I disagree. Secretive is one rp...but wouldn't a good faction leader want it to be loud somewhere else as the secrecy is going down? Diversion rp can happen on a grand scale. This basically gives different types of rp's to different members. You could even have the intellectual ones investigate occurances on the isle. As leader you need to really get a feel for the players in your factions rp and try to find or create rp there going to have fun with. That is if they can't come up with it on there own heh or are bored and have no clue what to do...I know I've heard that one before

One thing I think a Faction Leader has to be IC'ly and maybe even a little ooc'ly is at least ambitious, I mean IC'ly their toon is where they want to be, there dream job, lol now what to do?

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Calypso (Lady Calypso, Caly)
Stormy Dawn (Ar'ellin'ah)
Kisuri'ou Yoru (Ryuko)

Favored Quote:
"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man." -Shakespeare

The last bit doesn't apply to Calin. He wasn't chosen or earned the place, he had it thrusted on him by others. He's just proven he deserves the place through his actions as the leader. He's not ambitious however, nor am I. I never wanted to be faction leader.

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I keels u with my axe!

"Do ye know where the Holy-Flamin' Frost-brand Gronk-slayin' Vorpal Hammer o' woundin' an' returnin' an' Shootin'-Lightnin'-out-yer-bum is?"

If you have no ambitions as faction leader, then what does your faction really do?

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Araxus Balmor
Gurth Balmor (retired)

A question that's wrapped up in the goals thing, and something I do ask myself all the time. I have given a few goals to the faction, but they aren't an over all goal.

The original goal of the War Knights when it was founded was to fight I believe. Just a grouping of people who liked to fight, or so I am told. Now I've tried to give it more direction by adding gods and religious goals, well I was hoping to. Turns out Tempus is pretty neutral towards all but a few things.

We hate slavery, so we attack slavers. We hate wonton murders and those who insult war and battle by playing with their enemies. We hate uneven wars also, though I've come to realise that only really applies when the Tempurains aren't the ones on the uneven side, kinda like any warrior.

But even so, no actual big goal. We just get involved in stuff at the moment and take requests from people to help in their goals. Though hopefully things may change in the next few months, been cooking up a few things I just remembered I was doing xD.

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I keels u with my axe!

"Do ye know where the Holy-Flamin' Frost-brand Gronk-slayin' Vorpal Hammer o' woundin' an' returnin' an' Shootin'-Lightnin'-out-yer-bum is?"

I can imagine why that would make it hard.

Is there some long term objective you can steer the faction to, that is consistent with the dogma? Without goals a faction kind of withers.

In the meantime, why don't you host tournaments? I know everyone and their brother does it, but the Tempusans should have the first claim on doing so.

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Araxus Balmor
Gurth Balmor (retired)

I think any faction with only a alignment requirement is always going to be easier to flourish on Amia because there are just too many factors that restrict the PCs (too many Gods for example). One of my characters often decides to try to recruit another PC who looks and acts up to par, only to find out that that character worships another god and cannot join. Big waste of time and effort.

I'm very attracted to the idea of factions that do not require the worship of a god.

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GM "Roll a new sheet, you died for blasphemy."
P1 "Was the comment he made that bad?"
*dice roll for chart*
GM "A Sun elf dry-humping the temple statue of Lloth during worship."
P1 "...so new character you say?"

I must have made a rather ambiguous point. My point was that if you join a secretive faction, such as the Harpers or the Night Masks and you begin selling faction information to buyers what exactly can the faction do to silence you? Not much. They can PVP you a couple dozen times until it gets pointless. That was my point. And the reason for my apprehension to join such factions, really.

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Agreed. It's not a "good guy" or "bad guy" thing. It's just the nature of the beast that's called a faction.

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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

If they are worth their weight, they should have had you under surveillance for months before you're invited and figured out where your family live.

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Some secretive factions have OOC promises that ensure that just such a PvP-fest like Silent mentioned doesn't happen. Be it capture and mindwipe or permadeath or whatever. Point being that such secretive factions have measures put in place to ensure that someone doesn't abuse the fact that permadeath isn't enforced on Amia to destroy the faction as a whole.

