>>I thought the Lyras war was fine. Go with that model.<<

Yeah, IMO this worked pretty well and was fun.

I liked the various DP events leading up to P5's opening and the Crusade that came later, too. Mixing it up by taking the fight to the enemy was a fun change of pace, and it was easier to be uninvolved if that's what you wanted to do.

I actually liked both the Lyras and Outcast war models.

---

Pants.

<<It really did, and we lost good GMs over it. If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm still a bit bitter over the entire thing.>>

That's sad. I've heard stories of some of the wild player responses to that set of events and I never really understood it. I know I'm not the only one that had an epic good time in that stretch of events. The Lyras war was also super awesome though, and I'm sure a mix-mash of different aspects of each under new mechanics could be even better (barricades/bosses/seige weaponry/etc). I'm excited to see what comes down the road with all the potential loaded up in 3.0.

<<I can totally understand the GM response to not let those circumstances happen again, because the cost was far too high if it resulted in loss of quality staff :(>>

Yeah, without knowing the details, it seems like that kind of overwhelmingly crazy response from players (even if it's only a very small minority) is not worth risking.

>>The Outcast War really, really caused drama, didn't it?<<

>>It really did, and we lost good GMs over it. If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm still a bit bitter over the entire thing.<<

I left DR prime because of the Outcast War. There wasn't a single aspect of that event that was remotely fun (to me). I stayed in DR over in TF for the next 8 or so years and finally came back to prime. I was a bit leery of the 3.0 conversion, but all things considered, I'm actually surprised that it's gone this well. Sure, there have been some bugs, and more bugs need to be fixed, but overall the game "feels" the same and for the most part I like the changes. I expect we might lose a few GMs and players over this though as well.

________________________________________________________________


"Nope, I decided parry will remain completely and utterly useless. Try something else."

>>It's not an iron-clad rule, but an excellent rule of thumb. "Good guys always win in the end" is a mixture of acknowledging the heroic fantasy roots of the game's fictional influences and a self-defense mechanism to prevent more GMs from getting burnt out trying to do stuff the community historically had an aneurism over.


Armifer, I want to touch on this.

Sure, the good guys usually win in the end but you need to look at something like Mibgluc. We may have on in the end, (I reveled in standing over his corpse after pounding his chest into a fine fleshy mist) but he created a lasting, painful turn of events that can still be felt.

I missed Lyras, but the death of Prince Vorclaf is another example. Didn't even play when it happened and it was a traumatic thing for Elriic nonetheless.

---

<<"earning too little skinning experience for a day or so isn't nearly as bad as having a spell that breaks your wings."

I know the GM's are really busy right now, but one thing that used to bring folks together were mini-fests.
Prior to the paid events (no complaints about those events) there used to be one or two tents/caravans/wagons
that used to just pop up here and there. Folks definitely gathered around for those. Maybe when Simu
offers the free accounts the population will rise again which will be good for us and good for Simu since
I would believe many new folks would get hooked and upgrade.

In the meantime, if you see around -- don't be shy. Let's go have an adventure!

Player Behind Lorwryn

>I know the GM's are really busy right now, but one thing that used to bring folks together were mini-fests.

It is funny that you mention this because I thought about posting about the same thing, along with small invasions as well, yesterday. I know there are still invasions but there used to be at least one a weekend even if it was only some tribes of wild bears or something like that (which btw I think is pretty cool to think about, although nowadays too many people will just roll their eyes at the puny bears, unfortunately)

Hopefully some of this stuff will come back along with some new players.

>I'm going to go with 'rosey tint of memory' for 300 Alex.

No not really. But I am talking about a long time ago when there were 1400 people on at peak hours.

The Outcast War still gets most interesting reactions from people I chat with OOC, ranging anywhere between "I loved it, let's do that again!" and "I quit DR due to it and I'm still not coming back!". I think the GMs have made huge strides in resolving so many of the issues that occurred during that war including things like no more starry road walks. While I do think the general population of DR could indeed handle it now much better than "we" did back then, I can certainly see why the GMs are unwilling to step into that pot of boiling water all over again.

When I was involved in all the court stuff I made huge efforts to involve as many people in the related RPs as possible, hence the large staff I always had going and I'm glad to see others are doing the same, such as the Zoluren court RP growing with staff members, the continuing of involving others in the Shard scene and that's awesome. It opens the door for all sorts of interesting spinoffs, drama, conflicts, confusions, resolutions and just plain fun. Ironically, I tend to avoid RP since the trial [yes, a year later I still have issues with it] and I can't seem to get away from it no matter where I go so I'm sort of torn between trying to start up a new RP something something or continuing to work on fading into oblivion [read constant hunting on a remote island] and reading threads like this makes me think all over again. I have noticed that people are starved for events and social interactions to the point that they'll travel across the provinces to attend events they are normally not interested in. I always chuckle at someone that will go to a ball just to be able to get their "grumpy guy don't talk to me" persona going and I applaud the efforts they go to for it.

