Hrm. I have three Seren alts I could bring out of retirement in order to work on Seren. Should it be my shofangi, my moondancer, or my spiritsinger?

The snuggly one.

Sorry, I don't have one of those.

You should totally try to BLAMO! them.

Then you're going to be the kid with cuddies.

Close but not exactly. You have to learn a bunch of stuff to fight, cure, etc. without choke. Then, when you're done, you have to do almost but not quite the same amount again to learn to do the same stuff in choke. Hence, almost double. (Though since many people just get a system that handles much of what you have to learn to start on combat for you, and the system generally doesn't handle choke for you, one could argue that for the average combatant, choke requires more learning than all the rest of combat put together.)

As a Glamours Bard, if you believe that learning how to fight in Choke is hard. I seriously suggest taking a page from Narsrim's book (he had no problem in it and as far as I know, didn't have curing in Choke either). It's a matter of being more offensive than the other person which is very much doable. Especially since Slaugh now gives Disloyalty. That makes it even more difficult if you have that bird of yours spit Hadrudin at the Shadowdancer repeatedly because then they have to spend time sipping love AND ordering their offense to hit you again. This gives you time to Transfix, lay down your passive offense, octave, go for bardquisition, and so forth. I can think of many things I would do to a Shadowdancer as a Spiritsinger if I was choked.

The only classes that have room to complain about Choke:
Paladins
Maybe Celestines

And that's it off the top of my head.

EDIT: And I can still think of things to do to chokers as those classes.

Celestines have no reason to complain.

Actually it was Ijen, who is now gone. And people like Tandrin, who remain, but I was specifically thinking of Ijen.




This just baffles me. Sarrasri has never once approached Aubrey about any concern she has ever had whatsoever. Before you go slinging mud at us here, why don't you try, oh I don't know, a single RP conversation, at least? Since you say it's not just Sylphas. There are only three of us. Frankly if you don't want to play while "these people" are leading, good riddance. Aubrey and Sylphas have been extremely open about their work. They post updates to the guild, they ask for feedback, they make referendums, Sylphas tried to get more rituals going to boost culture and a sense of community, Aubrey has gotten empty positions finally filled and redone the novice process. She's always asked for feedback from the guild. Few ever post their thoughts publicly, but they come to her privately and she always thanks them for doing so, and tries to resolve any concerns they have. You wouldn't know that since Sarrasri has never done that (I guess she's above that? "I've been here forever" is her excuse to do anything she wants, so I gather she has no regard for the fact that "these people" are the current elected leaders, but if she'd swallow her pride long enough to try a civil discussion with Aubrey, she might be pleasantly surprised, and at the least be justified in criticizing her leadership). I'd like to know what you loathe so much about her leadership. But I guess Aubrey will never find out since you've never spoken a word to her, and I'm not going to RP it here.

EDIT: Saying "I know there is tension between Sarrasri and Sylphas" would be a vast understatement, but that's the only reason I can think that Sarrasri might hate Aubrey. And that's silly. Sylphas and Aubrey aren't the same person. We view the game differently OOC, and we play it differently. We don't always agree with each other, or approve of each other's decisions. It might be wiser for Sarrasri to stop judging Aubrey based on another person entirely, if that's what's going on. Not saying it is, it's just that I'm at a loss for other possible explanations. Sarrasri was pretty nasty toward Aubrey on CT during that Construct discussion a short while back, so I know there's some hostility, I just don't know why, since that was the only interaction they've ever had that I can recall.




I'm pretty sure I mentioned a very similar incident a few times here before. Without breaking forum rules, I'll just say that the person I used in my example has a very close connection with the couple in this example...



That's probably because you're so used to it that you don't even notice it anymore. I know that's the case with me sometimes. It's like background noise you've adjusted to. *sigh*




I've never met a pair of sisters IRL or in any MUD who are as 'close' as Chalcedony and Sadie. The thought of being like that with my sister makes me cringe and want to gag. I'm sure there's a porn niche for this though!




This is the kind of stuff Aubrey has tried to do, at least within the Moondancers, to try to revitalize the guild. It's kind of that theory that " begins at home." Whatever values you're trying to strengthen in the commune, if you're a GA, you can start cultivating that in your guild, and then at least one fifth of the commune has improved (well, I guess guild populations aren't equal, but you know what I mean!). I had just started to wonder if I was wasting my efforts when it started paying off. Several people have popped out of the woodwork and offered to help in various ways. It's downright delightful. One member recently hosted a figurine battle, with awesome prizes. It was successful, so we're talking about maybe getting one for the commune too. She and everyone who participated got GFs. The other day Sylphas CFed the commune's young new Librarian for his excellent efforts and news report. Every year I give an annual shop report about the guild's shop. Our previous GA never reported a thing, so I don't know how much profit we made, though I suspect it was minimal. Now we're well into the 6 digit range, and when I first started reporting and people saw the increases, they got all excited. Makes them feel like we're succeeding and thriving.

