Open Question to ALFA about DMing

[Zelknolf]

This is why I oppose standards. They give the hardasses a license to practice douchebaggery freely, and hamstring DM's who want to reward players for innovative play.

Last I checked, there were different quantities of XP to be given based on risk and quality of play in the standards, and gold awards were proportional to XP gain (with one notable theme being that gold earned > XP earned, except with low-level overwealth characters, or anyone over the wealth cutoff). I'll grant it's been a few months since I've given standards a hard lookin-through, but I don't think that stuff has changed.

What I would point out is that consistency is nice. If a generous DM gives 100 xp/hour for sipping tea and talking about the weather, while another DM gives 50 xp/hour for a daring attack on a lich's stronghold, chock full of (magical) traps and opening the actual fight with a mysteriously quickened bigby's grasping hand, a wail of the banshee, and a maximised firebrand, we've obviously got some continuity issues with our game world. I'd say that both DMs in that example are completely batty; even bad RPers deserve more than 50xp for that fight, and no one deserves 100 xp for an hour of pleasant small talk. Standards do have a perk of giving us a central document to point to and say "Oi! You're batty."

[oldgrayrogue]

Not sure what the standards are, but if it is 100xp or 50 xp per hour then my experience is totally out of whack to the standard. As a point of reference, the most xp I ever received from a DM on TSM was 67 during an event. Usually I get somewhere between 10 - 25 rp xp and/or fairly modest monetary or other rewards. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about that, just wondering based on your comments Zelk, when compared to those of other DMs and my experience, what the actual standards are.

Then again, I could just be a piss poor RPer =)

[JaydeMoon]

This is why I oppose standards. They give the hardasses a license to practice douchebaggery freely, and hamstring DM's who want to reward players for innovative play.

As Zelk implies, you should check what's up with standards (perhaps by asking somebody about them or joining the standards team or urging that final standards are transparent to the community).

On an NWN2 server you should be getting between 35 (poor RP on a ridiculously easy plot) to 140 (exceptional RP on a quest of exceptional difficulty) xp per hour (of a DMed session, not including time it took for everyone to get their schtuff together and actually get going on the plot). If you are ALWAYS RPing your heart out, you should receive on average about 75-100 XP per hour.

Loot is supposed to be granted at a rate of 1.25 gold pieces per XP you earn until 8th level (where the ratio actually increases, by the highest levels you are supposed to be getting 10x XP in gold).

This distribution is designed to keep you at roughly the average wealth level for your PCs level. Average wealth levels in ALFA are actually HIGHER than character wealth level as stated on page 135 of the DMG.

DMs are empowered to give you the lowest powered magic items at level 1 (though level 2 is probably the best place to start). Item cap at level 1 and 2 is 300. A Will/Fort/ or Ref save +1 item is cheaper than that.

Item value tables are designed to create the best balance we can come up with for a PW. The THOUGHT PROCESS behind the tables suggest what types of items people should be getting at various levels.

It is suggested you can get +1 Armor at level 4, or a +1 weapon at level 5, for example.

So, in summary, if you are low on wealth, nowhere NEAR the average wealth level (see if you calculate your wealth to be at least near the wealth table on page 5 of the DMG), if you are going beyond level 5 and haven't gotten your magic weapon...

So if you aren't getting 'stuff', it's not the standards that are broken and it's not that your DMs aren't empowered to grant awards. It's that (for whatever reason) they just aren't. And by not doing so, they are actually violating standards as they are now.

Speak up. Keep logs of you adventuring and the XP you earn versus the wealth you gain. DMs can bank wealth drops, so maybe they don't give you anything for 7 sessions until you earn 2000xp and then *BAM* they drop that Longsword +1 on you.

But keep track and if, by some point, you feel you are being shortchanged, I would suggest taking it to the PA and having the ARs look into it.

[Misty]

"I'm not getting enough loot or xp."


Would anyone look at this claim seriously?

[Mulu]

Heh, and it gets worse when you realize that most players are essentially not DM'ed at all. Hard to "violate standards" as a DM if you haven't DM'ed the PC. If I had to choose between loot and plot, I'd take the plot.

[HATEFACE]

Maybe we're all really shit RPers and ALFA doesn't deserve us.

[Lusipher]

maybe you could make one comment without cussing in it.

We need more Dms.Plain and Simple. I played last night in another PW that most of us play in from time to time and I had either a few DMs in the same zone with us or one DM who was a master of playing many PCs. I had a blast. It was immersive and the little attention we received was fun and enjoyable.

Ive been in one plot since joining ALFA again and it was fun, but the sad thing was we had too many players involved. The DM had a big degree of levels and the higher levels basically just took over. TSM needs more DMs and the DMA needs to get folks onboard. Also, the beta servers need to hire some help and get them live. Its not an easy task and they cant do it themselves. We need more people volunteering.

I honestly wont even log in unless I know a few of my "group" is going to play. The quests on TSM are tough for low levels and its not worth me dying trying to do them by myself. There should be things for players to do besides kill quests, etc to get XP. Otherwise, your boring people to death or causing folks to either party up with higher levels, in which case the lowers wont get as much Xp or your enouraging the lower levels to go solo and more than likely die.

[Misty]

Maybe we're all really sh*t RPers and ALFA doesn't deserve us.

I think you may be right, sir.

[Brokenbone]

<snip>
But keep track and if, by some point, you feel you are being shortchanged, I would suggest taking it to the PA and having the ARs look into it.

