Reorganization

Should DM NPC's be the leader of any drow house or do you prefer player lead?

I'd generally prefer player lead for houses made up of players, NPC lead if composed of NPCs (ruling or particularly powerful house)

So for me the question is more: how involved does the staff want to be in maintaining an NPC house?

Yea a very good question...it would really depend on the involvement of the DM staff. We like having our Matrons online and RPing for hours on end. Nil'kah is a social butterfly and is always there ready to spin a web.

Also, how will you organize the house? Who will decide ranks? How will you avoid appearance of favoritism? If you can standardize some basic things, and have a dedicated DM staff that will play the Matron on a daily basis and interact, give orders, assignments and spin webs of deceit and cool stuff, then I would consider it. It could greatly enhance the experience, but it also limits the amount of Houses to the DM staff.

What is driving this question? Are you unhappy with current players that are leading houses. Are you concerned they are not following Lore? Not all houses may follow very strict Lore. This can add some flavor.

If you have a dedicated staff that will DM through the matrons then it could be really exciting. But if this is an attempt to limit player actions and force them to conform to Staff ideals then it could be disasterous.


Respectfully,

Pinto

For me this comes down to too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Due to server limitation if everyone is playing a leader of a House are they are then limited to how many servants, slaves, guards etc if it is player ran. I think it could be player ran so long if there were maybe a soft cap on the amount of houses allowed letting people to find roles in the lesser positions to fill out and allow RP to growth. I would like everyone to fill out and RP any character they wish because that is the whole idea behind the server. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s fun just trying to be realistic. Also it depends how many DM staff are wanting to play the head of houses. Again I think maybe a finite number is in order. That is not to say that some pseudo houses or renegade Underdark force can not take control of a major house and rise to power if RP'd correctly it could be a lot of fun a changing of the guard as it were. Plenty of possibilities for revenge plots,rising to power, political acts etc...

Uhm... going my experience, the problem is almost always plenty of Indians and not enough Chiefs.

Leading a house is super intense and time-consuming. Few people are actually cut out for it w/o burning out after a few months.

This applies equally to players w/PCs and DMs w/NPCs.

I was making a general statement since I don't play down there. Just throwing in my 2 cents.

It's ok Pexx 2 cents are valued here ..I have no idea how we would run a NPC house or if we would. As far as player guilds/houses we try to be hands off and let the players/founders organize as they see fit

However, do keep in mind that ICly there would be other powerful houses other than the ones player headed. This leaves the option for Bucephalus and I to create/lead events within the drow society as an opposing/rivaled family ect. . .

My 2 cent.

Houses should be player based, all station within a house accesable to characters to gain via rp. However to make thing easier for everyone and the DMs too there should be a NPC priestess who rank is above those of houses, as far i mean by lore there is such. A priestess who in theory could dictate a entire house be crush and run the temple more or less.

This would do people can rp houses but the DM can via this npc make important proclaimation and also step in if 'house fighting' get too messy.

I note we are primarly speaking Drow npc's and houses here. But I for one would like to add that Wyrmsbane would welcome a few npc duergar and have the Dm add a bit of their own duergar flavor to the clans dealings if they wish.

Another consideration: I never liked the camp Ilharess much as a player, it seemed to be honestly pretty dang centric to just a few players and their furthering thier ideas and no one else.

A Vhearunite NPC House and Llothite NPC house whree all players truely had a chance to interact, influence and what not would be a good thing. Sorry the way it was done in the past I disagree with a bit of what I saw and I do not wish to see that in these new NPC houses.

It would also be great to have lower or mid level NPCs that do things, not jsut soem almitghty ilharess or super yath.

Not a UD player.. but.

If a plot line/organization is reliant solely on the whims of a player things sometimes fall apart and if the player leaves there is nothing left. If a player wishes to be in control have a DM second somewhere in the hierarchy so the orgnaization continues past a player disappearing/rl taking him or her or what have you.

I think we should run the academies (Arache-Tilinth, Sorcere, Melee Magthere) as dm-guilds, and the Houses as PC-ran, though I like having the NPC House Dhuurniv around since they're canon... shouldn't neccessarily be open for players to join, but there should be competition between them and other pc-led houses,

It's a model that's worked successfully on other servers on NWN1 Underdarks, for instance and I think it would work well here...

To solve funnyhatofdeath's critique, we could simply use the standard server rules for pc guilds here already on dalelands,

To solve the "too many chiefs, not enough indians thing", plus bring it closer to lore,

We could limit houses to three (possibly one npc, two pc)... in canon, drow -noble- houses (qu'ellaren) were limited to eight, with all other 'houses' being common houses (el'laren)... we could do the same thing with 3 as a good number for our pw... Houses would have to be defeated (just as in canon) before other houses could rise to take their place...

Again I'll add 2 cents here. The only surviving house of Maerimydra is House Dhuurniv. They are well established. They are already in game as well. So no need to create another new house as one stands.

Bishop Cornelius wrote:

I think we should run the academies (Arache-Tilinth, Sorcere, Melee Magthere) as dm-guilds, and the Houses as PC-ran

+1

@Evil, Exactally... so maybe limit to 4 Qu'ellaren, NPC Qu'ellar Dhuurniv, and 2 PCs, for "First", "Second", and "Third" House of Maermydria,

I think players must lead.
Candidacys must assert by administration.
If guild structure implied single-handed autority, will be advisable choose deputy for guild-leader from another time zone. (rank depend from local guild aspect).

It looks like players wish to remain in control, so fine by me if we do a house forums become very inactive though (say several months) we'll probably be asking if the house is still valid and if not have some rp about their destruction and survivors..sound good?

on houses~
I wouldnt limit the number of houses, but recommend as players you start as a comon house and rise to nobility. it gives your house history, rp, and depth as well as brings you together or apart (both are fun to see as things develop) any new house will be on the botom of the barrel, like the new kid on the block just as new drow work to gain ranks. its drow culture to strive for sucess, perfection, and advancment.

two compeating smalls marco houses can be just as fun as to mega houses in their persuit for advantage over one another.

i have always felt leadership in our ud was disorganized, but i also feel this enchanced the feeling of a troubled city fallen to the forces that be. nobility is very important to drow life for it is a truisim; the nobles rule.

I think you should leave houses to the players(and do not restrict the numberr of houses either)


BUT

there should be Always 1 NPC house to represent the control of the city