Alleyverse Character Discussion

[Voidus]

24 minutes ago, Silva said:

I have a question about the "any characters exceeding the five PC limit are like special NPCs" thing.

Family members of characters. They've always been a little hazy with their existence. Not really NPCs, not quite PCs either.

For good reason I have never sent in bios for every Acute that exists in my head - it would be ridiculous especially since most of them are typically never seen (e.g. the Wered cousins). But in cases like with the Den of Thieves, many of them were around and active. In that particular scenario, I was RPing them all. At one point Sorana asked what they were, NPC or PC. I told her PCs that would likely not be used again out of CDS. For the duration of that thread, at one point I had control of 13 characters in the same location.

Trust me when I say that without that, almost none of them would have survived. Especially if Ark had had the ability to godmod them on occassion (no offense Ark). With this new rule in place, something like that becomes impossible. When family members are seen, the creator will lose the complete control of who they are based off of their head canon of backstory. I know most people don't bother creating comprehensive families for their characters, but I do. Every single one, with the possible exception of Gonev. 

The rule makes sense and is logical for most things and definitely is worthwhile to put in place, but this was just the one issue that sprang to mind. 

My suggestion would be to play charaters like that as NPCs in the CDS, that way they can't be killed by people godmodding them but can still provide backstory to your character. Bringing supporting characters into a combat situation is just going to be dangerous, my suggestion would be to talk to the people involved beforehand if you have a particular attachment to some NPCs.
There's also just going to be a certain level of trust that needs to be involved, if you make it clear that you want to keep an NPC around for story purposes I think it's unlikely that anyone is going to kill them, outside of sticking them in an active warzone and having them try to survive. But you will need to accept the small risk involved. Risk breeds tension and tension is the life blood of good stories. There's not a lot of tension in a bunch of immortal characters endlessly hurling magic at each other, the tension comes from what they might lose during the fight. I'd also hope that things like that cause people to be a little more cautious before just jumping into melee with every other character they meet, but that's more of a personal opinion

And if a player was making a habit of murdering NPCs just because they can then we'll likely be speaking to that player. Resolving conflicts like that is one of the reasons we have mods.

[Silva]

16 minutes ago, Voidus said:

My suggestion would be to play charaters like that as NPCs in the CDS, that way they can't be killed by people godmodding them but can still provide backstory to your character. Bringing supporting characters into a combat situation is just going to be dangerous, my suggestion would be to talk to the people involved beforehand if you have a particular attachment to some NPCs.

Er...well...

It's complicated. No one was stuck in a warzone literally. Well sort of. Either way there was a deal and a risk as a condition if some part of it was broken. Which it was, on my side.

The point I was bringing up was the ability of someone being able to say "and Joe stabbed Bob's brother" without Bob's creator getting a chance to say "but Bob's brother is actually a ___ and would dodge."

I understand risk is important and am sorry if it sounded like I was trying to eliminate that completely. That was not the case. In the future, yes, all family members I create will attempt to remain CDS solely (after Crow has been cleared up), unless like Freedom they become full PCs. But in the future there may be issues. Multiple times families have been brought into the RP for plot reasons. Damaya's for one, in addition to the Acutes. No one had the right to say "and then Damaya's mom spontaneously died" or something more realistic. She was controlled by Sorana iirc. Now that I'm really writing it out, it really is a completely seperate topic then anything to do with the 5 character limit. Just plain old NPC usage. 

[Darth Woodrack]

WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! Is Nohadans THftJ proposal accepted, because if it is, I will have Sarah flip between the otherside of the world, and that thread, making my characters fine! Also, I will have Gary there as well, as everyone, including me, forgot he existed.

[MacThorstenson]

17 minutes ago, Silva said:

Er...well...

It's complicated. No one was stuck in a warzone literally. Well sort of. Either way there was a deal and a risk as a condition if some part of it was broken. Which it was, on my side.

The point I was bringing up was the ability of someone being able to say "and Joe stabbed Bob's brother" without Bob's creator getting a chance to say "but Bob's brother is actually a ___ and would dodge."

