44 réponses à ce sujet

[Addai]

@Maria, having participated in online rp communities before, I can attest to the necessity of anti-twinking guidelines. Twinks are people who want their characters to be special sparkly Mary Sues, taller than everyone else, better looking and/or horribly disfigured, possessing special powers given to them by some secret wizard in a cavern where they were raised by wolves, etc. etc. I'm assuming it works the same way here, where you earn the right to make an exceptional character by demonstrating you're a serious rp'er who respects the lore. Trust me- it's for everyone's good to have such guidelines. You do not want to rp in Twinkland.

Modifié par Addai67, 26 avril 2011 - 09:02 .

[Maria13]

You see, that's my issue... Aedan Cousland (Vallisin and all) looks to me like a total Gary Sue and I certainly don't want to play in his sandbox...

and as for the vetting of characters that includes adjusting their BMI, the order in which the info is presented, etc..  Uuuum I thought this was meant to be playful, it's giving me quite different vibes, though (dictatorship?).

But as the lady said, this is not for me.

Modifié par Maria13, 26 avril 2011 - 09:13 .

[Addai]

It could well be, and the fact that such communities must be structured and yet accommadate individual needs/ wants is part of the tough balancing act and why I said it's a thankless job to moderate such things. OTOH, I made contacts in those other rp communities with some fantastic writers- people I still collaborate with years later.

And now I'll butt out.

Modifié par Addai67, 26 avril 2011 - 09:46 .

[Lady Jess]

Tasmen wrote...

Maria13 wrote...

When you get around to having a female equivalent to awesome Aedan or a woman in a position of power from the beginning, I might be interested.

As I said, bit of a waste...

FYI, there are women in positions of power.  There are actually more female nobles than male nobles atm.  One of them, as an example, is extremely rich and powerful down in Gwaren and may or may not become Teyrna of Gwaren (not saying one way or another as to not ruin plots).

Also, keep in mind, that to play a canon, you have to apply.  People apply for what they want to play.  If you see a lack of the canons you wish to see, then I would encourage you to app an OC, play it for a month and then app the canon you think the site needs to have.  We can't force people to app things just because others want to see it.

The opportunities are there for the type of characters you are talking about.  Yes, Aedan is super macho and quite frankly, sometimes an jerkwad that I want to smack.  But hey, that's IC.  Great part about WV is that people get to pick a character and go with it after it is approved.   

I think it's a little unfair to judge an entire site off just one character, but that's me.  I've been playing on there now for over a year and am stilling enjoying it.

Wardens Vigil is awesome. I regret that my poor character kinda got abandoned when I got buried in school, life, and crap.  The people that have taken up the canon roles are amazing. Jenn with Oghren? amazing ability to play that role. It's like Oghren just jumps out himself. Same with Sigrun, and Shianni.

Speaking of Shianni, she's a female elf  that has the ear of the King! There's plenty of powrful women, both in Canon and OC roles.

It seems rather silly to me to judge something by it's cover completely without even asking questions about it or talking civilly to those that participate and finding out more. I used twitter and talked to Freckles and Jenn and Tasmen, I joined the IRC and asked a ton of questions. And everyone was extremely helpful, and then I joined and apped my "Jess".

Maybe I'll get back there when life slows down around here. I miss it. I miss them:)

[jenncgf]

Jess, thanks a ton for your kind words! Both about Oghren and about the site in general. We miss you too! I hope real life lets up on you soon so you can retain some sanity

[MelRedux]

@Maria- So, don't join?  Maybe just skip this thread instead of telling all the WV Rpers how much you think their characters are awful?  I dunno, just a thought.

jenncgf wrote...

Jess, thanks a ton for your kind words! Both about Oghren and about the site in general. We miss you too! I hope real life lets up on you soon so you can retain some sanity

*jumps in* I miss you Jenn!!!!!! *jumps out*

[Maria13]

Sorry, approached the site with an open mind and then I set out my initial quibbles from what I could see of the community and was told:

a) An hour is not enough

Debatable.  How much time do I have to spend?

Are you sure you got the right site? (Jen cgf)

Bit of an insult that... but I pointed out some stuff I found on the site that I was somewhat unhappy with (unwrapping wenches etc) and only one thing I pointed out was actually addressed, the arcane warrior spec.

c) Thanks for your views.

Fair enough.

