The gemmed experience

[Salt Merchant]

This is NOT a hate magickers thread. Please don't treat it that way. It's a pair of question specifically directed to those who've played gemmed elementalists recently:

1. Were you pleased with the character, or did you grow weary of him/her fairly quickly?

2. How would you suggest that gemmed life could be made more interesting?

[Fathi]

I don't know what you think constitutes "recently," SM, but here were some of my thoughts when I played my first and only gemmer:

1. There never seemed to be any other gemmed mages in their actual quarter of the city. Waiting for spell effects to wear off was a pain in the ass and generally consisted of "sit around and idle in my temple since there's no way to get rid of my magick, nobody who'll get rid of it for me, and all the other gemmers are somewhere else."

2. It's way way way way way WAY too easy to make tens of thousands of coins without ever leaving Allanak and barely ever leaving your temple.

3. The Elementalists' Quarter is pretty deficient as far as ways to spend all that coin and is lacking a lot of the amenities that would make it a functional "base" for gemmed mages to RP out of. But I get the impression staff don't want it to be that anyhow.

4. During the brief time where another mage of my temple was around when my PC was, it made for some very interesting and fun roleplay. Learning about the magick system, how magick works, and your element's capabilities is all vastly more interesting with an IC mentor.

5. I enjoyed my character. I enjoyed several of the other gemmers around at the time, and a templar or two, too. That being said, the lack of acceptable "things to do" coupled with the laughable easiness of making shitloads of money made the role pretty boring, in the end, and I probably wouldn't do it again.

[Cutthroat]

1. Were you pleased with the character, or did you grow weary of him/her fairly quickly?

Overall, I was pleased with my first and only gemmed character. I never really got tired of it, but there were some things that were discouraging when playing there. Like when playing any character, there are slow times and there are interesting times. However, it seemed there were more slow times than with the usual character. Much of my playtime was spent alone, which I dreaded.

2. How would you suggest that gemmed life could be made more interesting?

The gemmed are tools of the Allanaki templarate. I think it is important that they are treated as such. I think my character was actually "used" by a templar once, maybe twice. Ungemmed commoners would probably keep that in mind as well. They should be used in plots, but not in a way that diminishes the fun for mundane players. I think there is a balance that can be achieved that would leave the average gemmed person and mundane person with something to do.

I think more players playing the average gemmer and the average mundane would make things more interesting too. I was a little sad, honestly, to find that even a rare few people wanted the lovely enchantments my character could put on them and to forever be friends with it.

[Zoltan]

1. I had an extremely positive experience playing a gemmed mage. My character was very social (only with gemmers), and I think I was lucky that there was a good quantity of quality players there at the time. There were some boring spots (waiting for spell effects to wear off), and I could see where I'd easily have gotten frustrated/bored if my character wasn't so damned interesting to me. He lived for a very long time and I don't remember ever wanting to store him because of boredom or feeling restricted in the role.

2. I'll just toss some ideas out here:

- More normals hating gemmers = more fun. Gemmers should know their damn place in the big picture, and the fact that even though you do such-and-such sekrit work for so-and-so templar/noble doesn't mean Joe Bynner isn't going to still think you're a freak. It's hard for me to articulate this correctly. I just feel that 90% of gemmers would know their place in society at large. You're a baby-eating monster at worst and a fucking tool at the very, very best. Don't fool yourself into thinking that the ignorant masses of the city will kowtow to your uber mage.

ICly, most normals have no idea of what mages are capable of, except for what they directly witness. Ignorance and fear slip so easily into anger, hate and even envy. Normals, bring it on. You don't need to make a gemmer feel threatened to insult them. And frankly, the NPC and vNPC masses at large are on -your- side. A gemmer should almost -never- have the upper hand in social relations at the Gaj, for example.

-This won't happen, I know, but if mages had an alternative gate into the city many playability issues could be solved. I don't think it'd make IC sense for that to happen, though.

- It's possible to encourage your fellow gemmers to hang out in the Quarter more, but yeah, directing any group of magickers to do anything at all is difficult.

I absolutely love magick in this game and playing a gemmer. But again, playing an openly haughty mage in typical mundane company (ie, going on the verbal attack when slighted by normals in the bar) is crap. Observe the game world. Observe the documentation. Part of the fun/challenge/restriction-in-the-face-of-all-the-advantages of playing a gemmer is being derided by the general populace.

