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

[HaberdasherofDoom]

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.

Don't poke the bear with such remarks. Bad. .

[I'kai]

Which is exactly my point. Anyway, I think this thread and the whole underdark situation is just a symptom of a much larger issue. Addressing the problems at hand will not be easy given the immense amount of different viewpoints and reasons behind them.

The closing of the underdark portal is just another symptom and the treatment is complicated and expensive. The question is whether we want to invest the effort or simply choose to let nature have its course.

[Ansient]

My position is still that people who don't like spending time around drow--or Lolthite drow in particular--should form their own groups.

Maybe a band of Sshamathian nationalists. Maybe a mercenary group that is lower brow and more open than Bregan, accepting members of all races.

I don't know--I wouldn't find such things particularly interesting myself.

So the question is, what is it that interests you all? Float possible answers, find the best common ground, and form a group of 4-5 like-minded players to get your faction started. It's best if it's something your character can be proud of and work in openly and actively, so others want to get involved.

I don't know any other better or more practical way to start player-driven development.

[Molag__Bal]

An observation that I just made is that none of the ~15 active DM's play UD characters when they are not DMing. Pookie and Tahlisar used to, but not anymore. These statistics may not mean anything, I just found them interesting.

[HaberdasherofDoom]

I made a UD PC to specifically play with some other existing people.. those existing people moved on and I tried to stick with it. The UD was not my thing, just didn't get invovled or latch onto much and eventually went top side.

[jmbrosendo]

*point at his sig*

[Izz'orgoll]

::A sealed decree was the lone parchment on the desk in the Sutrino's small stark office. Izz'Orgoll opened it up to find a simple message from the Conclave.

The Conclave wishes to cull the heards of House Mori'hyand and House No'quafin. The Charnag Maelthra shall reduce their numbers significantly, using all resources at their disposal.

Izz"orgoll smiled and left the Charnag Headquarters to find Moksha....

[Brian]

Man, Monster Hunter Tri comes out and I wake up from a couple week hunting induced coma to the portal destroyed and the llolthites and quellars on the rise? Valas has some work to do...

[Eviloth]

Valas, it has been a while.

[SteelForgedSword]

Here's some actual suggestions:

1. Take out the portal permanantly; solves alot of problems and contains the problem.
2. Assign DM's to run events in the UD exclusively.
3. PC's can access the UD or the Surface during events
4. Provide access to the UD (either side/any race) for specific RP reasons or as a reward for good RP or an on going plot line.
5. Continue to improve the UD via quests and content.
6. Make leveling in the UD easier by adjusting xp a bit.

The problem of drow running across the surface will never go away, it never does, it can only be managed and/or mitigated. If this is truly an RP server, you can't do one thing and expect the others to improve. I think the above ideas would help solve the problem and make it managable.

It starts with the players, if players show incentive, the DM's will come, activity goes up, Luna and the crew will add more content, the rest solves itself. People just have to step up to the plate and make it happen.

[Eviloth]

Here's some actual suggestions:

1. Take out the portal permanantly; solves alot of problems and contains the problem.

I think a whole Thread was locked due to this topic lol.



2. Assign DM's to run events in the UD exclusively.

I think there is one in place, but others also straggle in now and then.


3. PC's can access the UD or the Surface during events.

Honestly I think it should be a very long route of tunnels with maybe other possible exits to the surface. But hence I think it should be long and hard.


4. Provide access to the UD (either side/any race) for specific RP reasons or as a reward for good RP or an on going plot line.

I disagree, if someone wants to just make it to the night to raid at night, I don't see why that would be out of character. I think if someone RPs internally that they hate surface elves(which I should be able to assume most drow do), then wanting to make some surface kills IMO is sufface for RP.



5. Continue to improve the UD via quests and content.

Agreed, I think this is where many people though can volunteer. Build pc's, small area's, big areas, intereriors. Maybe a hole in the wall where a bugbear lives. Maybe learn some scripting, maybe the Bugbear will teach you how to speak certain words, hell...maybe he could teach you the language. There is only X number of developers, X++ would be better to see.