I understand risk is important and am sorry if it sounded like I was trying to eliminate that completely. That was not the case. In the future, yes, all family members I create will attempt to remain CDS solely (after Crow has been cleared up), unless like Freedom they become full PCs. But in the future there may be issues. Multiple times families have been brought into the RP for plot reasons. Damaya's for one, in addition to the Acutes. No one had the right to say "and then Damaya's mom spontaneously died" or something more realistic. She was controlled by Sorana iirc. Now that I'm really writing it out, it really is a completely seperate topic then anything to do with the 5 character limit. Just plain old NPC usage. 

I agree with Voidus in that there is a certain amount of trust that needs to be had between players. That they won't take your backstory and characters family and murder them just because there isn't a rule against it.

Quote

The point I was bringing up was the ability of someone being able to say "and Joe stabbed Bob's brother" without Bob's creator getting a chance to say "but Bob's brother is actually a ___ and would dodge.

In addition, you are allowed to respond to a NPC being treated unrealistically. In the above example, its perfectly realistic to assume that Bob would see the sword coming and dodge it. Or, if they were a steelpusher, push away from it. Or if they were a gold compounder, just taking the hit. Objecting to unfair/unrealistic treatment of NPC's is good and allowed.

You can Retcon things if they are unrealistic. Like a gold compounder not tapping their goldminds after they got hit, or not a person not countering. In extreme cases mods will have to make a ruling, but not most of the time.

If there is uncertainty about whether a situation is realistic or not, I would suggest contacting a mod. That is part of the reason we are here after all.

[Voidus]

Yeah, the mods are here to intervene if there is any intra-player conflicts that can't be resolved between the two. If you feel that someone is playing an NPC unrealistically then mods are available to mediate that dispute.
Ideally this isn't used to give NPCs plot armour, just because it is within the realms of feasibility for an NPC to dodge a bullet doesn't necessarily mean that not dodging a bullet is unrealistic, they might try to dodge but fail. But it's also not an excuse for other players to godmod NPCs into doing completely unrealistic things, like a TUBA NPC suddenly defecting to the DA and giving up all of TUBAs secrets, that would be incredibly unreasonable.
 

7 minutes ago, Darth Woodrack said:

WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! Is Nohadans THftJ proposal accepted, because if it is, I will have Sarah flip between the otherside of the world, and that thread, making my characters fine! Also, I will have Gary there as well, as everyone, including me, forgot he existed.

If you set the thread in a different setting then yes the characters in there won't count. But from my understanding this was pretty intertwined with the Alleycity setting.

[Nohadon]

8 minutes ago, Darth Woodrack said:

WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! Is Nohadans THftJ proposal accepted, because if it is, I will have Sarah flip between the otherside of the world, and that thread, making my characters fine! Also, I will have Gary there as well, as everyone, including me, forgot he existed.

Great! Does that put you under the character limit? If so, @Arky-boi, you have eight characters, meaning you have to move, kill or make three NPC, I suggest we start by making Ronin count only towards my character limit, I suggest you move a character or two to the other side of the world or the hunt for the jackal, assuming they don’t come back when they feel like it.

2 minutes ago, Voidus said:

If you set the thread in a different setting then yes the characters in there won't count. But from my understanding this was pretty intertwined with the Alleycity setting.

Voidus what I think would happen is that the thread still stayed in alley city but it doesn’t impact other threads and the characters can’t leave it without adding to the limit, so it’s like other side of the world but closer. 

[MacThorstenson]

1 minute ago, Nohadon said:

Great! Does that put you under the character limit? If so, @Arky-boi, you have eight characters, meaning you have to move, kill or make three NPC, I suggest we start by making Ronin count only towards my character limit, I suggest you move a character or two to the other side of the world or the hunt for the jackal, assuming they don’t come back when they feel like it.

Ark PM'ed me and voidus about which characters he would like to cut. Its all sorted out.

[Nohadon]

1 minute ago, MacThorstenson said:

Ark PM'ed me and voidus about which characters he would like to cut. Its all sorted out.

Fantastic, meaning the issue has been resolved?

[MacThorstenson]

2 minutes ago, Nohadon said:

Fantastic, meaning the issue has been resolved?

