Rebuilding the RP in the Underdark - How are we doing it?

[Ansient]

Actually, if you get blasted by a fireball without any RP leading up to it, you may as well report them to the staff. That's not the kind of behavior the UD needs, it will just drive away potential new players.

You can do that to. I personally don't bother the staff unless something is a repeat offense, but you're certainly within your rights.

What I don't get is how posting about it here is productive...

[Vallyn]

I have seen about seven new Noqu'afin running around these past couple days, which would seem to disprove your notion that there's something particular to Mori'hyanda going on. It would seem more particular to people finding enjoyment in playing Lolthites. Imagine that!

Actually they're all here temporarily until their server comes back, according to one of them. As for the 1 or 2 epics in that faction, I'm not sure if they're back for good or just temporary as well. But the new ones, they're apparently temporary, just roleplaying while they wait for the server they originated from to resume operating.

[Ansient]

I don't know which ones all came from that server. A few I spoke to didn't seem to have. But it's still proof that you can get players together and start something when there's interest.

And I hope a good number of them end up staying.

[Molag__Bal]

I have seen about seven new Noqu'afin running around these past couple days, which would seem to disprove your notion that there's something particular to Mori'hyanda going on. It would seem more particular to people finding enjoyment in playing Lolthites. Imagine that!

You're probably right. Two things the Charnag has going against it are that female Drow are not allowed, and neither are divine casters. I forget the other restrictions, and for some reason I can no longer find the Charnag Maelthra guild thread under the Guilds and Factions section...

[CrispyWalrus]

You are correct that it's wrong for people to try and forcibly enslave you next to the guards in Varalla's passage.

And you should tell them as much. Tell them OOC if they've killed you. And then go about your business. They're not allowed to keep bothering you if they've just killed you. Hopefully they won't make the same mistake twice.

Simple mistakes like this shouldn't ruin your experience, just have your character forget the scene (death amnesia) and move on.

Nice of you to say this was wrong, and for the record I did explain why I thought so (they metagamed the NPC guards, and lacked a RP lead in to PvP) to one of them via tells after the fact (never got raised though). And yes, there was no griefing; I never encountered them again after that (though I logged shortly after this happened). Simple mistakes though, if encountered often enough, do tend to sour one's experience. Were this only so uncommon...

Might I suggest that you try playing another UD race other than Drow to experience such for yourself? Unfortunately this was hardly a unique occurrence in my UD experiences.

What I don't get is how posting about it here is productive...

Simply a post to illustrate the futility of trying to play and entice others to play UD races other than Drow when their is such Drow RP than a post expecting to produce anything. About as productive as any IC response I reckon, though maybe not-- I would still like to hear your suggestion for an IC response to such a situation...

I have seen about seven new Noqu'afin running around these past couple days, which would seem to disprove your notion that there's something particular to Mori'hyanda going on. It would seem more particular to people finding enjoyment in playing Lolthites. Imagine that!

Actually they're all here temporarily until their server comes back, according to one of them. As for the 1 or 2 epics in that faction, I'm not sure if they're back for good or just temporary as well. But the new ones, they're apparently temporary, just roleplaying while they wait for the server they originated from to resume operating.

(I was told by a player from Elements of Aesysr that used to play here that their server is changing ownership and is down for the moment) I believe that many are old BG:TSCC players that jumped ship to EoA when it started. Noqu'afin was the Quellar in the UD for the longest time until Mori'hyanda started last fall. The few epics are old player characters dusted off from long-term storage I would think.

[DM Sword]

*tries to spread warm fuzzies to everyone in an effort to lighten the mood.*

<('.'<) (>'.')>

[Ansient]

Playing a non-drow race in a drow city...well, I wouldn't find it much fun. Partly because I like drow way more, and partly because the other UD races just aren't interesting to me.

But if I was going to play one, they would be reluctantly submissive and terrified of offending the drow around them. I don't see much other choice.

[Amal'launim]

Just to clarify one thing, non-drow are not second rate citizens. They're below second rate citizens; they're noncitizens.

Subject: Lore: Everything needed to know about Sshamath

Noncitizens
[snipe]...Actual citizenship is never granted to nondrow, though permanent residency is allowed so long as business is conducted as mentioned above. This second-class 'ghetto' of humans and Deep Imaskari is never allowed to grow large, but the city recognizes the value of these noncitizens as scapegoats or sacrificial lambs.

Yes, they're tolerated. No, they do not live in a paradise where they can walk up and offend a drow or act as if they're equal to them. They're not. Not even in Sshamath. My best advice for someone playing a non-drow, act submissive and make sure those around you understand your worth. Either through trade, connections, or skills.

You won't ever amount to the same respect as a drow within their society, but if you're useful they might not consider you garbage... for a time.

I've yet to see anyone who have RP'd this, every non-drow I've met has demanded the same respect as my character would give a high ranking drow, or has ignored the ranking system within Sshamath.

