Shattered Kingdoms

I agree with Edoras. There are so many useful things to address, like allowing tribunal guards to be brought to the empire, fixing swashbucklers, etc. Why are we talking about addressing something that's not a problem in the first place.

I agree that there is no problem. I also think that the proposed change would have a negative impact on the game. It does nothing to encourage quality RP. It only makes you run between inns and send tells to whoever is on the who list begging them to come talk to you so you can become an apprentice.

So far the people that are telling me there is no problem are the same people who represent the ruling status quo and not the people who started this thread. That's like a white guy saying he never experiences racism and so therefore it doesn't exist. I'd be more convinced if I heard the same arguments from them.

The system you've outlined is something I would dread. The last thing I want is for people to be forced into banal roleplaying specifically for the purposes of having to level. Let the twinks that want to spam levels before talking to anyone do their thing. There's nothing particularly WRONG with how they're playing. Above all, you should roleplay because you find it fun, not because you're punished or rewarded for it. Personally, I hate player-versus-player so I avoid it. Should I be punished for not wanting to hit GM or join a Cabal/Tribunal?

Edit: Incidentally, why is a mirror with 0 in-game scripts or powers of any sort Champion+ level? You could start by removing level requirements on RP items.

I think there are still too many tactical asymmetries with the greet system to use it as a tool like this. I also think the player base is too small right now for this to be viable. There is also the argument that it forces a more gregarious style of RP as the norm. Personally, I do enjoy playing character types ranging from outgoing to anti-social and would not want to be forced to greet people with a paranoid diabolic character who hates/mistrusts everyone.

All that said, I think that if the issue of faction sparseness is addressed, you may find factions to be a fertile ground for more RP and/or time hurdles. There is no particular reason, for instance, that faction ability acquisition should be based on level; it has just always been that way. Maybe your ability to order the best tribunal NPCs and/or use various powers could be tied to things beyond just CHA and level. There is also no good reason that factions should be such a grind mill, where characters come and go so fast. Presenting more hurdles to joining them and making full use of their abilities could address that. Characters needn't be entitled to join factions just by their mere existence. But, again, this all presupposes that faction sparseness is dealt with first.

In the meantime, rewards can be tweaked to include a mentor point award.

I had a similar argument to the one going on in this thread with someone trying to convince me to play armageddon recently. What it comes down to is, while I have come to greatly enjoy RP immersion, I play games as much for gaming as for immersion. Part of that is not wasting too much time being a clueless newb. I think of SK as a more immersive WOW, or Dragon Age, or what have you - key there is that you can be a rad hero from very early on. I don't want to play a game where I'm forced to do a lot of "paying my dues" to get off the ground - there's enough of that in RL, thank you very much.

I guess that means I'm not a pure RPer but that's no surprise. I have one pretty good real life already. I don't need a second one, I'm just looking for a place to come have fun and kill time. I think a lot of players like me have moved on to xbox live/PC games but I think the MUD wouldn't benefit from driving the action oriented types away... god knows you aren't lacking for Lee-Quens.

That got snipey, but I really don't mean this as sour grapes. Just trying to illustrate another POV. I'd definitely never play again if something like this were implemented - and hey, maybe that'd be good for your vision of the game. Nothing personal.

This is more on track with things you should be considering, as opposed to keeping characters from being able to compete at a basic level.

Given how the number of rewards received on a character is typically a pretty volatile number depending on how many PARs you interact with and what times you play, I know I wouldn't like this idea unless it was very limited, say, 1 per month. I like the other idea about making faction skills attuned to more than just the skill system better, although jerinx would definitely have a cow if you instituted a mandatory week-long waiting period before you could learn any skills of your faction.

I'm gonna expand on Trag's idea. Get rid of all level trainers. Make chars go to other chars to be reviewed. Ohhh... So that it can't be twinked make it so that no one char can review an individual more than x times in their entire life. Thinking of something like 3-4... or something like that.

If you really wanna get crazy, get rid of all trainers. With the caveat that any single char can only teach x skills before they must find another char to teach them different skills. Both of those would require interaction and people actually having to find other people.

To make it incentive for teachers, to rp while teaching... hmmm... that is a different question.

I feel like this is the same attitude you carried into the necromancer's thread, and this feels a little detrimental to gameplay. It's not at all like asking the white guy if he's experienced racism -- it's like holding a military strategy meeting and taking the advice of some random guy who's played some Counterstrike while ignoring the recommendations of your top generals.

I like that everybody gets a voice, but I'm really started to wonder if you're intentionally giving the initiate a higher soapbox than the veteran.