Anrilor wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 3:05 pm
RP Environment
This has been the primary reason for my taking a break from the server. It stems from many areas of frustrations that have built up sense around march of this year. Most of it is OOC grief, not that I personally get that much, but that I hear all sides of any interaction that went poorly, I ask the questions of what happened, and I make my own informed judgement to the best of my ability. I do my best to have it not influence my IC interactions. OOC stays OOC, IC stays IC to the best of my abilities. This however is a dying thing. I've seen and heard complaints of people trying to stop RP with OOC tells going "No no, you are not hearing my character. what they really mean is Y." "Ugh, I can't believe X showed up to this event, I can't stand them, I'm gonna bounce." and the player logs. There are some grudges here that go back half as long as the server has existed. This only gets fixed with Planehopper's mentality, that as a community, we need to do better, and look in the mirror and wonder if the grudge we have made against the other player is really worth holding onto.
Then there are the
Eccentric Characters and while I do not have anything against characters with quirks, unique personalities, etc. Of late there seems to be an influx of the 'Crazy, over the top, how have you survived to adulthood, can't function in normal society' type characters. And often when these characters run into each other, or in a DM event, their sole existence is to be loud, potentially dangerous to those around them, high level of insanity and must be more insane then the person next to them and 5x more obnoxious, just to make sure the DM sees you and has to interact with you, however, if you move to ICly excise them because of their dangers or behaviors, you are yelled at OOCly for Exclusionary RP, and the DM gets complaints filed against them for 'favoritism.'
Which leads me to my last point of the state of our RP Environment,
Consequences, Apperently everyone not only wants their cake, but the chocolate malt, a banana split, and a large pale of cookie dough, and eat that every day without ever worrying about gaining a pound. "I'm a
former dreadlord, and sense I said
former you have no reason to be mean to me, or deny me access to the good guy secret conversations as this character IC, cause I totally quit and did nothing in the intermediary to show a change of heart. If you are mean or disrespectful in any way ICly, I take OOC offense to that, and will constantly correct you through emotes, tells, and complaints to staff until you change
your RP and stop being mean to me." "I have a half a dozen throw away characters, but DMs should still include me in prolonged plots because to do otherwise is exclusionary, if I choose to throw out a character that is a key plot point in x plot, that's the DMs problem, not mine, he should know that going in." In short, "I'm not wrong, you can't hold me to account for past actions/affiliations, and
you are the one that needs to change." is just avoidance and excuses for consequences. You want to be the evil, big bad, monster like character that rules over a faction known for despotism, authoritarianism, and murder, worships evil gods and sacrifices slaves on the weekly? ok fine, but don't expect to be able to show up and have a light conversation with a paladin. In our setting, Good has an aura, Evil has an Aura, they are tangible things, not this meta-psychological debate over what is and is not allowed in society and wither or not society is wrong. As such there needs to be tangible consequences to you deciding to play a certain character. But it seems that people are either willfully ignoring it, or hate when such things are played out and take OOC offence to IC reactions to other IC actions taken.
If you act as an outcast to society ICly, expect to be treated as such, and if you are, don't take OOC offense to people avoiding and shaming your character ICly. you chose to play a certain character, that character comes with certain consequences, and those consequences get played out ICly.
Character vs Build
Adjacent to to RP Environment, is how characters are made, and they are generally made with 2 sets of thought processes. "What sort of character do I want to play, and what sort of build would suit it?" and then "What sort of build do I want to play, and what sort of character would that produce?" While neither are intrinsically at fault the Character first method tends to produces well rounded characters, as thought into their personality comes first and then builds later, these characters usually go through an RCR process over time and tend to last a bit longer due to the interest being in the Character then the Build. The second tends to produce a strong character, but the personality is weak, and this used to be rectified with the Bio Reviews. These characters however, tend to be throw aways, as once the player is bored with the build, they dispose of them for the next build and the character falls to the wayside.
As the reward for submitting a lore appropriate bio was give 1k of exp, meaning you got to level 2 right away (non ECL). And this would help new players to the FR work to learn their lore, and work with a DM to understand how their character could fit into the setting. Once we got rid of the reward, less people put work into it, because there was nothing to be 'gained' and 'gamed' for themselves. This in my opinion weakened the new arrivals chances to learn about the setting, and as a result fell further and further from FR lore. This resulted in, over time, either generic characters with near 0 personality, until they hit 30 and had nothing better to do then RP at the fire, but had no real backstory to fall on, because they only focused on a build and are only now looking at developing the character, or highly Eccentric characters that have no true reason to be in the setting, other then to be loud, obnoxious, and troll like annoying, because that's what the Player has fun doing. Few and far between are the setting true characters, that have a background, a purpose, and fit into the setting. Now yes, the Bio application and review process requires the players to put forth effort into learning the setting, and a DM to ensure it is in line with the setting and assisting the player on their research to help bring them in line and understand the setting enough they can RP a new bright eyed wanderer.
Now these Bios were never 'required' but because there was a reward for doing so, there was a 'game' to it. And that game required a DM that was extremely knowledgeable in pre ToT lore, that was willing to put in time in reviewing these bios submitted, and a player that was willing to accept criticisms and adjust their bio as needed to have a character background suitable to the setting. Without the System to be 'Gamed,' people took advantage of it and slowly over time stopped caring about the character behind the build, wither or not it was lore appropriate, setting appropriate, or in some cases, even rule appropriate. It was something that helped keep continuity with the setting. Now it feels like the only conversations that happen are build conversations, there is no talk of character concepts outside of "What classes and feats do I need to take to be able to do X content." As a result, the RP, and setting adherence has slowly withered away. This has in turn slowly eroded the RP environment.
