Just wanted to pitch an idea.
I remember seeing a Victim's Guild in another game. It was strictly an ooc guild - members had no ic connection with each other. It was used as a container for players who wished to play victims. As a member you were obligated to be reasonable, taking appropriate damage etc.. You were also expected to do your best to not get killed/robbed/framed or whatever. For those who wished to play with one of these victim characters, they had to agree to be reasonable, take appropriate damage, and accept any consequences that may result. The victims were not in any way obligated to lose, and would typically run to a guard in the event of a failed wrong-doing. They would naturally play their role well until the end - kicking, screaming, or whatever
Players would also be allowed to use the guild tag as a cue that the character in question is willing to be a victim to a crime. You would still need to treat them as any other character. Swinging at one like a pinata because of their name tag alone would obviously not be acceptable.
Anyone interested in setting up something like this? Perhaps with some modifications or whatever...
Any likes/dislikes/brutal criticism ?
Cepht
It would be interesting to see this take off.
I dislike the idea. Partly because it involves an OOC guild tag, and partly because everyone's characters should be willing to face realistic consequences for their actions.
Also, when people make characters that would be "Victims" it would probably turn out that these characters wouldn't be good/interesting characters because they would be made with the purpose of being killed off at some point in mind. The concept would cause people to put less thought and effort into the character creation process than they do now.
Well, most of my characters would be acceptable for you to do something wrong to them. I operate under a 24/7 CW, so if my character does something stupid to get him/herself into a situation that might end up with maiming, kidnapping, death, torture, or any other nasty things, I'm acceptable of it.
I don't think you need a OOC guild tag for. :3
The guild would only be viable due to metagaming, which is listed as a No-No on the rule list.
A No-No from me, to this idea.
Didn't they also disband CW for the same concept?
Metagaming isn't always bad, I often use OOC knowledge to make sure my character bumps into people on the roads and such, generally I talk to the person and we set a place were our characters would just "happen" to pass.
I actually think this could be a pretty neat idea, since it would be a clear sign that the person you are roleplaying with are willing to participate in more dangerous RP, on the other hand it could easily be abused by people who want their character to look awesome and badass, seeking out victims to kill. And then I'm not sure how many would even join in on something like this, people are very protective of their characters, so why would they make them part of this? And if they would make a character just for this, it'd likely end up a throw-away with little thought put into it, which wouldn't make them a very interesting victim anyhow.
I for one think the idea is good but there could be a better way we could go about it. . .
Instead of a Victim's Guild, how about we make a list of people and what they would be okay being victims of. Like, for an example, some categories could be Death, Maiming, Kidnapping, etc. Plus, people can be with one or more catagory too. If you find someone you might like to do that to you can message them about it, maybe set up a certain situation they could bump into and have x happen during it (x being what they are fine with).
Those who have been playing long enough to know the players behind the characters and what those players are open or closed to already have this information in their head. You may use it without realizing it. This would just be a way to expand on this knowledge - thus reducing OOC communication "during game play" which can unintentionally influence the game and spoil surprises.
For example, if you are trying to lure someone to an unguarded spot for some sort of *surprise* rp, if you give the CW before you leave, the player may react differently (unintentionally). He may make it too easy or too hard without realizing it. Likewise, if you do lure that character somewhere, then give a CW last minute, they may want to walk away or retcon. At this point other things may have happened - you may have been spotted luring that person etc.. Undoing this may not be so clean and may prove to be a waste of a lot of time.
Regarding character quality, the idea is to make it possible to opt in to *potentially* being a victim. Characters are supposed to be made with the understanding that they are not immortal. That they very will may die at some point. I don't think that making characters that are oocly immune to danger are necessarily better. Anyway, this subset of existing characters would consist of:
A. Long term characters that a player is planning on phasing out.
B. Characters made with the reasonable expectation that they will die at some point ( medium term chars )
C. Short term characters for those who wish to RP being a victim and do not wish to spend as much time RPing the character's life.
I don't think "C" is necessarily bad so long as its not just a vanilla character being pushed around by a crappy player so that another crappy player can bash it. CoTH should not have any crappy players or vanilla characters in the first place. While a crime against a well know character has more impact, some RP may not necessarily require a well known victim.
The role of a victim is not easy to play well and Its more than just screaming and flopping over. If you have ever killed a character and they just stood there, got hit and flopped over then you know what I mean. Being stalked, chased, bound, acted upon, retaliating, seeking help, and possibly getting revenge on the antagonist is an art imho. One who can act out this role very well can add a lot to an rp without having to spend a lot of time establishing the character.
Personally, I like BountyHunter's idea better actually as it would be less distracting and less prone to abuse. I trust the community's judgment on the matter, if the answer is no then that's cool.