Hello guys,
Again, I will open a new thread, rather than just posting in General Questions because... I actually don't know. I'm tired. Try thinking straight at three AM. When I am tired, I either don't talk at all, or talk and talk and talk and talk.

Now, there was one thing I've always wondered. I'll start by telling you my story of my time on Amia, focusing on the DM-driven things I have experienced personally. My first DM Event was a small thing just south of Guldorand, where the whole bridge collapsed, while a group were traveling to Guldorand. This time, I was invited by the party leader, while I was just sitting around north of Cordor. Or rather, in Cordor: North. They passed by me, and started talking to me, seemingly randomly.
Now, a while later, my (not played anymore) Paladin and a Druid wanted to go hunting, I think Frontier Orcs. However, that day, the Frontier was used for testing, so Mercedes set up a little story with spiders in Bendir Dale. Me and Herax, I think was her name, wanted to just hunt for some xp, and the DM set up what was basically a nice hunting session with some more RP than hunting orcs would have been... Until a group of 5 level-thirties showed up. I remember that day and actually still a bit today, I feel slightly annoyed, since first of all, the hole to go down actually said "Do not enter unless you are part of the DM event!". Afterwards, of course, the DM had to set the CR from ~7 to CR 30, since it would have been too easy otherwise. Over time, this group amassed to be the whole server, whose population had suddenly increased from literally only us two, to ten people, all being part of this one group of OOC friends... It just seems unlikely, since it was around three PM CET, at which time, most of these people just aren't online at all, since they live in America, as far as I understand from OOC stuff.
Now, the third and last thing I can think of, that I would really count as a DM Event I participated in, was a little faction-event-like thing for the people who were in Endir's Point a while ago, completely organised (at that point, until it suddenly completely ceased a few days later) over Skype. And still, it seems like it is usually always the same few people in these events. Or at least, it seems a couple of people end up in events more than others.

I used to think this just due to me being European, and therefore not being there for a big amount of time when the server is most active. Then maybe it is because I always play semi-open-evil PCs. Or because I am pretty shy IRL and IG, so I don't walk up to people and just talk randomly IC... But now, some things, like the Spider-Bendir-Dale-Event I mentioned earlier, make me think otherwise. Additionaly things I'd put on the list of "evidence" would be the GSTs, I am currently thinking of Gravemaskin's event tonight, where I only seemed to have noticed the very beginning of it. Then I got distracted. Damn you, Stormwind, who my character does not trust! And then later a floating orb, which I stood, watching for over two hours... Also, many other DM driven things seem to get (almost, or none) advertisement on the forums. This could of course be that people are just picked up from where they are on the server currently. Like when people just sit around in Bendir Dale, talking. However, another thing I'd like to point out, is the often-mentioned OOC communtication going on, over, for example, Skype. This is mentioned so often, and mentioned in a way that makes it seem like it is very important to do well on the server. I remember reading something about, I think, Hackums in the "Why did you leave Amia?" thread, implying he did not feel welcome after OOC talks about him. Also, it seems like everyone should have a similar chance to participate in something like this, so seeing certain people pop up in DM praise thread more than others makes me a bit curious. Just look at the amount of DCs some people have, enough to level someone to 30, which would take about 30 Dream Coins, while others do not have enough to get a single request. And it isn't (just) because of quality of RP, since in my experience, you just get a Dream Coin after an Event, even if you literally talked like maybe ten words.

Then another thing I am slightly curious about: How much are you allowed to Metagame the info a DM shouts? Those shouts make me personally always avoid those areas, since I usually would not have a reason to, for example go to Uhm while it gets blown up (yes, pretty old reference, quickest I could think of). I've watched two DM Events, sneaking behind people, but both only after encountering the groups at random, and at least trying to stay out of the action. One tme I DCed, losing the group, and the other time a random shapechange gave one of the group members True Sight, spotting me. Every time, I wonder: Is it unfair what I am doing, after having felt upset after the spotlight was taken away from me once, now risking taking the spotlight away from others? I just always think about this.


Now, my actual question: How do people (and always the same people) seem to just know when there is stuff going on? Is it really just because they are all friends on Skype, or becasue they hang around Bendir so often? Or is it just luck and having an ICly established character or the server, to get informed about stuff like this?

TL;DR: Read the short paragraph above!

Now, I could probably keep babbling about this for a while, but I'd like some input in this.

Thanks,
Regards,
Robbi320
Finally sleep!

For DM events? Usually the DMs offer some sort of "Flash in the Sky" that offers something odd is about to occur. The players that seem to make all the events are the ones who actually do something about it.

