AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic - Underdark PlayerBase----> We need you.

Greetings to all of you, I wanted to make a thread about the concern of the underdark situation. The //Evil// characters from the underdark are only fewer to fewer. Since more than three weeks, there are only few ud characters playing actively, around 6 to 7 of them. I do understand that some players are busy in RL and some play them as alt sometimes when they feel of it... I play Emy'Lyaneska Qos'Yutsu, Matron of an noble drow house from edonil and I made this character my main. I must say, I feel quite sad to see this situation.
The underdark is not only a settlement for drows... It was built to create dark schemes with Drows, Orogs, Svirfs, Duergars.
Whatever the Underdark race you play, you are fairly welcome to meet me In Character, there is alot of Dancers on the surface, I give props to those players for the love and addication they put. I see you all

Let's try to peep back our UD.
I force nobody ,of course, heh, not even myself, but it would be sincerely great to play with more players in ud.

I personally call players who are interrested to make new characters, or only those who played ud characters...

Drows , Orogs, Duergars, Svirfs, Kobolds, Goblins, Hobgoblins ... you are welcome!!!!
There are drow houses also waiting for you

//Edit for more Races (Hobgoblins, Kobolds and Goblins)

Last edited by maglorine on Mon, Oct 22 2012, 1:04 AM, edited 1 time in total.

I'm around quite often on Kizgin. He belongs to a UD subrace you haven't mentioned however. Shadow Elf. He'd be happy to harrass, insult, and otherwise malign you Drow and make your lives miserable. If you'd have him.

Edit: PM'd info

What is your timezone and schedule?

I used to have my fair share of UD characters.

My suggestion, if the UD population is slipping-- Instead of keeping in the UD and trying to find roleplay where there are a shortage of players, try to push the UD folks up and interacting with the surface.

I'd love to see a heightened evil drow presence on the surface, pushing conflict and schemes. And if you're trying to advertise awesomeness, what better way than to involve crowds (that you wouldn't have otherwise) in stellar RP.

Again, I haven't poked my head down in the UD for some time, so I don't know if you're trying to do these things already. Just seems logical to me though. You might be able to attract a few more players with these sorts of forum posts, but I think you'll retain them easier by having them interact with other players: UD -and- surface.

A heightened evil drow presence on the surface would be great. I liked when it was going on a bit before. The problem, though, is when it simply becomes PvP attack after PvP attack. Give it some flavor, some reasoning, go after key individuals instead of randoms...do something to make it interesting.

Target Cilessa, don't want her creating new magics for the filthy surfacers!

>.> some of us... have.. a target or two... on the surface, not just in the UD... it takes the patience of a spider though... and 6 or 7? average 5 are d'Vilrath

If we get over the hurdle that all Underdark races despise each other and purposefully stop segregating ourselves it'd be a different story.

Its why I still vote three years on that all the racial areas should be removed from L'Obsul and that there should only be one central portal node instead of four. (Designer team *hint hint* *nudge nudge*)

DerkDerkistan wrote:

A heightened evil drow presence on the surface would be great.

You have to focus on promoting the home front before considering going elsewhere. There's an Underdark we need to utilise; its better then the surface anyway.

I'm working on it!

I'd agree, the easiest way to fix this will always be to produce some kick ass rp for all to see instead of holing up in Edonil or tackling it OOCly. And as for any changes, come give us a hand in game then, Galenson!

Also, I'd like to apologise for my absence, my computer blew up and I'm too poor to fix it and can't figure out how to install NWN on Ubuntu.

Galenson wrote:

You have to focus on promoting the home front before considering going elsewhere. There's an Underdark we need to utilise; its better then the surface anyway.

If the RP is good enough on the surface, you might lure a few players down below. That's the way I see it.

Last edited by RaveN on Mon, Oct 22 2012, 13:37 PM, edited 1 time in total.

DerkDerkistan wrote:

Galenson wrote:

You have to focus on promoting the home front before considering going elsewhere. There's an Underdark we need to utilise; its better then the surface anyway.

If the RP is good enough on the surface, you might lure a few players down below. That's the way I see it.

