Thu Mar 10 20:09:37 2011

At 6 o'clock PM, Day of Freedom, 25th of the Month of the Old Forces
on the Theran calendar Nalleth perished, never to return.

I'm done with CF for a bit. (I came back for a couple of months after an 18 month hiatus.) A friend of mine described it as a text based first person shooter. I was hoping that he was wrong. Alas, it is in fact a text based FPS. The problem that I see (from my perspective only, this is not a flame post) is that if a character does not fit into a certain square, it will not be successful. (Or has an uphill battle to be successful.) Somehow, in the last couple of years, a lot of creativity was lost and RP stereotypes are stressed and reinforced. I always viewed CF as an RP exercise/opportunity which I could have without getting too involved into the PK scene (a little dabble is fine), but I don't think that works. (I think the model now is to make a super powerful PK char and then to layer in RP... I am yet to see a char that starts with RP and becomes successful... no particular issue with that... except it does not fit my style.)

To Iunna: I hope everything is OK in RL. I've interacted with you a couple of years ago and even had your tattoo on two characters and you were so engaging and fun. I've seen you in action recently on a handful of chars and you seem exceptionally tired and burned out. (Maybe it's the protests in Madison.) I at first thought that it was my interaction and my style of RP but no, I've seen the same interaction with a number of other players. A part of being an imm of an RP cabal (in my view - it's a volunteer based game - so I cannot really point fingers) is to engage and inspire - yet you dismiss and wave off. This sounds a bit harsher, now that I reread it, than intended, but I cannot describe it the right way.

Re Nalleth: I had two weeks of excess time and thought I could get a bard to 51 and then log on an hour or so a day and RP/explore... I suppose that will not happen.

Thank you all for the fun game and the enormous amount of time that imms put into it (including Iunna of course - it is a tough and often thankless job). Thank you to the players. I will see you in a year or so if CF is still around.

Then I realized you had 26 hrs. Really dude? Really?

This was my third attempt at a successful char within the last few weeks.

One interesting thing about Nalleth - I had a three chapter role written and entered at level 1 that never got any role recognition exp. (It surprisingly didn't bother me - I thought it was more ironic than anything - it was the first time I entered a role at level 1 - typically I do it around level 10.) If anyone cares to read it - here it is. (I don't think it's a masterpiece, but I really wanted to run with the concept of a wood-elf bard, Herald, Enlilth follower under the sphere of Envy, plotting to get his way back into the court of Evermoon Hollow). I just quickly realized that it did not fit the square model of most Heralds and that ultimately there was little interest among others in letting this role develop within the Heralds, so I pulled the plug. Yeah - you don't have to be a Herald to have an RP char, but meh - it's fun to have commraderie of a Cabal - at least to me.)

P.S.: Honestly, I'm not upset over any of this. I am just not getting the depth of RP experience that I was hoping for and I do not love the FPS aspects of CF - I have Black Ops and WoW PvP for that. I just thought I'd post an explanation for deleting Nalleth as I got very positive feedback from friends and foes regarding the carvings and other things.

P.S.2: I am also noticing other characters that did not feel the mold from the RP angle deleting. Nagskra - the orc that was looking for a baby was a pretty neat idea - yet I saw more people just rolling eyes at the attempt.

P.S.3: To put a lighter touch to all of this, one of the best times I had in CF was recently when I figured out the path (the hard way, not looking at Dio's) through the Haunted Woods, looking for clues. Did take me about an hour. CF is an outstanding game for someone who enjoys lore/puzzles/etc.


Evermoon Hollow

Nalleth Toraethdar was born one hundred and thirty five years ago to a battle advisor to the King of the Evermoon Hollow. (His father remains unknown but it is rumored in the court that it is a warden-guard.) At a young age, Nalleth exhibited a strong aptitude for music and it was not too long until he fell in love with the profession of a bard.

Growing up, Nalleth was a restless child. Fussy and difficult to please, he never understood how his mother was content with the position of an advisor and sought to climb the social ladder of the wood-elven society. He quickly became a friend of Prince Jaern Evermoon but that led to nothing other than alcoholism and unkempt looks. Reaching what he felt was a glass ceiling, Nalleth made a daring move and attempted to break the sorrow of Queen Iliana Evermoon by becoming a court's jester. It was not too long, however, that Nalleth's excessive drinking caused a lapse in his humor and he was exiled from the Evermoon Hollow, by the hand-written order of the Queen herself (much to the dismay of Nalleth's battle advisor mother.)

Alone, drunk and without a gold coin in his pocket, Nalleth set out on his adventure unprotected by the silk curtains of the wood-elven court.



Heralds

Thinking that the best way to make a name for himself outside of the wood-elven society is to become a prominent song-smith, Nalleth seeks to join the Heralds of the Inn of the Eternal Star. Having spent much time in the woods, to distract himself from the sorrow of his fate, Nalleth has taken up wood-carving. As a result, Nalleth is able to create figurines of extraorindary quality and believes that the tools of carving and sculpting in the Inn will greatly enhance his work. (In a way, sculpting has become a new addiction to Nalleth. If in the past, he would drown himself in a jug of cheap dwarven wine, Nalleth now finds the solitude of the woods, interrupted by the chirpping of the birds, a lot more pleasant.)

