Gemmed magickers, society, and YOU!

[Zoan]

Sitting in your little box spam casting until you are "useful" is part of the tidy little package it appears you're supposed to stick to if you're playing a long-lived gemmed that I am simply not interested in.

Can confirm. Tried to play a 'weak' gemmer (i.e someone only minimally touched by the element), was ordered to get stronger so I can kill baddies.

[Lizzie]

I think it depends on how you define "sitting around spam-casting." I've never felt it necessary to spam-cast for the same amount of time in one game-week I might have to spar, for example, if I were in the Byn, Militia, Legion, or any other clan that has mandatory sparring.

Or even in the same way, thankfully. Often, when I play gemmed, I "spam-cast" in pretty much the same way I do it when I'm a rogue. I have more freedom as a gemmed to pick and choose which spells I want to focus on - the sequence of learning. Outside the cities, I need to choose my priorities a little differently, plus I get actual targets to practice on if I feel it's worth the risk, whereas in temples, I don't have that option.

I find myself spam-casting around as often as I spam-craft if I'm a crafter by trade intending to actually get good at it (I've played merchants just for certain skills and not necessarily for crafting). Maybe for one game-hour during any given game-day. Or maybe I'll not use the coded skills for a couple of RL hours, and spend the last 1/2 hour before it's time to log out for the night in the temple spam-casting. Or I might log in early when no one's around to interact with, and spam-cast for 15-20 RL minutes, make the rounds of the city again, find nothing of interest, log out, and return later in my day to focus exclusively on RP and interaction.

The -only- time I've had problems interacting when I was playing a gemmed mage, was when I couldn't find anyone to interact with. Has nothing to do with the gem, has nothing to do with any IC prejudices. Has everything to do with "players logged in and congregated in the same general vicinity at random times of the day/evening."

If I'm logged in during early morning of a game-day, well I know I won't bump into any Bynners, Militia, or any other combat-oriented spar-scheduling clan, because they'll all be in their clan sparring yards.

If I check out the Gaj after late afternoon, I'm much more likely to run into people to interact with. I just don't consider that a problem at all. And I don't consider myself a spam-caster, as in, someone who sits in the temple all day/night spam-casting and rejecting interaction with the rest of the game world. I have no trouble mastering my entire spell list, and in fact I've discovered I tend to do it fairly efficiently, judging by IC comments other gemmed mages have made about their own progress.

So you can have both. You can have "casting sessions" AND you can interact with the game world, neither has to suffer for the other, the templars are happy to know you're trying, you're happy because you get to interact, and hopefully you make your own character interesting enough that other people are happy that you're interacting with them.

[Erythil]

I would, for the record, really dig playing a gemmed character serving someone other than the military.  Serving Oash is also serving the military.  I really like the game's magical stuff (probably too much, staff might say), but I'm not very interested in combat.

[HavokBlue]

Sitting in your little box spam casting until you are "useful" is part of the tidy little package it appears you're supposed to stick to if you're playing a long-lived gemmed that I am simply not interested in.

Can confirm. Tried to play a 'weak' gemmer (i.e someone only minimally touched by the element), was ordered to get stronger so I can kill baddies.

It occurred to me that this isn't a problem specific to gemmers

Every rogue magicker I've played that's chummed around with other magickers was treated like a bit of an oddball for not being all branched out in a month

[TheWanderer]

You're always gonna play a seemingly incompetent magicker when everybody's branched beyond your scope in a couple days played -- that's some unfortunate cheese right there.

New spells don't feel like achievements when fresh-faced Jim just fully branched his tree in three days played.

With the IC social pressure of being the most incompetent magicker around, and the OOC scorn for any who might dare spam cast, you've only the alcohol for comfort. Alcohol and maggggggick, bitches.

[Reiloth]

I would, for the record, really dig playing a gemmed character serving someone other than the military.  Serving Oash is also serving the military.  I really like the game's magical stuff (probably too much, staff might say), but I'm not very interested in combat.

