AMPC "Rental" lairs

[aliceofthevoid]

Add AMPC exclusive "rental" lairs. Along with their recent changes to be able to use carpentry more accessibly, I think it could add to their RP to have a location they can have setup that's persistent across resets. I'd think they should be free and need to be refreshed weekly. Allowing them to last up to a week after the character's closure could add to some post-mortem RP by investigators or any allies they may have had. I don't think they should be plot locked, though, and the lock DC should either be location based (locations further from the hub being higher DC) or possibly tied to the level of the AMPC. I'm mainly thinking of western Barovia as far as possible locations go, but I'd like to imagine every domain could have room for at least one. More in Dementlieu and maybe Hazlan or Har'akir. But as far as Western Barovia goes, the forests and mountains are vast enough to have the room for them to be hidden away, and maybe a couple in the sewers or even in the city proper for more social templates, like Red Widows.

[Skelni]

I see a total mess with something like this however.

What's gonna stop team monster-hunters from just, camping outside your rental endlessly and then you never get to use it.

Rentals are neat and fun to play with, and MPCs have used them before to their own ends. But I think it's more of just a detraction in most cases where you could just set up a scene anywhere else that's not only a lot safer to do such, but requires people to go out into the dark to try and find it. If everyone just knows where you hang out and live, it's not nearly as interesting.

Red Widows also do get special access to a certain place in Port-a-lucine.

[Wilkins1952]

Several Rentals spread around would reduce the risk of them being camped. But I think it's more so allow it for a place where the full Placeable potential of rentables can be used cause the carpentry kit already has a lot of restrictions compared to that.

[Merry Munchkin]

I like the idea of giving AMPCs a lair.  All baddies need a lair.  Regular folks have homes, but villains have lairs.  And henchmen.

In all seriousness, I think this is a good idea, but I am not sure if implementing it mechanically as a rental is the way to go in part because you probably want the lair to disappear after the AMPC goes away.  Also, you might want the locations to be more random, rather than fixed.  Perhaps when the AMPC is approved, the DMs can make a hidden lair (persistent) somewhere for them?

[APorg]

The server can already handle dynamic, changing maps.

One idea to stop "lair camping" therefore would be to create these rentals with dynamically changeable entrances that could be created by AMPCs and moved around. This would be more work, however, so would need an enthusiastic dev to create the necessary functions.

The idea of AMPC lairs is great, however. It's true that AMPCs need spaces like this, and the static nature of the server otherwise makes certain lair spots very predictable. Some way to add lairs, and to be able to place them dynamically, would be a massive value-add to the AMPC toolkit.

[zDark Shadowz]

Hidden Lodge as an AMPC spell sounds like fun.

[Maiyannah]

One idea to stop "lair camping" therefore would be to create these rentals with dynamically changeable entrances that could be created by AMPCs and moved around. This would be more work, however, so would need an enthusiastic dev to create the necessary functions.

Make an array of area transitions with a special onEnter script that checks a variable on the transition to see if a liar is attached to the transition.  It's not very difficult, though you would have to ensure it persists and I don't know how POTM handles persistence.  Then you can just boop it with a variable set tool.

[Kaninchen]

I'm not sure how well this would play out, for several reasons. The first is a more lore/setting question.  How much would various Darklords feel about new monsters making various hideouts? Are they infringing on their domain, like a turf war?  Weird question to ask, I guess, with all of the various new dungeons that get added, with various monsters and stuff. But that sort of thing seems relevant, in a persistent world.

Next would be, how would a new implement like this possibly be abused, by MPC, or PCs? Are they camping out their lair? Who can access them? Is the door plot locked, or breakable?

Last question I can really think of, is how much does this add to any given narrative, that hitting up a DM to set up an area for a scene can't already accomplish? Might be more convenient, and help with spontaneity, but is that not what the carpentry kit, and recenlty giving MPCs access to woodworking stuffs do?

[APorg]

1) I think this depends on the AMPC. Most monsters probably fly under the radar because their presence doesn't impact the Dark Lord. Strahd doesn't particularly care about some wererats or werewolves hiding in sewers or caves. He has minions to deal with that (which incidentally includes the Vallaki Garda and, by extension, everyone who helps the Garda). The idea isn't to give vast tracts of real estate over to some new constant threat, but to give AMPCs a little bit of flexibility in setting up a secret lair.

You could have a few set piece "rentals" which AMPCs, e.g. Isolated Cave, Abandoned Manor, Blasted Windmill... you get the idea. Every monster wants a big climactic battle in their lair and this is a way to see that done in a way that potentially doesn't require DM involvement (more on that in point 3).

2) Could it be abused? Possibly. We're only speaking in hypotheticals here, so the idea of having the entrance to the lair as a transition portal placeable item is still just an idea on a drawing board. So as an idea on a drawing board, here are some thoughts on how it could be implemented fairly:

 - The idea behind making the lair's entrance location entrance dynamic is to remove predictability and prevent server knowledge from being a big asset in knowing where to find secret lairs. Every player who's done a lot of exploring on the servers probably has a list in their head of cool places to have a lair, and that's naturally the first places that many veteran players will look.
 - Throw in the fact that any evil lair needs carpentry placeables, right now as is, evil lairs are pretty easy to find. Much easier if you could just find a small quiet area of the map to drop a transition portal placeable (like the ones that DMs set for events) that takes you to the Abandoned Cave or whatever.
 - These lair transition portals should most certainly NOT be plot-lockable: they exist to be found by other PCs, they're just levelling the Hide & Seek game a bit.
 - These lair transition portals should be fixed once an AMPC places them, and require a DM to un-fix them: after all, the idea here is not to give AMPCs a magic teleporting sanctum sanctorum, but a stage for a final showdown.

3) Right now, it's possible for DMs to create a transition portal to an un-used "backstage" map to set it up as a lair, but DM time is extremely limited and most of these things may not last a reset. The idea would be to automate and standardise this possibility into Lair Rentals.



Of course this is all pie-in-the-sky thinking until and unless someone wants to code this.