Communities or character types Cantr might be missing?

[oddedd]

This is really true, I think even thieves, no matter how arrogant shouldn't be killed if this kind of set up is going to work!

[Bleacher]

I wish more people played realistic, more challenging and interesting characters. Most of the characters you see are perfect- They follow the ideals, they have a single partner till death, helpful, cooperating, the list goes one.

I salute players who have taken up this challenge and have made the RP atmosphere so lively. You have made this game interesting. I'm trying to be one and success is coming.. I have got a mentally unstable char, a psychotic killer char, an amnesiac char and currently developing a heavy drinker rockstar char..

[Surly]

I'll put is simply - I wish newspawns didn't spawn with their player's modern values and sensibilities. I wish they would spawn, look around, and think everything they see, be it a thriving democracy, or an oppressive dictatorship, as completely normal. I sometimes think that my characters were the only ones that ever asked "what's a wedding," or didn't automatically exchange rings with their mates.

I agree with the first part of this. All my newspawns start as blank slates and, if the people in their spawn town make even a slight effort to interact with them, they are unlikely to move on to another town any time soon. I get very tired of instantly moral characters who pass judgement on their surroundings when they have never experienced anything else. I do get a little tired of spawning in a sleepy 4 person town and getting ignored until I decide to starve the character off though.

I'm not sure how I feel about the "marriage" point; I don't have enough time to invest in learning everything in a second life, so I don't mind certain things like that being assumed.

If we had "blank-slate newspawns," everything you mentioned, Seko, would be more prevalent, because every group/leader in the game would have an equal chance at growing their numbers through spawning, not just the communities that are "good" or "fair" and imo are vastly over-represented in Cantr compared to reality.

I disagree that communities that are "good" or "fair" are over-represented. The majority of communities in real life are good to their own within the limits of that community. I would say that pirates are disproportionately powerful in Cantr, as they can easily and quickly sustain/replenish with food and resources. Most pirates in real life eventually settle down and realise killing everyone is not actually helpful.

[EchoMan]

I get very tired of instantly moral characters who pass judgement on their surroundings when they have never experienced anything else.

I totally agree with this. I recently had to experience something best described as a town revolt from four relatively recent spawns (all in their twenties) when the town guard had to step in to detain someone who was insulting town elders. According to the newspawns, these guards was over reacting and they had never seen guards behave this way. The guards were actually physically (and verbally) assaulted by this group. Well... they had most likely never seen any other guards at all. The total lack of actually leaning back a bit and thinking beyond the players perspective in this situation made me puke.

[RedQueen.exe]

I salute players who have taken up this challenge and have made the RP atmosphere so lively. You have made this game interesting. I'm trying to be one and success is coming.. I have got a mentally unstable char, a psychotic killer char, an amnesiac char and currently developing a heavy drinker rockstar char..

The one thing that worries me about this kinds of chars, is the possible tendency for them to become defined by a single characteristic in the same way that main characters in movies are that are members of a minority demographic are often then defined by it.

In other words, I worry that cantr then often winds up with "a psychotic killer char", instead of a demi-romantic psychotic killer char with a love of historical trivia, a knack for playing the flute, and a weakness for soft cheese, and a hatred of needless verbosity.

[kaloryfer]

i admit - all of my characters are cute fluffy beings (that would attack any rule-breakers in an instant with steel battle axes, without even bigger thinking)
except the:
* one that is clearly crazy - building temples of mud out of ... mud
* one that is a bit less crazy - but can say only one word "moo"

[Marian]

I get very tired of instantly moral characters who pass judgement on their surroundings when they have never experienced anything else.

I totally agree with this. I recently had to experience something best described as a town revolt from four relatively recent spawns (all in their twenties) when the town guard had to step in to detain someone who was insulting town elders. According to the newspawns, these guards was over reacting and they had never seen guards behave this way. The guards were actually physically (and verbally) assaulted by this group. Well... they had most likely never seen any other guards at all. The total lack of actually leaning back a bit and thinking beyond the players perspective in this situation made me puke.

I know what situation you're referring too, and you're either seriously over-simplifying or completely missing the point. (though your character's interpretation is up to their personality and not really the issue here.) As far as I can gather, the issue with the people who were upset (half of whom had been citizens for five to eight years so who were hardly 'idiot newspawns' no matter how many times they were called that) was more about one person's general behavior as a human being than specifically their behavior as a guard...though later when the whole thing was dragged on and on with the suicide attempts and such at least for my character the latter came into question as well.

