Simply put, I believe that the server's modern environment offers even less to a broader number of players, than it did to a fewer number of players a decade ago. There are fewer options, opportunities, and roleplay incentives than there used to be, although there are now more mechanical options to play with. I'll give you a brief bit of background. When I joined PoTM, the War of Copper Knives was in full swing. A grand story between feuding Lords in Barovia, players who were parts of both factions, the faires and the tension in the air. The conflict gave rose to stories, purposes, and made Western Barovia feel alive in a way it's never felt since. During this same time, the first shots of the Dementlieuse Revolution were being fired off, and world-changing events in Dementlieu were transpiring with such grandeur that there are monuments left to day in the domain to mark these times, much as how Lord Ivan Watcher no longer reigns in the Wachter Estate. Simeun Radkov is a national hero, celebrated yearly. The Council of Brilliance was nearly killed off to a man, and re-elections were held, among which several players reigned candidates and one player character sits upon the Council of Brilliance, enslaved to Councilor d'Honaire, to this date.
This gets brought up a lot and I feel the need to clarify. Whilst Wachter guard was neat, Wachter is not a city like Vallaki and would then fall under nobility instead. There are no guard options requested from Romulich afterall. The closest similarity would be Krezk. Whilst it would be neat to have Guard from them, We don't have Krezk currently implemented. Wachter was opened specifically for a DM event, much like Krofburg. Would I like to see them opened up at a later date? Sure in the case of Kburg, I personally don't think house guards in Barovia however is something that should be an official faction. Whilst there may not be as many permanent fixtures as the old days, I think it's unfair to say that Barovia doesn't change or have any impactful moments since the time of the copper knives. Speaking frankly, it's an insult to all of us who have made Barovia our chosen hub to roleplay within. Debateable perhaps but I would argue that Barovia in recent years has had some of the most significant plots on the server with great turnouts all round.
Those times set such a high bar of hope, interest, adventure; That you could do anything, and contribute to the story of the server in a wonderful, brilliant way. To this date, the Drow in Vallaki are still disparaged for the massacre they performed, the Dwarven Statue before Dvergeheim stands still as a reminder of what player ambition could reward, but also punished for leading factions into conflict with Count Strahd von Zarovich XI. The Count was more active, the Dementlieuse Civil War began to kick off a few years later, and yet more world-changing drama took place.
In my days, there was a sense of the grand, and what-could-be. It inspired me as a player to play, and to play my best, and try to make characters who would involve themselves in the setting, and really set goals far above their heads, that whilst maybe they would never reach, I knew someone had. But, that wasn't all that made the world feel so alive. It was the fact that Barovia was, in those few years, more diverse in roleplay opportunity than it has ever been on the server since. The Dwarves were relevant, the Wachters were player-run, the Garda and Wachters held a tension in the air so palpable you could taste it.
Barovia is heavily underutilized. In past years, the rationale was to keep the playerbase from becoming too divided when at most, sixty may be online; But now, we have highs of well over one-hundred players. Over double what the server used to be capable of, but the same number of opportunities, the same number of supported factions, and the same extremely streamlined hub-flow system to corral players along a linear path of roleplay progression.
There's something to be said about nostalgia and a need to take off the rose-tinted spec's from time to time. The past has been great, yeah, but the present too has had some magnificent stories, both in Dlew and Barovia. The sense of what could be and inspiration remain, if anything they should be higher than ever with all the changes that have been added for player benefit not limited to carpentry and rentals.
I would genuinely ask that the Development Staff, the DM Team, and even the playerbase take the following suggestions into consideration from the perspective that Barovia is a very rich, and very large roleplay environment. It is a land, which the vast majority of, acts as a scenic theme park, and has little-to-no roleplay support whatsoever.
From my perspective, this couldn't be further from the truth. New content is added almost daily to enrich player experience beyond that of a scenic theme park.
Indeed, Barovia is a land rife with roleplay opportunities. It is a land in which the system of governance is entirely decentralized; As contrasted to a Nationalized Guard like Dementlieu, warrants and bounties in Barovia do not carry over, from jurisdiction to jurisidiction. A man wanted in the Wachter Province will not be wanted in the Municipality of Vallaki. A man wanted in Krofburg likewise, would be wanted in neither; And same for the Village of Barovia.
The only problem is, there hasn't been an actual warrant issued for anyone out of Krofburg or Wachter Provinces since their related events died. The truth is; People have been asking to play Wachter Guard for nearly a decade now. The land is rarely used, the Estate has been neglected so far that there are parts of it that did not survive the transition into Enhanced Edition and have never been corrected since. The Krofburg Militia froze in purpose with the departure of DM Arawn, and the Silver plot came to a full halt, along with tensions between the Dwarves of Dvergeheim and the Krofburg Milita in fighting over rights to silver claims.
There is a breadth of potential laying with the breadbasket of Barovia. The server deserves more supported factions, and to invest in at least, an experiment in spreading out Western Barovia's roleplay from the epicenter of Vallaki.
I believe still the best method to show us, the dev team and the DM team both that you're interested in maintaining a faction is to put forth the effort in said areas and wait to see what comes of it. This has been how many player factions are noticed by DMs which leads to great moments on both sides. The same can be said with the Dwarves who inhabit dvergeheim. The team added areas for them to play around in as well as rentals to aid in that roleplay. Putting forward a group of interested and most importantly tenacious players into an area such as krofburg with clear intent is bound to have people take notice. However Developer time is as limited as DMs in many facets. We can't work on everything at once and we tend to work on the projects we ourselves wish to. Why do we do this? Primarily to prevent burnout and lack of interest. It can be an insideous killer in development to work on something you're not keen on and end up tapping out for one reason or another. It's good to keep this in mind as well.
