How to play Dwarves?

[Marauder Moe]

Dwarves wouldn't really meet someone and say "Hi, I'm Grog and my focus is to get a metal sword."

Its not an issue of being private or not, its that dwarves don't have a word for it.  The term 'focus' is completely OOC.

Now, sure, plenty of dwarves would talk about their foci because they think about it all the time, just not with the word 'focus'.  Of course, if discussing one's focus would endanger it (such as a sorceror dwarf wanting to topple Tek's tower) then certainly it would be kept a secret.

[EvilRoeSlade]

There's a couple things that should be clarified.

Kro is a 21 year old dwarf. Young, brash, his focus has developed into a yearning of knowledge. Though there are many facats to such a foci, he particullarly leans towards knowledge of elven heritage. So, Kro has a foci to develop his knowledge of evlen history.

First off, a 21 year old dwarf is the developmental equivalent of a 14 year old human.

Second, that's not a particularly good example of a dwarf.

We're all here just to have fun, so you should create a focus that you, as a player, would enjoy going through in the game. That said, your focus should be grounded in the history and personality of your character. Since a focus is not an alien presence that comes upon a dwarf, but rather a natural feeling that is inseparable from them, the nature of their focus should arise from what comes naturally to them. For most dwarves, their life has been hard and their needs rudimentary - and their focus should reflect this. A focus of providing food for an ailing relative, escaping slavery from a cruel master, serving a kind master with absolute trust, gaining revenge on a man who killed your brother - these things are all taken from the day to day life of the dwarf, and thus, are appropriate.

Read that carefully, because few people seem to really understand it.  A dwarf doesn't develop their focus in spite of their environment, they develop their focus in response to their environment.  It doesn't make a great deal of sense for a 21 year old dwarven peasant to have a focus to gain knowledge of elven history.  What does a young dwarf care about elves?  They're basically like humans in her eyes, except even taller and skinnier!  Furthermore, she's heard that they're just one big group of untrustworthy merchants, so when possible she avoids buying from them.  No, her main concern is continuing the family line.  Wouldn't it be a shame if when she died in one-hundred years, her bloodline died with her?  She needs to find a suitable mate who will produce children of acceptable quality, find a way to provide for them, and then have as many as she possibly can, since half of them are likely to die before they reach the age of five.  Then she has to make sure the ones that reach adulthood find mates as she did!

If a dwarf was brought up in wealth and comfort (I'll leave how this might happen to your imagination) then she might indeed settle upon a scholarly focus, such as chronicling elven history.

I think a mistake that too many people make is coming up with a focus that's quite simply, improbable.  Exploring the known world.  Compelling the Dragon to return to Zalanthas.  Joining a desert elf tribe.  And yes, becoming the greatest warrior d00d (Think about this one for a moment.  If your dwarf isn't a gladiator, then exactly what circumstances would cause him to pursue such an unlikely focus?).  I'll admit it, I've pursued at least one of these foci in the past.  But recently, I've come to the understanding that if I want a crazy focus, then I should make it clear in my background that my character is a madman.

And as a sidenote, I'd like to challenge the notion that the term focus is an OOC concept.  It doesn't seem to indicate that anywhere in the documentation.

[Marauder Moe]

http://www.armageddon.org/rp/racial/focus.html

A dwarf likely does not refer to their focus in terms of "this is my focus." To them, it is entirely natural; the focus is what it means to be alive.

[EvilRoeSlade]

That doesn't indicate to me that the focus is an OOC term.  Rather, it makes me think it was a term invented by humans.  Human slavers, most likely.

[Marauder Moe]

Perhaps.  I suppose only the staff can settle it for sure, though.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I don't think that I said that the focus was a good one. I, in fact, only made up this character to have a test subject to use for examples related to other than combat, which is what just about everyone gives their dwarf in terms of a focus, particullarly newbies. A focus can be as mundane or as exotic as you want it.

Additionally, I do not think that exotic foci should make a dwarf a madman, since dwarves are already mad in the sense that they even have these binding, boundless foci. No one knows persicely how a dwarf chooses their foci anyway, not even the dwarf. To them it is not a focus, it is an instinct just like eating and shitting. It has been, is, and will be. It is more of an "I've decided to do -insert blank here- and that's just what I'll do," with no erring from the course.

If dwarves did not pick exotic foci at times, then all dwarves would be commoners or hunters or such equally mundane creatures, and we know they are not always this. So, frankly, I encourage one to pick an exotic foci, or, at least, a foci not relating to mundane, common tasks.

