Owing to the lack of people enough to have a full faction, this will do for now. Any superduper private things, please PM, so there's no risk of someone accidentally using it.

I am also using this to establish two (I feel) very basic rules for the House, OOCly-speaking.

If you have a character in Tinnerai, they are to be your ONLY character in Tinnerai.
Those of you that have more than one, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to pick one and either move the other on, or just not play them for a while. I know this is a big change for some people, and I am sorry if it causes hurt feelings. That's not my intention. However, having more than one character in the faction has already caused problems, and we're only a week in.

If you are in Tinnerai, I will ask that you not join other Houses. If you are IN other Houses, this is your request to pick one.
I know this may weaken us, and again, I'm sorry for that. But I happen to agree with Galenson. We have far, far too few players for us all to be playing between four or six factions, and it's going to cause conflicts of interest and weaknesses where there don't have to be any.

Those few Tinnerai players who have stuck with the House, I appreciate it, even if May is a supreme pain in the ass. There will be things coming up as I flesh them out and as more answers do or do not come in. Any questions, please PLEASE do not feel hesitant to PM me, I'll sort it as best I can.

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Aly'dra Zau'ana: Priestessish Of Eilistraee
Danika Nefzen: Druid of the Earthmother
Delia Am'Anodel: Paladin of Torm

When you ask that we should not join other houses if we belong to Tinnerai, does that mean as the same char, or does it count for all my chars?

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I am not weird, I am limited edition

It is referring to you as a player, so all of your characters.

the point is to reduce conflicts of interest and increase devotion to one character rather than spreading out among a lot of dudes who, due to the rules, cant interact with each other.

example: if i had a priestess in vandree and an assassin in tinnerai, and vandree and tinnerai go to war, I now have to choose which side I will fight for. I can't do both, removing people from vandree might make it easier for my priestess to rise to power, and blah blah blah you get the idea.

So please, have some devotion to fewer characters. It makes life easier for everyone involved, including yourself.

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Slander [Zanthair Akarupa of the Horsemen of the Apcalypse] - Sorcerer 'Mediocreare'
Isendu't'tar Ussen'd'Vhid d'My'ana'd'Xull'd'Vharcan - possibly the longest name in Amia
Tiffany Seagrass - weak and fragile weaver of words

// Sick until further notice... well, physically ill also.

I play new drowess Oun'dree Tinnerai. She's doing her duty of keeping the spiders fed and safe till I can get back on her and rp IG. Cheers folks, and see you when I am feeling better.

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Lady Ravanna Iheludrim, Sun Elf Sorceress, Former Councillor of Myth Winya Ravana
Miss ~A. F.~ (Potion Brewer Extraordinaire)
Veruca Thornhill, Paladin of the Lord of the North Wind [Retired]

Get better! RL > Game, every time.

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Aly'dra Zau'ana: Priestessish Of Eilistraee
Danika Nefzen: Druid of the Earthmother
Delia Am'Anodel: Paladin of Torm

*huggles* You take care and get well soon! You are so wonderful to post while you're not feeling well.

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Ari'aerath Dlues'athsha ~ Silver Singer with the Bow of the Sun
Clarette Feohn ~ Magic is Art.
Victoria Marrs ~ "I have an herb for that."

A heads up, Tinn's stance as first house is going to slip if house count stays down... Can't really fake status without the people required for a faction, so I'd focus on recruiting.

Fun Fact: Checking on UD folks and Drow specifically, there are about 80ish UD Drow players spread over each of the timezones that play about every month. If you don't see/can't find anyone, it is likely a timezone issue. Of that number, I highly doubt there is not enough to fill 4 houses. After all, you would really only need about 40 players to show interest in house RP in order to do so. Besides, you guys are all awesome at it/friendly about it with new comers so I have little doubt in Tinn or the rest of the community.

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Eli Hodgewall <{/,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X
Sven <=={o===========>
Qeelak \ | / ,

That falls in with my lack of skills line; I'm not terribly good at recruiting. We actually HAVE like...30 people in the house. It's just that none are active, and given my want to have people that aren't playing in other houses, it really does restrict the pool. Even with 80 people which (no offense meant, Dust, honest) I find to be a very hard to believe number, many are already in other houses. I'm not keen on losing First, but I'm not spectacular at drumming up interest.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be all ears.

