My Protagonist Idea

[Ricky 321]

Ok so this is just my idea which I was told deserved its own Topic.. please post questions and what you think of it below but keep your own opinions on a 4.0 protagonist to the relevant form.http://www.lordofthecraft.net/topic/110814-your-view-protagonist-proposition/ Even if decisions have been made I think it’s a waste to leave this lying around so here is what I thought and created in response to the idea of a new protagonist. Big thanks for susitsu for helping develop this idea.

The Sentinel Order

 

The Protagonist’s part in the Story Events

If the Protagonist are based off of the GreyWardens then they will have to be very similar to the Wardens in Bioware’s Dragonage.  In my belief the reason the first Dragonage game was so good and the protagonist were popular with players is because despite their advanced skills and knowledge of killing Darkspawn they are mortal, can be from any walk of life and are not all mages. In LOTC this allows anyone to join but does not mean they are some overpowered mage group with their lesser thralls.

The only difference between these and normal players is the fact that the GreyWardens are better at killing Antagonist. How to do this, well I don’t know about custom made antagonist and protagonist plugins but more a list like the antagonist list in 3.0 which allowed them to not be harmed by the mobs.  Same principle, a Protagonist and Antagonist list basically those on antagonist get antagonist **** (this post is not about how I would create them to work well with the protagonist). The difference is that those on the Protagonist list can do slightly more (for debate) damage on the antagonist list players than normal players.

Where antagonist get stronger for killing people protagonist could get stronger by killing more antagonist. This could lock in with the skill plugin and say there could be a skill that the better a protagonist gets the more damage they do making senior/battle hardened Wardens the ones to take on the leader antagonist more easily. This does not mean they claim all the glory, it means the protagonist don’t have to kill the antagonist bosses, it is perfectly possible to kill a powerful antagonist if you are a normal player it is just protagonist are better at it, but not too much better so the antagonist ground troop are about equal to a normal player once they have adapted to the antagonist form of combat. Again this gives the antag/protag story a lot more flux than previous versions making every man a hero but the protagonist are more a boost not a decisive helping hand to the player base.

A different setting for the protagonist

Instead of being a group  who arise in response to the antagonist they are a group who arrived long ago with members from all walks of life, they were there before the monks and are standing vigil watching the darkness. In this they are like the GreyWardens and Nights watch but more subtle to the newcomers about their enemy. Only the leadership of the group know about this but the leadership will change overtime (will be explained later).

They will essentially be respected men and women who do not fight for gold, loyalty, honour, others, they fight because they see it as their duty to protect the mortal realm. They are not to get involved in others conflicts only secure their support for the order through treaties and agreements (they never take sides). This is why aside from their main fort/temple they will have hopefully a representative in each nation to advise on such matters and watch over the nation recruiting new members locally. This will allow easier relations and an order which is spread more widely between the world, hopefully with players who understand their nation and can become well known.  The order leader in that nation is in charge of putting initiates through a trial and joining (will explain later) he will also be under the laws of that nation and the nation leader can even ban the order from his nation and even allow the order to use the right of conscription within reason and even conscript prisoners and political enemies into the order.

Of course this does not mean loads, it can mean one or two representatives and any members who wish to stay with their nation can stay, the rest of the order if they wish can stay at the fortress, if they are banned from every nation this will be the case. So in this the protagonist are not just a GM and their chums, if the dwarfs don’t like the fact elves or humans turn up every time they have an antagonist issue they can have their own dwarven protagonist of a few men under the order who understand the RP. In Dragonage this is shown where one nation is reluctant to let another nation’s warden in after they recently won a war against that nation and the wardens would bring soldiers from that nation in support which the troubled nation would not like. Of course one nation can choose not to have their own order branch and goes it alone against the antagonist not openly accepting help. This does not mean individuals can not join. All nation branches still only answer to the warden main command not to the nation leader, they only work in cooperation with them. Wardens can help defend say the nation capital they are in, their own life on the road or even help a possible recruit in trouble because this is defending and helping the order. They may not attack in or be commanded by others than the order command.

