Is playing a house-less character a real possibility?

Kiliami

Look. I've played many MMOs, and PNP RPGs. I wanted to come to a world to RP within reason. I know being part of a House/Guild is important for interactions, which I want. I have tried two different characters in two different houses. Both have ended in dis-satisfaction due to demands. My lifestyle, real family and work, restrict my dedication to a house. Many houses want progress in a certain amount of time that I cannot predict. (Yes I cannot predict. Having a 2 yr old and a Newborn kinda throw a wrench into many works.) Can a player really play houseless/guildless and experience Achaea? Are there any loosely run Houses/Guilds in the game that do not require concrete progress?

Achilles

Not all houses have a time requirement (I know the Templars didn't, RIP) to finish their requirements.

You can definitely play a house-less character.  As a true novice it might be extra hard but if you know already where to go and read the right help files you should be fine.

Alyssea

Yes, it is.

Rispok

The only concrete advantages I can think of as being a member of a house is an icon and house credit sales (except occultists who get karma?). The rest is flavour text and friends and teaching you how to not be a newbie.

Sena

Rispok said:

The only concrete advantages I can think of as being a member of a house is an icon and house credit sales (except occultists who get karma?). The rest is flavour text and friends and teaching you how to not be a newbie.

Occultists benefit from joining the Occultists house (karma works slightly differently between housed and unhoused occultists), magi benefit from joining a house with a Master Crystal (otherwise you have to buy crystals) and Ourobori (otherwise you have to pay to use the public ones), serpents benefit from joining a house with a milking room (unable to milk venoms otherwise), jesters benefit from joining the CIJ (unable to use suicidemice otherwise).

Favonius

Also Serpents can benefit from a House milking room - or is there a public one?

Being Houseless is hard as you have to generate all of your own interaction rather than having it come to you. But it can be done with a lot of effort.

Rinzai

There are no public milking rooms.

As to the OP, joining a house is probably the main reason I stuck around playing because there was house full of people that could help me a long with several paths/promotions that are geared directly for teaching me things slowly. That said I have left the house but am completely self sufficient. If I were ever to make an alt, I wouldn't feel the need to join a house but I probably would just to make instant contacts in whatever city I was in so I would have people to talk to and friends to make.

Morro

The Occultist House has a time limit on one particular interview, but even that one can be postponed if it's clear that a character doesn't have a whole lot of time in the realms. We RP a bunch of hardasses, but we understand that players have lives, too.

That said, I wouldn't recommend RPing a rogue Occultist because they are inferior and an insult to real Occultists I hear karma is harder to get as a rogue.

It's still very possible to play a rogue character, of course. Being in a House mostly just gives you a framework for your RP, and helps you get comfortable with the game. If you're new to MUDs, I'd say join a House at least to get the hang of things. @Sena noted a few classes with abilities that depend on access to things only a House provides, so keep that in mind when choosing a class. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with being a rogue.

Aerek

Playing without a House is possible, but no, I wouldn't say you'd experience Achaea, especially if RP is one of the things you're looking for. You might get away with joining a city but not a House, but even that runs the risk of you getting bored because you're not invited/pushed to interact and explore. Achaea isn't your usual high fantasy setting, so becoming part of a House really helps you acclimate to the game's world and help find your place within it, even if it does that by showing you that this House is not for you, and you should seek a different one.

Some Houses level some more stringent expectations on new players than others, but I don't know of any that say "You have 1 year to pass novicehood." or a similar time limit. I'm part of a stricter House, and when dealing with novices, I sometimes make it sound like they're being timed, ("I expect your Second Rite done within the year, Novitiate..." etc) but there's absolutely no written policy or rule that requires that. We know that people have lives outside of this game, and sometimes it's hard to find someone who can actually test you, so actual time limits would be one of the stupidest House policies I've heard of in a while. If a House actually does this, they're one of the reasons Guilds became Houses in the first place, and you should move on to other, more reasonable Houses, anyway.

Rispok

Aerek said:

Playing without a House is possible, but no, I wouldn't say you'd experience Achaea, especially if RP is one of the things you're looking for. You might get away with joining a city but not a House, but even that runs the risk of you getting bored because you're not invited/pushed to interact and explore. Achaea isn't your usual high fantasy setting, so becoming part of a House really helps you acclimate to the game's world and help find your place within it, even if it does that by showing you that this House is not for you, and you should seek a different one.

