Your View: Protagonist Proposition

[Booklight12 481]

I think there shouldn't be a protagonist group. Or in the very least make it like a nromal guild. And perhaps one that can stick and be there beforehand. In my opinion groups like Golden lance. (Wasn't here during aegis dunno how ascended were) aren't needed and it should be players who make it not staff. From a players perspective the recent protag was at first just a group of event team memebers that made events every now and then but mainly rp'd among themselves. To a groupf ET memebers making events though scripted for everyone else. But dind't invite many people due to them not trusting others with the magic. To then simply releasing it. And quite literally handing people magic with little to no RP prior. Simply, hey! I wanna join. I have a friend in the guild. Then 2 minutes later you become god with being able to teleport and do super feats. Without even progressing or learning how to rp it. ((this is from a player perspective who wasn't affiliated)) so I think there shouldn't be a protagonist run by ET or have their own magic. Instead leave it to the players to make their own. Or in the very least. Have ET or a group start out as say, a patron or something. But keep it completely the players choices how it goes. No special magics. No scripted events. Simply, a group of players that wish to stop the baddies.

[monkeymo14 53]

How about we just trust in the players instead of having a sooper speshul group of players separate to specially deal with the antagonist. Even if some may not want to deal with the antag, there will always the players who want to do something. and ugh, just dont make a group of players that HAVE to or NEED to deal with the antagonist when the other players don't. that's just lame. 

[TeaLulu 1783]

Opinion:

No official protagonist. Let players make their own and build their own organizations and groups. The more divided they are, ultimately the more successful the Antagonist will be; They'll learn to work together sooner or later.

The best defense against evil comes not from immortal, ambivalent gods, but from the men who truly must resist or face oblivion. 

[susitsu 871]

A huge problem with protagonists groups is every clique's obssession with 1-upping them and trying to murder them or just be bothered they weren't picked.

 

Aside from that, I think the groups just need to be made for more personal to the people. The Golden Lance, for how late in the race I actually was, seemed heavily involved with the people in some members.

[Z3r05t4r 855]

Not reading all the WoTs.

 

Let the players make their protagonists. If you wish to pre-create some, then give them some kind of mentor role, not a leader or direct protagonist role. Mentors. Who interact with everyone. Not elitist single persons who interact with only elves or dwarves or humans. Or orcs. I did not see a lot of Golden Lances and Ascended in Oren during most of my time on LotC. So...?

[AlmondTree 418]

As a pretty grey person I can't help to wonder, if player groups where to form who is to decide they are to get powers then? Will it be public for anyone to get protag magic cause then its gonna be a fest of everyone having it or will it be handed out and given to those that are deemed good RPers that has the experience? Back to square one.

I really want to move away from realism and have much more fantasy/magic but is the server even willing?

(Sorry if i said anything stupid.)

[TeaLulu 1783]

Who said the protagonists need magic at all?

[Agnub 605]

I think even having a protagonist group in the first place props up the idea that the server will always be "good defeats evil" so whatever happens in-between is meaningless as the end is already decided. Just provide an antagonist and let the players react to it in their own way. If the antag wins - so be it, the players deal with the consequences of failure. Protagonist isn't needed.

[firespirit44 1323]

Meh. 

[501warhead 1796]

All in all a interesting subject to be certain. The common opinion leans toward 'the players should just be the protag', while some rarer ones go in depth to state that the players either need tools or make their own.

 

For the most part, staffing both the Ascended and the Golden Lance (to a degree), my opinion on the matter will be bias, but allow me my moment for the sake of argument, to fan the flames.

 

The issue I often see with the player base fighting the antag so directly without any 'good' group is you end up having players and player groups who push the significance of the events to the side. Done in a variety of ways, there's the method of trolling in verbal shouts, trying to take essential pieces of story and destroy them, trying to mislead other players so they have no idea what is going on, etc.

This is not to say every player is like this, but when involving it in a story-frame environment how do you prevent the group mentality (which most of these actions are performed by or for) from eroding away at the event and turning it into something that players either forget due to the large scale of trolling, or something players downright avoid due to it being a chaotic mess of in-coherency?

 

Would this change if there wasn't a protag? would this change if there were? Probably not, but do you always rely on the story being progressed by players? What if a player gets his hands on an essential piece and decides he wants to find out what would happen if he put it away under his floorboards? While there may be many who are engrossed within the story (depending on how well it's executed) there may be one who ruins it for all, just because he thinks it's quite a funny joke.

 

 

 

As stated though, I can also get on board with the no protag train if it wasn't for the simple fact that, as rittsy stated, there would be no 'reward' for being good. Who wants to be a hero? you don't get anything for it, you're just a push over and a target. You could instead go evil, become an antag, and be rewarded for it. For nothing more than the nature of rewarding heroism I believe a protag is needed, how much they interact or how they operate is obviously up for debate, but you leave only one road to travel if there is none.

 

 

(Perhaps a compromise could be made that instead of a protag you just reward heroes for being heroes? Encourage the good-aligned player and reward them for doing so? )

[AlmondTree 418]

Who said the protagonists need magic at all?

Well the concept of realism is too heavily enforced as a personal opinion.

[mmat 7460]

I wasn't around for when we had an actually active protagonist (meaning one that mostly didn't show up for just battles), and one thing that I saw in Youtube videos was that people actually seemed to be in awe of the ascended when they saw them and it looked quite good, though I agree that a player made group could accomplish the same things if their exploits were enough. As long as a protagonist force is not filled with pompous asses, then I think it'd be fine personally. 

 

The thing about the undead-ascended was that it created two noticeable blocs; good and evil, whereas we haven't had any real clear cut conflict of that sort since.e

[Aislin 4354]

First off... Ascended being "successful"? They were perhaps the most elite failure of a protagonist the server has ever seen. 

 

 

 

And let player groups create their own protagonist. You don't need some special snowflake group to save the world. Let people becomes the heroes (or villains) in the greater storyline. A pre-established protagonist group only leads to a more scripted storyline (where the staff can instruct a certain group one way or another). 

 

Best way to look at this: the protagonist is the player.

 

This man said it best.

[The Fact Core 511]

Or, make a protagonist but he gets defeated from the Antagonist and leaving the players alone. So they must find a way on defeating them with the tools given from the protagonist.

 

They would act only as a guide for the players and really only, not with any badass super magical powers. Afterall the players are the -real- protagonists.

[Helbolt 129]

Who said the protagonists need magic at all?

 

I don't think player run protags would need powerful magic.  They outnumber the antags by so much it makes more sense for them to be less powerful.

 

 

 If the antag wins - so be it, the players deal with the consequences of failure.

 

It would be nice for the antags to have powerful magic to unite the player base.  Something that really is a threat, destroys things, and makes them seem dangerous.  They should be more powerful than a group of average players, I think.  Some people would probably complain but always winning (and it being too easy) don't really encourage people to cooperate and feel fulfilled when they finally win.  Also, if the bad guy does win, it would be kinda cool (and a change of pace from what I've read) for an evil overlord to take over the world and rule with an iron fist.  Maybe flip things on their head.  Human slaves with orc overlords or dark elf overlords or.... who knows, something different.

 

I know, it sounds crazy.  Sorry :)