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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

Problem with that is people who don't want to accept those things, won't join the group. Even if it's a group they really really want to join. A friend of mine had this problem on one of his older char's.

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Jack Tesilent - Jack's Bio

Why should a player not want to accept a possible mindwipe?

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If my friend still played here I'd go ask him. It was along the lines of "I don't like giving someone else the option to perma-death / remove all knowledge my character has ever known". Control issues, mostly, but issues non-the-less.

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Jack Tesilent - Jack's Bio

And that's a player's choice. Do bear in mind that you have to be captured to have anything done to you. I like the idea because it gives some real excitement to the story instead of just "Oh, you killed me. Oh well, I'll just respawn and go about my way now, kthxbai."

There should be repercussions to a character's actions. Betraying your faction (whether intentionally or unintentionally) should be something that really carries some weight, not just something you can waltz away from scott free.

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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

I think the greatest problem of faction inactivity is that the playerbase is getting too spread out because each faction will not compromise anything on their part and wishes to dominate all around them. It is like little children never wishing to share toys and getting into fights with one another, so they sit in their rooms alone and get bored. That is why you got tons of factions with their own place somewhere in no wheres land. They grow inactive because their members move to the places that do have roleplay, as being alone is always an extreme down side.

That the Eternal Order moved to Nes'ek was my mistake because we had two active groups (Hoarites and Mulhorandi) in the area that quickly stopped being active, which I did not take to account that if it would happen, it meant the faction would be alone to provide it's own rp in more or less solitude. The portal from Wiltun is I think the only upside. That is a daily struggle and why so many members visit on amia a and spent most of their time there. The Eternal Order is also a key example for a faction which can not get along easily with others. It should have done more compromises, not specifically in faith matters but in interaction, and I personally regret I did not do a hell of a lot more of that. Somehow I always managed to have the faction rather active, but the work was so tiresome as you need to make up as a faction leader which could easily be given by having players from outside the faction around.

If you look at major cities in the Forgotten Realms they have different faiths, orders, academies and all those things. The dawn guard faction profits enormously from being in Cordor. Can they do all they want with the law restrictions? No. They can not just kill a necromancer in the city. But the diversity is surely great fun when in reason. My suggestion would be to instead spread out every faction further, to try to bring them back together so they can profit from one another. Leave most of the towns like Thordstein or Endir's Point for npcs, adventuring and mabey the one or two strays who rent a home to get away from it all. Then decide which towns you want to have as stronger rp hot spots and promote rp there with events and making an atmosphere that is less excluding of other more like minded factions which could join.

The Velsharoonites, Red Wizards and Banites in Tarkuul who just need to understand little compromises in ego and power will give them far more power which can feed their ego. Tarkuul as a whole should move to amia b then too. I doubt there will be no roleplay for them or that they will remain as vulnerable. The Shadowflames should perhaps go to Cordor, being pretty much a one man faction with members who rather stay on amia a. That does not mean all need to share a place with others, but if more did it would be a lot better. And if new factions would go somewhere, have them go near another faction.

Amia A Hotspots: Bendir Dale/Amia Forest, Winya Ravana, Shrine, Cordor, Kohlingen
Amia B Hotspots: Wiltun, Tower of Mystra, Caraigh, Brogendenstein, Tarkuul

Cordor would actually be a horrible place for the Shadowflames to set up an open faction, btw.

Because, you know...they're nobility?

Well, perhaps then that example was a bad idea, but you get the general idea of what I meant I think.

I do.

Fixed your error there. The problem with the Tarkuul example however is what that other thread about evil people has stated several times: They do not get along. Also since the (majority, I believe) of the Velsharan Church was banned from Tarkuul it is obvius that they get spread out more, even if the Velsharan Church really isn't an official faction. Of course it was due to varius actions which took place ingame which I do not need to go into detail with, but it's a little funny that the Temple of Velsharoon remains in Tarkuul when the followers of Velsharoon gets banned, atleast in my oppinion.

Why specialize an isle devoted to necromancy in a fashion so that there is no possibility for the Velsharrens to be there to be able to enjoy the roleplay they like? To narrow the possibility of rp taking place there is just silly in my eyes. So the questions becomes can Tarkuul be altered to support such a faction if that said faction is also ready to compromise on a few issues so that being in Tarkuul can work out.

