Skills Alla Levels

Lathlain · Post by **Lathlain** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:21 pm

A good idea, though this is, it's also heavily biased towards those of good or neutral alignment. I don't mean to sound like a certain bitter elf, but evil characters don't get a lot of chances to roleplay well due to the profound lack of us altogether. I have had some superb sessions of roleplay in the past, and I know several of you will be able to vouch for this, yet the frequency of them is lacking not because I cannot roleplay, but because there is rarely anyone to roleplay with.
I personally love roleplaying, and despite a constant naggling telling me that my skills should be at a higher level, I persist to sit in Zhentil Keep and wait for people to sign in so that I can get even the slightest bit of roleplay in.
I suppose Lathlain must be online for about 4 or 5 hours per day at the moment, and yet last week I engaged in no more than 5 different roleplaying sessions... This was with him sitting in Zhentil Keep for 35 hours or so!
*Ahem*
Rant over...

What I mean by this is that having a single person benefitting from good roleplay bonuses per week would practically remove all chances of an evil character receiving one at all (Unless they sat in Waterdeep and shamelessly obeyed the nasty roleplay laws

).

If there is a plus side to any of this, my spelling of 'who', 'score' and even the occasional optimistic 'skill' is constantly impeccable

Lathlain · Post by **Lathlain** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:41 pm

As an afterthought, what if Andreas' suggestion could be implemented, but offering a reward to one character of each main alignment (good, neutral and evil) per week/fortnight? You may need to issue less roleplay rewards to a certain alignment due to a lack of active characters in it, though...

Mele · Post by **Mele** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:05 am

I think a flaw in that idea, us all voting, is we would vote for our friends. Because that's who we rp with. Sia's idea to have a board of people that are trusted to decide fairly would prevent people from soley giving opportunity to their friends. Because, let's face it, we all don't get along, where some can look past, some cannot,and we all don't spend all of us time with everyone. Letting a group of experienced trusted players to be a judge is easier then letting every member of the mud vote weekly.
Besides, who doesn't want to be a stealth ninja rp rewarder?

Hee hee. I think open vote would lead to biasednessededed.

~Danica

oh! And before you even say 'There would be no one for evil' I can ALREADY completely think of two or three people, who play evils, who I personally believe would behave completely unbiased.

Belose · Post by **Belose** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:52 am

I appreciate what everyone is saying here, and to tell the truth, I LOVE RPing... buy you need people to RP with... unless you're making a holy hermit, and if they're a hermit, how to get training, eh? Anyways.. that other mud... probably used to be called Faerun? I really loved being able to roleplay.. but I am an Improvisational person, I get my best Roleplay for interaction with others, and THAT is what RP is about... Not from being a creative writer, and developing in-depth backgrounds... I'm not a researcher... but I read a lot and pick up a lot thru my reading.. and having to write an approval every level is just not fair...I couldn't remember a LOT of the things that happened between levels to write about to MAKE up an approval because of the time it took TO get to a level... I spent most of my time trying to RP a group together just to go and get some experience. But I want the chance to get some levels to learn some skills so I CAN RP my character better..I don't need them to RP, but getting skills is just as much fun as getting to RP... and I like to do both of them together....it's called compromise.. you can't make everyone happy... and the main thing is... It's Sharni's game, if you don't like it, you don't have to play... and as much as I LOVED playing in that other mud, I just couldn't put up with having to be a novelist, just so I could have fun playing... I love the way this mud is.. I think it's got a lot of what the other one had, but is better in everyway...and again, remember, Sharni is like the DM... don't argue with them... Play and have fun.. it's what it's all about... and if you don't like it, don't play...

Lathlain · Post by **Lathlain** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:07 am

Roleplaying *and* experience hunting? *shudders*
It... Can work... Theoretically. To be honest, I've never experienced a hunting trip or anything of the sort that has involved enough roleplay to keep me interested. It always becomes a matter of grunting, nodding and slashing, even if you set off with 'good intentions'. Ok, so it can be fun in a sense, but it's not the same as a heated bout of roleplay with a friend (or foe)...At least it isn't to me.
It's all a matter of personal preference really. I come here to roleplay, and very little else. Whatever is best for you!

