Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head shots)

Is your play style more solo or team focused?

  • Every hero for themselves

    Votes: 2 5.3%
  • I'll pitch in at times, but I've got my own ward

    Votes: 3 7.9%
  • I go on mods with my OoG friends

    Votes: 2 5.3%
  • I'm meaningless without my team mates

    Votes: 3 7.9%
  • It's me and my crew against the world

    Votes: 14 36.8%
  • I like to think of all PCs as one big team

    Votes: 12 31.6%
  • Dark side, and proud of it

    Votes: 2 5.3%

  • Total voters
    38
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Dom said:
Because it is stronger. It's just illegal.

If they catch you, sure.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

As a marshal, I have seen necromancy used very effectively in modules where there was no chance of getting caught. It can tremendously benefit a party willing to take the risk.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

I have zero problems with people going on a mod solo.

Why? Because it means the person will probably end up dead. Or covered in glory and wealth. Or running terrorized from the whole encounter at step one.

This doesn't bother me in the least, as that means the mod will be all set up and ready for the next actual real party as long as the marshal insures the soloer isn't stalling for time.

I've seen where a really, really good rogue has gone all Solid Snake on a mod and literally snuck and stealthed his way through an entire combat-style mod, neatly KOed the guards at the end, and snuck out with the book and some treasure at the end that were the whole purpose of the module. If you're that frickin' good, you DESERVE THE CHANCE TO BE AWESOME. Even if the only people who see it are the NPC's and mod marshal. Alliance scales mods. If someone decides to headbutt their way through a mod scaled for a party their level...well, either they're insanely lucky or incredibly overpowered (and the latter points to serious balance issues).
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Mobius said:
RiddickDale said:
A scholar with a +3 DA and +15 armor from high magic is basically a level 5-6 fighter. ...
Fighters and Rogues bring plenty to the table that is inaccessible to other classes. High level scholars may be able to replicate low level fighters. But, I could replicate a low level scholar with a stack of cure lights and 20-30 disarm scrolls.
This doesn't quite track. A Scholar needs to invest 10-Build (1-H Edged) to benefit from those 52-Build worth of Fighter skills - a Fighter would need to invest 51-Build (12 for RW/RM + 4,3,2,1 pyramid) for the opportunity to purchase scrolls to use the Eigth tier spells available to a sixth Level Scholar. ¿How is that equitable? And this is putting aside Race and Monster reavers which emulate even greater amounts of Fighter Build for a scant investment on the Scholar's part.

Add in the fact the Master Constructs have built in effects unavailable to any other class (Rip from, Healed by, Immunities, etc) and can gain +8 strength (120 Fighter-Build) and there's no way that the classes are balanced.

The recent additions have made all but the most powerful Fighters secondary to even remedial Formal Scholars; further emphasizing the Fighter's need for team-work while decoupling the Scholar from that need. Basically, any team of Scholars can replace Fighter Skills with Formal Magic; any team of Fighter can do bupkiss.

The only way for Classes to be completely unique is to have abilities solely available to those classes and no other, as is: nearly every ability can either be emulated, improved, or copied by Formal Magic, the sole province of Scholars; every other class cannot approach that utility.

Remedial formal scholars? Remedial formal scholars have the ability and financhial backing to create Master Contstructs and have the spells and magic items to be able to keep that Construct from becoming, a pile of dust for more than one major encounter in any given weekend? What I think you are really comparing is a High level scholar and a High level fighter. However you are not balancing the scales as you are giving the scholar multiple powerful magic items and the fighter apparently nothing in the argument. I think you would be hard pressed to find a group of "remedial Formal Scholars" that would say.. "no we got this, this weekend. Fighters you just walk around and loot the bodies since you do nothing that we can't already do"

I am sitting here actually stunned that I even need to say this as all I have ever heard is repetative damage is overpowered fighters are too strong with a scholar in their pocket (assuming that it is easy to replicate having a scholar watching your back in your pocket... something I know not to be true).
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Would anyone like a poll set up, or like to set one up themselves?

(If you need help or don't have the right board permissions, PM me and I'll set it up. Just let me know the categories you want if it's more than yes/no.)

The discussion so far has been interesting, and well spoken (well typed?). Keep it up! :)
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Hammerfist said:
Please note however that it takes a specific personality to play the individual part of this successfully as a vast majority of those individuals that do this well are outgoing, charismatic and likable characters that other PCs will actively look out for without being told "Hey make sure to keep an eye on me".

