Let's talk about 20-year-olds

[*Wiro]

More likely they'll wake up the minute they're dragged inside. I remember one of my characters being ignored for days so he walked into the harbour and ran back out shouting about pirates and a minute later the town leader woke up lol.

[Marian]

More likely they'll wake up the minute they're dragged inside. I remember one of my characters being ignored for days so he walked into the harbour and ran back out shouting about pirates and a minute later the town leader woke up lol.

I remember one of my characters being ignored for days, walking into and empty workshop to vent a little one the radio and then SUDDENLY, they're darting in from a field and asking what's going on and what do I need.

[Marian]

Bump.

This was such a good thread. There have been some incidents and I'm thinking on some things I'm not ready to post about yet. But I'm curious whether anybody else has anything to add, on either side of this?

Keep seeing related things getting posted in the annoyance thread when they'd be a much better fit here.

[hyrle]

So I've started a few 20-year-olds in the last two months. Both are unique characters with their own "special situations", for lack of a better term. This has given them some interesting dimension, and reasons for other characters to interact in interesting ways with them. I know a lot of people complain about "drama queens", but the fact of the matter is that the characters who interact with other characters get the most attention. And if they're not getting attention or not finding something that clicks, they move on. One of my new ones has been given tons of responsibility and tons of interesting situations. The other is more seen as flawed and in need of care (which was my goal) and it's given me some very interesting RP in a place that, honestly, I didn't expect it due to past experiences. What I figured might be a temporary stopover is becoming far more and it's great so far.

I think one thing that's important for people playing 20 years olds to remember is that this is - at its core - a roleplaying game. You need to play a role and give other characters a reason to want to interact with your characters. The quiet wallflower is fine to play if you want to be a hermit and play Cantr as a survival game - but it's terrible for a town-bound character because the quiet ones really don't get anything.

[Rmak]

Yes its a role playing game but being treated as town "property" in some cases indicate those town leaders don't really invest in the future or their personal security.

[iavatus]

Glad you found this thread, Rmak. Hopefully, if you read through, you'll get the impression that yes, there's a lot of bad leaders, but there's good few who really do care, and make things much more pleasant for players...... and characters.

[Rmak]

Oh yes I have spawned in a good mix of towns. Some of them are very good, some a bit sleepy and a couple down right terrible. The bad ones certainly make for strong character development at least. I mean what better way to build a character then to start off with a grudge against someone.

[Marian]

Oh yes I have spawned in a good mix of towns. Some of them are very good, some a bit sleepy and a couple down right terrible. The bad ones certainly make for strong character development at least. I mean what better way to build a character then to start off with a grudge against someone.

Oh man, you have no idea. All the best stories start out that way.

[Wolfsong]

Unless your character gets killed first. But yeah - bad towns are the best for character development, provided you get out of them alive.

[Rmak]

Survival was easy as the towns seem complacent and weak (Which helps a great deal).

The town dynamics are interesting. Some towns have been interesting where an up and coming newspawn works hard and makes friends.........some locals seem to feel threatened and suddenly start to get involved more or turn against you. Other towns have several players have been very helpful, kind and supportive and I have enjoyed learning how to do things and learning my place in the community.

I would have loved to have spawned in some different places instead of mostly right next to each other, some characters are quite limited in what they can do travel wise whereas others have entire islands to roam around at will.

[ObsessedWithCats]

My characters' experiences as newspawns:

1. was given 5000g wood and several days worth of assistance to build his own wooden cart at probably barely 21. That wasn't his spawntown - they gave him basic clothes, paid him fairly for his work and didn't try to make him stay when he suddenly decided to leave on foot. The people in his spawntown were very supportive of me and my inability to figure out doors and buckets.
2. expressed a desire for adventure and was given a rickshaw, a spear, food, animal products and time-killing tools at 20 years old, despite estimating her trip would last about ten years.
3. felt trapped in his town to the point that he went a bit off the edge, but mostly that feeling originated from himself and didn't start until his thirties.
4. absolutely devoted to his town - hard to judge how it'd've been otherwise. They took a very harsh view on unrepentant thieves and had a rash of really crazy newspawns but would allow a thief to redeem or explain themself, even to the point of calling in translators at times
5. town leader was in her twenties herself. Newspawns were welcomed with open arms but tended not to be given many opportunities to leave
6. spawned in a dead town where only the leader woke. Was treated reasonably considering his attitude but was given less information than I'm sure the town could have given to aid his escape.
7. Was definitely subtly hindered from reaching his dream of leaving the town to sail a boat, but was given better-than-average newspawn gear and not treated with excessive suspicion
8. taken on almost immediately as an apprentice by the local tailor if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure all obnoxiousness towards newspawns was quite clearly in-character only here.

alive ones:
9. neutral here so far
10. neutral here too, with bonus points for being decent to a newspawn with rather limited practical use.
11. details would reveal me, but if this is the town's usual treatment of newspawns I hope they get lots and lots who want to stay and do cool things there ^_^

A mixed bag, decent overall.

[NikkieSheepie]

I have a selection of twenty-year-olds, since I've just restarted playing all my characters are in their twenties and it's some of them are soo frustrating! Some are having a decent or even good time of it, other's, well not so much. My problem is that by trying to make characters with a distinct personality different to 'normal' characters, they're going nowhere.
I'll admit to not always being the most active, I'm afraid RL and work get in the way (anyone who knows me personally will know how stressful my job can get and how much overtime I end up doing!) but considering some of my characters are doing well for themselves I can't see how that is to blame?

1. Landed in the right place and the right time, was well welcomed and now has a story to create
2. Enjoy's his time mucking around but also mucking in. Is looked after by those around him and has no desire to leave
3. A 'different' character, who's town initially accepted her but god is it hard work to get much interaction at times!
4. Didn't really have a choice but to travel, she's still trying to find somewhere inhabited!
5. Spawned in a really busy place and has been a little sleepy but well welcomed, just needs a little more effort from my part.
6. Another 'different' character, who has been pretty much ignored.

Why is trying to be a little different to the usual happy, chirpy newspawn such a bad thing? My character 6 especially has been a total waste of RP effort, no matter what I done, there was zero interaction. No I'm not going to change her character just to fit in, there is a reason I made her different and that was to spice up the RP a little for everyone involved. I have a happy character, a flirty character, an average character... Why not a 'different' character?

Rant over.

[*Wiro]

These snowflake traits could be treated the way adjectives are in stories, if they don't serve a purpose then they're just annoying and it reads like poor fanfiction. I'm sorry if that's harsh, but you did ask. It's difficult to say what the problem is in your case without knowing what the character's traits are. Feel free to PM them to me, but I won't pretend to be an authority on good RP.

[LittleSoul]

Why is trying to be a little different to the usual happy, chirpy newspawn such a bad thing? My character 6 especially has been a total waste of RP effort, no matter what I done, there was zero interaction. No I'm not going to change her character just to fit in, there is a reason I made her different and that was to spice up the RP a little for everyone involved. I have a happy character, a flirty character, an average character... Why not a 'different' character?

Rant over.

It's luck of the draw. Sometimes you get towns that are condusive to characters that are different and other times if you don't fit into the local click they cold shoulder you.

[Kyriel]

That depends on what you mean by 'different'. And some towns are horrible for trying to interact with people even for 'normal' characters.