Story time with uncle J.

A month (couple?) I tried my first fortressite as an invoker. Everything was going awesome, I killed a decent chunk of darkies before getting into fortress at around level 16. I become a squire and everything is dandy.

But then, I group up with another mage and retarded assassin. Both of whom were applicants for the fortress, well we are killing trolls when a darkie-healer-pain-in-the-butt makes trouble and we chase each other about as a group, until the assassin decides to blindness dust and kill a freaking tiny guardian. The thing is one rounded, and I am left banging my forehead against my keyboard. I call off the group and the chase of the darkie and try to fix the screw up.

I:
1.- Sent a note to fortress about needing a spanking for being a bad goodie
2.- Sent a pray requesting that my bottom be smitten for being naughty
3.- Speak to a nice elf warrior who seems to have messed up as well and get told to castigate some forest burners so the tiny guardian feels better about himself while planting seeds with Ergush in the afterlife.

Did all that, nobody said anything to me. And I remembered a post here from the fortress imms, saying that the first one is on the house. But I can't stop feeling that the axe will eventually drop, aka. I can feel the heartbeat under the floorboards. So I basically deleted, because I can't help feeling that my char is now tainted.

I really, don't know what I would be asking for. Getting punished for killing goodies as a fortress is entirely reasonable, feeling that my char is tainted because of some moron is also not cool. So I am lost, and this ends up being just "Story time with uncle J".

Maybe being a goodie is too anathema to my being, that or I should only try chars that can solo level if I want to go goodie.

Thank you for listening, and please do tune in for my next rant/story infront of the fireplace with a nice cup of coffee.

Cheers.

You really do get a mulligan on goodie kill #1 unless you role-play it poorly or there's reason to believe you were truly negligent.

It does make it more likely you're punished in some way for #2.

That said, you're not evaluated in a vacuum, and both the individual circumstances of the kill *and* your overall contribution to the cabal would likely be considered.

Some other thoughts:

1. You mentioned maybe goodies aren't your thing. It's worth noting this is really only a Fortress thing. While no good-aligned character should be blasé about killing innocents, unless it's excessive you're probably only going to face repercussions if your goodie is in Fortress.

2. Might want to lay off using the term "darkie". It has an unfortunate prior meaning outside CF.

Sure your char is tainted, but friendly fire happens and tiny forest guardian die sometimes in the line of duty I assume.

Being a lightwalker is hard work, with autoassist on you might accidentally kill something and with autoassist off you might fail to respond in time.

IRL

So you admittedly deleted because of your own insecurities, what do you want from the rest of us?

Because literally nothing bad happened to your character, and you threw it away because you thought it might.

That's just beyond absurd.

You did what a truly good person would do if they were involved in that. You showed remorse, apologized and tried to make it better as best as you could. That is literally all that's required.

There is no axe about to drop. Nothing bad was going to happen to you.

Most people in Fort have killed a good character at least once, including some in leadership positions. The ones that overcome it are the ones that actually roleplay good align, which it sounds like you did just fine.


Bottom Line: You threw away your character because you believe all the crap people are spreading. Now you're trying to spread more of it. None of it is true. Just play your character and you're fine.

I thought I did a very good job writing that, Lol.

But yeah, like I mentioned, the char just felt tainted even though like you said I think I reacted like a goodie would. Maybe I've got too high standards for a goodie?. For example I can't imagine how I could justify killing a neutral guildguard to get to a darkie.

I don't know how to fix that. The only thing that comes to mind is the following:

A contraption in the side of the courtyard in the fortress with a lever.

You pull it and and booming mechanical voice can be heard saying 'tsk tsk tsk'.

You suddenly feel the back of your clothing being pulled as you are slightly raised off the ground by a weird mechanical claw.

Whirring sounds can be heard as big gauntled hand on a pole separates itself from the wall.

A holy redemption claw's Beating EVISCERATES you!
A holy redemption claw's Beating EVISCERATES you!
A Redemption machine says 'Who's been a bad goodie!!!?'
A holy redemption claw's Beating EVISCERATES you!
A holy redemption claw's Beating EVISCERATES you!

As the redemption claw releases you, you feel relieved of your sins.

A Redemption machine says 'Now go and spread the light with your beautiful soul, you.'

J.

You're writing a story seemingly complaining about something that never happened, and never would have happened.

And honestly, I really don't know where you're going with the rest of this post. If you don't feel like a goodie should kill neutrals, then don't kill them. It's pretty simple, and I would say most (but not all) good aligned characters make that same decision.

So again.. I don't know what you want.

But basically you wrote a story complaining about how you were dumb, and somehow it's other people's fault and I think that's a terrible story.

Yup, like I said. It ends up being just a story, don't know the fix.

Just play your character the way you think that character should act. If he's good, make sure you act good.

If you do that, you won't have any problems. It's the people that think "good = requestable gear" and don't go any deeper are the ones that have a problem.


And stop worrying about the #### complaints from people who don't want to actually play a role. Their stories (much like your assumptions) don't reflect reality.

