Today's conflict

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

Please Lock This Thread.

[DaWarBeast]

This seems rather derailed!

[Mort]

This topic is interesting as it gives both side of a medal in a mature manner with miscommunication being the main thematic.

People should discuss it since miscommunication happen all the time and its important to be able to communicate intelligently and without resorting to insults or whiny threats.

I'll lock it however if people have nothing else but insults or flames to contribute with a forum ban for repeated offenders.

There is way too much antagonism at time over nothing, really.

[Razored Aria]

Let me start by saying I was not part of this conflict.  That being said, I feel like there are a lot of assumptions being flung around here.

One of the main assumptions being bandied about by the "everyone should be permakilled" crowd is that there is no conceivable reason this NPC group would spare people that attacked them.

Specialist Kedrian was following the character of the Stygian Armada. He was uncompromising to outrageous demands, while willing to be open to agreeable solutions. He would have traded the two Stygian PCs in exchange for Fishes + up to 1500 or 2000 gold, or similarly valued deals.

Now I could be mistaken, but it looks to me that the DM running the NPC group in the event established them as a reasonable lot that obviously see the value of hostages for the purposes of trading and such.

Those who would accept the TR would assume they were subdued and follow due course, whether it be jail or escape.

Sounds like the DM decided to act on this facet of the NPC group, which already stood to further the quality and depth of roleplay by setting up RP consequences that weren't merely an abrupt ending of everyone's story, and then took it a step further and allowed the opportunity for escape for some clever sneaky PCs.

The effect of this seems completely sensible to me, but more importantly it brought the dramatic conclusion of this story to focus on the instigating PC, making his death seem more significant, and not lost in the morass of a mess of other PC deaths.

Obviously it is also sensible for the NPC faction to not extend the sub-dual cutesy to the PC who murdered their brethren right in front of their eyes.

In the final analysis the thought process of NPCs is determined by the DMs, players can only guess.  If there is a question about the motivations of a particular NPC, I suggest discussing it with a DM to relieve confusion.

And for that matter, "fair" and "not fair" are mostly superfluous terms, since we all have differing notions on what is fair or not fair; but part of asking a DM to oversee an event is agreeing to accept their judgment as fair.  To me it is not "fair" to a DM to begrudge the judgment afterward when, especially in a case like this, the consequences ultimately rendered were known beforehand as a possibility.

[MexicanGunslinger]

The TRs were fair as core has said, the event was one made purely by PCs with a DM having to login because one was required, I do not understand why the people most upset about this were the ones not even involved.

[petey512]

Well said, Aria.

Really guys, how lame would it be if doing something as bold as taking two hostages at the gates didn't cause some change? I can understand if someone gets about five people to charge the gate and they get omgwtfpwned, but this is different. Jack captured two members of the stygian armada and held them hostage at the gate with a large regiment of men. By getting a large force of players behind you and capturing two other PCs important to the Stygian Armada, they have involved enough people to warrant change. Just because your attempts didn't work doesn't mean the DMs are incompetant.

Honestly, don't get outraged when something as awesome as this happens, just roll with it. Rather than get ticked about it on the forums, have your character get outraged at the Stygians for being too soft, or something.

I personally would have been very put out if everyone put their character on the line at the bridge and every single one got killed. That's like saying, "The Stygians are an elite group of soldiers that cannot be stopped any under circumstances, no matter how great and rich in RP you are, because that will derail our plot."

The way things turned out suggests that players can actually make a difference, and I prefer it that way.

[BigBadThief]

While the event wasn't perfect I don't think there is a way it could have been so. The Cavalry being spawned directly behind us without warning may have been a mistake and I would have -loved- to go and try to rescue Jackin but was told I couldn't.

The resurrections were fine (though perhaps not a True resurrection) due to the situation but I think one or two extras slipped through that had no reason to get a raise.

Either way the players initiated the events and should have understood what they were getting into when they basically assaulted the integrity of the Stygian Armada in public view.


Also, while I agree that letting people live and extending the conflict is a great thing to do there are times when it's just too IC for that to  happen. I believe that if Hoxie had killed the two Stygian players (that initiated an attack on him prior to the gates event) it would have been totally legit and Hoxie could have gone on to do more amazing things in the future. However, had he survived this event AND gone on to do amazing things it would have been even better, just a tricky decision sometimes.

[Portal Rat]

A year from now we'll all be sitting in #efu reminiscing about that awesome raid on the gates and why things were so much more fun in the good old days.