Re: Surface Drow ( was: DM approval?)
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2016 7:50 am
Pretty much what you said, the argument from lore doesn't hold because there are drow living on the surface in this timeline. While it's few, it is some. Looking at it another way, how many examples of lore do you see of Zhentarim and other well known evil characters 'chilling' at campfires with paladins etc?
I've worked in game design for nearly 20 years and segregating players like this is never a positive experience. If the server didn't want drow or duegar, it would be far simpler to just prevent players from playing such races. What is far more likely is that a few of the admin's at the time didn't like how some UD / Surface interaction was going on and thought the best way to handle it was to enforce some blanket ban. This has led to a negative solution and as such a bone of contention that has lasted for years.
Maybe this was down to a huge number of problem players that were hard to police. Maybe it was down to some of the staff being overly authoritarian, perhaps as is often the case, a mixture of both. I've not been here long enough to know, but from being here today, it's quite clearly not the case. The players i've had the pleasure of playing with (both on the surface and the UD) have made fun engaging RP.
Case in pont here: Sunday's event has shown is that you can have 20-30 evil players all in one place without any confrontation occurring (okay one player ultimately ended up to be the 'big bad guy' of the scenario, but that enhanced the entire experience with no other characters getting hurt in the process).
Rules like we currently have in place are detractors from the player experience, not enhancers. What I mean by this is that it's far better to have rules that encourage a positive experience rather than create a negative one.
Using the UD / Surface as an example:
Perception: There are problems with UD / Surface characters always coming into conflict, fighting, not being respectful of the scenario and the DM team is sick of dealing with it.
Negative Rule: What we have now, i.e. UD / Surface interaction is heavily clamped down on (made impossible at low-mid levels), No hunting etc...
Positive Rule:
When your character is in an environment that they are perceived as outsiders, it's expected that they'll keep a low key and often be in disguise. Furthermore you may not be the instigators of confrontation - meaning, it is not acceptable to take an evil character (no matter how powerful your build is), to a good temple and start causing trouble. Always assume there are enough npc's to subdue your character.
Examples of this include:
Evil characters in obviously good locations (and vice versa)
Drow inside towns or within view of npc's (no Eilistraens dancing naked through the streets etc).
The above rule isn't completely fleshed out but is hopefully enough that you get the idea. It not only achieves what we have now, but it also enhances it - it is applied consistently across all factions be they good / evil or surface / underdark. It also promotes players in locations that are alien to themselves to RP what it would be like for them in a hostile environment. It also facilitates player choice.
I've worked in game design for nearly 20 years and segregating players like this is never a positive experience. If the server didn't want drow or duegar, it would be far simpler to just prevent players from playing such races. What is far more likely is that a few of the admin's at the time didn't like how some UD / Surface interaction was going on and thought the best way to handle it was to enforce some blanket ban. This has led to a negative solution and as such a bone of contention that has lasted for years.
Maybe this was down to a huge number of problem players that were hard to police. Maybe it was down to some of the staff being overly authoritarian, perhaps as is often the case, a mixture of both. I've not been here long enough to know, but from being here today, it's quite clearly not the case. The players i've had the pleasure of playing with (both on the surface and the UD) have made fun engaging RP.
Case in pont here: Sunday's event has shown is that you can have 20-30 evil players all in one place without any confrontation occurring (okay one player ultimately ended up to be the 'big bad guy' of the scenario, but that enhanced the entire experience with no other characters getting hurt in the process).
Rules like we currently have in place are detractors from the player experience, not enhancers. What I mean by this is that it's far better to have rules that encourage a positive experience rather than create a negative one.
Using the UD / Surface as an example:
Perception: There are problems with UD / Surface characters always coming into conflict, fighting, not being respectful of the scenario and the DM team is sick of dealing with it.
Negative Rule: What we have now, i.e. UD / Surface interaction is heavily clamped down on (made impossible at low-mid levels), No hunting etc...
Positive Rule:
When your character is in an environment that they are perceived as outsiders, it's expected that they'll keep a low key and often be in disguise. Furthermore you may not be the instigators of confrontation - meaning, it is not acceptable to take an evil character (no matter how powerful your build is), to a good temple and start causing trouble. Always assume there are enough npc's to subdue your character.
Examples of this include:
Evil characters in obviously good locations (and vice versa)
Drow inside towns or within view of npc's (no Eilistraens dancing naked through the streets etc).
The above rule isn't completely fleshed out but is hopefully enough that you get the idea. It not only achieves what we have now, but it also enhances it - it is applied consistently across all factions be they good / evil or surface / underdark. It also promotes players in locations that are alien to themselves to RP what it would be like for them in a hostile environment. It also facilitates player choice.