To me, PCs are a step above your typical peer in most cases, save for the PC in a noble family or a merchant family, and as such, PCs are rightly sanctioned to indulge in oddities not commonly undertaken by their NPC peers.

On a last note, while the docs do say that often foci are related to day-to-day tasks and concerns, they also say that a focus should be very difficult, if not impossible, to acheive. In the last few days, in fact, staff themselves have posted such implications. In said light, I lean towards the impossible, kill-a-dwarf, improbable-odds foci as opposed to the daily life focus, since, as the docs say again, we are all here to have fun and your focus should be fun to play.

And with ALL of that siad, if you like a mundane foci, then certianly do one. Variety is what makes this game great.

[EvilRoeSlade]

A focus is, by definition, never easy.  Just because it's mundane, doesn't make it easy.  Let's take an example from the documentation.  Caring for an ailing relative.  Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?  From a coded stand-point, all you need to do is get a job, decide how much it costs to take care of the relative (a VNPC) and somehow make that many coins disappear every month, right?  Right?!  No, no, no...

An example of a dwarf commoner...

Grunden's mother is sick, and has been ever since he was very young.  He knows that she will never recover, and so his focus is to care for her until she passes away.

Unfortunately for Grunden, her treatment is expensive.  There isn't any way he can afford the physician's medicine when all he earns 50 sid a week as a laborer.  So in order to get more coins, he gets a job with House Kurac smuggling spice into Allanak.  Every day he leaves the gates, and returns with a cartful of obsidian with an illegal bundle secured within.  The guards haven't caught on so far.

If it was that simple, Grunden would be a far luckier creature than he is.  Unfortunately, his mother's focus is to avenge the death of her daughter, who had been ordered whipped to death after she offended a wealthy merchant.  Grunden realizes that if she attempts to complete this focus on her own, her already tenuous grip on life could be extinguished.  If she dies, he will fail in his focus.  Knowing full well that persuading her to give up her focus is the very definition of futility, he's instead travelled the only path possible:  acting as her pawn.  At first he assisted her as much as she would allow, since she insisted on taking a personal hand in the matter.  As her health grew worse, she gradually decided that acting through subordinates was the only way to succeed in her focus, and she allowed Grunden to be her agent.  He has to manage these affairs in complete exactance with her specifications, because she insists that he carry out the revenge in the exact manner that she has envisioned it.

During his free time one night, Grunden had a conversation with a human, who told him of the mystical healing powers of ground tembo-tooth.  Grunden decides that in order to properly care for his mother, he'll need to give her a dose monthly.  He doesn't have the time, resources, or ability to hunt the tembo himself, and although that's his first impulse, he decides to delegate the task to another.  Unfortunately, even with the Kurac side-job, he doesn't have nearly enough money to do this.  And his mother's demands are growing increasingly, and he's quickly running out of money to fuel her obsession.  He decides that it's time to up the ante.  He approaches a blue-robed templar and reveals his job with Kurac, promising to act as an informant in exchange for money.  Though it solves his financial crisis for the time being, it creates an entirely new monster for poor Grunden...

*****

I think we agree that a dwarf's focus should be difficult.  The only discrepancy was how we envision a difficult focus.  I think that every focus is difficult, and every focus has the potential to be very interesting.  It doesn't matter if the focus is creating a merchant house, or baking a loaf of bread.  So in conclusion, I think that a focus is by its very nature, interesting and difficult.  You don't need to go out of your way to make it that way, because if you're playing your character correctly, than your character will make sure that it's difficult and interesting.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

S'fair. Witness the debate on dwarves on the Venomz and Slade Show, this week, on Zalanthas Extra.

[sjanimal]

Time for me to weigh in on this one.

It seems to me that the focus is similar to compulsive behavior in humans.

As such, it seems that a few dwarves will be aware that they have this compulsive behavior, while most people who suffer from compulsive behavior will never even be aware of the problem.

Also, I doubt that most non-dwarves would be aware of this tendency, since xenophobia and prejudices dominate Zalanthan mindsets rather than the facts.  Most people might be aware that dwarves can be really stubborn at times about seemingly silly things.

Even if a dwarf were aware of their focus, it seems doubtful they would want to talk about it with people they didn't trust, seeing as this would give other people a useful way to manipulate the dwarf, and most Zalanthans seem fairly paranoid.

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

I think those are apt conclusions, sjanimal. You're on the right track.