How to live a semi-long life.

[sarahjc]

In an effort not to de-rail the derailment, I am starting a new thread. It's sick, I know. But there was a whole string of conversation in there about how it is hard to live more than 20 days for some and how others think it's relatively easy. I say it all depends on who you play and how good you are at playing that kind of PC, also a little luck is needed as well.

Some people may have no luck.

I for one am good at playing a city type. I can play a city PC for years. Or at least have a 40 day run of it. But put me out in the sands and I am lucky to live 7 days.

How about you? What do you think are the secretes to longevity?

[Cenghiz]

Rangers: Remember you're primarily archers.
Warriors: Bah, don't go try poisonous shit.
Merchants: You live long.. No hints.
Shadies: Contacts... You must have friends.
Ungemmed magickers: Don't go tell everyone.
Gemmed magickers: You live long, no hints.

Just my two 'sids.

[Bestatte]

Play the coward. Play a character who lives cautiously. Even an adventurous type can do that. Want to explore the wastelands? Bring a friend who is MUCH better with combat than you are, AND who knows the area. A tour-guide of sorts. Make sure one of you has enough skill with bandaging that you can patch yourself up if you get hit. You don't have a friend like that? Explore something closer to home instead, until you acquire a friend like that.

Sure, it might be boring for awhile. It might be insufferably boring. But there's a trade-off when you choose to have a long-lived character. You can have constant excitement for a short duration, OR you can be bored fairly often and experience the world in spurts.  Eventually, you get to know your way around and can venture further by yourself.

Don't stray too far from the city until you've memorized the escape route back to safety. Take it slow - example:

You're a Nakki. Head out the west gate. Look around. Take the route south just 4 or 5 rooms, looking in every direction to see the "headings" of the rooms nearby, and the weather patterns as well. Head back to the gate, go north 4 or 5 rooms, doing the same. Go back to the city. Cross over to the east gate, do the same over there. That's it. That's your entire first day's adventure. Be grateful as hell you didn't get killed, celebrate with an ale.

Stay in town a couple of RL days after that. Then go out again, this time moving west from the west gate, then east from the east gate. You have now explored around 80 rooms just by looking in various directions, in your first week of playing. And lived to tell about it.

While you're doing all that, work on scan if you have it. Work on hunt if you have it. Work on listen if you have it. These are all skills that an outdoorsman WOULD use as a natural course of living life.

Learn to recognize patterns. Shifting sands, weather changes, room descriptions - read every word of every room description. If there's an "extra" description in the room, try to examine the object of that description. You haven't even started learning how to do any kind of combat yet - you're JUST looking around. It can take a couple of RL weeks of just plain looking and returning to safety before you're ready to take on the easiest "critter" out there.

By now, you have a few "days played" racked up, and can kick back and relax in town, doing the appropriate bowing and keeping your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself. You don't know anyone, you never heard of that guy, you SIP your drinks instead of tossing them back and getting drunk as a skunk, you're polite, you're not a rinth-rat, you don't wear shady clothes, you don't try to be mysterious, or tough, just a regular Joe hanging out in the bar, maybe whittling on wood outside the bar...nothing fancy, nothing to attract the attention of the bad guys, but enough to attract the attention of a potential wood-carving-buyer.

Sound boring? It is. Mindnumbingly boring sometimes. But that's what you get for wanting a 20-day character. You'll have a lot of uneventful days. But you might live long enough to see things that no one else has ever seen, and get involved in things no one else has ever experienced eventually. And that makes it worth the wait.

[Jacques]

I've had very good luck keeping my characters alive for more than 5 days. Two things that I tend to keep in mind when starting out:

I think the biggest thing, from my perspective, is to have a plan for how your character is going to live that DOESN'T involve anything herculean. Figure out how you're going to feed yourself WITHOUT finding that recently-dead bahamet loaded with coins in the desert - what skills do you have that can keep you fed and watered? Can you forage food? Can you buy low and sell high? Can you steal enough coins per week to not starve to death? Can you make things, and do you know where to sell them? Going in without a plan means you often make choices you wish you hadn't. We tend to put a lot of thought into what our characters have done before they start, but little into what they'll do for their first IC year of playing time. Have a plan.

The SECOND biggest thing is to not try to do anything "big" until your character is ready for it. A 1-day ranger, or even a warrior, should NOT be out trying to take down a tembo or a pack of gortoks alone. My last ranger (which was some time ago) lived about 12 days, and only at THAT point was he able to start thinking "well, it's only one scrab... I can probably take it". Sadly, he found something he COULDN'T take, and... *BEEP*  Ah, well - happens to us all.  :wink:

[Delirium]

Long-lived does NOT have to equal boring at all. My longest lived character had all but maybe five sorta-dull moments, and that was more like 'taking a breather' from the rest of the rollercoaster ride.

Just act with common sense and create a character with a will to survive and a healthy dose of caution (which does not have to mean never taking risks), and you'll find it's really not so hard to live a long time after all. As a side note, most of my characters tend to live at least 10 days gametime, and many have been well within the 30 day range.