How is serving Oash serving the military? I think all Gemmed have to serve the Templarate, which is associated with the military, no matter what. No one would be exempt from that, despite any organization they joined. And from what i've seen, the Templarate doesn't make a habit of scooping up all of Oash's Gemmed whenever they feel like it. Tends to put them in Oash's pockets, which higher-up Nobles (NPCs).

[CodeMaster]

One of Allanak's key elements, to me, is its use of public punishment to instill fear.

It would be cool if the templars used the gemmed to perform public executions on a regular basis (i.e., preferentially).  If there's a mage online, throw a hood on him/her to protect his/her identity, ring the bell, and toss him in the arena with the criminal.

A mage who is not an inborn killer would feel the full soul-crushing effect of effectively being owned by Allanak, and this way the gem is associated not just with "spellcaster", but doubles as a proverbial executioner's hood.

The big drawback is this might take away some of the mystery of how magick can kill (because everyone in Allanak can go and watch the show!).  The other drawback is that the mage might get killed in the process, but in that case s/he wasn't worth much to begin with.

[FreeRangeVestric]

The other drawback is that the mage might get killed in the process, but in that case s/he wasn't worth much to begin with.

Which would probably only further the OOC pressure to skill-up spells that other people have complained about here.

[CodeMaster]

Fair point, but that's IC pressure.  A templar might forgo tossing you in the arena if you can come up with a bribe, too.

Edit: I should add that of course a templar doesn't want to kill mage after mage in the arena.  That would look pathetic.  So there's an incentive to make sure the mages are at least passable threats before tossing them in with Brak the magewrestler.

[Eyeball]

Sitting in your little box spam casting until you are "useful" is part of the tidy little package it appears you're supposed to stick to if you're playing a long-lived gemmed that I am simply not interested in.

Can confirm. Tried to play a 'weak' gemmer (i.e someone only minimally touched by the element), was ordered to get stronger so I can kill baddies.

This goes back to even the Copper War. On one hand, my mage was being pressured to learn more magicks and on the other hand bitched at severely for "spam casting". If it hadn't been an inexperienced and underdeveloped Vivaduan, there would have been some dead bodies lying around, and they wouldn't haven been Tuluki.

[Erythil]

I would, for the record, really dig playing a gemmed character serving someone other than the military.  Serving Oash is also serving the military.  I really like the game's magical stuff (probably too much, staff might say), but I'm not very interested in combat.

How is serving Oash serving the military? I think all Gemmed have to serve the Templarate, which is associated with the military, no matter what. No one would be exempt from that, despite any organization they joined. And from what i've seen, the Templarate doesn't make a habit of scooping up all of Oash's Gemmed whenever they feel like it. Tends to put them in Oash's pockets, which higher-up Nobles (NPCs).

I suppose my perception may be colored by recent HRPT events.

[Reiloth]

Yeah, in general, I would say Oash's involvement with the military is scant. They are more geared towards R+D than warfare.

[LauraMars]

Tends to put them in Oash's pockets, which higher-up Nobles (NPCs).

What?

As for people/clan leaders pressuring others to branch - yep, been there. Was awkward. And when you're a subjugated, indentured servant untouchable caste type with your phenomenal cosmic powers on a leash it's kind of weird to defy authority and not pRaCtIcE yOuR wEaVeS.

[HavokBlue]

The issue with that is that it's always assumed your Gemmer is an auxiliary to the Arm of the Dragon despite that fact that there are probably a buttload of virtual Gemmed who want nothing to do with their magick.

[Nyr]

The issue with that is that it's always assumed your Gemmer is an auxiliary to the Arm of the Dragon despite that fact that there are problems a buttload of virtual Gemmed who want nothing to do with their magick.

They should unionize.

[Rahnevyn]

The issue with that is that it's always assumed your Gemmer is an auxiliary to the Arm of the Dragon despite that fact that there are problems a buttload of virtual Gemmed who want nothing to do with their magick.

Pretty much everybody is eligible to be conscripted to help a templar. The only difference here is that templars usually need far less help from Amos the Salt Forager than they do from the people they keep around in order to exploit their creepy, unnatural powers.