Nearly resolved, still a few loose ends that need to be wrapped up but for the most part everything is good.

[Darth Woodrack]

4 minutes ago, Nohadon said:

Voidus what I think would happen is that the thread still stayed in alley city but it doesn’t impact other threads and the characters can’t leave it without adding to the limit, so it’s like other side of the world but closer. 

It won't stay in Alleycity, but won't affect other threads, except for the Citadel thread, and that is fine with me, the guy who runs htat thread, and pretty much the only one who rps there, am fine with that. The villains will raid it in a week or two. That's the only out of thread-potentially no participant impact.

[MacThorstenson]

53 minutes ago, Darth Woodrack said:

It won't stay in Alleycity, but won't affect other threads, except for the Citadel thread, and that is fine with me, the guy who runs htat thread, and pretty much the only one who rps there, am fine with that. The villains will raid it in a week or two. That's the only out of thread-potentially no participant impact.

Because following this could set a precedent for how different threads interact with each other, we decided to wait until everyone on the team can weigh in. We will look at it over the course of the next few days and get back to you soon.

RP according to what nohadon suggested until we get back to you with an official ruling.

[Fatebreaker]

Wow, that was a rollercoaster of a read. I applaud the mods for handling it as well as they did. It really comes down to being a good RPer and using common curtesy. 

I’m going to get a little real here, but I think this needs to be said. I am far from the most active member, but by my reckoning I am the 2nd most senior contributer to the Alleyverse.

This all began with a guild that @Voidus started around four and a half YEARS ago, before many of you were even members on the Shard. I’ve been a part of the DA since the 2nd week of its existence. I don’t say that to blow my own bugle, but to put my investment into perspective, and Voidus even more so. He has kept the guild going for a long time. I’ve posted with varying levels of frequency, as have many others who contributed to growing and changing the thread. We went from the smallest guild to a major one, and we began to see other guilds form purely to oppose us. Some merely opposed our methods or ideology and sought to present an alternative, while others actively sought to defeat us. The guild subforum changed as a result. 

But what made us different was that we persisted. There was a time when Voidus and I were the only ones keeping the thread alive with random intermittent posts that no one responded to. But then things began to change. New members began to join, new guilds began arising to oppose our renewed activity. Voidus became a mod, at least in part I must assume,in recognition of all the work that he put in across the various subforums. Next thing I knew, we had received our own subforum and an rp universe, all centered around the Dark Alley.

I didn’t post as much, the new setting wasn’t quite the same and my life had become increasingly busy with irl stuff, not limited to but including getting a degree and getting married. But I knew that even though the DA was changing, it was the continuation of something we had created that had entertained and intrigued others, that they could enjoy contributing to.

And Voidus was putting in more work than ever, curating and moderating a sub community within the larger Shard itself. Other mods have stepped up to share some of the responsibilities and contribute as well, and they’ve done a fine job of it. It’s o small feat to moderate a subforum of this size, with as many threads and members as we have.

So when I see comments about Voidus being tyrannical or complain about decisions he and the mods have made, I am mildly irked. Without Voidus this wouldn’t exist, and that’s a fact, though he is too humble to ever say so. This is the ALLEYverse. In my opinion Voidus could make a post one day stating that his character had wiped out everyone and it would be plausible. 

But, he would never do that because Voidus cares about good RP. He cares about the community he’s had such a huge part in creating.He wants everyone to enjoy themselves and the world(s) that have and are being created. The other mods as well care about this.  @MacThorstenson played a huge part in the revitalization of the thread and has made huge contributions to the current lore and world building. All of you have done something to contribute to the ever growing Alleyverse, and that’s awesome! But let’s keep in mind the parameters we accept by choosing to contribute to this subforum. The Guilds and Clubs subforum still exists. If you feel like this isn’t the right setting for the rp you want, you are free to relocate plots, settings,and characters there or to the other rp locations on the Shard.