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Aly'dra Zau'ana: Priestessish Of Eilistraee
Danika Nefzen: Druid of the Earthmother
Delia Am'Anodel: Paladin of Torm

Booey night at Iniquity.

[edit]

P Three I'll be blunt with you.

Right now, it seems that the only goals I have witnessed in Drow Role Play from House politics perspectives are to get to the top dog position; numero uno, number one. Once you get there, you lose that goal... and that's the killer for Tinnerai at the moment. It sort of goes like this: "Well Bob, I'm at the top of Mt Everest now and I have my picture... so what now?" And you're currently in that awkward hesitation stage like the question dumbfounded you.

People are more inclined to want to join a rising house like Vandree because they have a goal; to get to the top. What can you advertise, being the top dog, that would make players want to join you when you currently have no real goals to offer?

What do you do after you get to the top? (what goals does the faction need to achieve)

What rewards do you get (or deny others) for being at the top?

What tricks do you have up your sleeve (besides numbers) to keep you at the top?

Why should I want to be proud at being at the top?

It's not a failure on your behalf so don't take it as such; everyone (Both Player and DM alike) was so focused initially at duking it out for the top position that they overlooked just what it meant to be the top dog. Once you find that answer, the rest should come nicely.


[edited a few times for rewording stuff.]

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Plays:

"I'll think of something once Amia:EE drops."

That's exactly what I'm driving at.

And really, the number of people I've seen are generally alts that either play in other houses, or have Tinnerai that have not responded to summons. That automatically rules them out to me, just on an ooc level, because that's splits I don't want or need. I would rather lose First and not have a house full of OOC drama bullshit.

I can think of....three drow that play that I don't know are either one.

I've lost members to OOC, when said members have never met or spoken to May. Out of a list of thirty-some Tinnerai, FOUR have responded to the summons. Four. One responded enough to quit the House.

In the atmosphere of a place where I need to be ruthless to other chars, but respectful of the feelings of other players, I've got this schism of RP. How do I trash, say, Qos, without hurting feelings and driving players away? I can't then make that a goal. Right now, Tinnerai is at the top of the ladder, and the only thing I have to offer is "Be smarter and stronger than everyone else and we won't move." That's not a lot of fun, as Galenson pointed out, but there's not much to /do/ save preying on the other houses to make them weaker, and see Problem Two.

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Aly'dra Zau'ana: Priestessish Of Eilistraee
Danika Nefzen: Druid of the Earthmother
Delia Am'Anodel: Paladin of Torm

When I decided to focus on Edonil, I did so to help pull things towards Drow politics (closer to Lore) and away from All-Out Fighting-in-the-Streets House Warfare (which is a rare event Lore wise). So far things have gone well to that end.

I bring this up as it supplies natural goals for the first house. Here are a few examples of possible goals a city-focused setting allows for:

•Assertion of a strong chain of command. (Women and men of a higher standing house get a certain amount of sway over lesser houses. A game of 'Im the Leader!' can be fun every now and again.)

•Attempt to strategically shift house duties onto lesser houses as to allow for the entire house to live in a state of luxury. (Who needs full responsibility when you could be out spending coin on a match in Iniquity?)

•Set up enemy Houses for embarrassing defeats at the hands of any number of raging hordes in the Underdark. (Side note: Lesser matrons can always achieve victory and spin a win in their favor)

•Try to make others (players and NPCs) feel they need you in the 1 spot for city prosperity through any means (Fear? large, gaudy donations to Edonil? It could be any number of ways.)

These are just rough examples. I have no doubt you all can think up more. Don't sell yourself short!

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Eli Hodgewall <{/,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X
Sven <=={o===========>
Qeelak \ | / ,

It's not so much a matter of selling short as it is the feeling through many of us that there's simply a dearth of things to be done. When half of your opponents are 30s and you aren't, setting them up for defeat isn't as easy as it may seem.

There is no /need/ for us. That's just kind of how the RP rolls; if it was a real world thing, you might suffer for a lack of FIrst House. Here, not so much. It's trying to find that balance of RP Ebil and OOC Nice that's a real pain.

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Aly'dra Zau'ana: Priestessish Of Eilistraee
Danika Nefzen: Druid of the Earthmother
Delia Am'Anodel: Paladin of Torm

Here's my list of Tinnerai activities before RP took Nizzre to the Temple.