[Akaramu]

Well... if you consider 10 days long-lived, I guess I dont really have a problem. But for me, 10 days played feels like nothing. Its just barely enough to build up a social network and get into interesting stuff.

I am assuming luck plays a role with having a 20+ day char, and also the backup / support / status to deflect some of the fatal possible events you have no control over. A high ranked senior servant would be less likely to be mistaken for a rinther spy and killed than a fairly new unaffiliated PC.  :wink:

[Tamarin]

If you have like...under 20 pcs so far, and you haven't yet had a +20 day PC, I would say to you "Don't be discouraged."  These things take time, and eventually you'll find a formula that will work.  Anyone who has a seriously long-lived character on their first five PCs is an anomaly, in my opinion.  It displays a level of maturity, creativity, and knowledge of the docs that most take a long time to develop, myself included.

[jhunter]

Make sure your role is one that fits you and will keep you busy IC.

Always work to act realistically, if your acting realistically you'll be less apt to put your pc in stupid situations.

If your in a combat-based role, know how to pick your battles and know when to run away...you'll be alive to fight another day.

Surround yourself with allies (if it's IC for your character) there's safety in numbers.

Outdoors as a non-desert elf, your mount is your best friend right up there with your waterskin, keep both close to you and keep them safe.

Be careful who you piss off, if they aren't obviously of power they may have powerful friends.


Those are the only things I can think of, interestingly enough my second longest-lived pc was an oddball, extremely reckless by nature and somehow he just got lucky...eventually, like with anyone...his luck did finally run out.   :wink:

[Jorlain]

Sometimes staying alive just comes natural. My first character, for examplke, was a 40+ day assassin.

Don't worry about staying alive, just play your character.  

[Cuusardo]

While I don't really think that how long you keep the character alive should really be a goal for anyone, I will say this:  A lot of long lived characters typically have lots of friends.

[Anonymous]

Always work to act realistically, if your acting realistically you'll be less apt to put your pc in stupid situations.

This is the answer in a nutshell.

Doing the realistic thing, however, is not always the fun thing.  If you are a noble don't go somewhere your PC wouldn't be caught dead because there's something interesting.  If you are some old merchant don't ride out to attack the gith hordes during an HRPT.  If you are an escaped mul stay away from civilization, etc, etc.

[Gaare]

I think the trick to living long is to not take risks when you don't have to but when you do have to go full out in every possible way to take down anybody who's out to hurt you. Also, be more useful to people alive than dead.

Some time ago, Boggis sent me that via PM when I asked him about long lived characters. Indeed makes sense and smart... And usually works in all types of characters.

[Marauder Moe]

Stay inside the city walls.

Stay out of the 'rinth (if applicable).

Kiss the templar's ass when he's talking to you.

[Larrath]

Fear.
See people and fear them.
Never assume that someone is weak just because they don't strut around showing their power.  Fear is a wonderful tool for keeping your PC in check and in the world of the living.

[Xamminy]

Rangers: Remember you're primarily archers.
Warriors: Bah, don't go try poisonous shit.
Merchants: You live long.. No hints.
Shadies: Contacts... You must have friends.
Ungemmed magickers: Don't go tell everyone.
Gemmed magickers: You live long, no hints.

Corrections:
Rangers: Remember you're primarily HUNTERS.  There's a difference.  Think like a hunter, not a warrior that hunts.
Warriors: Don't think brute strength will solve every problem.  Find others with those solutions.
Merchants: To live long you must learn to find your materials cheaply while still staying safe.
Shadies: Contacts are necessary.  You don't need friends.
Ungemmed magickers: Be VERY careful where you cast and don't go telling everyone, but just those you know you can trust.  In the meantime, think about what you do what what that means in the grand scheme of things.  You're not the uber-powerful mage of d00m yet.
Gemmed magickers: Find employment and realize that you're scary, you just need to figure out why and how to do what you do, like above.

[Akaramu]

I think the trick to living long is to not take risks when you don't have to but when you do have to go full out in every possible way to take down anybody who's out to hurt you. Also, be more useful to people alive than dead.

How do you know who's out to hurt you? Quite often it isnt IC to know, and there is no possibility to know. Not everyone has mindbender friends or a network of spies. Chances are you'll get hit out of nowhere and wonder why. I know how that feels like.  :wink:

About being more useful alive than dead... I guess in a world so full of danger and betrayal, people arent very likely to take the risk of letting someone live so they can MAYBE be useful and not just a potential stab in the back. I would love to see more plots end in a non-lethal way, but with a potential ongoing risk that creates a whole tree of new plotlines instead of cutting them. But not many seem willing to deal with this ongoing risk.

[Ghost]

I would love to see more plots end in a non-lethal way, but with a potential ongoing risk that creates a whole tree of new plotlines instead of cutting them. But not many seem willing to deal with this ongoing risk.

I have seen lots and lots and lots and lots of plots that end up non-lethal.  Even so caught up spies, and such..  There are enough examples of it than you can believe, really. It -might- be your luck.

