The Gaj

[AdamBlue]

Secret spice salesman in the Reds, that costs a large just to go see, before you can buy spice for high prices.

[Lizzie]

Wow. How dare Taijan make a joke on the GDB about such a serious issue that effects the lives of hundreds of players.  How insensitive do you get?!

So to get back on topic, the Gaj's success is clearly a game balance issue.  This is due to the potency of the drinks served there (not the container...how dare you...) relative to the potency per coin spent of the brews at Reds.   Players want to maximize their alcohol skill with as little cost as possible and the Gaj obliges.  Gith skull brew is OP in its potency.  Nerf needed.  Staff please consider this a top priority.

IC attempts were made to get the prices lowered and more of a selection but nothing came of it.

[Jingo]

I played a bastard who never visited the gaj expect once on a special occasion. It's still possible to meet people even if you don't visit the tavern.

It would be nice if social denigration of living and playing there was played up some more. And now that there is a higher population in Allanak, I don't think playability is a good excuse.

[FantasyWriter]

Like wearing a ballgown for mcdonalds a dirty-ass bikers' bar.

[Bast]

Its very easy to be an aide and meet all the people you need to know to do your job without ever setting foot in the Gaj. I have played alot of aides..All of them lived until I stored them and a few of them lasted a couple years IRL. I have NEVER had an issue hiring people and meeting shady folks and I have never walked an aide into the Gaj save to buy whiskey...because you know Flame cheese...Its not hard at all to hire the people you need to hire or to make contacts without walking in there. In fact it pretty easy. I have no idea why anyone would ever use that as an excuse honestly.

[wizturbo]

I have no idea why anyone would ever use that as an excuse honestly.

Login, sit in Red's for 15 minutes, no one stops by.  Wait another 15 minutes, someone walks in, and keeps walking.  Get bored OOCly (and maybe ICly), go to the Gaj and sit there quietly but at least with other people.  Rinse, repeat.

[Alesan]

I have no idea why anyone would ever use that as an excuse honestly.

Login, sit in Red's for 15 minutes, no one stops by.  Wait another 15 minutes, someone walks in, and keeps walking.  Get bored OOCly (and maybe ICly), go to the Gaj and sit there quietly but at least with other people.  Rinse, repeat.

This has been my experience in Red's 9 times out of 10. So, yeah.

[BadSkeelz]

My PCs tend to prefer the Red's because I don't have to put up with 30 lines of look-spam every time a new character stumbles out of the Quit room.

[Zenith]

Its very easy to be an aide and meet all the people you need to know to do your job without ever setting foot in the Gaj.... I have no idea why anyone would ever use that as an excuse honestly.

I think this is an easy thing to say if you have a lot of play hours and people seek you out for things. But if you're playing an Aide and spend 2/3rds or more of your (often limited) time with your noble, it makes it challenging to meet people when the other third of your time is spent in an empty tavern. There's a certain expediency to going where the people are. And sometimes IG rules need to be flexible enough to allow the interaction that players need to be good at their job.

[bracken]

My PCs have drunk mainly in the Gaj or Tuluk. For me there is a wider variety of RP to be enjoyed in the Gaj than is possible in the Reds. Apart from brawling and witches etc, that's the place the most PCs start and begin to grow. If the nobles aren't slumming it in the Reds or doing business, what is there to enjoy in Reds apart from talking and sharing non sensitive gossip? I like the Atrium a lot. It does shut PCs away from the world, but the Gaj shuts PCs out from partaking at first hand what everyone else is having fun with.

[Desertman]

This seems like a non-issue in every way imaginable.

[RogueGunslinger]

This seems like a non-issue in every way imaginable.

Yep. Play where you want to, people. This is a game and it's for fun. If you're not having fun alone, I encourage you to seek people out, even if it makes little IC sense for you to go where you go. You can find excuses to go anywhere, really.

[Majikal]

Walk into the Gaj with silks, get a comment about being too classy for the place, maybe you don't, maybe a bynner tries to punch you in the nose, maybe they don't.

We make exceptions for playability literally every time we log in. Be it the raw meat stacked in a chest in your apartment for 5 years that you STILL fucking eat, the torch you randomly light on the fly with no explanation to how, the not explaining how it's pitch-black outside but the inside of your tent is lit up and you ignore it.

I've had merchants who wouldn't step foot in the Gaj, they thought they were too classy for it. I also don't log into the game to roleplay with myself, so I'll guide my RP towards entertainment without breaking the world. I expect other players do much of the same.

Think I need to meet some new contacts.
em looks around the empty bar
Think not going to happen here... I hate the Gaj, but... maybe I'll stop by and see what happens.

[Fujikoma]

I like the random poo-splash code from the Byn latrines being a possibility.