Definitely felt like good RP in those days. I haven't seen any UD drow in ages. Amia's population seems to have turned so lenient towards drow because it's almost safe to assume all of the ones on the surface are Eilllistraeen, or some other shrine member. (And apparently that makes them okay and safe!) It was nice have Mel/Qirlan around. Now I suspect not even many people would try to kick an UD drow off the surface.

This is not meant as a jab, it's merely what's happened in my eyes, fwiw. I could be wrong, though.

Needled247 wrote:

I could be wrong, though.

You're not wrong. (IMHO, of course.)

What better way to advertise than to have presentations of force!

I don't think this is a thread to suggest why the Underdark's seeing a current lull, and I'm happy to see that no one's hitting that chord.

I'm all for seeing an increase in evil presence, though. If you didn't catch the drift of a few surfacer players, I think they're basically asking you to come up and stir up trouble (Neat, scheming, thoughtful trouble, of course!) Players want conflict!

I've been watching UD for a while now. Even I don't understand why it waxes and wanes. I always assumed it was RL issues and Alt-itis at work.

Also, I play Kobolds. :twisted:

I pretty muched stopped playing my UD characters all together when I found that if you play your race in a way that follows lore you tend to get players whining and DM's complaining. It is one of the reasons why I rarely log into Amia anymore. After lore and rp became less important than who won the pvp when it came to things getting done in the game I lost interest.

All my elves are staunch racists and get called evil for being racists.

I had great fun with my Shevarashian, for the time I played her, dealing with all kinds of drow who dared to show themselves - Lolthite or not. Those dirty drow need to learn their place and get some respect, or something.

Needled247 wrote:

I haven't seen any UD drow in ages. Amia's population seems to have turned so lenient towards drow because it's almost safe to assume all of the ones on the surface are Eilllistraeen, or some other shrine member.

Shhhh! My Lolthie loved that people assumed she was good. Especially despite the fact that she didn't act like an Eilistraen :3

In my defense (or lack thereof) I've had waning interesting in Amia. But that's only cause I was on a Battlefield 3 kick for a bit XD Plus lack of people online in the UD makes me not want to be there anyways haha.

It's not RL activities and it's not alt-itis. There are several players that draw activity for the UD, and now that every single one of them are Rp'ing in the shrine or moved to other toons you have dead space.

I look at the UD as a vacuum where everyone is going their own direction with entirely too much space and absolutely no direction. The problem is then compounded when one individual shows some direction and is then ostracized for having too much power. It's only at these times when DM's suddenly seem to notice something going on and rush in to arbitrate the ensuing frustrated PvP and let the previous, DC'less months of RP blow away in the wind. To say it hasn't been frustrating would be an understatement, but it's caused the long time proponents of the UD to come to the conclusion that it's just not worth the effort and go elsewhere for RP.

All that is not to say that its not laudable for engendering more activity in the UD, but as a long time observer, until the current dynamic changes, I don't see much but the current cycle repeating endlessly.

Neither Eddie nor Obsidian are UD characters, but one of them is particulary interested meeting with evil drows. Not the goody-good Cordor ones. The true drows. Alas, no luck yet. (my fault, though, as Underdark is a place I do not walk often. Which I would like to change, given the chance).

Thumb up to more UD characters. Definately a step the right way.

Best way for it to change is to get on and keep up activity. When I took up Edonil as my main squeeze for DMing it was made clear to me by our Drow folks that they wanted to self govern themselves. I happily obliged as it was fun when I was a part of that sort of system in Bendir Dale. If you guys would like a more active DM hand in the town, that is fine too.

Otherwise to clarify the direction of things without giving any spoilers for what is in the works:

•The most recent direction of Edonil has been its getting more involved with Silent's plot line. Part of this has entailed the calling forth of a formerly vanquished foe. (See City of Webs thread in the UD sub-forum for more details!) Otherwise the city leadership underwent a bit of an overhaul before the last state of dormancy. Should be fun to see where that goes!

•Underport still teams with unexplored mystery and motives...

•L'Obsul is ever expanding and becoming a more lucrative trade hub!

