game mechanic changes. I would like to hear your opinions.

Because I roll my eyes every time i run into a lolthite using drommon, screaming "lolth tlu malla! Xas! Chaos!"
I'll take surface bake sales over that.

I like it how you managed to present mechanically the best race we have by far in a somewhat negative light though. Good effort. You did forget that there are other races down there as well.

Hey thanks for the opinion. Just not sure what you meant by the 2nd paragraph. This thread is meant for all UD races, Half-drows, Rock Gnomes, Grey Orcs, etc.

EDIT: If you meant my saying ECL +2, well most surface people assume you are drow in UD. It was well-targeted to those people. But, it is an open discussion nevertheless.

It just came off to me as if you were subtly trying to present the drow race as a mechanical disadvantage. Drow are by far mechanically the best race we have available, and majority of builds are either made better or as good as by picking drow. And if a person happens to want to play one of those builds that don't benefit from drow, there are other options in the ud.
I suppose I was trying too hard to be snarky about it, apologies.

[Quiltezt]

1. Very first char i've created on this server was a half-drow. First RP I've stumbled into was a..."Xas, yabress" or something like this scene. I logged off and created my human. I ***************** hate drommon, i see no point of this xas, ustan..etc and frankly i have no interest googling or asking in tell, what are they trying to say all the time. Even on surface I keep stumbling into a warrior guy who keeps using elf in common, he even uses italics to hightlight them sometimes and my character keep asking him...uhuh..so that means elf? why dont you just say elf then?

2. Little twisted hearted spider loving bdsm chars are not my thing. Mages running around with an army of undead are also not quite my thing. And that makes me so picky I would have very little RP there due to the low player base.

3. It has no active player base. Its rare to see more than 2 UD characters online at the same time, the only 'active' player I know does nothing, but log in every hour to loot his gold then log off right away 'cos nothing to do.

Otherwise...sr and fancy stuffs for my frenzied berserker? We are living the dream baby. I would make a heteric drow anytime.

[aaron22]

I imagine if this happened to Aarons nephew he'd likely go full Orc on them!

he is only allowed to log in when i am logged in.. we generally do log in from the same room. so id know. hes not allowed to be on the forums. mainly because people like me are on there.

yea.. so the orc that hangs out with me is 13... he is terrible at this game. almost as bad as me. his screen looks like if you took all your windows.. doubled the size and stacked them in the middle. any terrible build you can create will be no match for the handicap this boy puts on his HUD. and he walks with the WASD... but he has fun killing dragons..

[chad878262]

point being there is no age requirement on this game and, while old it is possible that some middle/high schoolers play. While it's good you protect him from us bad influences, some parents might think of a live server as no worse then playing D&D with friends around a table or online FPS type games. So anyone out there that is trying to engage (or even guilt/bully/whatever) others in ERP should keep that in mind. The PG13 rating is there for a reason and it should be strictly adhered to.

That said, good on you for including him while keeping him away from us dregs!

[The Whistler]

Sshamath's neutrality and carebear atmosphere put me off. On one hand, you have gestapo omniscient sekrit police that will clobber you for starting shit and near-mythal nonsense that zaps you for thought crimes. I like gritty atmosphere and the surface honestly offers more of that, funny as it might sound.

A lolthite dominated area would likely cause me to reconsider my main character choice briefly before I am inevitably put off by feminazi clerics who have more in common with Bane than Lolth. Drow are oversexualized and it's part of their appeal for me; I find erp to be a waste of time, but I immensely enjoy roleplaying the power struggles that arise within these exploitative 'relationships' drow usually end up in.

As for the rest of the UD races, svirfneblin shouldn't even be PCs IMO as culturally they are antithetical to the adventuring creed. They shirk trouble and risks as much as possible. Duergar are cool but can not function without a city of their own because of their clannish natures. Deep Imaskar should look like feudal Japan during our timeline, having no contact with the outside world. And lastly, I view tanarukk mainly as a slave race for the drow; not really my cuppa.