I understand the point about control and twinks but BMI? Isn't that going a bit far?

Height restrictions for females keeping them lower than male characters? Likewise.

BTW, I know Shainni is a female elf, I was just unable to find any real evidence of her activity on the site.  I found quite a bit on Aedan on the other hand.

This is a public forum if people just want approval then they really shouldn't post here.  For the record I've been quite polite and simply expressed my views very few of which have been argued with appropriately.  Someone from the site has actually agreed that Aedan 'can be a jerkwad'... but went on to say that that is the nature of the game, a good response in my POV and I am happy with that.

I don't need fresh people butting in to repeat to me time and again it's not for me.  I got the message and I agree. It obviously isn't.

Modifié par Maria13, 27 avril 2011 - 11:00 .

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Well, some rules are necessary, though I'm not sure about the height limitations on women unless the site had an odd influx of 6' female characters. Why is 'Reaver' not permitted? Too psychotic for RP?

Anyway, 'The State of Things' on the wiki makes it look like men are the ones in power (not the only ones, of course, but apparently the only ones worth mentioning) while Anora and Morrigan get token mentions as people the (male Bioware posterboy) Warden deposed and impregnated, respectively.

So at first glance it's easy to get the impression from the wiki with little research that female characters are artifically limited for no specified reason, and not that important in Ferelden.

This may be completely wrong. Plenty of people seem to be jumping to the defence of females being active in politics and whatnot. But that's the impression not only Maria has gotten from the info site. And it's first impressions that often last, and are the deciding factor on whether the visitor keeps reading for more than an hour.

So...yeah. It's not like anyone's RP ability is being impugned

[Freckles04]

Just for clarification:

We use the BMI scale as a way to judge what's a realistic weight for a particular height.  It's not meant to be judgmental, but simply to give a ballpark.  People are still welcome to make their characters overweight or underweight, and warriors should always be in the overweight or obese ranges, due to muscle mass.

Reaver is not available because Aedan did not learn it in Haven.  The decision was made to stick with what's set up in game, with how the Warden can learn skills.  We do not have "tomes" available for characters to learn specializations.

Height restrictions are in place because we did have a large influx of very tall players, to the point that it was getting ridiculous.  Since women are generally shorter than men, we chose a shorter maximum height for them.

I won't get into a defence of Aedan, since he is what he is.  Though I will agree with Tasmen that he can be a jerkwad.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

I'm curious why Aedan not learning Reaver would restrict everyone else (unless he killed every other Reaver in the world--they didn't all live in Haven, and even if they did are we assuming Aedan killed absolutely everyone in the village?). Seems like a similar issue with Arcane Warrior if you can only learn it through roleplay--presumably with Aedan.

But that's just personal observations. If that's how the game is, that's how it is.

If there was a plausible and good character reason

[ShadowCatJen]

There is a definite reason for the restrictions.

Anyone who has spent any decent amount of time on a roleplaying site -- no matter what format it happens to be -- will know that if some restrictions are not in place then you will end up with a horribly unbalanced setting. There is always the tendency for people to immediately want to make an Arcane Warrior, or Maleficar, or (yes, especially) a Grey Warden. Without it the site would end up with nearly 10% of the PCs being Arcane Warriors. That does not make logical sense when the class should be a rarity. If we allowed for these classes or concepts to be chosen easily then we'd have a place where the majority of the characters concentrated more on what they are as opposed to who they are. We prefer our players to craft characters, not caricatures.

So we need to balance what makes sense In Character while keeping Out Of Character considerations in mind. Often we have to do it because of a sudden influx of character concept wants (our latest being "no Qunari PCs" as we had too many requests to make one after DA2 released). Others due to past bad experiences where we did allow for certain concepts then had it bite us all in the collective arses. Most were due to "free form" players coming in and trying to make cat-girls. (No, I'm not kidding. She had this concept where a Tevinter mage experimented on her with cat blood or something and . . . yeah.)

We are, however, constantly reviewing our own restrictions and guides and always tweaking them as time goes on. The mention of the Reaver class has us reconsidering where a character could possibly take up the class elsewhere (the Chasind are a possibility) and allowing for the Beserker class to be taken by more than just someone from the Dwarven Warrior Caste (Ash Warrior anyone?). So we're not so high brow as to not reconsider our current guide.

That don't mean we're gonna allow for half-qunari mage abominations with lyrium infused skin anytime soon. I'm jus' sayin'.

