Finding interaction

[Pariah]

Now I know that this is a huge game, with a smattering of people seems like 20-30 is the norm that I'm seeing most times I log in.

So I was wondering is there any tips or tricks that can be discussed about how the hell to find folks to interact with?

I've ran around Allanak to all the different bars, nothing, walked around outside and nothing.

I know I way back when got chided for using the boards to advertise my nobody amos because the boards, at least as I took it at that time, were meant for things that common populous would be discussing, AKA important shit.

Has that changed at all?  Are you able to just make rando posts about what Average Amos is doing and wants to do?

I left for a while due to work and just other interests (God of War Ragnarok was the latest one, great game btw) and now find myself dipping my toes back into a old character of mine and I'm like fuck, where is everyone?

Any input is appreciated.

[Hestia]

Here's a hypothetical of a 100% legit tavern board situation for a "fledgling nobody" named Amos, the fluffy-bearded man.

Amos walks into the Gaj and sits down for a bit, buys a cheap shot of whatever. Whether there's any PCs in there or not - doesn't matter. He strikes up a conversation. You can pretend to talk to some random VNPC at the bar, or directly to the bartender. Just don't force the bartender to respond in any particular way.  You can even wish up while you're on the way to the bar to let staff know there's an opportunity for random animation if someone's interested and available.

So you tell them "Hey any of you looking for grebbers? I'm running low on funds - got robbed and tossed out of my apartment. Saving up for a mount."  and "Name's Amos. I'll buy a drink to anyone who connects me with someone interested in grebbed stones, chalton bits, obsidian. I can make crossbow bolts too, just give me time to get the materials together."

Wait for responses from PCs/NPCs... and then post on the tavern board:

Some shlub calling himself Amos has been seen around the lower-class
establishments offering his services as a grebber and crossbow bolt maker. He has
a fluffy beard, he's kind of scrawny, has grey eyes, and a bald sunburnt head. He's
usually seen mid-week looking for work.

And that's it.

That's just off the top of my head, but it's just an example, hopefully it'll give you some encouragement!

[mansa]

This is an excellent topic, because it's something that should be reminded upon for new players and ancient old players.

a) You should be able to go to a tavern in the major cities, and find another player to interact with.  Templars, Nobles, Merchants, Mercenaries.  They should never stay in their estates and compounds and apartments for long periods of time.

They should always spend some time in the center locations of play, which is taverns, both high-end and low-end.



b) You should be able to write an IC Rumor Board post about looking for a partner or to join a company.  This should be encouraged.

An example post should be:

write board A grebber was looking for a job
A hunter looking characters was in the tavern, speaking with the bartender.  He
told the bartender, "I'm looking to join a crew, do you know anyone hiring?  My
name is Amos." The hunter looked human, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

OOC: Playtimes usually 8 pm PST - 10 pm PST

[Filthy_Grey_Rat]

Now I know that this is a huge game, with a smattering of people seems like 20-30 is the norm that I'm seeing most times I log in.

So I was wondering is there any tips or tricks that can be discussed about how the hell to find folks to interact with?

Any input is appreciated.

Hi! I play offpeak, atypical chars that have struggled to find interaction. Here's some tricks and tips from someone who /gets/ interaction when they want it.

So that running around you mentioned? It seems like you mean literally spamwalking from one place, to another, checking to see if anyone else is there and idle. If you do got to any bar, or place, try and stay for ten minutes. That's an IC hour, and increases your chances you people peeking in and finding you, the interaction. If that's not what you're doing, don't worry about it, someone will benefit from that tip, and these others.

Leave garbage! Are you drinking every day at dawn in the (popular drinking establishment, British voice), and still finding no one? Leave your empties, scraps of cloth, anything that you can arrange, and people like me will stick around a little later and longer. Are you going to your broken down tenement, and rp'ing with a VNPC family? Drop stuff with arrange descriptions to include the VNPCS, and that garbage won't get picked up or stolen as often, because, you know, someone's there, AND people like me will return to the scene more often to try and catch the good roleplayer. Man I love finding good roleplayers doing solo stuff in weird places.

Always playing an offpeaker? ALWAYS looking for interaction and not finding it? Next time, roll up someone with city hunt. You'll get a lot of false positives at intersections, but after discovering some of the most wonderful scripts on NPCs who move around and do stuff, you'll learn a bit of the habit, and start finding real PC's moving around. City hunt is great for many things, including opportunies for roleplaying nontraditional hunting tactics, like talking to witnesses, standing on crates and looking for gaps in the crowds, idk, I digress.

Learn the schedule! The entire world has a schedule, from the way certain animals act, group and gather, to how storms visit certain places in loops, and what breaks in those loops mean. Typically, there's a Bynner and a criminal logged in at any given time. Bynners will have their days busy in their terrain, but usually run to seek RP at DUSK till BEFORE DAWN. So those are their tavern, interaction seeking times. Find the paths between watering holes and clan gates, and you'll find busier intersections to linger, hawk, or spy at. With criminals, DAWN to DUSK is just less good for what they wanna be doing, so taverns, watering holes, and places with shade to linger and lie low at, those are going to be more popular for them, then. And of course, there's the one place that people in the city always go...

