A Land Far Away

Well I doubt anyone does have questions for me as most people already likely know if I'm the type of candidate you want to vote for, since Blind started one I'd feel left out and envious if I didn't have one.

But if you are a new member who has no idea who I am, or and old member who wants to flame me, ask away.

While it may seem strange for me to ask questions of you...

How will you go about ensuring the things you know players want to change, are changed?

and other than your already stated list. What are in your oppinion, the main things ALFAns want to see changed?

Cheers

Not strange at all.

How will you go about ensuring the things you know players want to change, are changed?

Well to be honest, I don't know what players want to change. I know what I want to see changed, and so thats what I'm running off of, and will likely be what guides me in my term. However, iff players come to me and say they want to see this changed, and I agree that it's a good change I'll bring the proposal to ALFA. See how much popular support it has, if it does, and it's solely within my PA domain, make the change. If it's not bring to the dms and other admins and go through the process of changing things, cajoling and debating people into my way of thinking. Doubt i'll be the politest person doing so, but I do like to get things done.

and other than your already stated list. What are in your oppinion, the main things ALFAns want to see changed?

I'm not sure if what I proposed in my platform is what ALFAn's want changed. (except for rotku. I think we can all agree to ban his ass.) If they vote for me, I guess it is. What policies they want besides generals of more loot/xp/dms I can't really say, but I'll try to enact policies I believe in if people come to me with their issues.

First I find your platform intriguing.

How do you plan to get in touch with the player base you will represent?

You havent logged in once for over six months to play and havent dm'd since last spring and that lasted two sessions. Thats almost a year since working administratively with the current server populations of active players.

In fact your post in the forums as PA nominee is the first in months in months since your accident?

Who is the new and current alfa to you? Who are the players? What do THEY want?

Thanks for running. I am a fairly new player, so forgive me if I lack a lot of the history here -- this, admittedly, also makes it more difficult to choose from the active candidates!

If you don't mind, I would like to ask a couple of questions based on your platform proposed (and I apologize if this comes across as turning your PA question thread into a policy debate thread, but I think that there is some relevance here):

Vendrin wrote:1. One Character Rule - Change it to one surface and one underdark character in anticipation of Skullport going live. Lets's be honest folks, we do not have a slew of players and even if we did by the time Skullport went live the majority of surface pcs are unlikely to make a journey to such a den of iniquity. This allows people to play more on ALFA and lets them experience both sides of the alignment coin. This comes from being the HDM of the NU server and only seeing about 5-10 alfa players ever really play on it in it's two years of being live. Though that might just be because I was a horrible dm.

I would like to get a better feel for your underlying position here.

In my personal view, in general, I think that allowing more than one character, with a judicious attitude and good discretion, would be more beneficial than not. Several have mentioned potential technical/logical issues and roleplay issues as to why they might be against more than one character, though.

Could you comment on what your position is towards a one character guideline, let us call it, which states that it is strongly recommended that players choose and focus on one PC at a time? (Perhaps with the caveat that one needs to play a PC for a certain number of real life days/months to demonstrate knowledge and player compatibility with ALFA in general before being granted the privilege.) I don't think that it would be unreasonable to enforce some hard cap on the number of allowed active PCs greater than a small number (some number greater than one :) ).

Assume for the purpose of this discussion, that there might be some sort of viable technical solutions to the "keeping honest people honest" problem of discouraging muling between characters.

I am not trying to pigeonhole you into radically altering your platform here, but more to get a better feel towards what your long term views are on this subject.

Vendrin wrote:2. I will do my best coordinate a truly global plot among the ALFA servers. Will try to push for the ALFA version of Lathandar - Amaunator transition to occur. Something flashy.

Additional plot goodness sounds fine here. I don't think that there is anything to argue with if you feel that you can manage and pull this off in a smooth-flowing and engaging way.

I do think that this will be difficult to entirely pull off in a way that's smooth the player base, especially with the restrictions on how fast characters can move between servers in RL time, diverse time zones for players, etc, though. Certainly this seems to me to be a challenging commitment to sign up for (though a rewarding one if it can come to fruition).

Vendrin wrote:3. ALFA rated M for Mature.

My position should be relatively clear on this subject from the threads here (in favor of this). That being said, could you elaborate a bit, in your words, as to why you feel this way (just so I get a better feel as to your position here, as this is clearly a hot button issue for some)?

Additionally, I am somewhat unfamiliar with what the policy process is here. Is this entirely within the PA's domain to change? (I would also argue that this isn't really changing anything, but I don't want to rathole on this terribly much.) What level of involvement does the rest of the ALFA administrative bureaucracy have on this subject, especially as it has been one with very emotional arguments on both sides of the issue?

Vendrin wrote:5. Discuss raising the 2xp per in game hour to a more meaningful rate.

Could you clarify a bit as to what you mean here? Now, most of my interactions have not been so much leveling-related as plot interactions, in game (or so I would like to say) -- beyond a certain point, I do not see the leveling part of the game to be terribly important to me. Mechanics are all well and good, and they provide a framework, but it is really the diversity of the characters and their roleplay, with a light structuring from the mechanics, that makes the game for me at the end of the day.

