Last time in Arelith ...

[Bunny]

I logged into Skal and there are changes; new npcs and some furniture. Its like walking into a room after a party and knowing you missed something.

I listen to nerd poker podcast and the dm gives a review each episode.

Why don't DMs provide a commentary to players so we are aware of the progressions in the game world? I walk into events a lot and i come across dm characters i believe but I've no idea about the unfolding stories or how my character might fit in to them. I tend to listen briefly and sometimes engage other PCs to discover what is afoot but all in all i grind in the dark of dm story telling.

Is there a state of the game or some kind of DM communication I've been missing? Would it be too much to have a recounting of events for common knowledge?

[Vatheril]

The way it generally works is all "Find out in game", it's there to give you a topic to talk and RP about. In terms of finding out the current events that are happening well...

Your safest bet is to check the noticeboard, often players will post information relating to the current events and happenings in the world. Make sure to scroll back a few pages to see if you can piece together the events as they unfold day by day.

The next safest best is to simply just ask someone, look for someone who 'looks' or 'acts' important/busy. Often events have people who get really into them and they in turn create content for the rest of us. Seek them out and perhaps if they're not so busy they might be able to explain or they'll point you in a direction where you can find out. (Be nice and patient, it can be a little frustating when you're trying to achieve something and people are coming up to you every 5min asking you a heap of questions.)

The last bet is to just observe the event (if you can make it). Try and pick up on what's being said, how people are reacting. From there you can start to form an idea. I mean nothing wrong with just walking up to someone and whispering them "hey there, what's happening over there..."

As for context of Skal, I believe these current events happening at (American) EST times.

Oh and sometimes its okay not to know what is happening as you might go about your day to day business when suddenly you're thrown into a situation without any context to then become a plot device to push the story forward.

Example: Attempting a writ only to be captured by the evil guy's henchmen. To then later be rescued by a priestess who was in the wrong place at the wrong time transporting explosives for uhh... 'reasons'. true story

[Bunny]

I get FOIG but it suffers greatly from the telephone game. Ive tried message boards but there again suffers accuracy and perspective. Even the news papers.

I think I'm looking for a more communal prologue and epilogue.

[Ebonstar]

papers are generally after the fact, seek those who always seem to be talking around the campfire, or the square in cordor for example. They will usually be the best sources of information. Bards especially

Some of them will seem to be putting on a show, but if you pay attention to the songs they bring you current on some things

[Queen Titania]

When I first joined the team over five years ago, we had a DM run Newspaper that you would buy from the Paper Givers located in all the settlements. While the player run press mostly replaces what it did, I can see such a thing serving as an IC vehicle for us, but it also requires constant maintaining so it is up to date.

I guess Arelith's website News feed could hint vaguely at exciting stories playing, or that ended.

But I do think largely it should be ICly gathered!

[Bunny]

When I first joined the team over five years ago, we had a DM run Newspaper that you would buy from the Paper Givers located in all the settlements. While the player run press mostly replaces what it did, I can see such a thing serving as an IC vehicle for us, but it also requires constant maintaining so it is up to date.

I guess Arelith's website News feed could hint vaguely at exciting stories playing, or that ended.

But I do think largely it should be ICly gathered!

Im not looking to undermine the current processes, they work. From a noob view though, ill need to have a lot of hours under my belt to be up to speed on history and establish characters and stories.

I am looking from an old school perspective. What is missing from a group of five around a table? Oh yeah, DM providing context as well as knowledge or insight. In the pod cast the DM does a lot of skill checks to help the player through character knowledge on a success. In NWN, that takes an active DM and a few other mechanics. Relying completely on in character talking leaves a noob like me with asking very basic questions like why are there four thrones here than how did the meeting go with the wizard conquerors?

I would think there is a manageable means to better facilitate a DMs story to the community rather than just those present. The NPCs bore witness but cant say anything without a huge development cycle and i often find myself alone with them with no new insights nor anyone asking about my exploits. At the table, i could leverage the DM to generate those npcs and progress the story. In NWN its a much harder task on the scale that Arelith exists.

[Xarge VI]

I feel you.
My playtimes don't generally allow me to participate in DM events directly.

Best way to be involved in them is really just being inquisitive. Boards generally give direction to who might know what, and really the important question to ask when investigating is who others were involved, that way you don't need to overwhelm a single player with endless questions and you can piece together a picture that can be more accurate than the people involved in the various events have.

I take enjoyment in investigative rp, looking at it from that angle might help.

