So, I'm not allowed to have goals...right?

[Lumino]

Personal goals, I mean.

Obviously, my characters are allowed to have goals, and are supposed to have goals. But if I say to myself, "I really want to have a character some day who will achieve __________", there is a problem.

Because if I try to do it with one character, now I'm stuck. I can never attempt the same thing with a different character, especially if it is an extremely specific goal (which many of mine are), because that becomes a CRB. So once I announce my intention and start working toward it with one character, if I fail beyond repair, or die for some reason, I can never try again.

Right?

[Mr. Black]

I don't agree. My chars use the same goals all the time.

Edit: Hi, Lumin.

[Dust Puppy]

I don´t see a problem, as long as the new characters don´t use any information they can´t have. I´m not sure if I understand you correctly though, what do you mean by "extremely specific" goal?

[lordcooper]

BLASPHEMY!

Get back to working on FTO!

[SekoETC]

You can pursue the same goals just as long as you don't use the information gathered by the previous characters, and the thing is not made obvious. For example if you like to play mappers, then if one died then you could have another one, and I'd say you could even continue based on the map the first character made as long as the second character finds it in-game and didn't intentionally travel to the location where the first mapper died. You might end up mapping some locations twice if there is insufficient information.

Likewise if a character wants to start a religion and fails, if you have another character pursue the same goal, it's better to have different documents and ideals for the new church.

[Lumino]

Mr. Black--what was the point of that edit?

Well, as an example, let's say I had a really good idea for a very unique, new government system that hasn't been done in Cantr before. And let's say I spend a lot of time typing up the complexities of that system. Then I try to do it with a char in game, but he gets killed before it really gets off the ground, although after he has shared the document with a bunch of people.

If I try again with a new character, I can't use my great idea because it would be weird two chars having the same idea. And do I have to retype in this huge document in a different tone or with a different structure? :/

(This is just an example, although it's something I might want to do someday)

[Piscator]

Hmm. Try not to get killed.

[SekoETC]

One of my characters wrote an elaborate document about a society where newspawns and other low-ranking people aren't allowed to speak unless spoken to, everybody can get whipped for making errors and when an error is pointed out, the person who did wrong is to hand over their shield and strip down to their waist and accept the punishment without complaints, even if it was a high-ranking person. The character never even tried to start such a society but he had the note on him when he died so it's in there somewhere. It would be interesting to start a similar society but it would have to be edited so that it's not exactly like in that document.

If you can't have a new character unintentionally run into the documents written by the first character, you could rewrite the whole thing and change it enough not to look like it was based on the first idea.

One of my characters found a note written/drawn by one of my earlier characters and it intrigues her. I feel tempted to draw it as it was meant to look like since it was done in ascii art back when image upload wasn't implemented yet, but then people could see from the date that it's not that old. Also she walked past the location where this earlier character had committed a crime and I felt like she should have some sort of a deja-vu, but I couldn't act it out because it would be using OOC information.

[Dudel]

Didn't Dori or whatever 'blip' to a new location like magic?

Umm... I think having 100% specific ideas/goals would be a little difficult. I have personal player goals but they are left rather generic and I wait for 'that time' to release them.

I think, to be honest, all you would have to do is rearrange somethings in the original document and rename the thing something else.

HOWEVER, it would get rather bad if your characters kept dying and you kept trying to start this government or what-have-you.

Also, if you wait enough time then the note becomes trash/garbage/etc at the old location and few people will remember.

[Lumino]

Thanks for the ideas, all.

I guess the other alternative is to be really patient and wait for just the right time when one of my characters is in a position to rally enough support to realize my ideas, but...


...patience. Ugh. Boring

Well, that's Cantr for you, right?

[Diego]

Leaving CRB aside (as I have issues with authority, namely, I don't recognize any), I think from an RP perspective it would be odd/forced/inorganic for two entirely different individuals to have the same precise ideas about anything in particular, even if their starting personalities and core traits and values are similar or identical. It would be denying the influence of their individual life experience, which feels like incomplete/poor roleplay.

