Arborea - land of standing targets

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Delmon
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Re: Arborea - land of standing targets

#101 Post by Delmon » Thu May 13, 2010 1:28 pm

There's not much of a central socialization area anymore. Nevertheless, if you take patrols from entering the crossing, sathos will just set undead up there. It's a nice trap.

lanyara
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Re: Arborea - land of standing targets

#102 Post by lanyara » Sun May 16, 2010 8:21 am

Setting up traps is fun!

Also I would like to add something about Sathos ... in the past the Sathos did not place undeads at the crossing permanently, and had at least a basic opportunity to "socialize" (as in, talking with other characters there).
See this good note:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=323&p=15396#p15396

Nowadays, they can't really. It's instant attacking. How much freedom to roleplay will Sathos have if you are overwhelmed with numbers and instantly engaged?

I am not defending them per se because from my point of view they also pushed themselves quite a bit into this direction, but there is really a good general question that could be asked - how much control should NPCs have over the game world compared to PCs? How much freedom to roleplay will Sathos have? And that also includes Satho followers or Lilith followers. You worship an evil deity, you are an instant target, you can be instantly killed. It is the most logical outcome from my point of view (or you run away if you feel the enemy is too strong... the second most logical outcome would be, at least in regards to Lilithians or Sathonite followers, to simply convert them, and if they refuse ... well, fallback to solution #1)

Elvandar law states right now that the crossings is a neutral spot, which is incorrect if the NPC patrol tries to kill PC chars there. I don't know if Arborean law states the same, but if NPCs attack PCs there then it can't be "neutral" since the law is enforced on that very spot too.

The other question is "how strong should a patrol be", or in more general how strong should different areas be. And I think there should be a general framework ... not sure about which idea might fit most, but areas could get "points" which can be used. From these points, you can "buy" guards, including number and strength and equipment (this could be all dynamic, being tied to the economy lateron).

If you'd have a super strong patrol then this would cost definitely a lot more than guards who stand in an area and defend it. Also, if patrol or other guards are killed quite often, the guards could automatically be weaker when they respawn, for some time. Ok, the idea isn't really developed... it is just a more general notion to push for more dynamic guards in different areas...
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arxthas
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Re: Arborea - land of standing targets

#103 Post by arxthas » Tue May 18, 2010 6:36 am

lanyara wrote:Elvandar law states right now that the crossings is a neutral spot, which is incorrect if the NPC patrol tries to kill PC chars there. I don't know if Arborean law states the same, but if NPCs attack PCs there then it can't be "neutral" since the law is enforced on that very spot too.
The law of Elvandar is made by players, so it might just as well be "wrong". Or the patrol might not care about it. It does not all have to make sense formally. Society is much more often driven by informal structures.

lanyara
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Re: Arborea - land of standing targets

#104 Post by lanyara » Tue May 18, 2010 7:00 am

I am thinking of Naarved for instance. From my point of view, it makes no IC sense that the court of Elvandar handles it (elves overseeing humans? Hmm)
From a technical point of view, I believe it was easier to just "group" it into an area.

If the patrol kills enemies at the crossing, and the current law states that the crossing is neutral, then something is incorrect. Either Elvandar breaks the law, or the law is not up to date. :) The easiest solution I guess would be a simple update to the law, so that the phrase "the crossing is neutral" would be changed to something like "enemies of Elvandar will be pursued even at that spot" or similar. Then at least that would be consistent, otherwise it would mean that the patrol is not keeping to the law - you can't be neutral if you attack enemies of Elvandar at that spot. :D
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