Clearly raising such havoc the rest of amia does everything to reject you like a failed organ donation is not a smart move. So perhaps Tarkuul could give more ways for them to actually perform their rituals and evil doings, as long as your faction understands that it can not have things get out of hand and perhaps should lay low for a while if too much attention arises. Perhaps kidnapping a publicly beloved person to experiment on is not as smart getting an orphan girl that less people know.

But I am not sure what the exact problem is as I did never roleplay in Tarkuul too long, so I am just assuming here. It just feel it is counter-productive to have everyone so separated.

On the 'other' hand - A faction trying to do everything, and please everybody, Quickly falls on itself.
Narrowing down it's focus is greatly benefiting for a faction.

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Not nescessarily, a faction can have many many interests and still remain viable.

The place where factions on Amia fall down is when alt-itis turns into alt-faction-itis and players have their hands in far to many cookie jars to the point they can't help but meta-game themselves.

Thats the reason I wish Amia had a one faction rule.

Alt-itis of itself isn't hurting the factions, its the players involved in numerous factions that are hurting the factions.

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I play: Gage le Gris
Socially and recently politically Inept Knight of Xymor

@ Svensk - Not speaking about pleasing everybody, heh. There are also different kinds of faction. But compromise on some issues does not mean you need to bend over backwards for everyone. You know me well enough to know I would never suggest such a thing. ;D


@ Mosh - Yea, and I agree to an extend. The alt character situation is something I thought about for quite some time, but I do not really have a suggestion how to handle that because I feel that restricting players to only one faction may be kind of harsh (or rather suggesting that the team does so). I will take Opustus as an example here, as I am sure he will not mind. He plays an EO member and he plays a subject of my character Robert (while the second is not a faction, or it is one but very small). There is no conflict there and it does not truly hurt either groups that the other character exists, as he just needs a break from the eternal order roleplay some time and do something more relaxed and vice versa. So I believe for him it would be unfair. But it is true that some cases can.

I personally seized playing alt characters in opposing factions a very long time ago as you are bound to change the behavior of your character due to ooc reasons. Either because you unknowingly come to a decision that you would not have with only one sided knowledge, or in my case think you need to dumb your character down somewhat in order to be certain you do not metagame, which is a strong ooc influence on the character that I hate. Not to mention alone to remove the potential for it makes sure that there are no ooc problems of fellow players thinking that you perhaps did so.

I didn't say anything about alt characters. I expressly said Alt-factions. I only have one factioned character at the moment and thats Thond my Mystran whose more there for laughs and giggles rather than any serious factional decisions. He's not even my main.

Tauronemhet isn't in a faction, yet somehow he ended up being what amounts to a constable in Djedet. You can have considerable sway on Amia without having to Join 5 factions on five different players.

Opustus is actually one of those that I consider a good example of Alt-faction-itis.

He has his Dwarf in a position of power in Barak Runedar, along with Herra's dwarf. Both of whom have considerable sway in the Eternal Order. Effectively there can be zero conflict RP between Barak Runedar and the Eternal Order because of this, which lessens the appeal in engaging either of those factions. As Robert of Carais continues to RP, interestingly enough you have Silv there aswell who also holds a position of power in the EO, Opustus gains a foothold in Kohlingen (although I don't know if you still rp there, having not been ingame for quite awhile).

So effectively you now have Kohlingen, Barak Runedar and Khem covered by one player with supporting acts from two other players. I am not accusing Opustus of anything either since I know how he rolls, but you can see the point I'm making. One player linked to three different good cities and because of how personalities work they all have similar bleed-over.

I'll also point out that Roberts Retinue is an extension of the buddy group RP insta-faction. I found the RP far less exploratory, and more about the predestination of one character with supporting rolls from the Retinue. I was involved but, and to put it plainly, I got tired of one player directing my RP so I let him linger and fade. I prefer Ensemble casts than a Leading Man. Not a flame, some people may enjoy the backseat but I play to be creative, not for someone to create it for me.