Some Houses level some more stringent expectations on new players than others, but I don't know of any that say "You have 1 year to pass novicehood." or a similar time limit. I'm part of a stricter House, and when dealing with novices, I sometimes make it sound like they're being timed, ("I expect your Second Rite done within the year, Novitiate..." etc) but there's absolutely no written policy or rule that requires that. We know that people have lives outside of this game, and sometimes it's hard to find someone who can actually test you, so actual time limits would be one of the stupidest House policies I've heard of in a while. If a House actually does this, they're one of the reasons Guilds became Houses in the first place, and you should move on to other, more reasonable Houses, anyway.

Added emphasis for agreement

Vasool

Right now, a large portion of the game is not only houseless but cityless too!

Talonia

If you're actually being pressured to get something done within a time limit as a novice, merely send a message to the person labeled [OOC] or some variant thereof (to signify that this is you the player, not the character talking) and tell them you have a real-life situation that makes it impossible to get tasks done on schedule, but that you're interested and want to stay in the House.  I guarantee you very few if any people will actually kick you out after that, and if the do you should mention it here so we can slap them upside the head.

Join Houses.  It's good for your character development and much more interesting than the alternative, particularly if you're not a well-established older player.  The reason people like Terra get RP as a rogue is because they were known to be excellent RPers and/or fighters, or associated with organizations with a reputation for those qualities.  No one is going to seek you out for roleplay if they haven't heard of you.

Also, time limits on progress are almost never a thing once you get to HR3 or higher.  I have one character that moved from HR1 to HR3 within 3 real-life days, and then was really never played again, so she's been just sitting around for five or six real-life months, the vast majority of her existence.  Then again she's in the most boring house I've ever encountered, so your mileage may vary.    

Tvistor

There are certainly Houses that are fine with this, but I'd recommend steering clear of Mhaldor.

Mishgul

you can play achaea

Dunn

I'm not in a house and it's great.

Arador

Short answer: Yes but some things will be harder.

Jacen

Never would have stayed with Achaea without joining a House. All of my RP was built upon the qualities of the Black Lotus and interactions with House members. I have a serpent alt, who was Naga straight out of the Trial, but I quit Naga and Mhaldor because I just couldn't handle the slave RP (really made a bigger deal about it than it was, I Mhaldor now. (( Don't execute me for 'ing Mhaldor))) Anyways, my point is, that I can't stand playing this alt now. Check HWHO and CWHO out of habit, and when I get the "You have no city/house" message, I'm just like ugh, hate this char. I'm so isolated, I feel like I'm playing a one player game on that alt. 

tl;dr If you want combat, joining a house is a must. If you want RP, joining a House drops you straight into it. Being Houseless is just too much like a one player game, for a true newbie.

Jamethiel

Achaea is the type of MUD where what it says on its home page can actually become true. For those who want to join a House, they can and certainly if one is very new to MUD role play which is mostly enforced it's much easier to be a member of a House. Houses are more likely to be gentle or clear on what it means to role play in Achaea than if some new comer walks into, say Mhaldor (City of Evil) and starts talking about 'computers'.

Given you've said that you've experienced other MMOs and MUDs I suspect you'll find yourself something that interests you that doesn't require long time commitments or specific time commitments on a regular basis. There'd be nothing stopping you from joining a city and doing nothing but partake of the activities the city offers, perhaps as you get older offering to host some activities but on an ad hoc basis. You could attempt to join a pre-Order (but pre-Orders do tend to have some time of set framework if you do want to join the Order - some Orders, though, allow any supporting to the Order but not wanting to actually join [for RP reasons] to still mingle with the Order members and aspirants in the pre-Order).

Give it a go - I'm sure you'll find something to interest you; as I said at the start, there's many things and ways to role play in Achaea and it's reasonably balanced (not perfectly, but what is?) for those with time constraints such as young children or other reasons.

Kinilan

Tvistor said:

There are certainly Houses that are fine with this, but I'd recommend steering clear of Mhaldor.

Being houseless in Mhaldor is for the cool kids only.

Wynedere

Definitely join a city and avoid houses like the plague.

Kyrra

I've never been in a House. I've never felt like I was missing out on something. Granted, I play a class that doesn't need access to a milking room or master crystal.

Houses can provide a wonderful introduction to the game in that they allow you to easily bond with people of your own class that (should be) open to helping you adjust to Achaea. They can allow you ways to develop and get involved, if you so desire that sort of experience. Houses are not for everyone though, and despite the strong emphasis to join a House in whichever city you choose to live in, they aren't a necessity. Some people prefer the rogue life.

I'd definitely encourage joining a city at least.

