State of the magicker poll

[Salt Merchant]

Since the issue of "too many magickers" was raised in the "State of the game poll", I thought I'd start a new poll concerning that aspect of the game.

[Marauder Moe]

Magicker hate season again already?  Seems to start earlier and earlier.

[HavokBlue]

There are neither more magickers than usual, nor less. It is all about where they are distributed. You know the best place not to have to deal with them? Tuluk. If you're playing in Allanak, and you expect that you won't regularly meet someone from a population in the city which is so substantial it has its own quarter... That's just unreasonable. All it takes is a shift in playtimes for a few people, or even a couple magickers playing tricks for their mundane friends, or any number of other things - it's inevitable that some people aren't going to like it, or are going to feel like they're too populace. They're not. The vast majority of pcs are actually mundanes. You just don't get to see them in their clan compounds. It's the friendless gemmed who sit at the bar which make it seem like an epidemic that it's not. I propose: Clannies hang out in public more, and also wail on the 'gickers. (Okay, so punching the mantis in the face is a bad idea, actually, it's a really bad one. Still, I'm sure you'll find a number of supermaxxxed rangers who decide to play hunt the magicker in the wild. Heh, one day the luck there runs out.)

To add a more random thought: I really wish I could get a taste of RL kalan wine. I imagine it would be utterly delicious.

[Synthesis]

The mehsses have spoken.

[Barzalene]

I don't see any hanging out dressed like kadians and acting like nobles, so I'm good.

[drunkendwarf]

Given how locked down mages are in this game, I'm surprised people would think them to be running rampant. You've got very little options in the way of playing a mage, especially a high karma one, if you want to try something other than the independent, wandering ranger-fodder type. Take a gem, head for the 'rinth or join a tribe - which I've inquired and been shot down completely for any kind of higher karma mage, despite having the karma for one, due to there being too many in said tribe already. I've fired off requests saying "I want to play X high karma mage, in ANY tribe. Is there ANY tribe in which I can currently do this?" and received "Nope. Not at the moment." More than once. It actually gets quite frustrating, but I suppose the balance is that there really ISN'T too many mages running amok, from what I've seen.

[Marshmellow]

Magicker hate season again already?  Seems to start earlier and earlier.

[Synthesis]

Being a 'gicker in the 'rinth hardly ever works out.

Being a 'gicker in the 'rinth hardly ever works out.

Or should I say...

Being a 'gicker in the 'rinth hardly ever works out.

Being a 'gicker in the 'rinth hardly ever works out.

Let's get recursive and pessimistic.

[Sam]

I think we are cruisin' pretty nicely right now. Might be better with one or two more magickers, but IDK. I am satisfied.

[Cutthroat]

Since the issue of "too many magickers" was raised in the "State of the game poll", I thought I'd start a new poll concerning that aspect of the game.

IIRC, the person who brought that up specifically mentioned that contact with magickers outside of the cities was too common. To that I say: well, where should we expect them to be? The gemmed in Allanak are only a small subset of magickers, and the rest don't believe the city-states are safe for them.

Anyway, they're rare enough. Of what magickers there are and have been, by and large they seem to be played well, too.

Even if there were too many, what could be done? It's not like staff can't look at living characters and determine their guild, and it's certainly not like they're unaware of the current count. They would also reject special applications for rare magickers if there are already too many of them. People who want to play magickers will play them and people who don't, won't. Leave it to staff to smack people that play the same character over and over and throw off the game's roughly pyramidal distribution of the guilds.

[maxid]

It's fine, it's pretty much always fine, until your PC is killed by one, or a grumpy player sees two or three in the desert, within a month, and then they're an endless blight upon the world and someone posts in or makes a thread about how common they are.

[valeria]

Going with 'meh' because, well... just meh.

Not really, I'm not tripping over them all the time, but I'm confident I could find some if I played a 'gickin' character and wanted to.  Good enough for me.

[Zoan]

We need more magickers and less rangers. This game has way too many rangers, but you never see anyone making threads about that.

