Making Stargazers/Nature more interesting to play

[Vlaid]

This is in reply to this thread.

Only being on my second Stargazer (one in EFU:A, and one in EFU:M), I would like to make some suggestions to improve the quality of RP available to Nature, as well as the opportunity for RP to happen more naturally without the need to use IRC to ever see anyone.

Playing in nature, especially as a Stargazer, can feel brutally dull, lonely, and pointless at times. I don't mean to insult anyone when I say this (I've been guilty of it also) but often the only time Stargazers seem to form up together is to crush quests, but more often than not the couple Stargazers online are off privately, silently stealthing through the server for collection/alchemy/herbalism. RP just "Feels" harder to happen naturally.

That's not only my opinion but an opinion have I seen mirrored at times in other players as they get frustrated/bored and quit/kill off their Stargazers just so they can go back to playing in an area of the server that has a more dynamic and entertaining feel that DM's might care about or interact with more readily. I don't blame DM's for this, if I were a DM I doubt I'd focus a lot of attention on an area that wasn't terribly entertaining to play or watch.

Let's take a look at Mistlocke for a second and why it seems to function better. In Mistlocke you have all these factions with wildly different desires, goals and ambitions housed under the umbrella of Mistlocke, forced to work together (for Mistlocke) most of the time, and when not directly threatened, try to undermine each other to push their own agendas forward. Conflict, dynamic RP, things change quickly.

Now look at Nature. There's lots of divisions between the various circles and sections of nature, but for the most part they hardly ever see each other due to how physically, and factionally divided that area of the server is. There is no centralizing force or hub like Mistlocke for that conflict to take place in. You're expected to randomly run into each other. There's no great way to organically run into each other to rub elbows, meet each other, and ultimately help or oppose these different wild-themed PC's agendas.

I was considering writing up exactly how to accomplish a fix to this, but not knowing all of the factions of Nature well enough (nor the larger vision of the DM team for nature), I can't realistically do that, but I will offer one situation that I think would be cool. Try to focus on how it would change up day to day RP/conflict, and less on how the situation I am proposing would ever come about exactly.

Some force H'bala or otherwise, threatens Nature to some extreme extent. Several that when used together can protect the people who live in the wilds are needed. To this end some kind of council for this uneasy alliance forms, bringing the forces of Nature together in some new sanctified/hub area that they each claim a section of (imagine something like the Scars, but on a larger scale, all/most of nature having some wildly different agenda and role in wildling/nature community).

As for the location...The first idea that came to my mind is a newly discovered cavern of the Dell, using  it as a sacred grounds similar to holy ground in Highlander.

Most would be uneasy about entering into combat in the Dell, being wildly sacred and without the use of magic it could get quite sketchy. Different sections of this new, cavernous area could be claimed by different factions and fleshed out for this new central hub. You could perhaps have the Stewards take on the role of this singular faction governing over the uneasy alliance, with some groups threatening to pull their support out, but not actually wishing to pull the plug on the alliance for fear of dooming them all without having the strength of all the to protect themselves.

It would need to be carefully done so that the feeling is a community of individuals with different ideals (akin to the divided Mistlocke) and not a singular "team nature". I'm not sure if the situation I've described would be an improvement, but some variation of it where nature has some kind of more unifiying "hub" for RP to more organically occur is what I think is needed.

[Vlaid]

Well, had an interesting discussion in IRC after this post. I'll add it's possible the experience of playing in nature/stargazin' just isn't my style of RP, different areas of the server having the caveat of not all playing out the same and all.

Cheers.

[Valo56]

Stargazers are like villains in this way. Things are dull, until something happens, then it's like Christmas.

[Damien]

in a more constructive way i just feel like gazers are just a catalyst for other factions, i know without a doubt there is some rich history but some more dm support really would go a long way imo

[putrid_plum]

Nature and stargazers especially have rich lore and great potential awesome but really, most DMs don't want to support them with the attention i personally feel they should get, like everyone else, because they find nature boring to watch and also the hold hands be happy love team nature mentality.  Sadly, untill the DM team promotes someone who loves nature and is willing to focus specifically on that, nothing will change really.

[wcsherry]

http://www.escapefromundeath.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76405

I understand that it is difficult to play a loner/monster/hunted creature, but ShadowCharlatan and BigOrcMan summarized things nicely in this thread.

As Vlaid noted, players should consider the likelihood of a solitary exitence when playing a hunted, reviled creature as a PC.