Spice and Salt

[Kinslayer988]

Hi there everyone. Recently there have been a great amount said on scripted quest DM spice that have been bad and I understand where my fellows are coming from. Why not some encouragement? I decided I would put some of my favorite quotes on spice for everyone to see. These were taken from the early Mistlocke era and have stuck with me since:

Few players complain at being left a bit down in supplies if the result was some memorable and interesting RP or plot advancement. There's more rewards than mere Loot and XP. However, when it looks like a DM's decided to challenge you and liven up a quest or something and the result of using everything down to the kitchen sink is "You get to live", it leaves a bad taste. You wonder why you didn't just turn tail at the first sign of spice, rather than face the challenge.

Well, you can. But I'd bring you the concept of delayed gratification. If you rock out a challenge, and do not receive an instant gratification of xp/loot/pat on the back. Be stoic. These things happen, and they are a good judge of character.

Your attitude is extremely important. Making forum posts to subtletly complain or talking to your buddies how so and so DM is after YOU is a great way to ensure you do not receive anything!

I know I've ran events in the past and went : "Wow, these guys really struggled, and didn't complain. The reward seemed light. Maybe I should throw them a custom quest, in a few days when I'll have time, for so and so and design loot custom to them", only to go look in the logs to remind me who went and see they had been bitching in tells the whole time about how I was trying to kill them -- along with many other paranoid fantasies.

Did I feel any sympathy for them at that point? None.

Did I want to waste 5 hours of my life designing loot/quest/story centered around them? Hell no.

So, yes. Maybe you wont be rewarded IMMEDIATELY for spice, but dont despair! Keep up the good attitude and you'll see other forms of reward -- That's what most people understand that having a good relation is its own reward and not worth bitching over 250xp more, a few potions, or an alignment shift of 3 evil points, and that there might be other benefits that are intangible and that you do not immediately notice when you travel a tough time and keep your cool.

Without the risk of death, EfU is nothing more than a meaningless procession up to high levels.  For any success to be worth it, you have to have beaten the odds, and survived situations which were anything BUT a certainty.

The risk of death has to be there, always, or EfU is not as special a game as it can be.

It's like the difference between playing poker for fun and playing Poker for real money.

Shit's just more intense dawg.

Supplies are meant to overcome the hardest challenges on EfU.  If you're holding back to hoard for the occasional PvP, then what are the DMs spicing you supposed to think?  We balance our spice, and DM quests based on the supplies you have.  If you hold back, then the only person at fault for your deaths is your own self.  And if the challenge is so slim that you don't have to use any significant supplies, then how is it a challenge at all?

Typically if you're not getting rewarded very well, then there are several possible reasons.

1.  You had a near wipe(Most likely not due to not using the aforementioned supplies or as a result of your IC choices) and the DMs had to use some Deus Ex Machina to save you.

2.  OOC attitude.  Players give us an attitude all the time about all sorts of 'negatives' to our quests:  We used to many supplies.  One of us died!  We hate your DMing style.  We hate X.   If we're getting this sort of attitude from players, then why should we feel that we ought to take the event we're doing to completion?

3.  IC circumstances:  If you kill that NPC we took the trouble to try diplomacy with you, then its not likely that you'll be rewarded in the same way.  We certainly allow for players to do what they want, but you have to realize that every action has a reaction, and consequences have to be accepted.

If I'm spicing you, its because I'm considering that maybe, just maybe, I think your PC is cool enough that I might DM for you in the future. I save my hardest spice for the players that I respect the most, and usually reward well.

If I am given attitude because you used too many supplies in a minor 'spice' situation, then why would I want to consider running a full blown quest for you?  Food for thought.

Hope this is helpful to some and answers some questions/frustrations some of you have had on spice. I also hope that this improves your experience and your perspective of DM spice.

[Zango_Unchained]

These are my considerations on the topic.

Risk and reward are important aspects to EFU, they have varied in each chapter and as players begin to understand the quests you notice supply levels beginning to return to old levels. Now this may inspire

"Ugh, the "quest crushers" are ruining my fun by being too crushy and bland for me to handle. Guess I need to quest crush to get on that level so I can keep having fun."

Or

"Ugh, I can't survive on dm quests because I don't spend hours of my life wasting away on quests to get the supplies I need"

Even

"Ugh, this is dumb, the grind is dumb, I just want to be a powerful pc without having to tear my hair out doing quests ten million times and wasting my time just to die from "unfair spice" and "quest crushers". I deserve this high level or loot."

Now, all there of these comments I have heard in various forms. A common line within these is that there are things that other people have that other players do not have and this upsets them.

Something I've noticed in the case of realism in a game,

[Hide=But this is dnd and that means its a fantasy so realism doesn't matter..]
Before you go "This is dnd and realism doesn't matter because magic, gods are among us, ect, ect." then I suggest you then consider this, that rp and server setting is based on the "rules" of commonly agreed on baselines that are prevalent within the story. Such as dangerous things can kill me, the world is over, my groups hub is maybe safe, I need to interact with others to survive in most cases, and that not all risks equate equal or greater reward.
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Risk does not always equal reward.

If you take the risk you gamble for a equal or greater reward. Sometimes this doesn't work out, you're also competing with dozens of other adventurers for limited resources and treasures to push your agenda. You take these risks for the chance at greater rewards. If you don't get them then you pick up the ashes and head home and plan your next move. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.

Heroes and villains aren't made in hours they are made in weeks, they do not rise to power with a easy and clear cut path but they work their way there with great efforts in plotting, questing, and a bit of luck which makes them what they are.

This also goes to say that a pc doesn't deserve anything ICly, the concept of deserving something for your efforts is an OOC thought you hold. Because when you go on a quest you have no idea ICly of the rewards you may reap unless you were promised something ICly before hand. When you raid the base of a clutch of sharkmen or a beholder hive, you expect them to have potent relics and tools that augment their considerable abilities. Expect is not the same as the reality of the situation. Sometimes the dice don't roll in your favor and that doesn't only happen in combat.

If you feel that you may deserve something and you wish an ooc way to pursue it then I highly suggest you apply for it and if the dm team agree that you do then they will indulge your request. That is what apps are there for.

[Hide=The bolded words]
I bolded "Risk does not always equal reward." along with "Gamble" and "Chance". Dnd is in blandest terms story-gambling in which you roll for near everything to give it a real and living feeling to risk it all for something of importance and use to make your person rise above the common man. An adventurer's life is a massive gamble in nearly everything they do for a living.
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