I want to preface this message by saying it is not targeted toward any specific player, and it also does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the rest of the DM team (unless they post otherwise.)

I've noticed lately that there have been a lot of hostile or callous attitudes floating around, and I'd like to do whatever I can to help reverse this trend. We exist in the shadow of a game (NWN) that's otherwise more or less dead, to which support will never come again, but yet what keeps us going is our community and connection to one another through RP on this server. So what I'm asking is that we all do our part to keep this connection alive, and to at least make some attempt to support each other OOCly in the goal of sharing enjoyable RP here.

We're doing pretty well in terms of stable population right now, all things considered, and I don't want to see that change. I love playing here and I hope most of you do too. It's just a matter of figuring out what will work well for everyone, and trying to make sure that everybody feels that they have the opportunity to contribute, both IC and OOC. (If you need someone to talk to in terms of finding RP or figuring out an idea, feel free to PM me.)

This may include considering playing characters that are not isolationist. These types of characters worked better in eras gone by - times when we had more transient, short-term characters to play around with. Nowadays, forming long-term IC connections is almost essential.

I would also like to ask, in the interest of gathering player opinions and hopefully creating something that will help drive RP when I'm feeling up to it... what kind of DMed events do you enjoy and would be glad to participate in? Which are your favorite classes, do you care for quick mini-plots about the castle, etc?

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Corinne Beckett - Inherited flower shop and eventually relocated to Diagon Alley.
Michael Draufy - Went to America to study native magical creatures. Still visits Anastasia.
Jade Celine - Married Peran and became a magical archaeologist.
Ana Celine - Took her revenge and vanished into the night.
Space Dog - Some say it still roams the halls of Hogwarts in search of petting.

If someone wants to play a isolated character, that's on them. As long as they're on and playing the isolated character, that's all that matters. Some people actually enjoy Roleplaying by themselves or playing those kinds of characters. You can't say they don't work anymore. Every type of character contributes to the server in some manner or another. As long as they're not Roleplaying something out of the guidelines (Ex: A 5 year old being a 11 year old / body builder insta-7th year / etc.). IC Connections don't always have to be positive friendships, either. One can establish a long-term IC Connection by just giving a name for himself, even if that's the anti-socialist that is always causing problems/getting into trouble.



Not quite sure where you're seeing this. I doubt it's honestly what you think it is. That would be better to direct toward the specific person/incident, as most our population gets along. Just be careful not to confuse IC and OOC.



I'd like to see some responses on this also. Would like to see more people pick up Character-Plots with the DMs. Strive for big things with your character.

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The Criminal - Sliver Vortec - Expelled
The Brain - Skylar Dune - Seventh Year
The Athlete - Lance Silverston - Seventh Year
The Basket Case - Drathil Vortec - Seventh Year

"Everybody prefers to see a nut - they're more fascinating." - Penn Jillette

I just wanted to throw in my tuppence, just on the point regarding Dm'd events as I've not been here long enough to comment much on the rest - other then that I haven't seen any hostility at all.

Though the Dm's have been awesome and helpful and friendly to me, I've yet to actually see any DM involved play - neither in the form of bigger or smaller events or tasks or lessons (which are all fun) nor in the way of simply occasionally bringing in some npc RP involvement. Actually this is the point I wanted to mention because its the one thing I feel lacking, the server feels sometimes dry without it. The professors and adults and other staff and creatures and characters of the HP world seem almost absent, and its such an easy way to make a server feel more alive, when particularly npc's talk back occasionally. Also the very fact that Prosper has yet o IC meet any professor or other npc - whom should be such a major and important part of any young students life, does somewhat detract from the ambiance and feel of this being an alive HP world. Even very short and small interactions can help give RP chances and ideas for characters.

e.g. in a most basic example - Snape finds student 1 in the hall, and berates them for their poor chemistry homework. Student 2 decides to help student 1 to improve, student 3 decides to taunt student 1 for being rubbish... student 4 mischievously decides to ruin student 2's good deeds by offering to help student 1 cheat!

Though I'm really loving the server, this is the one aspect I've thought notably lacking and really holds back RP and developing a progression for a character, let alone new ideas to RP.