[Ascheriit]

From what I have noticed it definitely helps to be in the more active settlements, and have some affiliation to the active factions. It also will help if your play times overlap with those factions (I really had this issue when playing my svirf. Since I am GMT -7 most of them all seemed to be gmt +1 or +2. I would see the other gnomes I knew maybe once a week on saturday at noon my time. Which wasn't exactly ideal.)


It helps to do the legwork IC (checking message boards, hanging around activity hubs/settlements, meeting people), and OOC (before you make a character inquiring about a groups play times to see if they match up.)

[Ork]

Skal is plenty active, thank you very much. I think this is good feedback for the players during these events. We should really strive to document & include people as we do these dm events that may have noticeable consequences.

[Ascheriit]

We should really strive to document & include people as we do these dm events that may have noticeable consequences.

This, especially if people want to rp it later as common knowledge. It can really help new players if there are maybe a few posts left by players involved giving some happenings. I had previously found it extremely frustrating when playing my gnome, as people really liked to reference the gnome spriggan war, but there was very little documents recapping it.

[Morgy]

I’ve missed several DM events in Skal recently, but been able to participate in others. I decided to begin my own plot line and from that have had a lot of interaction continuing stories with others. It can take a decent amount of time to get plots off the ground, but they are very rewarding when others get involved.

The DM events are great, but they are usually unannounced and shouldn’t impact your personal story all that much. I much prefer surprise DM appearances.

My experience is a significant amount of players in Skal seem to wait for interactions/triggers from others, rather than beginning something themselves. I’m talking about inclusive story arcs here, not chit chat by the campfire or brief ‘how do you do’s’. It is not uncommon to see PCs running about, weapons drawn and not initiating spontaneous communication with others. Plenty of PCs join in an ongoing thing, but far less plant the seeds.

Also I can tell you -some- furniture from these events such as posters and a Thay statue are actually player made, not by DMs. The Iron Throne events are numerous and I think Titania has done a good job of spreading them out so as many different players can be involved at some point anyway. This story appears to be astring of mini events.

I personally don’t know why DM initiated stories should be reported any more than PC ones, as all that will do is make them seem more important/pivotal. Also it’s fair to say I think that a decent proportion of DM events are part of a story arc begun by group of PCs anyway.

If you want some specific advice for Skal - there are a few very prominent PCs who can update you on many recent events (because they collate info IC, even though they may not be present for many happenings). The identity of these folk should be obvious for anyone spending time in the village/reading the notice board

[Aurian]

I'm surprised there isn't already a page / forum section dedicated to the known history (events everyone living there would know about) of various areas. Especially new players would really benefit from this.

Please make it happen!

I'm sure players would volunteer their own history files if DMs asked for help.

[Ork]

There's a distinction between in game lore & an OOC mechanism to dispense this lore. If lore was provided freely on an OOC level, players wouldn't have any barriers to claiming intimate knowledge with these events. In the same way where we have players pulling up the wiki to quote very obscure and vague lines of FR lore during the game, I believe in game lore is best left in game.

With that said, we as players should make a stride to include others. One of the greatest ways to do that is being organized in how you dispense knowledge.

[Ascheriit]

My experience is a significant amount of players in Skal seem to wait for interactions/triggers from others, rather than beginning something themselves. I’m talking about inclusive story arcs here, not chit chat by the campfire or brief ‘how do you do’s’. It is not uncommon to see PCs running about, weapons drawn and not initiating spontaneous communication with others. Plenty of PCs join in an ongoing thing, but far less plant the seeds.

To chime in on this it only makes sense that people give up on planting the seeds when efforts continually materialize to nothing, which seems to happen to many things players try to start. Which can either happen from lack of buy in from others, or the demands it places upon them to keep going.

[Emotionaloverload]

I'm surprised there isn't already a page / forum section dedicated to the known history (events everyone living there would know about) of various areas. Especially new players would really benefit from this.

Please make it happen!

I'm sure players would volunteer their own history files if DMs asked for help.

There is a source (the Arelithica) that houses all IG historical information and it can be used as IG info (according to Mith. I don't know if that verdict has changed since) however since we had a change in domain, its been down.


-S

[CptJonas]

I see one problem with this....And reason why there should be atleat some basic info...
Lets say....here was this and this event and that was outcome.....

Bcs there are many places (for example UD in big part) Where nearly every big event or action is taken in specific time...
So it can happen that you was told to go to kill someone bcs this event which happened bcs of that events, ...and even if you play you could literaly miss like 4 wars and 5 wedings in few weeks

And nearly noone speaks about those events what happened like 2 weeks ago, bcs they expect to everbody know about that....you can easily lost many conversations bcs of no idea of context...

[Ascheriit]

I see one problem with this....And reason why there should be atleat some basic info...
Lets say....here was this and this event and that was outcome.....

