Post by lechuck on Jun 14, 2019 6:15:10 GMT -5
It's because the Guild is a flawed concept. There aren't nearly enough human 'rinth PCs at any given time to make the westside feel lively, so you end up being mostly southside which creates this really unsatisfying kind of playstyle where you're either an unofficial templar's aide or you can expect to get executed inside a couple of months. Templars are as hungry for things to do as anyone else, and fucking with you is something to do, so unless you shape your character to revolve around appeasing templars (and sometimes even if you do), eventually one of them will be bored enough to execute you in order to make some headlines. And since the Guild typically comprises only two to three active players, it's a huge reset button whenever an important member dies.
The eastside is a bit better situated against that problem because their half of the 'rinth is way more fleshed out--just look at NPCs, there's like five times as many eastside than west. Westside seriously has what, ten free-range NPCs wandering the alleys? The rest are shops and doorguards and other things you can't seriously interact with. Eastside has way more, and they're elves so way better for raising skills on. The NPC elves will even start fights with eachother which means you can find more loot over there and just get into some fights that you can actually justify getting into without being called out for twinking. And since elves are naturally far more limited in how they can operate politically southside, they aren't prone to falling prey to that "gangster sitting in the Gaj all day" syndrome.
On top of that, the Guild's power structure is completely imaginary. Staff never lets it wield the clout it's really supposed to have. It's supposed to be run by this mysterious shadow cabal that includes some of the city's top officials, but they're never animated and they never really count for anything. For all intents and purposes, the Guild is no stronger than the random couple of miscreants and enforcers that's in it at any given time. If they make some kind of move like assassinating a noble, the entire city will rise up against them and the Guild NPCs will just sit idly by as templars systematically prey on its members. This leads them into risk-averse playstyles. Nobody respects the Guild in the slightest because their power has been an illusion ever since the Gin/Quick days. It's like if the Sopranos crime organization comprised only Christopher Moltisanti and two of his fuckup tag-along buddies who are just eager to be associated in any way at all.
One fatal mistake that staff has made with the Guild in recent years is pushing them toward spice trade. Like they want the Guild to focus on that almost to the exclusion of all else. But the spice trade is a dead end. Almost nobody wants to buy it ever since it was made to decay like food, and though a few nobles will occasionally order some spice just for the sake of interacting with the Guild, it's not even something that's interesting to carry out. You just call up the Dust Runners or whoever and they bring you some spice and you sell it off to someone and that's that, not exactly a captivating line of roleplay. There's no help or encouragement on staff's part for any other aspect of criminal roleplay. Spice trade is safe and makes no real waves, so that's what staff wants you to focus on.
It's a lot easier to get shit done in an indie startup group because you can do whatever you want and people only know as much about you as you reveal. In terms of tangible power, the Guild is no more effective than any given handful of other players, and almost impossible to maintain a proper roster of active players because the westside is such a useless ghost town. Meanwhile, everyone's gunning for them because it's a go-to target that everyone knows about and can easily justify opposing. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call the Guild persecuted, but there's definitely a tendency for players to target them because it sounds better to have tussled with the Guild than with some random pack of indies nobody knew about until last month. Yet the Guild is no harder to tussle with, so it's kind of an easy scalp for anyone looking to do instigate some conflict.
Ideally, the 'rinth would be a real sphere of play instead of a cardboard facade where everything is make-believe. It's far too small and barren to attract the number of players required for a sustainable gameplay environment, and staff doesn't really do anything to represent the power structures there. It's like if there were no PC or NPC templars and noone ever heard from the Templarate at all, yet soldiers were still supposed to play as if they have the backing of the government. Nobody would respect that either and you could easily declare war on the army's four active PCs and face zero repercussions beyond what they themselves can exact. That's basically what the Guild is.
The eastside is a bit better situated against that problem because their half of the 'rinth is way more fleshed out--just look at NPCs, there's like five times as many eastside than west. Westside seriously has what, ten free-range NPCs wandering the alleys? The rest are shops and doorguards and other things you can't seriously interact with. Eastside has way more, and they're elves so way better for raising skills on. The NPC elves will even start fights with eachother which means you can find more loot over there and just get into some fights that you can actually justify getting into without being called out for twinking. And since elves are naturally far more limited in how they can operate politically southside, they aren't prone to falling prey to that "gangster sitting in the Gaj all day" syndrome.
On top of that, the Guild's power structure is completely imaginary. Staff never lets it wield the clout it's really supposed to have. It's supposed to be run by this mysterious shadow cabal that includes some of the city's top officials, but they're never animated and they never really count for anything. For all intents and purposes, the Guild is no stronger than the random couple of miscreants and enforcers that's in it at any given time. If they make some kind of move like assassinating a noble, the entire city will rise up against them and the Guild NPCs will just sit idly by as templars systematically prey on its members. This leads them into risk-averse playstyles. Nobody respects the Guild in the slightest because their power has been an illusion ever since the Gin/Quick days. It's like if the Sopranos crime organization comprised only Christopher Moltisanti and two of his fuckup tag-along buddies who are just eager to be associated in any way at all.
One fatal mistake that staff has made with the Guild in recent years is pushing them toward spice trade. Like they want the Guild to focus on that almost to the exclusion of all else. But the spice trade is a dead end. Almost nobody wants to buy it ever since it was made to decay like food, and though a few nobles will occasionally order some spice just for the sake of interacting with the Guild, it's not even something that's interesting to carry out. You just call up the Dust Runners or whoever and they bring you some spice and you sell it off to someone and that's that, not exactly a captivating line of roleplay. There's no help or encouragement on staff's part for any other aspect of criminal roleplay. Spice trade is safe and makes no real waves, so that's what staff wants you to focus on.
It's a lot easier to get shit done in an indie startup group because you can do whatever you want and people only know as much about you as you reveal. In terms of tangible power, the Guild is no more effective than any given handful of other players, and almost impossible to maintain a proper roster of active players because the westside is such a useless ghost town. Meanwhile, everyone's gunning for them because it's a go-to target that everyone knows about and can easily justify opposing. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call the Guild persecuted, but there's definitely a tendency for players to target them because it sounds better to have tussled with the Guild than with some random pack of indies nobody knew about until last month. Yet the Guild is no harder to tussle with, so it's kind of an easy scalp for anyone looking to do instigate some conflict.
Ideally, the 'rinth would be a real sphere of play instead of a cardboard facade where everything is make-believe. It's far too small and barren to attract the number of players required for a sustainable gameplay environment, and staff doesn't really do anything to represent the power structures there. It's like if there were no PC or NPC templars and noone ever heard from the Templarate at all, yet soldiers were still supposed to play as if they have the backing of the government. Nobody would respect that either and you could easily declare war on the army's four active PCs and face zero repercussions beyond what they themselves can exact. That's basically what the Guild is.