I’m not trying to scare anyone away or tell them to leave, I just want to remind people that there are other perfectly viable options here on the Shard, many with the same people in this subforum. But if you want to stick around, let’s do our best to build something great, not just win against others. The Dark Alley has out lasted opposition from without and within. The Alleyverse will do the same. The mods aren’t trying to ruin your fun, but rather make sure that as many people as possible can have fun, rather than a select few. So be courteous to the mods who keep things running smoothly, and to the players who continue to grow this ever changing world. As far as forums go, these mods are pretty flexible and take a lot of input from non-mods. 

So let me applaud our hard working moderators for their gargantuan patience. And let me thank all of you for helping the weird sub community we created continue to grow and change.

After all, this has always been...

For Science!

 

TL;DR I’m old! Stop griping at Voidus, he made this. Stop griping at the mods, they’re trying to help you. Have fun, and try to make sure others are having fun too. For Science!

[+Ark1002]

7 hours ago, Fatebreaker said:

Wow, that was a rollercoaster of a read. I applaud the mods for handling it as well as they did. It really comes down to being a good RPer and using common curtesy. 

I’m going to get a little real here, but I think this needs to be said. I am far from the most active member, but by my reckoning I am the 2nd most senior contributer to the Alleyverse.

This all began with a guild that @Voidus started around four and a half YEARS ago, before many of you were even members on the Shard. I’ve been a part of the DA since the 2nd week of its existence. I don’t say that to blow my own bugle, but to put my investment into perspective, and Voidus even more so. He has kept the guild going for a long time. I’ve posted with varying levels of frequency, as have many others who contributed to growing and changing the thread. We went from the smallest guild to a major one, and we began to see other guilds form purely to oppose us. Some merely opposed our methods or ideology and sought to present an alternative, while others actively sought to defeat us. The guild subforum changed as a result. 

But what made us different was that we persisted. There was a time when Voidus and I were the only ones keeping the thread alive with random intermittent posts that no one responded to. But then things began to change. New members began to join, new guilds began arising to oppose our renewed activity. Voidus became a mod, at least in part I must assume,in recognition of all the work that he put in across the various subforums. Next thing I knew, we had received our own subforum and an rp universe, all centered around the Dark Alley.

I didn’t post as much, the new setting wasn’t quite the same and my life had become increasingly busy with irl stuff, not limited to but including getting a degree and getting married. But I knew that even though the DA was changing, it was the continuation of something we had created that had entertained and intrigued others, that they could enjoy contributing to.

And Voidus was putting in more work than ever, curating and moderating a sub community within the larger Shard itself. Other mods have stepped up to share some of the responsibilities and contribute as well, and they’ve done a fine job of it. It’s o small feat to moderate a subforum of this size, with as many threads and members as we have.

So when I see comments about Voidus being tyrannical or complain about decisions he and the mods have made, I am mildly irked. Without Voidus this wouldn’t exist, and that’s a fact, though he is too humble to ever say so. This is the ALLEYverse. In my opinion Voidus could make a post one day stating that his character had wiped out everyone and it would be plausible. 

But, he would never do that because Voidus cares about good RP. He cares about the community he’s had such a huge part in creating.He wants everyone to enjoy themselves and the world(s) that have and are being created. The other mods as well care about this.  @MacThorstenson played a huge part in the revitalization of the thread and has made huge contributions to the current lore and world building. All of you have done something to contribute to the ever growing Alleyverse, and that’s awesome! But let’s keep in mind the parameters we accept by choosing to contribute to this subforum. The Guilds and Clubs subforum still exists. If you feel like this isn’t the right setting for the rp you want, you are free to relocate plots, settings,and characters there or to the other rp locations on the Shard.

I’m not trying to scare anyone away or tell them to leave, I just want to remind people that there are other perfectly viable options here on the Shard, many with the same people in this subforum. But if you want to stick around, let’s do our best to build something great, not just win against others. The Dark Alley has out lasted opposition from without and within. The Alleyverse will do the same. The mods aren’t trying to ruin your fun, but rather make sure that as many people as possible can have fun, rather than a select few. So be courteous to the mods who keep things running smoothly, and to the players who continue to grow this ever changing world. As far as forums go, these mods are pretty flexible and take a lot of input from non-mods. 

