Home > Suggestions

One Character Per Player

Suggestion is as written: giving each player one character, and putting a script to ban any character he puts otherwise. A character will only be able to play one character, and play another one when he finishes his character in the City of Judgement.

Why is this good? well, for a couple of reasons:

1. Prevents metagaming. You could put your character in a place of power with another character, and if the player's smart enough, it could skip DMs noticing.

2. Players will be more focused on their characters and not jump between 50, making a more stronger player base with more solid thinking for a single character.

3. I will give you all a free pie.

So, what do you think? any chance? I've played in servers giving one character per player, and it went very good. Some players admittingly found it boring, but got used to it quite quickly.

Rat pie?

Rat pie. Might be changed to Rothe Pie since it's getting popular.

I don't think this suggestion has much merit. I don't want to spend too much time saying why, because it's quite obvious, but players should be able to play as many characters as they want. It's their choice and limiting it will only be an annoyance.

Snowy 1. Prevents metagaming. You could put your character in a place of power with another character, and if the player's smart enough, it could skip DMs noticing.

Even if DMs did not notice, the players would; gaining power usually comes at the expense of someone else and rest assured that players tend to watch their IC rivals for any hint of metagaming.

Snowy 2. Players will be more focused on their characters and not jump between 50, making a more stronger player base with more solid thinking for a single character.

To my experience, EftU players with many characters tend to be great roleplayers and I would not worry about keeping the focus. The more roles you play, the easier it can be for you to switch.

I think the proposed rule would be redundant.

I will improve roleplaying and prevent accidental or purposeful metagaming. A player will focus on one character and know all the knowledge the player knows... organizing ten characters with different things they know could be messy.

But I understand players already have many characters and will probably laugh on the very idea. It's just a suggestion, for players and DMs to review. Maybe in the future.

Very few play 10 characters at a time, and if they do, they are being watched. And your suggestion does not prevent sequential metagaming, that is, using knowledge of one's previous character in playing the next character.

I actually do not agree with this.

It is good sometimes let go of the number one character and let loose with another one. I also try to testplay some consepts I have in mind, to see if they would be playable for real. If it seems there would be a fear of metagaming, I usually stop playing the secondary character for the time I play the main character.

Also there is still possibility for metagaming even with one character per player system. You learn certain things of this world when time goes by and you play a lot, and when you create a new character, who should not know anything, it is as hard not to metagame with that one as it is if you have multiple characters, in my opinion anyway.

So I would not vote yes for this suggestion.

You haven't really made a convincing argument as to how it would "improve roleplay" or how having only one character actually prevents metagaming. I begin to wonder if there's some ulterior motive to this suggestion.

Of course. I want each player to suffer with a single character, only slowly finding the cool aspects of EFtU!

But seriously, I've got no ulterior motives. I've played in servers with many characters, and servers that enable only one or two. It's simply better when you focus on a single character, and don't swap characters.

It's just a suggestion.

I agree that it's easier to focus with one character. I do it to. No offense, but if that's the way you feel, do that then and let everyone else do as they wish.

The DMs are no strangers to meta'ing. As far as I know though, there has only been one major meta'ing problem so far, and it was really just an accident that snowballed. When I figured it out, I had already accidentally become involved in it, but the victim graciously brushed past it. No big deal.

I'll admit further that I'm definately a perpetrator of this next part, but honestly meta'ing is not the end of the world. Focusing on it is akin to RP self-terrorism. Just look past it, if a mistake is made, try to correct it POLITELY. <-- Key word We've all heard those WoW players that get ninja looted, killed, whatever. We ain't like that, we're civil.

Conclusion:

Don't worry, be happy! :D

Coming right from a server that had a 4 PC per player limit, I can say it does have its merits and shortcomings. As a player who likes to try out a number of things I do enjoy the flexibility of being able to create a dozen or so PCs, even if only 3-4 ever have seen any real playtime, and of that only 1-2 are really played at a time. Having a hard one PC rule might not be all that conducive, considering most people only have the time to play one PC, and if people juggle multiple ones, normally they carry it off well. I see this suggestion much like one for a more permadeath system, some enjoy it, others dont. Personally I RP permadeath on occasion, but I do like the flexibility of not always suffering permadeath.

I avoid playing on servers that institute rules like this. Its no fun for me, as I enjoy playing a multitude of characters and roles. You can never stop metagamers, if they want to do it-they do it. Its very rarely 'accidental' anyway, and if it happens and you want to change rules then you need to remove the forums, and IRC too because that's where most of it really comes from.

I vote no on 1 character per player for the above mentioned reasons and the following.

