AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

Dead wrote:

666WaysToHell wrote:

Considering our priests are all NPCs (except one!) I highly doubt it's Kohlingen/Tark priests teaming up. :lol:

Tarkuul High Priest of Velsharoon is PC.

I'm too generous to team up with someone who I know would fall for hunting with Laura, even if they know full well it would happen themselves. :lol:

On topic:

Reyes would've opened a lot of eyes, particularly the gods themselves who have always been an active (albeit minor) role in Faerun's events. Vague signs that are left to the interpretation of the higher-ranking clergy to extend to the masses are perfectly fine, it even adds some flavour to actually playing a cleric, rather than just being another different kind of spell-caster. (I am a bit bias on this, as my main character is a Cleric!)

And take a look at the last pages of nearly every sourcebook and you have a wealth of ideas that could be implemented into small/medium day-to-day events, not everything has to be Amia-centralised. And, as a side note, I'm more than happy to ignore some lore-inaccuracies for the sake of a fun event!

I did have more to add but then I had a writers block, so I might get back to you on this.

Also, a lot of communications or signs from the divine realms can be via low-level minions of the deity, rather than from the god/dess directly.

Really, you don't even have to get minions involved just to send a message. Most of the gods have some sort of signature event to signal their approval or displeasure, such as finding certain gems or flowers, animal cries, the wind howling in a particular manner, a sudden downpour, that sort of thing.

But yeah, I'll add to the people saying that more small things is good. I really like it when DMs do minor, spur of the moment things.

On the topic of player consequences, while I don't think people should be perma'd against their will (unless they do something REALLY reckless), you shouldn't really go out of your way to keep them on their feet either. In the aforementioned sea battle, for example, I imagine the corpses could've been thrown into the sea by the amnish, eventually being washed up on the coast and found by a patrol. Alternately they could've been strung up somewhere easily found as a demoralizing tactic.

I was always impressed with players who had the skill to forge their own narrative in such a way that would captivate both their fellow players and their watching DM's attention.

Now that the ball is in the player's court so to speak, I think instead of looking for what is being delivered, one should crave for that which can be earned.

Given that a sizable chunk of the livable section of Cordor has been cut away and the population relocated out of the harm it may have caused Cordor to have a massive problem with over-abundant people in a much smaller livable space?

I think this is an interesting concept to explore because it leaves us with real dilemmas going forward that don't even need a bad guy outside of the people handling / working with the background.

For instance this could very quickly become a massive health risk for the population as the homeless lack the basic facilities to keep themselves clean that they would've in their homes
Additionally crime would see a heavy spike in both frequency and severity as people scramble to find a way to live after losing everything, or just being opportunistic, looting, murder over the mundane, you get the idea.
In addition it gives us a chance to move out of the city and forge additional towns/villages that are all under the Cordorian domain (Think an extension of Cordor North) to accommodate the people. Which would then cause us to bump into the monsters of the frontier.

This leads our characters to some hard choices on how to proceed, and gives us a ticking clock as winter approaches and we're looking to prevent (or ensure) a wide-spread starvation occurs in Cordor.

Also worth noting would be Cordor's output/input of resources, their status as a trading hub should be severely diminished as the ability to produce goods has been nixed.

With this sort of background we've got a real livable atmosphere to work in, and there's no big-bads built in, only the players who want to do it.

Edit: Upon further research the central occupants are listed as negligible in population.

Guess I'll add my two coppers. First off I am in NO WAY complaining! Amia rocks, it has the most stable Staff of any server I've played on who really want to keep Amia being the thing we can't get away from! Now all we need is a scripter or two to break the scripting log jam.

These are a few things I like as a player (besides off-handable ale mugs!):

#1, off-handable ale mugs! Wait.. I said besides those....

Ok then, in no particular order (These are from my point of view, because I can't be anyone else but me!):

Randomness! While some events need planned so those involved can make plans to try and attend, I can't say enough about random spice. Possessing NPCs for comments, conversations, little plot hooks. DMs do this often, and moar is good! Random small events!! Amia is a wild place, almost ANYTHING can happen just about anywhere at anytime! ONE DAY, Hilrash will finally grow a pair and get snippy with Reddok one night when Red starts with his usual ranting about Hil's wares and prices. "Oi Hil, was gonna have a look at what ye got, but I already know it's a bunch o overpriced junk, like usual." Or with the PC shops getting opened in the Market Hall, "Ah good! I was hoping there'd be some REAL merchants open in here..." *gives Hilrash a cross between a shitty look and an entertained one*

Many short non world/faction ending events/plots, the theme can be serious but nothing that will cause the downfall of the city or world, or fun things like zee Brodog. Not ALL plots/events have to tie into a large buildup of something. Players like fluff and fun too.

