Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Xorena wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:15 pm Would we get rep for completing quests or exterminating creatures? I imagine most surface-side players will have negative rep against Xvarts due to the genocide and all.

Xorena wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:15 pm Would we get rep for completing quests or exterminating creatures? I imagine most surface-side players will have negative rep against Xvarts due to the genocide and all.

mastajabba wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:18 pm Be cool if town merchants in other cities charged you more, or less say you defended Beregost so your rep might get you regular price. But if you are a hometown hero then you get perks like discounts. Ect ect

Rhifox wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:23 pm

Xorena wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:15 pm Would we get rep for completing quests or exterminating creatures? I imagine most surface-side players will have negative rep against Xvarts due to the genocide and all.

Yes.

If anyone has played original EverQuest (and I know you have, Perle ), that's my go-to inspiration behind faction systems. Full player freedom on who you can choose to align with. Some might be a bit grindy, but grindy things are an actual in-game activity you can do.

Some factions won't be freely adjustable (like reps with individual dukes), but can be provided (or taken away) by DMs in response to player actions in DM events.

Rhifox wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:23 pm

Xorena wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:15 pm Would we get rep for completing quests or exterminating creatures? I imagine most surface-side players will have negative rep against Xvarts due to the genocide and all.

Yes.

If anyone has played original EverQuest (and I know you have, Perle ), that's my go-to inspiration behind faction systems. Full player freedom on who you can choose to align with. Some might be a bit grindy, but grindy things are an actual in-game activity you can do.

Some factions won't be freely adjustable (like reps with individual dukes), but can be provided (or taken away) by DMs in response to player actions in DM events.

Ravial wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 2:19 pm I have to ask. What is the point of having a faction system?

DM All Father wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 11:51 am Blushing mermaid regulars

The Blushing Mermaid
The Mermaid is known up and down the Coast lands as a meeting place in which to conduct illicit business for folk who are dangerous or criminals. It is a noisy, brawling establishment. I can recommend it only to those who go well armed, know how to use their weapons, and bring lots of loyal friends with similar skills.


The Place
The Mermaid is a long, low, ramshackle place with a confusing maze of wings, outbuildings, stockaded enclosures, and stables surrounding it on three sides the better to give cover to those trying to approach or leave unseen, most Baldurians say. It has at least four levels of cellars many more, some say and rumors abound of secret passages, or even connections to an underground stream or sewer connecting with the harbor.

Rooms at the Mermaid are low ceilinged, dingy, and apt to be furnished with mismatched pieces that have seen better days. In general, they are loot-and-salvage pieces that have seen heavy use since their installation here. The overall effect is of a rather dangerous but endearingly cluttered cellar, decorated with the flotsam of a hundred shipwrecks.

The Mermaid is apt to be noisy throughout the night. Those who aren’t sound sleepers are advised to seek lodgings elsewhere. All rooms have iron bar shutters if they have windows at all and heavy wooden beam double bars on the inside. They're there to be used, folks.

The lobby is the only high ceilinged room in the place, except the stairwell to the two upper floors. A life-size and crudely carved wooden mermaid hangs overhead above the reception desk. The nearly nude mermaids body is covered with a score or more shriveled and blackened severed hands. If asked about them, the staff will smile and tell you that they were er, donated by folks who forgot to pay their Bills. The desk has its own trophy a huge broad axe buried deep in the wood. Be warned that the axe can easily be snatched up out of the deep cleft it caused long ago and hurled with speed and accuracy across the lobby by the balding, bearded, hairy-armed clerk who looks like a walking cask!

The Prospect
The visitor will find in the Mermaid an astonishing collection of smooth tongued, scarred old sea dogs nursing drinks at all hours. Each one is a contact person for this or that cabal, thieving brotherhood, smuggler, mercenary band, fence, panderer, or other shady professional interest. Negotiations with such contacts usually consist of a nasty grin and a case of temporary deafness until at least a silver piece is given them where upon they recall their voice, hearing, and manners, and inquire as to your own fortune. If pleasantries proceed as far as your requesting a need or desire for something or someone, the sea dog will examine the ceiling, tell it how much such information is likely to cost (1 to 5 gp, usually 2 gp), and slide over his empty tankard for payment. Once he's satisfied the coins you've dropped into it are of good quality, hell tell you what you want to know and arrange a meeting, or send you to a contact who can. I report all this secondhand, of course!

A stay at the Mermaid is apt to be quite safe, so long as one avoids battle and does nothing overly insulting or stupid. (Some sharp-tongued killers like to taunt and goad other guests to see if they can get a fight out of them.) The proprietors, who are unknown and never seen, have instructed their staff to make the House a relatively safe, neutral ground for all patrons, whatever their race, past, or profession. It's better for business that way.


The Provender

Meals at the Mermaid are of two sorts: elaborate food, brought in to order from nearby eateries, and food prepared on the premises. The brought-in food is usually good and of generous portions, but not overly warm by the time it reaches you. The fare prepared at the Mermaid is of the simple but good and filling variety, except for a truly vile salted smallfish stew. This stew consists of various rotting baitfish boiled with seasalt and seaweed, and even smells disgusting. Many sailors order only bread spread with drippings (crusty nutbread rolls with thick organ meat gravy ladled over them) or hand wheels of cheese, but the Mermaids

kitchen also produces a splendid pork, thyme, and mushroom platter. The most commonly ordered meal is ale, bread, and fish. Some patrons also like small squid pickled in vinegar, which I find revolting from three rooms away!

Sailors have prodigious appetites. It's not uncommon to look across the dining room at the Mermaid and not see several diners. They're entirely hidden by the roasts set in front of them!

Whole roast pigs are another favorite dish. It seems most seafolk are sick of marine edibles by the time they reach land, but land-treading travelers and sailors long ashore often order literal heaps of oysters, clams, or mussels and attack them with a knife. Hairy-chested men (those foolish enough to risk diseases and parasites) often eat the shellfish rawand a crazed few like to shell them alive from a saltwater basin and devour them still squirming!

I managed to get a single (thankfully more widely appealing in nature) recipe from the cooks, as is shown on the scrap on the following page.

Beer at the Mermaid is sea ale (thicker and more bitter than most tongues find enjoyable), stout, and a light, golden-hued lager from Mintarn. No wines are available, but one can get whisky strong and smoky enough to strip paint or tar from wood. It brings tears to the eyes of most who drink it, and probably worse things to their insides!

Travelers Lore
Predictably, fourscore tales of treachery, hidden treasure, secret passages, and trapped chests swirl around the Mermaid. It's impossible to tell how many are pure fabrication or have grown wildly in the telling. Stolen or illegal items are definitely hidden quickly and well here for a fee.

DM Ghost wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 3:33 pm As a DM, I am hoping that it means any reputation/standing gain is entirely on DM judgment, so that it doesn't become a system to be gamed.

It's a very cool idea, though. Opens up a lot of fun opportunities.