Even more, how do you know someone is an Outcast without actually knowing the person? You don't know names and can't metagame the floating tag, yet you know they are a villain,for doing... something, and you can indelibly recognize this among every single outcast despite never having met them, ever, or knowing what they actually did. Which is something that could/would GREATLY inform your PC's reaction to them - but the only way to discover this is through a lengthy OOC discussion with a PC who may not want to be revealing these story and plot details in an OOC tell for the same of a quick reaction IC to someone who doesn't even know who they're looking at beyond "Outcast".
No one seems to have addressed this.
Even if we presume that every settlement has a couple hundred Jesse James style wanted posters sitting around, how do we reconcile the fact that every single settlement knows every single Outcast, upon creation, regardless of their actual past history or actions?
I picked Outcast with the understanding that his actions happened on the Mainland, and so he was forced underground, literally, and is now on Arelith. This does not seem to be the purpose of the Outcast mechanic, but was never actually outlined anywhere. I would be willing to bet a lot of outcast characters were the same way. But now, like the very very shortlived race-tag that let people see Tieflings, this gives people carte blanche to do adversarial "outcast RP" by being able to see who is an outcast, without knowing the person, or their RP, or anything. It instantly creates "us vs them" RP that may end in PvP, all without ever actually creating a story or a set of interactions that might actually call for hostility. The Tiefling/Aasimar tag was very quickly removed for reasons related to endless instant "conflict RP/PVP" and metagaming. I belive the same thing should be done here with the Outcast tag, or, some mechanic attached to it beyond Disguise that allows for some level of play, something that even pirates, covering their entire bodies, are afforded. Pirates are even afforded by the DMs the fact that, if seen, there is the soft expectation that if you "cannot see" their tattoos, despite the WYSIWYG of the bio, that you do not call them out on it - same as only recognizing a warlock by glowing eyes.
This goes against the trend Irongron said in this topic of Outcasts functioning as a bridge between worlds, something I even said earlier in this topic - in exactly those words.
I absolutely understand the angle being put forth here, and completely concede that outcasts can very easily have the run of the server. I have played both sides and it's completely true. However, a lore-less check available to any PC at level 3 with 10k with no investment that covers every outcast ever made without regard for that PC's personal history or the wrongs they may have actually done does not feel like it contributes to a positive story creating environment on the server. People will be much more encouraged to act when the label is there for everyone to see, even if the knowledge is known IC and disseminated. Guard PCs will now be pressured to act and PvP and actively exile. Outcasts, instead of having the freedom to create story and serve as a "bridge" between the surface and the UD, now are stuck underground, creating two clean divides in the playerbase again. Surfacers don't generally get to go to the UD without issue, and Outcasts aren't treated too well up top without some level of apathy. What this means is Outcasts often serve as double agents and spies for both sides, furthering conflict without leading to explicit PvP.
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The user Solo makes some very good observations in the previous page of the topic. It ca be incredibly difficult to catalog any sort of history on the server, and yet this addition means every single outcast is perfectly documented in the minds of every single settlement on the island forever, upon the creation of that outcast. It is an encyclopedia of photographic memory information handed out to every single settlement citizen and can be referenced as a free action with no skill check and no RP.
I have difficulty wrapping my mind around the concept of a bunch of clowns who probably think the Earth is flat, running around in armour and waving swords, are going to be able to have a more efficient law enforcement and counter-espionage apparatus than both superpowers had during the Cold War.
But perhaps I'm not familiar enough with the server. I did feel the need to point out the above, because quite frankly, I'm a bit amazed that it hasn't been brought up yet. This whole "Everyone on Arelith is equipped with a facial recognition software implanted in their brain" is... nonsensical.
