Is kismet outdated?

[Rordan]

Kismet, as I understand it, was supposed to be a barrier of playtime to make certain races more rare within the world. However, most of the 'rare races' have become quite common place. The old hats all have tons of kismet stashed away from 20+ years of play and rare races can be a dime a dozen whenever they choose to be one.

As it stands, Kismet seems to be a barrier for new players who may have an interest in playing what we call a 'rare race' due to them being a standard available race in later editions of D&D, and may not stay about if they find they have to invest that 700+ hours just to make -ONE- Tiefling.

So my thought is: Is kismet outdated in its current implementation?

Races could be changed to requiring a certain amount of accumulated kismet to make, but does not subtract any kismet from your account to make the character. Current kismet could be repurposed to things like restringing items (Which means making gifts for people and such becomes a lot more viable over the long term without requiring a seasonal event for a free restring.

Thoughts? Just curious what people think!

[Mele]

Rarely have new players had a complaint about kismet and the need to earn kismet.

Having to earn kismet ensures they do not make 'first timer' mistakes on characters who are undoubtedly important to them due to the 'exotic' or 'specialness' of the race.

I suggest people struggling be wary to not make the same mistakes even I have made, in wasting thousands of kismet on characters who simply do not take flight. Accounts bulging with characters make us lack focus to carry on the the precious worth of characters with kismet.

[Glim]

The only thing I think is an issue is rogues requiring kismet. It makes sense to require exotics because it makes them rare and requires some experience.

A rogue, though, is a base class and when a new player comes on the MUD they want to play their favorite class. Having that blocked off via 200 hours of play is a pretty big barrier.

Someone is likely to choose not to play than have to play 200 hours of a class they don't like just to play one they do. I know this guy mentioned it as an issue when he was checking out the mud long ago.