Cities

Dominius

So what makes your city great? What do you absolutely love or hate about it? Why should people come or why you would never walk around and try to find people to join, lets hear it! Rogue? Cool too. Lets hear why being Rogue is so awesome!

Hataru

idk I got to remove someone's nose and call it RP so like.


Can't beat that.

Zackery

I really enjoy how friendly (within reasonable RP bounds) and open to spontaneous RP Mhaldor is. Even though it's a small city, you can almost always find someone up for a conversation of some sort. It's also really easy to get involved in PK, even if you're not very good at it! Lots of folks are willing to teach you things and give you pointers.

Plus...

Krypton

But that one time you saw Hataru wearing army pants and flip flops, did you also go buy army pants and flip flops?

Torinn

I'd you don't like worshiping mutilation, targ has all the same plusses.   . We aren't exactly small right now though.  

Hataru

ExcuuuUUuuUuuUUUUuuuuuuuse you.

Sobriquet

Hataru said:

idk I got to remove someone's nose and call it RP so like.


Can't beat that.

Zackery has no nose? How does he smell...?

Taryius

Sobriquet said:

Hataru said:

idk I got to remove someone's nose and call it RP so like.


Can't beat that.

Zackery has no nose? How does he smell...?

Awful

Hataru

Who nose.

Zackery

I smell like strawberry ice cream

Kiet

Mhaldor is, for better or for worse, the only city where I've found RP of the kind I like. I don't even mean thematically (OOCly, I can take or leave the evil thing), but more that the kind of roleplayers it attracts are the kind I like to play with.  Like Zack said, there's always someone to interact with, and the quality of interaction is on average very high for Achaea. There's a hardcore RP crowd there that I simply haven't found anywhere else, and I've played in all the cities. I suppose the occies had this same quality, too, but that's why I tend to think they're one of the best of the older houses. Now that they're gone, that crowd got lost to alts, retirement, inactivity, etc.

It's lucky that I also enjoy the other aspects of the city (achaea democracy is awful, for instance), but even if I didn't I don't really feel like there's any other choice for me. I'm really not into the blood and gore stuff, but we've moved away from that mostly so I can easily ignore it.

Caynix

Being a rogue is great because you can do whatever you want. 

Also coming from a newb who left Mhaldor, Mdor RP is legit awesome. The day I broke oath and the ones that followed were simultaneously really depressing IC and incredibly satisfying OOC for the quality of the RP interactions with various people. Haven't lived in any other cities though so can't compare.

Kiet

? I'm like biggest gossip in game and we've had almost 0 drama for like a rl year barring a few people getting in IC trouble the past few weeks and the cateschisms issue. I hear way more about the drama from other cities than I ever run into in Mhaldor. Unless we just define drama as like the normal IC conflict created when characters interact (or Aegoth)

Hataru

I think our internal drama is really overstated by a few select parties who tend to always cause it. Mhaldor has not been more dramatic than any other institution I've been a member of (all cities except Eleusis over 15 years of Hataru and a few alts, about 10 guilds/houses, 3 or 4 orders, also including Lusternia and Aetolia experiences in that statement as well) over all. However...

I think there's a few reasons for Mhaldor seeming more dramatic:

1) Hierarchy is really hard for people to follow.

So when people flip their shit because they can't handle the fact that they have to earn their keep and actively earn it and that having done x y z thing 7 OOC years ago doesn't matter in the here and now in many ways realy causes people to lose it and lose it LOUDLY. This has been the biggest creator of drama in Mhaldor in my experience and given it tends to create LOUD drama I think its easier for people to see it.

2) People who want to lolzPK tend to be very loud about the fact that RP is enforced and how much they don't like that.

While its totally fine to play the game to PK - you have the understand that when joining an institution like Mhaldor RP is way more heavily enforced. So you get a lot of people who lose their shit over 'non-comms' (which is a weird thing to even say in Mhaldor, no one in Mhaldor is 100% non-comm, we ALL raid and defend, so in general 'non-comm' in Mhaldor is someone who doesn't duel). That sort of aggressive personality is going to cause more drama, but honestly its drama the majority of us ignore. Its not 'active' drama, it just seems like active drama because they're the loudest types of personalities.

3) People come to Mhaldor expecting Evil = bullying or Evil = blackest souls of blackest soul omgz grieeefffff people.

This is generally untrue. Sure it may have been true of Mhaldor and definitely the Infernals guild in like 2002-2006 but its really not true now. Most of us ACTIVELY try and instill the lessson that Evil isn't bullying, we don't subjugate just to do it - we do what we do with purpose. To further Sartan's Will all that cool stuff. But some people do not like that. Some people actively think that Evil in Achaea = traditional OOC view of Evil and its not. And again, the people who feel that way tend to be the loudest.


Ultimately Mhaldor is not actually 'more dramatic' its just that the dramatic people we acquire for the above and plenty of other reasons are just super god damn loud. You're not going to, generally, get someone who wants to play 'Good' who is going to be that sort of aggressive, loud type of personality so its a by-product of a lot of OOC stereotypes and then IC bitterness about it that merely attacts louder assholes.

Either way I have been on the leading councils of several orders and houses and cities over 3 games and I have to say. The only difference with the drama in Mhaldor is a lot of it is out-in-your-face-public, rather than insular and behind closed doors but I have in no way ran into more drama overall.

Jacen

Daeir said:

Achaea's advertised as 'RP-enforced'

Sarapis wouldn't agree with you

Caynix

Lolwut Targ doesn't like RP? Dammit Tesha tricked me, brb time to clan quit Shepherds. 

Torinn

Hahah.  Hataru you make Mdor seem more and more appealing every day... Hmmmm....