[Jdr]

I had loads of fun, but I was gemmed when there was a massive influx of characters and an active boss, as well as the usual turnabout of Over-My-Head politics I was exposed to as a result of it. I didn't like not being able to go about with buffs on, as I couldn't dispel them and that really rankled, but being spotted with them was fun. I'm not really a big fan of magickers though and would only in the future play them as rogue-only or tribal for the excitement value.

[FantasyWriter]

I've played one magicker, and he was gemmed. 
I quite enjoyed it but stored after less than 5 days played for a sponsored role.

[deviant storm]

So much I'd like to say, but it's waaaaay too ic to discuss it at this point in time.

Fathi said earlier it was too easy to make sids without leaving your temple....this may be true for some magickers. For others, it is not. I think it depends on what services you offer, and if the templarate/etc, can make use of your talents.

Zoltan's comments about more normals hating gemmers...maybe I've had good luck so far. But I've seen a good deal of that. I can't say too much, but yeah, there's some people out there who play or have played that their characters rabidly hate gemmers. Wow. Others have gone so far as to get up and leave the Gaj when my gemmed was there. Or to tell me what an abomination I am. Good rp, which I enjoyed.

All in all, I'd have to say I did enjoy my gemmer(s). But that I found that magickers aren't really my thing, after all. They rock, don't get me wrong. Staff's done a great job on the whole spell coding and such. It's just...not roles I think I'll be taking often, gemmed or ungemmed.

[Agent_137]

gemmers need empowered non-gemmed leaders that can both support and provide plots. (immortal support is a significant bonus but not necessary.) Otherwise they just turn into socialites, retirees, raiders, hit men, or frustrated wannabe sergeants with nothing to do.

Why? Because the gem essentially destroys any capability to really reach out to leaders in groups outside templarate/oash. even if these outside groups could get over the fear of magick, they certainly don't want to be seen actively employing gemmers. The complete and utter failure of the council to get any regular outside contracts over the course of a few RL years proves this empirically. Sure there were a few small scale contracts but these could just have easily been done by one outgoing gicker and a friend.

Granted, I missed the early days of the council, the first RL year or two. I'm sure others can speak on the success or failure during those times.

p.s.
last I checked, gemmers ain't got much in the way of what I think they really need.

[Eloran]

Granted, I missed the early days of the council, the first RL year or two. I'm sure others can speak on the success or failure during those times.

The Council worked best as a guerilla campaign that subverted the templarate. Once the six months were up, the game hadn't ended and the end-plot for the world had stagnated, the Council lost its purpose.
[/quote]

The fact that all mages are ostracized is what makes playing a gemmed mage so limiting.

[Tallulah]

I enjoy playing gemmed mages.  Sitting around the temple practicing spells gets to be just as monotonous as using any other sort of coded skills, so you've got to mix actual RP and interaction with others in there.  There is always something that a gemmer can stick his nose into, whether it be magickal mystical stuff, or mundane.  Yes, gemmers are outcasts.  Yes, they do tend to get used for things that aren't so nice.  Ultimately, they're tools of the templarate to be used as the templarate needs them.  That in itself can make things very interesting.  And just like with any other type of role, you can't just sit around and wait for things to happen, or for other people to make them happen for you.  If you do that, of course you're going to get bored with the role.  The limitations imposed by the nature of the role make it more of a challenge, but there are plenty of ways to overcome that.

The one thing that's bothered me is the way some people feel they need to hole up in their temples spamming their skills until they feel they are powerful enough.  Those people are the ones who miss out on tons of roleplay and character development, because they're secluding themselves from the rest of the world.  You don't have to be a fully branched mage to be able to accomplish things.  It's important to keep in mind that mages are still people, with personalities, quirks, and emotions, and it's great fun to develop that, especially where the whole being an abomination thing is concerned.  That being said, I don't feel that the Elementalists' Quarter needs anything else.  The way to find and interact with other gemmers is to get out there and look for them rather than sitting around waiting for them to come to you.

[flurry]

I've only played one gemmed, so far, but that character lasted a while.

It is what you make of it. I didn't find being gemmed to be heavily restrictive. In fact, I was somewhat surprised (and sometimes disappointed) by how much latitude gemmed were given.

Based on my limited experience, I'd say it's important for a gemmed to not isolate themselves from other gemmed. Those are likely to be your best resource for plots, conflict, social interaction, and so on. If your concept requires going it alone, great, but you're making things much harder on yourself. On this point, I'll just echo what Tallulah said about some mages hiding away into they can spam up their skills. If you're saving the roleplay of your character until you've had the chance to level up, you're only setting yourself up for disappointment and a "what now?" feeling when you're done spamming skills.