The Order can openly recruit from day one, this allows for many things to happen and more flux, the order will not be allowed to die but as long as there is one member the intervention will not occur, depending on what happens to the order in this time can affect the antagonist. So for example in a tyrant hunts them down and only a few remain then when the antagonist arrive the people of 4.0 may sustain more heavy losses than if the order stays respected and honoured throughout the races and met the antagonist with a more formidable force. The order is a mortal institution, it bleeds and although not able to be fully destroyed it can be affected by other players actions.

Joining and life as a Warden

Ultimately life as a warden is like in the nights watch spilt into several sections stewarding jobs (gathering resources) in preparation, building defences and such in defence of the main base or nation institute, scouting the world looking and remaining vigilant for their enemy, this includes recovering artifacts, making political relations and recruiting new members.

Joining the order is very much like the actual joining to the GreyWardens you drink something and there are three things that happen you die and forget you even tried to join (this means it will be some time before you feel similar feelings agian, maybe a week) 50% chance of that, you knock out and can either try again or leave 25%, or you become a member 25%. Now this means that the order does not get too big a influx or members when the antagonist hit but everyone can still try to join. It also means there is no cult of people running the protagonist, the nation order reps, and heads at the main base have an obligation to accept any and all. Wardens who break the code of the Wardens are met with death in most serious circumstances and punishment in others. By joining you are accepting a perma clause.

This in my eyes is necessary, one because a punishment for the worst kind of code breakers because the RP of the group must be preserved and also because by joining the protagonist you are making a commitment, in RP this commitment if broken is equal to death. As well as this once in the order you will only live for 12 years (six months) more before you perma-kill or retake the joining to live by the code for all you life and to brake it is to disintegrate into dust and perma kill. This again shows a bigger commitment and means there is more incentive to do things with your character while alive and if you lose interest and do not play your character without doing a second joining it will die. So there is a way for inactive people who would like to return one day to stay on. This also allows the  same character running things throughout the lifetime of the order if they are good enough(By a Elder Archivist who ensures the head warden stays true. Like any order being more mortal it will be affected by such things and this again will keep things interesting. There is also no leaving the order like the nightswatch you will become a deserter. (The code is simple due to necessary acts of wardens and will be listed below)

The point on commitment shown here is because think about it the most successful events, MT projects and such are made by the committed members, the staff team members which rank the highest in ratings are the most committed ones, activity and commitment to making the protagonist what it is. It is perfectly possible for people not to join but because of local branches knight orders and such can tag along or be asked for assistance in matters by the local leaders who are able to involve and get their nation involved.

Now another point is they are not good VS evil they do what is necessary to win, so as long as you do not break the code you can be a necromancer in the order (inspiration form wardens keep DLC where blood mages are used by the order), like the nightwatch you are absolved of former crimes and if the nation leader who accepts warden influence wants they can allow prisoners to choose the order instead of death.

Overview

 

·         Any player can join as long as they stick to the code

·         Nation specific small branches which derive command from main command

·         Local branches conform and relate to nation by being that race an understanding their players

·         Nation leaders allowed to ban the order and they will respect this wish

·         No magic just a small advantage which improves through activity (you’re only going to kill antag if you’re active…)

·         No more cult protags with overpowered advantages

·         Perma clause and increased commitment

·         Order can be weak or strong, early launch for there to be flux on this

·         Nothing is fixed the order can bleed!

·         No overpowered leaders, the most powerful wardens are the most active ones

·         The protag are not central but can help greatly in the conflict

·         Not necessary to be in the order to have fun, ensured by local leader

·         No special items or bullshit excuses, the order is just better at killing antag, to other players they are normal

·         One simple plugin which possibly ties in with nexus skill plugin

 

The meaty bits…

Lore

I’m not really a lore writer but if I had to say the basic jist of it is that the Order was founded by a group of Snow Elves native to the (4.0) that know something and have embraced a certain way of living called the Code of the Vigil in fear of something.  This allows there to be a base for the Order.

But like I said the way this protag works is if one nation does not like the idea of a protagonist for 4.0 they do not have to involve them in affairs and the order will respect that nations wishes but should they ask will come running straight away.