And I have seen lots of people keeping someone as their contact, just because that guy is more useful alive than dead.  You -need- to show you are useful, and let them use you.

[Dracul]

One time I shadowed a salarri into his estate.
They caught me.
Then they hired me.


Then I discovered 'no-hide' rooms in another place. Well...they killed me.
Eh.

[Maybe42or54]

I have to be one of the luckiest people.
For the first ten days of playing, my worst bet at life was against a few gith and a scrab within my second hour of playing.

That i show i play.
Then I toss myself into a blender and see what I get.

It is very fun.

[Anonymous]

I would love to see more plots end in a non-lethal way, but with a potential ongoing risk that creates a whole tree of new plotlines instead of cutting them. But not many seem willing to deal with this ongoing risk.

This sounds great on paper, but you lose a 30 day PC because he looked at someone wrong and you begin to have a different outlook.  I'm only sort of embellishing here, too.

[Rhyden]

The only real way most of my characters have died in the past is due to carelessness. Fighting something knowing it could beat me easily, not looking before leaping, not scouting ahead or behind. If I really keep it casual, cautious and slow, I can make a true-blue out of city character live for some time, of course luck comes into factor as well. It ain't so lucky when a couple human raiders pounce on you like fresh meat, neither does a bahamet around the corner.

[flurry]

I remember when I first started playing, I had a somewhat unrealistic notion of just how dangerous and harsh life in Zalanthas was.   I thought danger lurked around every single corner.  Which is part of the fun of playing Zalanthas as a complete newbie, when there is so much unknown to fear.  I remember people telling my PC that going outside the gates in Allanak was certain death, and I believed them and was terrified whenever my PC would dare step out to look for bits of nice-looking rocks.

I've had pretty good success keeping characters alive, without ever really making it a goal to rack up a certain number of days.  I think a lot of it comes down to play style, rather than playing all that intelligently or skillfully.   I know I've had plenty of bonehead mistakes and got characters tangled in some ill-advised sticky situations.

There are some things that help, of course.  I agree that a lot of it involves treating risks in a realistic way.  That doesn't mean don't take risks.   Some of the most fun in Armageddon comes in those moments when you anxiously press return, knowing that what happens next could change (or end) your character's life.   But when you take risks, for goodness sake, have a reason to do so.  Unless your character is fearless or oblivious, approach those situations with the trepidation they deserve.  

Being prepared and anticipating problems helps too.   Give yourself an escape route.  Give yourself some wiggle room.   Make up a cover story.  

I agree also that allies help greatly.  Luck helps too.

[Akaramu]

And I have seen lots of people keeping someone as their contact, just because that guy is more useful alive than dead.  You -need- to show you are useful, and let them use you.

You dont always get a chance to prove potential usefulness.

I remember when I first started playing, I had a somewhat unrealistic notion of just how dangerous and harsh life in Zalanthas was. I thought danger lurked around every single corner.

Thats not unrealistic. It does lurk around every corner. You can get killed for talking to the wrong person, or for being mistaken for someone else. :wink:

But I'll admit that MOST of my PCs died to newbie-ish OOC ignorance. Or to stumbling over the code.

I want to study the way of the Bestatte.

[Koala]

I remember when I first started playing, I had a somewhat unrealistic notion of just how dangerous and harsh life in Zalanthas was.   I thought danger lurked around every single corner.  Which is part of the fun of playing Zalanthas as a complete newbie, when there is so much unknown to fear.  I remember people telling my PC that going outside the gates in Allanak was certain death, and I believed them and was terrified whenever my PC would dare step out to look for bits of nice-looking rocks.

Flurry, I can assure you that every single piece of danger is still there. If you ask me, your notion of danger was not unrealistic and those PCs who were telling you the dangers of wildlife told you the truth. Believe or not, if you are stepping out of the gates regularly, how badass your character is, you will end up with death sooner or later. And this death rate is statistically higher then any city type of character including the very shady and dark types. Every second you are spending outside of the gates, you are closing one step to your death. It is a matter of time, only very and very few people can survive such a life, and those who survive will die eventually, in a shorter time of period compared to the city dwellers.

...

To live a semi-long lived life in the desert you need a little luck and knowledge in weapons. If your character is in South, then you will need more of both . In addition to those, you have to keep your mind clear both OOC'ly and IC'ly, because doing a single mistake may end up with your character's death even if he/she handled the same situation before, many times. At the moment you stop caring about your environment ( because you did the same thing over and over, so many times and somehow you started to think that nothing can get you down ) then your character is most likely to die within a short time interval.

It is a matter of knowledge and concentration, plus a little luck at the beginning. If you are good at those then you will end up with a semi-long lived character. For a very long lived character you have to be a Sorcerer :lol:.

[jmordetsky]

City Life - If you are only living 2 days there is something seriously wrong with you. If you live in the cities, don't go outside the walls and don't go in the rinth, you should 20 days easily. After that well....


Outdoors - Just keep at it. Don't trust anyone.

Rinthis - Just keep at it. Don't trust anyone.