I have noticed this a lot myself. I think it has different elements of IC reasons. And it is possible that it deals with OOC reasons as well. I won't get into major details or anything but I feel this from time to time. And I can imagine from what I see, that there are other players that might feel the same. It makes me not want to play as often. I understand that IC plays a lot into this but I don't really like it when I come on a character, and there is automatically 'hostile' remarks/gestures/ignored made towards my character. Its not enjoyable playing a character that has those reactions. And I feel like it carries over to other characters I play. I get were in a High school age setting and that is going to happen because that just -how it is-. I just think what bigfoot was saying was pretty accurate.

Now, as far as Ideas for things. I think mini-plots and RP moments are great. Usually when there are big plots and classes the same characters that are more 'outgoing' get the most RP out of those events. If you wants ideas you can always ask. I haven't seen peeves around in awhile. I haven't heard of miss transfigured creatures getting escaped by mistake. (or any magical creatures...take that back there were fairy things) Scavenger hunts with a prize at the end. Mysteries keep people busy. Even having special 'detentions' with Hagrid or something would be enjoyable. Celebrities coming to Hogwarts and something happens. ( Famous witches or Wizards) I don't know..maybe those will fuel some better ideas haha.

see that's just it! - until these sorts of things start happening more regularly, its just hard to imagine fully that I am in a wonderful strange magical world, especially with my imagination struggling to find ideas at the moment to RP with.

I'm just going to comment on events thing, I love the current DM team, they're great and each put a lot into everything. I have no complaints towards any of the events I have participated in, whether it be class or random crazy stuff happening. I will never say no to more of it happening, but that being said, I understand if that was not to happen.

I would -love- some Snape taught Potions classes as I have said before, but I understand he can be hard to play. But he is my all time favorite person in the HP series.

Outside of that, I'm unsure what to add to everything or what I'd even like to see more of outside of Potions class.

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“The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything.”

We run events every Wednesday and Saturday. Or at least try our best to. I'm also usually always on DM to take care of minor things and hand out RP points when deserved. We will try to do some more minor things/encounters if that's what people want to see.

Just try to keep in mind that we're only but a few. And if it's not one thing, it's another. Half of us have extremely busy schedules, and the other half are busy doing more that you don't get to see. Such as myself... Despite having just redone Hogwarts entirely, I'm already back in the Toolset taking care of TerrorTours. I'll take a break after the Toolset after this to start running small things here and there, though. But like I said, we're a small group and when we're not busy with RL, we're either working on something or trying to squeeze in what little time we have for our own Character's Roleplay. None of us are paid to do the job, so there's no real 'motivation' to -constantly- be on DM Client doing things. But we definitely try out best. Part of fixing this was coming up with the plan to always do an event on Wednesday and Saturday. This is probably pretty late for you and your timezone though.

We do need the Players to try not to rely too heavily on DM interaction. We need the players to motivate themselves and create their own Roleplay. Whether that's something as small as a get-together at the Leaky Cauldron, or something as big as a Character Plot that can get others involved. We can't always be providing entertainment to pull away from silent Pillar AFKing.

And of course with the Holidays coming up, many are likely going to become even more busy. I can at least speak for myself though that I will try to start doing more small things. Especially now that I'm settled into my new job and looking at a lot of time off with the coming Holidays.

Hope this kind of helped explain things and brighten your hopes to see more in the future.

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The Criminal - Sliver Vortec - Expelled
The Brain - Skylar Dune - Seventh Year
The Athlete - Lance Silverston - Seventh Year
The Basket Case - Drathil Vortec - Seventh Year

"Everybody prefers to see a nut - they're more fascinating." - Penn Jillette

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Hi Necro thanks for your response, I honestly didn't mean it to sound like a rant at all... it's not one. I've so far been really impressed with the DM staff, you all welcomed me so warmly to the fold, and have been very helpful... so far be it for me to wish to sound as if I'm unappreciative, because I'm genuinely very appreciative indeed. I know that in every server there are people who put far too much of themselves into making a place work, only to see some people treat it with disrespect. That's not what I wished to achieve at all... rather I wanted to try to be constructive on about the only point that I could so far comment on in my limited experience. It was phrased badly however, its also why I tend to avoid being very active in forums - far too easy to get carried away on a point. Please accept my apology.

