Death and Capture - Standardize Rules & Extra Mechanics
02-08-2020, 08:12 AM
There are many, many factors that have lead to the recent dramas these past few days. I think one thing that could go a long way to calming the paranoia and general upset with how PVP-focused the game seemed to become with the last 2 major releases. So I'll be dredging up that old talking point: the first cap kills. And before you post "OH IT'S NOT THAT COMMON", yes I know. But it -has- happened and has happened in -very- public ways to some much-beloved characters among both antagonists and protagonists. It may not be common but the few times it did happen set a precedent that made many players paranoid and unlikely to take risks.
The Moonfall arc followed immediately by Theria and Demons, while all the executions and sacrifices had IC context for the war, did not help with the paranoia. And the entire paranoia wouldn't be there if the game's rules didn't play with death so fast and loose. Being captured leaves you entirely at the mercy of the player capturing you and most people are afraid to contact the administration if they feel the situation is unfair. And in some cases, I think players are afraid to protest unfair situations because of certain factors of public humiliation from the non-admin playerbase for not just taking the death. We have a lot of toxic AF people in Eternia.
This isn't the only problem I've observed but I think it's the easiest to solve, and would go a long way to calming the current atmosphere. Nobody wants to lose their character, and nobody wants to die in a lame way. But death is a very, very common occurrence on E3 with little regulation and its current 'rules' are easily abused. People are uncertain to take risks and roam the map because the few first cap kills there have been set a precedent even if they aren't that common. I think that many players would be more willing to take risks in RP if they felt they had the security of a much more structured system of rules regarding character death and capture.
This is going to be long and reaching as fuck, but I think that it's a good suggestion that would calm at least part of people's apprehensions about the PvP aspect of the game. Here's the ruleset that I'm going to suggest. I saw rules like this in another game with a much darker setting than Eternia and I thought they struck a very nice balance of subduing murderhobo behavior, making players feel secure in taking risks, and balancing fairness in capture and kill gameplay.
Death
Enacting the death of another PC should be a decision of grave importance. Even when it comes to the possibility of execution, there should often be the possibility of escape. Attempts to kill a character can fail. Character death should only be a climax of a properly RP'd and developed event/conflict/plot.
1) Most attempts to kill a character are made under a roll of the dice, even if the character is fully at another's mercy in a capture. The hand of fate is fickle and luck is the greatest resource in the world. This doesn't mean mercy is shown, this means they have some possibility to escape death even in a full capture scenario.
Even the most irreprehensible of the races of men were still once simply men. Many combatants escape death because the communal nature of humanity makes the slaying of a fellow humanoid an intensely emotional affair. Unconsciously or consciously even hardened soldiers will often avoid landing killing blows or shot against their enemies. Living a live steeped in blood and death takes its toll, wearing away at the nobility of man and its calm visage.
1) All characters begin play with 5 points of humanity in their character stats. This stat starts the same regardless of a new character's personality and IC motivations, it's simply an abstract for self-control and unconscious behaviors. It primarily exists as a mechanic to disincentivize what could be seen as "battlecuck" or "murderhobo" behavior that falls outside of being an antagonist.
The world is a cruel place. While death will be less common, imprisonment, capture, and slavery will become a much more common result. However most players would want to sit alone in a prison for days at a time far less than even dying. Logging into a locked cage with nothing to do and nobody to speak with for hours can make a person suddenly want to play other games or abandon the captive character to play alts or rebirth.
1) Captive characters should be afforded the opportunity to RP rather than having imprisonment regardless of faction feel like an OOC punishment for their IC actions.
I know most of you are going to hate this and mock it, but I figured I should say something before I leave. There are still many other issues I think the server has as well that I'm less of an expert at solving, from a want for more admin transparency to a latent toxicity that a decent portion of the community displays. A lot of bad decisions have been made both in administration and by the playerbase that led to the constant cycle of drama that we have now. This is just the first solution I had in mind because it's one of the more visible points of contention people have had.
The Moonfall arc followed immediately by Theria and Demons, while all the executions and sacrifices had IC context for the war, did not help with the paranoia. And the entire paranoia wouldn't be there if the game's rules didn't play with death so fast and loose. Being captured leaves you entirely at the mercy of the player capturing you and most people are afraid to contact the administration if they feel the situation is unfair. And in some cases, I think players are afraid to protest unfair situations because of certain factors of public humiliation from the non-admin playerbase for not just taking the death. We have a lot of toxic AF people in Eternia.
This isn't the only problem I've observed but I think it's the easiest to solve, and would go a long way to calming the current atmosphere. Nobody wants to lose their character, and nobody wants to die in a lame way. But death is a very, very common occurrence on E3 with little regulation and its current 'rules' are easily abused. People are uncertain to take risks and roam the map because the few first cap kills there have been set a precedent even if they aren't that common. I think that many players would be more willing to take risks in RP if they felt they had the security of a much more structured system of rules regarding character death and capture.
This is going to be long and reaching as fuck, but I think that it's a good suggestion that would calm at least part of people's apprehensions about the PvP aspect of the game. Here's the ruleset that I'm going to suggest. I saw rules like this in another game with a much darker setting than Eternia and I thought they struck a very nice balance of subduing murderhobo behavior, making players feel secure in taking risks, and balancing fairness in capture and kill gameplay.
Death
Enacting the death of another PC should be a decision of grave importance. Even when it comes to the possibility of execution, there should often be the possibility of escape. Attempts to kill a character can fail. Character death should only be a climax of a properly RP'd and developed event/conflict/plot.
