I think its warrants making a mention on this one as well; there are quite a few newer people posting in this, who may have come from other servers. Server that quite likely have much lighter consequence levels than what this place does. I would beg you, each of you, to dispose of the preconceptions that such light consequences might have created, both in what you believe is warranted consequence 'and' what you think is opting into conflict. This is a dangerous, high intrigue, high stakes setting where for some people, the wrong knowledge in the wrong hands can have staggering consequences, which I have seen many times.
As someone who came from another place once before, learning this was hard. I even occasionally have a hot flash of irrationality and go 'hey that's not fair!' at stuff that happens, but when I cool down, its not hard to see that fair or unfair isn't actually whats important. What is important is the narrative.
I was bountied on a character for a significant amount for nearly two years of playing a character. My character was a
notorious individual, not for doing the wrong thing, but for doing the right thing. The 'Zachary the Blackguard' jokes continue to this day because of it.
I managed to survive for this time, and as it went on, it imparted some important lessons. At one point, I was left with no choice but to cut down another PC, and hand them into the garda - a very wanted criminal who had done some truly heinous acts. After that, I never corpsed anyone again with the full intent to do so, and even raised a few that I had to. This was for two reasons; one, it fit the narrative. Two, it continued the narrative.
This is, in fact, always an option. Let me repeat that.
It is always an option to refrain from corpse hiding and continue the narrative. It
should be the first option. It
is the first option, to each and every one of you. Everyone posting in this thread and reading in it. Its even in the rules. Instances where it has not been the case has been dealt with, and reversed, time and time again. The DM team is not indifferent. They simply have a strict policy of closed doors for rulings, but never ever think they are indifferent. They always take these things seriously. They just can't give the reasoning -many- times in these instances. Its difficult. Its hard. But giving reasoning is very often a pathway for investigative meta to find out how things got to that point, who is responsible, and who takes blame. For the sake of halting OOC recrimination that absolutely has been proven to have happened before, they must handle these matters with tact. But it is
never indifference. I say this as a person who has had rulings for and against, and plenty rightly against. Acceptance of an adjudicator is a necessary act of playing on this server, or any other. The DM rule is final and you must abide by it, like it or not. We ALL do. But never think the DM team doesn't honestly get burned out from having to make these decisions and other hard choices.
Corpse hiding is a last resort. For some it is taken as a resort far too early on the list. For others, it is fully and completely within their character rationale to do so. For yet others, it is an act of absolute survival. But the fact it exists is also important. It needs to exist, it needs to be something people are fully aware of. If it doesn't, IC behaviour will adjust to match OOC knowledge, and first amongst those will be the affect the knowledge of effective immortality until you choose otherwise will have on gameplay.
But something I think we need to let go of is this mixture of incorrect perception, bad preconception, and bad word of mouth.
Incorrect perception involves consequences. Servers like Arelith operate on a slap of the wrist mentality. This place doesn't. It is designed around that, it is a very firm basis of that, and it is not something I or many of us want changed. It is deeply important to maintain this level of consequence. Other servers do not and frankly, there are plenty of them. This one does it differently. Rather than fight that, learn to understand it. And I say this as someone who used to think -just- like you do, but now I'd count myself as one of the staunchest defenders of a system that, I remind you,
I do all I can not to use. But I absolutely give thanks that it is. It is absolutely necessary to uphold gravitas. I don't want a light hearted, low consequence server. If that is what others want, I am truly sorry to say we are at odds on the matter. Because I don't have a single personal grievance with the folks in this thread, and I genuinely want to interact with more of you. Especially you ClosedGame! I want to bump into your kender some time, I think it'd be fun. I count myself as one of the (seemingly few?
) people who think they're great.
Bad preconception stems from bad play. One of the worst things you can ever say, that can ever pop into your head, is the words, 'others do it, so I can too.' Do not. I really, truly beg you, do not. Don't go down that road, don't let yourself believe that. I cannot emphasis this enough, I'll repeat it over and over. Don't let that be your mantra.
There are players who are valued, truly valued, for their ability to engage a narrative even if it is one they most likely cannot win. I want to point out players such as Dread, Wrak, Halvor, LancerFreya, and more besides but they spring to mind. They take high risks, and they can lose on those risks. Of particular and EXTREMELY RELEVANT NOTE, with regards to the antagonists of the Degannwy defense story, is the fact the antagonists have on multiple occasions struck down the defenders, and corpsed them. They have kept them dead for a short time then, each time, raised them as zombies and sent them at the defenders. Gruesome! Heinous!
And those players were back in the story as soon as they wanted to be. The antagonists are outnumbered in this plot more than ten to one, and yet they have not removed by force a -single- person from the plot. This should not be the exception. This should be the standard. But that is on all of us.
Do keep in mind that each of these players know, that they could and likely 'will' be shut down hard by this stories end. Its staggeringly high risk. They are doing it however for the narrative, for the server, and they have in doing so created a truly spectacular organised counter effort that they have every right to be proud of being the instigator of. Its exceptional and I applaud them for it. Never forget that without them, we would be standing around in the Mist Camp or outskirts asking why we're so bored. When they are gone, that ends. Do we really want that? Is a quick victory actually worth that, if there is even a chance we can do something different?
A bit off topic, but the end result of this particular tangent is this; if you don't want to be corpse hidden yourself, one thing that is important is learning to walk the walk. If you are quick to do it, if you are working with those quick to do it, you have no excuse not to expect it in return - or far less than you might think. This goes back as well to an earlier post; if you start a fight, you do not have the luxury of complaining if you start to lose. That's the risk -you- took. The fact you didn't contemplate what might come is your own shortcoming. Take what you can from it, and learn instead.
Bad word of mouth is something that's already been touched upon. People lose in these conflicts. It happens. It unfortunately needs to happen. Despite the investment, despite all the time, sometimes someone has to lose. Sometimes they start it, sometimes they don't, tragically they can get swept along. But there needs to be a loser. Otherwise some conflicts roll around literally forever, and this isn't a server for that. In order to keep things moving, in order to keep things fresh, this mechanic must exist. It needs to be, to put an end to those who cannot, will not, and refuse to stop. It also must exist so that there are consequences. That fear, the underpinning theme of the entire setting, is maintained. So actions are made carefully, not recklessly because there is a safety net. It exists as a last resort, not a first resort. But it must exist. For the maintaining of the integrity of the narrative, the seriousness, the desperate level of the stakes, and the grim nature of the setting, -it must exist-. I say that knowing I can be taken out because of it. I have spent five years playing my main, and it could all end tomorrow forever, despite playing him constantly. He could go to an attack from a conflict I may not even be fully aware of, one that I am fully aware of and live in constant worry about, or he could cease to exist because Soren pulled the plug. That is the reality. Those are the stakes. Its not easy, but please remember we are all of in that same boat. Heck, most of the people in this thread defending the system have been right where you are. All of us have had rulings against us that saw us lose big, maybe years of investment and work. That's the game we've chosen to play. Its a great game, a scary game, but please don't ask us to change it into something with a heavy overshadowing of meaninglessness of action.