Category talk:Season 3

A well worded explanation of why you should play within the setting.

I think a lot of us have missed somehow the main story. We're all in Vargor either as having built it up or because it is the only place built as a refuge. Your characters come to World's End not to conquer or find Torvaldsland. You've come here seeking refuge from the Stygians who are hunting everyone down as they seek to claim the Island for themselves and the gold, etc. This isn't mainland Gor with Torvaldsland, Red Hunters, Ar, Taharians all already existing in their own cities. There is one city with all cultures making it work in one bastion from the Stygian forces. That is why there are several distinct districts within Vargor allowing for freedom of religions even with there being a temple for Northern worship of their own gods. Anything else has missed the point of the whole season storyline. It literally does not matter if you're wagon people, that people, pani people. The starting point for everyone's story is Vargor, safety from the Stygians, mounting defenses against them and obviously eventually we take them out. Once we've gathered together, when we've established this threat is over and in the meanwhile hopefully drawn everyone in to the story. We should be well grown and possibly looking at branching out into a second city.

Until then, everything else is a jump ahead of the current main plot. Several Northern players want to set up a Torvaldsland, that's great future plans, but doing it now you're just either ignoring the whole season storyline or not wanting to be part of it which is just dividing players up while some of us are trying to push the main storyline along by making use of the city as it was intended. Hence why after being here awhile, I decided to try and get the Torvald District RP going and since no one else seemed interested I've put myself up for the position of District Jarl. People are complaining about being forced to rp in Vargor. If you read all the information you're supposed to before starting in the game between the website, discord, the in game ooc area with all it's information before you actually leave the ooc area... you'd already know that is the literal starting point for everyone's story and that your character has come there for safety as there is no where else safe.

You want to form alliances for future builds, come to Vargor. You want to icly recruit people to your cause because you want to overthrow men's rule? Start in Vargor. You want to build a new series of villages for a new Torvaldsland? It starts in the Torvald District in our Long Hall with everyone on the same page. Want to build your own homestone and build your own city? It starts in Vargor. Otherwise, ICA has ICC [In character Actions has In character Consequences] which is about to happen and you better not come crying to the Admins about it since you all should have already known before you even started your RP what was going on. No one has said that you have to stay forever in Vargor. But, unless you're a panther or outlaw afraid to live there. There's no reason not to be there currently IC wise. If anything, you have every IC reason to not be living any where else as per the current Main Story.

Hafthor Wartooth — 01/23/2024 8:30 AM

Preferred build area

The only other thing would be wouldn't it make more sense to ask larger clans to build outside of the preferred build zone, where they can spread out more with larger bases and not generate so much lag all loading in a condensed zone?

We allowed this in season 1 and 2 and the RP was so dead that we were lucky to get 2 people online. The ONE thing that has turned this server around has been driving players into a small area with each other. So yeah, that wouldn't be to the benefit of the community. The preferred build area will grow as the player base grows, with larger clans moving to the edges, as they do now.

Events alone are not enough to keep new players. New players, these days, don't give a server more then a few days with the most casual effort on their part. If they do not find RP within that time frame they log off.

With everyone on top of each other (even if we can't get them into Vargor proper) we increase both the likelihood of RP for new players as well as setting an expectation of RP due simply to the density of builds.

While having small clans builds within the area might address the expectation of RP due to density - the fact is players clan up - and most RP is at the larger clans. The smaller clans are often not active players - thus reducing the chance of run in RP to nearly nil.

THEN in addition, by allowing clans to build farther away we start getting the Gorean tendency not to go "somewhere else". Torvaldslanders won't go south, Wagon people wont go north, Pani won't go west, etc.

The further they get from each other, the greater likelihood they establish fiction for themselves which is even more insular.

So having everyone in one area removes the punch of those excuses/fiction when everything is right there. Hard to say "We won't go _" when its like a mile away.

Further, this design forces clans to interact simply because of proximity.

