Reviewing game organisations: How many can I join?

[Kelemvor]

Should different characters in a player's account be able to join several organisations?

This was a question raised in the thread about opportunities for evil characters. I thought I'd see what the player base felt around the previous ruling that no player could have alts in opposing organisations.

[Kelemvor]

Just some general pros and cons, feel free to post more:

Allowing a player to have any number of alts in any number of organisations would mean more player choice and more chance that an organisation would have (and keep) an active membership.

Allowing a player to have influential roles in more than one organisation might lead to conflicts of interest.

Allowing a player to assume leadership positions in more than one organisation might reduce their effectiveness. If they were unable to play for a period it might also impact on recruitment and roleplay.

Again, much as with the faith organisation, the profile of an organisation would depend on player activity. A wise man once said that if you spread your jam too thin it won't taste as good

[Solaghar]

I think that Kelemvor brings up the most obvious points, the most basic pros and cons of allowing people to have multiple memberships.

I honestly believe that the necessity of giving organizations all of the tools for success they can have is the most important thing. FK has some great players, and some of them will have alts who by all rights should belong to organizations, it's entirely consistent with their RP. We do not restrict people to non-competing faiths, nor do we restrict people from leading several faiths, at no point do I imagine that anything that these PC-run organizations do will be so different or so secretive that allowing a single account to only have one character joining one organization is the best option.

By allowing people to join any organization that will have them, we ensure that there will be enough people to fill the lower ranks of these groups. By restricting the leadership of the group to one account, we ensure that there will be no flagging of activity that affects more than one organization if that player should go inactive. It also prevents any of the more serious conflicts of interest these groups might have among the leadership, though I still think these are not of a different character than competing faiths today successfully endure.

[Selveem]

Does this include faith organizations? For instance, Selveem is a member of the Zhentarim - does this mean he can no longer lead the Steel Fang?

(Please understand this is a hypothetical question - Selveem is NOT a member of the Zhentarim [the Zhents smell like Cyric's underpants])

[Solaghar]

This occurred to me while showering, but so far as I know, the rules state that someone can join one PC-run organization per account. I'd never heard this applied to faith organizations, which tend to be more like an added bonus after time in a faith.

One option the poll allows is, "Yes but under the current rules, no competing organizations." If I am correct in my thoughts, then all organizations would be defined as competing organizations. The case would not be that one could not have a Zhent and a Harper, but could have a Night Mask and a Harper. If you had a Zhent then that would simply be it, you would have to leave all other organizations you might be a member of with any characters, and you would be precluded in the future from joining said organizations with any alt, ever, in any capacity.

If I am incorrect and the current rules would allow one to have a character in more than one non-competing organizations, and I very well may be, then I think it would help to have a list of these organizations and their defined competitors for people to make an informed choice. But I based my vote and my argument around the rules as I understood them, and I admit I might be wrong, never having been a part of any organization at all.

[Oghma]

Faith run organizations are more or less determined by the deity. In most cases you join, gain access to an area reserved for that order and that is all. An organization is different in the fact that it is organized and manned by a variety of pc's with like minded ideals if not goals and secrets. Faith orders I would say are rewards to followers that have sought to join them and are centered on the individual.

[Glim]

I would hope this wouldn't apply to faith organisations and just to main organisations.

I chose the second option, but I would like to expand it. I think players should be able to join different organisation with any character they like.

But, when it comes to being a leader, I don't think you should be able to lead opposing organisations. I look at this as being the same as faiths. And I don't just mean good/evil.

Imo:

A player could be a FM of Moradin and Mask, but not of Shar and Selune. The same here, a player could be the leader of the WD Watch and the Zhentarim, but not of the Zhentarim and the Harpers.

But, you could have a subordinate in any of these organisations.

I agree with Zarafae in this, except for what I said above. We do not restrict people from joining different faiths, so I do not think we should restrict them from joining different organisations.

[Selveem]

I chose:
Yes, but only in subordinate roles never as a leader/recruiter

For a couple of reasons. Most of these reasons are that our Imm staff is spread thin as-is. I don't like that much of our Imm staff also end up having to play unfilled faith leadership roles.

Don't get me wrong, I really have enjoyed RPing with a good number that I found out later were actually played by players who also were members of the Immortal staff, but at the same time I'd rather them be able to take care of the bigger things that we can't do ourselves.

Even as Leader of the Steel Fang, I would never support Selveem joining anything else as Leader. If you think about it, no matter how much attention a mortal gives, it's hard to be effective if you spead your attentions so very thin.

I have other characters who might stick their fingers in more than one pie, but I would never suggest they should lead more than one. Further, for me OOCly to lead more than one makes it difficult for me to be as effective.

I don't want to concentrate on the negative and say that there is a lot of room for 'fixing the odds' on certain disputes, because that room exists (and is far easier to perform) for the administration already.

To be quite honest, I'm not certain why I didn't vote that it should be interchangable freely - I suppose for some reason I'm just not comfortable with it. Sorry I'm unable to pinpoint my reasoning on this one.

[Vibius]

I have voted: Yes, but under the current rules. No opposing organizations

I think that the risk involved in having two character in antagonistic organizations is too much, it is just needed that one of those characters told something that shouldn't able to know to ruin a long term plot.

Additionally in case of large conflicts it is likely that the player will play just one character or another otherwise he may been helping a group of pcs solving whatever he did with the another character and another group of pcs.

[EDIT]

I also think that those organizations that have a halo of mystery and secrecy (Harpers, Shadow Thieves, Night Masks, perhaps Zhentarim) around them and they will likely lose it if everybody could have a character or more in those and another character in the no so mysterious organizations.

Some organizations should be ICly and OOCly a mystery.

[Aegir]

I chose yes, but can only lead one. IMO one of the biggest problems with a player holding multiple positions of power is that, inevitably, some fall by the wayside and simply don't get used (or don't get used much). This often hurts the growth of a faith in many ways, and I feel that unless there are no other viable candidates, it should not be allowed.

Organizations I suspect will be a similar situation. Assuming the PCs are active (not just the player, the specific PCs), then it shouldn't be a problem.

[Kelemvor]

Just to note that this is a review of the inter class/inter faith player organisations listed under the Help File 'Organisations' it does NOT include any faith affiliated groups such as Steel Fang, Golden Lions, Hammers or any other entity listed in deity Help Files.

My bad for not putting that in at the start

EDIT : Wait a cotton picking moment.. I did put in the preamble. Sheesh, you lot are hopeless, maybe I shouldn't bother asking for any more input...

[Sairaven]

I voted Yes, but not as leader/recruiter.

I think that we can all be considered good enough role-players to keep Character Knowledge separate, but I can see a conflict of having leadership roles in two different and conflicting organizations.