Multiple Characters

[White Warlock]

WW, I may be mistaken but haven't you in the past slated the 1984 system with the statement that there are a dozen ways to abuse the system that would NOT show up in the 1984 logs?

To now do a U-turn and say we can relax our rules because the logs are so good seems somewhat disingenious.

I really do tire of all these disparaging assaults. Taking things out of context, attacking my integrity, and other groundless "character assassinations" are totally unacceptable.

What i said, in this very thread, was, "considering all the bad behavior i can do with just one PC in ALFA, that won't show up in the 1984 reports, it seems rather silly to worry about all those things mentioned above that 'will' show up in the 1984 reports."

Rules in place that hamper gameplay, because of concerns associated with things that are managed by 1984, are rules that no longer serve its intended purpose. All 'non-meta' concerns associated with having two or more PCs are activities monitored by 1984. All meta concerns can be performed with just one PC. Therefore, the only remaining concern not addressed, is that of an opinion. This opinion holds that players will not dedicate themselves to one particular pc, and thus said pc will not be fleshed out ingame.

This last thing is an opinion, and it is an opinion i strongly disagree with. In another persistent world, i had five PCs. Each of the PCs was completely different in character and event-hooks. Each was full-fleshed, and three-dimensional. I enjoyed each of them for different reasons, and was attached to each as if each was my 'only' character. And while this is but one example, it is sufficient to demonstrate that this opinion can be wrong in some, or even most cases. Ultimately, a person who cannot full-flesh a PC when he has many PCs, likely cannot do so if he has one.

[hollyfant]

you're free to play on Exodus or the OAS2

Actually, apparently not. No ALFAns allowed on the OASes.

[Wynna]

you're free to play on Exodus or the OAS2

Actually, apparently not. No ALFAns allowed on the OASes. :shrug:

Incorrect. FI corrected that misconception yesterday in chat, after you left.

[hollyfant]

[oldgrayrogue]

Allow me to reiterate. No. Believe it or not people metagame, intentional or otherwise, in ALFA (I know shocking!) Having two characters would further complicate that and managing two characters in such a persistant world designed with low low magic and slow XP progression in mind, you would effectively be dividing your time, xp, & loot. Yet people complain about slow leveling and/or low loot? I would hate to see how they would react with two characters. If you want a break from your character you're free to play on Exodus or the OAS2 (if you're willing to take a back seat to the newbies, you all-stars of ALFA, you.). Ga ahed dn't b scrrd.

We just have a difference of opinion. Limiting options for creativity and expression through different character concepts because some people cheat just fails the cost benefit analysis to me. My way of dealing with metagamers and cheaters is fairly simple: stop playing with them. If everyone does this they eventually get caught or leave. Big deal if they have more gold or xp than me in the meantime or know what color underwear my toon prefers when they aren't supposed to IC.

As far as the "go play somewhere else" option, as I said that seems less than desirable from a community perspective. There is always the risk that players who do so will like the "someplace else" better than here. And check gamespy. Not a lot of people on the OAS2 that often. As far as leveling rates and rewards, not everyone thinks that is a problem.

For some people, playing alts just keeps things fresh all around. With multiple servers I just really don't see how the very small risk of meta outweighs the potential benefits. But that's just me I suppose.

[Thangorn]

IN my contraversial opinion, I'd support one character per server at a time or one global character that has the capacity to travel the realms.

Apply a month in advance and demonstrate no other characters being played during that month to turn a server-side char into a global/travelling one. No going back and all server-side chars must be retired and never played again.

Its a twist on the one character at a time thing and I think it can work and I'd support it.

[BlakOrkz]

I personally love playing multiple characters for freshness sakes. However, if something like Thang's and oldgrayrogue proposes were ever to come about in ALFA, wouldn't that eliminate the ability of DMs to ever do cross-server plots? Or, when your entire group of well-established adventure mates decides to head off from Silverymoon to seek fortune in Baldur's Gate, you'd have to come up with some excuse not to go, ever? "I'm allergic to sea-water, honest!"

Just food for thought. I'm not invested enough to feel strongly either way.

[Kest]

If you want a break from your character you're free to play on Exodus or the OAS2 (if you're willing to take a back seat to the newbies, you all-stars of ALFA, you.). Ga ahed dn't b scrrd.

Telling people not to play on ALFA is a great way to keep our servers low population, good job dude!!

[mr duncan]

Just as getting rid of permadeath would soften our RP, no matter how we might insist that we are better players than that and should be allowed respawns... the play would suffer. I think its the same with multiple PCs, we all insist that we can be trusted but our game would erode while we were patting our own back for all being good players we can trust.


Id probably move on to another server myself if we gave up on "One PC for one player", and "No DMing on your own server, and Perma-death. All of these things are vital to our games integrity... "Good" players or not.

