Accounting for the virtual world

[JollyGreenGiant]

After some thought on several subjects, it seems to me that there are some implied limitations to the way we are to account for the virtual world, and these limitations are imposed as rules.  The best way to explain the phenomenon is by example.

Let's say you are a Lieutenant of Noble House.  There is one other PC Guard in the House.  Virtually speaking, there are around 100 or so Guards serving the House, but 4 are NPCs and the other 94 are virtual.  House rules state that a Lieutenant needs a minimum of two Guards with him to run training sessions outside the walls.  Virtually, you are not the only Lieutenant in the House, and you run training sessions in which virtual Guards participate in the barracks.

When it comes to a training session outside the walls, however, it is suddenly as though those 4 NPCs and 94 vNPCs don't exist.  From a game standpoint, not using the NPCs is perfectly understandable - a noble, aide, or other non-combative role might need the protection, and vNPCs can't serve that purpose.  From a game standpoint, with vNPCs you have no coded backup in a potentially dangerous situation.

This creates a potential disparity in the game.  If you, the Lieutenant, go (PC-wise) with the one other Guard in your House and take a vNPC with you, would the immortals take issue with it?  What if it was just you and two other vNPCs?  Do you think it is reasonable/fair to have a problem with using vNPCs for that purpose, and then simultaneously take umbrage at players commenting that "there are no Salarri around" because there are no PCs available?

How do you feel about/deal with situations in which you want to treat the virtual world as realistically as possible, but are faced with some kind of restriction that appears to -not- account for the virtual world?

[Raesanos]

I hate to pick on your specific example, since I realize you are trying to express a more general claim, but perhaps my standpoint would be best portrayed this way.

You have your lieutenant and your private PCs who want to go outside. There is a rule that says they can't go outside with less than 3 people. They feel its unfair that there are 98 virtual NPCs around, and not one of them can go outside with them.  I don't find it too far-fetched that all 98 other guards are busy. People in Zalanthas are busy busy people. Or, it may be that other VNPCS are already virtually romping in the woods in groups of three. Depending on your clan, maybe you aren't allowed to bring people from other "units" on these missions.

Now, instead of continuing with the specific point, I'll try to suggest my more general response: I believe that in most, if not all, cases like this someone should be able to come up with a reasonably IC reason that VNPCs would be unavailable. Thinking of these reasons may be more difficult than I'm assuming for some people, but discussing it on the board in a general way has the potential to be beneficial to people.

[sarahjc]

I don't know if this works soo.. well.. But.

When I was in a house I would refer to my PC players as a Unit. That they were my unit. There is no real way to account for all those VNPC's that you can't interact with. This unit mentality helped in a lot of ways. I mean in a merchant house for example.. You cannot account for all the other VNPC Merchants/Family/Sergeants/Hunters/Cadets. There are tons.. But.. By breaking this down to the playing PC's being your designated "group" It makes things a bit smaller, without making it feel like a the house isn't as big as it really is.

A hunting unit works with a merchant or maybe two.. a quartermaster.. aide.. and so on and so forth. Thus you have the central unit within a massive house of central units,  making it run.


To me it makes sense that One sergeant would get a troop of about say.. no more than 10 men. Those men are his responsibility to train/keep alive. Those men would work with each other forming a bond/trust with those men. After all, you go out the gates and your life depends on yourself and the people you are with. I would like think that most put a lot of thought into who they trust their lives to.. and would not just mosey on out with some random trooper just because he has the urge to stretch his legs.

But so.. It does a few things:

1. It decreases the amount of VNPC's I can expect to be available for me.
2. It's easier to dismiss a player that was gone for a while, He/She was transferred to another unit, and your interaction has been limited.
3. A sense of family within a LARGE group.


But this is just how I like to see things..

[Mar]

Problem is if there is "the Officer" and ONE other PC in the guard. ICly, I doubt that could ever happen. You cannot say: "PCs are my unit, VNPCs are different one". You are the Officer. You probably have more then one person in your unit. Actually, I think you have at least five people in there. Those people should follow your orders. So, there technically should be possible to take your unit and ride out. Yes, you could sit and OOCly find reasons why you cannot. But, IMHO, those are usually only lame excuses how to fix the gape between ICness and OOCness.

Of course, I am not saying that you, as the Officer, are going to go hunting in a company of four VNPCs. But, on the other side, I think there are things which you could easy do in a company of VNPCs.

[amoeba]

I'd have to chime in a agree with Sarahjc I have seen this in the real world.  With my dozen or so years in the Air Force, breaking people into small managable groups was the norm, at least in my field.  These teams were often quite small, 2-4 people.  If the other members were out, I worked alone or did other duties.  

I would play it that training as a group would be the norm, and that pulling in a member from outside the group, who was unfamilier with the interpersonnal dynamics of said group, and thrusting them into a dangerous life or death situation would be a rare event.

[Agent_137]

I take lots of VNPC friends with me when I ride outside the gate. They protect me from all the VNPC critters that want to eat us.


Less sarcastic point:
Leave the VNPCs to deal with the other VNPCs. Make up reasons in game. You're creative. Pretend their busy. Pretend you don't like them. Pretend some one else has them. Pretend whatever you want. But I try to keep assumed interactions between PCs and VNPCs to a minimum.

[sarahjc]

Problem is if there is "the Officer" and ONE other PC in the guard. ICly, I doubt that could ever happen. You cannot say: "PCs are my unit, VNPCs are different one". You are the Officer. You probably have more then one person in your unit. Actually, I think you have at least five people in there. Those people should follow your orders. So, there technically should be possible to take your unit and ride out. Yes, you could sit and OOCly find reasons why you cannot. But, IMHO, those are usually only lame excuses how to fix the gape between ICness and OOCness.

Yes, this is understandable, but your clan probably has maybe 3-10 active people playing. But they do not all play at the same time. So we just assume that they are off doing other things.

But it is a lot easier to explain why 5 people aren't around, then 105 that should be.

VNPC's should not be a reason for you to rationalize going out solo because you are OOC bored and want to explore. Cause the VNPC's can't kill the NPC critters, nor the PC raiders.  Most Militant Clans offer alternate things to do when there are not enough PC's to play with. If they don't, well they should.

[wizturbo]

Unless I'm taking this post the wrong way...the problem is you don't have enough non-virtual guards to go out and do something?

Simple solution really.  If your character is a high ranking military official, reassign some virtual NPC's into your unit as personal escorts.  That basically means, send your immortal and e-mail and request they load up some NPC guards for you.  If you want to get creative, write up the guards yourself and give them names and personalities.

If your just a sergaent though, I highly doubt your house/organization would just hand over those resources without a second though.  A lieutenaut, might have such resources readily available however.

[Savak]

If you think someone else is being mean to you, you're probably right.
If you think there aren't enough people in your house, tribe, clan, unit, bathroom, etc., you're probably right.

Either way, you have to deal with it, because bottom line is that your rules stand (and in the case of protecting yourselves, most commonly the magick #3 for going outside, that means REAL PC's/NPC's, not VNPC's), and any specific exclusions have to be dealt with individually.  Or, face the consequences (usually IC one's only).

There are lots of ways HOW different people deal with that -- most have already been suggested.  Personally, my suggestion would be to find and recruit some suitable PC comrades (keeping in mind that most people are, in fact, not suitable and should be ELIMINATED from the gene pool).

-Savak