It's Time, Roleplayers.

[imported_Coldren]

Greetings, fellow Role Players, both from Catskills and abroad. I've come forth to make a very modest proposition, but substantial in scope.

With the advent of advanced housing customization, Malas, and overall changes to the game, I feel RP communities on all shards have become fragmented - geographically, to be specific. We all have our respective taverns, towns, and sites on our respective facets and shards that hold special significance or accent our unique styles. This is, of course, a crucial part of our communities, never to be understated.

However, to make ourselves even more distinct,and to make players and elements of our respective communities easier to locate and differentiate, I think we need to agree on a common city where we will (hopefully) conduct the majority of our daily activities (Going to the Bank, getting a drink, looking for a smith, Stabling Pets, **RP** Trade and bartering, etc.).

To this end, what I purpose is that instead of spending any appreciable time in Luna, that we instead look to an old world city to gather, specifically Trinsic. Anyone familiar with PGoH may say that I am biased in my choice, but I suggest this city specifically for the following reasons:

1) It's Rich History - Trinsic, in my time, has been one of the more "Culture Friendly" cities in the game for RP'ers. Many an RP guild could always be found (At least on Catskills) within the city walls in it's prime, with a minimal amount of "KooL DuDEZ", which tend to congregate at centers of commerce in order to hock their wares.

Also, Prior to Luna, it was the home of the Paladins, a pivotal element in a great deal or RP lore. It was also, of course, the location of the first city invasion in Sosaria. I believe it was also the home of Dupre (if memory serves). This allows for a rich building of RP scenarios based on existing or pre-establish, universal, and commonly recognizable lore when needed.

2) It's Size and Physical Layout - Some may say Brit or Nuj'lem or Moonglow. However, I feel the smaller size and, in my opinion, cleaner layout serves the city well. Everything is relatively close together, without feeling too cramped. Everything is within a clearly defined border with it's towering walls. It has many open structures which could be used for various RP purposes in sensible, but non-obtrusive locations.

3) It's Location - It's on a peninsula, with swamps to the south and woods to the north, mountains for mining, and it's well-defined walls are easily located from the moongate within one or two screens, making it easier for the new player to find. Its near an anti-virtue dungeon for adventure seekers (And whatever they call that cave just due west.. Can never remember it's name..), has light outdoor spawns to train against, which in turn makes it easier for new players to train and harvest our bountiful resources. And of course, it's relatively close to Brit, and the ruins of Magincia are a command away from our docks.



Now you may ask your self, why bother? We all do our own thing now and it works fine. However, I'd like to make the following points:

1) I'd think it's serve the RP community well to further distinguish itself from other communities within the game. This is not to say, alienate other communities or figuratively thumb our noses, but rather add a greater, unifying unique element of our own.

This way, those who want to see and feel that difference have a very easy point of reference, no matter what shard or facet they play on. They can see if it's a community they'd like to be involved in first hand, without wild goose chases or wondering if someone just isn't online, inactive, or if the community is flat out dead. They'd be walking in to an area KNOWN to be inhabited by this sort of community, so those who wish to segregate themselves from us can easily avoid the location if needed.

2) The greater RP community could easily benefit from being closer together, geographically.

As an example, ever wonder what kind or RP events, alliances could be formed, or stories could be generated when a guild of Paladins frequent the same city walls (For different reasons, of course) as a guild of Vampires/Necromancers? Maybe the wars between these guilds is so intense, it makes others want to get involved and chose a side?

By increasing our exposure and interaction with other RP guilds of different backgrounds and styles, without the clutter of "BUYING" or "SELLING" yells, on neutral ground, knowing that we all share a common interest, we can all grow stronger as a community. This would help us retain our numbers, as well as help it grow in ways that we couldn't as separate entities.

3) Consistency and Notoriety. Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to memorize the names and locations of guilds to find fellow RP'ers? Wouldn't it be great if a player could walk on to a facet for the first time, say they want to get into an RP guild, and EVERYONE would give the same answer, no matter what shard they went to?