1) It interferes with my freedom to play characters according to my whims, which, then interferes with my enjoyment of NWN.

2) I find it hard to just give up totally on characters I like.

3) I can't plan a character thoroughly in advance. To me a character is something to be explored. I start with a rough outline only.

4) I already play on a server with this proposed restriction. Since, I can't get enough information about the server in advance to plan the character, I muddle through with my current character trying to learn if the server has the mechanics to implement my concept. I've reached an impase on that server so I haven't played there in 2 weeks or so. I don't want this to happen on EFU.

It would be interesting if this restriction was on a switch and everybody started with the switch off. Then, the DM's could flip the switch on the worst offenders.

A better solution to meta-gaming would be some discusion on common meta-gaming transgressions. One problem I find is how do characters talk shop? How does one character seek advice from another character about profesional advancement? I muddled thru this recently.

Maybe we could have IC "Dr. Laura" forums per class so we can seek profesional advice IC? It may turnout to be funny too.

This is an interesting idea, but I don't think that it's right for our server.

Metagaming could still be an issue even with this system, in cases where a player uses the death of their character to enrich their next one (running to their corpse in the simplest of examples). Furthermore, the sort of metagaming this would prevent -- where you have two characters and use one to help out the other -- is very easy for us to recognize; we even have anti-cheating scripts in place to keep track of it. Although I do like technical solutions more than formal rules, I believe that the costs of the proposed solution really outweigh the benefits.

Although it's possible that it will make some people more focused on their present character, it seems to me that most people on the server are already pretty focused on one character, rather than jumping between fifty. Again, while it may have improved other servers, I don't think that we really have the problem that this solution is intended to solve. Given how frustrating this could be for those of our players who do enjoy playing more than one character, I just don't think that it's right for us.

I say no too... It's a game and I want to play how I want.... most don't metagame, so its like punishing most who don't for the few who do....

Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. - Gandalf

I like being able to adopt a persona that matches my current temperment... I don't want to have multiple accounts, perma-die, or play on multiple PW's to be able to play different character ideas to fruition.

I know if I ever feel like somebody is metagaming to their advantage (and moreso to my detriment) I will mention it either on the DM channel or here on the forums... and I am sure most other serious players would as well.

Has there ever even been a significant case of anybody using multiple characters to metagame on EoF?

Well said leurnid, sanctuary is supposed to be a place filled with characters too, not a place with only a few notables and the rest NPC's. The complexity (and inherent fun) of interactions is increased massively by a changing character base.

I myself enjoy the variety, I roleplay and evolve my characters as I play them, turning them from fuzzy themes and attitudes into a more solid entity, all the time putting roleplay notes down in my journal for future consistency.

And yes I do get favourites, but the variety of experience always makes me build something else and play from a slightly different angle a bit later.

Some will hang on to one character go deep with that, thats fine , but it's not the way I choose to play the game.

Also I enjoyed the prelude I was in, and in order to play in more i'd need to make a new character for each.. So I dont think the one character thing will work here.

I am someone who desperately tries to stick with just one character since I personally, like that better. I sometimes fail and make another character, it's all a question of willpower :D

What I am trying to say though, is, while I am totally agreeing with Snowy, I am not totally sure if it's really wise to actually force players to see it our way..

Those who like having only one character, do so, those who like to branch out will have a million of colorless and plain characters at the same time. (I experienced my characters to have less depth the more of them I have at a time, even though I successfully prevent their personalities from mixing. I think.) Just play the game like you think it is fun for yourself (and others).

No, no, no...the game is played for fun above else. Banning someone from being able to make multiple characters is very unsavory. In my mind, that's along the lines of asking for applications just to play and requesting name, address, and telephone number as well.

That would be one step towards doing evil stuff like telling players they can only be fighters or rogues. Clerics are not allowed!

While I think some people might enjoy/prefer such restriction, I do not agree that it makes for a stronger player base. Players who are having fun on the server immersing themselves in an interesting environment that makes them want to come back again again...that makes for a stronger player base. :D

And what if certain characters can't be played 24/7? If I had to play my exiled character 24/7, I'd go nutters. Often there is nothing for him to do, and I like to play my secondary then (Who actually became my main character). Both characters have a lot of depth, or so I like to think, and aside from that, I just feel it's a player's own choice to control the amount of characters he has. While I am in favour of playing one character, and not three or more, still does not give us the right to dictate that upon others, whether forcing them mechanically or not.

I think that enforcing one PC per player would be detrimental to the server, it's not needed and the lack of freedom will cause people to leave.

Leave it how it is at the moment, those that want to play one character should be happy to do so, and those that want many should be fine to do that as well, simple and everyone is happy.