There are many places to find direction and get involved!

At this particular point in time I -may- be open to hearing a good spiel as to why I should create an Underling.

Well I have UD alts but obviously I can't play them right now because of the conflict with my Main.

-Real- Drow are simply AWESOME! Not those pansy Shriners either... I mean -real- drow the same type that had a blood bath at a council meeting last month

As one house, unsuccessfully, tried to take first house, while the two new houses the house making the unsuccessful bid helped bring in, turned on it for not winning the bid.... you will -never- see drow RP like that on the surface, it's none of the rivvil srow's business. It's also creativity though, conflict does not mean PvP. At the aforementioned council meeting the Ilharess of the Third house told the Ilharess of the second house "don't get comfortable there." That leaves the door wide open for a whole lot of things to happen... and it is.

Some of us in the UD though, try very hard not to over do it down there, the loneliness of being only on a UD character can be daunting. D'Vilrath spends average of 1-2 hours a day between RP or just exploring together, some of them are on more than that, but that's the amount of time we try to spend as a house. Also, there's a couple of us with low level drow of various abilities to help those new to the house/UD/drow learn their way around. To be pretty honest, I tend to discourage overexposure to the UD, it's difficult down there, people get burnt out fast or end up wandering to places they 'trained' on the surface to get XP and gold, eventually spending more time on the surface than in the UD... leaving the UD empty yet again, creating a viscous circle.

That's not to say we don't have plots that include the surface, we do... just you won't hear about them unless you join a house active in one... at least you shouldn't hear about them, not until it's put in action.

Been several months since I last logged in with my UD character (or into Amia, actually..). Couple things happened that made me lose interest, but I've been trying (to no avail) to find the inspiration to get back online.
There seems to be stuff going on these days, as opposed to the days where I was the only drow online in Amia-B for hours, so I might try to play again. Maybe.

It's good that things are picking up again though. For all their flaws, drow are still the coolest race around.

I'll just add that it seems that anytime a character/house gets outmanouvered they simply vanish. As if somehow folks think that just because the player is a nice person their drow is nice too??

Well, they are not. Lolthite Drow are underhanded, makes deals behind your back and all in an effort to look powerful for Lolth.

Bravo's right it's not RL or alt-itus that Nizzre'tyne hasn't been on. It's Fierene Havenstar being annoyed and frusterated...again....still....PM coming your way Dusty.

//edited to make this more generic.

My drow went where the grass is greener, I haven't vanished I just don't have as much time as I did over summer.

Fierene Havenstar wrote:

I'll just add that it seems that anytime a character/house gets outmanouvered they simply vanish. As if somehow folks think that just because I am a nice person my drow is nice too??

Well, she's not. She's underhanded, makes deals behind your back and all in an effort to look powerful for Lolth.

Bravo's right it's not RL or alt-itus that Nizzre'tyne hasn't been on. It's Fierene Havenstar being annoyed and frusterated...again....still....PM coming your way Dusty.

This whole thing makes me sadface

Someone else mentioned somewhere that it's annoying when you play your character by cannon lore and you get people hating on you for it. Why?! Drow are evil, underhanded, vile, and cruel. Come on, people!

Here are some key things to remember:

Drow are evil. Their players, however, are not.
Drow players are some of the coolest people on the server.
You have to separate the OOC from the IC. Just because you are friends (or friendly) with someone IC doesn't mean their character won't turn on you. The same goes both ways.
Don't get mad when someone does something IC that their character would do! It's nothing personal to you, it's how their character is reacting. I find this (intellectually, I have had no reason to bear heard feelings against anyone) to be the most difficult in drow society because of their awesometastic nature of being power-hungry.
To expand on the last point: Don't get mad, get even

The drow mentality is essentially alien to how we as players think. That's part of the fun, in my opinion. You have to wrap your mind around something so unlike your culture that you are acting wholly in a way that you would not act in your actual life. I mean, drow don't even love their families. Daughters lie in wait like a spider until their mothers become weak so they can kill them and take the power of their House for their own. They may like another drow, but they do not love them in the traditional sense we think of it (yes, I agree they love to a certain extent, but they will kill the other in an instant if it will further their goals). I will say that respect seems to be a more common theme in what holds things together in such situations (fear works, too).

