I read the entire thread on the state of the server (I'm a masochist..) and decided not to really reply directly to it. I have expressed myself on that matter several times, but got ignored, so I don't see the point of copy pasting what I think is the major issues / solution. However, this made me think about an experience I've had in the past, long long ago, on a French speaking server I used to play on (Les Royaumes Insulaires). I thought I should share this story with you, as perhaps it could inspire and give ideas to people, or perhaps even bring back fond memories from a long long time ago..
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Lavim Marcheloin was a scimitar wielding weapon master hin who liked to collect scimitars (and would switch between them whenever he would go on fights), and to brag about feats that could or could not have been real achievements (such as claiming he had slain dragons multiple times before..). He was one of the main faces of the hin group on that server, was loved by all (or feared, depending on alignments, considering how incredible of a swordsman he actually was), and happened to be my character there.
One day, Lavim was solo roaming the plains north of one of the main cities, hoping to run into orcs so that he could make the place safer. That is when he noticed something shiny on the ground that wasn't there minutes ago. He grabbed the trinket and noticed a letter and a map were attached to it. It reads something along the lines of:
"Dear Lavim Marcheloin, I have heard tales of your dragon slaying adventures before, and how you almost single-handedly defeated The Hand* and more important have heard nothing but good things about your personality and love for your people. I, _________ (don't recall the name) would like to invite you to -my- birthday party! Your presence here would be my dearest wish."
And so Lavim went! It was in cave the hin had never been to before (which was odd!). There, Lavim met the fey character who invited him to his party. Sure, it was strange that only Lavim were invited to it, but the scimitar-wielder did not question it too much. Nor that, for some reason, the fey fellow put Lavim through three trials. One of wits, one of physical prowess, and one of compassion - all three of which he succeeded easily. Once the feats performed, the fey told Lavim what he really wanted of him...
As the fey was leading Lavim towards a large room in said cave, he explained that it was really his birthday, and that the reason he invited the hin here AND made him to go through these trials is because he thought he was the perfect man to... give him a present that few would be better suited to give him. He then told the guy a story about a talkative and abrassive hin that liked to get in trouble and to ... "borrow" certain things from other people. One day, that hin ended up trying to "borrow" from the wrong person, and ended up suffering a cruel fate for it.
When he arrived in the bigger room, a sword - a scimitar - was placed on a pedestal in the middle of it. That is when the fey introduced Lavim to "Elua", the talking ... or rather, shouting... scimitar. The fey had spent years (centuries even) hearing that Hin-Scimitar shout and yell, sitting in the middle of one of the biggest rooms of the fey's lair, and he could not bare any second of having to endure its presence any longer. The fey man offered the weapon master a new weapon.. and in accepting the sword, Lavim would take responsibility of the hin trapped in it, all-the-while providing the fey with the best birthday present he could ever provide him.
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That story is something that happened to me. A dm came, decided to gift Lavim that sword (which had stats a tiny bit better than what the best weapons were, yet nothing to break the balance). DMs could come by and make the sword talk, I could make the sword talk (I would use *Elua* and then write in capital letters and it would be Elua) whenever I wanted. Elua's personality and background was all the indications I was given, and I made this Elua sword an intricate / undeniable part of my character.
That event changed my character's gameplay forever. Here are some of the side-effects of this simple event that I -did not ask for- nor were expecting:
- The sword forced Lavim to get rid of his scimitar collection
- Lavim thus had to hold a large sale-event, in which he would find new owners to all of his old weapons (and my character was very attached to them, having named them all and such, so parting with them each was funny as hell as he would tell the new owners how to cater to every one of them (how to clean them, etc.)
)
- Some people started to distance themselves from Lavim for a while because they could not stand the rude shouting scimitar
- As a result, Lavim went on a quest to meet with enchanters to have himself a scabbard enchanted with silence scrolls
- Because Elua did not appreciate being silenced that way, eventually, Lavim had to get rid of that scabbard - in exchange for Elua to remain quiet more often and to be more respectful (this was the start of the amazing friendship relationship that was to come between him and that sword)
- Because putting Elua away in a scabbard was not a solution anymore, Lavim had to request in several cities the permission for going around with a weapon in hand rather than sheathed. Lavim was a diplomat and high representative of his faction (the leader, actually), so it was very important and led to some amazing RP
And there are other stories and stuff that happened too because of that sword, and most of all of those were player-initiated and dealt with accordingly via player interactions. That tiny little event where a DM decided to give Lavim that weapon has stemmed so much RP around that it was far more efficient than any of the large scale events he could have come up with. More important, it gave my character a purpose, and its player a reason to come back and play my Lavim - as a main character, without the need or interest to go on a side character.
I recall on that same server someone ended up losing an arm (solo dm event, not requested nor expected) -- so he became a rapier duelist (and he was pretty freaking awesome too). I also remember DMs going through players' backgrounds on the forum, and then create a NPC / mini event that would involve 1-2-3 or more uninvolved players with a named NPC they would find in a background - create something with those 2-3 characters.. and then have and the NPC confront the player the NPC was from with. This was awesome.
^That is what DMing is to me. I find large scale events are usually chaotic and uninteresting. Small isolated events that have
meaningful repercussions on the character's game-play, personality, roleplay is what events should be about. This is what gives players purpose, and interest in making a specific character something they go back to and don't tire themselves of. Main characters are the backbone of a server, in my opinion, and anything that helps creating more of them gives the server consistency and helps promote good lasting roleplay.
* As I mentioned before, I know how to powerbuild and did that on many servers in the past. While Saya is an exception, Lavim was not. Three other powerbuilds were part of an evil faction called "The Hand", and Lavim took down two of them at once when they invaded the major town Lavim was set to protect.. and when a third came to try and raise them, he took that guy down too. The remaining two (5 fingers, The Hand) had been handled by a group of players... thus Lavim earned the reputation of single-handedly having ended The Hand... and only became another one of those feats he would brag about :p
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