Author Topic: About Faction Play  (Read 9011 times)

Heretic

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About Faction Play
« on: June 23, 2010, 11:55:26 AM »
As posted here as well, please read it carefully, as it is quite important:

Thank you.

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The Nature of Faction-Play


What is required of role-players in order for factions to succeed?


Tension drives story. Tension drives character development.  The real adventure in life or in stories begins when everything goes wrong and characters are forced to adapt and make critical choices.

Potm's history is rich with players that have achieved their power primarily by charisma--a sort of power that grinding for xp/levels can't achieve.  When you have players who can play charismatic characters, while also maintaining a healthy separation between their character’s ambitions and their ambitions for their characters, while also not needing to constantly be in a position of power and control of every situation, you have players who can make factions work for themselves and the community.

If a player’s character is a personification/manifestation of that player's desired ego (or wish fulfillment) and that player lacks a healthy degree of self-awareness, then they will experience difficulty and frustration at every turn of faction role play. Anything or anyone who seems to get in the way of their vision and ambition, whether they are aware of it or not, will be viewed with hostility.  As tension/conflict is necessary for dynamic-role play and character development, anyone who doesn't maintain a healthy separation from their character may view the players or dms whom their characters or factions are in conflict with (which may overlap too much with their personal interest) with an out-of-character suspicion.

Faction role play also works best when you have participants who don’t engage in slander and gossip. When a player becomes angry and upset, too often they seek out others who will share their narrative. For this reason, it is within the rights of the DM team to remove from faction-play those players who have been judged as having a negative impact on the game-play. If a player has genuine concerns about DMs or players, they are encouraged to approach the Community Council with their grevience so an unbiased assessment may be taken.

Server Role-play at its most basic is a free-flowing form of storytelling set against a historical backdrop. Faction-play is considered to be an elevated level of storytelling within the server. It is complex and often complicated, showcasing the canon elements of Ravenloft even as it gives players the chance to aspire to grand heights and even steeper falls. The DM team, through the use of NPC's, can be expected to promote the canon narratives of Ravenloft and ensure that the overall narrative within a faction is a compelling narrative for the players involved. Players who engage in faction-play cannot expect their characters to always be treated fairly. In aspiring to a more complex form of play, it is inevitable that both betrayals and injustices will happen. Although it may not always be apparent to a player why something happened, the most important question remains the kind of legacy a PC and a player leave behind after they are gone.

As a narrative tool, PVP will often be used as a means to promote and resolve tension. Players who engage in faction role play are presumed to have accepted the risk of physical confrontation. While no player has the right to grief another, it is important to remember how limited a single players' point-of-view is, and how important it is to trust your fellow players. Trust, in the end, is the most vital element of storytelling and it is the responsibility of both parties involved to work together for the benefit of the overall narrative. Sometimes this means loss, tragedy, and injustice for one of the parties involved. Players engaged in faction role-play cannot expect to exist within any sort of bubble, remaining free of the actions of other players or even the ripples of the actions of other players. Every player within a faction is responsible for maintaining the trust of their fellow players, as well as respecting the skill and devotion with which they attempt to carry out their narrative.


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Heretic

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Re: About Faction Play
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2011, 01:43:10 PM »
Given the influx of new players and as a refreshing, giving this topic a bump.

Thanks for reading this.

DM Tarokka

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Re: About Faction Play
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2013, 02:16:42 PM »
I feel like bumping this with an addendum, especially on this point:

"Faction-play is considered to be an elevated level of storytelling within the server. It is complex and often complicated, showcasing the canon elements of Ravenloft even as it gives players the chance to aspire to grand heights and even steeper falls."

Canon and players' aspirations are not necessarily one against the other. Nevertheless we need always to consider that once something is done "uncanonically" in any faction, and once it is clear the players involved are doing it in full awareness of the specific faction "canon", any action and consequence should be dealt always ICly. If you think something is unclear or has been managed unfairly, you can PM any DM who will gladly look into the matter or will forward the PM to the DM-fellow who mostly deals with the faction in which the problem has occured.
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