Shattered Kingdoms

There are numerous things that are different in cabal role-play from years ago. There has been a loss. I've refrained from making this post long enough, and now I'll do it.

There are many types of RP in Shattered Kingdoms. One large group of this is the faction oriented role-play. At one time, it was what gave SK the life that makes so many players hang about and continue to make SK great.

If there has been a loss, then how do we measure it? How is the loss shown? What caused the loss? What can we do to return to something resembling the past, but in a new light and including the various new tangents that are now part of the faction RP?

Okay. There is a general consensus that some of the RP in factions has declined. Now, I've seen it on both ends, before and after joining the IMM staff. The time and feeling I remember the most as a player for the imaginative RP and true elitist feeling was when I was a newbie. So, I'll probably refer to this experience.

When I first joined a faction, it took me considerable effort to even discover who was and wasn't a Druid. Now I had no knowledge of all the skills and things, I was still learning the game. I knew I wanted to be a Druid, so I kept at the RP that I figured would get me there.

I asked around about "Druids" and never found anything out. There was a reason. The Druids were secretive. They kept their powers closely guarded and did their best to prevent discovery. I didn't realize how the group was reviewing me and trying to discover if I would fit their group. It took me six months to join the Druids.

There are several events in any faction experience that might occur in a characters life. These are the things which I will compare with what happens today versus the past. Seeking, induction ceremony, introductory tests, gaining ranks or leadership, and tarnishment or uninduction are the various events I will outline. Several groups already have some tradition or history associated with these events.

I think it is quite possible to balance the past memories with what you are trying to accomplish with RP now. There is in at least one, and perhaps others, an initial test that all members must pass after induction. This test occurs before they learn any elite skills or ciphers and takes a good effort. I think that some similar test could be instituted in all groups. It should be something that is a test of their role-play skills, not PK skills.

After that initial test, the character has proven themselves and are invited to learn their first skills. They are given a few secrets and probably are asked to gain strength, remain secretive, and learn from their elders.

This is where another cabal had a very good RP tradition. With each skill a character would learn, they would have to take a lesson from someone in the faction who was considered the "master" of the skill. Then they could train and use the skill. This idea adds more RP, and should be (re-)adopted by all factions. There are various ways of making it work for each group, and I'd be happy to code in various ways of helping leaders guarantee someone wont learn a faction skill or spell until they've proven themselves.

In this way, factions can represent ranks. In more than one group, there is after a certain amount of time another test which a person will undergo, and they will afterwards be called an Elder. I also like this idea. This is something I'm happy to help with sometimes, but I also appreciate it when players are strong enough RPers to grab the ball and run with it. This could be associated with PK for some groups, but again, it should be based strongly on RP.

When someone makes a mistake, they should learn from it. Tarnish is a newer command that is fairly underused in my book. Leaders shouldn't be afraid of being strict and controlling. I would rather see leaders tarnish than uninduct usually, but sometimes the player has made a truly unforgiveable mistake.

Leading a faction is quite demanding. I do what I can to help faction leaders, but it ultimately their burden to make sure all of this is happening. If leaders want to maintain a secretive cabal, they should. Uninduct or tarnish anyone who outs themselves. Make sure that players have an understanding of the RP they will be expected to maintain. I've always thought faction memebership should be an elitist thing. Letting CRS be the blame for giving membership to people with horrible RP skills is just lame. There simply are not enough raids for it to be a controlling factor.

What has caused the loss of these RP traditions? Well, yes, it is partially CRS. I will own that. I am part of the IMM staff now, but when CRS was initiated I was a player. I have seen various incidents that would never ever have occured pre-CRS. Does CRS prevent leaders and groups from keeping the RP of their group at its most pristine? I think not.

All that is necessary to undo the errors that happened at the initiation of CRS is for leaders to start enforcing the RP of their faction. People say Adepts, Druids, and Harlequins should be secretive? Then uninduct anyone who is public, or uses their skills publicly. Will they whine? Yes. In the end, what is more important? The RP of the faction, or the one players need to PK or annoy someone? The choice is there, most groups are simply stuck in the thinking they need as many numbers as they can get.

I will talk to Dulrik about options for limiting the access to the various cabal powers. I am willing to back any leader who puts role-play at a higher priority than player killing. I will do small things to help with the traditions of any group in my care. My question to you, as a playerbase, is this: What will you do to help make faction RP better? If you do not know the answer to that question, then you should stop and reconsider your reasons for joining the faction. If you can't deduce any solutions for the dilemma, then maybe you should consider avoiding faction RP for the time being.

