Yes it's ANOTHER rant.

Suck it up on it, I haven't ranted like this ever yet and I really think it's a good time right now. So see, five minutes ago, there were some characters happily interacting happiness at the Garden. (Or worry, I don't care, it's irrelevant.) So here comes Mr. Assassin Archer (I'm NOT giving names, for obvious reasons.) to shoot an arrow at one of the happily interacting characters. (Combat in the Garden is not allowed, fine, but it was a single attack. Like, to start. He was probably gonna cut it off after that - wounding him "lethally" or something, or simply expecting someone overpowerful to stop him -- maybe they would just run into the Clearing. Things start, a single blow should be fine. It was two arrows, but they were almost together, a single attack in the end.)

Some people wonder if the guy 'asked' before shooting the arrow. I don't know, maybe he did, maybe he didn't -- it's polite to ask, really. Almost rude (almost) not to. But let's assume he didn't, even then, the guy didn't come out of the blue flashing off super giant vampire wolf minons with rabbies. He was like, "hides", an hour later, "aims an arrow at this guy", and then it took him like 15 minutes to fire. THere -was- a knid of warning.

Now assume you don't want to do this. You don't want to interrupt this RP for an uncalled-for fight. That's fine! There' ways to ignore it. Your characters teleport to Carpe DM. They're surrounded by a magical barrier. I don't know, it's not so hard.

But then what I saw was... nobody gave a damn *censored* about it. They shrugged it off like nothing, they just kept drinking and all was good. One of them just laughed and made jokes about it.

Everyone is entitled to how they play their characters. Maybe your character has regeneration, is inmmunte to physical damage and poisons, maybe the fact there was a more than capable healer nearby or he's just waaaaay to powerful to worry about this kind of thing. Maybe he's just psychotic and doesn't give a damn about being stabbed and perforated by a rain of arrows.

But seriously, poeple. Then you complain and stab each other in the back OOC because "he attacked me with super overpowers!" I mean dude, this guy was slow and predictable and gave you plenty of time to react to a -mundane- arrow. If you're gonna ignore him like that, wherether the attack was uncalled for or not planned, well geez, then how the hell can you ever complain about closed cliqués and nobody attacking like a normal "low-level" (so to speak) person? He just gets ignored like he doesn't even exist. I'd rather be insulted and called lame and idiot, over being shrugged off like that.

I've been rping with Enworld ever since the transfer from WotC, and I was with WotC for some time..... So far, I've been rping for 14 years... I started when I was pretty young and I've watched the progression away from mass story line to single clique story lines and overpowered chars....

Enworld is over run with gods, demi-gods, avatars, and poor-sports.... Hardly anyone wants to have an original idea, and seldom do people want to start a new adventure.....

Often times the people complaining about those who are overpowered, are overpowered themselves...

That's pretty cool, but I don't really see what it has to do with this. I'm complaining about the fact that people just flat-out ignored this guy. And as a plus, I'm trying to say, that discouraging a mundane character from playing, is gonna encourage him to become a godmoder to call for attention.

Oh, I know, I was there I saw.... I was just commenting on it..... Yes.... ignoring the man was rude, and annoying.

I whole heartedly agree. Mundane used to be common is what I was saying... There used to be SO much variety too..... And now everyone is simply a god, or some overly glamorous person.... or both..... It's hard to find the normals, or the less than normals.....

I don't think I've ever ignored an attack, and I was told I'm one of very few people who will ALLOW my chars to get hurt, or be open to them dieing......

It's not as few people as you think. I do not dislike powerful characters either - Bari can be considered pretty overpowered, he's become that since I brought him here. Playing mundane is something I'd seriously like to see more often, but it's not 'better.' I have to admit that many times I've blatantly ignored attacks -- didn't even react or acknowledge them -- and I've had people very ,very pissed at me for that, and rightfully so. I try not to do that anymore.

Glamorous characters aren't bad either, it's just a character trait. And as I said above, maybe the character is crazy or has reasons to laugh at the attack but... people need to keep that sometimes we must make a little sacrifice regarding our character's personality, if we want stories to develop.

Players that don't want their characters to die are not to be frowned upon, so long they make sure to let you know and are nice enough to don't want to make -yours- die arbitrarly. I for example, never bring my characters back from the dead -- which is why I don't want them to die. There's many things I want to accomplish with them before that happens.