Just a little bit for this humble drow player.

I'm around, but logging on for a few hours and being the only one on just sucks. I don't have much time to invest, so I'd like to spend it actually /RPing/. Not grinding or (gods help me) making potions. I can say that because of the inactivity, Irae is (ICly) looking to pack up and leave. The matrons haven't sent people to her, and there's been no response to wanting to look up her fled students.

I want to play, but when I'm stalled in a plot with a RL-busy Ainjyll (No, I'm not bitching, I get RL busy too, so I sympathise) or my repeated requests of "Hey, I want to do this, and I need a DM" aren't acknowledged, well...uh...I'm not seeing a real reason to invest what little time I /do/ have into a bunch of people that could give less of a damn, or feel like they could to me.

When I can do more than stand as queen of an empty Sorcere playground, someone ping me. Until then, I go where the RP is. I'm here for the RP. I'm not here to talk to myself, I do enough of that IRL.

Last edited by slkNihilus on Mon, Oct 22 2012, 22:27 PM, edited 1 time in total.

Not anymore and never plan to again, would be the first (admittedly very unhelpful and not very constructive) reply that comes to mind. I can, however, point to the post above my own and say "pretty much that" as it sums things up quite nicely.

As a Drow player, I very recently had my own PC move up to the surface. Not to become a Shriner, but instead to seek his own sort of twisted independence because of the fact that the UD has nothing in it going on right now. Alakton has just done what Irae is planning to do, he packed up and left, because I don't enjoy just mindless grinding. So, instead, you'll find me up on the surface, trying to be an antagonist when I possibly can be, or a distant helper if it helps my characters own agenda.

My main character since 2007 has been a UD drow, though I recently tried a surfacer but found that my concept required an uncomfortable amount of red tape and stifling to be viable. Sometimes I still try though.

There are a few things that have been frustrating me about playing my drow, aside from the limited number of players and the general lack of ambition.

One, forum roleplay. It seems to be going down (Though I’m not sure that roleplay in general isn’t going down), but I find it very distasteful to have 80% of IG decisions dictated by omnipotent faction leaders making posts of decisions and actions while what players are doing IG is mostly ignored, or requires more work to get the same end result.

Two, a general lack of understanding of consequences. I do play a character that falls into a lot of categories given her profession. She can be the end of another person’s existence in the underdark (Through some means of exile/exposure of heresy) and many times players take this personally and then I have to spend days playing OOC relations. I don’t want to ruin people’s fun, but you set out to and you played your character in a way that was blasphemous to a character that has a very strict ideal of the regime that is a puritanical Lolthite society. Not saying my character follows her own rules, but if you’re spying/undermining the society and get caught…That sucks! I as a person am sorry but my character isn't.

On another note, I don’t like how often people go OOC in the middle of IC. Case in point, a character makes an insulting joke; character and player #2 don’t get it and disagree with it. IC their rebuttal does nothing, so they go OOC “Well you’re still wrong anyways”. I don't feel that I need to be educated OOC for an intentional action IC.

And third… Drowglish. I recently tried to play again and got into some roleplay that I thought might be fun! Unfortunately, it was all in drowglish. I am a drow player who loathes drowglish, I feel that ranks in drow are sufficient and anything else bludgeons immersion brutally. Whenever someone overuses dos/usstan in their sentences, or any number of other excessive drow verbage it isn’t that I don’t understand it, because I do… But I instead read it as herp and derp.
Example case:
Usstan think dos are a wael lu' dosst qu'ellar is too
Derp think herp a derp herpety derp herp is too

I just can't stand it. We should already assume that our characters are speaking in drow.

I've enjoyed playing my drow for years, and for years before I came to Amia as well. I've had great times with a lot of the players posting on this thread like slknihilus, darkfaith, fierene, beciv and Travis. I find the current underdark to be very muddled and stagnant and when I log in I get a fairly overwhelming sense of "Meh".