Belose · Post by **Belose** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:41 am

Look, the whole point of D&D in the first place was to get people together to make fantasy characters to play in a fantasy world. The whole point of it was to go and ADVENTURE! EXPLORE! Get some friends together of like minded characters and SEEK OUT the NEW and the ANCIENT! You Roleplay the exploring, what you find, what you should do, have someone to either save your butt or run and find someone who can... I've had good roleplay with others while travelling to other places... and because of needing to get some sleep, never even making it to where we were going.... Do you get my drift? I can RP AND level.... and everyone can have fun while doing it...I hate leveling alone...

Aklen · Post by **Aklen** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 3:50 am

Its true that a hunting part can be fun... but at the same time I tend to find that mud leveling is not a good place for roleplaying... the experience tables are NOTHING like they are in D&D...theres no DM to promote the storyline and to run it all... however, QUESTS are fun to do in groups.. of course... the problem with this is that people can't do quests in groups as it messes up the qbits and it makes no sense to do them in line

However, hunting groups CAN be fun, its just that a lot of the time the people I RP with aren't around my level -- Which ends up meaning that a hunting party ends up having to face things that the top level character doesn't get too much experience off of.

Andreas · Post by **Andreas** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 2:57 pm

Lathlain, get out more! *GRIN* I miss RPing with you! Remember, not enough levels can hurt you as much as powerlevelling. Maybe I can drag one of my less than pristine characters over for a visit

Personally, I'm not biased toward any one alignment in terms of roleplay excellence. I've had fantastic roleplay interactions with evil characters and a long-running storyline with one in particular. I think some of the best roleplay I've had has involved evil characters. It's just the natural dynamics of good vs. evil that drives the tension level up and truly grabs both my attention and imagination.

Just to name a few evil PCs that I think deserve recognition (in alphabetical order): Acetrus, Ghazlak, Illissa, Lathlain, Merriman, Tretch and Whazsnak.

At one point, Andreas was alone in Shilmista and confronted by Whazsnak, Ghazlak, another orc and an evil human. I thought things were going great until a certain ranger (who hasn't been on in over two months) ran by. Next thing I know, goodies started popping up like mushrooms! From there it degenerated into nothing more than a "your momma" match between the goodies and the baddies which I found sadly disappointing. There can be SO much more to RP between opposed characters than threats, taunts then battle.

Contrary to popular belief, Andreas does not camp out in the Market Square of Waterdeep. It's actually pretty rare to find him there these days. The times I do show up there and just hang around are when I'm either looking to RP or else I see a lot of what seem to be newbies on the Who list and I'm hoping to run into them and give a hand if they need it. Otherwise, Andreas is usually running around doing something or other out in the big, wide world. Lately, I've been doing a lot of building, so I've kinda had him parked in one spot while I semi-pay attention to the game and work on my area for building. Aside from a few evil PCs who do hang around in Waterdeep, most of my encounters with evils have been "on the road."

Mingus · Post by **Mingus** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 5:51 pm

As for the group of RP spies, you can have the newbie counsel. Already a groupa and there's is almost always one on.

As for everyone getting a vote. If you're paranoid that any orc, drow or general evil aren't going to be voted for, split the votes. Good/neutral - votes for all, Evil - votes for just evil, Orcs - votes for just orcs, and Drow - Votes for just drow.

With multi-PC per player, everyone should get their fair share of votes. My ranger I doubt would get any votes ever. Rearly do I enter a city and since pathfinding, its very doubtful you'll find him on the roads either. My drow or any drow as of this moment are pretty isolated so voting among themselfs would be ideal. With my druid I find it hard sitting by myself in the woods doing nothing. Lowlevel and poor only finding comfort with the constant supply of bandit donation. My dwarf is happy sitting in a mine picking his heart away and when construct gets fixed he'll be happy sitting by a forge making stuff. My (no where going in limbo status) squire-to-be, that I don't level just for the fact that I think a squire should be low level, is happy guarding the market square. He's pretty much the first PC that I have that interacts frequently. And finnaly my orc, still low level but gaining slowly. So as you can see I have a small broad base of PC to vote with, Tow that if you don't find them in the woods, they won't be voting much. A dwarf that sometimes pops his head out and that will vote on occation. One that has his butt parked on the MS and will vote everytime I play. And as for the other two, if the vote split occures, will only find it hard to vote cause rarely do others of their kind ever play.

Oh and no voting for yourself even if you're the RPinest RPer that ever RPed. And that with this idea thats its level 50 - 60.(RP and trades being the only fun things to do at those levels) Just call them prestige levels for the Role Players. It's a sound way of everyonegetting a point or two in their life time and not just by quests.

