OOC faction knowledge

[Nickless]

...I really do not see the problem here. Even if this were an issue, which I do not think it is, you could always just make a poster, saying you're looking for a group of like minded XYZs, and then get recruited that way, or ask people in the street if they know of any XYZs. Also, the "public" DM factions that I've seen announced so far, have put up recruitment posters, and they have been mentioned in the rumours thread.

[derfo]

what is going on in this thread

[RIPnogarD]

What’s going on is a lot of people missing my point. I am not saying to announce secret organizations, on the contrary, I’m saying NOT to! Half of you are agreeing with me and don’t even realize it. Please read the dang OP before commenting.

What is the point of telling people there is a faction available OOC, when IG/IC your PC would not know they exist? And no matter how hard all the established faction PC’s try (they can all get gold stars for their foreheads for recruitment effort), it doesn’t mean they will find every PC that may or may not be interested, qualified or “tailored” to join that faction.

In a nutshell what I am asking is that if you are NOT going to make the faction known IG/IC, then do not make an OOC faction announcement post about it. Just play it off IG/IC and do your recruiting secretly! When players ask for PC concepts lean them towards your secret faction or something. Don’t make an OOC post announcing factions that to any PC concerned doesn’t technically exist. All it does is cause angst to the player behind the PC when s/he doesn’t find said secret faction without meta-gaming OOC info.


And you definitely cant say make a post asking for people of your ilk. There are so many types of personality that just plain wouldn’t do this it isn’t even funny (shy types, strong silent types, walk softly types, majorly evil would be arrested or killed types, etc.). Not to mention the illiterate barbarians that wouldn’t know how or want to do that sissy stuff anyway.

[Goblin Butcher]

Maybe it's not that these secret organizations aren't making a recruitment effort RIPnogarD maybe your character just isn't as fit for said faction as you think it is.

If you send an application for one of said secretive DM factions and the application/character good enough, DM's are more likely to create opportunities for you to run into n/pcs from the faction in question.

Taking the forgotten flower faction for example, if you play a sun elf as a sun elf ~should~ be played it seems to be me that your ~very~ likely to fit into that faction based on the ooc information provided, without any metagaming at all.

Also as has been mentioned before nearly all of the factions have been mentioned in the rumors thread at one point or another.

[Vlaid]

What’s going on is a lot of people missing my point. I am not saying to announce secret organizations, on the contrary, I’m saying NOT to! Half of you are agreeing with me and don’t even realize it. Please read the dang OP before commenting.

What is the point of telling people there is a faction available OOC, when IG/IC your PC would not know they exist? And no matter how hard all the established faction PC’s try (they can all get gold stars for their foreheads for recruitment effort), it doesn’t mean they will find every PC that may or may not be interested, qualified or “tailored” to join that faction.

In a nutshell what I am asking is that if you are NOT going to make the faction known IG/IC, then do not make an OOC faction announcement post about it. Just play it off IG/IC and do your recruiting secretly! When players ask for PC concepts lean them towards your secret faction or something. Don’t make an OOC post announcing factions that to any PC concerned doesn’t technically exist. All it does is cause angst to the player behind the PC when s/he doesn’t find said secret faction without meta-gaming OOC info.


And you definitely cant say make a post asking for people of your ilk. There are so many types of personality that just plain wouldn’t do this it isn’t even funny (shy types, strong silent types, walk softly types, majorly evil would be arrested or killed types, etc.). Not to mention the illiterate barbarians that wouldn’t know how or want to do that sissy stuff anyway.

It's rather insulting to say that half the people replying did not read your OP. Did you stop to consider they read it, and missunderstood the intent of what you wrote? It happens all the time, pull your foot off the gas for a moment, step back, and take a breathe.

You could do something as simple as let some of the players in the faction know OOCly that you're interested in the faction, so they can keep an eye out for you.

Sometimes it DOES take a little bit of OOC maneuvering between players to get each other together in the same place to have 'random RP' to get the gears moving.

On several of my PC's I've owed my success to someone else doing a little bit of OOC maneuvering to get me and them together in the right spot at the right time so we could meet.

 I guess some DM's might frown on this, but speaking as someone who usually plays in a time zone when if you do NOT do this, you are very likely to spend 4 hours walking around the module, never seeing another soul.

*shrug*

[DangerousDan]

May I just be the first to heartily state:

LOL.

Don't mess with the voice of experience, you worthless progeny of convicts.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

Don't mess with the voice of experience, you worthless progeny of convicts.

lol

[Goblin Butcher]

lol

Translation: Shameless post count +1

[Howlando]

OK, I am sorry if this is objectionable, but we as a DM team are insufficiently staffed to keep an eye on every character and steer the ones we like to the ideal secret faction. We're not playing a PnP game, we're playing a persistent worlds, with demands on our time that are beyond reason. There's an expectation that players sort of have to be proactive about things like prestige classes, factions, etc.

I don't think we have any DM factions right now that don't maintain an in-game, recruiting presence, so I don't even know what brought on this thread - but as an example, yes three years ago we did have a secret Vhaeraunite Thieves Guild faction. And yes we had some OOC info up about them. It was OOC, and helpful for players in forming concepts that might suit it well. It was such a specific faction (subrace + deity + concept), that there really was no good alternative... only telling people who ask us about the faction would hardly have been fair to the majority of the playerbase who might want a shot at a faction.

We do have a reasonable expectation that players can keep such knowledge separate, and yes there is a fine line between offering too much OOC knowledge vs. too little, but I really don't see a major problem here.

Anyway, I appreciate the suggestion though, and should we ever come up with a super-secretive faction we can consider either not posting about it OOC and/or labeling it so players can avoid it if they wish.

[dragonfire9000]

The greatest factions I've ever been in were ones I joined just after rolling up a generic character with a good background. I thought "Know what? I'm bored. I'm going to play what I know: dwarven fighter." And so was born the great drunken moron who took on a fire giant whilst wearing a robe, the vodka on his breath doing 5d4 damage per round! Ulgar Ulgarsson met up with the Mithrilsouls by chance, and I had a great time with him! Parto Colds, my last pre-Appetite character: rolled him up and ran smack dab into Rook, joined up with the Archibalds!

My point is, ignore the OOC blather and roll up what you want to play. Chances are you'll find a faction and have fun with it. If you have to force your way in, you probably don't want to be there. Unless it's a DM faction, in which case you pretty much need a crowbar and some tnt...

[Winston Martin]

Why don't you just apply for the faction at character creation?