Casual faction for low-player periods

[trop]

Problem:
There are periods when the player count is dipping pretty low, due in part to time zones.

Goal:
Make it easier for people to jump in, find other players, and do something.

Suggestion:
Create a non-app player faction with a relatively simple "adventuring" theme. In these low-player periods, people can simply log onto their "adventuring" character, head to the faction hall, ring the bell (or make a sending), and gather up a simple quest group.

Discussion:
The goal of EFU has always been deep characters, intrigue, and inter-player conflict, all of which aren't promoted by a single catch-all faction. However, low-player periods are creating a cycle of low player counts: you log in, you wander around a little, don't find anyone else, and then log off to play some other game. This would make it easier to find, at minimum, a simple group to go on a scripted quest. This keeps players in the game; other players see a higher player count in Discord or EFUSL, and they log in, creating a virtuous cycle. Once you have a "baseline" of players, other players can take up antagonistic goals.

Other ideas:

   
• Bonuses for adventuring in larger groups, making quest rewards scale exponentially with more players instead of linearly
• Reduced XP penalty for deaths in large groups on quests

[TsunamiWombat]

Isn't this what people already do already? The real issue for low player periods is you can't get people together TO quest.

[trop]

I guess what I'm getting at is that you create the faction with the OOC expectation that "this is the off-hours or casual questing faction, an easy way to get people together. Make a relatively simple adventurer PC and join up."

[bobofwestoregonusa]

This isn't a serious issue at this point with the server population being as high as it is. I can find people to quest with at almost any hour.

[Ironside]

The EfU DM team takes pride in what constitutes a Faction on our server, and something like this just doesn't cut it.


I don't really see the point when sendings exist?

[Howlando]

PC adventuring groups and PC adventurers that encourage adventuring are great - I don't really see why a DM faction needs to be involved, though.

[trop]

At the risk of beating a dead horse, even after Howlo has weighed in...

I can still see a few benefits here:

Although my working knowledge of EFU is a bit dated, there have always been a lot of PCs that tend not to get deeply involved in plots and conflict. Examples include: players without a lot of time to play, players with inconsistent playtimes, players trying out mini-concepts or fun builds that may not be viable for "serious" high-level player conflict. There are players just enjoy the atmosphere and difficulty of the game and server, and I believe EFU's stance was that kind of player was welcome too (even if the goal was to hook them into the "real" stuff eventually!) This kind of faction might create a deeper sense of welcome and belonging for those players - moreso than the typical "square RP" that they have typically fallen into.

I think it also might benefit new players - imagine if that, after running the intro quests, the first other character they run into invites them to join a guild, gives them a tour of a guildhall, helps them dye their rusty armor, invites them on a quest...

I understand and agree with the general sentiment that the ultimate goal is to get players involved in the server plots, whether or not they are in factions, but I think something like this - maybe even with an explicit OOC statement that its for primarily new and time-limited players - could be a boon to the server's player count.

All that being said, I know the DMs have a better sense of the way things work, and I respect their judgment!

[Silvermoon_Dervish]

I'd like to chip in and say that one of the advantages of the new forums is its ease of creating new forums for player groups. Grab a few like-minded folk (I believe you need at least four) and post in a ticket if you find yourselves sticking together!

[ascendancy]

PC "adventuring groups" have generally had a history of being boring, uninteractive OOC quest crushers that don't really interact meaningfully with the server and its conflicts. There was even an attempt at creating a DM faction revolving around scouting and adventuring and it wasn't ever really up to snuff. With the huge uptick in player numbers, I feel like all of these things that you're talking about can be achieved as a PC group and, in fact, have been.


Since coming back to the game, I've been offered to join several "guilds" and be given a uniform by numerous PC groups. Sentinels, Armigers, Red Banner... all of these are either supported by a councilor with a defacto guild hall or represent PCs that have participated in big, sweeping, meta changing events of the server. Naomi Mekuria takes people into the Machine, spits religious rhetoric at them, and I've seen her frequently engage new players with the lore of the server that most of us take for granted as established truths -- things like the history of the Machine, the svirfneblin, the Chosen, etc. that we all "figured out" years ago. Even the new crop of Scriveners are making a faction that seemed mostly "dead" have purpose and oomph and presence.


I also feel like, in general, it's best for these "casual" players to get included in DM factions or these PC groups that are movers and shakers so that they have a cause or goal to dedicate themselves to, even if they don't necessarily have a personal one for themselves. Being a part of the "big three" factions is great, because these factions typically have established leaders (again, people who are movers and shakers that have been recognized by the DM team through apps or promotions) who can guide those casual players towards bigger things. An official "adventuring guild" would just distract from all the cool things going on and promote quest crushing, which I think should either be a means to an end or a supplement to the plotting, scheming, and roleplaying.


If you feel like these things aren't being done or represented, I feel like you might just not be looking hard enough because this sort of stuff seems everywhere with the new surge of players.

[Silvermoon_Dervish]

I think an adventuring guild-type concept could work if it focused on helping newcomers get to grips with group questing basics. From conversations and wiping- I mean observation!, I find that a lot of the time there's a lack of coordination resulting from taking things like healing party members or sticking together because encounters aren't like the official NWN campaign and take into account people functioning as a team for granted. Call it a "cavern survival guild" if you will, something more laid-back individuals that aren't, for one reason or another, willing to partake in the plot+intrigue side of things but wouldn't mind contributing towards helping the least skilled become fit for questing as a means to an end. This could be done with minimal DM intervention, in the spirit of helping people "git gud" as it were, since the big metaplot-changing goals often get to a point where mechanical skill will be needed to progress+survive. Otherwise, just casual adventuring is something that pretty much everyone does.