The setting of Forgotten Realms - Location - PreVote Discussion

Cystuni said:

here's a question. is there anyplace that ISN'T hostile to drow/other evilly aligned beings? after all all of the evil is weeks from being voted right out of the ONLY tavern. odds are the marketplace will be treated as a tavern, just like juxta is. people go, sit, eat... only occasionally do people actually buy things there that aren't food or drink related. when they do they have to "talk" to NPC vendors that never actually say anything since they aren't really there until someone says they are. which brings up another point,

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As far as I know, the CRT at worst will require Demons, Devils, Vampires, and Drow to be less overt in their machinations. Which really only adds to the setting not draws from it. (imo)

if we don't have some actual insentive to make people play merchants, we'll still have no one that wants to buy things. people don't really LIKE talking to imaginary vendors. is there something we can do about this? are there any people that want to PLAY vendors?

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I have seen "vendors" who are played by people (PC Merchants really, but still people you change coins with for items). Personally I perfer to make merchant interactions more a narrative at most.

I have to admit I like the concept of a place where being "good" is a "bad" thing. Trouble is, the kind of "good" people who would reasonably be there would be those who think they clear the place of "evil". Or those who really aren't good... (which is an interesting concept, but still)...

Is it just me or is it harder for a "good" person to justify being in an "evil" place (beyond trying to clean it out) than it is for an "evil" person to justify being in a "good" place?

At any rate, it's probably a moot point. I'm not likely to hang around after certain changes take effect.

a thought

Well hmmm a setting thats in a evil town why the Crt is carwing with evil as it is if you wish to place the setting some weres make it netrule so its fair to every one then again since it is FR setting you should use FR rules in the chat so you dont have what happend in juxta with devils wearing holy armor and swinging celestail blades or a buch of gods runing around like in juxta the rules said no intervening from gods did it stop them ? hmmm no it dident or the massive use of a artifect like i rember when you would log on and see 50 diffrent characters runing around with excalibur as far as i know in FR pendragon still has that sword and should be left so and the other thing i like to see is a limit on race mixing were you wont have some persion that is 5 diffrent races mixed in to one being another thing is alignment setting like if there is a pitfiend being ran the pit fiend should be like the book says L.evil not lawful good how can you have some thing like that happen it even says in the book exalted deeds a true demon or devil can not be redemmed from its evil ways as it was made that way same with the lovey wovey lawful vampires if some thing is made of negtive engery woundent it be a oxymoron to change this stuff last thing i would like to see done is the job of the wizos if a wizo is inforceing the coc then they should all so inforce dnd setting rules so when the vet players are runing in the chat they dont see some thing like a paladin vampire of helm and think WTF and have a pm war over it or other insaine things now if they would actruly inforce setting rules then i think wizards will be fun for every one sure you can make your own race and own items but people use common sence please and every one can have a ball then maybe just maybe the iggy them saying will become the past i know this is all wishful thinking but the chaos and insaness should stop some weres ?

Namarra_ said:

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Namaarra_, have you ever heard of things called punctuation and paragraphs? It might help people better read and understand your posts... Just a suggestion...

Namarra_ said:

Well hmmm a setting thats in a evil town why the Crt is carwing with evil as it is if you wish to place the setting some weres make it netrule so its fair to every one then again since it is FR setting you should...

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Aaand that's about as far as I could read for the safety of my brain.

Juxta was neutral, in that it was "balanced". Strong undead could be there but weakened, sunlight as it usually is didn't affect them. Gods and avatars were supposed to be seriously restricted but the nature of fantasy gods is that of conquerers - they get to a place and try to collect followers which makes them exactly like wannabe "leaders" anyway. Sure there was officially law but all you had to do was make sure the law didn't see and no one could complain...

But to be honest, people in general are accustomed to areas where good rules. What's the bet that if we did have an "evil" setting, due to the nature of players and the code of conduct it'll be more neutral anyway?

Not that I'd mind an evil location. I can think of another reason for good characters to be there - they think they're bad but they're out of their depth. hehehe! Then you get the other good characters in there trying to pull them away from the really bad ones who see how to use the naieve wannabes to their advantage..

After my few moments of deciphering:

Namarra_ said:

last thing i would like to see done is the job of the wizos if a wizo is inforceing the coc then they should all so inforce dnd setting rules

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And to those of us who dont know the dnd rules you would suggest? *sigh* Looks like I have a lot of reading to do.

On the positive side I'm glad everyone's posting places for positive and negitive points. It's helping me make educated decisions; as opposed to the usual of not making one at all.

I do believe an evil setting would be fun...but as it is said previously the 'good' settings tend to attract a lot of evil characters. Would this phenomenon be reversed?

May I ask a question to those of you familiar with this setting?