That being said, leveling a little bit faster, (if that is what you are saying?), at least for the early levels, has an attraction to me in that it makes it less likely that my low level PC, who I put a lot of time into, will get offhandedly whacked by some random chance critical hit or the like in a group battle. Once things get into the point where life and death aren't so very much up to chance, my feelings on this subject are much less urgent.

[Edit: To clarify, one of the reasons I bring this up is that, if I remember correctly from browsing the forums, our previous PA had a strong belief that something should have been done to address the low level start issue, and this seems rather similar to that at heart, as increasing RP XP gain is most impactful for low level characters. Apologies to oldgrayrogue if I misstate the previous PA's position here.]

Cloud_Dancing wrote:First I find your platform intriguing.

I find it rather dull in fact to some of my previous platforms. Not enough Anti-rusty flames imo. But, such is life.

How do you plan to get in touch with the player base you will represent?

Read the forums, see what seems to concern them, have an open door policy. You have an issue, feel free to bring it to me. No guarantee I'll agree with you however.

You havent logged in once for over six months to play and havent dm'd since last spring and that lasted two sessions. Thats almost a year since working administratively with the current server populations of active players.

I played this sunday. Plan to continue in Trid's campaign. As for dming last campaign, yea that fell apart for a variety of issues. My life is rather hectic, thankfully some normalcy has returned.

In fact your post in the forums as PA nominee is the first in months in months since your accident?

I think I made one or two before hand.

Who is the new and current alfa to you? Who are the players? What do THEY want?

No idea to be honest. I'm not concerned with the new ALFA, I'm merely concerned with all of ALFA, and I'll listen to everyone's ideas and concerns whether they are new or old. I'll probably dismiss most radical changes as besides the changes I want to make I agree with the status quo for the most part.

Thanks for also picking up the questions I was asked.

Somewhat along the lines of what Basilica was asking...

Whats your thoughts on my proposal for multiple characters? (the one from my thread) Something you could live with and try to get made the standard? or is it too radical?

(except for rotku. I think we can all agree to ban his ass.)

If it wasn't for him. i'd not have returned, so I trust you're kidding on that?


as far as getting your priorities enacted (which you mentioned in your replies to questions given to me) How do you plan to do this? Currently ALFA has a lot of debating where it's not really needed. Getting things done is something we've all been assured you can do. But do you have a plan on approaching this?

Basilica wrote:
Could you comment on what your position is towards a one character guideline, let us call it, which states that it is strongly recommended that players choose and focus on one PC at a time? (Perhaps with the caveat that one needs to play a PC for a certain number of real life days/months to demonstrate knowledge and player compatibility with ALFA in general before being granted the privilege.) I don't think that it would be unreasonable to enforce some hard cap on the number of allowed active PCs greater than a small number (some number greater than one ).

My specific cause for the two character rule, is really because of the difference between underdark and surface servers and characters. Any surface character can visit the rest of the surface areas and experience them, but an underdark character has lots of issues doing that. And vice versa. That is the only reason I support expanding from one character to two characters. It allows people another pc to play, but it prevents metagaming to a great degree as your two characters would never be in a situation to interact.

Vendrin wrote:2. I will do my best coordinate a truly global plot among the ALFA servers. Will try to push for the ALFA version of Lathandar - Amaunator transition to occur. Something flashy.

Additional plot goodness sounds fine here. I don't think that there is anything to argue with if you feel that you can manage and pull this off in a smooth-flowing and engaging way.

I do think that this will be difficult to entirely pull off in a way that's smooth the player base, especially with the restrictions on how fast characters can move between servers in RL time, diverse time zones for players, etc, though. Certainly this seems to me to be a challenging commitment to sign up for (though a rewarding one if it can come to fruition).

Oh yea, going to be fucking difficult, but I see it possible with the support of the dm teams if it's something they are interested in. If they aren't well can't do it.

Vendrin wrote:3. ALFA rated M for Mature.

My position should be relatively clear on this subject from the threads here (in favor of this). That being said, could you elaborate a bit, in your words, as to why you feel this way (just so I get a better feel as to your position here, as this is clearly a hot button issue for some)?

Because I feel that trying to pigeonhole rp into "pg-13" is a waste. I'm fairly certain we are all adults here, and dealing with adult themes (not only sex, or even a significant part) but simply the facts of life in a world like faerun in adult matter enriches roleplay to a significant decree. Why is it ok to slaughter that group of goblins when they are merely trying to survive? Can love actually redeem an evil person? And is it worth the chance? Does redemption give a horrible person a free pass for what they did before? What if they were mentally influenced through a spell, they still committed horrible acts, does that mean they shouldn't be held responsible? A child is born, how does that affect your pc's life? Etc.

Additionally, I am somewhat unfamiliar with what the policy process is here. Is this entirely within the PA's domain to change? (I would also argue that this isn't really changing anything, but I don't want to rathole on this terribly much.) What level of involvement does the rest of the ALFA administrative bureaucracy have on this subject, especially as it has been one with very emotional arguments on both sides of the issue?