P.S.

It's way way way way way WAY too easy to make tens of thousands of coins without ever leaving Allanak and barely ever leaving your temple.

Personally, I found the opposite to be true. I would have been happy with tens of coins, at times, to say nothing of tens of thousands.    I seriously never hard a harder time just scraping by, although I enjoyed that.

It is highly dependent on the type of magicker you have, I imagine.

[Lizzie]

1. Were you pleased with the character, or did you grow weary of him/her fairly quickly?

2. How would you suggest that gemmed life could be made more interesting?

1. I didn't like my character. I didn't want her to be gemmed, but at the time I was still a noob when it came to Allanak RP and didn't know that people aren't supposed to use the temples if they're -not- gemmed. So - I got gemmed. And regretted it. I should've stayed a rogue and taken my chances.

2. At the time, I had IC pressure from a templar to not leave the quarter with any spells of any kind up...and it was dangerous to leave the city -without- any spells up, because during that time, there was IC stuff going on that made it dangerous to even step out the gates without your armor already on your body and your blade at the ready. As a low-level gemmer, I had no armor, and I had no weapon skill. I had..magick. And I was forbidden from using it outside the temple. So..I spent most of my time being frustrated and hating the role, or not using magicks and being a tavern-sitter instead, or selling stuff to the shops.

The suggestion for me, to improve gemmers, is to adjust those rules that require magickers to rely on mundane armor and weapons that they might not be able to afford, and lack the coded skill to use, to defend themselves. If the Highlord feels the gemmers are useful enough to allow them to exist, then they should be allowed to use *protective only* measures when they leave their temples and venture out into the city, or walk on the street on their way out the city gates.

At least this way, you'll see a big reduction of storage among bored players who are stuck in their temples waiting for the spell they finally successfully cast, to wear off in 2 RL hours. Or the other gemmer who -only- uses the "nil" thingie, and has no idea what his spells can do, because he's never actually used it, because he doesn't want to be stuck in his temple for 2 hours and die of boredom. That kind of defeats the purpose, I think. Gemmers don't get most of the utility skills that some of the other guilds get. Instead, they get spells to replace some of those utility skills. Yet, they're not allowed to use them, and everyone else is. Even though these spells aren't visible to anyone, and aren't cast as needed. They're cast, and the gemmer walks around with them til they wear off. Much like the listen or scan skill.

So - in summary. The city should lighten up on non-visual-cued defense-only and utility-only magics. The people who -need- to know if they're wearing them, can already tell. The people who don't need to know, don't need to know, so it doesn't matter if they can tell or not.

[Tallulah]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with gemmers not being allowed to have magicks on outside their temples.  If you need to put on protective magicks to go and do anything outside the city, you can easily put it all on once you get comfortably out of line of sight of the city.

[Lizzie]

Someone obviously missed the point. So never mind.

[Zoltan]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with gemmers not being allowed to have magicks on outside their temples.  If you need to put on protective magicks to go and do anything outside the city, you can easily put it all on once you get comfortably out of line of sight of the city.

It's the getting back into the Quarter when you need to that's the problem for most.

[Majikal]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with gemmers not being allowed to have magicks on outside their temples.  If you need to put on protective magicks to go and do anything outside the city, you can easily put it all on once you get comfortably out of line of sight of the city.

It's the getting back into the Quarter when you need to that's the problem for most.

Agreed, it's completely understandable and realistic for the templarate not even wanting 'protective' magicks or innocent magicks outside the city. What if someone bumps into you and that magick goes nutso and flings some unlucky fucker soaring half-way across the city in a sparkly array of snap, crackles and pops? Then the templarate might end up with a riot to calm down over those pesky finger wigglers etc. Walking around with magicks, even the 'safe' ones is the equivalent of walking around with a loaded gun by my standards.

1. Were you pleased with the character, or did you grow weary of him/her fairly quickly?

I played my first true gemmer not all that long ago, I found the experience to be entertaining for the most part. I sort of went all out on the role and aimed for something that was new for me on quite a few levels. It had ups and downs but generally when I was logged in I was enjoying myself and filled with stuff to do, perhaps it was just the kind of pc I had. One annoyance I had with the role was the amount of characters I would cross that would be idling in their temple, it was a bit of a put off to catch such a thing so often. The gemmer experience is definitely all about what YOU make it to be.