And it is certainly felt whether tangible or not, i.e deleting his
character because tiny tree planting man was killed by dumb groupie.

The potential for being a squire for half your characters life
and having a grand total of one cabal power bars fun in a PK intensive
RP game and might explain why 90% of squires are newbs who don't know
better and weren't going to make more than pity-Maran before con death anyway assuming they hang around that long.


In a world where you kill literally thousands of people and creatures
for guild recognition why would anyone self-flagellate over accidentally-ed a sprite one time.

The "threat" to get stuck as a Squire long-term is pure rumor mill nonsense that doesn't reflect reality.

Also, Squires get two powers.

And your last question pretty much explains why you have a hard time. You don't understand the point of Maran at all. Killing something good is literally the worst possible thing you can do.

That said, it's still stupid-easy to move on from it IC, with no real consequences.. at least for the first time or so.

My last question is games are supposed to be fun, do trite redemption
arcs over a completely inconsequential first offense mob kills qualify as fun?

I'd say yes.

In that I enjoy playing a role. Sometimes that means doing something stupid or annoying, because that's what my character would do.

Now here's where I almost agree with you: The formulaic response "write note, be emo with Aurew, collect X amount of coins for the victim" can be pretty boring (except the Aurew part at least). But that's only one option, it isn't the only one.

What would your character do? Maybe he'd go to the Inn and get absolutely sloshed, then go on a drunken killing spree first, burying his axe in every red aura he saw. Or maybe he'd lay down his weapons indefinitely and take up a life of peace. None of that really matters. The important thing is that you play a character that actually responds to his own actions. And good people killing other good people, even on accident, is a pretty traumatic event. If you shrug it off, you're probably not as good as you think you are.

PS. Other people are playing characters too. You can't expect them to abandon their own role because you don't want to really play yours.

Similar to how most tribs start collections for grieving widows when
they #### up. It's as bad as ignoring it completely. The emphasis of
consistent RP isn't lost on me but when you're effectively reciting
a soliloquy at a wall because your groupie involuntarily dragged you
into killing a mob at 3am the immersion factor is questionable.

In that case should your character be at risk of punishment and to what
degree?

If so then being held back isn't an unreasonable fear, if not then
then the discussion of not wanting to play your role is moot.

Adding the possibility of dozens of extra hours onto a game that
is objectively already a massive time-sink doesn't benefit anyone.
Then again that's just the kind of game this is.


PS. Aurew is still alive? That's impressive.

It's like you're looking for something to complain about, when nothing exists.

The only people that I've seen that have ever gotten the hammer dropped are people don't roleplay anything (ie, "Eh, it happens. Move on"), or people who do it repeatedly without trying to avoid it.

There is no reasonable fear about being held back, because people who roleplay their alignment do NOT get held back. It doesn't happen.


You can bitch, moan and complain but that doesn't change the facts. The only people who get held back in that cabal, are the people that will get held back in every other cabal - it's the people who don't roleplay, or at least don't roleplay consistently with the cabals ideals.

"The only people that I've seen that have ever gotten the hammer dropped are people don't roleplay anything (ie, "Eh, it happens. Move on"), or people who do it repeatedly without trying to avoid it."


Jaegendar deleted over it, I take it he's convinced.


Obviously you're the authority on the subject, thanks for your input.

Now I think you're intentionally trying to be an idiot. I'm done.

If you're going Maran, and I mean hard core Maran where there is an end all be all for service to the light, RP can really shine. When that Noob ****s up and brings some goodie NPC into a fight and gets it killed, you have a ton of RP options.

Me, I say just go bat #### and try to kill the offender, aura be damned. He may have a golden aura, but his actions show his heart, and he must pay the ultimate price for his transgression into darkness. Really, you're doing a favor in slaughtering him before he descends into the darkness further. The Maran judges based on what he sees. Be it duergar, drow, storm or elf, if you are murdering an innocent dwarf, intentional or not, you die. If you are so careless as to accidentally kill the light, you are not worthy to have that mantles.

Playing a character is different for each player, but for some people it really is, what would my character, not what would I do. If I'm an impulsive drunken dwarf warrior of the light who just witnesses an elf invoker accidentally burninate some hapless dwarf child, I am instantly going after him. Cause, as a char once said to me, an irate dwarf is an irate dwarf. And **** that sissy long eared pansy and his magic loving arse.

Unfortunately the "game" aspect of CF often interferes with making it a truly great RP game for everyone involved, because these actions can have crippling consequences. In fantasy lore, a betrayer does not all the sudden forget how to use swords they used their whole life because he kills another elf.

I honestly think betrayer and the like status should not be as rare, but also should not penalize characters in any way other than comes with being of that alignment. (and maybe the added vulns, sure)

But a game has to have rules to make it predictable so players can power game to their hearts content, and become boring in the long run.

What I'm really getting at is CF needs a giant shot of chaotic randomness in it to invigorate what tends to be a stagnant environment. Rules to a large extent hamper the player's ability to truly play a role out.

N/T