Randomish Metal Thoughts

[RogueGunslinger]

Know what I wouldn't mind seeing more of? Metal. When was the last time any of you saw a metal piece of armor? Or a metal weapon? Have you ever?

I understand that metal is rare. But I want to see a Templar wearing metal into battle, arrows deflecting off while he charges into the fray. Top Lieutenants/sergeants would all have a metal weapons. It shouldn't be so rare that a player never sees it.

[HavokBlue]

I don't think I've seen a unique metal item ever besides that one Tor warlord.

rip tor

[Inks]

I've never seen a metal item in 4 years apart from the ones nobles start with.

[Kronibas]

Some encounters with metal on Arm:


Fatty Tor's silver half mask was such a great metal object. The gypsy jegash bowl is another good one. I wonder if it has survived...

When I was playing a new templar, a red robe gave a corporal a bronze longsword, Magekiller, which had known anti magick properties. So he wore it on his belt and you can imagine how that turned out.  The Lirathan Felysia wound up with it, and then a staff avatar... I think, anyway. Plainsman.

In the last five years, I've had a rogue mage steal a fist sized chunk of metal from an estate.

In the last eight, one of my character mastercrafted metal items for a templar.

[Desertman]

When I was playing a new templar, a red robe gave a corporal a bronze longsword, Magekiller, which had known anti magick properties. So he wore it on his belt and you can imagine how that turned out.  The Lirathan Felysia wound up with it, and then a staff avatar... I think, anyway. Plainsman.

A Legion officer also carried it for a bit and actually fought The Plainsman with it in the ruins of Ayun Iskandir once.

(The Legionnaire got away, but I can't remember if he lost the sword there.)

[KankWhisperer]

I think the staff reasoning behind not adding more unique shit to the game went that every such item invariably ends up gathering dust in a noble's cabinet o' oddities anyway.

Or so I've been told. It does sound plausible.

Yeah Templars will just confiscate.  So a metal item is severely limited to who can even have a chance to use it. City soldiers, nobles, or someone who can never enter a city.

[Desertman]

Sometimes I wish the static power structures were somewhat less powerful overall to prevent certainties like that. I would rather see more, "If you want it, come and claim it, if you can.", and less, "Well, I have 100 NPC's and thousands of virtual NPC's on my side that I can call on, so, I win.".

But, without that a lot of the things that hold the game together would quickly fall apart at the hands of players, or at least change dramatically, and probably far too often for the game to have any sense of "foundation" and "continuity".

Overall I prefer the current model, but sometimes I do kind of wish I could go Conan the Conqueror.

[palomar]

I could be completely wrong, but it appears to me that metal weapons, and mostly armor too, have been more or less phased out of PC accessibility over the last 8 years or so. High ranked templars used to carry those things, and some of the super villains too, but they've been increasingly rare since the Copper/Gith wars. I wouldn't say I really miss that stuff, but seeing rare metal items that aren't part of the noble/templar setup is always cool.

Oh well, it's all about chopping things with bone swords anyway, isn't it?

[KankWhisperer]

I remember a guy having a cursed sword that would talk to him. I don't know if it really was talking to him or if he was rping crazy.

[Patuk]

Kinda sounds like someone enjoyed his Warcraft/Elric books too much.

[KankWhisperer]

Well it was around 2000. Was more crazy stuff then.

[BadSkeelz]

Play in a harsh, post-apocalyptic desert setting where lack of metal and advanced technology is a basic part of the premise

Complain how we don't have enough access to metal and advanced technology

[RogueGunslinger]

Play in a harsh, post-apocalyptic desert setting where lack of metal and advanced technology is a basic part of the premise

Complain how we don't have enough access to metal and advanced technology

See a decent question posted on the forums.

Make knee-jerk defensive post about "complainers" like they shouldn't have a say about the game we all play.

[BadSkeelz]

It's more of a general trend lately than something specific to you.

That said, there's plenty of games and settings with metal in them. We should work on making more interesting things with the materials we have, that make Armageddon unique.

[RogueGunslinger]

The cool thing about making metal rare, or really making anything rare, is when you finally get to see it. If it's so rare it's never seen it might as well just not exists.

[KankWhisperer]

Try and steal it from that Tuluk road echo.

[Reiloth]

The cool thing about making metal rare, or really making anything rare, is when you finally get to see it. If it's so rare it's never seen it might as well just not exists.

Truth.

Rare means it should still be somewhat present. It is, to an extent -- Nobles have their signet rings, and there is a big iron dragon in Allanak. It reminds me that discovering a vein of metal sparked a resource war (The Copper War), and that the presence of metal makes Zalanthans go cray cray.

The problem with making it a part of the world actively (Like on NPCs or even PCs) is that's reason enough to murder them -- Which I think is A-OK for PCs, but I wouldn't ever want to see metal objects on an NPC.

EDIT:

That's in public and can be insta-ganked for their metal loots.

[Armaddict]

The cool thing about making metal rare, or really making anything rare, is when you finally get to see it. If it's so rare it's never seen it might as well just not exists.

Or, you know, the whole thing where it changes dynamics for something that -we- know as common to be uncommon.

I see no reason at all for there to be more metal in the game, particularly metal that is usable by characters.  Go look at more noble hands.

[RogueGunslinger]

The cool thing about making metal rare, or really making anything rare, is when you finally get to see it. If it's so rare it's never seen it might as well just not exists.

Or, you know, the whole thing where it changes dynamics for something that -we- know as common to be uncommon.

I see no reason at all for there to be more metal in the game, particularly metal that is usable by characters.  Go look at more noble hands.

I don't understand. You think by seeing the occasional metal item like Kronibas did back in the day it would suddenly become common? When people have been playing for YEARS and still never see anything other than a signet ring, then I'd say that it's way too rare.

[Armaddict]

...too rare for what?

[RogueGunslinger]

Too rare to be meaningful in any way to the game. Too rare to be realistic. Making metal into jewlery and statues is fucking idiotic in the context of its current rarity.

[Armaddict]

When there's that little of it, that makes perfect sense.

And the lack of it -is- the meaningful part to the game.

[RogueGunslinger]

You really think it's realistic that what little metal there is would be wasted on jewelry, instead of tools, weapons, and armor?

[KankWhisperer]

What's the point?  Either you are powerful enough to not need the metal sword in the first place or you're Gollum. Clutching it to your chest in a cave, you whisper "My precious. "

[Armaddict]

Considering who can consistently afford to pay for it, yes.

There are rare exceptions, but then the quantity that is available becomes a limiting factor, considering it is also reliant on who it is who -finds- the thing, moreso than who -gets- the thing.

Altogether, this is pretty much the weirdest thing I've ever seen you complain about, and am totally wondering where it came from.  I don't want to see a metal sword, because there's usually a high-ranking templar attached to it, and they usually only come out when they're pissed.  And I'm perfectly okay with not having metal swords and armor floating around the PC populace, with everyone complaining about how they got it or how they are staff pets because they got it, etc etc etc.

Doesn't need to be in the game.  Doesn't really belong in the game in the first place.