Nonetheless, though his habbits have changed since his days of being part of the court of the Evermoon Hollow, Nalleth's heart burns with desire of prominence and return to the wood-elven kingdom. Nalleth Envies others who are prominent within their society and seeks ways to elevate himself among Therans.



Views

Nalleth believes that the wood-elves are the most promising of the three elven races. In his mind, the high elves are too zealous to see their own short-comings and the drow are too blinded by violence to achieve greatness.

Nalleth is not a violent man. In fact, he will generally avoid violence. He believes himself smarter than other citizens of Thera and believes that through his wit and cunning, he can excel without spilling blood of others.

Nalleth will at times dabble in Cabal politics but never in a way that would make him visible to the eternal warfare. He does, however, believe that the battle between good and evil, law and chaos, can bring much profit to himself and wood-elves in general.

Getting even a tiny bit of recognition in 25 hours should be considered a tremendous blessing.

Most imms wont give you the time of day in the first 75 hours, because they do not know yet if you have invested in the char.

25 hours is nothing.

...and while I don't know Nalleth from Adam, this sort of character is a great reason WHY a lot of us won't throw a ton of love at a character early.

I disagree. I think there's plenty of room for oddball roles and Duergar chefs and characters who are planning a long, complex interaction with existing NPCs via their role.

However, I think you're discounting a few things that need to be taken into consideration.

1. No matter how unique you might think your role is, there's a chance (however slim) that it's not. I'm not sure when roles went in, but I promise you that Twist has read a ####load of them and he's probably seen a lot of "unique" ideas rehashed over and over and over.

1a. I'm not saying that this is the case for Nalleth because I have no way of knowing, but it's something to consider.

2. You shouldn't really expect any sort of IMM XP with less than 50 hours on any character (see posts below).

3. If you've been playing CF in recent weeks and haven't gotten any RP, you're not looking in the right places. Right now there are solid RP characters in Nexus, Battle, Empire, Tribunal, Herald, and None. And those are only the ones I know about. How you could be a wanna-be Herald and not have gotten decent RP out of some of the current Inn folk is beyond me.

4. I loved the carving of the Inn. If you had kept that kind of thing up someone would have noticed quickly. I feel that you just didn't give this character enough time to develop.

Honestly, this is precisely why I don't tend to invest a lot of time
into interaction these days- I thought I was doing you a favor by
dropping by early and seeing if you were any good, but my attention
was pretty much split between CF and other things (I am in the
process of moving to Florida). While the interview wasn't fantastic,
I realized I wasn't doing you any justice and passed you off to two
other well-RPed, perfectly capable Heralds to make an informed
decision on your suitability to join the cabal. I logged in the next
day expecting to see notes about you; instead I saw you deleted.

I'm sorry this experience wasn't what you had hoped, and I would gladly
hand over Herald to another IMM, if there was anyone else. Believe it
or not, it's probably one of the more taxing cabals I've ever had to run,
and doing it for roughly 8? years tends to be tiring. So in a way, I guess
you're right.

Good luck with everything.

Alright so this is going to be incoherent. But frankly you're in my top 5 Immortals of 10 years of CF.

Remember that for every burn out bitching 26 Hours?! character you and the other Herald Imm's deal with in general you all really make a lot of people rp characters awesome.

Hadashdakon loved Iunna and Neltouda and that was my last character.
Reading this when I've just made a trial (Maybe I can CF 5 hrs a week) character is depressing as hell.

Goodluck in FL, just don't move to Tallahassee!

The one reason Tallahassee rocks.

n/t

that I was honestly considering mentioning it. I love the Mountain Goats, and Tallahassee is a great album - I've been to Southwood Plantation Road a bajillion times, and it used to be somewhere I passed by when going anywhere - Which is awesome.

I'm glad you mentioned it.


#### yeah Mountain Goats.



GUY IN A SKELETON COSTUME
COMES UP TO THE GUY
IN THE SUPERMAN SUIT
RUNS THROUGH HIM WITH A TINYIRONDAGGER!

COUGAR TOWN??? Iunna, are you moving to Cougar Town?

Nell:
I do not know if you going to read this or not, maybe in the future you may decide.

I wanted to get involved with you, but I am pressed for time very badly. My internet sucks BIG time and I don't have whole lot of time to interact. I am very surprised by this.

Except couple of other cabals, Herald is one of toughest cabals to get into and it does not have any super powers except "cease & toss".

I am not the "two Herald" mentioned in Iunna's post. Those two are really good. And I have never broken my RP with OOC comments. It took me so long to get into this cabal and whole lot more to stay in.

Dude, all I am saying is play this game to enjoy yourself. Cabals & IMM interactions are added benefits. If you get IMMexp, awesome. If you didn't, there is always next time.

Catching up on some reading, sorry for a late reply.

I think what made it particularly difficult for me is the fact that I've always had absolutely the best interactions with you in the past, which I believe both of us (well, I know I can really only speak for myself) enjoyed.

I would imagine Herald is quite difficult to run, so I certainly understand the pressures.

It's not that I bailed at the first sign of trouble - it's that I realized that my character would have to work a bit too hard to fit the current notion of a Herald. And the vibe that I got was that "you are better off doing what you want to do outside of Herald". I also generally struggled with a diminished player base and the difficulty of engaging people into something a bit outside of their character. (This is not just specific to Nalleth, my prior character hit a similar wall.)

Good luck with your move to Florida and I will certainly be back trying a different angle at a Herald and my interactions with you!