2. How would you suggest that gemmed life could be made more interesting?

Alot of the entertainment is based on what the player pushes for, there's some few tweaks I would personally make to the magicker classes but IMO it's already setup to be an entertaining experience, don't fall into the slump of spamming spells and getting uber, chillax and flesh out the character.

The comp crafting skill needs to be tweaked so items aren't worth so much, my gemmer could drop 20-50 sids on raw goods, then flip it for well over 2000 sid in one day, it was impossible to stay broke. I would simply have to pretend my pc was too dumb to turn simple shit into small fortunes overnight half the time and even then he retired with an easy 10k in the bank and maybe 30k in various goods strewn about his apartment.

Tighten the leashes, you are owned, you exist to serve, you have a filthy fucking curse and the only reason you are allowed beneath His shadow is because he's merciful enough to let you cower there, oh, and you're his bitch.. forever. I would like to see the whip come down on the gemmers backs a bit more, have the mages treated like a dog that can be broken and will be broken. Don't like the way this elkran is parading around the city in his silks, beat him stupid and dropkick him into a cactus so the gaj-folk can get a good laugh. Gemmed aren't treated bad enough IMO.

[brytta.leofa]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with gemmers not being allowed to have magicks on outside their temples.  If you need to put on protective magicks to go and do anything outside the city, you can easily put it all on once you get comfortably out of line of sight of the city.

It's the getting back into the Quarter when you need to that's the problem for most.

Psst: villages.  Yes, it is borderline twinky; yes, you'd rather be in the city proper; yes, sometimes you just have to log out.

And a bit of interpretation on my part: the general law is whatever spell effects get you crime coded.  If a PC templar tells you it's illegal to walk around with something that won't get you crime coded, he's expressing his personal (but enforceable) desire.  My opinion only; non-authoritative; ill-researched; please inquire within.

[Jenred]

I think this thread has bordered into the too much IC info. Especially in regards to the money making, spell-durations, etc. The initial question is being degraded into the common magicker discussions that everyone is already familiar with.

[Tallulah]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with gemmers not being allowed to have magicks on outside their temples.  If you need to put on protective magicks to go and do anything outside the city, you can easily put it all on once you get comfortably out of line of sight of the city.

It's the getting back into the Quarter when you need to that's the problem for most.

Yes, that sucks.  But there are a few sheltered places fairly nearby that a person can wait in, or even quit out in if you absolutely have to.  And of course, there are other ways around the problem, but those are found IC.  That doesn't much bother me either, because it helps add some realism and challenge to the game.  I actually like all of the challenges that come with playing a gemmer, and that's part of the reason I play them.

[FantasyWriter]

Being a gemmed is like being in a clan.  There are some things that absolutely suck about it OOCly, but just as many good things to make up for it.

[Ender]

There's a reason that these roles are Karma required.  They are not for everyone, and require a great deal of patience.  I for one would not want to see the game bend unrealistically to make them more playable.  If there is strong PC motivation for change, I'm all for that, but the system is not broken from a playability standpoint.

The difficulties/patience required that are presented by various rules that govern gemmed existence are an intended feature of the game.

again,

KARMA ROLE.

[FantasyWriter]

Simple wisdom.

*sage nod*

[Jingo]

I had a short-lived gemmer not long ago. I have to say that I was suprised by the amount of job opportunities and how quickly they became available. None of them were even with Oash.

I thought it was an interesting dichotomy. In public everyone treated him like crap. But if you made yourself available outside the taverns, they'll find a way to put you to use.

That's how I saw it, at least.

I could also see how a spell removal service would make things run a bit smoother. It can be a real pain just having those spells constantly linger when you want to play.

[spawnloser]

I think some people (specifically and especially Lizzie) are ignoring something:  you can play a gemmer like you play a thief, by being aware.  I'll let you think about that instead of going into detail, but I'll give one hint... there are rules you as a player must follow, but the rules your character "must follow" aren't the same type of rules, and your character can break them or get around them in various ways.  Playing a magicker isn't supposed to be easy, and isn't as easy as many people suggest, but it isn't as hard as others maintain.

(I'll add here that magickers have certain coded restrictions that boil down to what skills they DON'T have, and as a result, they can die somewhat easily/quickly.  Those that complain about how easy it is to get rich as a magicker ignore that most of the wealth those magickers generate is quickly returned to the game when those short-lived magickers die.)