Which is unfortunate, because Forgotten Realms lore is rich, with many prebuilt in conflicts, all ripe for the picking. But then we handicapped a conflict through player actions with the trade treaty, A lords Allience member trading with the Zhents. And then the cries of 'its too hard to play evil' became a common cry, why? because if you did half the evil actions you wanted to, that was lore appropriate, you would be in violation of the treaty and break the progress of
one player. Tieflings are Devil/demon spawn, and yet we treat the horns and tails as familiar as goats and cats. And if you show an inclination of racism towards them, you get stared at like you are the crazy one. Now there are characters that have earned the right of that level of respect, through their work and deeds. But for the most part any fiendblood are accepted as readily as any human. Now while I am not saying racism is good, for our setting, it exists, and in a strong fashion, and can be a point of character growth by both sides.
So how to fix all this?
Community Guidance
What I believe is lacking is a sort of Mission Statement of what this community is. We advertise a RP community built in the FR setting of Baulder's gate, and the nearby sword coast and part of the western heartlands, in the pre ToT 2.0 lore (that is about to head into ToT next year). This Mission statement would come from the admins, and be considered in every judgement of the Rules, how the rules are formed, goals and objectives of the Dev Team, what to expect from the HDM and DMs, what the Moderators do, and what players can expect and are expected to do, to join our community. As it stands, as far as I am aware, there is no such mission statement to unify around. It sort of feels that our point of pride "we allow all types of RPers" is really just a hope to meet at a place of the lowest common denominator to keep our numbers high and give a perception of a certain level of activity, however, some decisions that have been made have slowly destroyed even that base common denominator because you advertise one thing, but the community is acting in another, and in general it can leave players confused as to what is expected of the community and what the community expects of them.
Ideally the Mission statement would read something like this:
BG:TSCC Mission Statement
We are a NWN2 Role Play community, based in Forgotten Realms 2.0 Lore that is heading into the Time of Troubles story arcs. Our setting is that of a PG-13 Baulder's Gate, the Sword Coast, and west into the Western Heartlands. We have several NPC factions that Players may join through RP, including temples, the Radiant Heart, the Everwatch Knights, and the Zhentarium. However we also allow players to create their own factions through guild play, and can create their own guild houses. While allowing players to advance to level 30, we aim to provide a medium magic world with adjustments to spells, limited crafting, and a max power level of spells.
Admin Duites and Responsibilities
They set the overarching goal of the community, and help guide the DMs, Devs, and players to create a cohesive RP community. They are the shepherds of the community and have authority of final word on any matter and it can be considered settled should they deem it necessary to the health of the community.
HDM and DM Duties and Responsibilities
The HDM is responsible for the overall story and narration of events on the server. They facilitate the arching storylines and help provide assistance to DMs in terms of guidance and recommendations for stories. They ensure the community stays within the bounds of the setting, while still allowing player agency. DMs take their lead from the HDM, and assist players in events, running them, and answering any questions about the setting in general. During times of rule breaking DMs may step in and moderate the situation as needed. During these times players are expected to take the DMs statements as fact, and any issue with it can be brought up on the forums with the HDM or Admins as needed.
Developer Duties and Responsibilities
Devs make and create the world around us through area building, scripting, and modeling of outfits, faces, hairstyles, etc. They create the play space we all share and interact with. Anything that may affect story, narration, or balancing, needs to be brought before the DMs before being brought live to ensure it is both Lore and setting appropriate.
Moderator Duties and Responsibilities.
Moderators are in charge of keeping the forums and Discord chats clear of disrespectful arguments and comments, keeping the community clean and within the PG-13 setting. They can rule on temporary bans of these places, and make suggestions of what players need to be removed for the health and welfare of the community.
Player Duties and Responsibilities
Players need to know the rules, abide by them, respect their fellow community members, and enjoy the world before them. Be as inclusive or exclusive as your character would dictate and help bring the world alive though believable lore and setting appropriate characters.
The Idea of the Mission statement is to have a brief summery of what is expected of each member of the community and what role they fall into/volunteer for. Ideally DMs would only be in charge of Stories and Lore, however given the DM client also has Moderator abilities in game, that has to fall on their shoulders while we can assign moderators to the forums and Discord. The other option would be to Give Moderators a DM client access, but only for moderation purposes so the DMs can focus on story telling as their primary and only report moderation acts to the Moderators for further disciplinary actions. That would be my one change if I could, to ease the burden and responsibilities of the DMs to have to play IG moderator and story teller.
Ultimately the Mission Statement for our community needs to answer a few things
What is this community about? RP? PvE? PvP? PvPvE? Builds? Ability to Solo? Need to Party?
What is expected of each member of the community?
What is the direction and goals of the community?
Lastly there is something that needs to be addressed and answered by the community and agreed upon.
What are the Expectations between DMs and Players?
For me, I have expected DMs to tell stories, and aid players through NPCs and narration. If there is a story heavy element that I wish to tell, or an event to hold, and I can use my own magic/placables to do it, I try
not to get a DM involved. Its not that I don't want to have DMs participate, but if I can do the job as a player with my character, and tell a story and involve many people, I would rather do that. When the stories I want to tell require NPCs or some sort of action, that is when I will reach out to the DMs. When I need or want to interact with players, I seek them out. when I want to interact with the world, Outside of what is already provided, I seek out the DMs. That's the general philosophy I maintain as my expectation between myself as a player, and the DMs.
If you managed to get this far, bless your heart, you made it to the end.