Which is probably the only reason my character is still around after all these years (that an a heck of a lot of luck!) Rhys doesn't have an official team for a number of IG reasons, and he's suffered for it - limited resources, next to no magic items. However, by effectively making the bulk of the PC base "his team" (thanks to shmoozing), he manages to stay alive. He's far from terribly effective in combat on his own (even as a 23rd earth adept) due to the way things scale (resistances/thresholds/other abilities make a lot of critters his level difficult/very expensive to defeat), but as long as I'm willing to work with someone else, even for just 30 seconds or so, he's a great wingman.

That said, I do have to admit that a solo adept, in combat, has to be very picky about their targets, and *totally* in the "A-game" mode - it's all about accuracy, positioning, and timing.

Logistically, staff can't put out a *lot* of solo mods - but that doesn't stop them from doing so occasionally. (And those have been some high points in his story.) But as long as the player and the plot team is flexible, there's plenty of room for off-stage stuff - run down to NPC camp, tell plot what you're thinking, and either take a break/NPC while your behind-the-scenes machinations happen. I normally stop by NPC camp a minimum of 2-3 times a day at CT (they probably hate me) - not because I like sitting around OOG, but because that's what my character would do.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Talen said:
I have zero problems with people going on a mod solo.

Why? Because it means the person will probably end up dead. Or covered in glory and wealth. Or running terrorized from the whole encounter at step one.

Really depends on the scaling. I've seen mods go with the standard scaling formula, and had the PCs scratch their heads when they realized that they were facing crunchies they could one-shot. I've also seen unscaled ones where the best you can hope for is to outrun the NPCs, because you've got no chance.

I have seen a nice mix (on one that was meant to be a solo mod) - a couple of low-level guards that were one-shot kills, leading up to the bad guy who was at PC level (or thereabouts). Makes for a good adventure, IMO.


Talen said:
I've seen where a really, really good rogue has gone all Solid Snake on a mod and literally snuck and stealthed his way through an entire combat-style mod, neatly KOed the guards at the end, and snuck out with the book and some treasure at the end that were the whole purpose of the module. If you're that frickin' good, you DESERVE THE CHANCE TO BE AWESOME.

I think a lot of rogue-type players would *love* to be able to do this - but it's rather difficult to properly rep all that, both in terms of location (not many sites have spaces suited for this type of mod) and in terms of player skills (since a lot of rogues aren't really *that* silent). IG skills might go a long way to make up for combat abilities, but there's no "you didn't see/hear that" ability for folks who aren't OOG ninjas.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

We've done that sort of thing from time to time. It ends up tying up 3-5 NPCs and a plot member for two-three hours, which, imo, isn't an effective use of resources when we have only ten NPCs total plus 3 plot members to entertain 30-40 players. If you have the people to spare, it can be awesome, but when people are short, I can't blame some plot teams for not being willing.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

I've run modules for one or two people before -- usually trap-intensive or puzzle-strong ones because they don't use up a lot of NPCs. I have absolutely no objection to that.

I still don't think it's fair to the rest of the players to run a regular module for one person, even if that one person can handle it, unless I have so many NPCs I can spare them. It just doesn't seem right to tell the rest of the town "Sorry there's not enough going on right now, all the NPCs are entertaining one player for the next hour or so."
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Rhys said:
I think a lot of rogue-type players would *love* to be able to do this - but it's rather difficult to properly rep all that, both in terms of location (not many sites have spaces suited for this type of mod) and in terms of player skills (since a lot of rogues aren't really *that* silent). IG skills might go a long way to make up for combat abilities, but there's no "you didn't see/hear that" ability for folks who aren't OOG ninjas.

I have done this a couple of time - usually using the other PC's as cannon fodd... er as distractions. I've developed it to a science where last time I did this, I wasn't playing my sneaky sneak but rather a lame (as in needing a cane and limping) artisan that just walked around the side then basically straight up the middle of the encounter to get the box o' goodies and return them to the fighting PC's. I believe that some NPC's even 'popcorned' past me while I was walking there. Only when one of the staffers began to rez did he give me a look of "Why the piddlespot is he waltzin' unchallenged towards the treasure chest?"