Mind you, none of this is to make our current gathering locations or cultures obsolete. The purpose of this is to give all RP communities on all shards a central starting point, a unified approach we can all agree on and help to build.

What say you?

 

[imported_GalenKnighthawke]

I see and understand the argument.

My thoughts here are not so much on the proposal itself, but.....Well, read on, and see.

I am generally weary of proposals that seek to find some new "system" or (please excuse this word, it's all I could think of) "gimmick" for roleplaying.

Roleplaying to me is, simply, pretending to be your character when you log on.

Communities and systems and "gimmicks" develop from that impulse. Not the other way around. And the issue is that fewer players are having that impulse, for whatever reason.

On Europa, for example, RP has clustered around Vesper (and Cove by extension), Trinsic, and Yew. (Though this was years ago and may be outdated.)

On LS in the day it was, literally, all over. ALL over. Even at the West Brit Bank.

Ironically, though, some players on LS are indeed attempting to start something in Trinsic, based around the idea that Magincian refugees are taking up residence in Trinsic, their presence is not always welcome, and a new Mayor in Trinsic is granting himself dictatorial powers in response to the issues associated with the refugees. (Also ironic is that I expect my character Galen's role in these events to be relatively slight.)

I have passed this thread along to those players.

Again, I'm not criticizing your proposal.

Just....Well, the post speaks for itself.

*salutes*

-Galen's player

 

[imported_Coldren]

And to a degree, I do see your point. It may seem like a "Gimmick" (Just to use your phrase.. I understand what you mean, and it's all I can think of also..) in that context, but my post, I feel, specifies why I think one is necessary.

There are people who want to join such communities and, in essence, extend that "impulse" to play their character when they log on beyond themselves. They want to easily find others with a similar impulse, and interact with them. This simply facilities these impulses that SOME players have.

Not everyone wants to join such a community or see it grow beyond themselves when the log on to their character, and that's perfectly fine. They'll RP when the opportunity presents itself, and farm/pvp all the live long day until it does. Absolutely nothing wrong with this.

However, some of us do. To give a small insight into my perspective on the problem..

When I came back a few months ago, I remember looking on the forums and asking guild members (When they were on) about locations and events in regards to RP. They mentioned several taverns.

Great! Finding them, and finding someone IN them was much more challenging. Sure there were events, and sure, sometimes depending on the day of the week, you could find players with SOME consistency in these locations.

However, this all happened within very narrow time frames. I can't imagine someone coming to this game without the foreknowledge of where to look on forums, or a guild member to ask.. They'd think the RP community was bone dry, and the population consisted solely of Luna players and soloers. And might I add, having very limited time to actually PLAY the game made the idea of going to to seek these kinds of encounters even more inhibitive. If I had 2 hours to play that night, and felt like RP'ing, I'd count on at least 1 hour of going out to find people to RP with, even in a guild, IF such an opportunity was to be found at all.

I am now on break from UO (Payment/Time issues.. but I'll be back soon!!), and I can tell you that in the 8 months since I came back, I spent about 70% of the time on my smith in Trinsic (Mostly to gain.. Heh.. Legendary takes time). The rest, I'd go out to Luna, Brit, NJ, or to taverns for a half hour or so, looking for a populace to RP with.. I can think of 1 non-planned occasion where I had the chance to RP out of the 4 that I can recall.. Again, maybe it's just my perspective - Maybe no one sees a problem with having to expend such an effort to find like-minded players, and that's their preference. Maybe my hours are just bad, I don't know.

It just made sense and seemed obvious that in the face of a declining population, when open RP at random will continue to be less frequent, that the community could benefit from such a "gimmick".

 

[imported_GalenKnighthawke]

To rephrase my initial response (which I worry is being misconstrued as a criticism):

1. Though I disagree with the argument for the system coming first, I understand it in light of the situation we are in. (Fewer people seem as interested in RPing as they once were, those few of us left are scattered, etc.)

