The Marking; Brave non-Drow Citizens of Sshamath

[pattu]

((We are just not organized yet . The hunt will begin!

Listening to the chants of the drow, the Faern cannot help but chant along in his head

"Death to the Orc! Death to Lessers!"

[Jaden]

A lone human, seen conversing with several drow in the tavern. Searching for something. A Jalil wandered to the Rivvil. Threatening him with death for simply being in the city. She began to inquire to why he was in Sshamath. Almost everytime he'd reply she'd simply slap him. Eventually, the rivvil pushed her, which surprised and infuriated the Jalil further. Then she told the rivvil to kneel. He refused, eventually two Jaluks joined in telling the Rivvil to kneel and quit talking. After, a long argument and a sword being thrusted to the human's neck he finally knelt. The human, was then commanded to leave the tavern by the Three drow.

Instead he leaned on a barrel, anger began to take him. He wanted to teach these three drow a lesson. But, he knew it'd be suicide. Unlike these drows he knew the laws of Sshamath. He was well aware that murdering anyone, Rivvil or Drow, was a crime. He took one last look at these three drow before storming out the tavern.

((Was a fun RP though))

[Piron]

Zaknas was watching how those three young drows argued with the human. After the business was finished, he walked toward those three young drows and said "Next time when a filth backtalk to you like that, call the guards and have them imprisoned. But do consider killing him after he left our the city." He then grins evilly and walked away.

[Hoihe]

Rumors speak of a meeting in Gloura's wing between the frost mage, Clandric Seneset known for his shameless attempts at all the women he sees, drow or not and a jaluk. When he saw the jaluk he was sweating, or melting maybe.. who is to know. In the end the drow considered him good entertainment and did not harm him for impersonating a drow faern of archmage status...

[Rainbow Prism]

What's the point of typing things IC about lack of knowledge and ignorance of setting conduct?

No offense for those who do this by IC reasons.

[Maecius]

(( The best way to deal with situations like these is to try to notify a DM in-game. Scenarios like these happen every day, all over the server. Most of these players are new to roleplaying, new to this server, or new to the setting's lore. We do our best to make all of the server's lore readily available through a variety of venues, but if a person does not want to learn that lore then he or she is not going to make an effort to learn it.

(( The DMs are encouraged to handle all situations like these, top-side or down-under, in an in-character fashion. Today I had a Friendly Arms Inn guard ask a visitor to remove his mask inside the walls. He complied, and realized that masks were not a good idea inside the inn.

(( This same situation can be played out with Sshamath's guards and Conclave, and it is often more effective than an OOC warning. That being said, if the DM is preoccupied with an event or some other matter, then an OOC tell will almost always be sent to the player in question instead. This is often enough to correct their roleplay, though it is less preferred, since the in-character "correction" tends to be taken less offensively and sticks better over time.

(( While Sshamath is a surprisingly open drow city, it is still a drow city. Threatening drow, particularly if they are wizards, will result in some pretty unpleasant (though maybe quite spectacular) responses from the city's guardians. But the DMs need to be notified when something like this is going on, because we only occasionally happen to be in the right place at the right time to see it occurring live.

(( If there is a specific problem player, or problem players, who are repeatedly violating lore and ignoring NPCs in the Underdark, then please send me their name or names and I will do my best to have a one-on-one with them about their situation. Please send me this name or these names privately in a PM. Do not post it here. Thank you. ))

(( EDIT: As an aside, I apologize for chiming in on this thread so late. Illuminated and I have an awful lot on our plates right now. A thank you to Empoweredfan for bringing this thread to my attention. ))

[TalonofWindspeak]

///Interesting I play almost exclusively in UD for a long, long, time and haven't run into this one yet... but I have seen my fair share of server lore and IC game abuse on NPC and PCs, lots of casting light on merchants, even attack and killing of NPCs, without mentioning names, some are current players in UD... it's lame but there will always be such types, and ones that completely are out of character and non-compliant when it comes to any sense of logic...

///there is no way any such intelligent entity would survive for long acting like that, be like ZZZap! Eye Tyrant turns you to stone, oops, soorrry, had a bit of a tentacle twitch there... you become crushed and turned to mortar and put into the cracks in the stone of the local latrine...

///I had a particular PC just decide to attack Sly every-time I logged in, right in Sshamath, didn't matter where, there were two of them, would just outright attack - no reason. It was at a time when my printscreen wasn't working. I just outright killed them the first few times they attacked me. It got a bit tedious because at this point it seemed illogical that anyone would have raised there sorry - a - hides.

///Then when I got tired of that, I printscreened the whole business. I was never asked to participate in any PVP match, it was either fight or logout and the DMs at the time, well they didn't seem to be very supportive. In the end I was told they were temporarily banned, but then I saw them online shortly after, same PCs and for some time after that, but the attacks finally stopped. They never once answered a single one of my tels, not once, I was told they didn't speak any english?

///Sorry I'm not very forgiving for people IC and OOC that constantly break the rules and make trouble for other players, I commend the OP for turning it into IC RP, you have more patience than I do... to those that break the rules, be glad I'm not a DM... I wouldn't ban you,

[Rainbow Prism]

//speaking of which, should your character be taken in for spitting on stand?