Bcs there are many places (for example UD in big part) Where nearly every big event or action is taken in specific time...
So it can happen that you was told to go to kill someone bcs this event which happened bcs of that events, ...and even if you play you could literaly miss like 4 wars and 5 wedings in few weeks

And nearly noone speaks about those events what happened like 2 weeks ago, bcs they expect to everbody know about that....you can easily lost many conversations bcs of no idea of context...

This was my exact experience with info playing a svirfneblin without prior knowledge of the gnome-spriggan war and why things are the way they are after it. Really frustrated me on my last character, and caused me to give up on the grotto and racial rp. You also aren't exaggerating the insane pace at which politics can change in Andunor.

[Ork]

If you don't know something? Literally ask. The information shared will be flawed, biased and distorted as all good history is. When events are transported into OOC, you get bizarre events where players are able to recollect about things that have happened with 100% certainty and clarity - that's not good for an evolving, changing PW.

If you don't recieve the information, you can assume it's been lost to time. Dig through old records, books, etc..theres so much out there.

[Ascheriit]

Yes, that works if people are around to learn from IC. If they choose not to document something, and expect people to learn about it OOC then they really shouldn't hold it over people as some sort of public knowledge.

[Ork]

Yes, that works if people are around to learn from IC. If they choose not to document something, and expect people to learn about it OOC then they really shouldn't hold it over people as some sort of public knowledge.

You could ask them, dawg. If they're not willing to spill, other people might be. Can't you see how that'd only produce roleplay instead of hand-feeding people?

[Aurian]

BIG events that literally everyone who isn't blind and deaf, but is living in that area would know about, shouldn't be locked away behind 'ask people IC'. Let people create a personal background that makes sense. If I was born in a city, I want to know if that city was destroyed by a demon horde when I was 10 years old. If meteors fell from the sky and killed half of a region's population, I want to know -before- entering the game or creating my character's background.

'Ask people IC' works for minor historical events. But the meteors falling from the sky 10 years ago? Only the blind and deaf wouldn't already be aware.

[Emotionaloverload]

BIG events that literally everyone who isn't blind and deaf, but is living in that area would know about, shouldn't be locked away behind 'ask people IC'. Let people create a personal background that makes sense. If I was born in a city, I want to know if that city was destroyed by a demon horde when I was 10 years old. If meteors fell from the sky and killed half of a region's population, I want to know -before- entering the game or creating my character's background.

'Ask people IC' works for minor historical events. But the meteors falling from the sky 10 years ago? Only the blind and deaf wouldn't already be aware.

I believe its been said that everyone arrives by boat to Arelith so having complete knowledge is not required for character background. Even if your character is an Arelith native, they left at some point and returned by boat.

Keep in mind that most of the history is forgotten by Arelithians. Even those that are still around/recent history. There is never going to be the amount of information you want (the Arelithica has some and I know some players have compiled more) because there will always be another world ending event or crazy tragedy around the corner to eat up memory. Only historically focused characters document it (allowing it to be found IG in libraries or on shelves) and even then they usually pick a region to focus on.

I disagree that every big event should be OoC documented. If its has enough impact to the characters in it, it will be collected and found IG or on the IG online source.

-S

[Ascheriit]

Have to agree to disagree then. If some big treaty is signed that effects all future people playing in am area, then to be good to our fellow players we should work to provide context to future players. In the cases of some things I ran into the played had long been gonw, or aren't active to learn from. So that leaves ooc asking which frankly shouldn't be required. So as someone who sees no one around you may wish to start something, only for someone to dust off a shelved character and then slap some lore in front of you which now forces you to deal with something you had no chance to know about.

[Ork]

So as someone who sees no one around you may wish to start something, only for someone to dust off a shelved character and then slap some lore in front of you which now forces you to deal with something you had no chance to know about.

Thats a great example of positive conflict furthering a story. We would be deprived of these opportunities to collaborate with others if all information was provided OOCly.

It is okay for your character to fail, to get frustrated, to feel stupid, to feel embarrassed. These are all okay things, and really fleshed out a character as opposed to Mary Sues with all the answers.

[Ascheriit]

I can agree that positive conflict can further a story, and that yes I and others shouldn't know everything IC.

Though, that can only happen if it doesn't come off in a negative way. If someone is trying to start something in a dead area, and people bring characters out of retirement (after many IG years have passed with no activity) to provide such "conflict" can give off the feeling of "Who the hell are you to be doing this?" or "Don't touch this stuff even though we are not using it at this time" which is not a particularly fun thing to make someone feel when they are putting themselves out there to try and bring life to a dead place.