1) Most attempts to kill a character are made under a roll of the dice, even if the character is fully at another's mercy in a capture. The hand of fate is fickle and luck is the greatest resource in the world. This doesn't mean mercy is shown, this means they have some possibility to escape death even in a full capture scenario.
- In the event of a capture outside of the Deadly combat setting, the character attempting to slay their captive makes a 1d6 die roll. On a result of 2 or below, they may kill their captive without repercussion. If the roll to kill fails, a way to RP the scene out allowing the captive to live must be found. This doesn't necessarily mean letting them free, they may still be imprisoned or enslaved if such solutions are ICly viable.
- In the event of capture after a Deadly RPB in which a character is captured but the death roll fails, the automated death roll is the verdict.
- Players may enforce a kill regardless of dice rolls, but suffer certain RP repercussions as a result. (See Below)
- Enforced kills may only be made if the character to be killed is fully at the mercy of the killer after a capture (ie. disarmed, restrained, unconscious, etc).
- To prevent abuse and enforce mechanics, a moderator must be called in to oversee the slaying for enforced kills.
- After a forced kill, the character that made the kill or characters in the case of a group slaying (ie during occultic rituals) are subject to a mechanic called Humanity.
- Each character has an amount of Humanity in their character stats. Every time an enforced kill is made, the overseeing moderator subtracts 1 of this stat from the character involved. Humanity mechanics described below.
- Do not have multiple characters attempt to kill the same captured character within a short amount of time with little IC context to try to cheat the dice.
- If a killing character has little IC justification beyond "it's my IC" or "I'm so cooky and insane" this can result in poorly RP'd kills.
- Obvious cases that should be protested and looked into include deaths resulting from metagaming, OOC grudge matches.
Even the most irreprehensible of the races of men were still once simply men. Many combatants escape death because the communal nature of humanity makes the slaying of a fellow humanoid an intensely emotional affair. Unconsciously or consciously even hardened soldiers will often avoid landing killing blows or shot against their enemies. Living a live steeped in blood and death takes its toll, wearing away at the nobility of man and its calm visage.
1) All characters begin play with 5 points of humanity in their character stats. This stat starts the same regardless of a new character's personality and IC motivations, it's simply an abstract for self-control and unconscious behaviors. It primarily exists as a mechanic to disincentivize what could be seen as "battlecuck" or "murderhobo" behavior that falls outside of being an antagonist.
- Humanity is lost whenever a character uses the forced kill option to slay a character regardless of die results.
- Humanity may be regained through CoD events 1 point at a time by making self-sacrifices or other noble "good guy" behavior.
- A character who falls below certain thresholds of humanity displays certain fluff repercussions for their actions.
- When a character's humanity is equal to 3 or below, they display a [Merciless] status in their short description below their apparent age. This can be hidden by disguises.
- If a character with 3 or below in humanity is captured, they may have an enforced kill performed on them without the executioner subtracting humanity themselves.
- When a character's humanity is equal to 1 or below, they display a [Villainous] status in their short description. Whether their name is infamous or not, their unhinged behavior, a palpable aura of dread, or other fluffed factors give away the character's villainous nature. This status is not hidden by disguises. The mage's very presence is unnerving.
- When a demon holds a Humanity stat of 3 or below, they display a [Demonic] status. Their eyes glow, their presence strikes fear into the hearts of men. Diguises still work.
- As with humans, there are no qualms in slaying a demon in this state. They may have enforced kills performed on them without penalty is captures with a rating below 3.
- When a demon character's humanity is equal to 1 or below, they display a [Hellspawn] status. They are locked into their demonic forms and may not disguise their presence.
- Due to being embodiments of the occult, regaining the self-control to once again disguise themselves is much harder for a demon. As a rule-of-thumb, this should be taken into account when DMing events to allow a demon to regain humanity.
The world is a cruel place. While death will be less common, imprisonment, capture, and slavery will become a much more common result. However most players would want to sit alone in a prison for days at a time far less than even dying. Logging into a locked cage with nothing to do and nobody to speak with for hours can make a person suddenly want to play other games or abandon the captive character to play alts or rebirth.
1) Captive characters should be afforded the opportunity to RP rather than having imprisonment regardless of faction feel like an OOC punishment for their IC actions.
- If the players/factions involved have incompatible time schedules, a solution should be found based on the IC of the situation.
- This can mean selling the captured character for ransom or into slavery, killing the character (see above), or giving the captured character more freedom to move within their confines (ie if they make a plea to be recruited to their captor's cause or are given labor tasks as part of enslavement).
- If the escaping character is resecured, a roll to kill can be made even if they were made captive as a result of a previous failed roll. This can be protested as per proposition 3 under the Death rules to prevent abuse (ie purposefully giving a character repeated escape attempts just to make another kill roll).
- If an imprisoned character is left without any opportunity for any meaningful RP (excl. self-RP) for over 48 OOC hours they have the right to request a DM'd escape event.
I know most of you are going to hate this and mock it, but I figured I should say something before I leave. There are still many other issues I think the server has as well that I'm less of an expert at solving, from a want for more admin transparency to a latent toxicity that a decent portion of the community displays. A lot of bad decisions have been made both in administration and by the playerbase that led to the constant cycle of drama that we have now. This is just the first solution I had in mind because it's one of the more visible points of contention people have had.
