Arelith

I always thought it would be neat to have a sort of settlement system like Cordor use to have. Where each of the three districts elected leaders who then form a Council to rule Andunor. Such would give more weight to investing in local factions, politics, and plots.

While this has been tried via RP in the past, these mostly failed due to various reasons. Such a system would need DM enforcement or a mechanical system to pull off ultimately.

Yeah I guess it isn't a surprise if everyone is just avataring.

Ultimately, the Underdark (and monstrous races) runs up against the same problem that the surface has, just with its own unique flavour, and that is that when you get to level 30, there’s really only three functional paths to follow.

PvP, politics, or sims-life.

And in Andunor, if you PvP or politically go after the wrong group (or worse, stuff up what you’re doing and get a coalition against you), you don’t really have anywhere else to go (with a few rare exceptions that may not be a viable option for you at all).

On the surface, if you end up in a tight spot you can often run to another settlement, or at worst, go to Andunor… but the opposite is not true.

This means that those who wish to hang around are actively incentivised to play nice.

Rei_Jin wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 11:35 am Ultimately, the Underdark (and monstrous races) runs up against the same problem that the surface has, just with its own unique flavour, and that is that when you get to level 30, there’s really only three functional paths to follow.

PvP, politics, or sims-life.

Sorry, what? Exactly what alternatives should there be? College credit towards your 4-year degree? This is a roleplay server, dude. You're describing roleplay as a problem.

Sorry, that last post was a bit snarky. Let me elaborate as to why the sentiment bothered me, in a way that relates to the topic.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with Andunor's design. It's been the home to innumerable compelling storylines, and would continue to be one of the server's best venues for roleplay if no changes were made to it at all. Yes, it exists within a number of constraints, but that doesn't mean it's broken. It can be improved, certainly, and in a number of ways - and many of the most effective ways are via player philosophy and server direction, NOT module design. I suspect the reason why Irongron and the dev team haven't added another UD settlement is because they understand that if you just add a new city, NOTHING about the current environment will change. In no small part is this a player problem, not a module problem.

And I see the aforementioned sentiment as a way that problem manifests itself. "Once you get to level 30, there's nothing you can do but [EVERYTHING]." Statements like that just serve to disparage the very art of roleplay and diminish the value its venues provide. Ork's earlier comment speaks towards the same observation, where people tend to "avatar" and seek only to live out whatever story is drawn up before them, unthinking and without deviation from "whatever makes the most logical sense." Not realizing that you could be having so much more fun with this if you put in concerted effort to craft compelling narratives and push your own stories out into the world. Not enough people are willing, or even really know how, to create something for other people to enjoy.

There are definitely ways the team can conduct itself to make it easier for people to fall into the behaviors they want to see on the server. There are steps the admins can take to improve the environment for players to explore different storylines. But ultimately you can't write a line of code or add an in-game area that will make people good at roleplay.