Mas - Is this supposed to be fun?

[Uhuru]

My character spent hours yesterday just defending Bane. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I know there were many at my side. Bane was over run not once, but multiple times. I know the first one was GM madness, and I enjoyed that. But the next couple were just other players being stupid and leaving a huge mess.

I had very little fun yesterday in game as all my character did was clean up. How are we to RP during this time? I was exhausted and had little energy for anything. My hands hurt from all the running around needed. And all the mummies created a huge lag, which futher inflamed the situation, making it more difficult to do anything.

Am I the only one that found this to be completely not fun and wish she had slept through the whole month?

[Qeewee]

I don't log in during Mas for that reason.
I don't see the point myself, only PG'ed fighters seem to have fun spreading chaos through the town with the mummies.
Many posts like this have been made though, and all have ended up becoming locked with no one doing anything about the topic, so good luck getting the GMs attention on it...

[Robert_Thwaite]

If it makes you feel any better someone left the gates open to TB and let a mummy come into the town today.
I felt like i was trying to walk an untamed dog when i tried to bring it back out.

Personally i felt the event did go a lot better than it could have been as there wasn't any RP drama.
By that i mean that everyone that was involved was involved. Those that didn't want to get involved kindly stayed in the library, nobody was running around town attracting monsters screaming "Help Me! Help Me!"

[Leon Demelii]

My character spent hours yesterday just defending Bane. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I know there were many at my side. Bane was over run not once, but multiple times. I know the first one was GM madness, and I enjoyed that. But the next couple were just other players being stupid and leaving a huge mess.

I had very little fun yesterday in game as all my character did was clean up. How are we to RP during this time? I was exhausted and had little energy for anything. My hands hurt from all the running around needed. And all the mummies created a huge lag, which futher inflamed the situation, making it more difficult to do anything.

Am I the only one that found this to be completely not fun and wish she had slept through the whole month?

It's Mas. And only 5 days IG time.

And for your character, no it isn't supposed to be fun. Because it's Mas.

But as a player, it should be fun to switch things up and have to defend your characters home instead of just another regular day IG.

[Achae Eanstray]

There are some that like the difference in game of the month of Mas, there are others that don't. It is one month out of Illarion calendar that is different from the rest. For those that don't, there is compensation in they can usually go elsewhere rather then Trolls Bane in order to avoid that particular type of roleplay. For the ones that are excited about that difference, they know where to go to enjoy themselves. I personally like it for some of my chars, and not for others depending on the char and the roleplay they are currently involved in. I sincerely hope it is also continued to some extent in the VBU. The month of Mas is shorter then all the rest, and something some players look forward to. You could also plan ahead for that month by making a "safe haven" to protect some...as an alternate idea. Some of my chars have had some very nice RP being held up at the top of the gate towers, or the library etc. if they stay in Trolls Bane, most of the other mummies are usually easily avoided though have also had a pretty good time with my fighters at a flock of them when found outside Trolls Bane.


Of course, I can't remember anyone bothering to make a law about the madness mummies in Trolls Bane either. Perhaps a small amount of the problem can be solved in game?

edited to add (definitely another lich war please?)

[Djironnyma]

Indeed anyone have his own experieance and his own imagination of what is fun and what not.

We had yesterday fun (we=Bearers/Varshikar) by evacuate the settlement (even if it was stressfull ).

Even if i dont know if this is your Fun-Killer i suppose that some players have a big problem with situations where they cant be heroric and "win". There are enemys where you just can run & hide. I doesnt really see why you are forced to push them all out of the town? Because you cant walk in *Insert any cityname here* for one day? Well then roleplay your char hiding/refugee for this day at a tiny dusty place, there where ever safe areas. You cant be every day the hero.

Well at least that is my opinion and as i sayed - for me it was fun even because we havnt a chance to "win". Anytime just kill & loot quests would be really boring.

[Robert_Thwaite]

Of course, I can't remember anyone bothering to make a law about the madness mummies in Trolls Bane either. Perhaps a small amount of the problem can be solved in game?

S'rrt and others were attempting to make arrangements with regards to contingency plans (Library = Safe Haven and such) and thankfully as i said those that didn't want to get involved stayed there.

For me the downer is the after-effect. Once certain people are safe from the skulls and skeletons they don't see why the mummies need to be contained still and just bring them back. Fortunately nobody dared to reopen the arena at TB when it was full.

I doesnt really see why you are forced to push them all out of the town? Because you cant walk in *Insert any cityname here* for one day? Well then roleplay your char hiding/refugee for this day at a tiny dusty place, there where ever safe areas. You cant be every day the hero.