I have no idea if it's within the PA's domain to change, i'm fairly certain it'd be a whole admin + dm decision to make it official. And yes I agree, I think ALFA has always been a Mature RP server despite any previous variations of the Pg-13 rule. Most people knew it and just didn't talk about it.

Vendrin wrote:5. Discuss raising the 2xp per in game hour to a more meaningful rate.

Could you clarify a bit as to what you mean here?

[/quote]
Little rp script grants you 2xp per in game hour for roleplaying. I'm for raising it to maybe 5xp or 10xp. Increasing leveling a bit faster. Nothing crazier then that. Majority of xp especially for higher level pcs should still be coming from the DM.

Blindhamsterman wrote: Whats your thoughts on my proposal for multiple characters? (the one from my thread) Something you could live with and try to get made the standard? or is it too radical?

Believe it's to radical imo. My proposal for one underdark character and one surfacer character is for the very specific reasons that I believe if we don't have that, most players will never see the underdark servers, and all the effort going into building it will be a waste. And since server travel between the two is usually rare, I think metagaming problems will be very minimal.

(except for rotku. I think we can all agree to ban his ass.)

If it wasn't for him. i'd not have returned, so I trust you're kidding on that?

I am very likely joking on that.

as far as getting your priorities enacted (which you mentioned in your replies to questions given to me) How do you plan to do this? Currently ALFA has a lot of debating where it's not really needed. Getting things done is something we've all been assured you can do. But do you have a plan on approaching this?

I am a very blunt personality. I will push for votes and decisions. Even if that means ending a debate in a way I don't agree with, I'd rather have decisions made then constant debate so we can move onto other issues.

Thanks for taking the time to reply! You answered most of my questions. :)

Vendrin wrote:Little rp script grants you 2xp per in game hour for roleplaying. I'm for raising it to maybe 5xp or 10xp. Increasing leveling a bit faster. Nothing crazier then that. Majority of xp especially for higher level pcs should still be coming from the DM.

That makes sense to me.

(Again, I really do apologize to oldgrayrogue if I state their position wrong.)

Has something changed to make this more likely to happen than oldgrayrogue's old proposal to increase the starting level? (To me, these both seem to really address the same problem, in slightly different ways.) I am focusing a little bit on this, as this issue in particularly seems to have been championed by a PA in the past without much success (though I would like to see either happen to be honest).

(It may also be the case that you intended this change for unrelated reasons -- but to me, this seems where it would have the most impact.)

Starting at level 1 has always been a the ALFA rule. While there have been measures to change that, we've kept it for so long, the majority still support that. The low levels are the formative levels where a character should have a lot of their opinions and stances be challenged and possible changed by what occurs around them. The first few adventures where every little thing could kill you and how you react to that should be a very major part of any character.

So I think that you should start at level 1, but I also believe a slightly faster advancement rate is a good thing.

***edit*** You posted your response as I typed my question. I will leave it since you are mistaken about the majority of ALFA still wishing the level 1 starting level. ***end edit***

How do you feel about level 2 starting level? Would you push this issue again since over 50% of ALFA voted in favor of it in the last polling?

Apologies, was not aware of the last poll.

I think I'd have to say stick with level 1 regardless. I'm not absolutist on that, and honestly wouldn't worry me overly much, but I think level 1 is still important. And then you'd get whole arguments whether all pcs should start at level 2 or with 1000xp, etc, etc.

So I guess my official stance, Level 1 is a good thing overall but a normal player shouldn't be stuck in it more then 2 weeks if that.

Vendrin wrote:Apologies, was not aware of the last poll.

I think I'd have to say stick with level 1 regardless. I'm not absolutist on that, and honestly wouldn't worry me overly much, but I think level 1 is still important. And then you'd get whole arguments whether all pcs should start at level 2 or with 1000xp, etc, etc.

So I guess my official stance, Level 1 is a good thing overall but a normal player shouldn't be stuck in it more then 2 weeks if that.

Balanced solution, well said. I also agree on your policy towards the two character rule.

Allow one Underdark and one Surface PC is a good idea IMO for the reasons you have stated.

Questions:

1) In regards to major plot threads, how would you go about managing that and/or what type of platform to deliver the story through (i.e. static quests, DM run questing or push for a campaign/adventure server link through server portals [[btw seamless portal testing is going very well]]) etc etc.

I am interested in this because I would like to be part of any cross server story planning and implementation. Mainly what I am interested in (and will post this to the other candidates) is what thoughts you have given to implementing a story with multiple authors(DMs) and actors (Players, NPCs) and any systems you would use to facilitate colloboration.

2) What would you term Zombie on Zombie action?
- necrophilia OR un-necrophilia.....inquiring minds want to know?

Vendrin wrote:After almost zero deliberation and careful consideration and mostly on a whim, I am announcing my candidacy for Player Administrator.

Main Issue thingys I will attempt to get done if surprisingly elected to this illustrious position.

blah blah blah

6. Ban Rotku.

About time. Ban the bugger. Never liked that guy. You've got my vote now!