Post by DM Cephas on Jan 21, 2009 19:11:05 GMT -5
In your example the ex-guild master can do whatever he wishes RP wise (including interacting with other guild members) he just may not engage in an assassination attempt (or RP plot) to regain his lost position within one RL month.
You could easily introduce a rule that you may not attempt to remove a guild leader more than once in a year or whatever to reduce turnover if it becomes an issue.
This could result in certain institutions replacing or swapping their heads fairly often and imho that's fine from a drow perspective.
Drow covet power more than anything else.
I contend however that the above example should be housed in the guild rules. The Nature's guild has similar rules if you haven't seen them yet. Even though it isn't perma-death, you're affecting a permanent situation (e.g. guild leadership). The preference is that the above is a player-agreement (e.g. guild rules) or a DM event.
Agreed that this would have to be tailored for each situation however i think it would be possible to set a baseline.
Below is my attempt at setting a general principle on how to deal with such things..
The overarching principle is: given that absent perma-death no-one can ever die on this server players must accept that if you are killed in pursuit of a RP plot by an antagonist you lose your ability to pursue the plot.
Where possible DM consultation should happen in advance.
This is to stop people getting up the next day and doing the same thing all over again ad infinitum.
Dm exceptions to this general principle are to be expected.
I'm still uncomfortable with the word "plot" because it is too generic. What if the "plot" was trying to solve a DM event problem like "Kill the black dragon in the cave"? If the rules were set up like above, a malicious player can then "assassinate" everyone and say "As per rules, you can no longer pursue this plot therefore I'm the only who can finish it".
This is what I mean by rules being too dangerous when they are too vague. And posting rules for each specific instance will be cumbersome. I'm not opposed to rules but I also know that people can hide behind them. I wish I could give you a cleaner answer. Rules can be a good thing but there IS such a thing as too much of a good thing.