Roleplaying Rangers

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Alamar
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Roleplaying Rangers

#1 Post by Alamar » Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:33 am

This is in response to a number of complaints I have had about ranger RP and I ask your pardon ahead of time for the asperity with which I intend to address the topic. Here goes.

Rangers are bordermen. We guard the boundaries. In a world that is dark, and cold, and filled with savage monsters that kill humans, elves, and all free folk with gleeful abandon, hunters are needed to keep them back. We have been charged by the queen of Elvandar to hunt the greenskins, and other creatures that pose a threat, but we work for the good of all free folk. We serve no particular god and we are not bound to any particular ideology, though we tend towards good overall.

We are NOT treehuggers (no offense to anyone). We are not a bunch of yogi bears that wander the woods looking for treecutters to kill. We do not go around saving moles from death nor do we put out signs to prevent forest fires. In modern society the woods are at risk and are under a daily threat from civilization, but in a medieval society the forests were wild and needed to be tamed. They were dangerous, dark areas that threatened to overwhelm civilization if people let it. The woods were the unknown.

Rangers live in the woodlands, and we are a part of the woodlands, and if someone starts cutting down every tree in the forest we WILL stop them. If someone slaughters animals at random we WILL prevent it. We stop these not because we must "save the woodlands" but because those are actions that disrespect nature, an entity which rangers revere. More importantly, it is a wasteful thing to do and rangers dislike that intensely for we are a self-sufficient guild and pride ourselves on that fact.

If you want to go kill a boar to have a meal, you have nothing to fear from the rangers. If you kill a few deer for their hides, you don't have to look over your shoulder. If you go gathering firewood for your potions, or just to keep warm on a winter's night, have at it. We are NOT in the business of issuing hunting licenses or zoning off wildlife preserves. For rangers to be park rangers is the biggest anachronism I can think of and the guild is NOT bound to modern ideas of what our rp should be. We are the rangers of a medieval society.

I advise all to keep a level of moderation in their views of nature. If you kill an animal, skin it, butcher it, and dissect it. Animals should be used when killed, not slaughtered for fun. Do not take my words as an invitation to abuse nature's gifts, for if there is abuse then we will and have stepped in to prevent ignorant folk from plunderings the resources of the woodlands.

I will elaborate if I need to. I expect a full series of retorts on how the rangers "should" be rped, but if you are not a ranger then simply deal with the fact that this is our guild. Our policy has been consistent from the beginning and we have not waivered from it in the least. We are here to guard the borders, not bicker with treecutters who are trying to feed their families.

-Alamar

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Devi
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#2 Post by Devi » Mon Jun 26, 2006 11:08 am

In my opinion, a ranger should play a ranger however he would like to. The ranger in charge then decides icly if he's doing a good job and belongs in the guild. Wide-reaching statements like "we are NOT treehuggers" are very inappropriate, as they are just as bad as statements such as "rangers should be treehuggers." When it comes to guilds, "should"s should not exist. And while this view of ranger-dom is a very fine one for Alamar, I'm sure there are rangers in the guild who have different ones.

There will always be people who like to classify everything very simply and neatly - "thieves should be chaotic" or "all tanielites should love everyone" or "all rangers should (or should not) be treehuggers." The best thing to do is to ignore these people. If someone would like to see the Tanielites be nicer (I remember when Cathal faced quite a bit of criticism), then he/she should make a nice Tanielite character who's lovely and sweet or complain about it icly.

This is just a side note:
As a "veteran" roleplayer (har har), I very much dislike people who use the words "bad roleplaying" and complain about someone's rp. If someone rps inconsistently, then (s)he plays an inconsistent (and potentially dynamic) character. If someone wants to play an Asralite who loves everyone, let him. He'll (hopefully) face ic consequences. Critiquing oocly is simply silly.

I'm tired and it's 90 degrees (sorry, you metric folks! I'm bad at converting), so hopefully that was as coherent as I hope.

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Alamar
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Thank you Devi

#3 Post by Alamar » Mon Jun 26, 2006 11:40 am

Thank you Devi. That's a refreshing response to the problem of guild rp. I can certainly accept if some rangers have more of a reverence for nature than others, this post was for those who misunderstand the "purpose" of the guild and what our role is in the game.

-Alamar

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Alamar
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Ministry of parks and forests

#4 Post by Alamar » Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:35 pm

For the protection of the king's/queen's venison see the queen's ministry of parks and forestry. The rangers are not attached to any one city, though the queen currently rewards our services by paying for scalps. We are still trying to get it coded to where we can bring them in to Kelric or to someone in Arborea for a similar kind of scalping fee. I am still eagerly awaiting the return of Abharsair to talk about this, but it may take awhile. I am also trying to get rid of the silly chart, but that may take awhile as well.

Even if we are held to be accountable to the queen of Elvandar (which is not the intention of the whole scalping thing) we are her "Elite hunters". There it is. We hunt, we kill, we drive back monsters that threaten the lives of free people. We do not protect the royal herds, though some in our number may take it upon themselves to do so.

And yes, large ammounts of forests have been chopped down in Europe due to this medieval concept of the woods. In Geas, we are still in a medieval society where such threats are nowhere close. Shalun replants trees and the rangers revere him greatly for it. We actively prevent mass deforestation (and no one man, even Darg, can cut down every tree in the forest :wink: I applaud the druids for replanting, they do their job exceedingly well and allow us rangers to prevent orcs and even more destructive creatures (and yes, orcs are quite a bit more hostile than Darg) from entering into the woodlands, killing innocents, and sacking our towns and villages.

-Alamar

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chara
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Re: Thank you Devi

#5 Post by chara » Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:11 pm

Alamar wrote:this post was for those who misunderstand the "purpose" of the guild and what our role is in the game.
Any such misunderstandings would be better cleared up within the game than OOC.

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Drake
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#6 Post by Drake » Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:10 pm

Exactly as Chara said, these matters are for IC resoloution, not resoloution via a post on a OOC forum.

If people are questioning ranger duties/responsibilities/purpose OOC'ly, them I would suggest you tell them politely to keep it IC, and not take it OOC.
Evil in Training.
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Alamar
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ic vs ooc

#7 Post by Alamar » Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:58 am

Fair enough. But some of the IC problems are the direct result of modern conceptions. I was just clearing those up for those who are trying to make Geas rangers fit into rangers from other roleplaying games, etc. D&D is the biggest roleplaying system around and it still gives most players archetypes by which to play their characters. I am simply pointing out that a ranger does not simply conform to these but that our guild has other elements that are more important.

This post ends here unless there are other concerns. If you think that the rangers aren't doing something that you want them to do IC then feel free to ask one of the packmasters IC.

See you all on the game.

-Alamar

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