on villains, monster roles, and all things antagonist

[Synthesis]

If you want to play a gith-type PC, really all you have to do is roll a city-elf 'rinther.

You'll be treated pretty much the same way.

[Miradus]

I played one once.

He had the amazing ability to have cloaks, backpacks, and dusters slam shut as soon as he walked into the bar.

[Synthesis]

I played one once.

He had the amazing ability to have cloaks, backpacks, and dusters slam shut as soon as he walked into the bar.

> help vestim

Vestimentalists                                                          (Guilds)

Vestim is the element of clothing, specifically of containers, and pertains to all
wearable clothing accessible to the steal command.  Vestimentum mages (or
vestimentalists) have an innate magickal bond to such objects, and are able
to manipulate them seemingly at whim, oftentimes without even intending to.

Due to long-standing genetic isolation and breeding practices, only city-elves
can harness the power of vestim.

[BadSkeelz]

Finally a magicker I can support.

[Patuk]

Quiet, you two! They might get karma restricted!

[Dar]

Once as a Red Fang, I kidnapped a female gith NPC. I hoped to talk to her and established trade with the gith. So I knock her out and drag her off to some hidden cave. Tie her up, block off exits, the works. She wakes up, but she doesnt want to communicate. She's all hisses and attempts (occasionally successful) to bite me. I try this approach, that approach, waying, gesticulating, controlled violence, nothing works.

Eventually I get tired. But I told her if she leaves, she'd die. She's got no water, and she's in the middle of very hot nowhere. So we play a game. I told her if she is to show, or demonstrate, a single one thing that she is better at then me, I'll give her water and let her go. She shows me her breasts ... My RF considered showing his own 'unique' feature to counteract her demonstration, but considered the possibilities of having it bitten off. He conceded, gave her water, and let her go.

Whoever animated that scene. Kudos. Kudos. Kudos.

I began reading Ath's thread. Ath's been real super coming up with awesome topics lately. I didnt have the time to finish reading it, so I never posted. I'd post here, because ... I finished reading this one? We dont need evil players. Evil players are not what makes conflict. Evil players are not what make the warrior RP worthwhile and multifaceted. Conflicts make conflicts. So we need more things for people to conflict about. But what do we really need to conflict about, except reputation and noble favor?  You want an emerald? Go and greb one. If you cant yourself, hire a grebber to greb one. It might take awhile, you might have to wait until you meet the right grebber. But once you get the grebber who knows the spot, how to get there, and actually wants to waste time grebbing for you ... EMERALDS GALORE!

Some other crafter wants emeralds? Is he going to ... stop you from getting them? No. He'll just hire another grebber to go greb at the same spot. With pretty much infinite resources and no real shortage of anything vital. The conflict will have to be only roleplayed out. And it is. And it's rped out very well! ... sometimes. Aaaaand sometimes, it's easier for folks to get along nicely. It's more profitable, and extra allies will help in this 20 step scheme that you've got that is ment to give some aide you dont like a zit.

Create something people have no choice, but to conflict over. And you'll get conflict. No side there will be evil. Some will be moral. Some immoral. But they will still conflict with each other.

[Aruven]

I love how these discussions get boiled down into 'shitty characters code spamming combat instead of RP limiting our choices'.

Have the staff fucking pull karma from people that don't ever care to emote and be done with it. It is totally possible to have players slow down even if they know they might die and RP, it happens all the time. The first time a player is gleefully looting said corpse and a staff lets them know they've been docked, they'll either quit or change.

Those people that kill like 40 day old characters without a word by just riding up on them and spamming combat (because they know over like 8 characters who they are and how powerful they are) could and probably should be docked for karma and things. I'm not talking about backstab. Everyone that knows this game knows what i'm talking about.

I missed the whole gith thing because I quit playing for awhile (Again), I remember being singled out on the boards roughly for being like "I think this idea is dumb, because you will just get ganked as gith PC, because we aren't addressing players without RP just ganking other players in an RP game", and generally what I read now points to that.

My first character back, I rolled my eyes at someone in the bar, walked out of crim-coded rooms and was spam ganked for it with basically no RP involved. I don't even think I typed in a command other than about making bloody sounds.

This discussion around antagonists and shit will always happen unless that part changes. basically saying : "We as a community cannot agree to fix this totally human problem so we'll just get around it somehow" isn't working.

For example, i've played only a handful of 'villains', and seriously within 30 RL minutes of one of  them revealing who they were to a single PC player, they were in touch with multiple psionicists, had an entire clan teleported into their room for some spammy combat, and hours of discussions and e-mails with staff went down the drain with the mantis face. None of it was done with any good RP at all. None. So...

There isn't an incentive to be a villain usually. Other players generally kill you immediately and also, thus, any building or arcing plotline that involves them and makes RP fun for them (or you). People that have played the game know how difficult and often how ungratifying it can be to put effort developing yourself into a role.

I'd love to hear sometime how good/bad Hawk's experience was over their playtime.

TL:DR: More staff time docking karma from people who can't manage to ever RP combat and death.

Hypothesis: Consequences will lead to an altered state of decisions by PC playerbase to be shitty combat RP'ers or good ones. Once 'good ones' is predominant, villains and conflict and antagonists will pick up because even so long as a player dies in a good roleplay scene, they can generally be happy.

[Aruven]

Also, include scrutiny of things like ;

-Players quitting when people are looking for them two rooms away. (Quitting to avoid a scene with potential death)
-Players choosing to flee in a direction instead of address a PC character that has entered the room with them. (Shitty RP to escape instead of roleplay) ((EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT THIS ONE. LETS NOT PRETEND IT ISN'T A THING. You want change, hold players responsible when it happens.))