Doesn't keep me up at night.

I don't think we'll get stomped. It'll just always be a struggle at first being 1) new, 2) a scholarly/culturally driven society and 3) only having one guild.

The laws that have been laid down so far in Hallifax make it pretty clear that combatants will not be valued and that no matter how good you are or how much you contribute through raiding or defending, you can't make it past the middle ranks without writing reams of scholarly texts. That alone will = stompage.

Pretty sure Rika is starting to hand out candy to combatants creepy-man-in-van style.

So that's why Crocker wanted that physics paper idea...

I am?

The laws also give plenty of alternatives by which to grow to CR6. No one is excluded from these.

He has a fair point, though. Everything in Article I of the Caste Laws (where you are directed for promotion above the middle caste) is basically scholarly/artistic/prestige-based in nature.

There is no reason why the players can't just bend the rules a bit when they take over, though.

I agree with this. Combatants will inevitably be favoured up to some of the highest ranks even if they're not really allowed to be favoured. However, it's usually the quieter peoples (non-coms) who are ignored even when they achieve things in other aspects of Lusternia. The Caste Articles will ensure that they will not be overlooked.

Edit: There is also the special case in Caste Article IV.

Yeah it does basically go on to say "favours for anything and everything else are fine... as long as the leaders approve." Which gives unlimited freeway once enough people have reached those lofty height and given a bit of discretion. But it'll be slow going for some time.

Re: AllergicoSabres's RP post.

I agree that the histories predetermine somewhat the RP of their organization, such as 'traditional' New Celest with the Light, purity for Serenwilde, the Taint for industrial revolution-Magnagora, the Wyrd for maniacal Glomdoring, Gaudiguch's chaos and emotion theme, and aesthetics for Hallifax.

However, I believe that players themselves have the capability to determine what next RP road their organization is going to take. The best (though I expect a large outcry) recent outcry of this is the Communes vs. Cities war. It was common for the forests to unity once in a while when Maeve bleeds herself, but Sarrasri and Talan's choice to conspire against the cities was still a big step towards RP change. Razenth even considering turning to Nifilhema to help Raziela was pretty much the biggest decision - and then the choice of the Star Council to agree to the arrangement. Some say it goes against the predetermined roleplay of New Celest - but hey, I think it's awesome if we think that even our decisions affect the ongoing history-building of the game.

Okay, New Year's eve hype is seeping. Prospero año nuevo!

Hallifax seems to be a teensy tiny bit less uptight than you're all giving it credit for. Cririk's a 700 year old admin-played character - he's going to be cranky and uptight. Admittedly I think he's hilarious, because I picture everything he says coming out of a bureaucrat from Futurama (prom date papers need to be stamped five times not four times, etc).



Basically this. Both cities are still in set-up stage. Unless the admin are going to be playing the two characters forever - which seems highly unlikely - at some point either they'll step down or some sort of event will occur to make them vanish. A lot of the central RP may become set in stone, but many of the peripherals - the existence of city laws, whether combatants can officially be favoured - will almost certainly be altered.

I suspect they will vanish with the next guild that arrives, or sometime thereafter. I do not think the cities will be Admin-controlled forever, unless in the highly, HIGHLY unlikely circumstance that this is a social experiment for IRE to see how the concept would 'flow' - in which case, I question the wisdom of it when there was a brand new game capable of introducing the paradigm opened about two? weeks ago.

Really, I'd say don't sweat Hallifax getting stomped. If it's bad, we'll experience the typical 'underdog' effect that seems to be of a very cyclical nature in Lusternia. However, I worry that the skills of Aeromancy aren't exactly attractive to PKers. Sure, we have a very solid defense, but we've very little in the way of direct damage - this is replaced by a heavy load of afflictions that I occasionally worry will not be enough to overcome above-average players. I'm mostly drawing on experience from other combat situations, though. We'll pull something off, I think.

If I remember right, Viravain was in charge of Glomdoring for a while, so it really is to just help them get started.

That's what I worry too. The way I've seen Aeromancy ever since I joined the guild is a (powerful) mix of Aquamancy and Geomancy. It has a relatively strong offense and a really strong defense, but no focus. We need capable combatants so we can know a better focus for Aeromancy.

That saying, Aeromancy is still way better than Aquamancy

Diplomacy never works, but it never gets old to try.

Fear my Diplomancer power!

I feel obligated to point out how that whole mess turned out in the end because some people tried to enact uppity roleplay values with absolutely no fighting force to back it up.

Personally I really -like- the whole bureaucrat thing going on in Hallifax and would like it to stay that way. Im not very authoritarian in real life, but its hard to find any roleplaying environment where one can let the inner neat freak reign, articles regarding insignificent details and all. The whole idea regarding a caste system is to me absolutely horrifying in real life (I have a friend from India who knows a bit regarding its applications in real life) but also very interesting in a make-believe setting. I really hope it wont just lose the whole "serious business" angle it seems to have right now.

If anything, i'd like it to be more uptight and bureaucratic.

Thats just my thoughts on it though.

Don't judge Magnagora by Gaudiguch's actions! Those kids are yours now don't give them back! *Flee*

I agree, standing around with few people talking to one another in any means that are moderately expressive is making it a very fun city.

:|