[Discuss] Adventurer - a few suggestions

[Talita CS]

I have recently started playing an adventurer character, and must say
the class is impressing me in quite a good way. We have plenty of RP
going on, monsters or undead to kill, and though Dwilight has usually
less than 2-3 advies per realm, it's nice to work with our
realm-mates.

However, I noticed a few things I thought could improve the advy game,
*if* you agree with one premise.

The premise is to increase the role of the advy before the realm or
nobility, or at least the means for this relationship to develop. It
is a complicated premise, since too much power to advies will take all
the freedom of the class, and probably generate more "don't hurt this
commoner" behaviours. Must be done carefully.

1. Unhorded monsters/undead causing impact on region - thus giving the
advy the chance to work with the nobles, should he be interested in it

Monsters and undead should have an impact on the region even before
they horde up. After all, if I get a message they are everywhere,
people should be already in distress, at least the people that live
outside the walls in small villages (after all, monsters come up
outside the fortifications). Also, no need to add distress for each
level of infestation, just the higher ones.
I'm not saying this should add up to the total distress, but rather be
incorporated to it, since region maintenance is already pretty hard to
manage. Say, today we have distress from various sources that sum up
to 100%. This total be lowered to 99% or 98%, and monsters/undead
distress come in there. And, main point - the realm can't possibly
know how this is affecting, they don't get any messages, unless an
advy reports in, saying monsters are everywhere - thus keeping advy
independence. This way, we'd have an extra reason for bounties and a
bit extra relationship between advy and realm, if the advy is willing
to spend a long time in it. Not to mention advies could perform
"monster management": kill a bit every few days, keeping numbers high
but not enough to horde, thus slowly increasing the unrest on the
region (monster army would of course cause greater damage, but this
way it can be a bit undercover). Very slowly. If it gets too powerful,
people will abuse it.

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2. Monster warnings for advies

A region being infested by monsters would be something noticeable for
the common folk, and I suppose news would travel fast, mouth-to-mouth,
even while the guards haven't sent the warning to the nobility. I
think a warning of 2-3 turns before the hording, for regions 2-3
regions away, saying "People on the streets can talk just of one
thing, today: Monsters are everywhere in Blobsville!", would be a very
good implement, specially if we add a random factor of lying to it.
Peter and the Wolf story. ;)
On another thought, this info could be available when we mix with the
locals, if it wouldn't cause too much programming trouble. Or we can
add it to suggestion #3 or #4 below.

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- #3 and #4 refers to the amount of information we can gather as commoners.

3. Option to listen to rumours about regular nobles in the area

I must agree that an adventurer would never be able to estimate unit's
power or number of men, and also that it would be quite possible to
abuse. However, if an advy can listen to rumours to find out about
suspicious people in the area, I believe there should also be an
option to look for information of the regular nobles in the area:
Name, Titles/Realm, troop leader (yes or no). The last could also be
taken away.
We have a way of knowing if there are monster/undead army around, and
I'm not asking for a military report. But knowing the nobles and their
titles might make our lives easier if we ever need to establish
contact, and is perfectly reasonable. This investigation, though,
could take a few hours longer than rumours, according to the number of
nobles in region, making it only worthwhile if we really need it.

I cannot see how this would be abusable, but if anyone does, tell me so.

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4. Option to learn about the noble's tendencies

The pies. After all, as far as I heard, at least notoriety was
supposed to be how the people saw the noble. We are the people, aren't
we? As commoners, we should be able to listen to distant rumours about
how evil Lord Bob has been to peasantry, or how well Lady Mary manages
her estate. I haven't yet figured out how this should be done, if by
the relative value, if we should just be able to look at the pie
chart, or if by the absolute value.

The report I would like to get could contain just a short note, and be
prone to error. Something like:

"After several hours inquiring local people and travellers from afar,
you managed to gather the following information on a few nobles that
are camping nearby:

Lady Mary is quite known for her diplomatic abilities
Lord Bob is a warrior of renown and also notorious peasant hanger
Dame Poppins is still little known, so you could not hear of any
specific behaviour of hers
Lord Dylan is a man to keep distance from - the commoner that crosses
his path is doomed"

Could have two or three levels of intensity, according to the absolute
value... or not. I don't mind that it is made of simple and hardly
reliable information, but commoners should know at least about the
black part of the chart. Can list a few random nobles of the region,
can list only the ones with higher value on their charts, can list all
(but I would rather not, or it gets too easy). The point is - gives us
not only the option to run from the black nobles, but also good RP. :)
Yet, it should be very hour costly. At least I highly value my advy's
hours... :)

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Let me know what you think.

Talita
Bluelake Family