Next Issue

When groups can build "out there" they establish storylines with players that are uniquely theirs. This is great - right up until the leader bails and all their players are now left with nothing to tie them to the storylines of others. So they quit - it's hard and discouraging work to find a new group even on your own server. If we established RP connections for those players within other clans, the chance they stay increases dramatically. We saw this work this season already. We lost a clan, and instead of loosing all the players, they got picked up by other clans because of pre-established rp connections caused by proximity.

Lets say for example the large pani clan disbands. In season 1 and 2 that was pretty much the end of all pani role-players. Now, we have at least a CHANCE that they will go ... okay my clan is gone, but we are all still part of Mizu Valley, lets keep it going!

We saw this in SL all the time. Sims that were based around one clan always died when the clan died. But sims that supported multiple clans had a great chance of survival. Some day, I hope we have the population to have more then one "preferred build zone", but the only way to REACH that population density is to make sure we keep as many new players as possible.

Its important to note that Gorean role-players, as friendly as they are, as welcoming as they are, are still playing in a fiction where "enemy means stranger".

This very fact of the fiction creates isolation which is counter intuitive to maintaining a player base when a character's "Home Stone" disbands.

But lets not ignore the OOC isolation feelings that comes when a clan grows large enough to "move out there" and the leader of the clan does not have the leadership skills to foster a safe place to play or drive role-play for his/her people.

These players often feel as if they are alone and have no one else to turn to. Their OOC community is their clan not the server as a whole. They slink off because they don't have a support system. While this is still true to an extent, the sheer density and interaction potential with a condensed area significantly increases the likelihood they will make ooc friends in other clans.

Finally

The Gorean fiction makes traveling nearly impossible for free women and slaves. As a free women I can "stretch" the fiction enough to let my Wyn leave her clan and go 200 yards and talk to another clan. Maybe she might be a bit nervous the first time, but I can justify I'm just "down the road". (Vargor is smaller then an average Gorean city would have been distance wise.)

When in Season 1, the other clan was many many tiles away from Ironhall with nothing in between - I was constantly racking my brains for a reason to go visit, and I'm a confident Gorean role-player with a lot of ideas to get where I want to go.

Now - we take into account that most of those distant clans were not allied to each other - and my opportunities to arrive and leave safely were greatly diminished.

Currently, FW can reasonably assume that any one living in a protectorate has agreed to uphold the laws of Vargor - which means not getting collared just for going for a visit.

Sorry, One more Point

The RP in a "distant" clan often comes down to a lot of slice of life RP, no RP, or excessive IC drama RP and almost no external conflict RP which unites a clan and keeps things exciting.

Season 3 Part 1

Season Three begins with the return of the Goreans and their Hyborian allies to New Sardar (Exile Map) where they settle in the small but culturally diverse area around Telith Island which has been called Vargor by its inhabitants. We invite you to join this Season where we will introduce a DM/Seer lead plot line that pits the players against the Stygian clans.

Ten thousand years ago, Howard’s World of Conan happened on Earth during the Hyperborean age. Ten thousand years ago the Priest Kings of Gor were taking people from the planet Earth and populating their planet. What if various groups of Hyborians were taken and placed on a remote set of islands in the far western edge of the ocean, which Goreans call the Thassa. Like the rest of the planet, the Priest Kings would limit the technology available to these Hyborian descendants. Little would change of their original cultures over the intervening millennial but, eventually, they would be more Gorean than Earthling, even if as unknown to the mainlanders as the Pani were for so very long.

When most of the Goreans and many of the natives of New Sardar took their chance to escape the impending volcanic eruption, the Stygians of New Sardar began a crusade to dominate the exile lands. Those Goreans who remained behind, along with their Hyborian allies and Earth-born slaves settled in the area of Telith Island hoping the eruption would never come but preparing for the worst.

The worst turned out, not to be fire raining from the sky, but blood in the streets. The Stygians amassed enough forces to threaten the small town of Vargor, which has been fighting simply to survive the onslaught. When word of the troubles reached those on the island (Season Two on Siptah) the Goreans organized to return and help defend the town.