More DM lurking and listening and reacting. One reason I haven't requested much for my characters in these three years, is that I don't LIKE to ask for anything for me. Doubly so when it comes to personal quests and such. I feel that if I'm doing my job as a player/roleplayer, whatever I'm going on about will get noticed.. eventually. But, Amia is probably the most populated server I've played on, so I realize this isn't exactly feasible. Just my way of looking at things, and I am trying to get into the requests thing.

I do enjoy the big oh my gerd the world's ending plots as much as the next guy, I will say though some folks eventually tune out or get to a point where it's just not drawing them back in to play. I think we saw it a bit with the Reyes plot, and I am guilty of it myself, the dwarves were "point me in the direction of the nearest enemy" because there was quite a bit of emphasis on things dwarves don't delve into very far if at all, Blood Magics, time altering, arcane twisting. At the end there was this build up of hype about the gods, then it seemed like nothing happened on that front but for the end write up. I was a bit disappointed in that small aspect but no real big deal, we were involved as much as frontline fighter dwarves could be "I think", ready to fight and die like dwarves do!

More influence/support from the gods, yes! I know it is a slippery slope, and I have seen it go badly on past servers when the hands of the gods meddle to much or get to forceful, but there has to be a happy medium. The wizards, arcanes, necros, all get to research and develop their powers and the fun and RP that I've witnessed that goes with that. Just doesn't seem like the divines get that level of coolness out of their "gifts". I dunno if the zealots are just not that crafty in making their stuff stand out or what. Part of my rebuild I'm looking into is to drop my Divine Champion levels, some of it stems from me wanting Red to be a bit more tanky, the other part is he's been a DC for two years, I've tried to display that in my RP, but my RP levels of DC (RP cause he has a CHA of +0 so useless mechanically) have been a waste cause no influence or feelings, or visions, dreams, from the Mordinsamman beyond what I've written myself. So I want to make him more sound mechanically and forget the DC experiment all together. Though in Red's mind he will always be a Champion of the Mordinsamman, cause that's what he does, Defender of the Dwarven way.

Amarice I think does a good thing with Auril when it comes to Frosthowl, Auril's winter wolf messenger person thing. More DMs can do things like this without "direct" involvement from the god(s) and make folks feel like they aren't wasting their time with their divinity. I've seen more than a few messengers on the server related to evil gods and dark portents, maybe we can equal up that representation a wee bit in one way or another.

And I'll agree with most the others here, if a PC or a group of PCs just totally nerfs an attempt or epicly fails to catch on to the DM's many tries to hook them.. they should pay for it in one way or another. I'm not a big fan of perma death, mainly cause of all the uncontrollable variables that come along with internet gaming. With that being said however, I have been involved in a couple plots that forewarned that hey!! if things go badly, perma death is a possible outcome. To that I say bring it the hell on!

Of course this comes from a multiyear player that can't find half the shit on the server, so....... :twisted:

I'll add in my thoughts to an issue I see often (and may have addressed a long time ago).

It seems as though a common gripe about moderate-to-major plots is that low-level, new, or simply not well known players tend to be shunted to the edge in favor of those who are more powerful or have played more often. I will preface my proposition by noting that, yes, this will step on some toes. However...what if certain plots were manufactured in such a way that powerful beings could not become involved? Particularly on Amia, this approach makes sense. Even in the mainland, there is a very good reason why Elminster doesn't become involved in every petty squabble. As a powerful being, other similarly powerful beings have their eyes on him at all times. If he so much as wipes his nose, I guarantee Manshoon or Szass Tamm, for example, will be there to challenge him to a wizard duel over it. He could end up being responsible for the annihilation of a patch of countryside for a fairly innocent gesture. Which is why he works through intermediaries - relatively inexperienced groups who will not draw the ire of those in power because, well, why bother?

Time and again, it's been proven that when epic-level characters come together en masse, bad things have already happened or are about to. And it's high time that the IC base of epic level beings begins to take responsibility for this, and starts using their resources (again, intermediaries) sparingly instead of using the nuclear option every time Paush uses his abyssal chamberpot. A good bit of this is hyperbole, but the point stands. Start making use of your lower-level members to perform tasks in a manner that is less glaringly likely to trigger a spontaneous bout of who-can-fire-hellballs-faster. Don't have lower-level members? Get some, for the love of Ao! Having a retainer of scrappy underdogs is practically an assured victory, and any bard will tell you that's how legends get started!

Also, as an addendum to the threat of consequences that's been brought up in this thread, the playerbase solved that one a long time ago. Even I know about it. There was an agreement in place that stated you could simply attach a tag to your character's biography (and presumably your forum signature) that said 'yes, you may PvP me without due process'. Well, why not do the same for harsher penalties as a result of plot? All a DM has to do is examine you and think "Ahh, George the Fighter is willing to succumb to more dire failures, but Gertrude the Wizard is not." It isn't a perfect system, but it would allow for quick and easy on-the-spot doling out of punishments, so that the DM doesn't have to assign the same values to every character simply because they aren't sure if anyone will pitch a fit for having a limb cut off.

Onwards and upwards!

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