Recent Earthkin quarter changes - Have No Sense

[time_limited]

Hi,

I want to raise a discussion here on the recent quarter allowances changes that has affected Earthkin races.

For those who are not aware or have not caught it:

Changes
Quarters will no longer be refreshable if you do not meet the requirements.
Shops will no longer be refreshable if you do not meet the requirements.
++ Specific Changes ++
Brogendenstein

Hall of Legends: Quarters restricted to Arctic, Gold, Shield, and Wild Dwarf.
Earthkin Village: Added Arctic Dwarf to requirements list.
Brogwood Hut: Added Arctic Dwarf and Wild Elf.
Great Grotto: Restricted to Rock, Deep and Forest Gnome.
Deep Gnome Village: Restricted to Deep Gnome.

Tungsten Turret: Restricted to Rock and Deep Gnomes.

Those changes are in direct opposition to the current RP of unifying the 3 Earthkin settlements which has been pushed by Players, DMs and Admins alike!

Because of this change characters are forced into separation based on race instead of ongoing RP. We can no longer have "Earthkin friends" living with us.. what's the relation here with the ongoing RP which has been literally pushed from all side for the last 1 RL Year?

Now.. after such start further dive into it (I play a gnome):

• Gnomes cannot take quarters in Brog.. while literally 3 months ago we had 2 Lord Protectors elected in Brog?
• Gnomes were leading a research facility in Brog to help out with unified Earthkin approach.. now it cannot be placed in Brog Halls unless a dwarf owns it, dwarves which had a large turnover of characters
• Great Grotto - no more halfling/dwarves friends of the grotto to help out with an area utilisation which already struggles hard to keep people in.
• Deep Gnome village - why do we need a forceful limitation at all in here, we were handling it all with RP and it did generate nice interactions between us.
• Tungsten Turret - are which struggles even harder then Grotto to keep characters in.. now limited even harder to who can take quarters in it.

WHYS?
Do we need any restrictions like this at all, while everything can be handled by RP and generate interactions that way?

The usually available quarters in Upper Grotto (Huts) are still bugged in a way that using them is a pain for everyone due to roof getting in the way of Your screen

Why are the Huts in Grotto so out of place to the rest of the quarters ( little caves/stalagmite quarters)

Why do we have changes applied that contradict what is being pushed by DMs, Admins and Players alike for the last 1 RL year?

[Template_I]

Big Agree none of this makes sense and flies in the face of the 1 Year IRL "Story" that's been forced upon us.

Demanding us to Unite for over a year only to radically racially segregate us further. None of this makes sense.

[Rubricae]

it's been reverted now.

[time_limited]

Thank You for reverting this.

This thread can be closed

[Dreams]

I think it'd be better to have setting specific restrictions on areas like these.

Brog / Grotto / Bendir Dale should all become Earthkin-only places. That isn't to be exclusionary OOC, but it should be moreso IC. Players will include other players and other outsiders anyway. It helps to reaffirm that in the setting, humans/elves/others don't belong in quite the same way that the earthkin alliance races do.

Instead, it would be cool to give the settlement system the ability to grant a 'Writ of Exception' for instances where a character has proven devotion over a period.

[Fenran]

I agree with Dreams here, pretty much the same sentiment.

[Ork]

Can we accelerate this merger arc, btw?

I like the idea of quarters themed for certain races. I don't think a forest gnome would choose to live in a steel tower, and I don't think a human would live in a halfling burrow. Sadly these sort of considerations have to be meted out mechanically, and should be because it might reinforce to players why that quarter should belong more to the races or classes it was themed to support in lore.

[AstralUniverse]

Dreams is spot on. Writs of exception could be limited and tied to the volume of the settlement aka number of citizens in the same manner that exiles are implemented, and outside of that it should be just general 'earthkin' restriction.

I find this change over all confusing, considering that I got the impression we all get the message loud and clear whenever Irongron brings up the ol' days when the underdark nearly died becuase of too many scattered small racial settlements as opposed to what we have now which is one great Andunour.

