Messages

16

Other Games / Re: Guild Wars 2 - BattleMaster Guild

« on: October 31, 2012, 08:26:57 PM »

Finally picked this up last weekend. Is the BM guild still going?

17

BM General Discussion / Re: Villains make the game fun

« on: October 31, 2012, 08:24:13 PM »

From an objective standpoint, if we weren't presented with Agatha Heterodyne as the sympathetic protagonist, Klaus Wulfenbach would be the hero of the story, and the one we should be rooting for.

Not certain of this. Maybe in the same way that we root for the Punisher as the anti-hero. But an extremist in end-justifies-the-means makes a hard sell for a "sympathetic" protagonist. Warring, conquering, and ruling by force and might in an effort to end all wars "for the good of Europa" seems counter-intuitive.

One thing's for certain, he's definitely proven Harvey Dent's theory to be accurate.

18

BM General Discussion / Re: Villains make the game fun

« on: October 31, 2012, 04:40:58 PM »

Didn't say he was evil. He's a tyrant, though.

This. He's been the most confusing character in a cast of ulterior-motive characters. And I think it's largely because we see only what he does, but not really what motivates him, unlike the others. He comes off as quite the ill-intending tyrant most of the time- it's how he united his empire in the first place. But do we mark a villain so simply because we don't know what his motives are?

That's probably a question of justice vs mercy. Intent vs letter of the law.

19

BM General Discussion / Re: Villains make the game fun

« on: October 26, 2012, 01:21:03 AM »

However, I would challenge anyone to provide evidence of Delvin as a villain that doesn't boil down to, "He was an effective ruler of a realm I considered an enemy."

If one views themselves as the protagonist (and really, who doesn't in large part?) then anyone who stands opposed to you is, by definition, the antagonist. Ergo, an effective ruler of an enemy realm would become a villain to anyone deeming themselves the hero.

In other news, I would probably be hard pressed to find a character I've had here that didn't at least sometimes exhibit villainous qualities. The ones that didn't were ones I cast aside as failed characters rather quickly. My villainy usually comes in the form of painting others into a corner and stirring up the masses/knights/lords/mindless sheep (all pretty much the same) to band together against said person/realm. This sometimes looks like vendettas and rivalries, sometimes looks like intense hatred for perceived past oppression, and sometimes looks on the surface to be righteous indignation against injustice. I've toppled upstanding, good, noble opponents before just by convincing people that my cause/belief was more good/noble. And that's just as villainous as my untouchable assassin who ran an "eye scream cart" with the remains of her victims. Maybe more so.

20

Magistrates Case Archive / Re: Realm Merger of Solaria and Luria Nova

« on: October 24, 2012, 10:32:29 PM »

FWIW, I can't speak to either the first or second duchal allegiance change, but I changed Tranquil in a "what's best for my region" move. It's been hard enough keeping it from going rogue and losing it that it would be pretty impossible with no capital and no adjacent regions. Not a merger on my part. My character is still new enough to that area that he has no real vested interest in any realm at all yet. And it was not discussed in-realm to have been a merger in any way either.

21

Dwilight / Re: Meanwhile, in Solaria...

« on: October 23, 2012, 06:58:19 PM »

They do, yes. I have the other 12 regions.

Not quite. I still have Tranquil.

22

Far East Island / Re: The War of the Hearth Right

« on: October 18, 2012, 06:04:32 AM »

Actually, I honestly think GA playing Switzerland may have been the most helpful thing to Zonasa/Kindara, due to how it shaped the front.  If they had actually joined on our side, they probably would have been overrun my Arcaea reasonably quickly.

OOC, it was definitely a consideration for me. Especially as poor as our military is, I saw ourselves being overrun in 1-2 weeks by Arcaea.

23

Far East Island / Re: The War of the Hearth Right

« on: October 18, 2012, 03:55:44 AM »

There was no pony mentioned, I assure you. If it had, this war would have been over weeks ago. 

