PC Loyalist/Privateers o.O

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Message: 10/41 Posted Author
PC Loyalist or Privateer Tue Feb 01 Cobalt
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Hello Darkwaterites.

Pink and I have decided to open limited openings for PC loyalists or privateers. These characters would likely be short term. However, they WILL count toward a changeling alt. So please keep 'news alts' in mind.

You will need to work closely with staff on your interactions with gentry, other NPC loyalists and/or privateers, and etc. Please be prepared to handle that!

If you are interested please page or @mail Pink and me.

Happy hunting!
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Just read that on the forum. My first thought was awesome! I want one too!
My second thought was, oh right! I wouldn't even begin to qualify because I live in completely the wrong timezone to be able to work closely with staff at all. Which is fair enough. (Sort of, I think).

Then I got to thinking on it a little more, and to be honest, I actually don't like this idea at all anymore.
I mean, the Hounds and other Court 'Tribunals' were banned from play because they caused too much hazard/upset/whatever. Which is stupid, IMO. But yeah, such is life. But now, this comes in and who's to say in a month's time that this isn't going to fall away too, because players are NOT going to like being targeted by other players?

Just the fact that whoever gets to play these characters is going to be taking up ALOT of staff time in order to navigate the game, rings like bad news to me. Unless of course, Staff plan on incorporating a specific Staff position, dedicated entirely to maintaining these PC's and keeping them in line. Which isn't mentioned in the post so I'm assuming, for the time being, that it's not going to happen anytime soon. Either that, or there needs to be another ST brought onto Staff to specifically handle Changeling plots, and not another Muse. Muses are great, and we're extremely lucky as a player base to have them because I know a lot of games that don't!

I think that staff should be focusing more on the PC's that are currently active in the game. Trying to involve more than the handful of regular players in plots and game stories, getting those more established first before throwing in a new element like this. Yeah, let's keep the NPC loyalists/privateers/gentry/monsters galore. Those are cool. I also think there needs to be more effort made to include characters who's players are NOT in an American Timezone, and who can't be awake at 1am in the morning to get in on the juicy plot stuff. Because I know I'm not the only one who's got a full time day job and can't be online during the evening hours in the US.

I think Tara raises some valid concerns. On one hand, I wouldn't mind having a few long-term privateers or loyalists on the grid; I think it could provide some exciting RP.

But, honestly, when we know that staff time is at a premium, then I too would rather see that time focused more on giving attention to existing PCs, especially those who don't usually get attention, rather than bringing in a whole new set of PCs which would explicitly require a large output of staff time and energy to make work.

i agree with both statements here. Sometimes it is fun to play the bad guy, but i feel it will just cause problems down the line. We have a problem right now with lack of unity with the Freehold, until we got that fixed i do not think we need to introduce badguy PC's.

Players have requested a push for more loyalists and privateers. This is the best option to allow staff to not be spending every waking moment playing an NPC. Think of these as not "PC Loyalists" but "temporary NPCs played by PCs".

Obviously I don't see the +job side of the coin, so don't know what players have or haven't requested. Just going by the other thread on this forum, I count a total of 4 players expressing an interest in more Privateer/Loyalist threats etc for storylines.
I don't think that alone can be counted as a 'push from players'.
Considering there are hundreds of approved characters, and lets say two thirds of those are alts, then you still have 30 actual players.
I'm NOT saying that privateers and loyalists are a bad thing. Not even a little bit. I just heavily disagree with them being played as active IC characters. Especially considering the spots are likely going to go to players who are already involved in various plots, and thereby taking EVEN MORE of Staff's time away from the smaller players who might also want a slice of the action as it were.

Tara wrote:

Especially considering the spots are likely going to go to players who are already involved in various plots, and thereby taking EVEN MORE of Staff's time away from the smaller players who might also want a slice of the action as it were.

This will be kept in mind when we decide who to let play PC loyalists or privateers. If someone is already involved overly lot in plots, we will ask them to sit it out. And as I've said: Most communication will be through +request and @mail. So someone not in the PST (Pink) or EST (me) timezones, will have a chance to play one.

I wonder if another, less staff intensive option, might be to create template NPCs for reoccurring storylines as privateers or loyalists, and make their sheets available for PCs to pick up and run with for plots or scenes. A Watch patrol might then stumble upon a group of Duke loyalists who actually have names and personalities, and defined characteristics. Maybe put the information on the Wiki, so that people who don't want to be 'spoiled' don't have to read it, but PrP-runners have the info to work with. You could divide the NPCs by the 'types' of plots they're likely to be involved in: combat, politics, social (intrigue), theft/espionage, and then see what the players do with them. The work is all at the front end, and since no PC has anything really invested in these guys, there's less likelihood of acrimonious conflict OOC.

You can even tier them for the level of conflict/durability, and use Wyrd scores as a kind of judge. Wyrd 1-2, they're mookish, no real names/personalities, and you can use them for batting practice. Here's a mook's general template: BLAH. Wyrd 3-5, and you've got your sub-bosses and sergeants, or your mid-level operatives. They've got names, a few nifty tricks up their sleeves to throw off pursuers, and while a few are fight-to-the-death types, most will have some mook shields that they send out while they run away. Wyrd 6-9, you've got your lieutenants, and major players. Serious responsibilities, here, and likely to have some very funky get out of jail free powers, whether that's Elements 5 (Air/Lightning), or a Fae Mount who's a flying serpent, or whatever. High danger, high risk, but they don't often get directly involved.

Just have any player who uses them update the Wiki page with the logs where they were used, and the outcome of the scenes.

Thomas wrote:

I wonder if another, less staff intensive option, might be to create template NPCs for reoccurring storylines as privateers or loyalists, and make their sheets available for PCs to pick up and run with for plots or scenes.

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Just have any player who uses them update the Wiki page with the logs where they were used, and the outcome of the scenes.

These two things are much more time intensive and difficult to handle than you might think. I can guarantee that this is more work than directing things via quick @mail or +requests.