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I play: Gage le Gris
Socially and recently politically Inept Knight of Xymor

True, dat. But as my defence, I've thought the whole thing out thoroughly. I've never intended to get any 'foothold' for Robert's subject: He'd be too big an idiot to run any errands on his own or even to manage living in a city by himself. I feel in no way bogged down with the character and if it gets problematic, I'll stop playing him.

The only person affected by my stupidity is me. I already play way too rarely, and sticking my spoon into so many soups will eventually get me killed. So people, as my word of advice: Even though you had all the time in the world, and even if you succeeded to take out all the risk factors included, it will still be an arse for you to be involved with more than one faction.

I personally don't care about the character itself though, they can be burned and stomped, for all I care. It's the faction I feel obliged to be a part of. I think it's about feeling as you'd let someone down, if you left the faction, but the game is all about you. Do what makes you happy as long as it doesn't harm other people or violate the rules of the server (don't take that as a maxim, but it's a game, and to me games are all about fun). If you truly want to be a part of improving and invigorating the faction's RP, please, place all your focus onto one. Being in the faction is a bit purposeless, if you have no time to affect and develop it. I'll go sobcut myself now.

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UCE THIS, YOU COW.

Well, The Velsharan where banned when i was in charge due to experimenting on people, which is completely and utterly retarded and stupid. So, honestly, i want nothing to do with that Place. Ever. Unless it involves destroying it.

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Khaldun Menetnashte Khalfani
Victor Wilkinson

^totally not a lie or anything.

Mitro, be useful to the EO.

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Gagis Silvarna, the Robocop with wings who shoots lasers from his fingertips
Lily Havthorn, the Waukeenar
Silwe, the elf

Not really, think about it. If your the living city, and you have enough heat from using undead, why would you want to gain the ire of other groups by adding kidnapping, slavery and unethical experimentation to the list of things that will cause people to get pissed off?

Currently you have a so-so relationship with other groups, they leave you alone, you leave them alone, with the obvious exception of the EO. When thats broken by a group who refuses to listen to you, then it's time for the Le boot, or you'll suddenly have more enemies then a lycan has flea's. The living city hasn't survived as it is for so long by letting people do stupid things and bring it into fights it didn't ask for.

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I keels u with my axe!

"Do ye know where the Holy-Flamin' Frost-brand Gronk-slayin' Vorpal Hammer o' woundin' an' returnin' an' Shootin'-Lightnin'-out-yer-bum is?"

Tarkuul used to be the second most popular bindpoint in the module.

It's completely worthless now, unless you need to RP going to the library. It caters to an extremely narrow sliver of evil.

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Araxus Balmor
Gurth Balmor (retired)

@ Mosh - Hrm, sorry, misread your post as I read alt-characters not alt factions. Blame the small intoxication on my side. I will need to think about the alt-faction thing a tad. Its a valid concern I did never pay too much attention to.

On the topic of the buddy group RP insta-group (note not faction, because it is more like what you and Hendrack had in Djedet) I think happens rather quickly when there is a small group of people who enjoy like-minded roleplay. For instance Silvarus and Opustus are two players that I just extremely enjoy rping with as much as possible and who enjoy a similar theme/style like I do.

People who have simmilar taste in rp will just crowd in somewhat of a clique after time as they provide what the others are looking for. That hardly means they should avoid others, which would be sad as I just recently met a ton of people who I never really rped with before and greatly enjoy doing so with, and so only staying in your clique is a bad idea. But I think it is rather natural that it occurs. Pretty much it is not different than your ooc post of the Guardians of Skuld, where you seek like minded players to enjoy your idea. Instead of seeking them on the forum I just know a few people already, which does not mean others could not join but it is less promoted on the forum.


No offense taken. The roleplay you described in the "Robert Retuine" I think occurs in highly hierarchical structured groups by default which this clearly is. There are more boundaries on what you can and can not do if you wish to remain within that group like that, than in one that is less organized, especially if much of it is pre-drafted. But if like for you it is not enjoyable as you feel restricted in your creativity then it's a pity as you are a great rper who it is a lot of fun to interact with, but you should play that which you enjoy more like you have done and smack the person who would hold that against you. But I think that is pretty off-topic now as it is more or less a rp theme that does not really have to do with faction activity/inactivity.