2. I'm saying nothing about your or any other specific idea or suggestion or proposal.

3. Simply put I get nervous about making the system first. (See 1.)

4. Ironically, there are attempts on LS to get something going in Trinsic, and I've sent this post to the people leading that effort.

-Galen's player

 

[Nicland]

I agree making folks geographically close is key to successful RP community. I have taken it in another direction. I have created a town on chessy that houses 40 plus friends/guildmates/RP'ers. When a spot opens up, I find someone to move in. It has really worked well with keeping folks active and intersted in game. When my town is full and no plots to be had, I try and get folks to move into the other towns in our alliance. Most days when you stroll through town you see friendly faces.

i would like to see some of the old towns used again, I miss old days when folks identified themselves with a particular town.

 

[imported_Phaen Grey]

On Catskills, Skara Brae has been used as a general Sosarian city to do business in, I see members of the roleplay community there often; two years ago I moved from Napa Valley where Britain was the place to find roleplayers. A large portion of the comunity on Cats are located around Yew and use the bank there though Yew is not well equiped for other business transactions. Larger guilds tend to use the city closest to their towns/homes.

I can't speak for any other shard than the one I play on, but Pitr and GRI have worked with many new players on Catskills introducing them to the RP community and directing them to some of the more populated towns/areas. Many of the Roleplay guilds have hosted events or played out parts of stories in New Haven to show new players that the community exists and introduce GM's to those who may be interested in joining in.

I think the statement for any roleplayer, that you are your character, when you log in be your character and do what he/she would to meet new people if they would do so and introduce them to areas of interest is the most viable option to "advertise" a roleplay community. Play the game in character and as a role model others will follow along as they are interested.

As members of the community we can do things to make it easier for new players or old ones looking to be part of the RP community. At the tavern I run I have a message board posting recurring event times, like weekly tavern nights, and runebooks to other player run establishments and towns. In character communication is key, and easily shared and I have seen the Catskills community slowly grow over the past two years I have played on this shard with the willingness of the players to be supportive of each other and share thier time with those who come along.

 

[imported_Coldren]

Phaen: That's exactly my point. Look at all the places you named, just for Catskills alone? I only knew of a few player run establishments.. Skara Brae? When did that happen?

Again, this is all just a suggestion that would never happen, but a guy can dream.. Be cool if Dev's declared one old town the RP town, officially in some sort of description somewhere...

 

[imported_Phaen Grey]

Like I said, I moved from Napa to Cats 2 years ago, in Oct. 2005, and Skara was the city to find RP'ers in. New players have to start in New Haven, and can be directed from there to Skara as they mature, and/or any of the other player run towns to find the community. Its up to us as players who wish the community to grow to be available some of our time to give directions, interact and create stories with anyone who comes along. One city would never be sustained with conflict between factions/races, eventually each faction would find thier own place to be; but if we work to make the rp experience worth a new players time, they will continue to seek us out.

 

[IronHorse]

Thanks Galen for passing this thread to me.

Well on LS a small group of us are attempting to pull together some of the more rping minded players and try to breath some life back into the once great City.
Hopefully if we can create enough active rping then it will spread out to various other cities,time will tell.
heres a link to what we have started,its not much so far but its a beginning.

http://www.uoforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=958

 

[Stoutblade]

This is a very large topic and part of a much larger debate that's been going on for quite some time. I do have to say that it would be nice to see an actual city with activity.

One problem that hasn't been talked about much, however, is the sheer amount of things there are for players to do these days. Back in the heyday of the RP Community (at least what I consider the heyday) the only things we had were the original anti-Virtue dungeons, some mountains for mining, and lots of places to get PKed in between. There was no Trammel much less Tokuno, Malas, or even Delucia and the rest of the Lost Lands. The result was that people naturally focused less on going out and more on staying in, so to speak.