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Can only really comment on the things I know about.



The recent Endir's Point groups used both Skype and their hidden faction forums to coordinate events. you just don't really see the forum planning because they're in hidden, private forums, for various reasons. It was often the same dozen or so people because they were the ones coming to me saying "We want to do this stuff" so I said "OK, let's get a time." They were the dominant factino in the area at the time so you saw them doing a lot of things.
I'll do that for anyone, speaking purely for myself. Want to do something? Let's go get a time together and do it. Bring whoever you want, even if it's no one but you.



I'm a bit confused as to how this sits on your list of complaints - there was a shout made about it when it happened, and it was noted that anyone could show up if they liked. It was designed by the GST to be inclusionary.



Oops... I think me and Grave might have forgotten to clean up some of the Xeg-Yi in te amia Frontier, and in an event with 26 PCs, we may have missed a tell if you sent a message about it. Sorry about that.



This is, at least, how I DM. I like to just do things on the fly. Hey, there's people here, let's do stuff. I don't especially like to advertise... it feels very artificial. It should be exciting to log on and not know when or where a DM event is going to happen.



Silence can be RP too - if you are an introverted PC, or you're simply spying, or something similar, you probably don't say a whole awful lot, but you're still playing your character and you should still be rewarded for it. Quantity of words doesn't necessarily equal quality.



Just ask the DM who made the shout. That's the easiest way to do it.



Because the top ten people on the server are around triple digit hours in a biweekly basis. They're literally everywhere all the time. Often they are also characters who are specifically seeking out situations, people, or contacting DMs to do research RP, expeditions with factions, or other activities. It doesn't have much at all to do with being Skype friends, and more to do with just the amount of time they spend on the server, and how they spend their time on the server - not just sitting sround Bendir Dale, but going places, examining things, and connecting with other PCs to set up expeditions, go hunt pirates, look in corrupt, spooky libraries, research the leylines and mythals, examine the frozen north for corpses, shake down some merchants, murder a dwarf, and more, just to name a few things I've done recently that were all done because PCs came to me to want to organize something.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

Alright. First of all, my tone might not have been the best and I apologise for that.

Now, to answer some stuff you wrote, Tormak:

Endir: I guess part of that was just for me personally as a member of the group. I did not notice the transition at all. I was not even aware of any faction forums. Well, that anwers that confusion. Our skype conversation completely died down.

Alright. This one I guess I have to say: I must have joined barely too late. Basically, it seems like I have gone online too late.

It was mainly me being confused about it, not that big of an issue. It just mainly persuaded me to finally post this, though it might not have been at the best time.

The thing that confuses me here, and that might be due to the different members of the DM team, is that certain things, such as the latest one by Amarice in the DM event forum seemed to have a couple of skips in the timeline. Like a raid on the Frontier orcs that was mentioned in there (an I actually mean something Amarice looked over) It's just a bit frustrating when you want to do something and never get any possibility, other than to post in the forums, where it often feels like it does not have any impact on anything, in my opinion.

Yes, I see that. It just seems like everything where a DM was watching, I got a DC for it.

Alright. I guess this just ties back to my aversion to send tells to people. I'll remember this.

This last point... I don't know. It just seems to all tie back to knowing people on the server. Annoying thing is, I feel like I do get to know people. I bet I could name around twenty usernames barely anyone knows, because I played with them for a while. Then I never met these people again. Maybe this is just me whining after feeling pretty annoyed with the servers emptyness for a while. Maybe I'm just a complete idiot for thinking about this. I don't know. The fact is, I feel like everyone I get to know on here leaves after a while or makes new characters. Then again, another problem I personally have is the fact that I am from Europe. I mean, I don't mind staying up late, but then there are nights like today, where I didn't get any value out of, even though I stayed up all night. Feels like I literally wasted about five hours, just getting increasingly bored and upset. (Just to be clear, I see that this is basically my own fault, it just is annoying anyway) Maybe I also just am expecting too much from this. I mean, and this is not meant as an insult to anyone from the DM team, of all the events I was at, I don't think one proved to really be fun towards the end, because it was ruined in some way...
And then, the last question: What should I do about leveling? Should I get my character to level 30, so he can actually do something in events, or should I try to go to events and die, because monsters kind of need to be balanced around the strong members of the party? I mean, let's say a level 10 and three level 30s get involved in one of your spontaneous events, What CR do you make the monsters? If they are 10, the 30s will slaughter everything easily. If they are 30, the level 10 will have a nice time dying over and over. Or he just watches, which, in my limited experience is not very fun.