* Go and get some other idol to put in the entry way to show up Bree'nye. (hee hee)

* Get Tinnerai finished (the building) using Duergar, Orog, svir players as suppliers. Oh and find a way to get Vandree & Qos to fork over some gold to fund it.

* Take house members out for training so that all Tinnerai are awesome at battle and working together (and even 3 house members can kick arse let me tell you.) Which also means more gold and items for the house.

* Make substantial offerings to the Temple (The new idol - soon to be added by the Dev Team was made entirely by Tinnerai) to show up the other houses.

* Post signs declaring rules for Edonil expressly made to make Tinnerai the controlling entity.

* Get busy having the refugees tested by the Temple and Magthere and Sorcere so they might be a productive part of Edonil.

* Grab those refugee commoners to start finishing the outside gate of Tinnerai.

* Have house members meet with the different leaders in L'Obsul to set up Tinnerai as the contact for L'obsul.

We were also in the process of working out a way to steal the drow thralls from the ilithids to see if they could be salvaged for Tinneri's house (there were only 3 of us and we were able to capture drow alive).

Nizzre'tyne bought the slaves she has from the slave market in Underport. Screenied and DM approved.

It might not seem like there's much you can do with just a couple of house members but drow are sneaky and strong.

As for recruitment, that can be tricky. I don't like the kidnap-and-make-them-join-by-threatening-to-kill-them method. The player and the character needs to want to be in the faction. Sometimes its as easy as asking why they are houseless. I can PM tips if you want.

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Ari'aerath Dlues'athsha ~ Silver Singer with the Bow of the Sun
Clarette Feohn ~ Magic is Art.
Victoria Marrs ~ "I have an herb for that."

I've been largely unsuccesful at pushing Tinnerai's goals and my characters own goals. But ah well, I've been busy with a few things Fierene mentioned. Even before she became the Ul'ath'taller.

Sadly kinda out of the main Drow timezone, so I'm having a hard time getting things done, especially with school pressing down upon me. Think that we as Tinnerai should meet up sometime and discuss our goals and how we are going to handle the future of the house.

Then again, because I'm a loyal noob, so that's atleast one lasting member :3.

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Login - Sevk
Xa'chena - The lost child of Lolth

// OOC

Hey May,

Just keep up your leadership of all the houses. Players will flock to you if you show that it's fun being a Tinnerai. At the moment you hold all the house's confidence. I think i can speak for all the matrons at this time when I say, As long as your improving the city there should be no real reason to "Move against you". I know for myself I'm happy with your synergy that you have with the temple and your ability to work with the other houses rather then demand obedance or I'll PK you. (Or the more cowardly approch. Your not a "Real" house. At first I was very disappointing with your approach because that's what will force players to leave. Though that quickly was rectified so no qualms here.)

House Wars have never been a sanctioned method of asscention on Amia for as long as I've been here. We've always had to pin failures on other matrons and make them pay by sending them down to the bottom of the pile. That whole secen where Ultaranna was totally screwed up because Tinnerai attacked Barae was double edge sword. As for me and some of the older members showed how badly we can screw our city up with out right fighting, at the same time those who have that taste of "Drow War" between houses use it as an example of "How fun" it could be. Don't buy into that bs.

We have a very functioning Matron's Council now more then ever, and I can say I support you for the moment because your going to bring order to the cluster-f... that was Edonil since we moved here. As with all the Matrons you should a ll be looking towards how to make the city better. When Tinnerai falls inactive or fails, Vandree should be ready to take up the reigns while Tinnerai goes to the bottom and reorganizes it's self for the climb again. Then like wise for Qos'Yutsu should the same happen with Vandree.

House order should not be decided by "Who's house is bigger". It should be decided who's contributing most to the City. Some good details I would refer you to DustSpray's post. As I full support those methods as possible plots you should be considering.

I've always believed that the to get on the Matron's Council the members have to agree to a set of rules of governance. Sorta like laws of how Matrons should conduct them selves and there houses affairs. Sorta that being the price that has to be paid to be given the title of Noble Matron. It be like rules such as:


It's like list of 10 commandments that all matrons have to abide by or they no longer can be considered noble houses of Edonil. But the key point is that matrons of council must understand that by having gudielines to follow we'll be able to generate a graceful system of deciding power ICly, rather then House Member Count, and Levels.

That crap of attacking other houses beacuse one matron don't wanna get along with others has to be set now as UNACCEPTABLE rp. Thats what I'd like to see from our 1st Matron.