Let's say your characters have the natural personality that, uh, Galileo was born with. Galileo would've been an insightful, daring polymath and inventor pretty much anywhere, but the precise nature of his achievements--the focus of his drive--would not have been the same had he been born in Tibet, or Colombian colonial towns, or Japan. He might've looked into physiology more than astronomy if he was born somewhere surrounded by illness, or zoology if exposed to colorful animals as a child, or military strategy, had his house been on a hill near a training camp for cavalry.

So I'd say such precise goals should be more like long-term hopes for your characters, but forcing them into certain decisions or paths that might be unjustified by the sum of their personalities and life experiences would be a little like those parents who make their kids go to law school when all Timmy wanted was to be the best damn ice cream maker this side of the Atlantic, because of that inspiring old ice cream salesman and connoiseur who fondled him inappropriately when he was six.

[Marian]

Mr. Black--what was the point of that edit?

There used to be a poster here named just 'Lumin' and I think he thinks you're her? At least I'm assuming, I did a double take when I saw the name too. :p (btw Mr. Black - he/she is not, I know Lumin in RL)

Anyway I'm thinking reusing something as specific as a governemt like the one Seko mentioned would be a CRB, though there's no reason two characters couldn't come up with the same general idea, if their experiences were close enough, though it may be best to avoid things like using your old chars notes for 'inspiration' because IMO it does blur the lines, to just instantly become a true believer in some random notes written by some random person.

I do feel your pain though, in my original account I had a character wind up with the loot of half a town and since they were a highly organized control freak they wrote multi-page laws and mapped out a very detailed indoor 'town' accesible only by sea, and had actually made a lot of progress in the factory they were using for a temporary base (no idea if they would have found people willing to actually live there, but there were at least a couple of promising employees...) when I had to let them die along with everybody else because of RL.

I'd really like to try that again one of these days, but of course the odds of one of my characters getting cracked in the very same way to produce something like that aren't very good, especially now that I try to avoid having even the vaguest goals when I spawn them. Since there's no telling where they'll wind up I've found the 'blank slate' approach is so much more flexible and IMO leads to more interesting chars then the ones I used to have.

[playerslayer666]

i am guilty of not naming my characters ahead of time or giving them roles BEFORE i see the town i am in. some roles that i played were preplanned. for example, Zachary of Doryiskom. when i spawn a character i don't give them a name or a set purpose until i know where i am.

the problem is just didn't want a real role in that town cause i knew i'd get into public discussions. Zachary was deaf as well as.....special. so, i wasn't obligated to care about the town itself. the people on the other hand were fun to RP with.

also i like having at least one religious character, so not spawning with a name or purpose gives me the freedom to make whatever kind of character i want in that town. if it doesn't have a religion i can make a guardian angel and he can do his own thing. if it does.....well, nowadays i have thought of the idea of making an exiled demon, which would be fun to see how accepting of him the town is.

i guess what i am trying to say is it helps to be able to play the game the way you want. why have a pirate and spawn him in the middle of nowhere 5 towns away from a lake or sea? or a religious fanatic in a tyrant empire with no religion? it's best that you start with a clean slate and not commit to anything as opposed to having to change the way the character thinks while attempting to stay in character.

i'm getting off topic though.... i guess it would depend on the goal, but i don't see why you can't do the same type of goal more than once.

Well, as an example, let's say I had a really good idea for a very unique, new government system that hasn't been done in Cantr before. And let's say I spend a lot of time typing up the complexities of that system. Then I try to do it with a char in game, but he gets killed before it really gets off the ground, although after he has shared the document with a bunch of people.

If I try again with a new character, I can't use my great idea because it would be weird two chars having the same idea. And do I have to retype in this huge document in a different tone or with a different structure? :/

(This is just an example, although it's something I might want to do someday)

it's called " be smart ". don't let one of your newspawns waste a perfectly awsome idea when he is not capable of it. let the idea sit in your head and get him involved as much as possible with the town untill one day you know you have peoples trust and respect to the point they will consider the idea as long as it is an improvement from the current system. if not.....well, you picked the wrong town to do it in.

so it's a matter of choice and age. no one will listen to a man in his twenties in a well structured town.

[DylPickle]

Just to clear up the names.. You folks are thinking about "ilumino", the creator of fto. :p


Back when I played more actively, I had personal goals masked behind my characters goals sometimes. But they're very broad and subtle. For example, 80% of my characters will pay for clothing and food, because as a player I think there should be a market for those type of thing from RP.