As far as surface roleplay... I love it when people hate my drow for being a drow. I also love it when people accept her in spite of being a drow. I do like a balance though, so I always have something to work towards one way or the other. Sometimes, I want more hate (Raided the shrine, spread the plague). Sometimes, I want less hate and find an angle for that. I have never been a proponent of PvP over RP though.

Fierene Havenstar wrote:

I'll just add that it seems that anytime a character/house gets outmanouvered they simply vanish. As if somehow folks think that just because the player is a nice person their drow is nice too??

Well, they are not. Lolthite Drow are underhanded, makes deals behind your back and all in an effort to look powerful for Lolth.

//edited to make this more generic.

My first two statements are in general not directed at a specific player/character or house. It is my observation from waaaaaaay back when it was just Tinnerai and Ussen d'Vhid. Lets face it, Lolthite Drow are hard to play, people need breaks. Some players recover, some don't. This is not a criticism. It simply is.

My personal reason for not being on more with Nizzre have been sent to DustSpray. Although P Three and Midnight pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I'm doing my best to spark activity in the Underdark. I just ask for your patience as a playerbase.

My plan involves looking beyond the playpen so to speak.

The biggest problem I've noticed with the UD is that most houses, or people just sit behind closed doors all the time, and the city is more or less vacant. I realize it's probably not always like this, but every time I've tried to do something it seems to be this way. The solution, in my opinion, is to roleplay in the public, even if your best inclination is to go behind the closed faction doors. It stagnates the crap out of RP if you're always RP'ing with the same people and everyone else is in House 1, 2, etc.

Midnight wrote:

I just can't stand it. We should already assume that our characters are speaking in drow.

Haha I do this:

Drow-drow speaking in the UD: english, no [Drow] indicator
Drow-drow speaking around surfacers: english, with indicator
Drow-drow speaking to be heard by surfacers: accented english with drow mixed in

It's the easiest way to wrap my mind around it, and throwing in uncommonly known drow-words iritates my thinking lol

I don't get why people are irritated by drow tossing a few drow words into their speech. Have you guys spent any time around RL people who are speaking a RL second language? They do that *all the time.* I used to work a lot with Mexicans, and if I had a nickel for every time I heard the Spanish words for "yes/no" or "please/thank you" or "hello/goodbye" dropped into an otherwise fluently English conversation, I'd be a rich woman. Insults and swear words were especially popular.

As to the original topic: I'm in the same boat as several others have described. I've tried playing an Underdarker, found myself completely alone, and gave up. The single occasion on which my drow actually did run into a few other people in Edonil was great fun, but was outweighed by the couple dozen times I logged in and wandered around for an hour, looking for RP but finding only silence and boredom.

Lizzie wrote:

I don't get why people are irritated by drow tossing a few drow words into their speech.

When I play(ed) my drow(s), it was always with the big translator page windowed beside client!

I love that shit.

Lizzie wrote:

I don't get why people are irritated by drow tossing a few drow words into their speech. Have you guys spent any time around RL people who are speaking a RL second language? They do that *all the time.* I used to work a lot with Mexicans, and if I had a nickel for every time I heard the Spanish words for "yes/no" or "please/thank you" or "hello/goodbye" dropped into an otherwise fluently English conversation, I'd be a rich woman. Insults and swear words were especially popular.

The problem described isn't when people toss a "few drow words into their speech", but insteand when most of their sentence is made from those very words. I doubt anyone has an issue with the casual usage of the drow words for "hello", "goodbye", general cussing and titles. But when you replace every single word, it's downright annoying.
Also, I don't "do that all the time"

In fact, it's the other way around, sometimes I throw in the random english word in the middle of my portuguese sentences. But it's rare.

Midnight wrote:

Example case:
Usstan think dos are a wael lu' dosst qu'ellar is too

This is what some people find annoying. A drowglish halfbreed.

Dos phuul ichl dubo ulu qualla.

-Dark Faith- wrote:

Midnight wrote:

Example case:
Usstan think dos are a wael lu' dosst qu'ellar is too

This is what some people find annoying. A drowglish halfbreed.

Yeah, that's annoying, and not what I meant to defend.