A

PS The leadership of a faction should generally be done by two persons. There is no rank or "seniority" given to either person. It may be set up as such in any of the various factions, but neither the code or the IMM staff necessarily recognize that.

Only one slight problem with keeping members secret in a cabal, what do they do when one another cabal decides they want to farther their power and grab your relic stripping them of their powers?

Normally, nothing would be the answer so they can retain their secret identities, but then roleplay becomes a factor as a relic sacred to them has been snatched from them and their HQ busted into for it. So they should just write it off and continue to go about their business?

Other problems can occur from spies that camp around other cabals HQ's, making note of who goes in and out.

It's not hard to figure out who's in a cabal and who isn't, anything that was once considered to be a sercert was completely uprooted with the introduction of the CRS system. I remember in the past just trying to find the HQ was a pain in the [REDACTED], let alone the members of that cabal. Now there really isn't much of a problem at all.

My favorite "cabal raid"? My Hammer days of old, discovering the location of the Adept's HQ, having a group gate in and scour their notice board for secrets then leave various demeaning and insulting messages posted on their board to let them know that we'd been there. We'd done it to the MC as well, but the Adepts HQ felt like a real acheivement because it'd been so hard to locate.

It wasn't until a few real-life years later, my Hammer days then long past, that I discovered that the Adept HQ had been so secret that not even the Adepts could find it, so the notes and evidence of our break-in had gone completely unnoticed

I agree with chemhound, the only reason my current char got found out to be in a cabal is because of a cabal raid. With how the relics work now, and how they affect cabal abilities it is nearly impossible to keep the identities secret. If you want to find out who is in a certain cabal get a group together and raid their hideout (which isn't really hidden). I know this sounds like just another bashing of CRS without any ideas to fix it but I just woke up and haven't thought about it hard enough yet, to come up with an idea.

I don't see why raiding would reveal secret members. Whenever I was a leader I specifically instructed low level chars in my cabal NOT to attempt to defend except in some extreme case where they might be the turning factor, which in practice never happened.

The only exception is if you're stupid enough to be sitting in the HQ as a lowbie. I practically ban lowbies from the HQ without explicit orders from a superior because of this. The more you show up the higher the chance you're going to get identified- either during a raid, by observers or via tracks.

Because they're talking about making the ENTIRE cabal secret. And the leaders and pk-able members wouldn't just sit there and let a raiding group gank their relic. Because if you did, then you would have to go try to get it back, in which case the defending cabal would immeadiately see you upon approach (unless you have a certain cabal skill, in which case, you have a much better chance of being secret.

Adder, my char was a Champion and someone was raiding the cabal. For the longest time, I had hid my identity very well. No one, except one, knew that I was a member of the cabal. Not even my HF of my religion. Then one day the cabal HQ was being raided, or attempted at least. So, I defended it to the best of my char's abilities. Which, exposed the fact that he was a member of the group. Yeah, it is easy as a lowbie to not get caught being in a cabal. When I was a lowbie, I was told as such and I didn't get caught. I am in the opinion in terms of relics. That each relic should contain a power for each cabal spell. Each relic is then placed in different parts of the HQ and are each guarded by a Guardian. Therefore, the need to go public about being in a secret org would be less taxing if all of the powers were spread about many different relics. I know it is easier to defend one relic but at the same time there isn't enough people about to do multiple hits on the same relic. That is my thoughts on relics, since they are here to stay.

Then you do a simple weighing of benefits. If it benefits your cabal more to stay secret (as in a spy role or some such) than it does to defend the relic (a temporary state of loss) than stay secret. If not, defend.

adder: your reply assumes the secrecy of ONE/few characters. Sure, there can be an adept spy buddy buddy with druids that just tells over cb how to once and for all destroy the druids. Said character would most likely NEVER even near the adept keep, and would spend most his/her time in ayamao/taslamar. Even when the keep is being attacked they would go on with their life to keep a secret identity, and loosing skills would not matter because they wouldn't use them in the first place.

The problem comes with keeping the ENTIRE cabal secret. It would be possible, but then when a raid comes they all would have to sit and hear their guardian get owned and they loose their relic, thus loose their power, then become strict RP cabals with no unique powers. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but its how it would happen.

Calling [REDACTED] on this. The harlies went under ground when I first joined them. We were ALL blemished. Thus we could not be tempted to use out visable abilities. Our relic was on someone elses guardian forever.

But...we all still had CB.

We were secretive. At that point the known number of harliequins was probably 15% of what there actually was. Don't tell me there are problems with being secretive on a full scale. After that point, Seram took over. We came out unified and massive and dominated.

Use some imagination.