The main motivation, I feel, for such a heavy defence in TB is not really because everyone wants to be a hero. Rather it is recognition of the fact that many of the characters that may be likely to log in during Mas were logged out within the walls.
So if, for example, the order was given to retreat from Trolls Bane and leave the undead inside while Robert was logged out he would log in alone and surrounded by undead.

If there was a method of moving everyones logged out characters to a safe haven, perhaps with a story behind it *As you slept a city guard picked up your body and carried it to a safe haven* then i feel that those that defended TB last night could have been more considerate to an evacuation.

[Athian]

Yes the mummies can be quite laggy and somewhat annoying because when player's go about spawning them they don;t do so with anything that resembles self control. Thats actually always been something of an issue, like having 30 mummies surrounding the cross producing epic amounts of lag not funny.

Saying there's no RP opportunity is a vast understatement.

That Trollsbane people come together to rid there town of the mummies is actually pretty interesting, they work together in a way you don't ever see any other time of the year.

The 'standard' for some groups is this notion of standing around and talking being what is considered good RP. Or sitting around the fireplace telling stories or some other nonsense that can easily be done in a text only game. This is RP(loosely), but it's not the best RP in the world.

Rather then looking at Mas as a downside use the opportunity to take your character and do some things differently then they normally do. Use this chance to more naturally RP with the environment you are in as a consideration for your character's actions(something so many players fail to do). Create RP using the elements of Mas rather then say there's no chance to RP at all because no ones hanging out at the workshop depot etc.


IF you think MAS is bad then you would have hated the lich war''s (can we do that again please) when stepping outside meant being face smashed by superior demon skeletions that burst into an ice flame after you killed them. Good times^^

[Lennier]

This feature is very simple but bad balanced, true. Maybe anyone has an other idea that could be implemented in the VBU Project? But personnaly I like it in general. In frequence of 4 real months there are one and a half days of chaos, in which the daily life of our chars is disrupted. In my thinking, it allways was part of the curse of Gobaith: Demons and undeads are common on this isle, much more than mortals. That is what our chars have to realize.



I still can remember on the lich wars... It was an event in Illarions history with maybe the most influence at our chars (until today). War over months, inwhich our communities were the losers for a long time. But after a while it only demotivated lots of players.

[rakust dorenstkzul]

I still can remember on the lich wars... It was an event in Illarions history with maybe the most influence at our chars (until today). War over months, inwhich our communities were the losers for a long time. But after a while it only demotivated lots of players.

But the Lich wars were the best thing that ever happened to Illarion.

We need more Lich wars.

[Lillian]

I might come across as the troll now, but I gotta ask: Who exactly forced you to play?

[Leomar]

If you really dislike Mas that much don't play during that one and a half day. I'm sure even someone addicted to this game will survive that.

[Enviyatar]

puhh, wana bet?

[Leon Demelii]

I still can remember on the lich wars... It was an event in Illarions history with maybe the most influence at our chars (until today). War over months, inwhich our communities were the losers for a long time. But after a while it only demotivated lots of players.

But the Lich wars were the best thing that ever happened to Illarion.

We need more Lich wars.

Yes please! I wasn't around then, or for much of it's history. Would be nice to see some examples instead of hearing these kickass stories.

Give us some chaos!!

[Athian]

I still can remember on the lich wars... It was an event in Illarions history with maybe the most influence at our chars (until today). War over months, inwhich our communities were the losers for a long time. But after a while it only demotivated lots of players.

But the Lich wars were the best thing that ever happened to Illarion.

We need more Lich wars.

Yes please! I wasn't around then, or for much of it's history. Would be nice to see some examples instead of hearing these kickass stories.

Give us some chaos!!

Totally!

The problem with the lich war IMO was the two fold lack of communication between player's and staff and on the GM side, our bad guys having to much fun at the expense of the players and never knowing how to 'lose a battle' but continue the war, instead they always had to win all the time. Made players a bit crazy

Those are problems of the past though and lessons learned (hopefully) can we haz next awesome plague of bad things plz?

[GolfLima]

this all sounds nice for fighters or players having fun when fighting,
but i think non fighters / new players have`nt fun at this time - you should keep that in mind

[Caynwyn]

Non-fighters can heal, keep the home fires burning, worry about the fighters etc.

[Qeewee]

Issues when it comes to leaving bane if you want peaceful rp:
1. It might be too late
2. The mummies are not only in Bane
3. Bane is the center of rp, people would spread all over the map and not know where to find rp.