No it doesn't, and no it isn't. I would appreciate if you stopped propagating this untrue bit around the forums. There was a time when you did stuff around Tarkuul as well, you know. You can always come back and work to bringing back the stuff you want. It is there and always has been. That you don't want to because of a personal perception that you have is ultimately your choice, but please don't spread that perception around as if it's fact, because it has the side effect of influencing people to not bother with it as well, which only fuels the little catch 22 that a lot of places and things that happen on Amia have.

Speaking as the DM who tends to run Tarkuul and tries to espouse activity, it's really disappointing to see posts like this because they tend to scare off players who might be interested in RPing there. I don't make comments like "The Banites cater to an extremely narrow sliver of evil" or "the Horsemen cater to an extremely narrow sliver of evil" or "The kelemvorites cater to an extremely narrow sliver of ev-neutral" or "the monolith caters to an extremely narrow sliver of good aligned wizards who worship mystra" or etc, etc. The comparisons are exaggerated on purpose (and not true, as well) to show my point: That it's a mistaken perception.

n.b it was never the second most popular bindpoint in the module. Ever. Cordor's sections hold that, followed by Amia Forest, and always has been. Take it from the guy who has the ability to look at the stats. Skull Crags, the little bind by the Trolls, has aways been immensely popular as well, and as soon as the old brog mushroon later crystal) was added, it immediately became one of the most popular bindpoints, too.



This is also not what happened at all, and I am a bit surprised it gets sold like this on the forums, especially because it was the same thing that happened, both to you and Nathano. When you talk openly inside Tarkuul, ith the Voice that is publicly omnipresent, about destroying that city and taking it over, in talk channel, with PCs and NPCs around, and the DM playing the Voice watching (ICly this denotes a "focus" on tat area at the time), then it doesn't take a giant leap of logic to go to "oh, he wants to kill me... best remove him." And that is why Nathano's crew was removed from the city for the second time. For the first time he was attmepting to murder citizens of tarkuul and so earned a healthy ban for that too ICly. Can't imagine anyone wants a bunch of people trying to murder their ctiizens about.

MAthan had a great thing going until the above occured for the third time along with some other details that were revealed (and later proven) by PCs. And so Mathan was removed from the city, and that was the third time.

All you have to do is not talk about these things out loud on tarkuul soil, you know. Talk about how you want to blow the place all you want, just don't do it in the place that's proven time and again that the city itself is a bit like an NPC more than a static collection of buildings. I would have appreciated you actually talking to me or another DM along with Nathano, instead of simply making these insulting posts on the forums. These things could have been cleared up quite quickly, so it's a bit upsetting to see you hold what looks a lot like a grudge over it when I bet it could have been cleared up in about 3 PMs.



If your neighbor helps you build a house, but later you find out that your neighbor's been shagging your wife, do you demolish the house? Nah, you dela with the neighbor in an argument and probably divorce your wife, but you keep the house. Same deal here. Why demolish a very nice perfectly built temple just because a few of the people inside it were bad eggs? Waste of resources.

Again, it is not "follower sof Velsharoon" but specifically "Nathano's Cult of velsharoon". It's an important distinction and one that played to Mathan's advantage when he made his attempt. Unforunately due to other Tarukuulian PCs it was foiled, but that is how it occurs sometimes.

I hope that clears up a bit about Tarkuul. There is quite a bit to it, you know: To not have more and interesting things there is a waste of the fact that it is a surviving Netherese city.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

Well, Mathan -never- spoke about wanting to destroy Tarkuul, either in Tarkuul or not, so unless you're admitting to Metagaming, i would not accuse me of that. The only thing Mathan did of significance was stand about in the Temple of Velsharoon, doing nothing, because no one ever goes there, and the one time i did do something which involved experimenting on a PC, i got banned. That is what happened, nothing less nothing more. And that is a garenteed fact.

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Khaldun Menetnashte Khalfani
Victor Wilkinson

^totally not a lie or anything.

