Let's talk about 20-year-olds

[Kyriel]

I also found that having characters spending their first few years making custom clothes helped in not being immediately suspicious. Apparently having a stylish matching outfit and not just hide pants makes you look more respectable? It seems to maybe be the easiest way of saying "guys, this isn't just a throwaway character for the sake of causing trouble, chill."

And besides, not every criminal character need be guilty of murder or theft. A few of my characters are guilty of tax evasion.

[iavatus]

It is a shame, the age ceiling. My over 30's, throw their weight around in much nastier ways then my 20's would get away with. Partly because they have more wrinkles and experience, partly because they have 10 years of wealth behind them (more if they trade, much, much more if they take advantage of opportunities), but mostly because people will take it. The crowbar, shield and axe, also help. But even with nothing carried, simply having been alive for 200 days gives more leeway. An odd, odd system.

That's the difference atm Brian. Practice and knowledge. Not using OOC, but simply knowing that if I want to make something, these are the hoops. If I want to buy something, these are them too. Yes, being a newspawn sucks. It sucks so hard, and it's really terrible in a lot of towns. Me and mine, are working really hard to change that. Not because each newspawn is a special snowflake, but because some of the greatest moments, are with people I discounted as a reinforced sleeper. And I want to see big, interesting towns going at each other, for wacky reasons, and I can't get those, without building the foundations for that.

In short, the hostility newspawns cop, is silly and counterproductive.

[Wolfsong]

There's the thing. Becoming bored and going to sleep just because you spawned in a town that doesn't treat you like garbage... is your own choice. You always have the option of going somewhere else or doing something interesting with your life. That just may be done with better preparation than having to walk away from your spawn town naked, starving, without even a shield. I don't want every single one of the characters I play to be ones that are cynical, bitter, and hate the world because of all the things they've gone through for no good reason during their youth.

I should mention that the majority of my characters spawn in happy towns full of kindness and sleepy patience. Only a small fraction of my characters had any real trouble, but those were the memorable ones for me.

More to the point - if you have a problem with the in character culture of the game world... Change it in character. I've never seen people hostile OOCly to new characters.

[sherman]

Not necessary openly OOC hostile but more or less not caring enough for them would be right term. Like ignoring newspawns completly

[Lapallanch]

My characters themselves also never faced much hostility either....

They all spawn in towns with lots of helpful people with smiles all over their faces. Pretty pleasant, sure, but honestly I've always been a fan of action and drama. I might consider messing up something one day.....

I've also been planning to establish a little 'evil' kingdom somewhere....you know, and we'd have fun either training newspawns to steal/sabotage other towns or kill those who don't want to live in our Kingdom of Evil. That would be a fun experience.

[Wolfsong]

Not caring is also IC, though. Imagine a town leader outfitting a newspawn, caring for them, and then the newspawn gives up and dies a year later anyway. Imagine that happening hundreds (literally, hundreds) of times for every one newspawn who sticks around. Think of it like battle fatigue, Cantr-style.

While town leaders should be accountable and active, new players should also -try-, and many of them don't. A lot of people spawn into the game, then sit there and wait for direction. If you want anything to get done, you need to seize the game by the balls and not be afraid of pushing yourself into town politics, the limelight, etc. Roleplay, be loud, whisper, speak up. Don't be cowed by people complaining about the noise (hilariously.)

[Lapallanch]

I roleplayed a lot as a dumb kid.

Example:

You hear from radio at freq. 100: "Hello, this is Kurdock Lapallanch here! Eh? Does this work? Can you hear me? Yes? Hahaa! This is fun! Never used a telephone in my whoooole life. Well, hello! Hello? Why isn't there anybody replying? Hello? Hello?? Hello??!!! That's a radio, Kurdock. Not a telephone. Oh."

And I think this is quite fun, indeed.

-----7.03: You say: "Sorry about that! Just testing my combat skills. And it seems rather decent!"
-----7.03: You efficiently hurt ------- using a whip, who loses 10 percent strength

[BosBaBe]

What I personally find annoying is how in some towns, sleepy leaders still hold power, how some sleep for years and people still kiss their asses and wait patiently for them to wake.

One incident in particular really got on my nerves. There was a town with such strict rules that you weren't allowed to build even basic bone tools without permission (I'm not even joking, sadly). And there was only one leader. He held all the keys, you had to ask him to unlock it to go into any of the town buildings. You weren't allowed to build your own place without permission, or start projects. If this leader was awake 24/7, it might have been only slightly less intolerable. But the guy was never awake. Ever. I saw him awake in his own town only once in all the times I was there, if I remember it correctly. You need to use the radio to call someone over something urgent? "Sorry, our sleepy dictator is asleep, again. Try the next town?"

And then they complained when newspawns would up and leave. Wouldn't get why some would starve/sleep to death. There was always food in storage but you could never get to it. You could farm taters while his highness is dreaming away but why bother when you can just walk away?