Is there anyplace that ISN'T hostile to drow/other evilly aligned beings? Or that at least doen't frown upon diffent beings/species?

I mean CRT is ok, I play my chars there mostly. But it'd be nice to take them somewhere else and let their true beings show through. I couldn't do that on Juxta because of that Height/flying restriction thingyy.......

Malendor... said:

May I ask a question to those of you familiar with this setting?


Is there anyplace that ISN'T hostile to drow/other evilly aligned beings? Or that at least doen't frown upon diffent beings/species?

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The underdark accepts them...well its still hostile to them, just accepts Drow/Evil beings.

As for generalized tolerance most the western heartlands is tolerant to outsiders (not demons/devils they are so picky about beings that keep curropting them :eyeroll

malendor... said:

I mean CRT is ok, I play my chars there mostly. But it'd be nice to take them somewhere else and let their true beings show through. I couldn't do that on Juxta because of that Height/flying restriction thingyy.......

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So you deserve a medal as one person who obeyed the setting.

On criminally natured settings

Personally, I'm really against an evil, seedy place

What's the fun of being evil and seedy if everyone is?

What would we do? Spend all our time running around plotting, stealing from, and killing each others characters off? If the majority of characters were evil, it would be so repetitive. Just the same evil stuff over and over again. And if the majority of us weren't tied up doing evil-like things like those, then it wouldn't be the seedy, evil location eve the location place we glamorize it as. I don't think an evil place would be nearly as fun as it first seems.

I just think that chaos, adventure, and conflict would loses their appeal if they were normal things. Seriously, what fun is it to be evil if everyone's expecting you to do it? Things would be much more interesting to me if the setting was somewhat straight-edge. Not necessarily rural and bland countryside, (please no), but just your average city-like place, and not some criminal-infested housing sector, so the characters would be the ones providing the excitement, and we wouldn't have any specific kind of storylines or characters pressured upon us by the setting

Even if you believe that characters wouldn't feel pressured at all to follow the setting (a bad idea to begin with), it'd be problematic because we'd either end up with a bunch of good or good-natured people hanging out in a place pointedly made out to be seedy or evil, or we'd end up with a bunch of predictable and repetitive characters and less diversity in roleplay. Evil can and should still exist in the settting, sure, I just don't want to center the entire environment around evil, it'd just get boring and limiting.

On using places with plenty of rules and laws

I definitely don't want to go with a place that has lots of rules. I don't want to go to a town with arbitrary limitations and heavy law enforcement. Especially because the CRT in emerging as the "strict" setting.
I think the place we choose should be loose and open to all kinds of characters and adventure.

Another way to look at it is this: Towns with heavily defining attributes (such as with heavy criminality, and quirky laws) work in tabletop roleplay, and video games where the characters are meant to experience the town in a certain way. In ISRP, in a setting which we want to be open to all sorts of adventures, they probably wouldn't work out too well. What I think would work best here is a flexible neutral or good setting, where the players are able to define the mood with how their characters act, and not have a consistent mood pushed upon them, or have their actions and interactions be inconsistent with the location.

Basically, I think that the location should stay true to its open, flexible designation, and we shouldn't get caught up with something like a seedy, criminal town just because it sounds fun. If we do end up doing a flavorful, strict setting for the CRT, then this one should definitely be open and loose.

On using rural areas
Also, a note, which was already implied earlier by one of the WizOs in the "miscellaneous" prevote discussion thread:
Because this is going to be a place where many people of many different natures and powers and goals are going to be hanging out or passing through, it would not make sense if this setting was a rural town or small plains area town, nor if the town was out in the middle of nowhere The place doesn't have to be a metropolis, it just can't be obscure in location or small town.

On using neverwinter or Baldur'S Gate
I don't that think choosing a town used as the focus for a popular computer game would be good, as there would be all these specifics with timeline and background necessary to remotely satisfy the storyline of the game. Also, it would cause confusion; we don't want people to think that this is a sort of hangout built for that game or because of that game; nor do we want people to think that it's a roleplaying auxilliary for that game. We also don't want to alienate people, because the very location might make them think that they'd be "out of the loop" in that area because they hadn't played the computer game. If we were to use a town which has been a central focus of a popular computer game. the negatives would far outweigh the potential positives.

Waterdeep sounds like an okay idea, but definitely not great...
Luskan is a waterfront merchant sailing town, but is almost exclusively populated by humans, and does not welcome visitors and travelers. Same pretty much goes for Port Llast.
Longsaddle is too rural...

can't think of any more towns at the time... eh, I've written far too much anyway...

Personally I'm with Davon in thinking that Waterdeep wouldn't be the best option. Sure it's the city of splendours, but I dunno, I get the feeling that it'd get old fast and thus would also lose it's prestige outside of Wizards as well.