Maybe the mas tradition could become more optional, using the demon easter egg quest as an example, meaning there wouldn't be swarms of mummies around a cross, the mobs would be under the control of GMs rather than spread over the map, and players could choose t,o stay in town if they want to instead if being forced to flee, fight or take shelter, amongst other reasons like no more pgers abusing the mummies...

[Lennier]

If you really dislike Mas that much don't play during that one and a half day. I'm sure even someone addicted to this game will survive that.

Sorry, but such statements I can not agree. Of course, no event of Illarion should lead to a situation, that player decide not to play Illarion as long as this event runs. That only sounds strange for me.

[Nitram]

Yes its supposed to be fun!
If you charge into a group of mummies and get killed... then its after all your own problem. You don't have to attack them.

Also Mas has nothing to do with the mummies. But for some reason the players manage to get those mummies around every time in Mas. The only different is that you can't kill them in Mas.

How ever Mas is, even if there are hundrets of immortal mummies around, a chance to get together and roleplay. The idea is that not everyone changes into the mummies to die, rather that the players stay in the houses, and sit the problem out. With roleplay! I hope you know what this is? This event should drive the people together into the houses and to the save places. And not into the mummies.

Nitram

[Aegohl]

Not to take this too far off-topic for too long, but the lich wars were brought up a couple of times.

The problem with making a Lich Wars 2 is that we weren't sure how we made Lich Wars 1. The Lich Wars started because Brendan, myself, Jane, and Elaine (I think it's safe to use our real names by now. We all "came out" of the GM closet years ago when we retired) often liked to play around ingame with our GMs. We'd often take various forms from pigs and sheep to skeletons and dragons and summon critters on the map and fight with GM tools and what not. This is the sort of thing that often happens when you have a part of the GM team that was as close as the four of us were.

That particular day we were all in the form of undead critters and playing along the Fairy's Tear River when we got spotted by a group of well-armed players who became excited at the sight of what they believed was a skeletal army. So we played along and more players got involved and there was a positive reaction. Soon other GM's got involved. You've likely noticed that there are a dozen stories as to why the liches attacked. That's because we never had a meeting and came to a consensus on that.

Athian is right that sometimes the fights were unbalanced, but I don't believe it was because the GM's felt they had to win so much as it's difficult to balance a fight. And often players would wade through a horde of skeletons to attack "the general" which was your GM character. Anyhow, it was the players who named the event the "Lich Wars" and more or less decided on what it was over and we let them do that. Eventually we pulled the plug because of issues of too much of a good thing and new players spawning in the middle of a war zone.

So anyways, it's hard to copy something that happened by accident. You're just as likely to run into the wrong group of players and end up with players complaining about GM's bullying them. If GM's are active and brave and work together, however, sooner or later all the stars align and things like this happen.

[Zak]

I don't see the point of this thread.
You cannot expect a great quest each Mas (well, you can but that doesn't mean it will occur).
I, for example, had no time. Now, madness mummies are the busy GM's way of providing an occupation for the crowd with easy means even when he doesn't really have time to spare for Illarion.
You don't have to be stressed if you don't want to. Stay in a building, have fun RP. If someone outside is in trouble, get him inside, really no biggie even with un-skilled chars.

[wolfsword]

Non-fighters can heal, keep the home fires burning, worry about the fighters etc.

^

I find Mas, and most other fighter-based situations much more fun with my non-fighter chars (now all of them xD).
I LOVE the RP atmosphere that comes with war/disaster times.

[Po Will]

The way I see it is, you're all actors.
Each responds differently to each situation, thus building on you character's personality, history etc.
By all means, if you want to miss something out, go ahead.
But the character will be lesser for it, compared to those who do stick around.

So, yeah

[Morbius]

I guess, any situation in game (be it mummies, or finding a racist orc in town, whatever...) is as fun as you’re willing to make it and RP it as. Utilise you imagination, I’ve been through countless months of Mas, but running away from an opportunity to RP seems pretty silly to me, I mean, this is a role-playing game after all, right? As Will said, you are all actors! And I can’t agree more with that. I've had a lot of fun in the past hiding away in houses, even though I play fighter characters.

Point being, don’t get to comfortable in the usual situations where you might find RP, try something new once and a while. Just like acting, versatility in your role playing is essential, pretty damn satisfying, and certainly (most important of all) enjoyable!

[The Returner]

I can't believe believe complain about this.

"Oh no, the game is a game once every so often! Gaaaah! Because I didn't spent any time doing anything except talking for hours and cybering in a corner, I suck at everything ever, nuuuuuuu."

[Zak]

Mas is over, all points were explained thoroughly and opinions shared I think. Locking it now, you feel like something's been missed -> PM