Any meta info runs a chance of becoming meta-gaming from even the best players. The more meta info you create the more chances for, and incidents of, meta-gaming WILL occur.

Last flog of the poor and beleagured horse then.

Yes, please, just stop it with this since you have admitted it IS a dead horse. Learn to DM, build, or even go play on an alfa1 server. Thats Three good choices that will add to alfa in a real way that beating this dead horse for another 5 more pages cant, ever.


J

[Misty]

DMing, beta-testing, OAS-mentoring of potentials, or playing the 'other' platform are all ways to get the multiple PC-itch scratched while also enriching the community.

[HATEFACE]

If you want a break from your character you're free to play on Exodus or the OAS2 (if you're willing to take a back seat to the newbies, you all-stars of ALFA, you.). Ga ahed dn't b scrrd.

Telling people not to play on ALFA is a great way to keep our servers low population, good job dude!!

Lighten up. Exodus has the one character rule limit and is pretty much the same as ALFA. I'm just suggesting ways that you can use to avoid getting bored. I hope that ALFA remains with the one character program.

Incorrect. FI corrected that misconception yesterday in chat, after you left.

You can also help beta test by making a new character. Something that is beneficial to the community.

If Petey had brain one in that huge melon on top of his neck he would be using his familiar to scout.

Little does Petey realize his familiar is about to be a was.

It doesn't matter whether you have 1 or a hundred PCs on a server, metagaming happens if people allow themselves to go there. Having more PCs doesn't inordinately increase type of situation

Yes it does. The problem is having people aware of things going on around Faerun. I.e. spread of information would be a lot quicker. This is not always a good thing for the players who would like to prevent that. You would be aware of what types of characters exist upon other servers. You would be aware of smaller DM plots. This isn't just a matter of reading chat rooms or forums. (By the way, I rarely see meta information on either of two.) Meta-gaming would be a much larger issue than it is if players were suddenly made aware of Player Character plots on a global scale.

I really do tire of all these disparaging assaults. Taking things out of context, attacking my integrity, and other groundless "character assassinations" are totally unacceptable.

Apparently justified and I'm increasingly beginning to see the assaults against your "character" as acceptable. Sorry, you are free to change your tune.

White Warlock you have a pretty low opinion of ALFA. What makes you believe the one character limit rule is antiquated? Hardly any other servers have this rule. In terms of NWN1 and 2 history, the multiple character rule is antiquated. I would go so far as to call the perma-death one character rule limit as inovative in terms of gameplay. The idea that your solitary character explores Faerun alone. Granted maybe people know Faerun to damn well but I don't. That has placed me at a great disadvantage at times but you know what? So does guesswork. I've seen a few players bite the dust because they assumed wrong. There are ways of challenge a player who knows all there is to know about Faerun.

We just have a difference of opinion. Limiting options for creativity and expression through different character concepts because some people cheat just fails the cost benefit analysis to me. My way of dealing with metagamers and cheaters is fairly simple: stop playing with them.

Obviously. I take metagaming into consideration. . . so if you want me to stop "dealing" with metagamers I would be disassociating myself with a very large player base. That seems completely unreasonable.

Hypothetical: You play upon server A with character Steve and character Bob as character Jack. You also play upon server B with character Sam. Now Steven and Bob are bad guys, they're down right jerks. They encountered Sam before. They want Sam killed. They want to set a trap and destroy Sam. As Jack, what would you do being aware of this? As Sam what would you do to prevent this?

[Dorn]

If you want a break from your character you're free to play on Exodus or the OAS2 (if you're willing to take a back seat to the newbies, you all-stars of ALFA, you.). Ga ahed dn't b scrrd.

Telling people not to play on ALFA is a great way to keep our servers low population, good job dude!!

Hey guys, doesn't really matter who the posters are as there are several but i think people are getting a little sidetracked or maybe misunderstanding.

I play on ALFA and it's one PC. I have played on Exodus and as far as i remember that was one PC as well.

I doubt anyone is saying 'we don't want you if you want more than one PC'. I think people are offering a way of having more than one PC, accross PWs with very similar magic/progression/RP expectations/haks/worldgate distributions etc.

[Kest]

The first three are not really the case. Exodus may share the same haks but has a very different mindset/setting than ALFA and cannot be reasonably suggested as providing a similar experience.

[Sandermann]

yay! I get to use this again! I think the last time was in a multiple PC thread aswell.

[Wynna]

Please keep the tone civil. There have been a few examples of treading the borderline of aggressive disputation instead of remaining firmly within the realm of reasonable people taking different viewpoints. Do not attack somebody for their views, no matter how different they are from yours. Argue the topic, not the poster.

Thank you.