---OP is obsolete at this point since everything was debated, and the discussion in the thread boiled down to these solutions:
- Epics can't own property.
- Yoinking doesn't work in Skal.
Fixes most problems, culls the epic population.
You're welcome to read the OP though but it's obsolete at this point.
Irongron and the team have been very clear about their views on Skal. It is a lowbie-mid teens area and epics have no place there. After multiple failed DM reminders about this, the team decided to mark epics with a MoD and monitor them. Cool.
The way things are, however, epic PCs will continue to hang out and eventually interfere - whether purposefully or not - with the intended dynamic of Skal.
Here's my suggestion on how to fix this:
Make Skal ONE-WAY ONLY: Off the island, during the summer thaw. Make the island inaccessible by default, unless by DM event request/application. To iterate:
By default, Arelithians shouldn't get to Skal at all - why? Because thematically, there's no immediate reason to go there. It's a frigid dump of a land with a shoddy village. It's a worthless hole, a meager frontierland and there's way more interesting places for epic adventurers to be hanging out in. Of course there are exceptions to the norm. So...
Make it special.
If you want to go there with your epic character or your faction, much like raiding, you must request the approval of the DM team via the forums. The Thane's Kuldarn goes to Skal to enlist their dwarves, the Banites go to spread the word of the Black Hand, a trading company goes to trade - all those examples are super cool. But you can only go once per season, with intent.
That way, the team could calibrate how frequent/sporadic they want these interactions to be, and it'd be a lot more special to get visitors from distant realms. Plus, the team would have total control and be SURE that epics wouldn't be messing around in Skal.
Make it one way only. Mechanically, the great thaw should only function for Skal natives to get off the island.
This logic is already in place in Arelith.
There's certain things you already can't do in-game without prior DM approval. Raiding, for example, requires the approval of the DM team and supervision. Why? The team knows unsupervised raiding is extremely likely to swerve from the intended design philosophy, break rules, or would be grounds to spark the attention of the NPC population in the first place.
And if the team knows Epic interaction in Skal is extremely likely to swerve from the intended design philosophy, break rules, or would be grounds to spark the attention of the NPC population in the first place... I feel like these expeditions to Skal should be treated a lot like raiding.
This would be an extra step to ensure the Epic interactions that happen in Skal come from a place of good will.
Finally, I'm not saying your Epic character in Skal is a poopoo baby and you're a terrible person for playing them. People have praised certain Epics in Skal and you, reader, might very well be one of them. However, let us not forget:
By design, Skal is all about Skal.
Hag-tag comradery, volatile rivalries and all the haphazard moments of the lowbie adventures in an inhospitable frontierland. When you have an Epic PC who owns shops, patronizes, and says "This is okay, this is not okay" they're swerving/interfering. No wonder the team chose to mark them with MoDs.
Let the youngsters live their rascal years, let them create their unlikely gangs, let them be the judges of who are their friends and foes - that's what I think. The most fun I've had in Skal is when epics weren't around. When that level 12 dwarf was the one crafting 'em guns, when the initiate alchemists got together to make items, when there's rumors of a wicked necromancer! And it's literally just a level 7 dude.
Thoughts?
