Opposition

[*Rayanne]

I don't mind being an oppositional force, but I'm not interested in being a subservient punching bag for the "Good Guys" to stomp on just to stroke their egos - which, as far as I've seen, is something that happens most times.

[*[<3]]

Players who portray characters that form some sort of 'opposition' or simply the shadier side of things in the Cage, would need a tad more DM support though, to brief them, feed them latest gossip, rumours, Faction news, latest numbers or plans from the Blood War, you name it. Otherwise staging intrigue and misconduct will be hard.
And no, that's not favouritism, but something of a must, like a good actor gets a script as well.
A player portraying 'opposition' or maybe even just an sleazy information broker can't just waltz around the Cage and make everything up on their own, cause that way things can turn havoc rather quickly and could also interfere with DM / EM plotlines they are unaware of.
Working in tandem with DMs works quite good in my experience, I did so player-side and DM-wise in NWN1, and player-side in NWN2, for years.

Just food for thoughts.


P.S.: The thematics of the Blood War are highly underrepresented anyway at the time, at least in my opinion.

[*lorgin_2003]

I don't mind being an oppositional force, but I'm not interested in being a subservient punching bag for the "Good Guys" to stomp on just to stroke their egos - which, as far as I've seen, is something that happens most times.

This goes into yet another professional wrestling analogy. Generally speaking, the way most matches go down, whoever is going to end up winning typically gets their ass kicked for 90% of the match. They start off strong, and then the other person pokes them in the eye or something then controls most of the rest of the match. Sometimes there's a short lived comeback in the middle, but then that gets countered and the eventual loser remains in the dominant position until it's time to wrap things up. Then it's the big comeback, and the finishing series to end the match. That offers a bit of balance, while still keeping things teetering back and forth a bit. These days, this format of match has been done to death in actual professional wrestling, but it does work as a good example of how to have both sides coming out of things looking good, and avoid having one side getting run roughshod over. If the bad guys come off as being weak or ineffective by getting crushed consistently, it ends up making the good guys look bad because they keep getting targetted by weaklings and can't seem to effectively get rid of them.

So what may start off like this:


Would end up turning into this:


Which just results in this:

[*juubo]

The turn about RPs aren't bad, but get stale when you know the format. I think acceptable escapes for both hero and villian are necessary to cut losses. Batman thwarts the bad guy's plan for world domination but they still escape with some money while the secret underground base explodes. Or maybe the bad guy win and burn down the orphanage, bit at least the good guy doesn't have to go reading there every Sunday now. Small wins and big wins.

Also don't discredit a total beatdown RP either. A new player on the scene challenging all the good or bad guys in town brazenly is likely to get destroyed. But such events are good ways to demonstrate a group's power.

[*lorgin_2003]

Also don't discredit a total beatdown RP either. A new player on the scene challenging all the good or bad guys in town brazenly is likely to get destroyed. But such events are good ways to demonstrate a group's power.

That goes back to the Tony Atlas story that I posted a link to in the other thread, and I absolutely agree with you in those circumstances. However, when both sides have been around long enough to be pretty well established with a good amount of resources and contacts, it should be a much more even situation.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

I've come to appreciate more pre-scripted ^{(with enough malleability & re-scripting to account for ever changing situation)} conflicts between the two central figures. Because as it turns out ^{(to me anyway)}, it tends not to be that much about the two specific characters, it's more about victims relations to others or representing aspects of their own character they seldom get the chance for otherwise, and the bad guys presentation and prestige gathering rather than the act itself.

[*Darkrob]

While coordinating with both sides can lead to a stress free rivalry, it's not always the most fun or engaging.

Take the example I gave earlier. Our group was told, through an unknown (to us) individual that someone was planning to undermine or move against us. We had no idea who it was. It spurred us to hire PC information brokers and spies to look into things and find out information. Although it turned out to be false in the end, it was fun to suddenly have to begin these tasks, IC, to find out what we needed to. It would have been a lesser experience if we were told upfront 'Hey... mind if we work against your group for a bit?". We'd have known, even ooc, who it was right from the start. It would have lessened the experience.

Now if it had turned out to be legit, once we know who's acting against us, a bit off OOC communicating just to set a few boundaries might help... but little else.