[manonfire]

CAM = gemmer labor union

Oash = GOP

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

There's no reason you can't roleplay being unable to get in touch with your elements.

[Patuk]

If it ends up getting you killed, there kind of is.

[Narf]

There's no reason you can't roleplay being unable to get in touch with your elements.

Way back in the day I briefly played a gemmed with no magickal powers whatsoever (he was a ranger). Do Templars make you prove that you have magickal powers before they hand you a gem these days? Could you just have some crazy guy who thought he was magickal?

[Narf]

There's no reason you can't roleplay being unable to get in touch with your elements.

Way back in the day I briefly played a gemmed with no magickal powers whatsoever (he was a ranger). Do Templars make you prove that you have magickal powers before they hand you a gem these days? Could you just have some crazy guy who thought he was magickal?

... Cause you know, pickpockets are pretty much magickal.

"Witness as I summon small objects from the ether! Witness as I disappear from sight! Observe as I move through closed doors without a sound!"

Sounds like an abomination to me.

[Molten Heart]

There's no reason you can't roleplay being unable to get in touch with your elements.

Way back in the day I briefly played a gemmed with no magickal powers whatsoever (he was a ranger). Do Templars make you prove that you have magickal powers before they hand you a gem these days? Could you just have some crazy guy who thought he was magickal?

... Cause you know, pickpockets are pretty much magickal.

"Witness as I summon small objects from the ether! Witness as I disappear from sight! Observe as I move through closed doors without a sound!"

Sounds like an abomination to me.

This is hilarious.

If you used your faux magic in the local tavern you should get crim flagged.

[Pale Horse]

There's no reason you can't roleplay being unable to get in touch with your elements.

Way back in the day I briefly played a gemmed with no magickal powers whatsoever (he was a ranger). Do Templars make you prove that you have magickal powers before they hand you a gem these days? Could you just have some crazy guy who thought he was magickal?

... Cause you know, pickpockets are pretty much magickal.

"Witness as I summon small objects from the ether! Witness as I disappear from sight! Observe as I move through closed doors without a sound!"

Sounds like an abomination to me.

This is hilarious.

If you used your faux magic in the local tavern you should get crim flagged.

Back almost an RL decade ago, one of my byn characters was watching a newbie perform "magic tricks" in the Bazaar in Nak.  Slights of hand, etc.  He reported the witch to the Templars.

[i like me some ham]

I've never gotten pressure to branch, although once I was expected to have gotten a certain spell after one and a half days played by someone who was probably a secret breed with ultra wisdom, but I think that's because I usually prefer my gemmed to be vivs, and all people seem to want from them (in my experience) is water.

[Ouroboros]

The issue with that is that it's always assumed your Gemmer is an auxiliary to the Arm of the Dragon despite that fact that there are problems a buttload of virtual Gemmed who want nothing to do with their magick.

They should unionize.

I thought staff didn't want to see the CAM return. But if you do, hey, let us know! I imagine rally fliers will be passing around in no time... Then we get to have fun trying to locate where in the desert the body of Jimmy Krathi was buried using the new bury code!

The issue with that is that it's always assumed your Gemmer is an auxiliary to the Arm of the Dragon despite that fact that there are problems a buttload of virtual Gemmed who want nothing to do with their magick.

Pretty much everybody is eligible to be conscripted to help a templar. The only difference here is that templars usually need far less help from Amos the Salt Forager than they do from the people they keep around in order to exploit their creepy, unnatural powers.

That's one difference, sure, but hardly the only one. I think Havok's point wasn't really about whether the Gemmed should be eligible for conscription, but that it's the only thing they're elegible for aside from Oash. And even Oash is an option generally limited to humans, so subhuman gemmed only have one option available to them.

Amos the Salt Forager can still get a job grebbing for a clan or a local merchant between whatever work a Templar might ask of him, while Malik the Gemmer is stuck wiggling his fingers (read: twiddling his thumbs) until his Templar comes up with the next suicide mission for him to embark on.

There's no reason you can't roleplay being unable to get in touch with your elements.

There's no reason a Templar can't roleplay forcing you to get in touch with your element or die trying, either.