Anyway, I bring this up only because just today I saw someone who was playing an outcast essentially getting stonewalled at every turn by a good Samaritan who felt the need to protect us all, and it was just painful to watch... About as painful as when I had the pleasure of seeing "If you're not a Shadow Mage, then cast Wall of Fire to prove it!", "No, the Shades version doesn't count!", and "Only Shadow Mages of Shar have the ability to Hide while still in plain sight."
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Again - this harkens back to what was said in earlier topics and times by DMs and Irongron - that this sort of basic, tag-related, identification level RP is poor for overall story creation for the server. The tag "forces" (notice the quotes) a certain sort of reaction from people by the existence of its tag. A PC who is not an outcast and yet performed similar actions could probably expect an extremely different response from someone who has the outcast tag and performs those actions, despite both people likely being present in the omnipresent mind of the NPC hive-aether.
I really hope that Surface Settlements will want to step up and do their job of shunning any Outcasts they see right now.
I hope this doesn't happen, because excluding large chunks from the server and constantly separating everyone off into tiny little microcosms that don't interact is not good for the server. Even Irongron says in this topic that it's his hope, as overall server direction, that Outcasts function as a
bridge between worlds, something which has been greatly harmed by this tag added to the server. All constant shunning will do is destroy any hope of long term RP between worlds, places, people, and boil this down to simple hostility. Exiles, effective PVP on sight, etc. Any sort of RP is now locked to specifically hyper high Bluff classes, who must contend with the soft metagaming around Bluff and Disguise that can be very very hard to record or prove when it happens. It also means that RP can essentially never happen until level 30 and full geared, as a Disguise that is broken exactly once is now useless forever, because they also see your accompanying Outcast status with no Lore check whatsoever. You are, seemingly encouraged to do so, despite it being the exact opposite for Pirates, Warlocks, so forth, where the expectation is that you are to ignore those statuses and "Tag callouts" in the same of creating a positive overall story experience for the server. If/When you come back at level 30, people will remember you tried to do so at level 7. Spot is also much easier to get to high levels than ever before - Rogues can expect to get a very casual 70 spot just walking around with only a few pieces of gear, let alone any wisdom classes.
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The thing is, and not to stomp my foot over and over again, the devs wouldn't be so inclined to label everything, if the players weren't as inclined to disregard what should be some very large labels on their characters.
Once again, we are told, often, by the DMs and Irongron, to shrewdly ignore these labels from time to time for the sake of creating abetter combined RP experience. We are then told, now, that to not react to the Outcast tag, despite lack of ability to truly know anything about the Outcast, is to "go against the will of the entire populace", which means your character will be ostracized, because now, without RP, everyone else can see you're "hanging out" with an Outcast too.
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If you wish to discover if one is an outcast I would consider this an opportunity for intelligence gathering, via informants in surface settlements, or by engaging the outcast in meaningful roleplay. We could in addition to this update, tie outcast recognition to the lore skill for everyone else but I would prefer not to do that; better such knowledge is learned via RP and interaction than a simple, and predictable mechanic.
OK, but why the mechanic on the surface then. I feel like this one paragraph, like, sums up everything. The Underdark is expected to do all this TP to figure out if someone is an Outcast, but the Outcast *lives in the Underdark and is here every day*. There's no RP to do there, you already know they're an Outcast. But up on the surface, where this RP creates longterm interaction and story, it's OK to substitute the simple, predictable mechanic over joint creation or RP and interaction? Why is this?
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again, thank you for reading my overly long wordy posts. it is a subject i feel passionate about but i think i am very much in the minority. the people i see cheering the change on seem to think outcasts are all terrible people who are doing it for mechanical bonuses and to be human, and to run around wherever we want any time we want, but this is not so. i welcome conflict, RP, and PVP, but do not think the outcast tag accomplishes the quality you would want to see alongside these - but it will, happily, establish the quantity. maybe this is what is wanted. it divides everyone into "teams" even more on creation, something that i think should be avoided. team dwarf. team elf. team outcast. team drow. team skal. it's not a healthy attitude. i just want to keep being a bridge.