(All of this is written after a pretty frustrating night, so if it sounds overly whiney, I apologise again)

it's cool man. i too wandered amia for 20ish minutes tonight wondering why there were 20+ people and 2 dm's on and literally not a soul to be found.

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

A lot of the Endir's people all stopped showing up all at once for reasons I'm not totally sure about. What I think happened was there was da few lynchpins of the group that the other dozen or so followed, and so when they left, everyone esle went simultaneously.

EDIT: On a side note - Amarice is a euro hours DM, so hopefully you guys could connect if you want to do things.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

I recently spoke to Soren, a character that was active in Endir's Point. He / she said she gave up Amia.

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I have similar problem. Maybe also because of being from Europe, or because I am in no Skype conversation. Personally I was really looking forward to elven-dwarven forces fighting orcs. However there was no info (at least I found none) about time and place, only alert from Tarnus 20 minutes before it happened (when I had other stuff planned because I could not reserve time for Amia as I did not know about it).

Generally I dont get where is all the big RP happening. Lately only thing I can do is just kill mobs to get lvl, sometimes I meet other players, sometimes I dont. Or try chitchating in Bendir or Cordor about unimportant stuff.

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Zendaer Amattis
Torgon Crimsonshade
Khalid Athanalo
CET time zone

This is actually exactly what I meant. If I knew stuff would be going on, I could free some time. But without knowing, it is difficult, more so as a Euro that needs to get up in the mornings. While that event did not interest me that much, it just seemed like it siddenly poofed out of nowhere. 20 mins to start.

There were posts about it on several faction forums - but they were not in public places. It wasn't done via Skype.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

Its true. I've even had players and dm's ask why I didnt know 'thing,' both ic and ooc conversations, only to find out the thing I was supposed to know was on a private faction forum I cant access.

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

Private forums tend to exclude anyone wishing to partake, so it might as well have been done over skype. I understand people wanting to keep their RP close to their chests but these same people can't complain when others either leave as they feel excluded or moan because everything seems to happen... closed door!

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When it rains, look for rainbows.
When it's dark, look for stars.

Well... if there is a theme to this, it's that DM's want "spontaneous" events, so that will rule out anyone who has to plan time to play. Also, the private faction boards, well, I've seen that become very cliquey and exclusive too.

I used to stay pretty active, or tried to, but found it futile when most DM activity happened just after I logged for the night. Now, I just log in with whatever character I feel like, and do what I can.

I'm not sure what the right answer to inclusion in DM events is, but... I do feel that a shout out on the server and even on the forums is a step in the right direction. Sure, some events should and will be faction only and exclusive for that reason, but... well, I think there's a few too many of that type of event here. That's my opinion and observation, and I very well could be wrong, but... during most of my playtimes, there's no DM's around, or sometimes 1.

With the playerbase dwindling even more lately, I'd think trying to get more people involved is a good idea.

Using the "dm event" forum to forecast or foreshadow an event a few hours ahead of time would also be a big improvement. Even if it's as simple as "murmurs around cordor north" so some people actually know where the fuck to be.

Instead of relying on luck or pc's thst in character actively try and suppress information.

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

I don't think it's very fair to insult and down on people who are active in their faction forums, especially since, if you were in the faction, you'd likely be active and donig the same thing on the faction forums! That's sort of what a faction is and does. Information is given out to player characters and what the PCs do with it is entirely up to them. You could make a shout and give knowledge of world ending things to a billion people, but of each of those billion people don't talk about it or only talk about it privately then it doesn't end up as public knowledge. It's not being exclusionary, it's not being elitist, it's not being cliquey, it's just people RPing, and passing information between characters those characters trust. the Elves in Winya tend to keep to themselves, and the Knights of Kohlingen tend to keep things quieter so that info about evil forces doesn't disseminate into the wrong hands. Amarice's event wasn't exclusive and faction only, that's just how the PCs who learned about it ended up treating it and planning times for. It wasn't designed to be exclusionary.

Many DM events do include shouts, for what it's worth. Including Gravemaskin's GST first event that was recently run.

In the past, speaking personally, when I've tried to schedule events, I often received complaints that there were "too many people" to do anything and that they were "just chasing DCs". But if we do them spontaneously, we are "purposefully excluding people", "being elitist" and so on and so forth. It's not an easy situation to be in as a DM, and really, no matter which way you run things, you're being subject to a bevy of complaints on both sides.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

Indeed, it is hard facing issues on both sides.