::edit- Actually, not even I'm arrogant enough to think that GA's military influence would've been enough to end things much faster.::

24

Far East Island / Re: The War of the Hearth Right

« on: October 17, 2012, 04:02:02 PM »

It was, though more so in P.O.Z then in Kindara. Just before the current war it was more a thing that could possibly happen then anything that was seriously being planned. Popular opinion was not as against GA then as it is now that Arella seems to have stopped listening to anything resembling reality. Either that or Galiard is just that convincing, and I have to admit, he is charismatic.

Arella's fatal flaw is justness of a cause. The longer a war like this drags on, the more she's going to regret choosing pragmatism over principles. Sooner it all ends, the sooner she'll let it go and move on.

25

Dwilight / Re: The Zuma are Evil

« on: August 28, 2012, 04:08:56 AM »

...to me...

Mama, just assassinated a King! Put a knife against his back, drove it through and laid him flat.

26

SM General Discussion / Re: A New Attempt

« on: August 03, 2012, 04:14:23 AM »

Ok, so the major change is simply that the emphasis changes from established spells to spontaneous casting- and that because the mechanics for doing so are stripped down a little easier?

27

SM General Discussion / Re: A New Attempt

« on: August 02, 2012, 04:28:53 PM »

Just coming onboard here again, so I admit I've been out of touch for awhile on the forums. Can someone kindly explain how this gets us closer to a freeform concept? From what I'm seeing so far, it looks like the change is either a) minimal, b) a guess-and-check way of getting to what we already had, or c) some combination of both, depending on who you ask.

It's still quite crunchy and tastes like math instead of storytelling in the end, no?

28

Far East Island / Re: Religious power rankings

« on: June 09, 2012, 07:15:12 PM »

When Queen Arella demonstrated some kind of animosity to my closing of an Aenilian temple, 2 months or more after it happened, I laughed. Even more-so when she forgot about it almost immediately.

Arella wasn't ruler when it happened, and only brought it up to prove Sorraine wasn't as free and open as you were trying to convince the southern alliance you would be. And trust me, she never forgot. But that's one of the many things that made it impossible to take Caspius at his word and why his not-very-convincing attempt at an alliance never got off the ground. Caspius speaks too much doublespeak, but it's not like most. It's not truth or lies. It's political or religious. Which is more subtle, but far more dangerous to everyone.

29

Dwilight / Re: Newer Kabrinskia vs. Terran Thread

« on: June 07, 2012, 10:33:11 PM »

I'm not sure what this means. Morek was one of the four realms created by Tom as the original realms of Dwilight. Tom gave the names of the realms and the style of realm it would be, and we created banners for them based on those descriptions. Deverka's player won the banner competition for Morek's banner, as was granted a free hero character in Morek as its first noble. Deverka then created the whole Bloodstars theme inspired by the banner he created. He didn't even have a name for it. We voted (informally) in the realm to select the name for the religion.

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Contests/Dwilight_Realm_Banners

Yeah, I'm saying it was pretty well put together except for the name by the time the island opened up. Maybe a month later it was "official".

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Dwilight / Re: Newer Kabrinskia vs. Terran Thread

« on: June 07, 2012, 09:14:18 PM »

For the record, here is the list of the 14 nobles who were in Astrum at the approximate time of the founding of Sanguis Astroism, which was somewhere around one month after the first turn that was run on Dwilight:

• Horus Darkfire, First Ordermarshal of Morek (disappeared)

Seriously, your paranoia has really taken you over the edge.

Eh, close enough. The reason Morek made the cut as one of the original realms was because of the SA backstory, so it was present in some form before Dwilight even opened, I'm pretty sure.

Regardless, I was Horus Darkfire. Had a fairly amicable relationship with Allison while I was there. But my character in Asylon is one of the staunchest anti-Allison people out there, and everyone in Asylon knows it. So yeah, definitely not a cabal going on with the founders. Not only are most of those characters gone, but I think most of those players are too.