[Wasteland Raider]

too many humans

[Lizzie]

What we need, is a stronger coalition of rogue mages, fewer gemmed mages, and I think we can cap rangers now, we have just about enough of them.
We also need fewer males with tapered waists and broad shoulders, fewer females with long hair hair and feminine curves, and fewer breeds.
Furthermore, we need more desert elves who are not mages, and more people on the trade routes in general.
Lastly, we need more non-exotic, mundane-but weird-looking mutants, and more female dwarves, and more dwarves whose players punctuate correctly.

I think I've covered pretty much everything.

[Drayab]

We said 'meh.'

[Sunburned]

Magicker hate season again already?  Seems to start earlier and earlier.

The player-driven plot system isn't working out, IMO.  A major policy change happened with no reworking of the clan structures (namely the GMHs) to make it more tenable, and for what structures were changed, they bend back to former shape because documentation hasn't been updated.  If leaders are in charge of their clan's fate, then they should have the documented authority to act confidently and have very clear expectations of what staff support will be given.

In the absence of more engaging conflicts, I think that we've began using magickers as a crutch for inspiring intrigue in our plots.
Not that it matters... but if I had my way ( )... all magickal guilds would be drastically limited, so that the focus of the game returns to the mundane, city-state and GMH focused plots.  Zalanthas is a desert world - the story should be about two men trapped on an island with only one coconut, not catch-me-if-you-can set on endless repeat.  Magickers spread a wide wake, and while I recognize they're supposed to be terrifying and punctuate world-changing events with flashy colors and seared flesh, wine is becoming water, to the point that encountering a rogue magicker in the wilderness is commonplace, instead of being the tense, thrilling experience it should be.

...IMO.

Anyone care to tell me where, exactly, I'm magick-hating?  My criticism was more geared toward the 'player-driven plot' system, and I was suggesting that if magick had less of a presence in the world, players would be more compelled to work on plots that are more widely inclusive and hinged on Zalanthan institutions fighting for resource control.  If there is any secondary criticism, it is toward clan leaders that throw their minions at witch-hunts and call it plot.  I was writing about a problem I observed, and thus, I suggested a solution... limiting the number of magick roles.  Saying that magick felt commonplace, rather than rare, exciting, and terrifying, is giving context to WHY -I- felt it to be a fair tradeoff.

Now, if you agree with me, great.  If you don't, that's fine, too.

What annoys me, however, is hacking out the bulk of my argument and reducing my post to raging magick-hate.  Its clear that people are passionate about defending their right to play magick roles, but keep in mind (and I've bolded the IMOs in my previous post)...

I was just expressing my opinion, not vengefully ranting.

[Marauder Moe]

Don't look at me.  This is a different thread.

[musashi]

Don't take it too hard Sunburned. Some people play the GDB to win, they can get carried away every now and again  

I think magicker population rates are probably just dandy. As was already mentioned, staff will step in and not let a role go through if there are too many of said guild in a given area.

[boog]

lol

Is this REALLY important? REALLY? It fluctuates. Get over it.

[Cindy42]

We need more magickers and less rangers. This game has way too many rangers, but you never see anyone making threads about that.

and too many half-elves and too few elves---- especially considering d-elves require karma most players don't have and city elf coding is unappealing compared to that of the next best thing when one wants to play an elf--- half-elf. plus, half-elves get a couple of soloer bonuses, which probably appeals to a lot of soloers who don't mind going at it alone sometimes.

i think the number of humans in-game is just right. they make up more than half of the people running around at any given time and that's what i'm seeing.

[Wasteland Raider]

woooooosh

[lordcooper]

Being a 'gicker in the 'rinth hardly ever works out.

So they should all be lacking muscles.  That's the only problem.

[Synthesis]

Being a 'gicker in the 'rinth hardly ever works out.

So they should all be lacking muscles.  That's the only problem.

Heh.  Probably my favorite gemmer was my drunken asshole (who had great strength, because I prioritized wisdom either 3rd or 4th) who deserted from the Byn, raided noobs around Tuluk for a while, got bored and turned himself in to the Templars in 'nak, then somehow managed to get hired by Oash, and went back to raiding noobs around Tuluk (solely for personal amusement and/or enrichment).

Pretty funny lounging around the Oashi barracks covered in the blood from noobie explosions, while the other gemmed PCs are sitting around sipping tea and playing cards.  FYAD mekillots.  FYAD.

[Rhyden]

Yeah. Meh.