Now, however, there are all kinds of lands and, what's more, all kinds of things to do and see. There are all kinds of quests to do, Virtues to achieve, dungeons to crawl through, BODs to complete, and so on and so on. This not only gives players more geography to travel over it gives them more reason to do so. There just isn't as much of a need to keep ourselves entertained anymore because the devs do it all for us. Personally, I haven't fully made that transition. While going out is fun it just doesn't compare to the old days. Many new roleplayers, however, have either transitioned or come into the game more or less as it is now. They don't even know the rewards of logging on, going to a certain spot and more or less immediately running into another roleplayer who is interested in interacting with them.

Obviously I have not touched on this proposal itself but this reply is getting rather lengthy and I think it's something necessary to consider while we're discussing the matter of what the community currently looks like and what it ought to look like. I think ultimately the solution may be that older roleplayers (such as myself) may have to pick a place (and perhaps even one single server) to form something that's more akin to the old community while those who are new or who have adapted and enjoy the current state of the community continue on as they are. Who knows, maybe after this first step newer players may come check it out and join us...

 

[Gildar]

Yes, finding other roleplayers is a problem at times, especially for people new to a particular shard, and something should be done to aid that... but I think your approach is wrong.

Telling people they should break character (or change their character in a way other than what they feel most comfortable with, or make a new character) so that there is a common location for all roleplayers is a good way to make many people mad, and many people blindly follow. It splits communities, as has been demonstrated by this exact same request for a "common location" many times over (and those were all just for a single shard, not all roleplayers on all shards).

Also, pushing for most roleplay to happen in a city that has almost no reason for any non-RPers to ever go to limits the opportunity for people to go "Hey... that RP stuff looks fun, maybe I'll give it a try!", because people who would otherwise be hanging out in Skara, New Haven, Britain, Luna, or Umbra will shift to Trinsic.


I'd suggest, instead, that there be some way for RPers to go "I'm thinking about heading to <shard>, but I don't know where to find RPers there... let me check <universal location> to figure out how I can find them." Could be some place in the game, could be a chat channel in game, could be a web-ring, could be a single website that holds all the information, could be a single website that gets updated with RP-community links organized for each shard... but something that makes it so people can easily get up-to-date information on where people on a certain shard are likely to be RPing at any given time. It removes the need to remember locations, but lets people continue RPing exactly the same as they always have.

 

[Guest]

Can't say I haven't had similar thoughts, we've setup a Wiki over at the UOCommunity Website in an attempt to bring the various roleplaying communities from each shard together, and as a general resource for playing multiple shards, or new folks showing up with interest.

Most of the information there is on Catskills/Pacific and a bit of LS. Always be great for more to get involved for archiving and updating information on whatever shard you play on.

~Rai

 

[Lady Lustivia]

Wow Coud, i do believe this is the very idea i proposed at the council meeting...

Only that to combine a lot of the RP'rs into one city, that was player run adn could be built around the RP'rs specific species/race. Though i went a step further along in this plan and had a city set up, Paxoku on chessy shard. Already buildings are being made for meeting places and homes for each separate race and culture. It is an established city as well as having the ability to be changed to suit your needs...

It was and still is my hope (despite this other tangent) that by having one location we can strengthen those vet RP'rs spirits and enthusiasm as well as interest new blood into joining the RP'ing experience. Although i think it will be hard for some to leave their shard, i am hoping that by combining Enough RP'rs we can create a strong base from which to renew and strengthen and hopefully do so to such a degree that ALL shards are effected and rejuvinated.

I had a great turn out at the first Secret Council discussing this with Coldren as well as some others from other shards. I am hoping at the next council meeting there will be even more there and we can start taking the steps to solidfy and reunite some of our RP'ing community.

I miss the day of seeing entire clans of Vampyre and Drow families, and hope to bring back a city where you can not walk down the street without running into someone of a different race or culture. I'm hoping that bringing new players or even older players who just looking for something new through such a town will inspire more RP'rs to develop and maybe invigorate vet RP'rs such as yourselves.