Shattered Kingdoms

Therein is the problem. No one can understand why anyone likes anything else.... :/


If you RP with someone and they don't want to PVP, whatever happened to the courtesy of leaving them alone or trying to feel out terms of an acceptable challenge? I'll tell you what happened. Half of the PVP crowd won't engage with any more risks than they have to, and they blame people for not wanting to take risks by putting themselves out there to be PVPed. I've never yet encountered anyone who has tried to teach someone else about PVP in-game unless they were on the same side. I avoid PVP, personally, because I have every confidence that there is absolutely no sportsmanship in the community. Log site is proof. 9 times out of 10 the RP is paper-thin and uninteresting, boring, or blatantly fabricated.

Grumble grumble grumble... this belongs in the other thread.

My main point is that if you can be killed by someone you've never talked to recently, much less at all, all the RP and justification in the world doesn't matter. You've been PVPed without roleplay. That's not the definition in practice, but that's what I think is proper. If I'm in a majority, I guess it's a silent one.

Exactly. The moment you bring up issues with pk, it should just automatically direct you to werts guide of avoiding it.
You are more than welcome to sit around and play with pony dolls, knit yarn whatever you want. Just don't expect to join the fists or keepers and completely avoid conflict because you don't like pk. The fact that the game has various factions designed around pk should tell you that this is not a strictly rp mud. I'm not certain what your expectations are. No alignments and no pk?

I am always baffled by this sort of argument. If you are not interested in PK based upon RP, why are you playing Shattered Kingdoms instead of a MUSH or one of the many other RP MUDs that doesn't allow PK? This is definitely not a courtesy issue, as you put it, since the advertising for the game makes it quite clear that PK based upon RP is part of the game.

In my opinion, this a defining feature of SK and separates it from nearly every other RP MUD.

Elves kill deep elves in SK. This is one good example of how a PK without conversation beforehand (or after, for that matter, although the silent treatment is probably tacky) can still be well RPed.

Other than that, yes to what Finney just posted.

Cabals can't, you know, focus on RP, telling a story, and use their abilities for PVE? This isn't a strictly PVP mud, either.... ... ... I know, crazy, right?

Wert's guide to avoiding PK is tongue-in-cheek and plays into part of why the game has a completion mindset Dulrik doesn't like. The language suggests that if you aren't in a cabal and PVPing as a GM against other GMs, you're not enjoying all of SK and therefore are less of a player. It's also a lie, because alignment can get you slain no matter what you do. The only opt out is to not play, and plenty of people take it.

My expectations would be pretty simple: know who hates you, why they hate you, if they will kill you, and what you could try to do to change any of the former issues, if only temporarily. "PK into deletion lolol" would be punished for the harassment it is no matter what site its posted on, and "hahaha you're in a faction so I don't need to even let you know who I am" would be appropriately labelled as lack of RP. If I join the Hammer and my leader is AFK token farming, it shouldn't mean that I should log off when all the HandLegion people come around because there's no recourse without PVP.

For a specific example, say Wudan looks at an outlaw board, sees some guy he's never met, starts summoning into guards. That shouldn't be okay. That's what keeps people from playing the game.

This might come as a surprise to you, but I do enjoy fighting games. A lot. They're balanced, quick to start, support good sportsmanship, and limit the damage bad sportsmanship can do to one's ability to play the game. I wouldn't expect no alignments and no PK, but I would expect tempered use of both in the course of telling a story and exploring a role. They're tools for roleplay, which in my opinion is the only valuable unique commodity SK has to offer.

OOC planning from characters on either side of a fight would be my golden standard. If both people go into a fight knowing what's about to happen, wouldn't it be more challenging and rewarding for everyone involved? What's up with this idea that someone's always got to have their pants down?

At this point I will simply reference you to what I've said in response to other people re: game design vs player management.

If you join a tribunal or cabal, the diplomacy command will display factions that are hostile or at war with you. I am not sure how you can be caught with your pants down, as you put it. Purchasing a pet and a keeping a recall potion handy will prevent 99% of these "pants down" scenarios.

Neither of these simple steps is time consuming or difficult, which is why I prefer not to communicate with anyone out-of-character in the game - friend or foe.

The problem is that some people want to play a text-based game version of Game of Thrones (that is a very interesting story with a lot of protagonists based on conflict) and some others want to play a text-based game version of Unreal Tournament with a flair of something that they call arpee. Reality is that in SKs the sword is mightier than any words so the former get shafted by the latter in most cases.

Reminder that this poll is about to end, so if you didn't notice it due to the engaging reading material, now is your last chance to vote. It's also your last chance to change your vote, if anything in here swayed your opinion.

How exactly do they get shafted?

Shattered Kingdoms offers a mechanical way to resolve conflict - combat and/or PK. Character choices and RP generate the conflict - combat resolves it. Conflict can also be resolved via RP, but if I wanted that style of play I likely would play a MUSH.