[Snarfy]

Numerous things discourage me from playing my UD characters(Imaskari 20th level Bard/DC/GFK, 4th Svirf cleric)... in this particular order:

1. I am ignorant when it comes to the lore surrounding UD races, as well as much of the drow lingo(hence the reason I made an Imaskari, and not a drow).
2. I haven't played in the UD enough to learn the geography, and I frequently get lost like a mo-fo.
3. My Imaskari falls on his ass, a lot, thanks to not having darkvision.
4. Not enough quests(which is what I prefer to do when running solo... which brings us to my next issue...)
5. Low player population.
6. Leveling progression, either via quests, grinding, or RP'ing, is utterly abysmal(also hence the reason I made an Imaskari, etc etc). So much so that I would rather bludgeon myself with a frozen fish than start a drow from level 1.
7. The vast majority of UD RP I've experienced in the past doesn't float my boat(as in: ranging from aggressive, to stupid evil, to outright domineering, especially if drow females are involved).
8. Surface interactions with drow/UD races in recent years have fallen victim to modern day liberal mindsets(see 'carebear' comment in Whistlers post above), and, subsequently, have put me off wanting to interact with, or play, UD races altogether(especially drow).

Yup, that's about it.

On the plus side, I love the look of the UD. Unfortunately, I simply do not have the patience to learn the lore, or the energy to invest myself in the RP down there(then again, a lack of feeling invested is something I've been suffering from topside as well, moot point I suppose).

[chad878262]

3. My Imaskari falls on his (hiney), a lot, thanks to not having darkvision.

Pretty sure this has been addressed... So now you only have 7 issues to contend with!

[Snarfy]

3. My Imaskari falls on his (hiney), a lot, thanks to not having darkvision.

Pretty sure this has been addressed... So now you only have 7 issues to contend with!

.... just goes to show how often I play that toon. 1 rothe sized hurdle down, 7 to go... lol

[adobongmanok]

I imagine if this happened to Aarons nephew he'd likely go full Orc on them!

he is only allowed to log in when i am logged in.. we generally do log in from the same room. so id know. hes not allowed to be on the forums. mainly because people like me are on there.

yea.. so the orc that hangs out with me is 13... he is terrible at this game. almost as bad as me. his screen looks like if you took all your windows.. doubled the size and stacked them in the middle. any terrible build you can create will be no match for the handicap this boy puts on his HUD. and he walks with the WASD... but he has fun killing dragons..

I'll keep that in mind...if I see you two again.

[Fury_US]

The very setting itself is too wrapped up in fetish for me to take seriously. As stated, it's just contrived and forced.

How is Sshamath wrapped up in fetish? I don't get it.

I mean the Underdark as a setting, focused primarily on Drow Society since they would essentially constitute the "apex predator" role. Sshamath may be a very different location, but Drow are still Drow- and the overall literature surrounding them and their setting is just, well. Ed Greenwood must really like getting spanked, is all I can figure (within limits, of course). I have encountered some very quality RP from a select few, and I actually commend the Bregan players for maintaining what I believe is the true spirit of that organization's lore (they're a bit of an anomaly, in their bridging of the two realms)- but as a whole, I just find the setting not at all to my liking, and find that most Drow RP (keep in mind these are my experiences across multiple servers, by the time I landed here I just wasn't interested in pursuing that avenue of RP) ends up falling into three categories- Fetishist, PVP, or "poor maligned and misunderstood".

When that gets tacked onto the the downright aggressive policing of lore that seems to honestly taint any RP associated with with the more pointy eared denizens of the Forgotten Realms (Honestly? I love elves. Won't play a full one, however, because I want to actually enjoy my gaming experience instead of constantly worrying if I'm being "Lore Correct"), it all means that even if I might have had an interest at some point or another, it got killed a long time ago. It's just not even appealing to me. For those who enjoy it, and especially those who go above and beyond to realize characters that are beyond the typical tropes (you happy, happy few, you), then more power to you. There's just enough about the overall lore of the setting that's always been largely a turn-off to me, not to mention my past experiences actually trying it.

[Sun Wukong]

On the plus side, I love the look of the UD.

We agree on something. Oh and after a server reset, I could finally perform a daring escape from Rockrun and enter Gloura's Wing and use my ancient memory to find some beetle pincers... I used to run so much in those old grey tunnels of old... I did have another peak few years back... but how it looks now is just summed up with this:

I just hope that map markers and area minimaps remain constant past the low CR areas.

[Sun Wukong]

2. I haven't played in the UD enough to learn the geography, and I frequently get lost like a mo-fo.

Perhaps there could be some trinket that teleports your character to a specific spot in Varalla's Passage. It could come with a price tag that is higher than scrolls, and perhaps slightly longer cast time.