I would suggest that "giving too little stuff" is something you would take up first with the DMs you're gaming with, and/or to the HDM on behalf of their team.

If unsatisfied with discussion's results, appeal to the DMA, who is supposed to regulate the DMs, have them organize the game consistently within ALFA's framework.

Maybe the PA gets alerted in parallel, but the PA has little to do with telling DMs "make sure to do X, Y, or Z" on your server, in comparison to the DMA. Those two may talk in the background anyhow about what level of involvement each Admin might have in any discussion - - or if escalated further, a dispute.

My understanding of it at least, not that I've ever heard of anyone trying to "call a DM on under-rewarding"... biting the hand that feeds you is seldom productive, hence why we probably don't see it.

[Mulu]

I honestly wont even log in unless I know a few of my "group" is going to play. The quests on TSM are tough for low levels and its not worth me dying trying to do them by myself. There should be things for players to do besides kill quests, etc to get XP. Otherwise, your boring people to death or causing folks to either party up with higher levels, in which case the lowers wont get as much Xp or your enouraging the lower levels to go solo and more than likely die.

Yeah, I don't understand why ALFA claims to be a roleplay oriented community but then makes servers with systems that are hostile to roleplay. You have to be a min/max build with good twitch skills to survive TSM, or alternatively not leave town without a large armed guard. It's stupid. Heck, in ALFA NWN1 I played my original PC for 3 years. She was struck to negative hp's more times than I can remember, but she never went out because there was always plenty of time for another to bandage her, or she managed to self-stabilize. Now you have like 3-4 seconds to bandage a downed PC. I've been on the verge of healing another downed PC 3 times and not made the clock. It's ridiculous. And you can forget about spontaneous recovery unless you have a dorf with a con of 20. Hard to tell stories when you keep re-rolling.... I really don't see myself playing here again. Being relegated to either playing a cowardly or a min/maxed PC just isn't my style of play. The whole point of roleplay servers is that you are supposed to be able to roll up social PC's and still play a hero. It shouldn't be about twitch skills and builds, that's what WOW and all the action servers are for.

Compared to that, loot is a non-issue.

[HATEFACE]

Sorry Danubus. I'm fully capable of refraining uncooth behavior. It's a choice rather than a necessity. I digress. . .


I agree with everything you stated above. We need more DMs but we need more players for that to happen. DMs don't magically grown on trees. They're trained into it as players first then they can give out teh ph@ l00tes. There is a manyfold problem with ALFA and it has been stated multiple times.

Few players.
Few DMs.
Few l00ts.
"Unintentional?" regulated play schedules. i.e. group play.

1. Recruitment needs to be stepped up but there is a limited community of players out there so this becomes problematic.

2. Encourage the player base to try out DMing

3. DMs need to understand the wealth standard and this should be incorperated into teaching of new DMs. (if it is already than some of you need to go to special ed.)

4. Regulated play is a bad thing the way it currently is. Try to understand my meaning on this. When players have a chance to login whenever and still have a chance to get DMed by a DM, that would be a paramount success in my book. This isn't a russian gulag for roleplayers where all sessions must be on a regulated schedule. Don't get me wrong I love playing with a group but it is a love/hate relationship. It should be possible for players to get the best of both worlds at least some time. It would be a Godsend to players who are not in a group (or choose not to) and get suprise visits by DMs. I want the cake & eat it too!

[HATEFACE]

<snip>
But keep track and if, by some point, you feel you are being shortchanged, I would suggest taking it to the PA and having the ARs look into it.

I would suggest that "giving too little stuff" is something you would take up first with the DMs you're gaming with, and/or to the HDM on behalf of their team.

As a moderately old, I guess. . ? player. I am unaccostomed to asking DMs for that l00t or going behind the DMs back and asking the PA for that matter. I'm used to DMs being competant enough to see to this themselves but maybe times have changed.

[Lusipher]

Ok...

Heres what Ive been told. As a PR for ALFA we are currenly doing research to see what other PWs are doing well or not doing well. We are also waiting to have more to show before we show it off. So, we arent advertising because we want to showcase an ALFA that has more than one server and has its stuff together in regards to standards and itemization.

I agree we need to have ALFA in a good working condition before showing it off to the RPing community with some of the ideas we have come up with. Once ALFA is in a state that everyone in charge is happy with the PR team will be unleashing a media blitz on many websites and im hoping even doing some podcasting, etc.

Nothing is going to get better here until the Admin start taking charge and making changes, the ALFA community steps up to help out, and we stick to our new rules/changes and make this place fun to play in again.

All the bitching in the world isnt going to change ALFA overnight. I think we all realize this. Its just how many people are going to leave while the process is being done? You cant make people volunteer and more and more folks are becoming disgruntled with how things are going. Its just finding a way to keep the folks here currently content and then once we are ready attracting new folks into the community.

[HATEFACE]

Recently I've been using the toolset more and more. I made a gatetown known as Hopeless. I know its not a FR setting but I wanted to see how it would go. ;/ I got this giant triangle in the sky. . . Dunno where it came from. it's just there. I'll continue to build some stuff and see how it goes.

[oldgrayrogue]

More players and more DMs to play with them is definately the way to go. Recruitment doesn't have to be just through PR. I have brought several friends over to ALFA with me, and continue to spread the word. I say don't worry about the state of the servers -- what is out there by comparison isn't that great, at least in my opinion. So I continue to recruit and just warn people to avoid the forums and you will have fun =P