[Ork]

I find this change over all confusing, considering that I got the impression we all get the message loud and clear whenever Irongron brings up the ol' days when the underdark nearly died becuase of too many scattered small racial settlements as opposed to what we have now which is one great Andunour.

This is sort of a red herring here since quarter restrictions have almost next to nothing to do with roleplay hubs.

[Floral Shoppe]

I think it'd be better to have setting specific restrictions on areas like these.

Brog / Grotto / Bendir Dale should all become Earthkin-only places. That isn't to be exclusionary OOC, but it should be moreso IC. Players will include other players and other outsiders anyway. It helps to reaffirm that in the setting, humans/elves/others don't belong in quite the same way that the earthkin alliance races do.

Instead, it would be cool to give the settlement system the ability to grant a 'Writ of Exception' for instances where a character has proven devotion over a period.

The Grotto has very limited access to non-earthkin entering in the first place, so I think that should be all it needs.

While I'm here... I'd also suggest the Tungten Turret become a Gond temple for any race instead of gnome-only quarter and require a Gond worshipping character of any race to buy property, or possibly leave it open to any rock gnome but allow humans etc who worship Gond to move in. I've tried to be part of, or generate, RP there many times and there are never enough gond-worshipping gnomes who want to live there and be active about fulfilling its intended use, and there are Gondites who never go there and certainly can't live there because they think it's gnome only-- why not make it less niche and maybe it will get used more?

[Kuma]

The Grotto has very limited access to non-earthkin entering in the first place, so I think that should be all it needs.

While I'm here... I'd also suggest the Tungten Turret become a Gond temple for any race instead of gnome-only quarter and require a Gond worshipping character of any race to buy property, or possibly leave it open to any rock gnome but allow humans etc who worship Gond to move in. I've tried to be part of, or generate, RP there many times and there are never enough gond-worshipping gnomes who want to live there and be active about fulfilling its intended use, and there are Gondites who never go there and certainly can't live there because they think it's gnome only-- why not make it less niche and maybe it will get used more?

having play a human gondar that learned gnomish and wanted to live there i fully agree

[Biggrouse]

I'll comment mostly on the gnome perspective here, as I've played a Grotto gnome for ten months now who is currently Caretaker.

If it were solely up to me, I would lay it out something like the following:

Great Grotto = any Earthkin
Svirfneblin Village = any Gnome
Tungsten Turret = any Earthkin, any Gondar

A major part of why some Grotto players were vocally against the restrictions was, simply put, it would hurt us rather than help us. For instance a halfling character has lived in the Grotto for quite a long time, speaks the language, and holds high rank in a Grotto-based organization. Evicting him would be strange and not really foster any RP.

I do not think any of us actually want to see humans or such move into the Grotto, but in the time that I've played in the Grotto it has never happened. Beside the halfling mentioned above, I can only recall one dwarf who very briefly lived in the Grotto. That character sought prior confirmation from the locals that he was allowed and welcome to do so.

The Grotto quarters often struggle to fill, so I think leaving them open to all Earthkin simply allows us to support more stories. From an out of character perspective, it's a low population area and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to involve a character in the circle.

The svirfneblin obviously wouldn't want outsider neighbors, but it feels strange for a people as curious as the rock gnomes who dominate the central Grotto (and have been allied with the dwarves and hin for close to a century now, I think?) to shut themselves off to that extent.

Obviously this all ties into ongoing narratives as well, like the Earthkin unification and how the current Grotto characters have greatly relaxed their previously insular view to visitors.

As for the Turret, this place sees even less traffic than the Grotto. Allowing non-gnome followers of Gond, and other earthkin (say a dwarf follower of Brightmantle who would certainly find a home there) would widen the net it casts. It could be cool to see the place narratively built up as a bastion of artifice on Arelith.

I strongly agree with Dreams that Earthkin-based restrictions with a 'writ of exception' would be a great way to go, if it was mechanically feasible. It would allow us to curate what non-earthkin integrate and thus avoid properties being grabbed by random humans, which seems to be a concern for some. It's a system that many of us have advocated for in-character, though I am not sure if it is possible to implement.