Nopes.... more to it than that. As I said, there were PCs involved, and it was by their actions. I only reacted in character as the environment to the hings they did. Again, this is probably more suitable as a PM or an MSN discussion if you'd like to discuss it, if only to not sidetrack the entire topic with it.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

Huh? It has? Why's that?

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Main thoroughfare into the crags, eays access to trolls, just a handy spot to have, I guess. Lots of people take it.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

Dunno. I count Triumvir as the best one.

1 Bind for 5 Locations. Its' Win

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I have a question though, Tormak. I hope it is not way too ooc about an ic matter, but would Tarkuul care if for instance the Velsharrens would for instance experiment on unknown subjects every now and again? With that I mean characters who are not known enough/ popular enough to stir interest in the adventurers to population to seek out.

@Tormak (not quoting the textblock)

I don't have access to the bindpoint stats, but Semidi did tell me that once. I have no reason to think he would lie about it. It was amazingly popular at that time (this was back in the mushroom days).

What I do know is, the city used to be a thriving, active community, a focal point for evil (heterogeneous as it is) in the module. It used to actively involve itself in the affairs of Amia and provide some notion of a threat. That was when I stuffed around there, and when my PC was proud to serve the city in various capacities.

Now it holds classes and provides a venue for a specific type of research. It's a well guarded library. I can't tell you how many players have lamented the change to me.

The council went from 7 or 8 active players to whatever it is now. One? Zero? And whatever reasons you want to give for that happening (I know there are several), it's reflective of the RP in the city as a whole.

Tarkuul has become too exclusive. I know you wanted to make it cater to necros and nothing else, but in the process it has become virtually unpopulated. And I think this hitches in directly with Phearnun's earlier point.

I know the history. I know why Tark founded it. The DM who created it didn't use that history to limited how the city functions in the here and now, and you don't need to either.

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Araxus Balmor
Gurth Balmor (retired)

A funny irony, I used to play a Loviatarian Monk in Tarkuul. She'd still live there but I haven't played her in a damn long time as I haven't had the impetus too.

Additionally, i had another character whom I will not go into who resided there, but is there no longer for varying reasons.

Neither were Necros. Evil can exist there reasonably well, you just need to respect the City's relatively simple laws.

>.<;

Tarkuul, CAN be a citadel for evil if people played their cards right. It's a living, fricking, city. It likely has wants, or needs. *Okay, so it might not be simple as getting a city-sized back scratcher and scratching the spots it can't reach, but STILL... *

I never said non-necro evil can't go there. But as you just confirmed, they have no reason to.

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Araxus Balmor
Gurth Balmor (retired)

There are reasons why a certain few non-necro evil guys should go there, for example, demonologist's, and another thing which i will not say due to fear of Metagaming :c

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Khaldun Menetnashte Khalfani
Victor Wilkinson

^totally not a lie or anything.

Actually my Monk (outside of other reasons) had MORE Then ample reason to go there.

It's a place she could practice her faith without persecution and being hunted.

Absolutely not. The character in this instances was an Eternal Order member.... and the instant they were found out, declarations of war were immediately levied against the city. This was, iirc, just after the Banite Castle was taken down. So in the interest of not being destroyed itself, politics happened. There was supposed to be IC follow up but it seems the player left. I am sorry for lifting the curtain a bit, but yes, that's why it happened. Tarkuul prized its own survival over the work of a priest and expelled him. This reason, and also the many things PCs did to court the city's favor, and bring to light what Mathan was doing. There were ways this could have ben avoided, yup.



I was there too as a PC, you know. I know the history, both what has been told to PCs.... and the great deal that has never been told to PCs, since not only was I there as a PC but I have been there as a DM, as well. The stuff you talk about is still there and it always has been, it's just that, like other things, people go "oh, no it's not" and just don't want to go back there. Maybe if they got more involved again, they would, by their own presence, denounce the preconceptions people have? After all, if you go "No one but necromancers goes there", and all the non-necromancers who would go there say "only necromancers go there", then none of them go there because they say no one goes there. I guess you see the kind of circle that runs around in.