Anyway, and perhaps this is going a bit off topic...but I've said before in the RP Praise thread that I think everyone involved had excellent RP (and at least until one incident recently I've continued thinking so), and the whole scenario played out in a really interesting way. (again, until that one incident recently) Speaking only for my character, they got upset in the heat of the moment primarily because what happened was such an extreme departure from what they'd come to know as 'normal' in the town, they felt confused and betrayed by people they'd loved and trusted. I'm sorry if I apparently literally made you want to puke IRL, but I don't appreciate the 'OOC motivation' accusation at all and think it's really uncalled for. My character there is one of my three most fully developed, I take their RP seriously, and I think I know what's going on in their head a lot better than you do.

I disagree that communities that are "good" or "fair" are over-represented.

Anyway, rant over, back on topic. I'm with Surly here...going back to my earlier post, most Cantrian towns are flat out dictatorships with no attempt made to disguise it. Nothing really 'good' and 'fair' about that from a RL perspective, though I think it's a credit to the players that most characters are willing to just go along with that without batting an eye.

Of course, it could be that dictatorships are easy as long as the dictator likes you, and taking an active role in a good and fair government takes away time that could be more entertainingly spent collecting wealth or locking yourself inside having sex, which is possibly the problem in RL too.

[gejyspa]

I wish more people played realistic, more challenging and interesting characters. Most of the characters you see are perfect- They follow the ideals, they have a single partner till death, helpful, cooperating, the list goes one.

Well, which is it -- "realistic", or not following ideals, having a single partner till death, helpful, cooperating? You see, those last four characteristics describe me, the player, very well, So they are realistic for me. Sorry if that doesn't describe you.

[Marian]

Making at least a token attempt to be helpful and cooperative does sound like what most sane people would do in the position most Cantrians find themselves in -- trying to eke out an existence with five to ten other people in an isolated settlement, whether it's a semi-virgin wilderness or a post-apocalyptic wasteland. I don't see what's so unrealistic about it even if it occasionally does get dull, even if they're not particularly nice people, it's just basic self preservation.

[Marian]

Bumping this to mention that another role I rarely, if ever, see, are people in the entertainment business. Where are the people who run inns, bars, theaters, or casinos? How about a cruiseliner with all of the above? Heck, even brothels...all these shy little stuttering girls who want nothing but sex, why aren't they getting paid for it? Again, I assume low population and the rarity of standardized currencies is the main issue here.

I kind of want write up a suggestion for a few more 'just for fun' items, that could be used for gambling or throwing parties or just goofing off, but for now I'm stuck trying to figure out what a Cantrian deck of playing cards would be made of...very thin sheets of wood?

...and Cantrian pinatas? Hit them with a stick until resources pop out. Too bad shredded notes can't be an ingredient. Give me that and some balloons and face paint and a funny wig and I'll made a dude whose sole purpose is to run around the island throwing parties for no reason whatsoever.

[NancyLee]

Maybe it's the place? I've seen/played quite a lot of the sort: singers, a bard, a jester, actors, casino/tabern/theatre/cabaret owners, dancers, storytellers, teachers, radio stars... There was also a floating Casino - Cabaret. I think you hit the crux of it with the low population thing, not so much the lack of standarized currencies, I'm sure every exotic dancer would accept steel/iron ingots in her underwear

You made my evening with the piñatas. Now I want them!

[Alladinsane]

Thank you all for giving me a sick idea. Now to flesh it out.

Its been about 15yr but there was an individual that caused alot of national debate and now some new rules have made it doable. Finally my first 'bad guy' char may have just been given a name.

[NostalgicMelody7]

I'm getting a lot of interesting ideas from reading through this Thanks a lot, you guys!

[Jaxon]

The Emerald Republic - hated I know - but it had a history and a purpose and had created a definite culture. Also it was eerie and the characters around mine made chills up and down my spine.

And what purpose might that be? Killing every character in the game and causing tea to become a pretty much worthless product?

[SekoETC]

Wouldn't it be sort of funny if someone attacked Plaekur after all these years, even if the characters responsible are long gone? The same how Germans in real life face prejudice because of what the Nazis did.