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-Ryoko
I’ve been playing at a new fun sever!

https://theaccursedisland.enjin.com/mobile

Fixed.


Now on a more relevant note, just remember that being active is far more important than how many people are in your house.
While having a lot of people to be there and help the RP is really helpfull it isn't required and in fact showing that you are involved and doing interesting things even when there are few of you will tend to attract other players.

My first and last faction leading experience was with the Tinnerai so I do not envy your position, P Three. I commend your asking for help, but I encourage you to not just buy too into what others tell you and to take what they say and put your own creative twist on it. As a faction leader and especially First Matron, it is (sadly or awesomely) your job to keep the "lesser folk" entertained or all they will do is have time to plot your demise. It will require creativity, and if all you do is copy these ideas then eventually they will run out and you will have to think of some yourself..! ..and people will see you for the fraud you are!

Oh and don't be nervous about falling. If you fall, you fall. I don't think it means you failed as a First Matron OOCly. I think Galenson has a point (though he took it a bit far) that the ranking system can torment people's minds and RP. I think whatever happens means that's where the RP went (and I commend you if you can roll with the punches). I think that you can be a great matron and a great drow and being that can make people want to knock you from First House (or anything) because you scare them or intimidate them or challenge their power. Don't let House members OOCly harass you about House placement. What others are saying is right: being active, having goals and encouraging shmevul drow RP is the most important part. Your rank in the city is not necessarily equivalent to your rank as a ballin' drow woman.

Hmm. I don't know how I feel about those Matron "commandments," but that's not really what this topic is about, so I'll let 'em pass by for now. Good luck with it all and if you have specific questions, shoot me a PM! I'm always ears and I've been around as long as most of 'em.

There are just a few issues I'd like to address.

1.) Being 30 doesn't matter a flip for a matron. Bree spent most of her time sub-ECL30. She started Tinnerai before she was even epic. So being max-level has absolutely nothing to do with how you can perform RP'ly as a matron character. If you allow yourself to feel that way, then you're cheapening your experience and cheating yourself out of a lot of opportunity.

2.) Recruiting is hard. It was probably the hardest thing about running a faction for me. So, I made everyone else do it. Being a faction leader is about playing to the people in your faction's strengths. If someone else has a character that's a social butterfly, use that to your advantage.

That's all I've really got to help you with now. Sorry, if it's not much... but I'm kinda skittish about giving tips on running factions.

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"I once took the high road and it took me straight to hell and I stood there all by myself." -Hank III

// whateves Bree, I ran your faction for you and I got witnesses.

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-Ryoko
I’ve been playing at a new fun sever!

https://theaccursedisland.enjin.com/mobile

Flames the hell out of my thread. I don't care what anyone did in the past, you aren't doing it now, and I don't have any reason to give a damn who ran the faction (or didn't) when I wasn't even playing.

let's stay on topic. I.e., how to not lose the faction NOW without having to resort to tactics I don't like and don't feel are appropriate.

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Aly'dra Zau'ana: Priestessish Of Eilistraee
Danika Nefzen: Druid of the Earthmother
Delia Am'Anodel: Paladin of Torm

I think there was a lot of good information listed here for you May. Now it really is up to you to make the faction your own. When it comes to guild leading there are those who simply have a talent for it and those that don't. The evaluation must come from with in yourself as to if you have the time, the dedication, to make Tinnerai Successful or not.

ICly you'll be judged for your actions by your drow character peers. All eyes are on you now. If that is something your uncomfortable with? Then you may consider that your accentuation to first house was timed wrongly, maybe you should yield to someone who has more thirst for this stuff.

History of those who successful ran Tinnerai faction in the past is a good source of ideas to pull on. There's no shame in reintroducing predecessor's past success with your own spin on it.

As to the flame comments. I don't think anyone's flamed you at all on this thread. There is genie concern for you and your faction. Those who have experience are the ones you should take into account. However I've always been a fan of do it your self kind of attudied. It's always been a defining characteristic of myself that those of Ultaranna leadership had come to respect.

(As for bree i was just jerkin your chain as you do tend to take a lot credit for my work in the past when it comes Tinnerai. Though that is teasing beyond anything else.)

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-Ryoko
I’ve been playing at a new fun sever!

https://theaccursedisland.enjin.com/mobile