Meta-orgs and cliques

M

MathGwyson

Artisan
This was brought up in the event review thread.
Rynchus said:
I know that player action caused some group issues. That only members of one meta organization got involved in. I know this event was more pvp full, but some of the npc could have come out with notes and rumors for single people or groups. That may or may not lead to anything in the next game.
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I noticed this my first weekend out as well, it was hard to get involved when everyone pretty much had their own little groups (either via meta-orgs, such as the Royal Guard or via a set group of players people always hang out with).

While I realise the staff was under-NPC'd for last event, having little ways for individuals who are not well networked to get involved is a huge thing. I remember feeling more than a little lost my first day and a half or so until I started 'falling in' with the Imperials (it helped that they were my room-mates)

I'll share some of my experiences later in this post, but basically I just 'fell into' a group I like RPing with which has been great, but it essentially wound up being our own little 'clique', and I really can see how the people who just came out this weekend (other than the Dark Elves & their servants, who were their own little 'clique' in a way.)


My experiences in this regard;
I remember in June, since Biata are over-represented they really tried hard to get me more involved in their little sub-plots, for which I commend the players. I also know Aaron has been really good at finding ways to fit players into the community, especially on Sunday when he suggested I help with with interpreting some of the laws to be more accessible to laymen to help keep order, something my character is amenable to - he's been doing that a lot finding roles for people to get involved with.

The biggest thing for me has been the Imperials, since I was assigned to their cabin. The RP between them and me has been great, to the point where I was going to request being in their cabin again (and then it was Festival of Crows, so we decided to make a team) So like I said, I 'fell into' a group - but I can see how as an outsider looking in it could feel very hard to fit in. And I'm concerned that as the chapter progresses it might get even more so.
 
I know with my new position as sheriff I was and am looking for deputies who are not already part of a "group" and don't laugh at me when I ask :p
Role-playing is a much better experience teaming up with people you don't know out of game and trying to include new players when you can will make it better for everyone.
During last event I came across some things that are part of mine and another players background that plot when out of their way to add to the story, the thing is that if I wasn’t part of the team that did the cave part and some items weren't brought back to town we would have never know about it, so keep an eye out for extra bits when your adventuring and bring things back to camp in case those objects are related to other story lines. The plot team is putting background work in their for us we just might have missed out on some things already.
 
This is where the PC has to recruit, plot can only do so much, and you have to make it happen. It’s up to the players.

Other than the Dark Elves we had 2 brand new players. I know they got lost in all the beginning chaos and ended up signing contracts with the DE, in the end, they joined the Home Guard. But it was the DE that approached them and talked to them, so they signed up with the DEs.

Presently each of the Meta Orgs has a representative PC who is in charge of the group when the main NPCs are away. It should be up to them to be recruiting, collecting tithes and running the day to day.

We want these to be PC run groups and we are only there to 'guide' till folks get high enough in skill and rank. The Arch Mage and Fatespinner will always pop in to check on things, but they are not there for every little enquire. That is also where the forums come in, for between games communication. Use this tool.

Also this is where coming to build days and training days comes in. It helps to orientate folks. Showing up with high expectations and little knowledge of the system causes huge disappointment.
 
Danny said:
During last event I came across some things that are part of mine and another players background that plot when out of their way to add to the story, the thing is that if I wasn’t part of the team that did the cave part and some items weren't brought back to town we would have never know about it, so keep an eye out for extra bits when your adventuring and bring things back to camp in case those objects are related to other story lines. The plot team is putting background work in their for us we just might have missed out on some things already.
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Yes, and this is another point. We are a LARP, not a video game. We are not going to 'HAND' you every quest item with a big neon sign on it saying "You need this!". On the other hand do not go running to Logists with every little item you find. A comment was made that I said to go to Logists with an item for the scavenger hunt and Logistics had no idea the value. Will if the item is for the scavenger hunt, and you have been handing all the other items in to the King for the scavenger hunt, guess what, go to the king to hand in the item.
 
This is where character backgrounds come in handy. You will not get a "quest" right off the hop, but believe me, we are ALWAYS reading submitted backgrounds and seeing where they may "fit" into other plotlines we are working on.

We use the meta-orgs as a way cornea players to get involved. But if a new player doesn't read them or even bother to take a peek at it there is not a ton we can do.

We are working on mods and such for brand new players but with all things it takes time.
 
Let me speak about this as my comment sparked it. I have not really joined a "group", and I have good relationship with most groups. I spend time going and talking to different people. If I wanted to do quests I know who to talk to come with me. and that isn't the metaorg that is causing it. Just me being social.