6. Make leveling in the UD easier by adjusting xp a bit.

I think we just should make the surface set to HARDCORE.


I am not flaming your ideas, just putting my slant on them. Thanks for coming up with and presenting them. I hold no power here, just thought maybe some other view would be nice to see.

[SteelForgedSword]

Nah, not at all.

That's the point of the thread mate, to come up with actual ideas to try an achieve some 'semblence of sanity for the server...not to rehash the same locked threads and whine fests.

[Ansient]

*Writes a long pointed response, railing against Steel's suggestion of permanent closer and reward travel....drawing parallels to the Berlin Wall and its checkpoints*

*notices Eviloth's reminder that a whole thread was locked on this topic*

*sighs and hits delete, muttering to himself You can't handle the truth!*

All true ; )

[Vallyn]

Please, do not talk about the portal closing or opening in this thread.

I hate to scream, "I'm the Original Poster, respect my thread." but I feel like I have to quote the Original Post I made with emphasis:

It has been stated in several threads that rebuilding the Roleplay in the Underdark is a priority and that a server change was made to help move this along.

Without getting into that server change (Please for all that is good, don't bring it up here in this thread)

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get this thread back on track.

Some other folks have come in and mentioned that they feel like they log in the UD with an unaligned UD player and all they see is House Drow, so they log off. Without pointing the fingers at any of the factions OR the DM's let's try to think about how we can solve this problem. I, myself, log in, see a bunch of House Drow, PM the very few my character can get along with to see if they are busy in RP, and inevitably they are busy in RP with their House, so I log off. It's pretty hard to build a player-base of free Drow who don't like the Houses if the majority of us unaligned (or secretively aligned) Drow feel that way when we log in.

I'm guilty of it. I can't think of a way not to sigh sadly and just go elsewhere when all I see are house drow and myself. I'm really sick of soloing Phaerocks, you have no idea how boring it is to me.

I made a low-level alt to play with the few new players who are unaligned, but it's just not working out well for me. She gains a level about once a week, whenever a player is on long enough for her to group with, and then she loses another friend as they disappear in the UD and never return...

Izz'orgoll's IC post in this thread about the Charnag hunting the Houses down is great. Who knows, maybe Bregan will get paid to do the same? (DM-sanctioned assassinations??? )


Ansient:

You keep suggesting those of us not playing House Drow should form our own groups. The issue is that when a new player starts out in the UD all that they see are people they are way too low to group with and House Drow, so they go solo beetles, get cut in half a few times, and leave.

Again, how can a handful of people (and I mean 3 or 4) rebuild an Underdark for the 3 or 4 new players who join when there are 20+ in House Cliques?

I'm open to suggestions. That's what this thread was for. We know what we need to do but we don't know how to do it. Izzy is trying. Bregan is trying...

[Ansient]

You keep suggesting those of us not playing House Drow should form our own groups. The issue is that when a new player starts out in the UD all that they see are people they are way too low to group with and House Drow, so they go solo beetles, get cut in half a few times, and leave.

Again, how can a handful of people (and I mean 3 or 4) rebuild an Underdark for the 3 or 4 new players who join when there are 20+ in House Cliques?

I'm open to suggestions. That's what this thread was for. We know what we need to do but we don't know how to do it. Izzy is trying. Bregan is trying..

Well how do you think Mori'hyanda began? Other than a couple priestesses doing their own thing, almost nobody was playing a Lolthite. The Charnag and Bregan were the only cliques that I could see.

A few of us were bored, so we decided to create new characters and start our own group. Then we went out and had fun together and met other characters, some of whom eventually joined us.

What is it that's stopping you from doing the same? Do some brainstorming and come up with the most interesting concept you can and run with it. You just need something that has a purpose and looks like it'll provide an interesting environment. Then you need to go out there and look like you're having fun together, and other folks will want to join in on the fun : )