So let me applaud our hard working moderators for their gargantuan patience. And let me thank all of you for helping the weird sub community we created continue to grow and change.

After all, this has always been...

For Science!

 

TL;DR I’m old! Stop griping at Voidus, he made this. Stop griping at the mods, they’re trying to help you. Have fun, and try to make sure others are having fun too. For Science!

That was... a great speech. I've already been swayed, but if I hadn't I now would be. Bravo!

[Darth Woodrack]

13 hours ago, MacThorstenson said:

Because following this could set a precedent for how different threads interact with each other, we decided to wait until everyone on the team can weigh in. We will look at it over the course of the next few days and get back to you soon.

RP according to what nohadon suggested until we get back to you with an official ruling.

Okay. I will.

[beantheboy12]

16 hours ago, Voidus said:

I'd put that at a -20 weakness, but I'm still a little unsure how I feel about the equipment so I'll leave sign off to one of the other mods.

I have actually just seen the backstory as well, not sure if that was always there but I have two concerns on that.
1. Stealing a shard? Assuming you mean a literal Shard and not a Shardblade/Shardplate then that's definitely a no-go
2. Calamity using them as an assassin. Calamity didn't tend to get personally involved with many Epics, not sure that I'd be ok with making that a part of a characters backstory. We generally try to avoid interaction with canonical characters because it makes things awkward.

Cool. I’ll change the backstory. It just happened in a different RP. So my character’s current score is 145 if the gun is 50. Is that fair? Can I submit him?

[Voidus]

16 hours ago, Fatebreaker said:

Wow, that was a rollercoaster of a read. I applaud the mods for handling it as well as they did. It really comes down to being a good RPer and using common curtesy. 

I’m going to get a little real here, but I think this needs to be said. I am far from the most active member, but by my reckoning I am the 2nd most senior contributer to the Alleyverse.

This all began with a guild that @Voidus started around four and a half YEARS ago, before many of you were even members on the Shard. I’ve been a part of the DA since the 2nd week of its existence. I don’t say that to blow my own bugle, but to put my investment into perspective, and Voidus even more so. He has kept the guild going for a long time. I’ve posted with varying levels of frequency, as have many others who contributed to growing and changing the thread. We went from the smallest guild to a major one, and we began to see other guilds form purely to oppose us. Some merely opposed our methods or ideology and sought to present an alternative, while others actively sought to defeat us. The guild subforum changed as a result. 

But what made us different was that we persisted. There was a time when Voidus and I were the only ones keeping the thread alive with random intermittent posts that no one responded to. But then things began to change. New members began to join, new guilds began arising to oppose our renewed activity. Voidus became a mod, at least in part I must assume,in recognition of all the work that he put in across the various subforums. Next thing I knew, we had received our own subforum and an rp universe, all centered around the Dark Alley.

I didn’t post as much, the new setting wasn’t quite the same and my life had become increasingly busy with irl stuff, not limited to but including getting a degree and getting married. But I knew that even though the DA was changing, it was the continuation of something we had created that had entertained and intrigued others, that they could enjoy contributing to.

And Voidus was putting in more work than ever, curating and moderating a sub community within the larger Shard itself. Other mods have stepped up to share some of the responsibilities and contribute as well, and they’ve done a fine job of it. It’s o small feat to moderate a subforum of this size, with as many threads and members as we have.

So when I see comments about Voidus being tyrannical or complain about decisions he and the mods have made, I am mildly irked. Without Voidus this wouldn’t exist, and that’s a fact, though he is too humble to ever say so. This is the ALLEYverse. In my opinion Voidus could make a post one day stating that his character had wiped out everyone and it would be plausible. 

But, he would never do that because Voidus cares about good RP. He cares about the community he’s had such a huge part in creating.He wants everyone to enjoy themselves and the world(s) that have and are being created. The other mods as well care about this.  @MacThorstenson played a huge part in the revitalization of the thread and has made huge contributions to the current lore and world building. All of you have done something to contribute to the ever growing Alleyverse, and that’s awesome! But let’s keep in mind the parameters we accept by choosing to contribute to this subforum. The Guilds and Clubs subforum still exists. If you feel like this isn’t the right setting for the rp you want, you are free to relocate plots, settings,and characters there or to the other rp locations on the Shard.