But at the end of the day it is a video game with limited dynamic content available. Given the current environment of scarcity, I think working to make events more inclusive is good. It is a video game people play to have fun, being excluded isn't. Even if it is fun for some people to ic exclude people from regional-level events.

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

Nalkanar: We publically put this doodle up a week in advance: viewtopic.php?p=1400989#p1400989

Additionally, to avoid misunderstandings: Winya does not have any secret faction forums, with exception of the to my knowledge unused council forums.

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Playing as:
Aleana Xiloscient: Wherever the winds take her.
Jealesyl Truesong: A voice in the dark
DM Prometheus: Bringing you fire

Don't be this way. Thanks. This is a constructive topic. This is the only warning you get after your two posts.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

I'm not being 'like that.' I'm referencing what I feel was the last big fun event, in which half the server lost its mind over a dragon horn. A bunch of people tried to suppress information about and others tried to blow it up, this debate actually took place in character in public in game forums and was great. Tons of people got to take part in the event itself, and the aftermath, because it was pre planned and people could actually adjust their schedules to arrive.

That's what I meant. We got all this good stuff because people knew it was there and when it was and got to participate.

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

I agree it sucks at times if things are private. But I can't argue I don't do private stuff. Considering my main character is evil, I'm not just letting any character (HoJo won't, at least) waltz in the event. So it is usually secluded with individuals he knows to trust.

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Agreed, and, Tormak, please, you took me wrong. I've been in on those faction forums too. The Winyans as Tarnus said, don't even have one. I said there is a time and place for secret faction events, but, the rest of the server wants to play too.

And.. yeah, too many people is the opposite issue, but maybe there's a way to split that up? I don't know... just if we have too many players, I'd rather figure out how to manage that than rely on luck and "happened to be there" when something occurs.

I am just gonna assume there is a typo in there, as it tells me that the topic does not exist.

Weird, should be fixed now. If it isn't then the forum is doing odd things. In any case its a link to the dm stories forum, the "The Horde - Orcs, goblins, bugbears and hobhoblins, oh my!" thread, post by Aurora on the 9th of june.

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Playing as:
Aleana Xiloscient: Wherever the winds take her.
Jealesyl Truesong: A voice in the dark
DM Prometheus: Bringing you fire

Information

The requested topic does not exist.

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ANT ALARM

ANT ALARM

I think both the exlcusive and the inclusive events have added value to the server. I really do not think that exclusive things need to be demonized that much.

Exclusive events are mostly something that characters prepare for a long time. They are mostly player initiated/requested (not necessarily though) events. They include planning, research and whatever preparations they need. Obviously if that would involve a huge mass of players (meaning 15+) then the individual preparation for the event fades away in the eyes of the DM and players due to the number of spam and inquiry that appear in every channel.
Obviously players keep their own initiatives close to their chest (to quote one of you) and they don't want it to be hijacked by people who would randomly appear. But who can blame them? People like to see their efforts to be fruitful if they really invested time and energy in it.

Good news though: You all have the right to request those kind of events. All you need to do is to write a request to a DM (if it involves a region/city then to the respective DM who is in charge, if you don't know which one is that then feel free to ask around.)


Inclusive events are mostly DM initiated (again, not necessarily), regional or global events. Like in the case of Amarice's Horde event that you all mentioned. The event started as a regional event in December 2014 and since then it became global. Seeing her post about it and the locations of the raids alone actually implies that this is not exclusive event for dwarves, elves and Kohlinger people.

My suggestion is: If you don't know how to participate in an event ask for advice from any DM. We can likely point you to the right DM or forward your inquiry to the DM in charge of the event.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

I actually did several small raids all over the server that were not connected to Winya or Barak Runedar but simply somewhere in the forest, Amia frontier and elsewhere and there were plenty people there who were not there in for example the frontal attack of the elves (and friends) onto one of the orc layers.

Alas of course it is a bit of a coincidence who is around at the time. I do not really look at 'who' is on when I do stuff but simply that there are a few people on who preferably aren't all hunting in completely different areas of the server.

So the only way to really know for 'sure' something is going on and to be in the right area the right time is to shedule something.

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It's worth mentioning as a player who occasionally likes to shake the tree, I pester the dm team endlessly with event ideas and personal character initiatives, and just sort pig find things to throw my pc into (like the fort when it just started). Sometimes you just need to be an extrovert OOCly about it. Often times if you're persistent enough you lead a faction by sheer force of people following you around.

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Gerald Edmund
Discord: Metal Viking Guy #5433

DC taxation is theft!