I'd like to see numerous groups receive Faction Support, officially, just to create that diversity. Some examples would be as follows:
The Dwarves of Dvergeheim finally get a Guard force, or some other equivalent where they act on behalf of the King in matters pertaining to Dwarves. The Stoneguard, the Hearthguard, the Mountain's Men, who cares what they're called; Dvergeheim directly suffers from having a complete and total lack of support, despite the numerous Dwarven players who involve themselves there, and could greatly contribute to the tapestry of Barovia if they were given more official support.
A guard faction might be interesting, but
interest must first be shown before any consideration to that kind of addition was even considered.
The Elves of Degannwy -- I don't actually know much about them, so I won't comment too much there, but I'm sure there is ample room for a supported Glade faction inside of it for Druids, or Elves, or Rangers, or things that have literally no home anywhere else on the server, to fulfill their own agenda with the black quagmires of Barovia's corruption.
The Elves actually have a semi-player faction known as the Guardians of Degannwy who operate to this extent. Degannwy is a small settlement compared to the likes of Dvergeheim or Vallaki, so a need for any law is limited as the Marquiss runs a tight ship, as those who have rp'd in degannwy have learnt.
The Wachter Estate could finally open the Guard Force up to recruiting again, the Estate could be used to host more events, create some diversity in traffic and direction, as well as contribute to the occassional jurisdictional dispute. After-all, if you are wanted in Vallaki, your roleplay opportunities in Barovia are essentially completely, and totally over. That shouldn't be the case, and it attributes a higher risk to illegal activity than most are willing to take. Offering this diversity in roleplay areas in Western Barovia could contribute to a zone with more interfactional conflict, and thus, more story. Not to mention, the domain of the Wachters extends to well over half of the maps in Western Barovia, and yet there is no setting enforcement, and nothing of the kind there. It's essentially treated as lawless land where Witches roam, despite the Wachters being known for literally holding Witch Trials.
Rather than Wachter, I would as I mentioned above prefer Krezk guard as that matches and contrasts nicely with Vallaki. However, it's not currently implemented so better left on the 'another day' pile.
The Krofburg Militia. The Silver Plot died, but the Silver dream never did. The Krofburg Militia were an interesting faction, and unfortunately at the time received more in terms of DM Support than any Dwarven contribution to the same plot. That being said, it didn't make them a force for bad. To the contrary, I believe Krofburg could benefit from re-opening the silver mines with a permit system managed by the Militia, and a little more DM-love to the region. The conflict for the Dwarves and the Militia in this region is ripe for roleplay, especially with a little DM supervision, and it is one of very few regions at all in Barovia that will allow Caliban to roam their lower-regions, and can be a center for Caliban roleplay that isn't the Drain, even if it's heavily exploiting them.
Though it was built for a dm plot, it would be neat to see it expanded upon, however as with the others I've mentioned it all comes down to the effort involved. Players need to show us they're willing (and in significant numbers) to put in the hours as it were operating in that way for those kind of changes to happen. Otherwise we end up with ghosttowns that have been worked on for nothing where that time could have been spent on other projects.
The Bellegarde Trading Consortium. Naturally, a fit enemy for the Red Vardo Traders, some of the best interfactional warfare I've witnessed in the last ten years has been the result of Red vs. Blue trade wars. It has always created roleplay, but has never been given the official support it deserves, despite having all of the faculties it needs in Krofburg. To a lesser extent, there could be competition for the Red Vardo in Port-a-Lucine as well, through this faction.[/color]
Would be neat to see. Not sure how well they'd go against the RVT but competition is healthy. Bellegarde does get support when interest has been shown as the players who have been involved in the bellegarde can attest.
I, as a veteran player, have more-or-less expended my true interest in the existing sphere of roleplay options. I've seen the limits of what can be done, I've seen the heights, and the lows, and I've seen the same stories repeat a dozen times over. A dozen Vardo Captains, a dozen Sergeants in the Gendarmerie. I've never seen a Vallaki Garda since Yordan Hubchev achieve Sergeant, let alone Lieutenant, and I haven't seen a Dementlieuse Gendarmerie Lieutenant since Laurette Elise Trelliard. That was three, four years ago.
I can't speak for Vallaki, but I know a certain stubby monk who made it to LT not that long ago. It's all about time investment and how the plot surrounding that investment goes.
There's this thought process that official factions somehow have reigns on DMs and can grab them when they need to. This is not the case, I assure you. We need to petition for the team as much as any player regardless of being an 'official' faction or not. Those in the MLs, Ezrites and RVT can attest to this i'm sure. The only difference between 'us' and player factions is we have permanent installments within the server as we are for lack of a better word, permanent factions that are attached to the framework of the domains we reside in.
TLDR, Interest in official factions is great, but time investment needs to be clear and shown before anything can be even remotely considered. The team have put forth many great tools for player and mpc alike to further enrich story without DM supervision and we try to offer as much of this as possible within fairness. We're a small team, and while many among my peers are supermen and women at what they do, they too have limits. If you want to push for something, take the first step and show the staff you're willing to see it through. That kind of tenacity, within reason, is often rewarded from my experience.