Modifié par ShadowCatJen, 08 mai 2011 - 06:25 .

[Freckles04]

Some of the best stories from Warden's Vigil are now on FF.net!

We asked our members to nominate and vote on three threads to feature in order to illustrate the types of shenanigans our characters can get up to.

Conversations with Branka: Oghren might have lost Branka to the Deep Roads and madness, but he's never forgotten her.

Happy Endings: Aedan Cousland, Warden Commander, leads a team of volunteers into the Dragonbone Wastes to deal with a darkspawn threat. The group is ambushed by a dragon cult with tragic consequences.

Laying Down the Law: Just another day in the life of Sergeant Kylon. Good thing he can get help from random sources for his daily tasks, because his men sure aren't of any use.

Other WV-related stories on FF.net:

This is Home: Iain MacKinnon was captured by Howe during the fall of Highever. After six months torture, he escaped and stowed away to sea. This is the story of Iain's return to Ferelden. (by Sisimka)

Origins: Aedan Cousland is thrown onto a path he had not expected by the Blight, and then by Howe's treachery. Confronted by violence and death, he is forced into a duty he never wanted, a life he hadn't chosen for himself. (by Freckles04)

Thanks for reading!

Modifié par Freckles04, 01 juin 2011 - 04:55 .

[Freckles04]

Just giving this topic a bump...



Come join the longest-running, play-by-post Dragon Age: Origins roleplaying forum!

Home | For New Players | Wiki | FF.net Featured Stories

[Maria13]

Freckles04 wrote...

Some of the best stories from Warden's Vigil are now on FF.net!

We asked our members to nominate and vote on three threads to feature in order to illustrate the types of shenanigans our characters can get up to.

Conversations with Branka: Oghren might have lost Branka to the Deep Roads and madness, but he's never forgotten her.

Happy Endings: Aedan Cousland, Warden Commander, leads a team of volunteers into the Dragonbone Wastes to deal with a darkspawn threat. The group is ambushed by a dragon cult with tragic consequences.

Laying Down the Law: Just another day in the life of Sergeant Kylon. Good thing he can get help from random sources for his daily tasks, because his men sure aren't of any use.

Other WV-related stories on FF.net:

This is Home: Iain MacKinnon was captured by Howe during the fall of Highever. After six months torture, he escaped and stowed away to sea. This is the story of Iain's return to Ferelden. (by Sisimka)

Origins: Aedan Cousland is thrown onto a path he had not expected by the Blight, and then by Howe's treachery. Confronted by violence and death, he is forced into a duty he never wanted, a life he hadn't chosen for himself. (by Freckles04)

Thanks for reading!

I did and, wow! It's still all men...

[Freckles04]

Maria13 wrote...

I did and, wow! It's still all men...

Yep, sex changes don't exist in Ferelden! Unless Morrigan's got a spell she didn't share before she left...

They're great stories. I especially like Sisimka's tale of Iain MacKinnon returning home. It's a great characterization, and that's what should count more than whether the character is male or female.

You've made it clear, Maria13, that the supposed inequity of male/female characters on WV concerns you, and you won't be applying because of it. So I'm somewhat surprised that you're still bothering to comment.

Thanks for bumping the thread, though.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

ShadowCatJen wrote...

There is a definite reason for the restrictions.

[snipped rest]

Of course. I would never advocate a role-playing situation *without* restrictions.

I would suggest a different method for some of your restrictions, however. From what you're saying, it looks like the main concern is people wanting to jump straight into the RP with a 'special' character. I agree that certain race/classes shouldn't be common, but I don't think saying 'no qunari' or restricting classes like AW or Reaver through RP with the Warden Commander, as Freckles has suggested, is the way to go.

I know I'm not involved in your community, but might I suggest a model that served well in others? If the problem is new players just wanting to come in with their caricatures, as you put it, I suggest that instead of saying 'You can't play this race/class', say, 'You can't play this race/class as your first character'.

Require that they play a more common character first for a probationary period, then after that period if they want to submit a character concept for something more unusual they may. Depending on the CC and how well a role-player your admins judge them to be, you may accept or reject with certain understandings established (eg. "You realise a character like this is probably going to be attacked on sight, right? Do you mind if he's killed? No? Good!" (This happened in one of my games ones. Yes, the character died, was skinned, and turned into a fur coat.))

