Forgotten Kingdoms Forums

This is just an Idea, but I think that in order to be accepted by a faith, the player should have a sufficient amount of accumulated kismet.

The issue I see with a proposal like this is simple: Where do you draw that line?

There are player new to FK who may have a very rich background in the faiths of the Forgotten Realms. Those who come from tabletop, those who come from elseMU*, or those who are just total novel buffs. Some people have a complete character concept (encouraged) before they even create a char. Granted, character development takes a while, and the time it takes to get a character to mid-level *should* be taking a char into the 50-hour range at least (my non-sanctioned opinion, so keep all flames to one's self). Setting a kismet level much beyond that would actually interfere with the development of a char that may otherwise be brilliantly conceived.

On the other hand...

Just because one has been playing 50, 60, 100 hours on FK, does not mean said person has any real grasp on what it takes to properly RP a specific faith, even if it's the one they had a preconceived notion of when creating a given char.

The same applies to races, there may be one person who signs on to FK for the first time to create an elf, and pull off a command performance with the proper mannerisms, attitudes, etc.. On the other hand a player could have hundreds of kisment points racked up and not know how to RP anything but a pointy eared human, or a short, stout, hairy human, or a four-legged human, etc.

Getting into the role of your faith should be a part of the faithing process itself. The HP of a faith has more responsibility than just slapping a quest on your character, and giving a symbol to you when you're done. Personally, my experiences ICly with most of the faiths I have faithed have included teaching time and answering and asking questions about the faith, both Mielikki and Torm's high priests taught ICly the dogma before a quest was even given out.

If you feel ICly, that a member of your faith does not adhere to dogma, or act ICly appropriate to the faith, handle it ICly. Approach the clerics of the faith, if a player isn't walking the right walk, it's always better to get a IC nudge in the right direction.

Hmm, good point, but even if somone has great background with the gods of Forgotten Realms, I still think that it would be more than appropriate to have a certain accumulated kismet amount to join a faith, That way, they know the ways of FK before jumping into an ongoing roleplay. In my opinon, It would be fine to start in the roleplaying of becoming a faith member, but should have a set kismet amount before putting on the symbol and pronouncing him/herself a member of that particular faith.

I don't see kismet being a fair determining factor in this case. When it comes to being faithed, almost all faiths monitor the RP of the pending character to make sure that they fit. This mud is based off of RP, not how many hours you can play.

In the case of automatic faithing (Drow), there is already a required kismet amount needed for character creation so that is the only factor in which I would deem kismet necessary.

Many people work towards faith over many rl months to gain it. I've never seen a set time limit imposed, but in the period of waiting a player learns a great deal and develops in faith. I have always thought that a symbol does not make someone a member of a faith. When you abide by the rules and ways of a faith as a choice and not because you have to, that is what makes you faithful. Kismet is to make sure that a pc has spent the right amount of time exploring the mud and learning. It is there to insure that experienced players will be able to work acordingly in certain quests and stand behind certain species and guilds without acting poorly in them. Faith on the other hand is something that is monitored by ic actions, whereas kismet is more determined in an occ sense because your kismet effects all your characters while faith only effects a single pc. And most of this is ic, how you act, your motivation for joining etc. etc. A god might require you to speak to others and learn of certain aspects or to do a quest to join all of this works in a sense as ic kismet or faithsmet.

Think of it like this, there are three levels of faith, hopeful, questee and initiate. When you are hopeful you seek to prove yourself worthy of an immortal's attention be it through prayer or action. When you are a questee you seek to do the tasks lain out by the Immortal to earn acceptance into the ranks of faith; these can vary from one quest to several which do a service to the church and add to your pc's own experience and broadening knowledge. As an initiate, you have done your quests and proven your worth, now you can seek to finish your study and prepare to incorporate the ways of the faith into your ic life. These three steps are a lengthy process, it takes time to do everything and you need to do them in a certain fashion which adds to that time. Even for an inexperienced player this is enriching, They learn and get to make personal decisions on their character that will effect his or her future. It is an awesome responsibility.

A Kismet cost in my opinion is not needed. As long as a player is sufficiently learned in the doctrines of the faith and has done what was needed to prove himself to deity then he is set. If he strays from his path as Athon said could be the case then an ic response would be administered. This is different from a Centaur pc acting like a human, this could be seen as a problem ooc because icly it would seem unlikely for that race to be human like. So a Kismet cost could be instated to give newer pc's a chance to go about and learn the rules and what is expected. This knowledge understood oocly and applied icly for good rp would eventually allow the player to earn the kismet required and properly have a rare race that behaves the way it should.

So I look at faith as faithsmet, a building that is made icly through player and diety interaction over a period of time that benifits the particular character and not the account as a whole since faith varies from pc to pc.
Kismet is occ and is instituted to make sure that players have a sufficient amount of ingame time before they attempt to make a rare or different race. To aid them in learning to rp and give them a chance to get familiare with the world of fk.