Hataru

Just doing my Evil duty to shut people down about weird/wrong/generally super out of date assumptions made about Mhaldor. 

Edit: I would like to say on a semi-serious note, Mhaldor has changed a lot over the years and the very few loud voices who continue drama tend to be people who like to pretend it is still 2006 and its just... not. The majority of Mhaldor is a world of different from the way it used to be but we clearly have a PR problem getting that through to people, especially older players

Aralaya

I think the general apathy towards rp in Targ is from the repeated attempts to shove it down everyone's throat.

That being said, what I love about Targossas is the people. Most of them are pretty cool, some go above and beyond and others take some warming up to. What I really like though is that pretty much everyone is open to some low level rp, even people like @Nazihk are open to some before you catch a flail to the face.

Kiet

how can you 'shove rp down someone's throat' in an rp game tho

Hataru

Kiet said:

how can you 'shove rp down someone's throat' in an rp game tho

I've been told this can be done because Achaea isn't an RP game and some people "come here just to PvP".

Aralaya

Kiet said:

how can you 'shove rp down someone's throat' in an rp game tho

I should've put quotes there since I'm of the same mind as Kiet, but that's what people were complaining about. They were being forced to do RP that they weren't interested in because it wasn't PVP

Kiet

         

Penwize

Kiet said:

how can you 'shove rp down someone's throat'

Something something sartanic obscenities.

Cooper

Oh geez. 

Farrah

Daeir was pretty spot-on, tbh. I wouldn't say Mhaldor is more drama-filled than most other cities, but Targ is extremely low drama at the moment. Having been in the leadership in both cities recently, I've found Targ more pleasant to lead in. It wasn't always that way in Targ, though, so it's just something that ebbs and flows, I guess.

What drew me to Targ in the first place was actually just the story and lore. Ashtan and Targ have always been my favorites in that regard. I also agree with Daeir that Targ is a great place for anyone who wants to "create" at the moment. We've had the opportunity to do a lot of "new" things, and Deucalion is amazing at facilitating such things.

There isn't as much of the day-to-day "mid-form" rp as Daeir put it, compared to Mhaldor, but I'd say there's more of a push for greater picture plot and story by the playerbase in Targ than in Mhaldor. We try to do gamechanging things a lot, and have had a lot of fun in that regard. Whereas Mhaldor tends to focus on small-scale personal development, it seems. Targ also has a smaller "personal day-to-day RP" crowd, so it's not that it's entirely lacking there.

I also enjoy the RP of even the people who aren't really known for RP though. We don't really have anyone who is blatantly OOC, just some people who don't like to be as religious and stuff. Having our own resident mercenary-like Nazihk is refreshing sometimes. If you really imagine a nation to devoted to a cause, they aren't going to all be devouts. Some people likely really will just live there and go through the minimum required motions to get by. I appreciate the diversity of characters in Targ when I am looking for day-to-day RP.

[Deleted User]

I feel like I should make the obligatory "Ashtan is great because" post since I'm its Ambassador in-character (and no one else has ), but my answer is really very self-centered. 

I like what I'm able to do there. 

Chaos talks and discussions of religion, history, and philosophy are probably my favorite part of the game. I like that Ashtan has deep lore and a focus that I can easily articulate and use to drive my interactions and activities in-game too. 

I've found I've been given a lot of opportunity to put my mark on things and help with projects that are developing as well. There is potential everywhere to make new things happen, and that's fun and also very Ashtani in its own way. 

Everyone has been helpful from day one for me there too. Beyond that, there are people who push me to do new things, and that has helped my character to grow (in some ways I never imagined she would). I may have just been incredibly fortunate in how my newbiehood went, but for me it worked and I look back on it fondly. It's the type of experience I hope to translate into my interactions with newcomers there now. 

I do sometimes wish there was more spontaneous, day-to-day RP. But I've been trying to incorporate more of that into my own interactions with people. It's a bit cliche, but I've realized that if I'm not part of the solution I'm part of the problem, so I'll do what I can to make life interesting for whoever crosses my path!

Penwize

Truax said:

I do sometimes wish there was more spontaneous, day-to-day RP. But I've been trying to incorporate more of that into my own interactions with people. It's a bit cliche, but I've realized that if I'm not part of the solution I'm part of the problem, so I'll do what I can to make life interesting for whoever crosses my path!

The game as a whole could use a lot more of this.  Keep it up, it's the little interactions that make the everyday bits of Achaea worth playing through to get to the bigger events.

Nazihk

Farrah said:

I also enjoy the RP of even the people who aren't really known for RP though. We don't really have anyone who is blatantly OOC, just some people who don't like to be as religious and stuff. Having our own resident mercenary-like Nazihk is refreshing sometimes. If you really imagine a nation to devoted to a cause, they aren't going to all be devouts. Some people likely really will just live there and go through the minimum required motions to get by. I appreciate the diversity of characters in Targ when I am looking for day-to-day RP.

I'm basically the Targossan equivalent of the guy who only goes to church for Christmas, Easter, and weddings and then only when his family is making him. 

Xaden

I'm now down to Weddings and Funerals only and nowadays less and less people are having church weddings so that's a win.

Re: The OP. I think, regardless of the RP / opportunities to PK / all the other stuff above, the thing that makes a city fit for you is more the people you're playing with. Making connections and building relationships is incredibly satisfying and if you make good friends early then none of the other stuff will matter to you.

Mathilda

I think certain cities cater to particular kinds of players. If, for example, you're the type of player who's into conflict (not just plain old PK, but roleplay that leads to confrontations), then Targossas and Mhaldor are your best bet. If you're more laid back, and want to do your own thing without bothering with the larger affairs of the world, then you will enjoy Hashan and Cyrene. For an odd mix of the two, then Ashtan or Eleusis might be your best bet.