I've played quite a few magickers.  I love the magick system in this game.  Of my last two characters played for longer than 1 day, one was a rogue and the other a gemmer.  Both were/are fun.  (This is not to be read into.  I may or may not currently be playing one of these characters and I won't say what order they were played in.  When I speak of my gemmer experience, keep in mind that the information may be dated.)

1. Were you pleased with the character, or did you grow weary of him/her fairly quickly?

I don't grow weary of a character just because of the circumstances and IC restrictions on the character by nature of the class I picked.  I understand what the restrictions are before I start playing the character and after that, it's just a matter of my character reacting to these IC circumstances and restrictions.  Play the character, not the circumstance, and by this I mean that you shouldn't do anything like, "I'm playing a gemmer!"  You're playing Gardon, an ex-mercenary that manifested as a rukkian... or etc.

The only thing that annoys me while playing a gemmer is the relatively high turn-over rate in other people's gemmers.  Sure, there are players that know what they're doing and go do it and stick around a while, but the majority of people playing gemmers play their gemmers (and rogues) as if they were rangers or warriors or whatever.  People don't understand what they're getting into and play the same way they would a non-magicker character and it gets them dead more often than not.  Partly I think this is because people think that magickers are so powerful, but I also think that people get bored and do stupid stuff because of it.

2. How would you suggest that gemmed life could be made more interesting?

I would suggest having more than one clan for the gemmed to join.  The Council was an interesting experiment, but I think it failed.  Something more like the merchant houses being willing to hire gemmers in certain capacities would be best.  This could easily come with strict guidelines that limit how many gemmers and even what element they would hire.  They could also limit what the gemmers are allowed to do like "gemmers are allowed only to make it to X rank" or "only allowed to be part of Y type of missions/tasks."  This would allow for variety and limit the desire for certain types of gemmers to go make coin their own way.

As a brief aside, I can attest to the fact that "their own way" can indeed end up with gemmers having more money than they know what to do with, but how they do this is definitely dependent on the element.  It is difficult for some to make money except by subguild skills.  The funny thing is that most of these ways of making cash can be done by someone without magick, specifically the ways based on those subguild skills.

[Lizzie]

No Spawnloser, I'm not ignoring anything. The OP asked what our experiences were, and then asked based on those experiences what we would change.

I've played one gemmer and one ungemmed non-city mage. My experience is of the one gemmer, and I gave my experience, and gave my opinion based on that experience. I'm sure you're aware of a lot of things that I wasn't aware of at the time.

MY experience, however, was different. I posted my experience so you would understand, but I've been asked politely to remove the experience..even though it is exactly those things that explain why I have the opinion I have. So once again Spawnloser, you get to trump on the GDB, because of IC information you know about and can brag about, and I can't rebut on the forum. So I've edited that entire explanation out, which makes this post look pretty stupid because it doesn't explain shit.

I almost stored that day. That's how much I didn't want to be a gemmer. I stuck around for a few weeks, being bored and frustrated and hating the role, stuck myself into Council politics just so I could piss someone off enough to kill her off. It took over two weeks to do it, but finally someone did. I figured it was less twinky than suiciding. But that's basically what it was. I hated it. Hated every moment of it. I felt like I was cheated out of the opportunity to really enjoy playing a mage, and that somewhere, there were mages whose players were actually getting a kick out of it.

That, the paragraph I deleted that explains exactly why I hated playing a gemmer, was MY experience, my one and only experience playing a gemmed mage. I'm glad your experience was more positive Spawnloser, but that doesn't negate my opinion of my experience, and my personal enjoyment (or lack thereof) of my experience.

[Zoltan]

Please, Lizzie, edit out that IC stuff about the gem and templars.

[Lizzie]

Done Zoltan, even though it didn't say what a templar/gem can or cannot do. It only explained what my character was told, ICLY, that the templar/gem can or cannot do. To this day, I have no idea what they really can, codedly, and cannot, codely, do.

[a strange shadow]

Vitriol much?

I've only played one gemmed myself. Boring, probably wouldn't again, but I chalked it up to a different playstyle than I usually enjoy combined with inexperience with the role. I just (personally) do not prefer playing magick classes, gemmed or not. Though - if I had made the character more developed from the outset, I would probably have gotten more out of the experience.

[Is Friday]

I played a couple of gemmed. The only one I really enjoyed was one I was able to special app a really in-depth background and additional skills for to reflect said background. (Call me shallow.)

Gemmed, if they don't hate being gemmed, are boring. Boring to interact with for other people, and boring to play.

[Boggis]

Gemmed, if they don't hate being gemmed, are boring. Boring to interact with for other people, and boring to play.