(in character)
Yer's a whiner, Bari. Stupid quarterling... *mutters*

(back to he player)
Like Platinum above, I've been a long time player, starting just after TSR (remember them?) moved the chat site to their servers from AOL.
While the RP is cyclical - summers are slow, just after Yule seems to get busy with a new burst of characters and so on - I've noticed the story arcs just aren't there these days. There's always been cliques on the site, but it seems it's gone completely in that direction o the exception of anything else.

<soapbox>
I try to make charcters that aren't god-like in their powers and such. I think it's telling that a "normal" character - one who isn't mix/max, powered up and ready with buffer spells - stands pretty much zero chance of making inroads into the groups that exist.
I play because I like the interaction with other people and their characters (and frankly, I'm far more social behind a keyboard than in person). I've run dozens of characters and many of them fail to gain traction with other players for a host of reasons. In the past two years I've been able to bring ONE new character on board, and her I play intermittently at best.
</soapbox>

With that said, I'd like to ask the established and new players alike to reach out a little to characters they haven't seen or played with before. You might be adding a new friend.

And this would be why people like myself and Imreis aren't seen on the chat site anymore. We left because we TRIED bringing in new characters that WERE NOT our most infamous couple, Ruthia and Imreis, only to have them ignored. After awhile it got boring, dull, and honestly stupid. When ever interaction you try doing with other people gets a "Oh that's nice" or complete ignoring you lose interest really fast.

Now I am not saying that people should do all sorts of crazy crap for attention, but occasionally saying Hi to the new person would not kill anybody.

Just a Thought From
Ruthia and Imreis

I tend to lurk a lot while on chats these days, given that environment offered in the rooms doesn't mesh well with how some of my characters would fittingly spend their time... unless I use the Portals of the Magi and the streak of powerful and anomalous individuals that frequently travel them... as their own plot devices.

But recently I have reached out to a few other players, (despite one of them being relatively inexperienced with D&D..) and created a character to work with theirs in an effort to offer up some antagonists.

For my part, I did ask the target's permission to fire those arrows and hopefully start an abduction attempt. Plus I also took my time narrating the lead up. I'm not upset that it was effectively brushed off, as long as I played my part and held up my end.

As I see it, offering up a new antagonist involves some risk, as you might not find others eager to participate in the kind of conflict your antagonist entails... as people are usually too invested in their characters... or simply aren't in the mood at that time to defend their character or fulfill their character's heartfelt obligations towards another character involved. Sometimes its just not a good time... however it shouldn't mean it doesn't mean people should stop trying.

I don't have much to complain about, aside from the fact I wish we had more players visiting the site. If we had more players, then it would offer new characters more options to get some traction.

What, really? Do I have to? Bah a'right, fine...

I've nothing to complain about either, guys. I've heard some blurbs recently about Kika having one of these cliques, and frankly each to their own. But I have worked to keep an open-door policy to new characters and players. I have, despite what some may believe. Okay, I might ignore you the first time you waddle by once, generally Kika's talking to someone, or I've got fifty PM windows going on that I'm trying to stay on top of, plotting storylines and just saying hello to my friends. I do try at it, and I'm sorry if you feel neglected, or that I've closed myself personally in a herd that I never want to leave... but that's not how I'm trying to portray myself. I don't glue to everyone either, some people slide off and do their own thing, and that's fine!

Also I think we kind of spun off topic from what Bari was originally trying to say about characters not reacting and bleh. You know what guys... crap happens. Okay, so things might be sagging, but maybe they're sagging because we're all focusing on the negative here. Food for thought. I'm keeping my steps light, hosting public parties (now I've got a freaken wedding to plan for my character, too... will it be private? Possibly, but with a lot of invitations So how private is that, really...).

Just my two cents. Not everyone's going to reach out freely, it happens.

Oh, and then there's the people that just really don't know how to stinkin' approach someone else. We all got our issues.

Bari was pointing out something specific that irked him, fair enough, and maybe Andion's right. Sometimes it just isn't a good time.

I, personally, am not all that troubled by everything, and am very thankful for many fellow gamers sticking around and roleplaying with me whenever we do.

After reading all these responses throughly, I can only say that I really, really like ice cream.