Ignore function for Whispering Wind?

[The Old Hack]

Let me try to clarify myself as I realise that my earlier anger distorted my posts to such a degree that what I considered the most important point was lost:

I have no problem with either spells or sendings being IC anonymous but a great deal of trouble with them being OOC anonymous as well. I must stress that this is not actually rational on my behalf -- it is a simple reflex born from earlier bad experiences of mine and it is one I just can't control. It gives me the feeling that the sender is deliberately taking advantage of her or his anonymity in order to escape the consequences of responsibility for the message. That alone makes it very hard for me to view such messages objectively and it becomes far too easy for me to perceive even an honestly intended IC message as instead being intended showboating or even harassment and abuse.

If we take the repeated messages of, "You are being constantly watched... the void will consume you... she will eat your black and wicked hearts... there is no escape..." as a baseline, they may well have been meant as mood setting for some plot or other. But due to my prejudice against complete anonymity in a message, I instead perceived this as crude attempts to break the otherwise relaxed and pleasant RP mood in the areas I happened to be in when the messages came in. Again, I must stress -- my reaction is not rational. I simply can't help myself, this sort of thing makes me think of not merely trolls on forums but also of an extremely painful time in my life where anonymous letters played a large part in an attempt to harass me as well as destroy my reputation.

There is also this: everyone has differently shaped comfort zones and what may be one person's fun and games might well be another person's abuse and harassment. If one does not even have the OOC identity of the sender, there is no possibility of sending a quiet Tell saying, "I am sorry, but I don't think this is any fun. Could you please restrain yourself a little?"

In short: I would like to have something done about the perfect anonymity of this message method. Some sort of saving throw allowing one to learn the sender's identity would be fine, or even an OOC indication of who is sending it. Either of these would allow me to avoid the feeling that someone was taking advantage of guaranteed anonymity to sabotage my roleplay and enjoyment.

I hope this has made my position more clear and I am sorry for my earlier knee-jerk anger. *sigh*

[Disco]

I kinda agree.

[Howlando]

Moving away slightly is also a good counter.

[Divine Intervention]

Personally I don't see how this spell changing the mood/direction of rp in an area is any different to someone hearing a gate attack sending or a DM spawning monster.  IMO it's a conflict server so you can't expect to maintain just a peaceful pleasant mood all the time.  My suggestion is if you don't like it don't read it.

[The Old Hack]

Good to know. Thanks.

[The Old Hack]

Personally I don't see how this spell changing the mood/direction of rp in an area is any different to someone hearing a gate attack sending or a DM spawning monster.  IMO it's a conflict server so you can't expect to maintain just a peaceful pleasant mood all the time.  My suggestion is if you don't like it don't read it.

Please re-read the post I made earlier where I explained why the complete anonymity of the spell caster played a very important part in triggering a negative reaction for me. I do not expect people to agree with me, I merely want to clarify why it is important to me at least.

[Dash]

Whispering Wind: the new counter to idlers outside the kingsman.

[SilentSouth]

I simply can't help myself, this sort of thing makes me think of not merely trolls on forums but also of an extremely painful time in my life where anonymous letters played a large part in an attempt to harass me as well as destroy my reputation.

You already know that you shouldn't incorparate your own personal life and OOC shit into your IC PC. And kind of have an idea what you might have gone through in real life, and i'm sure it was upsetting; i also see your point of view however i think you are slightly over reacting in sense.

Try and see it from this perspective:
You said earlier that it disrupts a pleasant RP atmosphere, however isn't this what makes a game fun, there needs to be conflict otherwise we would all be running around picking flowers and baking cakes, so to some degree, disrupting a nice pleasant atmosphere is cool.

And i think there needs to be some form of anonymous sending system, because its best to know as little as you can, i hate anything that gives me the opportunity to meta game, sometimes i don't wanna know OOC. For example when someone makes a sending for a quest, and there are a few people in the area you sub conciously go to the guy/girl who made the sending without realising cause you have seen their name OOCly in the sending system.

I have heard a few messages about this void thing and it didn't bother me at all, i quite enjoyed it and thought it was a bit chilling. So try not to get angry about it simply because of real life experiences.

Hope this helped.

[Dustiferous]

Maybe the warding spell against scrying could include warding Whispering Wind?  