Mele · Post by **Mele** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 7:17 pm

If everyone's ideal here is rp, why are people asking for more levels?
Just a thought.
~Danica

Mikhail · Post by **Mikhail** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 8:21 pm

RPing evil that doesn't seem so is even harder - especially with the proliferation of folk who know your proclivities and who do not hesitate to say (in front of guards, gods, and everybody) 'Hey, man, stolen anything good lately?'

Turns you downright antisocial at times when one comment can blow a year of RP right out of the water.

-Mik

Exer · Post by **Exer** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 10:25 pm

Well, I'm still very new to this but here are my 2 cents.

It is surprisingly too easy to gain levels. I'm at 16 haven't done much really, mostly RP. Can't we just make each level need 2x-4x as much xp??

I want to keep my character at a lower level but each time I move, it seems as I'm going up

. I realise that I can not train and level out that way but it's seems kinda.. well.. silly.

Is the xp level gain exponential?

Serge · Post by **Serge** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 3:18 am

Experience can be easy to gain, especially for a fighter, but it's not how fast it CAN be gained, but how fast you SHOULD gain it. Try putting limits on yourself, as opposed to limiting everyone else. RP for a few hours for every level you gain. If you don't, one day you'll be level 50, and no one will have even heard of you. If you balance it out, you'll can be famous before you even hit level 40.

Serge Varnok

Aklen · Post by **Aklen** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 3:52 am

Experience can be very easy to gain for fighters... but that is not the same for all characters... Beyond that, too, I'd just like to see more rewards for roleplaying, not necessarily a punishment to levels... But then again I am of the belief that levels, in general, should be lower... but uh.. anyway, yeah... Rewards for roleplaying!

Rhelian · Post by **Rhelian** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:10 am

Levels are fine the way they are. We don't need level 50-60 just on RP. RP rewards, not RP levels, is a better way to go

Evyn · Post by **Evyn** » Mon Sep 01, 2003 8:46 pm

Hey,
We were all talking and reading about this and I was just curious how would the hour thing for leveling fit in with people that have more hours and less levels then they should...my mage has 375 hours on him and he is only level 24.. just curious how that would work with people with similar cases

Sia · Post by **Sia** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 10:58 pm

My thief has 758 hours and she's level 41. I'd tell you why, but Sharni would have to kill me for revealing IC info

Sia

Nicolya · Post by **Nicolya** » Fri Sep 19, 2003 3:41 pm

While I am not new to muds and RPing, I am still very much a newbie here to this game. I find this mud to be very exciting, and overwhelming at times.

Now for my question, what is considered the "average" hours for characters? Is somewhere around level 20 with 200 hours normal?

Leyva · Post by **Leyva** » Sat Sep 20, 2003 4:07 am

I`m sure it depends.... my main character turned max level just as he rolled over to the 400's... I guess that's kinda bad, but the levels came really easy and I prob`ly spent about 90-something percent of that time RPing or at least killing mobs with other people. I think it will really vary depending on who you ask, taking into account how much experience they have on this MUD in particular (ex: leyva was my first character, therefore i did quite a lot of exploring and training all over the map just to get a better understanding of the game), what class they are, (ex: fighters will level faster and easier than mages nine times out of ten), and just the personality of the player in general and what they want to get out of this game. Just to let the twinks know, though, you`ll have so much more fun "in the square" than where ever you`re powerleveling.

Tempus · Post by **Tempus** » Sat Sep 20, 2003 7:49 am

It is my personal opinion that far too much stock is placed in the mythical hours/level ratio. It is up to you as a player to decide, for each character in your roster, whether they have sufficient RP behind them to be the level or power that they are at.

Note I stated RP not hours. I would much rather see someone with a low number of hours and a high level, yet whom I know has a well established background, storyline, relationships etc for that character, than someone with 1500 hours at level 25, but has spent 1450 of them doing nothing but circuiting one area collecting coins or sitting doing nothing to rack up the hours they think they need to then spam their way to L50.

For some, the game is all about gaining character power through establishing RP - good for you, don't feel pressurised to go and level if you don't want to. For others, the game is about gaining character power through coded skills and levelling - good for you too. What both sets of players should remember, though, is that you cannot effectively RP being a master swordsman if you have not the skills to back it up. Neither is their a whole lot of point in being a master swordsman if you never RP with anyone else, so no-one ever knows (unless, of course, thats part of a more convoluted rp you are planning...).

Skills Alla Levels

Approvals for leveling

Roleplaying and leveling

Alignment Bias?

Experience