I'm not saying all that to brag or make myself look good; I couldn't have done it alone, I did have help. I'm saying it because these are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head that the commune could do as well. I've seen the positive effect it had in the guild org; why not the commune org too? If more people would try these little things, I think it would make a big difference in Serenwilde. Maybe I'm being idealistic, but I know it's helped Moondancers. Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside when an old player came back and posted to the guild news about how happy she was to see such improvements to the Coven. Talk about morale!

QUOTE (Sarvasti @ Jul 20 2010, 12:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It almost sounds like the leaders of Seren are parents who's many children are running/stepping all over them.

OMG I've used this analogy so many times! Thank you, I'm so glad I'm not the only one!

QUOTE (Nienla @ Jul 20 2010, 01:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it should be expected that defenders should be given a level of privledges above that don't. It's all about high risk/high reward and goes back to that maxim. Besides, if you expect people to come to your rescue when you're in trouble, you should do the same in return. While I'm not saying that everyone has to contribute to their org through defense. I will say that other than that, I don't see most Seren's doing anything outside of sitting at the Tree doing silly things. Lendren, as far as I can see, is the Seren's top culture contributor. I hardly see any Seren's (outside of newbies) doing commodity quests, and I always see the same two Seren's influencing denizens in villages to contribute to the Religious path that Seren has.

Point is, most Serenwilders don't actively do anything for the org at all except take advantage of it (and complain). That's my view from a glance at least, I could very well be wrong.

I think you are wrong, actually. I can see how it might appear that way from the outside, but keep in mind that a lot of people do work quietly and without getting noticed. For example, Mirenye is the trademaster of the commune tailoring cartel, and she does awesome work with it. Gives annual reports, hosts events, goes out and does comm quests so she can get cloth and leather for us at rock bottom prices... But do you even know who she is? Probably not, because she's not as famous as Lendren. She doesn't win awards and her name isn't known across the game. Point is, it happens more than you might think.

I've got to say, it really annoys me when pkers think it's the only way to play. I'm sorry I forgot who, but someone earlier in this thread mentioned this, and they really hit the nail on the head. If I wanted to play a game which was all about pk and there was little else for me to do, I would go play ANY OTHER MUD OUT THERE. The beauty of Lusternia is that there are so many options. I like to influence, aetherhunt, rp, teach novices, write scrolls, design, keep shops, be involved in politics, and all sorts of non combat things. When you look at the big picture, which includes all that and a ton more, how can you say with a straight face that pk is the only valid form of playing? That's just so incredibly small-minded and missing the whole point of Lusternia. If you want a hack-n-slash where all people do is fight, go play another MUD. Don't try to force that here. That's not what Lusternia is. Personally I'm tired of people being CFed only when they defend. How about any of the other contributions people make on a daily basis to their guild and the commune? Just because they're not fighting, they don't count? That's BS. Hell, even Glomdoring has told Aubrey that they acknowledge and respect that not everyone is a combatant, and there's a place for non-combatants in every org, or should be. Glomdoring! I mean maybe they're not Mag, but I know when I (and others I've talked to) think of Glom, they think of pk among the org's top attributes. Maybe their reason is different (like they have enough pkers to spare, so they can afford some non-coms, whereas Serenwilde needs all the help it can get, although I think Serenwilde would do just find if some of these other things improved and the current pkers improved their skill), but the end result is the same: variety makes Lusternia great.

QUOTE (Shaddus Mes'ard @ Jul 21 2010, 02:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hrm. I have three Seren alts I could bring out of retirement in order to work on Seren. Should it be my shofangi, my moondancer, or my spiritsinger?

Well, I'd say Moondancer, but to be fair the other two are much more dead and probably need more help.



PS - I'm sad. My new protege, who came over specifically to help, quit playing because I needed a break from Aubrey. Well I've got RL stuff going on that limits my overall time on Lusternia, but I can use more of that time for Aubrey I guess. This thread has me all pumped up.

PS> Guildfavour Mnemo plz

Request denied.

Well, Katii isn't in Serenwilde any more, not since our latest encounter with the title issue. (She said she wanted to be a bard in Hallifax, anyway, and we were just the best option at this time, basically.)

The thing about PK is that it comes to you whether you want it or not. You can't coerce others into writing books, influencing, questing, or anything else the way you can with PK. You can only play the pacifist to a certain point, unless you have the patience of a Buddhist saint.

Wait, how does one go from Serenwilde to Hallifax? They're almost the exact opposite of each other in philosophy!

...

She wanted to be a bard more than anything, and Serenwilde was the lesser of all weevils?

Bad pun. Really bad pun.

If she had trouble with taking direction in Serenwilde...

Razeth, Mnemosyne has already gotten GFed more than once for all the various work she does. Aubrey has touted her as an example to the rest of the guild, in fact. And she's CR6 already so a CF wouldn't do much, except boost morale maybe? Now, quit asking.

It comes with being Gaudi. I have to be corrupt and I choose to express my corruption via nepotism.

I'd pay $30 to see that. Just saying.