The Dwarven Focus

[hyzhenhok]

The only good thing that comes out of this idea in my opinion, is that it surefire guarantee that other people might get involved out of their own volition into the dwarven focus, simply by being able to learn about it.

Make friends with a dwarf (or better yet, make yourself useful to a dwarf) and you might find you can figure out their focus, even if it's a secret that they don't want to openly share. Giving mindbenders access to it isn't really going to add anything to the game; just because the game is spamming at me "You think: I want to usurp Tektolnes and rule Allanak as its Queen Dominatrix and turn the Nobility into my personal harem" isn't really going to make me want to involve other players by directly letting them in on things.

The simple fact is that most PC focuses are long term, difficult (and fun!) things that will never come to fruition before the dwarf meets their unfortunate demise. Most PC dwarves decide "I need to become good at X before I can start doing Y," and then they die well before this first phase of their plan can near fruition. They aren't roleplaying poorly. If you want to see more dwarf focus action, make friends with dwarves and help them stay alive. Make sure they know what you can do.

(PS: Dwarf Focus: Help every other dwarf achieve his/her focus.)

The simplistic idea behind the proposal is to emulate the dwarven mindset. That's it. It's to jog that "everything is one thing" mentality, even in veteran players. It's really non-intrusive. What's more, it allows you to have an objective, and a focus. Right now, dwarven focus is objective.

Why not just add a Focus field that is identical but separate to the Objective?

I find your suggestion extremely intrusive as it forces an action on my character. No thanks.

You think: I want to usurp Tektolnes and rule Allanak as its Queen Dominatrix and turn the Nobility into my personal harem. Talk about jarring, especially if I'm in the middle of a Mekillot hunt or a sorcerer just kidnapped me or I'm "quietly approaching my target" to do a backstab. Dwarves are obsessed, but they're not (necessarily) OCD and ADD.

[brytta.leofa]

Too much presumptive sekrets in this thread.

[valeria]

I think this idea is pretty silly.  I highly doubt the players of dwarves need to be reminded what their focus is.  And an auto-pop-up focus reminder might have very little to do with what the dwarf would actually be thinking about their focus at a given time.  For instance, take the focus 'build a better mousetrap.'  A dwarf could complicate the hell out of that, and may be thinking 'Oh I need to find people who know about the habits of mice to make this thing better,' or might be approaching it from the angle 'I really need to find myself some copper because those bone mousetraps are so unreliable.'

Now, if you wanted to give players an OPTION to enable this, for those players that think they'd find it useful, then I wouldn't be opposed.  But as it is it seems to be of very limited utility, and (to me) very high annoyance value.  The only thing it would jog would be my irritation, since on ANY character I'm already inputting regular, customized thinks about what's going on in their head.

[Riev]

It's not needed at all. It's flavor. I can't possibly imagine how anybody could be so violently opposed to such a minor thing. But, ok. Fair enough.

7DV, I can understand how this seems simple enough, not intrusive, and adding a bit of flavor. My issue with it is that its just Feature Crawling, and wouldn't really add anything to the game.

The reality is, while it may be helpful to one or two PCs, you need to think about all players of this game. As a veteran of understand how to work with a dwarven focus, I would be incredibly annoyed to the point of never playing a dwarf again, because things were being forced on my PC that have little to do with what is going on. If my PC thinks about something, and -I- dont type in think, it had better fucking be some uber mindworm telling me I should just walk off the Shield Wall, not some Invisible Hand guiding me down a fate -I'm- supposed to choose.

[Potaje]

My question is this, how the hell does anyone (other than the player of the pc and staff) even know that other players of  dwarves are not playing with in their focus. Less it is themselves they are complaining about not following a foci or needing a reminder. To this I would say, play another race and leave the dwarven role to someone that can handle it on their own. It all sounds very presumptuous and unneeded. 

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I would like it, as a player who plays, and will play, and has played, dwarves.

It is apparent that others would not.

And that's just fine with me.

The only irritation that I have had with some of the opposition in this thread is the assumption that the idea was about policing players. It wasn't. It was, really, meant as nothing more than an emulation of the dwarven mindset. It was meant to be nothing more substantial than the echoes in place in many parts of the world. Flavor. Atmosphere. Reality.

I'm not offended in the least that people don't like my idea. I was more annoyed that people presumed an intent that never entered my mind.

But, I'm not annoyed now. I dig it. I see your points. Intent not withstanding, I can see how conclusions could be drawn. So. I dig it.

[drunkendwarf]

I've got quite a bit of experience in the dwarven realm. I've not once forgotten what my goal is and would be highly annoyed to be forcibly reminded of it. As an option players can choose, fine by me. As something forced, no sir.