I’m not trying to scare anyone away or tell them to leave, I just want to remind people that there are other perfectly viable options here on the Shard, many with the same people in this subforum. But if you want to stick around, let’s do our best to build something great, not just win against others. The Dark Alley has out lasted opposition from without and within. The Alleyverse will do the same. The mods aren’t trying to ruin your fun, but rather make sure that as many people as possible can have fun, rather than a select few. So be courteous to the mods who keep things running smoothly, and to the players who continue to grow this ever changing world. As far as forums go, these mods are pretty flexible and take a lot of input from non-mods. 

So let me applaud our hard working moderators for their gargantuan patience. And let me thank all of you for helping the weird sub community we created continue to grow and change.

After all, this has always been...

For Science!

 

TL;DR I’m old! Stop griping at Voidus, he made this. Stop griping at the mods, they’re trying to help you. Have fun, and try to make sure others are having fun too. For Science!

Well, shucks. Now I'm all red. Of course that might just be the blood from my most recent experiments, but still!
Thanks @Fatebreaker for all your support over the years.
 

6 hours ago, beantheboy12 said:

Cool. I’ll change the backstory. It just happened in a different RP. So my character’s current score is 145 if the gun is 50. Is that fair? Can I submit him?

Personally I'm really not sure how to rate the equipment, if I was rating that as an Epic it'd be significantly higher than 50 points. I'll let one of the other mods have the final say on this one when they can get around to it.
@MacThorstenson, @Lord Meeker, @Kidpen, @Nohadon could one of you let us know what you think when you get a free sec?

[MacThorstenson]

9 minutes ago, Voidus said:

Personally I'm really not sure how to rate the equipment, if I was rating that as an Epic it'd be significantly higher than 50 points. I'll let one of the other mods have the final say on this one when they can get around to it.
@MacThorstenson, @Lord Meeker, @Kidpen, @Nohadon could one of you let us know what you think when you get a free sec?

How high would you rate it if it were an epic power?

I would call it 50 if in order to change types of ammo he had to change magazines and reload as normal and for the grenades and nets the reloading took a bit longer.

 

[Voidus]

Just now, MacThorstenson said:

How high would you rate it if it were an epic power?

I would call it 50 if in order to change types of ammo he had to change magazines and reload as normal and for the grenades and nets the reloading took a bit longer.

 

Depends a bit on the specifics but probably like an 80? They mentioned a freeze-ray, that alone is really powerful.

[Kidpen]

12 minutes ago, Voidus said:

Depends a bit on the specifics but probably like an 80? They mentioned a freeze-ray, that alone is really powerful.

@beantheboy12 is the freeze ray like Doctor Horrible or like Johnny Snow?

As in, shoots ice or stops things from moving?

[beantheboy12]

Uh... Gru's freeze ray.

Which I am fine with removing

[Darth Woodrack]

Keep it.

[Snipexe]

So question: can I make a lovecraftian magic system character?

[Snipexe]

Just now, Arky-boi said:

 

Yes?

[Darth Woodrack]

Oh yes, You have now met Mute Ark. This is my favorite of all the Ark's, apart from helpful Ark.Helpful Ark helps his frenemies, and is not a jerk. Mute ark, is not a jerk, as he never talks. Normal Ark talks over you all the time, and is very confrontational. Confrontational Ark will disagree with everything you say. My least favorite, is 'YOU DON'T LIKE THE EXACT SAME THINGS AS ME!?!' Ark, who will not let the subject drop, and will never let you be, unless you change your opinion.

[kenod]

8 hours ago, Snipexe said:

So question: can I make a lovecraftian magic system character?

What aspect of lovecraftian magic? There's quite a lot of it going around, and including aspects of lovecraft's mythos could have a big impact. I know we used it during the SDW, but the alleyverse has changed since then, so this might be something that would have to be put up for voting, and would probably require a lot of details, since not everyone here is familiar with it (I personally only know the basics).