Babylon System is the Vampire wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2024 2:34 am
Kythana wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 6:27 pm
Babylon System is the Vampire wrote: ↑Wed Jan 17, 2024 11:58 am
The only real solution, and I mentioned this in the other similar thread going on at the moment too, is to reestablish a standard for the game. At this point, it's not going to be an easy process, but it isn't impossible. And a good start to the path that the admins could do that on their end is by strengthening the setting to be more than just a backdrop to player whims. I've mentioned this before in other contexts over the years, but the sanctity of the setting is by far the most important part to the long-term survival of this game*, because it's the one thing that a player run nwn server can offer that many of the newer, prettier and more fun to play games can't offer.
What do you even define the setting as at this point?
And secondly, how do you envision admins strengthening it?
So, I'm going to pretend that you asked me "what do you mean by the setting in the context of your post" rather than how you chose to pose the question and try and answer the best I can in 10 minutes or less.
The setting is everything beyond what the players can bring to the table, from unique cities with npcs that have agendas that help make the city unique (tiles can only do so much), to back drop stories like wars between npc superpowers, to mysteries and the like for players to solve. Essentially, anything that makes the setting feel alive in a forgotten realms context around the players, as this was not by any stretch and all-encompassing list.
That's not what I mean. I'm aware of what a setting is, as per the definition.
What I'm asking you as well as the general you; what is Arelith's setting today? Putting aside the way players interpretations can shift and vary across individuals, what exactly is Arelith trying to portray?
Is this supposed to be a high fantasy adventure about vanquishing epic threats from all sorts of wild and weird places? Where seeing a warlock and a demon is a normal day occurrence.
Or is it supposed to be grounded, with a layer of applicability. Where the main focus becomes the day to day mundane lifestyle of settlement life, including tax management, wealth distribution, employee hiring, resource upkeep, ect.
I ask, because. As you outline.
Second I would immediately come up with 5 slow burn stories that are always present yet also always in the background until it eventually picks up steam toward its end game. And when that end game approaches, I would have a replacement on hand so there is always something for players in all corners of the server to pursue.
In this example, how exactly would these relate back to the context of the setting? After all, these stories could range between, 'Bandits are stealing the food, and causing the peasants to starve.' and 'A ten thousand strong demonic army is intending to invade in 100 days.'
While this is obviously hyperbole, I've witnessed events with very similar framing like that back to back in the same settlement. And it represents a tonal disconnect.
So, sure. You can add more npcs to push players along a certain path. But the first thing is going to be defining what that path is. The entire reason that the initial thread was created, and why this question gets asked so often is literally because there are many players, including myself, who see a stark contrast of what the setting says it is, and what it actually is.
I'm being told by lore that planar travel is hard, and planar beings are uncommon. I'm being shown as a character that everyone and their mother can summon planar beings, or they are a planar being and all it takes is a question asked in the middle of the street to learn to go anywhere in the planes.
I'm being told by theming that this is a medieval fantasy world, which has certain restrictions compared to a modern one. Yet I'm being shown as a character that none of these restrictions really mean anything. Disease and illness is a non factor, hunger and survival is a nonissue, traveling has never been easier, and even communication has no limits, because a stack of wisp bottles functions as a smart phone.
I'm told that death is supposed to be meaningful and have significant consequences, yet death is more of an inconvenience for most players.
I go and read the definite drow policy which says, "Drow should not be kind, gentle, forgiving, or sympathetic". Well, shockingly, you know what I have seen much lately?
So looping this all back to the original point, we have to ask. What is the framing of the server and setting we play in telling us, and in what ways is it behaving differently?
And the high amount of special race characters that we see is in direct conflict to what many of us think the setting should be, often based behind the lore of those races, and the supposed scarcity of awards.