So I guess, in the end, teams ARE useful for something afterall. :D (That is such a joke)
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

So, it looks like someone put up a poll, but you're only allowed one answer. My play style depends on the character I play, so none of those options appear to fit. If your play style is universal across all your characters, I suspect you're probably not playing a LARP so much anymore, but more of a "me in funny clothes" sport.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

At least you can vote. I can't seem to get it to work for me and my Firefox 4.0. I always get the error of "The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again." whenever I try to vote for any poll.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

jpariury said:
So, it looks like someone put up a poll, but you're only allowed one answer. My play style depends on the character I play, so none of those options appear to fit. If your play style is universal across all your characters, I suspect you're probably not playing a LARP so much anymore, but more of a "me in funny clothes" sport.

I dunno. I have a character that's pretty morally ambiguous and as such doesn't really fit *any* of the choices... so I just voted the way I feel for my primary. *shrug*
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

markusdark said:
At least you can vote. I can't seem to get it to work for me and my Firefox 4.0. I always get the error of "The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again." whenever I try to vote for any poll.

same, but earlier Firefox
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

jpariury said:
If your play style is universal across all your characters, I suspect you're probably not playing a LARP so much anymore, but more of a "me in funny clothes" sport.

Are you saying the 'reason' you play the game needs to be different for different characters? Because I'd say for any of the characters I play, I pretty much play for the fun of hanging out/playing with my friends, hence for me the 'team' aspect is always the most important no matter the character. If that means I have a universal 'play style' across all my characters I not quite sure what to think... Because I certainly feel distinctly different with different characters, all different races and classes, and all who act quite differently.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Dreamingfurther said:
Are you saying the 'reason' you play the game needs to be different for different characters?

Question is about style of play, not reason for it. And if you make characters with different goals and personalities, it isn't beyond the idea that their style will differ.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Call it what you want, but if the reason I want to play the game is to play/hang out with friends, you bet my characters are most likely going to either be on various teams or play with specific groups of individuals. I still certainly feel like they are different characters... I'm not quite sure what people think is wrong with that...
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Dreamingfurther said:
Call it what you want, but if the reason I want to play the game is to play/hang out with friends, you bet my characters are most likely going to either be on various teams or play with specific groups of individuals. I still certainly feel like they are different characters... I'm not quite sure what people think is wrong with that...

Generally, people (myself included) like to keep a separation of in and out of game, and treat characters as separate individuals rather than the player in an different outfit.

It's the defining difference between a LARP like Alliance and a battle-game like Belegarth.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Wraith said:
Dreamingfurther said:
Call it what you want, but if the reason I want to play the game is to play/hang out with friends, you bet my characters are most likely going to either be on various teams or play with specific groups of individuals. I still certainly feel like they are different characters... I'm not quite sure what people think is wrong with that...

Generally, people (myself included) like to keep a separation of in and out of game, and treat characters as separate individuals rather than the player in an different outfit.

It's the defining difference between a LARP like Alliance and a battle-game like Belegarth.

Gonna have to agree with David here. While my characters are distinctly different and have vastly different styles of play. When it comes right down to it, I play the game to hang around my wife and friends. We all make a concerted effort not to create characters that would murder each other while sleeping, just so we get to spend time together. I don't see anything wrong with factoring in OOG who do I want to spend my weekend with, when deciding how a charcter is going to act IG.
 
Re: Is Alliance a solo/team game? (split from Packet Head sh

Dreamingfurther said:
Call it what you want, but if the reason I want to play the game is to play/hang out with friends, you bet my characters are most likely going to either be on various teams or play with specific groups of individuals. I still certainly feel like they are different characters... I'm not quite sure what people think is wrong with that...
Methinks the lad doth protest too much... No one's accusing you of crushing kitten heads with iron-clad boots. Let me quote what I actually said:

If your play style is universal across all your characters, I suspect you're probably not playing a LARP so much anymore, but more of a "me in funny clothes" sport.

I like "me in funny clothes" sports. I do them more or less as much as resources and desire allows for. They're quite good fun. But they're distinctly less LARP. It is easily possible to play a game and hang out with friends and yet not necessarily have a "plays nice with Saul, James, Shaniqua and Thet" character. The more variable you are in your play style, the more I think you're LARPing, rather than combat sporting.
 
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