[Ath]

Players are the people playing in these places and RPing.  I know I try on occasion to RP out the shitty conditions that is the Gaj at times when I animate, but really it's up to you all to keep up the consistency.  I could see Nobles in Red's but I also see the problem where if a Noble is hanging out in there, no commoner will go in there... but then maybe you're Noble is thought of being unapproachable and no one wants to be around you.  Commoner to others "Oh that noble had my finger cut off because I was picking my nose around him, you should avoid him!"  Anti-Nosepicker Noble "*whines* Why does no one want to be around me?! *whines more*"

[Inks]

Just wanted to say I got a chuckle from Ath's post. Solid.

[The Silence of the Erdlus]

Saw a noble hanging out in the Gaj once. Really. The bartender looked at her funny, an elf tried to steal from her, the works.

[The Silence of the Erdlus]

She was probably consoling the person she was talking to or something but she really should have taken it outside.

[RogueGunslinger]

Or not.

[Desertman]

I don't see anything wrong at all with nobles going slumming if it is in their character to do so.

We have this image of the nobility in Zalanthas as being akin to The Queen of England.

You would never find her in a rundown pisshole. She's far too proper and elegant and "clean" to ever set foot in such a place.

I don't see anything wrong at all with having nobles who intentionally slum-it-up because that's what they enjoy or feel the need to do:

[Ath]

Saw a noble hanging out in the Gaj once. Really. The bartender looked at her funny, an elf tried to steal from her, the works.

I could see Fale doing this because they want to "Slum" it as they have heard others doing before.  And if I was playing that Fale and was stolen from, I'd reward that fucken elf.  That elf has to have major balls, if that is so... then they should be rewarded.  (Then they'd be rewarded again by getting to meet the Gaj in the Arena a few weeks or so later.)

To Desertman -- See, I can see this too... for some Nobles.  I could never in the world see a Oash or Borsail noble, maybe not even a Tor noble, but a Fale or Rennik?  Maybe... Fale I could see because fuck, it's FALE...  for a reason.  Rennik, eh...  depends really.  Borsail, never.... ever... not because how the commoners would see them, but how other nobles would see them.  Social Status RP stuff... blah blah blah.  Yeah, that.

[ibusoe]

I don't see anything wrong at all with nobles going slumming if it is in their character to do so.

We have this image of the nobility in Zalanthas as being akin to The Queen of England.

You would never find her in a rundown pisshole. She's far too proper and elegant and "clean" to ever set foot in such a place.

I don't see anything wrong at all with having nobles who intentionally slum-it-up because that's what they enjoy or feel the need to do:

Stylistically, you're correct.  There are only about 300,000 people living in Allanak.  This would be the size approximately of Toledo Ohio, if Toledo Ohio didn't have electricity, plumbing. etc and there was no metal and no one knew how to read.  In essence, most people who play Allanaki nobles are probably playing characters who are too effete or too fastidious for how the characters would actually play out.  Remember the Alaskan Politician Sara Palin?  She actually hunted bears from helicopter while in office.  Allanaki politicians are probably somewhat like her.
Pretty much all Allanaki would be pretty redneck by American standards, and the Nobles would be rednecks that know how to read.  

It can get more complex than that, one might assume.  For example, I tend to imagine House Kadius has a vested interest in keeping the Nobles preoccupied with high culture and material sophistication in order to further their profit margin.  Moreover, I could easily see the military and the templarate encouraging the Nobles to get wound up in frou-frou stuff in order to distract them from meaningful participation in social change.  I doubt that the elite of the criminal class have a strong interest in encouraging departure from the status quo.

Perhaps more importantly though, I'd imagine that the staff might have reason to encourage the people who are playing Nobles to be somewhat uptight.  Back in the day, we used to have characters who got along with the gemmed, got along with ungemmed, got along with elves, dwarves and half-giants, were cool up in the 'Rinth, neutral in both Allanak and Tuluk....basically people played characters who were good at everything.  The game was less fun back then.  It's better when people have limitations, it encourages social interaction and dependency.

So let's say you wanted to play a Noble, and this Noble were more of a "Game of Thrones" type of Noble who didn't mind hopping onto horseback and leading the troops into battle, didn't mind having a couple of drinks with the lads?  That's fine, but what then I'd wonder *are* your character's limitations.  Interesting characters (like Batman and Iron Man) are defined as much by their strengths as by their limitations.  To my point, if you were really interested in partying it up at the Gaj, you'd probably be better off playing an obsidian miner or a Bynner.  It suits the atmosphere better.

Thank you for posting this.  In essence I'd agree with you.  I think you're right, but I think you're right with a couple of very important caveats.  

[Desertman]

To both replies above: I agree with both of you.

[Tuannon]

I remember Ceylara Borsail visiting the vicinity of the Gaj once, back when..

I think only a certain Fale has been seen actually in the Gaj as far as I recall for more than a passing moment.

[WarriorPoet]

The Gaj, when it is on point, is what I want my Arm experience to be. Violent, smelly, and covered in sores.

Sometimes it isn't appropriate for a character to hang out there. This is why I don't play nobility or fancy-ass characters.

Edit: Shit. Didnt see the timestamp. Accidental necro.