Cauffee Tawlk - And Letters

[The Beggar]

I'm feeling verklempt.

I'll give you a topic: Tons of letters written only for DM response, though an attempt at marking your territory in a new game environment means you aren't interacting with PCs IG who may have those sweet bo staff skills, or skinning skills, or focuses on engineering / locksmithing, or any of the other number of cool EFUSS skills we can use to interact with each other, or as an aside possibly not using the cool forum we have set up to help the DMs keep track of our PCs progress to PC goals.

"Letters directed to DM response only, do they help us as a playerbase, or hinder us?"


Discuss amongst yourselves.

[Aethereal]

I call upon the tried and tested proverbial: Everything in moderation.

Beyond that, there are times when a letter to an NPC (DM governed) has its place.

If there is any at all chance that a player can answer the letter, it would be advised that it be sent as [DM/PC] - although I admit I am once guilty of answering a letter with the [DM] tag. And it turned out to be most appropriate of me to have done so.

I may as well link the example: http://www.escapefromundeath.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56699

[Jayde Moon]

Some things require DM intervention.  As much as we definitely want to push our plots in a way that includes other players and we want to discourage, to some extent, the sort of play that does not include other players... there are some things other players just can't help us with.

To boot, sometimes addressing something to an NPC[DM] is one of the ways we push forward an agenda expressly purposed to include other players.

If it makes sense, IC, then send it... but I'd be wary of overliberal use, because a lot of times it's just unnecessary and it may be that the DMs will eventually come to ignore requests from those who send far too many extraneous requests.

[GoldenArrow]

If the information can be garnered in-game by other means than harassing NPC's, by all means; however, to mirror the motto of another server, ADVENTURE AND INTRIGUE!  (I make no apologies; it's a good idea and I like quoting it).  Thinking in terms of player involvement, it's much more fun to hatch some plan or daring endeavor, or at least to track the DM down in-game for some sort of face to face interaction.

Harassing the DMs with NPC mail, in my opinion, should only be used to kind of flag folks down; ex. "Hey, look at me, I am trying to get in touch with this person and set up a meeting." as opposed to "Please answer this question."

Just my ten cents.

[Howlando]

Most of us don't typically enjoy keeping up with the Letters & Notes forum, but I have to say it's not been too bad lately with letters spamming. And for what it's worth, sometimes Letters & Notes is better for us than getting a NPC possession IG. It really depends on the situation.

But yes, generally it's good to try to interact as much with other characters as possible.

[Drakill Tannan]

I think the problem is that even if a PC agrees and has the materials and gold and time and whatever, you still need a DM to do anything, hence why even bothing looking for a PC that may not be arround, may die, when you can contact an NPC who does the same, and you'll need a DM anyway?