Shattered Kingdoms

I'll agree that the role of mentor deals more with showing people where and how to level, than actually killing NPCs together with them.

But as for this so-called power-leveling thing, we'll have to agree to disagree. If a low-level character roleplays well enough that I want to spend lots of time with him, I'm likely to take him to the most exciting place we can handle when we hunt together. I don't see much IC motivation for doing otherwise. Nor do I have OOC qualms about giving well-roleplayed characters a little boost in the achievement area of the game.

1. You can help them purchase armor.
2. You can teach them for little to nothing.
3. You can make sure they have food and a water container.
4. You (and your friends) can help them magically
5. You can share a group but stand behind them.
6. You can help them meet someone else of their relative strength, and
have t hem form their own group. (goes well with 7. below)
7. You can RP with them and get them to understand IC how to get to a training place, instead of just taking them to one. You can also have them understand the perils, and what 'to do/not to do.'
8. You could possibly stand next to them punching and what not, to best
attempt to share exp evenly against opponents appropriate to their strength. Or just stay behind them and RP some guidance.

I don't want to disagree with other parts of your post, Forsooth, but one of the nicest parts of SK as far as what draws people here is not (just) the ability to level (quickly). It is the fullness of the environment. The group system, the quality of building/scripting, room descriptions, etc. What many newbies think when they log out is: Was that fun? Why was that fun? Should I come back? AND WILL I KNOW WHAT TO DO/WHERE TO GO? The last questions seem to be the standard ones that I tend to see most often, especially by new to SK characters out of a newbie school but before they've hit about 20th level and spent significant time trying to 'get' SK.

This should be the priority, and the bridge we can work to cross with
new players to SK.

Riley.

Oh, I agree that a good mentor doesn't leave his mentees dependent on him. And certainly the ideas you mentioned are good ones, to get people both well-started, and involved in the gameworld.

I also agree that getting them involved in the gameworld is the best thing. However, when newbies ask mentors about levelling areas and trainers, there's only so much advice on other things they're willing to tolerate.

I even agree that when newbies start out, they need to feel they can thrive on their own. Giving them expensive presents or easy experience spoils the mechanical advancement system, which they're still enjoying.

But once newbie get to Apprentice or so, and the levelling grind really starts to set in, it's not obvious they'd rather level on their own instead of with a more advanced character, even if they suffer the torments of faster advancement.

Anyone who levels anyone else for more than 15 levels is going to be carefully scrutinized, and both players will probably have their ip investigated at some point. Of course, it all depends on when this occurs, if it's noticed, and if the Imm who sees it gives a flying f***.

Some Imms let a person get up to a certain level and then curse/hell/delete them afterwards.

shrug

Anyone who knows the game fairly well knows that it's not hard to level any GM 50-75 hrs or less without twinkery anyway. Plevelling just makes it a very little bit easier and helps to pass the time while those involved think they're "getting away it". More of an ego-trip than anything. "Look, I beat the system!!" Not really. But they might shave off 10 hrs of mind-numbing kill/sleep!

That is a vast oversimplification and a gross exaggeration.

I felt it needed to be said in case any newbie or any veteran who does not manage to GM in <100 hours doesn't think that they are some kind of [REDACTED].

The reality is that most players, even the twinks, can NOT reach GM within 75 hours of playtime, and even among those who can, very few of those players can do it without the help of their OOC buddies.

The truth is that over the years it is generally the loudmouth OOC players who most often reach GM in under 100 hours, and they are generally the same players who heavily employ the use of OOC venues such as messengers and IRC to get themselves invested into religions and cabals and tribunals at extremely low levels and low playtimes, generally the same players who employ the use of those OOC venues to make known who they are playing so that other characters/players treat them MUCH differently than they treat complete strangers, and generally are the same players who have long ago forgotten what it was like to actually play the game purely upon the IC merits of their character and their roleplay capability rather than their OOC knowledge of certain game mechanics. I'll note also that these players tend to play a character and reach deletion in less hours than a more "average" player takes to ever reach grandmaster.

The reality is that it is extremely common for many players of high caliber to never even reach grandmaster with their characters. It is extremely common for equally valuable players to not reach grandmaster until they hit 300, 400, 500, and in some cases even 1000 hours. And to be honest, as much as some of you players may think of yourselves, and as highly as you may think of your fellow plevellers, as a very broad generality, I would rather have 1 single player who keeps the game IC and doesn't GM until 500 hours than 10 of the circle-jerk IRC [REDACTED].


NOTE: This is not directed at any player in particular. Some plevellers really have made some wonderful contributions to the game. But as a very broad generality, those few who really do fall into the category described above by Naarn are not the assets to the game that they think they are, they are not as prolific as they think they are, and they are not any better than those who actually spend serious time roleplaying within their first 100 hours of gametime.

Thank you for saying this - I guess I have kind of felt slightly [REDACTED] for that very reason.

Don't feel [REDACTED] for sure. Ask Elecho when Fernie first hit GM.

Some what off topic, but since there was a thread on exp gain I thought I'd post my own little question...

When you are grouped with other player/players does the charisma of the other player(s) affect in anyway your own characters exp gain?

Example: My character has sociable base charisma; will I benefit more from leveling with a character that has influential charisma? Or be penalized for leveling with a character that has distant charisma?

I’m pretty sure the answer is no, but I’d be interested to know for sure.

No. At least not that I know of.

I'm sorry, Yed, but I'll have to respectfully disagree. Both mages and necromancers can be levelled to GM -SOLO- in under 60 hrs. Other classes can be levelled that quickly w/out the use of OOC venues such as IRC and YIM/AIM if the pleveller has fairly solid RP and can hook up a ToM group that meets regularly. Fairly good other points in your post, though.

I can think of 5-6 players off the top of my head who have levelled characters solo to GM in under 75 hours.