Dialog like this is awesome and I hope it's sparking some ideas in people for new ventures to pursue.

Also, you'll get out of RP what you put into it and it doesn't have to be huge and dramatic all the time, sometimes the simple little spontaneous chats that occur ingame can end up being the most fun.

===
My spathas at hand,
From the ashes I rise,
With resolve in my heart,
And fire in my eyes.

I have a ton of responses to that but it frankly comes off as a whine fest so let me just say it's mostly an OOC issue that I have with how the whole thing was shoved down my throat as a player. I'm still feeling my way through what I'll do with Drex in the end and doing my best to roll with the continual punches she gets due to the event. Luckily I do have a core group of support that keep me going and Sebestyen's player goes to extreme efforts to keep me interested in DR, otherwise I'd have quit the day after the trial.

Going back on topic, I've been playing a few new chars lately and I'm still finding scads of little RP stuff going on everywhere. With the changes to some of the training things that no longer spam the room, I think that's helping gathering spots feel more like social places and less like mindless scripting spots. I'd love to see more of that sort of thing go on, like maybe collecting rocks not message the room, folding paper, cambrinth snapping! I'd love silent cambrinth.

===
My spathas at hand,
From the ashes I rise,
With resolve in my heart,
And fire in my eyes.

>>Such a great idea. No idea how it'd be implemented, but it would be really great, as a squelch from either side.

I've been praying for more silent options too. It's just odd -- teaching, perceiving are okay to be silent, but other things we have to watch, and it just makes socializing that much harder.


-- Player of Eyuve

>Ciressa was one of my favorite characters to interact with, FWIW.

Aw, that makes me smile, thank you.

===
My spathas at hand,
From the ashes I rise,
With resolve in my heart,
And fire in my eyes.

I'm rather touched that people remember that. I've missed RPing her, I just lost the heart for it after the fight about the plaza location and petty stuff that went on. I'll give serious thought to how I can bring some of that back.

===
My spathas at hand,
From the ashes I rise,
With resolve in my heart,
And fire in my eyes.

Wow I feel kinda silly. As long as I've known Drexella I never knew that you played Ciressa. I loved her RP and always enjoyed the tiny announcements and was even enough to entice Rgamato into prolonged shopping trips in town. Hard to do with a ranger sometimes.

Balm for the soul? Thank you for making me better about sticking it out. My RP skills have been pretty low this past year as I struggle to keep my OOC anger and my IC char rage separate. Playing my "happy" chars helps me so maybe I need to bring back more tiny humor.

===
My spathas at hand,
From the ashes I rise,
With resolve in my heart,
And fire in my eyes.

Yea! it' been too long anyhows

Rehlyn

A Maelshyvean shadow beast slows long enough to deeply inhale some of the swirling shadows surrounding it. After a moment, it sighs with great releif and blackness oozes from its ears and nostrils.

<<Damn her for RP'ing them so well!

#awesomeRP

Madigan

I am in awe of those who can RP well. I definetely do "RP lite" with Flavius- he sticks with his story but I just don't have the energy to really immerse myself into it.

As a cleric, there are tons of opportunities- but to do them right would require to courses of actions which might make other parts of the game less enjoyable for me or for others.

So Kudo's to the very few of you who do it well and stick to it. You make the game much more fun.

>Balm for the soul? Thank you for making me better about sticking it out. My RP skills have been pretty low this past year as I struggle to keep my OOC anger and my IC char rage separate. Playing my "happy" chars helps me so maybe I need to bring back more tiny humor.

Yes we definitely need more tiny humor. Plus we would absolutely hate to see you not be able to resolve this and end up fading away entirely. I know that I've always enjoyed any interaction Rgamato gets with Drex and would definitely feel the loss.

To the OP:

I think what mainly keeps me from socializing more in game is that I can get pretty busy RL. Lately it's because I freelance so my hours can eat into my free time, a lot. So when I'm logged into DR sometimes I just can't be paying full attention even if I want to be.

In the past, I've let that put me in hiatus, but being involved with Zoluren stuff lately has made me unwilling to just drop off into one of Talli's wanderlust modes.

I try not to be too hard to find. Playing a ranger, though, makes it less easy for me to hang around the usual gathering spots. I do have a crystal ring though and I tend to think they facilitate RP. The hard part is knowing who to contact to get involved with something. You can watch IC announcements through this forum, I know Vinjince uses'em a lot at least.

And Drex: I am so glad you didn't leave. I bet it's hard. Sebestyen is a stand up guy!

Talliska Wildclaw
Free agent of Zoluren