This is the lore of the place and actually played out quite well =)

Edit: As for Zabel, I don't think there's any hostility here, just people discussing and arguing their point =) at least that's how I'm feeling about it.

Edit2: Just remembered, I have indeed seen one non-drow showing the proper respect. Though he's a purchased slave of the House... but still, Hunar is doing a darn fine job at playing a character who keeps the head low enough to not gather unwarrented attention.

[Eviloth]

Where's my gold Hunar? You better make me look rich infront of Ilharess Amal!

[raetin]

In regards to insulting Lolth:

Everyone may already know this, but it bears repeating.

If you insult Lolth in front of a priestess outside of Sshamath, you are on your own. They should give you a chance to run to satisfy the PvP rules, but such an action is clearly "asking for it."

If you insult Lolth in front of a priestess inside of Sshamath, the priestess has no business attacking you. Though you are asking to be stalked and killed outside of Sshamath.

Lolth is powerful, yes, but keep in mind that the wizards of the conclave (or their predecessors, I forget the timeline here) killed a great many priestesses to get where they are. One more house is not a big deal.

In the name of fun and ooc fairness, I don't think the DM's would literally crush Mori or any other house. However, priestesses should understand that they live by the grace of the conclave and overt actions against them (like killing citizens, _especially_ wizards, in Sshamath) will have some pretty severe consequences.

Since the UD is in a transition state and it is going to be a little on the tough side to get a lot of DM involvement in these matters, it would be best if the priestesses erred on the side of law-abiding within the city limits for now.

If you want to make some overtures to changing Sshamath in a meaningful way (like, overthrowing or putting leverage against the conclave), I personally think that would be awesome. However, it is something that you should get a DM behind first.

If a priestess starts getting into PvP mode with your character within the city limits, you are better off avoiding the fight. There is no reasonable way to RP such a thing without a DM around. Just walk away. If they kill you anyway, grab a screenie and talk do a DM & let them decide if it should be OOC/ignored or if someone will pick up the task of dishing out some consequences.

[Garka]

The UD is a hard place to level

Dispite hating the UD portal I've took to RPing and playing my half drow Warlock, I've got to level 2k from level 10 in about 2 and a half days.

=P No Elc Races have a easy time in the UD.

As for the noqu'afin. I hope they stay their fun to RP with, Plus... if they go then the UD loses about 7-10 players and is a screwed for restarting and getting our Portal back.

like I said I play a Half Drow, 8 wisdom 14 int, high cha. She likes everyone and thing, and generaly attempts to be friendly. Ignorance and charisma.

Course she is a slave to one of the Mori players but she answers to none but that player, Basicly am loving the UD!

[mar3usmc]

I solo leveled my drow wizard Amon. Its pretty easy, but I admit, expensive at the start as you will be very scroll dependent.

[Ansient]

Once you get ghostly visage it's not so tough... but many people don't seem to appreciate the power of this spell at lower levels, and do silly stuff like mirror image and false life instead.

[nlyh]

God, Garka. Those figures are like a knife through my spine or something.

I've played a monk and wizard drow in the UD and the thing is, its not as hard as people are making out imo. I've done pretty well for myself considering I basically just started here, but the best thing is to try and find people to hang about with. If you see someone you can always send a tell or something and ask outside of RP just to make sure something is possible.

You don't have to just like/tolerate someone, you can even hate them (IC here I mean ) and find yourself in the position where it would be "mutually beneficial" to not get killed together. There are obviously RP guidelines here, but I don't think you have to play those out exactly vanilla, you can always add a bit of colour yourself as long as it fits in well to the setting etc.

And the players of Noqu'afin I've come across are pretty cool, I thought, so yeah it would be a shame to see them head off again.

Once you get ghostly visage it's not so tough... but many people don't seem to appreciate the power of this spell at lower levels, and do silly stuff like mirror image and false life instead.

Extended visage early on was amazing for me, it allows you to stand toe to toe with a lot of the displacers, smaller umber hulks and even goblins.

[I'kai]

This is just my perspective but I'm having a hard time getting anything done in the underdark. As houses provide a quick and easy way into RP and hunting groups, it's the most viable option for new players as opposed to grubbing about alone. Going out there, taking days and weeks to level with no RP of note.

Outsidership has the added problem of being a problem. If you're not with the house (or any other faction in dominance just about anywhere) you're ultimately against them. With no real interest in joining and aspirations to start my own stuff I find myself at a severe disadvantage.

Player driven development has its benefits but sometimes DMs need to step in and give the opposition a push forward. Otherwise you get a very one sided battle of ideologies with everyone joining the big in-crowd or simply staying out of everyone's business. To do something different is an exercise in futility.

Loggin on and seeing only housedrow I pretty much know my own efforts are in vain and previous attempts to get things going have been shot down by lore police, metagamers and DMs alike but that's a whole different problem I think we're never supposed to discuss.