[Servin]

/// I would appreciate if you DM guys would seriously come up with some of your internal guidelines on how to deal with said situations. One time I was close to telling the DM to 'Foxtrot Oscar', because you lack such. I keep a no-RP list in my journal and players on it are told in OOC comment to move along, as I refuse to do any RP interaction with them. The list is there for a good reason and people on it are placed there because of poor or no RP standards, not because they play on the opposite axis of my characters plot (Shur for that example is not on it). One time the DM witnessed me doing that and made a global shout comment that this is unacceptable and that we're not allowed to do that and we should sort things IC'ly after my drow character was insulted by the said orc. Second to that he also told the offender off and then ended it with - I will not hear any more of that, do not send me tells about it.

/// Sorry but I will not be forced to interact with people who don't respect server rules and if that means I will face penalties, I will make screenshots and fight my corner against the DM's if needs be. Also all DM's should know the UD setting as well as the surface one with how things are ran.

///ETA after some feedback on that: I've not posted that here to tell anyone off, or start a witch hunt. It's merely to bring your attention to the problem persisting on the server that I think looking into might be beneficial. You are doing a good job overall, but some things need fixing - it's natural, like everywhere and with anything you work with. I hope this will give some food for thought though, even despite being (perhaps overly) critical.

[TheVoid]

Look, there will always be asshats on an open server. Nothing is going to change that. I can go in right now and grief you all, get banned, buy a new game or rip off a cd-key, log in via a proxy and do it again and again and again just for kicks. It costs me nothing to mess with people playing an unsupported, outdated, and neglected game title only just a bit of my time.

I am not saying every offender is this determined or belligerent or bellicose when it comes to player griefing but it is an example of just how much we all depend on the community to be dilligent despite any negative experiences they may have with the ignorant who are clearly there to give you a hard time. As well as patient and willing to educate if there is even a faint sign of interest from said group of players. Mandating a guideline on how to handle all "unacceptable" interactions is pretty self-defeating because obviously in a live environment things are dynamic and no two situations are identical, similar but not identical thus the response will also need vary.

The only one guide we can offer to players is to report anything that seems out of the ordinary when it comes to PvP or RP interactions from another fellow player(s). We will do our best to investigate the matter and pursue consequences if need be. Again, we are one if not the largest PW's still around, the majority of that reason is because this server is open for all. ALL means ALL, good, bad, ugly and fugly.... So keep that in mind when you come face to face with others that do not meet your own set of RP "standards".

In my experience, many lore/immersion violaters are normally Non-english speakers, Not versed in DND FR, Come from PvP/Action servers, and/or completely schizophrenic and self absorbed with their PC storyline that they will not acknowledge anything else relevant to the setting.

The only solutions to completely mitigate the problem would also be the undoing of the PW, so I think we all need to share the burden here and not expect anyone party to solve all the problems that happen when you interact with people on a social level within this PW.

[Servin]

/// Of course you're the biggest PW around and that comes out from the hard work you guys are doing, no doubts there. I don't mind giving credit where it's due... I'm just frustrated about how much grief one guy can do, and with every post of mine giving more situations he's been involved in, I still see him around... Doing his thing.

I get the fact that you are trying to be understanding towards players - again, a sign of good management, but so was I initially. Till I realised that it's not working. But there seems to be a reaction now, so let's see where this goes...

[pattu]

((Oh I hope this thread does not get TOO out of hand. I simply wanted to express what i felt was incorrect RP, based on what I know about Drow in the Forgotten Realms. I think this quote by Mencius reflects my feelings perfectly.

(( While Sshamath is a surprisingly open drow city, it is still a drow city. Threatening drow, particularly if they are wizards, will result in some pretty unpleasant (though maybe quite spectacular) responses from the city's guardians.

((I think some players just are not aware of this RP wise. Maybe an update to the "Laws of Sshamath" are in order. Just to help players be aware of the risk they take when playing a non drow race in Sshamath . I for one was not aware of the laws protecting non drow arcane spell casters. Was not originally a law to my knowledge and when i came back from my hiatus, I had to dig for it within the "Law's of Sshamath" thread. On a side note, I am curious to know if this is a lore based law or unique to Sshamath. I have my RP theories.

((Anyways sorry for the OOC

"Death to the Orc! Death to Lessers!"

[Servin]

/// Hey don't get me wrong mate. I don't mind players not knowing stuff. I've been one not so long ago. I don't even mind players eventually coming here and getting stuff straight by browsing relevant topics, quite the opposite - I would love to encourage them do so, because in return I win better RP from them! I did that and still do it, you did do that...

But yeah... The problem is - like me, you believed once the guy is just innocently unaware. Then again, how can you be a good RPer and innocently unaware, if his character name is actually his playername? Shapes, races and feats change, RP stays the same no matter the character.

[Rainbow Prism]

/// Hey don't get me wrong mate. I don't mind players not knowing stuff. I've been one not so long ago. I don't even mind players eventually coming here and getting stuff straight by browsing relevant topics, quite the opposite - I would love to encourage them do so, because in return I win better RP from them! I did that and still do it, you did do that...

But yeah... The problem is - like me, you believed once the guy is just innocently unaware. Then again, how can you be a good RPer and innocently unaware, if his character name is actually his playername? Shapes, races and feats change, RP stays the same no matter the character.

And here I should say, that there is difference between RP and projecting your avatar through characters.

[Servin]

Correct!