[Discuss] Vulgarity Option

[Timothy Collett]

On Sep 3, 2007, at 10:04 AM, Shane O'neil wrote:
> Local is a bad word to describe it. When I think local. I think my  
> local suburb. Not the country I'm in. There is no reason that a  
> foreign noble should know about your bad language or vulgarity. The  
> realm decency should matter. It should matter a lot. If it's a load  
> of Vikings, there should be no penalty for speaking a little vulgar  
> among each other. I think the main problem is that people take it  
> very badly when they get the message saying they have been vulgar.  
> Because it hurts their characters stats. Yes, I know, it's measly  
> point of honour, but still a loss. I think people will start  
> looking a things differently once this new stat system gets  
> introduced. The current one makes your characters suffer for RPing  
> them a certain way. etc, being vulgar.

You still do not understand.

Honour and prestige represent the way the *whole world* sees you.   
Nobles pay attention to other nobles.  *ALL* other nobles, not just  
the ones in their realms.  In fact, for most nobles, that's what they  
do all day long.  We, the player characters, are the exception.

And, as Tom has said before, good roleplaying is not just playing a  
role.  It is playing a role *in a context*.  The context is a milieu  
reminiscent of medieval Europe.  Vikings were considered vulgar  
there.  He has already said in no uncertain terms that you cannot be  
both a pirate and a noble.

It doesn't matter if you and everyone in the realm you're in come up  
with a fascinating culture based around everyone being Vikings, or  
pirates, or common-born and just pretending to be noble, or what have  
you.  If you don't act in accord with the *global* social norms of  
nobles, you *should* be penalized *in-character* for it.

PS. Don't forget that only someone who *reads* the message can  
actually report it for vulgarity, so someone within the realm would  
have to disagree with your ideas of "vulgar" in order for it to have  
a chance of losing you honour in the first place.

Timothy Collett
Anaris Family

--

"If you suffer your people to be ill-educated and their manners  
corrupted from infancy and then punish them for those crimes to which  
their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded but  
that you first make thieves and then punish them?"
-Thomas More