Nizaris

One may certainly play a rogue. Indeed, I would say that in a game like Achaea, having a smattering of rogues is good for the whole game, because it produces a different element to be accounted for: aligned players have to ask themselves if this rogue character is to be trusted.

That being said, it is not the recommended way to play the game. Simply put, you are more likely to have fun, if you can easily access people to have fun with. I'm not saying that it is impossible to have fun as a rogue (there are likely a lot of rogues who could point to their own experiences and say otherwise). I'm just saying that it is much easier to be engaged with other people when they are all around you.

The biggest benefit of being in a house is definition to your character. Here's where I have fun in the game: preaching, teaching, politics, rituals, cutting open victims to perform experiments on them, etc.  These are all made possible by having someone to do it with. Nizaris is an evil priest and proselytist. He'd be nothing without a congregation of believers, and heathens to convert to his cause. Hell, he would have no cause to convert people to. For me, 95% of the game's fun would be lost without an organization to not only play with, but also to provide a philosophical backbone to his role play.

For some, playing a rogue is more enjoyable for than being housed. For others, the opposite. My advice for @Kiliami is to try it out. See if it fits. If not, you can always either leave, or roll a different character.

Jacen

Wynedere said:

Definitely join a city and avoid houses like the plague.

@Kiliami, you can send all questions about clients, triggers, aliases, iconic shards, curatives, PK , where should I hunt now, why am I starving, where can I find food, help me I'm drunk, help me I'm paralyzed, help me I'm blind, who can I learn from, what should I learn, what's a good price for this, what armor should I wear, is this good armor, what weapons should I use, is this a good weapon, what the he'll my arm's broken, I'm dying to a lycopod, there's an firewall here and I can't get passed it, someone just attacked me what should I do, to @Wynedere

Wynedere

Sure, send away.

Kiliami

I thank everyone for their input. All of it is constructive, surprisingly. I wasn't trying to troll but suspected it may have been seen as such to some. Alas, I did not have to weather any flames. 

Like I said, I had already tried a few houses. If an overwhelming majority had said it was not possible in some way I would have given up. However, I was pointed in the direction of clans by one helper. This did solve my social need while allowing me to still be fairly independent. 

Again, Thanks for the help everyone.

Oh no, I lost all my gold!! Time to send a tell to Wynedere.

Jurixe

@Jacen: The obvious answer is to come back!

@Kiliami: Most of the others said everything I wanted to say, so just going to tell you - good luck! I hope it works out for you. Enjoy your rogue life, maybe get to know people. In time you might feel like joining another House based on the people that you like RPing with, to have a common direction and goal. Maybe all this while you've been terribly unlucky and only joined all the wrong Houses!

In general, if you explain your situation OOCly but show that you're smart and really interested, most Houses will be accommodating and try and keep you. New, enthusiastic players are a pretty scarce commodity, and it's obviously a huge bonus for the House that manages to retain them and shape their first experiences of Achaea, as it then defines their character later on if they continue playing.

Aerek

Nizaris said:

That being said, it is not the recommended way to play the game. Simply put, you are more likely to have fun, if you can easily access people to have fun with. I'm not saying that it is impossible to have fun as a rogue (there are likely a lot of rogues who could point to their own experiences and say otherwise). I'm just saying that it is much easier to be engaged with other people when they are all around you.

A big emphasis I'd put on this statement is that most rogues who actually do have fun have also played for ages and have a network of contacts, friends, and allies that essentially serve the same purpose as a House does. Playing a rogue as a novice without those friends and allies to fall back on is much, much harder than playing a 200-year-old rogue who knows folks all over the world.

Kiliami

I thank you for all the continued assistance. I understand having the network of playing for many years, However, I think my sparkling personality and diamond smile will make up for the lack this network. (I like to think I'm a good and nice person.)

Veldrin

I miss my house

Kakotas

Achilles said:

Not all houses have a time requirement (I know the Templars didn't, RIP) to finish their requirements.

You can definitely play a house-less character.  As a true novice it might be extra hard but if you know already where to go and read the right help files you should be fine.

Well within reason... If you were a 50 year acolyte we tended to kick you out but it was more of a housekeeping thing than anything else. Having 3,000 different acolytes on house members tends to be clutter. But other than that we were highly flexible especially after you finished all the truly novice requirements (IE theft test, reach level 21, etc). Basically prove you were there to stay and we'd do whatever we could to work with you.

But barring a house... There are orders which are exactly like houses and then there are High clans like the Dwarves of Kongol Drak which can really be interesting for RP and interaction.