Following BlackmanD sound advice I directed my Forum rant to the DM's. They answered my questions and offered options. Who knew it was so simple. My method of screaming bloody murder is fun but asking the DM's seemed to get more results. Go figure....
-Re: Schools of Magic Factions- Mages in Sshamath can self appoint themselves as a member of a school of magic and rank themselves based on level.
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There are times where there have been player run School Factions. I guess at one point in time there were enough players to fill up the various schools of magic. And these schools would all RP being rivals of each other.
So now, you can self appoint yourself a member of a school and also if you want to you can join the Schools faction if there are any active – which I don't think there has been for awhile. Although I hear that the Necromancy School has an active player run faction still.
It seems the DM's still want the schools separate, even with a small player base, so that they can be autonomous of each other to give the players more freedoms.
-Re: Bureaucracy – This is DM controlled but the members are players. You do not need to be in a school of magic. It helps if you make an impact on the goings ons of Sshamath, usually be influencing plots and running your own faction. You can then request to be included or you may even be invited into The Bureaucracy.
If I elect to join the School of Mages, I will be a Mage of the School of Mages. If the School of Mages has seats on The Bureaucracy that are currently filled by inactive members, I can petition the conclave to fill that seat to take that seat.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=43497
But, there is no guarantee if I am just a new and lowly member/student of a school that has no influence in the city. Got to pay my RP dues.
There is still confusion regarding who is active in The Bureaucracy, and who is not. But that is for the DM's to figure out, if they so choose.
-Re: Creating a Magocracy.
Technically The Conclave is already a Magocracy which is controlled by the DM's. Like the Dukes of Baldur's Gate on the surface one can not just become a Duke and rule the city. But the surface has factions that directly support The Dukes – The Knights of the Radiant Heart for example.
We would have DM support if we created a Mageocracy player guild in support of Sshamaths Magocratic run government in the same fashion as these surface guilds.
So creating a Magocracy player run faction is an option that would help organize the magic using players the RP in Sshamath.
1)it would help sort out what mage players are still active both on The Bureaucracy and on the server itself. Saving a lot of work for the DM's
2)It would encourage mage RP.
3)It would encourage School of magic RP
4)It would encourage Conclave RP
It would be different then being a part of the Bureaucracy. One reason being that the Magocracy would be for the benefits of Mages where the Bureaucracy is for the benefit of the current players on the Sshamath stage.
But if the players on The Bureaucracy are all mages then a Mageocracy could become pointless because the Bureaucracy would be a Magocracy itself.
But it is really a matter of who is playing in the UD right now. I may be wrong but I think the problem is, we have a shortage of mage players in the mage city right now.