That might actually be the opposite of what some people in secret meetings want, however.

[The Old Hack]

You already know that you shouldn't incorparate your own personal life and OOC shit into your IC PC.

I shouldn't. I agree with that. But certain things are so ingrained in me that I can't help it. In this case, they caused my outburst here to begin with and by now I know it was wrong. I'm only human and I make human mistakes. *sigh*

And kind of have an idea what you might have gone through in real life, and i'm sure it was upsetting; i also see your point of view however i think you are slightly over reacting in sense.

There was nothing 'slightly' whatsoever about my overreaction. With me it is full out berserkergang or bust. *tired grin*

Try and see it from this perspective:
You said earlier that it disrupts a pleasant RP atmosphere, however isn't this what makes a game fun, there needs to be conflict otherwise we would all be running around picking flowers and baking cakes, so to some degree, disrupting a nice pleasant atmosphere is cool.

And i think there needs to be some form of anonymous sending system, because its best to know as little as you can, i hate anything that gives me the opportunity to meta game, sometimes i don't wanna know OOC. For example when someone makes a sending for a quest, and there are a few people in the area you sub conciously go to the guy/girl who made the sending without realising cause you have seen their name OOCly in the sending system.

I have heard a few messages about this void thing and it didn't bother me at all, i quite enjoyed it and thought it was a bit chilling. So try not to get angry about it simply because of real life experiences.

Hope this helped.

It did, and thank you. As stated earlier, I'll try to control myself better. Unfortunately I sometimes lose my all too unstable temper over this kind of thing and then this sort of outburst results, and believe me, I'm sorry about that. My apologies to the forum at large for it.

~tOH.

[Nightshadow]

To be honest, a way with DM assistance of recognizing the voice would be nice. Spellcraft (using your casting ability, such as charisma for sorcerers rather than intelligence) versus their listen check, perhaps adding in half your bluff or a spell focus in transmutation bonus (or whatever school the spell is from).

That way, there's a way of 'countering' it, not a surefire way, but a way. Of course, it's relatively easy to find out who is doing it, I think I already know who cast the whispering wind spells you're speaking of, lol

[dev_chieftain]

I do agree with those who have said you can just ignore it if it's bothering you.

Also, if you're having a tough time with your temper in relation to the game, that's often the best time to step away for a little while iRL and go do something else. Spending too much time at the computer when something you are identifying as irrational is bothering you will only exacerbate the problem.

You should also know that whoever is sending these messages isn't targeting you, specifically. Whispering Winds is area effect in EFU! A productive way to use your frustration, even, would be to roleplay out your own fear as Ulfrin being severely bothered by this disruption in her life. Let her be a little more emotional than she usually is up front. Maybe her first step is to make sure she was not alone in hearing that; you could drum up a group of people to try to investigate the source of these mysterious whispers. Perhaps bring it to the Stygians, since to Ulfrin's way of thinking, these whispers are disturbing the peace. And well, the void is probably maybe sort of not so much something they're 'for'. Possibly. I'm-- I'm actually not sure.

The spell is a normal spell and the caster will have to rest (probably not for free!) after casting it. It has the same limitations as any other spell in the game. Unlike sendings, it does not cost 10G up front, but if you are sending a whispering wind from the Kingsman you might as well be.

Basically, I just want to chime in and suggest some ways you could handle this frustration and make it work for you. I like to see my fellow players happy, even though I'm not around much!

[Egon the Monkey]

From reading the spell description, it seems clear that the spell itself speaks the words, so it is meant to be a way to deliver anonymous info or threats. The great thing about this spell is that at the cost of a spellslot, it bypasses completely having to have Bluff to send hidden messages. This is great, as Bluff is a giant grey area on when people can notice you or not, not to mention that you can't avoid metagaming Bluff. Plus, being able to occasionally do something better than anyone else *if* you set up for it, is the classic mage ability. Since also the only non-evil familiar you canuse as a messenger is arguably a Raven (If you Rp it as actually mentally dominated so you speak through it), it allows non-evil mages to do more subterfuge or messaging.

If someone's doing this, either they're doing it from across half the map as untargeted IC aggression, in which case they're not a credible threat. Or they're doing it from within line of sight or recent observation, in which case you can whittle it down to mages or bards who went past recently or are hiding in invis.