World Interaction - 2 of 4 (Merchant Houses)

[Morfeus]

I agree that leaders should give some amount effort and time and attention to the game. But I disagree that every leader should be the same type. I played a few leader-roles in past years - some of them were "common" leaders and ran big and serious plots, some of them were "born" leaders and did only support other people who started and ran plots considered world-shaking. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Especially if nearly every character IG can become some kind of leader, not only those who are given sponsored roles.  :wink:

[Cuusardo]

Personally I think that the people that don't want to actually -be- a leader shouldn't take the roles. They are -wasting- the position IMO when there is probably someone who would like to drive plots just sitting by waiting for it to open up.

I don't think LoD's statment about how seriously one might be taking the game is too bold at all. I agree with it completely. If I didn't want the responsibility that comes with a leader position I wouldn't take it.
Like he said earlier, some people want the positives that come with such a position but none of the negatives. When those people are in such a position the game suffers.

I could not agree more.  I have seen some PCs in leader positions that were so utterly irresponsible that it made me cringe.  They didn't stay true to the nature of the roles, they shirked off IC duties, cared more about their personal interests, never bothered to show up for RPTs that they organized, etc.  To add to what jhunter said, if you don't care how your roleplay affects others, you shouldn't be playing a leadership role.  When you take on a leadership role, especially a sponsored role, you must be willing to take it seriously to a degree, and be responsible.

[Maybe42or54]

I just want to say, that if they OOCly don't want to be a leader, they shouldn't be, but if there Pc doesn't want to be a leader, tough luck, as long as the player wants to be a leader.

[jhunter]

Agreed, mainly that's what I'm referring to. The people that OOCly don't want the responsibilities of the leader role but for some reason want all the benefits that come of it.
If you are intending on making a pc that is ICly a poor leader that's all fine. But, the people that are avoiding "doing their job" for purely OOC reasons are harming the game rather than adding to it and shouldn't be in such positions.

[Larrath]

I just want to say, that if they OOCly don't want to be a elader, they shouldn't be, but if there Pc doesn't want to be a leader, tough luck, as long as the player wants to be a leader.

It's possible to be a leader on an OOC level while not being a leader on an IC level.  With that said, if you're the sole leader of the clan, it's legitimate but not very polite to purposely play a very bad leader.
The things a leader does OOCly basically boil down to scheduling and planning RPTs and talking to the clan imms in order to keep plots, projects and other things in the clan active.
The things a leader does ICly are the actual 'leading' - giving people things to do, providing a direction to the group, rallying the clan members around a common cause, and so on and so forth.

Though it's also possible to do these things (rallying the clan members and giving people stuff to do) while playing a bad IC leader...but it's pretty tough, I imagine.

Any player in a leadership position needs to do the OOC part of the job (and it is a job in many cases), regardless of what their PC likes or doesn't like.  If you don't want to do the job required for leadership, you either need to find an arrangement where you can be the second or third-in-command, or simply not play a leader.
ICly, do what your PC would do.

[spawnloser]

Okay, I've played a couple leader roles...

One was cut short, and I didn't get much time in, but did accomplish a couple quick things and the character was made into an NPC, a public NPC even.

The other leadership role I had was long-lived.  Had a couple plots happen to the character, but in general was a 'lazy noble'.  I still made plot stuff happen.  I also gave people all sorts of hints as to fun things they could do to impress my character...most of that shit was ignored.  I was dissappointed.

For both of them, I put in at least 2 hours per day.  Every day.  Yeah, my characters were alternately outgoing and lazy, but both of them had time and presence for the rest of the people in the House so that I could lead them as I was supposed to.

It's not the kind of Leader (because you can successfully provide leadership no matter the personality), it's the time, to me at least.

[Yokunama]

Changing your accent when you go to the other city will work to a degree but there's some deception involved, like you're pretending to be a northerner or a southerner without actually being one.  

It seems that the neutral relationship the Merchant Houses have is being trampled over by the excessive treat the foreigner bad trend. I'd -love- to see more PC's interact with employees of the Great Merchant Houses with a more neutral feelings.