Utterly ridiculous statement. Hey let's all be self-hating as gemmed all the time. Welcome to the Emo-mentalist Quarter. What fun.

I've played a few gemmed. Most of them have lasted 5-6 months and I've enjoyed them all. There's lots of different interactions you can have as a gemmed (beyond Oash & Templarate) and it all pretty much boils down to the player and their level of interest in making what's a restrictive role work for them. If you've got the attitude that being gemmed is boring and dull then that's probably how the role will work out for you. If you play just for the magick spells you'll be bored after 10 days play. Being gemmed is a somewhat restrictive role with pros and cons attached to it. Part of the experience of playing a gemmed is playing within these parameters. Granted it might not be for everybody. I don't think though we need any major things added to up the gemmed experience. A proper place for gemmed to congregate in might be nice - some tweaks to an existing area would probably do just fine. A shop where you could pay a certain type of magicker to remove your spells might be nice too even though I never had much of a problem with that side of things myself when gemmed (possibly due to the type of magicker I was playing).

[Agent_137]

i never answered the first question in the original post.

This is NOT a hate magickers thread. Please don't treat it that way. It's a pair of question specifically directed to those who've played gemmed elementalists recently:

1. Were you pleased with the character, or did you grow weary of him/her fairly quickly?

I was very pleased with the character. I did not grow weary until about 15-20 days or so. But then I took a break for a few months and was drawn back more empowered. I had to do this a few times to fill up the 2 years, but I don't think it was the gem's fault.

however. it was VERY HARD and a LOT OF WORK. And I'm not referring to learning spells. i'm referring to having fun. you really have to work at having fun as a magicker once you get past the novelty of branching spells and exploring whatever lands you want to explore.

Even if I hadn't given up my karma in the 'great karma off' i would not play one again. Too much work and the steadily degrading environment already spoken of has made the work even harder. That said, it was a very satisfying experience and certainly defined my Armageddon career. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

[spawnloser]

Aw, someone pissed in Lizzie's Cheerios, apparently.  Where did I mention super-sekrit information or brag about having it?  Stop straw-manning me.  I said, slightly less snarkily, to stop whining and start playing intelligently.  You apparently are not because you look at certain restrictions as a brick wall that you can't get past, and I know for fact (and so does anyone that's played a Rinthi) that these walls aren't nearly as high as they look like and not so long of reach that you can't get around by being clever and THINKING.

Oh, and stop attacking me when I didn't attack you, only used you and your experience as an example of the player creating more hardship for the character than has to exist.

Again, stop crying.  Start using your head.

[Zoltan]

Done Zoltan, even though it didn't say what a templar/gem can or cannot do. It only explained what my character was told, ICLY, that the templar/gem can or cannot do. To this day, I have no idea what they really can, codedly, and cannot, codely, do.

Thank you. Sorry if I came off dickish; I was just about to head to work when I read this thread. I understand what you mean about it only being told ICly and that that doesn't necessarily equate to code, but honestly, I don't know the coded truth either! It's just one of those things that'd suck if it got discussed too much on the GDB, in my opinion.

And in response to spawnloser, sometimes the very nature of your character doesn't allow you to do some of those clever things. I can rattle off many, many, MANY things I'd have liked to do/make easier with my last gemmer if only their personality was a -little- different.

[Tallulah]

1. Were you pleased with the character, or did you grow weary of him/her fairly quickly?

2. How would you suggest that gemmed life could be made more interesting?

1. I have been very pleased with my gemmers, and enjoyed the characters.

2.  I am with the others who feel it's good enough as it is.  I like the fact that magick is feared and hated, and I like the ramifications of that.  Every role is what you make of it, gemmed mages included.

[FantasyWriter]

Every role is what you make of it, gemmed mages included.

Indeed.

[Medena]

I had a total blast with my one and only gemmer.  Not sure if you wanted to include Oashi mages in your survey of experiences because I'd have to say that being in Oash contributed a lot to how much fun I had with the character.  It was not the only reason though.

Other factors contributing to my totally positive experience as a gemmer:

• I loved my character a lot.  She had a quirky personality which was enjoyable to play.
• It was my first magicker and the Arm magic system rocks.
• For the first while, my PC had a mentor in her temple.
• The RP of the other gemmed was of a high standard and really interesting to see.

At the time, besides a large number of Oash mages, there were also a couple doing odd bits of work for templars, a couple of grebber types and one or two who worked for somebody else (though I never knew who).