THE BAZAAR! How bizarre, how bizarre. Even if the only other PC on isn't looking for interaction, RP, or you, they're more than likely going to hit up the market. There are natural, habitual entry and exit points for every bazaar, depending on who your prey is and where you're at, of course. The best way to get interaction from bazaar haunting is to have a long description ready. If PC A passes PC B and they're just 'standing there', they're either going to powerwalk away to avoid being stolen from, or completely ignore you because you're another NPC in a blur of them. If you've got an interesting and eye catching ldesc set, you'll get more pauses and more RP than your typical 'looks at you, walks away' RP.


And finally, there are more annoying things you can do. Go through the rumor boards looking for names, and just contact every single name you've seen. Do it again at a different hour, find the playtimes, remember the name.

Linger outside clan gates, shouting.

Break some laws, or try to, without dying.

Take a nap at the city gates, because, frankly, you're exhausted.

Have some actual, RP and most importantly, inclusive reason for doing these things, and the interaction you get could turn into longterm RP opportunities. Lemme give you and others some examples of this.

Linger outside clan gates, shouting. Because you've been trying to join this merchant house for weeks, and never found anyone's mind. Is it an eclectic hiring process that requires dedication? Did you go and find out that that Merchant House has wronged people you care about and now you're airing your grievances, commoner to Noble? If you're not just shouting nonsense, and you have a reason to be shouting, then those who can here inside or happen by have legitimate and potentially fun reasons to interact with you more. And they know where you're at now, of course.

Break some laws, or try to, without dying. I mean, you wouldn't /die/ for that kank shell gorget that one NPC in the bazaar is sporting, would you? But I mean, would you take some risk for it? For such a rare piece? On an /elf/! No less, outrageous, while your human family starves, this elf has likely stolen a kank shell gorget from some lofty place, and rubbing everyone else's noses in by wearing it around the city. Time to take justice into your own hands since no soldiers seem to care, all just standing around patrolling, mindbusy with chitchat and gossip. Steal from that elf, get locked up, and if all you get is jail time and no PCs to explain the INJUSTICE happening? Do it again, because there was almost no consequences. Plan for the jail trip with a picnic, a torch, some games and fruit. Stow your weapons. Make that elf pay.

Take a nap at the city gates! I don't really mean this, actually. Just going there and typing 'sleep' is a bad idea, poor roleplay. But going to the gates to seek a certain type of person you haven't been able to find, well that's just something people do in Zalanthas. You camp there, watching and waiting, for a soldier to return home, or a visiting merchant to finally show up. Or to pull those evil spies into your own schemes. All of these RP'ed out, trumped up reasons to find interaction IG also have their IC roleplay purposes to. People shout at gates, people who aren't 'sneaky types' break the law, and people camp at the gates looking for certain people. After a certain point, you can't help but admit that ICly, your character is trying to find people. Even in our super populated, busy, and connected world, sometimes you just can't find /your/ type of people, or that one guy for a friggin' job, though everyone says X is hiring. It's realistically much harder in Zalanthas, where our special psionics can still be blocked just because someone wants to be alone. Where massive gates don't have doormen that have to tell their lord what's up. At those points, you can allow yourself to get more crafty with your searching methods.

I may come back here and add more tips later. Thank you for listening, and take with a grain of salt. I'm only one dude's opinion.

[Night Queen]

Take a nap at the city gates! I don't really mean this, actually. Just going there and typing 'sleep' is a bad idea, poor roleplay. But going to the gates to seek a certain type of person you haven't been able to find, well that's just something people do in Zalanthas. You camp there, watching and waiting

Just thought I'd say, so newbies don't get wrong idea - I think most people consider it very bad RP to go AFK/asleep in real life for extended periods in public areas - ESPECIALLY at IC sensitive information places where stuff is likely to happen like gates and taverns, it's not fair on everyone else to be having a "Spy log bot" there, when people are unlikely to remove that character from the area or interact with them, to be considerate for people who genuinely had to suddenly go AFK or lost connection (and I think it is good that staff are not letting people do this as much as they used to, it seems like)

edit: The rest is good though!!

Also: You might see players going around with hoods up or masks, sometimes just for the look of it, but it's best to avoid these unless there's a good IC reason - it means you are less likely to get contacted by characters who might otherwise speak to you, but might get killed if they get caught in a public place, you can meet some really interesting characters if you keep yourself open a bit in cities if your character is in a more lucky/safe situation!

I noticed Ldesc was mentioned but that's one of those things that kind of gets taken for granted but most new people aren't familiar with (I think a newbie area rework could be a nice thing) - Help Change explains it, it's really good to give people an idea of what your character's thing is, a clue to who they are or what they do. That works for outside cities too even, people are more likely to interact with a character that has a Ldesc set. Much less likely to die than "This is the gicker spamming spells/four-line description(ewww! SHUN) dwarf killing all npcs and craftspamming"

I remember seeing people talking to virtual NPCs - vNPCs - around that you can't see but you can still emote about, like a family or a small (cowardly) gang, a soldier or Templar mugging or harassing the character - or talking to themselves, or their animals (in cities there are vNPC ones too, rats everywhere and other things if look hard enough, Tuluk has gortoks, and lots of FOIC), or trees, even. Can all be great to get an idea of what a character's personality is like. Assume you are being watched at all times, because you might just be (just like those ████ DMs)