Vercingetorix, Lord of Dalpok!

[FirstAmongstDaves]

OOC
I always wondered, what if you play both the lord of Dalpok (Verc) and one of the pirate leaders (FAD)? You pursue two opposite generic goals at the same time?

OOC:

FAD mostly hunts Yorkers and cannibals (you should see FAD's map - solid around both places, multiple trails through deep water to Skull Island). When FAD has been in Dalpok, Vercingetorix has been in Raktam. When Vercingetorix is in or around the wreck, FAD is in York. When I was setting up the RCoGR with Blue Hummingbird, FAD simply never went to Raktam, and sat out the Raktam/pirate real time battle despite being a key member of the Brotherhood of the Coast which at that stage was the leading pirate group.

Vercingetorix and FAD have never been close to each other. FAD does have a lot of Dalpoki kills (40 or so from memory), but to be fair they were mostly early in his career (Vercingetorix is a relatively recent creation, post Blue Hummingbird), or more recently kills of Dalpokis hiding in deep water around the wreck. Bluebeard/Isolation manages it too. Its not too hard.

The funny thing is how many Wiksik kills FAD has. I think FAD has been to Wiksik only twice in 4 years, and the most recent visit was about 2 years ago. Yet FAD has 50-60 odd Wiksik kills, mostly I think from in and around the eastern swamp.

FAD has 114 York kills (the highest number of dead Yorkers by any active player), which probably tells you were he spends most of his time. Vercingetorix mostly kills pirates in and around, or intercepts them heading to Dalpok, but has a few York kills as well from a shortish stay there about a year ago. This is why my York character, Ibn al Xuffasch, is always in the water looking for squid, and never actually in York.

Sorry for the long explanation but I find my character's movements quite interesting, and have spent some time looking at their respective maps noting how different they are.

[Ahnaom]

OOC
No, I wasn't talking about physical alt separation, that's an easy part.

Can you be a true pirate if you have some no-enter zones with your other alts or lead your fellow bandits when you have such constraints? Likewise, can you lead Dalpok and organise raids to shipwreck or take other measures while your pirates struggle to get as many kills as possible over there?

As far as I understand, both FAD and Verc aim for leadership. It's like being on both sides of the war. Maybe you don't meet face to face in the front lines but the goals are essentially opposing. I can understand people having different or separate goals for their alts but not mutually exclusive ones. Is it fun to play in this schizophrenic way?

EDIT: In other words, doesn't it suck that you can't do certain things without any real IC reason for that? Things that logically follow from your char's personality and would be expected but you refrain from that or balance on really grey zones of alt coexistence? It would drive me crazy, I would eventually drop one of my alts.

Just curious how that works out for you.

[Neil Tathers]

OOC:  As someone who had a chance to lead the KOS before Anthor took it over, I refused, because I had just started to lead the Collective.  I couldn't see someone leading two different clans myself, because I would always be wondering what the other one was doing.

FAD, in my experience, tiptoes that line alot.  Most of his characters are prevalent in organizations, and sometimes, he ends up on different sides of the same conflict.  Personally, I don't know how he does it, or if he actually does it that well, but to each his own.

[Etherdrifter]

//
If you scratch most of the island's large groups you'll find FAD under the surface, he's founded almost all of them in some way or another.  Heh, I've had my hands full with the NG from day one so Asmodeus knows how he manages all his groups.  I would take my hat off to him but I don't wear one ^_^

[FirstAmongstDaves]

Actually that's true. The Royal Court, the Kraken Hunters, the Peninsula Federation, the Pirate High Command,  the Dalpok Crownlands, many others which did not survive. With no ability to ultimately win, I facilitate game play by coordinating players, either in factions or real time play.

The clans frequently have competing interests. But if I can, as I did with the RCoGR and the Kraken Hunters, I set up the clan and hand it over to someone else. The PF might end up like that if it's successful, and certainly Vercingetorix is out to establish a permanent faction, nurture it, make it successful,
and hand it over to someone else to run if possible.

Only FAD is the character guaranteed to survive the establishment and success of any given faction, since that character is, frankly, the most fun, and also because leading pirates in this age of Shartak is a bit of a futile mission.

My real life job is, incidentally, all about creating teams to solve fiendishly difficult problems. Funny that.

All OOC of course.

[Ahnaom]

You do pull strings of these organisations every now and then though, don't you? Whether it succeeds is, of course, another matter.

[CyAdora]

The Citadel looks amazing.

[FirstAmongstDaves]

Yes, it does look cool. So does the new Tower of the Parliament in Derby.