What is annoying isn't a few drowish words , Lizzie. It's when fully half of your words in EVERY SENTENCE are drow. It's annoying and immersion-breaking.
At least, to me.

Naivatkal wrote:

Drow-drow speaking in the UD: english, no [Drow] indicator
Drow-drow speaking around surfacers: english, with indicator
Drow-drow speaking to be heard by surfacers: accented english with drow mixed in

I follow along this for the most part. I never cared for xas/nau/dos/usstan/bwael in place of yes/no/you/I/good when it's already established that our character are speaking Drow. There are some Drow terms I find exempt, however, and they are mostly terms of rank; ilharess, yathrin, and so forth don't bother me because they mean something specific - they're not just a 1:1 substitute. 'Yathrin' doesn't mean just any priestess, it specifically means a priestess of Lolth. 'Ilharess' isn't just any mother, or any female leader, it is the Matron Mother of a House.

One of the thing that wrangles my nuts, though, is bothering to use Drow terms and then using English pluralization on them. Like, omg, stick with one 'language' at least the same word. If you're going to use jaluk instead of man/male, then use jaluken instead of jaluks for men/males. The silly little Drow language things provide us with basic grammar rules, why not use them if the vocabulary is going to be used? I wish it didn't peeve me, because it's really pretty trivial, but it totally does. Haha.

I must say that as a player of a Lolthite priestess that managed to claim the first seat of Edonil in a rather short time, I've had TONS of fun. Some rp down there had been incredible and got me really hooked up. Yet at the same time I've experienced a lot of drama which seeped into ooc too right down to hateful tells. I understand, the evil drows' rp is competitive, but really ooc drama really burnt me out. Some rl things happened and I had to be away from inet and nwn, so when I returned, I chose to shelf Vierrae. I made a new UD pc and having fun with her, even if I am around less now. Most players in UD are mature and lots of fun to be around with if you keep in mind they are not their pcs.

Fierene Havenstar wrote:

Lets face it, Lolthite Drow are hard to play, people need breaks. Some players recover, some don't. This is not a criticism. It simply is. .

This is why I'm not down there 24/7, I love drow and started playing NWN multi-player on them, though I'd never played one before, it was a crash course into real RP.

Midnight wrote:

Example case:
Usstan think dos are a wael lu' dosst qu'ellar is too.

This is not so hard to translate... it could be all in drow, but it's not... I don't see the fuss with it as it's easy enough to follow "I think you are a fool and your house is too." It could look like this "Usstan talinth dos ph' natha wael lu' dosst que'llar zhah ulu." That is annoying there's no common references for those not immersed so deeply into the nuances of the race. I don't mind talking to people that know very little drow, and if I know, I'll temper how much I use, it's when words are horribly misused that I get annoyed. But, the use of the drow language is a common 'excuse' not to play one. When it's such a very small part of being drow... the language is -flavor- to the race, it's not absolutely necessary to learn the whole vocabulary, just the basics works well for most... and how to use the words properly.

Gotta say when I sat watching you roleplay ZoD I had like... zero idea what your drow was on about half of the time.

Silent2001 wrote:

Gotta say when I sat watching you roleplay ZoD I had like... zero idea what your drow was on about half of the time.

In my defense, I've been playing the nasty buggers for 8 years on NWN, though I only get really bad if someone annoys me. I do have a few friends that play drow, that are similarly adept at the language so we tend to use it more... like all things... it comes with practice and time, not saying I'm an expert at it, far from it, but like any language, the more you use it, the better you get.

..and Silent.... that's me rusty from not having used it very much in the last couple years.

I think it's more to do with me not having a grasp of the drow language beyond basic terminology, nor a desire to learn!

But the more you use it, the more conversations people don't understand.

When I first came into the Drow realm, I was really, really timid because of that. It might be a cheap excuse, but I was worried that I wouldn't know what ranks or words they were using, or show proper respect and get shat on because I didn't understand the culture, or what someone was saying.

The Drow realm is not an easy realm to get into. It just isn't. I've had people spout out sentences of Drow, and I've had to ask them in tells what that just meant. And it makes me feel stupid.

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