As for the new people, I was going to help them out but I guess the first night they were poached by the Dark Elves, and I talked to them that night later on. And well I think one of them joined because he didn't trust those Dark elves. But yes most new people can be lost if people lose track of them. But I did talk to them through out the weekend and offered them advice in the night before they went to sleep. I think the new players did get lost in the shuffle, it happens and I felt bad for them to get taken in by the deal, but part of that could be the fact they were new and didn't have a chance to interact with anyone else, and could be scared to interact with new people. It took them a while to figure out their character and what they could offer to anyone.

But my suggest was to say that while npc can be sources of information, rumors and the like. Stories about a history of the area, rumors of the "Duke". I would suggest a board of rumors that the Npc can read in their cabin to spread if they feel like. Nothing major but that if players grab on it, plot can do something with it. But a topic of conversations for them to interact with players. It doesn't have to lead to mods or even plot.
 
I totally agree that it helps that players are doing what they can to foster inclusion amongst ourselves with little staff involvement. It has just been mentioned in the event review thread, and it`s a concern I can see going forward as we get larger, so I figured it was worth discussing.

Dramm a'dan said:
A comment was made that I said to go to Logists with an item for the scavenger hunt and Logistics had no idea the value. Will if the item is for the scavenger hunt, and you have been handing all the other items in to the King for the scavenger hunt, guess what, go to the king to hand in the item.
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We had no idea that the item was for the scavenger hunt until after we took it to logistics. The only way to know that that item was for the Hunt was specific to the fact that it had no value. A merchant should be able to tell by looking at something weather or not it has value. Hence, when the two merchants asked about the value of this specific object (which was, presumably, the only reason the mini-mod existed to begin with), the best answer would have been `it has no value`or `it`s worthless`.

Logistics was closed until after the hunt, so by telling us to go to logistics to find out the value completely defeated the purpose of the mini-mod, as the only other way to find out that it was the item we needed was closed to us until after the hunt. At which point, we were double dissapointed, because not only were we at that point not only unable to turn it in for the hunt, but we were also at that time expecting coin as a reward and found out it was worthless. Yay, we got beaten to a pulp for a tiny bit of silver =Z. And maybe some bonus xp (which isn`t showing on my character, but I already inquired about that with ops)

Having been informed timely and appropriately that the merchants recognized it as having no value would have alleviated the whole issue, and made the mini-mod as cool as it really was intended to be, instead a source of frustration.
(That said though, we didn`t even know it WAS a mini-mod - we were exploring it for completely IG different reasons, which is why the sheriff was involved - so the whole concept was cool, just this one little thing at the very end which was specific to the `reward` really was a let down)
 
or as a hunt item you could have taken it to the king. You still would not have been creditited with it mind you because the King would have asked why you went into Cabin one in the first place. If you did not answer "because we unscrambled clue 3" (I beleive it was) it would not have given any points.
 
mythic said:
or as a hunt item you could have taken it to the king. You still would not have been creditited with it mind you because the King would have asked why you went into Cabin one in the first place. If you did not answer "because we unscrambled clue 3" (I beleive it was) it would not have given any points.
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We might be talking about different clue items, which might be the confusion :).

Isn't this gem the "Sapphire of no value"? (item near the bottom of the list) Once Logistics told us that the gem had no value we realised that it was probably the item for that clue, but knowing the value was the only way to know it was the item for that clue. (Specifically, the 'no value' portion. The gem we tried to turn in earlier in the day had 'minor value' despite having no tag.)
If it was supposed to be for a different hunt item, then I can see why my post isn't making sense, because it's irrelevant :).
 
The gem was the wrong item for "no value".
 
I think the confusion lies in the fact that said group heard IG rumours about the cabin, so they went off on the mod. I wasn't needed for it so wasn;t there. However I was part of the conversation the lead off to it. They went and brought back the gem. Previously we had found some other gems outside the cabins, which had some value and when presented weren't the item.

When no one could discern what the gem was for (as no one knew it was for the Hunt since they obtained it out of sequence much like the Kristin's Wraith encounter during the Smurf mod. So they started asking around about what people knew about it and if it had value. They were told the standard response about such a thing "Go to Logistics". Now I don't think Abbey knew what Gem it was because I don't recall him being showed the actual item. So the group sat on it until Logistics opened and found out what it was.

In the end I opersonally think it's no big deal. Not every quest you go out on is gonna have a pay off. Sometimes crap happens, and we don't get our way. It just goes to show you that whatever carefully laid out plans Ops has, we will screw them up. You just gotta roll with it.
 
Thanks Brett.

Yes, ultimately it's not a big deal, Abbey just brought it back up and his comment made it clear that he misunderstood what I meant.

Since I was wrong about it being the sapphire of no value, the whole issue is moot :)
 
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