@ Ahnoum: The game would be more or less limited to choppy-choppy (jungle/heads/animals) if not for interfactional competition. Aside from the Kingdom of Skulls / Kingdom of Wiksik civil war and the GSUC/Raktam debacle, there's little interesting, recent tension on the island which I have not facilitated, either by establishing the key clan or by picking the fight. Its not pulling strings: its setting up opportunities for player interaction. I think most of it comes off without too many stumbles. I can't think of anything off the top of my head which I have completely stuffed up, except maybe for Dappled Shadow's military effort to unite all three native villages 2 or so years ago by endeavouring to pay for a mercenary force to recapture Port Breton on the behalf of Wiksik. There was such a negative reaction to it that I didn't pursue it and effectively retired the character.

I'm extremely pleased to be linked up with the Baron on the PF's ascension. With two of us facilitating the rapid expansion of influence of a Derby-based clan, that will sooner or later lead to conflict with other factions. Presently its unchecked, but as it becomes bolder it will inevtiably lead to a new, interesting conflict.

[Ahnaom]

Well, you never know. I think some of the conflicts and/or clans would sprout up naturally. Or maybe not, the active player base is really limited. Probably not all of us are into a highly organised clans either.

Anyway, to each his own.

[Neil Tathers]

I remember FAD being pissed when I stopped conflict between Durham and the Royal Court

[Solemn]

I remember FAD being pissed when I stopped conflict between Durham and the Royal Court

Do tell.

[FirstAmongstDaves]

I remember FAD being pissed when I stopped conflict between Durham and the Royal Court

Do tell.

Don't you mean Derby, with Dappled Shadow? I don't think I was pissed (off, as we say - "pissed" to me sounds like I was drunk), but I was certainly frustrated that more people didn't want to get into an island-wide war. Even in an online game, some people just like the status quo. (Also, there are no mercenaries to be hired, even with 20000 gold coins at one's disposal!)

On the other hand, lots of people got engaged and had fun with the tensions out of the Commonwealth / Durham war. (If you mean I was aggravated about your involvement in that war, then I can't recall at all being perturbed....? Maybe Blue Hummingbird wanted to press the advantage and not agree to a peace?) We had an outsider/native political union sitting on Durham's doorstep in Creedy, prompting Durham to attack under the leadership of Ron Burgundy. The Durham Pistoleers collapsed as Malice changed sides, and Durham basically backed off. If Durham had evicted the Creedyists, that would have also been a good result.   The point is, something would have happened, with RP overlapping with game play.

Being "the leader" of a pirate clan is presently like herding cats. Pirates are a neglected class of character, with few significant advantages compared to blowpipes, feasting, and rifles. There are some senior pirates who do their own thing, lots of newbies, and few in between. (Even the worthy Opium Joe and FAD don't really have the same objectives: he tends to kill natives while FAD tends to kill Yorkers and cannibals. We only really co-operate when we are both on Skull Island.)

So, as you said, Ahnoum, I could drop my other characters and try to take over the island with a pirate army, but realistically, that's not going to happen while pirates are such an unattractive character proposition for players. The PF's expansion and the interaction between Dalpok and the other native villages offer much more opportunity for strategic gameplay. 

Mods: This could probably be peeled off into a new thread in the General Discussion forum called "FAD - Evil or Just Midguided?". I'm very happy to talk about how I play provided its not offensive or overly negative, mainly in the hope of attracting collaborators to facilitate more gameplay.

[Neil Tathers]

No, when Fort Creedy became part of the Commonwealth, you sent me down with some warriors to establish a garrison there.  While there, some people tried to start with us claiming they were part of the Durham pistoleers.  You wanted Durham's head, I convinced you and Burgundy it was a third group, and we moved on.

[Josiah Winthrop]

No, when Fort Creedy became part of the Commonwealth, you sent me down with some warriors to establish a garrison there.  While there, some people tried to start with us claiming they were part of the Durham pistoleers.  You wanted Durham's head, I convinced you and Burgundy it was a third group, and we moved on.

Those were the days, I remember the defense of Creedy fondly. We had a good crew, and there was the Raktam forum! That was a fun forum.

@Everybody: Hey! Wasn't the PF my idea? Or was I just pushed forward as a figure head, a puppet in Daves's not so secret machinations to rule the island?

While we are at it, I'd just like to say that Daves is the freaking man when it comes to Shartak. I can't be certain, but I probably would have left a long time ago if it weren't for the in depth meta-gaming he brings. I know for certain that when he has gone into hiatus I definitely do not enjoy the game as much.

(sorry to be OT, but I am assuming that all of this will get split off of the thread)

[Bobby the Hatchet]

Will someone please post a shot of the Citadel already? I almost never travel to that quadrant of the entire island.