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

Sometimes... for me at least, the adventurer life gets stale, and (perhaps moreso) so does adventurer RP. One of my biggest gripes has always been how little-used the population-centric areas on the server can be, and I get absolutely bored to tears when in towns/cities by the lack of players and RP transpiring in those places, particularly when I'm on one of my adventurers(and... yes, I like to take my characters to BG, or Beregost, or Nashkel). I mean, literally every character on the server is out "hunting", slaying xvarts/giants/dragons ad nauseam... and then of course RP'ing about it afterward *twirls finger* yawn. This is, of course, what adventurers are supposed to do. I guess The problem with all of that is that it leaves the cities and towns as a place characters go only to purchase wares, or grab quests, but otherwise leaves them absolutely barren in terms of them being a living, breathing environment(other than in guild halls, guild affiliated taverns, and the like... which none of my adventurer characters has any business hanging out in. Especially if bake sales or talent shows is involved, because my adventurer characters also don't give two hoots about those).

As a result, I've been toying with the idea of making a commoner to putz around on for kicks, and I think I finally settled on one that might be fun. So, here's me putting out the feelers: Is there anyone else that's playing a commoner? If so, what city/town are you playing them in? If not... is anyone else presently interested in making a non-demon-slaying-uber-epic character(that has... you know, some actual character) purely for the purposes of creating a little more RP in the cities and towns?

Now, to be fair, I'm not necessarily trying to start anything up, at least not anything that will require regular attendance or it's own RP sub-forum ... I'm just trying to figure out if this is an idea that anyone else has kicked around?

I had a lot of fun playing a commoner. I went around as a homeless man picking bum fights with other commoners. Got into a corn fight! A+!

CommanderKrieg wrote:I had a lot of fun playing a commoner. I went around as a homeless man picking bum fights with other commoners. Got into a corn fight! A+!

...

I would have paid RL money to see that!

I've never done it here.

However, I remember one server where I very carefully cloned the look of the City Watch on a level one character. Then I focused on roleplaying him as an apathetic and under paid shift worker, similar to some of the original guards in Terry Pratchett's "Guards! Guards!".

Was a lot of fun, especially since his whole roleplay revolved around not doing his job.

I had toyed around with playing a commoner at one point. Instead, I settled on Huego, my bard. His build is very "bardy". His combat skills are barely enough to get by. Nearly all his feats chosen are social skills, etc. I had even toyed with making him a full CHA bard, but I didn't want to have to worry about carrying items for the times he does get a chance to go out.

Now, as a support, he'll be pretty good. He's bard 30. So it will be nice to have him in a party. Just hopefully no one will expect him to kill anything.

The reason I bring him up, though, is that you've posted something of a false dichotomy. You don't have to be either uber powerful or a commoner. And even if you are uber powerful, that does not mean you can't RP "normal life". I think of Isabella Villame. She nearly never goes out looting (unless Reineke can talk her into it). Yet her build is pretty powerful. She was even on the roof of the Friendly Arm Inn serving drinks for a couple of nights.

Now, my bard, Huego, is just that. A bard. Not an OP bard build. But an entertainer with social skills. If you want to play a commoner class, that's fine. Do what you feel like doing. But you'll generally find my bard at the Eastern Farmlands fire, in the Eastern District of BG, or at Ulgoth's fishing. He's very much an RP toon, not meant to go out and kill things. So it can be done without choosing the commoner class.

i also considered rolling a commoner. a commoner orc if that is possible. basically an orc with little desire to raid and pillage and whatever else orcs do.

inspiration:


but i am already super lonely as an adventuring orc. an orc that only fishes and chats up npcs? i might as well tell jokes in a mirror.

so i passed up on it.

Why is a commoner so restricted in his skill selection ? (Only craft,spot + listen are class skills.)

Commoners in real life can specialize in everything
Wouldn't opening all skills to him, make playing one more interesting ?

That's pnp commoner for you, commoners are not experts.

Some of the best times I have had on the server were just standing at a gate asking PCs for their name and reason for visiting. Playing 'pseudo NPC' roles by doing such things as bar tending or running a temple or guarding a specific area can be very fulfilling but does take a lot of time and one probably has to find enjoyment in the concept almost as much as the RP itself.

They all look like they're having a GREAT time! Ahh...the simple life!

Commoners don't have enough dragon energy.

Not entirely sure it'd fall into commoner-esque work, but my blacksmith Toman has (at least in his own head) a standing offer to anyone, commoner, farmer, adventurer, whomever that if they need repair work done on their tools, gear equipment, whatever you, from pitchforks and plows, to swords and spears, he's happy to do it.

It's part of the conditions for Toman to work at the Phoenix Company as their smith. The forge has to be built so that anyone can make use of it for repair work on whatever they need. Naturally though, fancy stuff would require some skilled hands to repair, but general dents and dings could be fixed up without much fuss.

I created a commoner and played him for a bit a few times. It was fun, but not something that I felt like revisting much.

I think to make the commoner class work, you'd need to go into it with a like minded group and all play commoners with something in common IE: a family, a trade, stranded immigrants, etc...

Also, having some kind of crafting and economic system that isn't based on attaining specific class skills/feats that allows selling potions below typical retail, or destroying goblin and kobold populations for spoils to blow out at a fraction of retail cost at auction.

That's not a criticism of the server, as a fight/quest/loot/sell gameplay cycle, it's great and keeps me coming back for more. We like playing exceptional heroes and villains and tweaking stats and finding cool loot.

However, as a commoner the server and economy aren't really set up for a lot of possibilities unless you can find a group willing to commit to doing something with it.

Wandering_Woodsman wrote:Not entirely sure it'd fall into commoner-esque work, but my blacksmith Toman has (at least in his own head) a standing offer to anyone, commoner, farmer, adventurer, whomever that if they need repair work done on their tools, gear equipment, whatever you, from pitchforks and plows, to swords and spears, he's happy to do it.

It's part of the conditions for Toman to work at the Phoenix Company as their smith. The forge has to be built so that anyone can make use of it for repair work on whatever they need. Naturally though, fancy stuff would require some skilled hands to repair, but general dents and dings could be fixed up without much fuss.

Interesting, I bought a simple full plate armor and removed most of its part with the appearance customizer to represent Lotrik's armor being left at smith for repairs after long hours of fighting stuff, and I gave him some points in craft weapons so he can take care of his sword on his own.

Steve wrote:

They all look like they're having a GREAT time! Ahh...the simple life!

I believe that illustration is from a 1920's textbook for secondary school students. Can't remember the name of the author but it depicts medieval peasants wearing simple undertunics as their main form of dress, and emphasizes that these did not change much throughout the centuries.

Perhaps I read too much.