So - I actually do realise the hard work that is put in, but I had no idea that there were regular events on weds and sat - I'll try to look out for them, can anyone give a vagueness of start time that is vaguely usual? I am sure otherwise that my time zone is hugely against me/a reason I might have missed it so far. Otherwise though, to clarify, I'm really not looking for constant DM interaction at all - and generally try to get my own RP going where possible, but it's a somewhat different place to most and occasional encouragement or help goes a long way! Especially when the place feels particularly quiet etc.. a few mins occasionally to take control of an npc or two will make the whole place feel more alive, especially if characters are naturally staring at each other without talking (as lets face it there are a lot , including prosper, who's characters are simply like that). It would be way better if that was possible without forcing a DM to immediately log out of playerside in order to do it though....

The times server events are usually ran is around 7-9pm Server Time.

And I know you weren't ranting or being unappreciative. I was just trying to explain things a little bit.

Like I said though, after I get this Toolset work finished up I'm going to try to get more DM interactions going. Not just because you asked for it, but also because too many people need more NWN spells. And that's definitely something I can help.

I think what I might start doing is running either two events on my Event Days, or one really long one. To incorporate both the late night players, early players, and Euro Players.

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The Criminal - Sliver Vortec - Expelled
The Brain - Skylar Dune - Seventh Year
The Athlete - Lance Silverston - Seventh Year
The Basket Case - Drathil Vortec - Seventh Year

"Everybody prefers to see a nut - they're more fascinating." - Penn Jillette

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I think more light-hearted events could be fun. For instance, Flitwick could hold a charms contest of some kind. A boggart could appear in the castle, but it's somehow broken or damaged, so it shows people something hilarious, or shows them something that would make them happy, rather than showing them their biggest fear. Maybe a non-dangerous magical creature could wander into the castle, and someone would get to keep it as a pet later. Things like that.

Hey everyone, server host here... for those of you who have never met me...

I know I know, it's a shocker that I'm around! Actually, it kinda is. Once again I've been on one of those insane "RL won't just leave me the hell alone" times. I -think- I'm back-ish, and possibly even fully back for a while. Just finished up with a work crunch time.

Just to address some of the concerns that have been mentioned:

DM activity:
-I know this wasn't too much of a complaint exactly, but I'll address it since it was said and I'd like you to know what's going on!
-We [somewhat] recently added a DM to the team to specifically address the school, and in particular, add in some fun and magic, as well as light-hearted events.
-We are actually still in the middle of a "main plot" which unfortunately has had to take a sideline for a little while due to RL illness and RL crunch times on my part. I hope I'm back in the saddle now, so I -hope- to pick this back up. Like... now.
-A few of the DMs (myself included) have taken a break from a rather heavy marathon of DM activity a little while back to instead switch focus to working on the module itself to complete some much needed and overdue improvements. I imagine it will be switching back to DM-mode pretty soon.
-As was stated elsewhere, Wed and Sat are days we always make every attempt to at least do something.
-While we will say that it's extremely important to have your own character-initiated PC RP, we do understand that DM activity is a crucial enhancement to your own RP.

Isolationist characters:
-RP styles vary, and characters vary. The server host supports this. While I think it's best to RP socially whenever possible, especially in a post-mortem game like NWN, the accepting of varying RP styles and varying character personalities is extremely important. If you do play an isolationist or anti-social character, go for it. All I do ask is that you don't go AFK (which IMHO ((in my host opinion, lol)) includes multitasking) to stem your own self-induced boredom of your character staring at the wall. If you're going to RP it, then stay IC and RP it!
-Remember that characters don't always want to be around the same other characters 100% of the time. This is normal, and to be expected. Never take this as OOC, or avoiding RP. This is a perfectly IC response.
-A session of isolation and/or anti-socal behavior from a character who typically is not like that is not only accepted, but expected. Not to mention it's a fully IC thing to do. This is not "avoiding RP." This is "RPing elsewhere." This is perfectly fine. That said, always OOCly attempt to nudge (nudge only, don't break IC) your character back into RP with others and/or larger groups whenever is ICly reasonable, and when it won't break character to do so.

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-Calan

Liss Crest, Slytherin
Kalara Crest, Hufflepuff
Elizabeth Finley, The Moon