suggested "laws" of sshamath

[simplistic]

Excellent Post. I agree 300%. Common sense dictates much. I hope all UD players adopt these here. Thanks for taking the time to write up such.

[DM Sir Carnifex]

I will give this DM's approval until we have something official announced.

*thumbs up*

[atlas]

Actualy, lorewise Grey Orcs have virtualy nothing to do with the Underdark and the majority of them are concentrated along the Moonsea and the Endless Waste. Not to mention they are a strong warlike race, and no mere simpletons and thus would be incredibly hard to enslave. As for Half-Orcs, they are also half Human and so belong on the surface. Though if someone wants to be a slave then they should be allowed to I guess.

I dont really agree with deviating from the lore and with Genasi also being half Human, they should be on the surface aswell.

[simplistic]

Jan 5, 2009 23:12:15 GMT -5 atlas said:

I dont really agree with deviating from the lore and with Genasi also being half Human, they should be on the surface aswell.

I'm with you here. Only the UD races should be there. All plane touched should be on the surface.

[DM haunted]

If you want to learn some more about the city read the FR series the Lady Penitent..Its has a good hands on experience of life in the city and it functions.

[raenir]

*nods*

[emolas]

I love the rules and structure. Almost makes me want to take the +2 ECL hit and make a drow!

Jan 5, 2009 23:31:41 GMT -5 simplistic said:

Jan 5, 2009 23:12:15 GMT -5 atlas said:

I dont really agree with deviating from the lore and with Genasi also being half Human, they should be on the surface aswell.

I'm with you here. Only the UD races should be there. All plane touched should be on the surface.

According to WotC, Genasi are found in nearly all human settlements and are well-tolerated. Not to mention common sense would tell you that a creature of the air would probably be much happier if out under the open sky than underground.

[raenir]

I got to level 18 in 7 days so its not much of a hit.

[emolas]

Jan 7, 2009 0:00:28 GMT -5 raenir said:

I got to level 18 in 7 days so its not much of a hit.

It all depends on how much time you have to dedicate to playing. I got to level 3 in a week and a half with a human.

[broham2]

Of course there are exceptions to everything and people may disagree with my suggestions above.
If so i would like to hear your rational.

I think you've done a great job of outlining the current situation and the culture/mindset of how books and resources have painted the city of Sshamath. Thank you, because I think it will really add to the flavor of the UD portion of the PW.

However, I'd like to think player actions and machinations could do much to change SOME of these aspects of society, and that characters aren't necessarily played in a rigid "this is how it is supposed to be" mindset.

Take the Weave Masters for example. They definitely do not conform to any lore resource on Baldur's Gate, and yet they were formed by players, built by players, and have done much to change the political/power landscape on the surface. The recently formed ‘Shadow Cabal’ is another group that, should it grow in power, is far from any canon resource. Clan Ironfaar is also player-created and I suspect they will enjoy a fair bit of influence once they are up and going. These are just a few of the many examples of things that have happened to change ‘official lore’ on the surface.

I suspect there will be similar examples in the UD as well. Players have a way of doing things their own way, and as long as it isn’t game-breaking or unbalancing I think the DMs and Admins will for the most part let what happens, happen…at least they have so far.

[adzling]

absolutely agreed broham(2?)

for example my brand spanking new level 2 drow toon has joined the "school" of ancient arcana with the intent of getting it recognized and having a seat on the conclave.
it may never happen but we will have fun trying!

it's good to have a baseline that everyone understands and given the disparity between Sshamath and other drow cities (especially lolthian ones) it's important to draw the distinctions.

I have heard the arch-mages of the various schools will be npcs and i think this is a good idea.
so more power to the dms.

please if anyone else is interested pipe in with your ideas/suggestions/thoughts on drow lore as it pertains to Sshamath.

cheers

[broham2]

One question.. I haven't played much beyond the first day or so the UD was implemented so you may have to correct my assumptions..

There is a duergar mine, right? That seems like quite the powerbase for an underprivileged race in a city of magic.. what's the scoop on that? Do the drow respect the Deurgar that hail from the mine.. is it sort of an uneasy truce.. etc. Is the mine canon or is that our server-specific? The way I picture it is that they would be tolerated as craftsman and merchants, and while the drow may look down their noses at them.. they would understand the power that an organized mine would wield.

What are your thoughts?

[adzling]

ok going off-topic a little here.

I would like to respectfully suggest that any drow guilds, schools and or quellars restrict their player members so that they do not have toons in multiple UD guilds.

This is to stop rampant metagaming that these things breed.

I just came over from another PW that didn't restrict such things and it completely destroyed drow RP as it was impossible to properly setup schemes, secret plans and the like.
Now you may think "oh i would never give up information from one guild to another ooc and i dont metagame" but in my experience it's often hard to keep your toons knowledge straight AND even if you don't someone else will.

Thoughts?

(alt toons in surface guilds is fine, usually)

[raenir]

I'm not entirely against haviing say a Wizard whose a member of a house be a member of my school and frankly I dont have enough members to be picky.

[adzling]

the UD will grow in players so you shouldn't worry about not having enough.

question: what happens when you try to create a RP plot against a quellar when that PLAYER has one toon in your guild and ANOTHER toon in your RP target?

Having a single toon in a quellar and a school is more acceptable (although it could still cause problems) because at least you know where you stand (for example you might not trust that toon with information regarding RP with their quellar).
In this instance any information passed by the player's toon to their house IS NOT METAGAMING because it occurs IC.

The problem arises when player "A" has toon "1" in the school of arcana AND toon "2" in another school or house.
Player "A" can then pass information back and forth OOC (i.e. metagaming) completely destroying RP.

You follow me here?

cheers for the response.