My point is that yes, there was a brief period where the focus was on necromancers. And the city itself is always going to have a bit of an arcane bent and feel to it due to it being Netherese. But if you have been "burned" by Tarkuul in the past or felt excluded somehow, I honestly urge you to give it another try. The city is quite evil, very active in Amia (but needs PCs to be so, because it's not ... fully awesome ... yet!), and inclusive as long as yes, the simple rules are followed. And I say that to everyone, not just Gurth.

That "Brief period" was a very long time ago, though, and I have been trying to open it up ever since. But no one is willing to come back for the reasons I said above. You say the city "Used" to be active in politics. The thng is, it is always busy with politics, but like all cities, it needs people to go out and work for it. If it doesn't have people that can leave the island, since it can't, then it can't very well be completely active in politics. Again, it's a bit of a catch 22 there. Players say it's not active so they don't go there, but because there's few PCs it can't be very active.

In the end I just think players on Amia should give a lot of things in the server (and life in general maybe.) a second chance and go back into it with full gusto. There's no reaosn to ignore bits of the server because of stuff that happened several years ago. Can lways go back and try again. Things change very quickly on Amia just due to the nature of the game.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

The problem is that there's too many factions with similar ideals.

A smaller number of factions may solve the problem. However, I don't see this happening.

[edit] Basically I believe that a smaller concentration of factions with a larger playerbase that has strong DM presence in their day to day runnings (DMs have a much stronger presence for attracting attention then even the most popular players) may be more active. Its not to say that it'll work however... but if smaller, more numerous factions aren't working, it may well be worth a shot.

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Plays:

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

I'd like to have some DM assistance in reviving the factions. In the past we used to get some fellow just appearing from nowhere and there we go, a quest begins. Nowadays it's all about server-wide super-schnitzel quests that last for months RL time and no one can attend them all the way, if at all. And not to mention they start concentrating only on certain individuals who have only time on their hands and stand there 24/7, the rest, even if they were interested in participating, are forgotten. Not saying that is deliberate, though. Just sad.

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Characters:
Hunar Iroff, The red-bearded, grumpy dwarf with a bastard sword. Chair of Military Issues
Daren Sten, High Inquisitor of the Eternal Order of Kelemvor on Amia

My personal experience: I have never had any problems with asking DM's for help with an own idea for a small plot. The reactions on such have always been very positive. If a DM is even required. One can come up with nice little plots and quests, that do not even necessarily need DM assistance. More than once I have even witnessed that a DM actually was online when there was a small player plot going on and spotted it and then actually just played along and started to add little to it.

Also, I think the current plots are in fact very well picked. Nearly all factions can take part in those if they choose to do so.

So anyhow... inactivity can happen. Change of players, too much to do in real life, just not in the mood for some days, found a new game which is played for a few weeks...

My faction has days with just 1-2 people online... and then suddenly some other days there's 8 at once.

It's also often a matter of timing and timezones. Sometimes people are active and are just shattered all over the day so that only 1-2 are online the same time unless there is a planned big meeting.

I am not sure if this can be completely avoided really but as long as the inactivity doesn't get permanent I think a faction can survive a little time of occasional inactivity.

Summer time for example... many people go on holiday, sometimes over an extended period of time... same with christmas time.

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They're busy, we're Europeans.

Two major issues.

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Characters:
Hunar Iroff, The red-bearded, grumpy dwarf with a bastard sword. Chair of Military Issues
Daren Sten, High Inquisitor of the Eternal Order of Kelemvor on Amia

For faction activity...maybe less factions would help but the alt-faction issue would possibly make people really devote themselves to development of a char instead of trying to find the 'nifty' in 100 of them.

Player run plots are hard and there was a turning point that made me stop trying. When two paladins of Helm walked off ICly after my ranger was asking them for help for the church of Helm in Forstakker to do the NPC quests.

Reason?
The players found out OOCly that it wasn't a DM event and there weren't going to be DCs.

I kinda stopped after that. RP will come and be enjoyed as it goes or doesn't. Lots to do between the servers!

My main character is trying to create a factionish group of evildoers, one that does not require the worship of a god. I think it will be much more successful than others that are diety-based.

The problem is that there are 900 gods to worship, and it leaves each character with only a narrow range of involvement. That, and alts are a problem, as well as timezone issues.

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