I honestly wished despite my affiliation to the place at the time that some clever newspawn would come back to his spawntown to free the citizens who couldn't be bothered to free themselves. So I did a celebration dance when he finally kicked the bucket. Not from a crossbow to his gut or a knife between his shoulder blades to get the keys, but from a heart attack.

While other cases my not be so severe, it still gets me how leadership like that was allowed to happen, and still is.

[Lapallanch]

Amazing. Really? Those town leaders must have been mistaken for deities.

By the way, I probably won't quit this game anytime soon, so...

Lapallanch for Town Leader!

[iavatus]

Liking your enthusiasm, Lapallanch, . Just remember this is a slow, slow paced game. Simply waving your arm in the air, and stating you'd like to be leader, will get you funny looks at best. Learn the game, the system, how to manage, how to work, what's a fair price for a days work, all the things a leader should be good at. Does that sound like work? Hard work, boring work? Well, sometimes it is. Sometimes merely getting ready to start preparing to get towards your goals, is a huge task in itself.

And if it's an empire you want to carve, well. Inertia is working against you, and you will need to move mountains, before anything resembling an empire starts forming.

[SumBum]

Sometimes it seems you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'd decided to take an approach of "if you don't think you'll like it here, I'll help you find somewhere you will be happy." Why try to convince someone to stay if they're just going to make everyone miserable? So, a few newspawns later and my char has been accused of getting offended (in some rather insulting ways) by simply offering some alternative towns if the newspawn wasn't happy where they ended up.

Apparently you can't own them, can't demand they stay, and can't encourage them to leave either!

[Lapallanch]

Liking your enthusiasm, Lapallanch, . Just remember this is a slow, slow paced game. Simply waving your arm in the air, and stating you'd like to be leader, will get you funny looks at best. Learn the game, the system, how to manage, how to work, what's a fair price for a days work, all the things a leader should be good at. Does that sound like work? Hard work, boring work? Well, sometimes it is. Sometimes merely getting ready to start preparing to get towards your goals, is a huge task in itself.

And if it's an empire you want to carve, well. Inertia is working against you, and you will need to move mountains, before anything resembling an empire starts forming.

Yeah. *sighs* Anyway, I'm still taking my time. As I said, I played this game, like, really hardcore a year or so ago, so I have a general idea of what's happening, how to roleplay my character and basically most of the skills required. I'm still getting used to some of the newer updates, but there isn't much of a difference yet.

Sometimes it seems you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'd decided to take an approach of "if you don't think you'll like it here, I'll help you find somewhere you will be happy." Why try to convince someone to stay if they're just going to make everyone miserable? So, a few newspawns later and my char has been accused of getting offended (in some rather insulting ways) by simply offering some alternative towns if the newspawn wasn't happy where they ended up.

Apparently you can't own them, can't demand they stay, and can't encourage them to leave either!

I sure love your attitude towards newspawns. Every newspawn should be given the right to choose his/her workplace. I'll do that when I'm Town Leader! *winks* Lapallanch for Town Leader!

[Marian]

One incident in particular really got on my nerves. There was a town with such strict rules that you weren't allowed to build even basic bone tools without permission (I'm not even joking, sadly)

Kind of hard to believe places like this still exist. I've only seen one town with laws like that. It was on a Cantr island and they hadn't been updated since the 2000s...and yeah, I walked out. Realistically, in a sleepy town you can run circles around the authorities and get away with all kinds of things right under their nose, but I figured even if they weren't still being enforced, in all those years no one there had ever cared enough to change them to be less crazy and hostile and so they didn't deserve to have their laziness rewarded with a new citizen anyhow.

Only time in a long time I ever broke my 3 day rule.

[Lapallanch]

3 day rule? What's that? Your personal rule to stay in a town for at least 3 days?

Anyway, that MIGHT be how my evil kingdom is like. Or maybe that's the rule in the capital city. In the other sister towns, we'll FORCE you to make weapons to supply the Evil Army. If you don't, you die. It's as simple as that. Although that might mean most of my citizens will die and I'll be a lonely king. *sighs* If only we could build gallows and stuff. It would be fun.

Alright, Lapallanch out.

[Marian]

3 day rule? What's that? Your personal rule to stay in a town for at least 3 days?

Yep. I don't make big plans for my characters before spawning them, or at least not anything set in stone. Since they're new to existence and pretty much a blank slate I make a good faith effort to have them adjust to their community and take cues from those around them. And while it's possible a town might just be having a sleepy day when you spawn, three is usually enough to reveal their true colors. Leaders who don't even bother welcoming their newspawns lose major points in my book.

Anyway, that MIGHT be how my evil kingdom is like. Or maybe that's the rule in the capital city. In the other sister towns, we'll FORCE you to make weapons to supply the Evil Army. If you don't, you die. It's as simple as that. Although that might mean most of my citizens will die and I'll be a lonely king. *sighs* If only we could build gallows and stuff. It would be fun.

This is adorable.