As for rarity, I don't think that should be a real excuse. If your Warden Commander has the AW skill, for instance, and is friends with the Dalish, is there a reason why he wouldn't pass on THEIR knowledge back to THEM? And any reason why they would not try to pass it on to other clans? They're all about preserving knowledge and rediscovering lost wisdom.

Just saying, don't let the fact things might have been rare in DA:O keep the horizons of your RPing small. A sudden emergence of angry AW Dalish trying to seize land back from the shems could be good RP.

Modifié par Shadow of Light Dragon, 01 juillet 2011 - 03:00 .

[Freckles04]

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

ShadowCatJen wrote...

There is a definite reason for the restrictions.

[snipped rest]

Of course. I would never advocate a role-playing situation *without* restrictions.

I would suggest a different method for some of your restrictions, however. From what you're saying, it looks like the main concern is people wanting to jump straight into the RP with a 'special' character. I agree that certain race/classes shouldn't be common, but I don't think saying 'no qunari' or restricting classes like AW or Reaver through RP with the Warden Commander, as Freckles has suggested, is the way to go.

I know I'm not involved in your community, but might I suggest a model that served well in others? If the problem is new players just wanting to come in with their caricatures, as you put it, I suggest that instead of saying 'You can't play this race/class', instead say, 'You can't play this race/class as your first character'.

Require that they play a more common character first for a probationary period, then after that period if they want to submit a character concept for something more unusual they may. Depending on the CC and how well a role-player your admins judge them to be, you may accept or reject with certain understandings established (eg. "You realise a character like this is probably going to be attacked on sight, right? Do you mind if he's killed? No? Good!" (This happened in one of my games ones. Yes, the character died, was skinned, and turned into a fur coat.))

As for rarity, I don't think that should be a real excuse. If your Warden Commander has the AW skill, for instance, and is friends with the Dalish, is there a reason why he wouldn't pass on THEIR knowledge back to THEM? And any reason why they would not try to pass it on to other clans? They're all about preserving knowledge and rediscovering lost wisdom.

Just saying, don't let the fact things might have been rare in DA:O keep the horizons of your RPing small. A sudden emergence of angry AW Dalish trying to seize land back from the shems could be good RP.

Thanks for your reply! You have some very valid points. In fact, we do restrict a few things to second-character-only slots (like the blood mage spec, and human nobles), as we've found that these types of characters, and others, have been prone to abuse.

As Shadowcatjen stated, our restrictions are in place for a reason. I've been a mod on the site for over a year now, and let me tell you...we've seen some doozies of apps. The restrictions and the Character Guide we've developed help keep the mods (who are volunteers, of course) sane, and they make sense for our world. Not everyone will agree with them, and that's fine.  Our world, like anyone's fanfic world, has evolved differently.  It continues to evolve as well, and perhaps there will come a time down the road when certain restrictions are lifted...when it makes sense for our world/story.

That said, if a long-time member came to the moderating team with a well-written profile for a restricted class, we would certainly consider it.

Thanks for taking the time to add your input.

[Freckles04]

We're always looking for new roleplayers to join our ranks! Please feel free to come visit us.

Looking forward to seeing you on the board!

[Freckles04]

It's been awhile since I've bumped this thread, so...bump!

We're always looking for new members to join our roleplaying community at Warden's Vigil. I hope you'll come visit us.

If you have any questions, we've recently added a FAQ to our Wiki, and we have an IRC help channel if you need assistance with your profile creation.

[Freckles04]

The horror of the Blight is long past.

Ferelden has enjoyed relative peace and prosperity in the nearly two years since. It has not been a time free from change—a Howe is once again Arl of Amaranthine, with Nathaniel appointed by Aedan Cousland as his successor, and there are movements in play to raise the status of elves throughout the country. The Hero of Ferelden himself has disappeared—to where or for how long, no one knows.

But, beneath and above these machinations, the people of Ferelden continue…living their lives, having their adventures, and weaving their own stories into the fabric of history.

~*~*~*~

Warden’s Vigil is the longest-running play-by-post Dragon Age: Origins roleplaying forum on the web, in operation since February 2010. We welcome roleplayers of all skill-levels, from beginners to expert, and we would love to see your profile!

For more information, please see:

For New Players

Frequently Asked Questions

Our Character Creation Guide

The State of Things