RuneBrighteyes
Artisan
Hello All-
Every once and a while I come to these boards to read about NERO when my girl is sick of me talking about it. I usually don't post because I am afraid of getting involved in insanity.
So here I am posting, and yes I think my post will serve to be helpful. Please don't yell at me too much about what I am about to say.
Because I believe it is important, and because alot of you may not know me, here are my credentials. My name is Ray Nagle. I have been playing NERO for 18 years. I have run one LARP (using a scavenged NERO system) and I have served on two plot committees. I know that I am old school because I get rules mixed up and am sometimes an idiot. You also have me to thank for only being able to change a character only once ever after your first event (c'mon Mike V.- what was wrong with a new character every weekend for one year? [sarcasm]).
Now my biases up front. I prefer a low level, low magic game. I think goblin stamps are great and feel that roleplaying is an awesome break from stick jocking and vice versa. I also still play NERO to tell jokes, entertain people, and have the only reasonable and consistent multigender sleep over parties that can exist in my strangely conservative lifestyle (and you must bathe to stay in my cabin).
Now to the point of all this-
There is a thread started by Mike Hynes (one of my NERO buddies) about level creep. It's going pretty well. I want people who are new to the game to be even more out spoken- new opinions matter, and fresh perspectives are key!
It seems that people are most concerned, no matter where they fall on the specifics of the issue, on player fun and longevity of the game. I will now steal/borrow/co opt what I believe is the SOLUTION to this (and almost all) issue(s).
More NPC's.
The more NPC's we have the more we can entertain everyone. Split wave battles require more NPC's. More modules (which are often scaled for APL) require more NPC's. Less powerful monsters as "Crunchies" require more NPC's to decrease the PC/NPC ratio disparities that force an increase in their scaling to provide adequate challenge for players. More NPC's equals more excitement, adventure, interaction, and roleplay which equals more fun.
So how to get them (this suggestion is focused towards players)?
Everyone agree to NPC at least once for your home chapter every season. Make a plan with your plot committee so they do not run your specific plot on that weekend. Get your whole team to do it at once. No matter what just NPC (at least) your home chapter once a year.
So the wisdom of Luke Sullivan still holds true today. We need to increase NPC numbers. So lets start doing it as players of this great game.
As a side note I am not sure this is the correct place for this, but as a member of NERO Caldaria Plot I would be happy to share with others some of the interesting/strange/sometimes controversial things we are doing to doing to get the most bang for our NPC buck. The grand experiment continues...
Thanks for reading. Please keep comments focused on encouraging active, paying customers to NPC more often. I plan on starting a thread soon on how to encourage other sources of NPC's.
Raymond Nagle
IG- changes too often to say (but probably has Waylay and Weaponmaster)
OOG- Nero Caldaria Plot (primary role motivator/energizer bunny/seat of the pants/no longer napkin write-up guy)
Every once and a while I come to these boards to read about NERO when my girl is sick of me talking about it. I usually don't post because I am afraid of getting involved in insanity.
So here I am posting, and yes I think my post will serve to be helpful. Please don't yell at me too much about what I am about to say.
Because I believe it is important, and because alot of you may not know me, here are my credentials. My name is Ray Nagle. I have been playing NERO for 18 years. I have run one LARP (using a scavenged NERO system) and I have served on two plot committees. I know that I am old school because I get rules mixed up and am sometimes an idiot. You also have me to thank for only being able to change a character only once ever after your first event (c'mon Mike V.- what was wrong with a new character every weekend for one year? [sarcasm]).
Now my biases up front. I prefer a low level, low magic game. I think goblin stamps are great and feel that roleplaying is an awesome break from stick jocking and vice versa. I also still play NERO to tell jokes, entertain people, and have the only reasonable and consistent multigender sleep over parties that can exist in my strangely conservative lifestyle (and you must bathe to stay in my cabin).
Now to the point of all this-
There is a thread started by Mike Hynes (one of my NERO buddies) about level creep. It's going pretty well. I want people who are new to the game to be even more out spoken- new opinions matter, and fresh perspectives are key!
It seems that people are most concerned, no matter where they fall on the specifics of the issue, on player fun and longevity of the game. I will now steal/borrow/co opt what I believe is the SOLUTION to this (and almost all) issue(s).
More NPC's.
The more NPC's we have the more we can entertain everyone. Split wave battles require more NPC's. More modules (which are often scaled for APL) require more NPC's. Less powerful monsters as "Crunchies" require more NPC's to decrease the PC/NPC ratio disparities that force an increase in their scaling to provide adequate challenge for players. More NPC's equals more excitement, adventure, interaction, and roleplay which equals more fun.
So how to get them (this suggestion is focused towards players)?
Everyone agree to NPC at least once for your home chapter every season. Make a plan with your plot committee so they do not run your specific plot on that weekend. Get your whole team to do it at once. No matter what just NPC (at least) your home chapter once a year.
So the wisdom of Luke Sullivan still holds true today. We need to increase NPC numbers. So lets start doing it as players of this great game.
As a side note I am not sure this is the correct place for this, but as a member of NERO Caldaria Plot I would be happy to share with others some of the interesting/strange/sometimes controversial things we are doing to doing to get the most bang for our NPC buck. The grand experiment continues...
Thanks for reading. Please keep comments focused on encouraging active, paying customers to NPC more often. I plan on starting a thread soon on how to encourage other sources of NPC's.
Raymond Nagle
IG- changes too often to say (but probably has Waylay and Weaponmaster)
OOG- Nero Caldaria Plot (primary role motivator/energizer bunny/seat of the pants/no longer napkin write-up guy)