The joining

“The joining unlike other initiation rituals may kill may knock out or may make the man who survives a warrior able to be on par with the most powerful of undead being’s but normal to all mortal being’s. This is the commitment of the Joining to fight undead beings and the dark enemy of the Elves of (4.0) who Is only known to the highest in the Sentinel order, but in this they are nothing but another order to the nations. The settlers were given a drink made of rotten flesh bone and magic, this ancient right made the settlers who do not die into Vigilantes, the contents of this joining drink would become the only trial to join the Order.  Out of the group seven became Vigilantes. “

-Quote from RP version

“The joining kills 50% of initiates and makes them unable to join for a week due to forgetting all lust to join the order, 25% will knock out and be given the choice to leave or try again with a 50% chance of joining, and the other 25% join the order under a Perma-clause, this applies for breaking the code or not adhering to the rules of a second joining (or taking one).”

By no means final but this is the basic idea

The Code

The code is what people live by in the order; the code is split into three parts, the duties of the vigilant, the rules of the order and ones that invoke a perma-kill hunt down and most importantly the values and beliefs of the order.

 

THE CODE OF VIGIL

The Beliefs of the Order

        i.            The Order accepts all and Denys none

      ii.            All titles and lands that may be used to claim personal power outside the order are forsaken but may be used to aid the Order, but this means the order comes above your land

     iii.            All beliefs are accepted as long as they stay in tune with the Vigilants duty

    iv.            No king or Emperor shall lead us but we shall respect and understand all

      v.            Never are we to get involved in nation conflict

    vi.            Nothing is more important than the Vigilants duty

    vii.            A darkness is coming and we are to remain Vigil

 viii.            Once in the order the only leave is death and your soul returned to its origin(perma)

The duties of the Order members

        i.            To follow the code

      ii.            To gather materials and resources in preparation for the great evils return

     iii.            To build defences of structures belonging to the Order and build much more in preparation

    iv.            To seek political relations with nations and get wardens native to that region there to stem political tension

      v.            To work with the nation leader looking to get a right to conscript by their word or settle for their prisoners

    vi.            To kill undead being’s with no self-control or preservation ( this rule excludes dead being controlled by living being’s not the great evil and obviously ghosts and shades are no concern to the order unless they align with the great evil.

    vii.            To hunt powerful objects against evil and destroy them, for only mortal races can destroy the great evil not any fancy trinket

 viii.            To in time of the darkness, gather forces together and lead them to where they will find their victory and to help if they need, glory is theirs, vigilance and victory are ours.

Rules of the Order

All Rules are able to be broken to achieve the goals of the Order

        i.            Do not kill other Vigilants

      ii.            Do not steal from other Vigilants

     iii.            Do not fight in any other man’s war unless that man is a Vigilant

    iv.            Do not hold any command above the Orders

      v.            Keep all personal views to self and do not allow views to harm duty

    vi.            Do not offend or force anything upon the nations

    vii.            Treat all with respect

 viii.            Do not try to leave the order, dissertation will provoke the destruction of your soul

    ix.            Time changes the order and its goal do not

The basic Structure (so far)

as you can see there's the structure with some positions I don’t want to talk about and (top right) but basically they are the fancy names for the two incharge. The keeper is as his name states keeper of records but also the only permanent member of the order (he makes sure the order stays on the right path and is the person who makes sure the order is as proposed here). The commanders are for each nation.  Obviously they may not have one and one nation may have 20 men another just a commander.

I have split them into nations because of reasons listed above and also because there is like no RP in a keep and if one nation embraces the order you do not want it to die. Centralising RP in the persons character nation one makes them less of a target to villains and keeps the order out of the limelight and also gives them familiar RP.

There is room for minor ranks within the order such as healer.etc

Relation to others protagonist/ do gooders

Other groups are treated the same but the Order does not believe in worshiping and committing to a religion or making an official fighting style/magic for the Order. This in their eyes deters would be recruits and can cause divide/ breaking of the code so is shunned. This does not mean they are not allowed to accept help and members from other protagonist and work with them but ultimately their view on how to deal with such evil is different.  

Divide in the Order

So I got this idea from something I heard on a Dragon Age Inquisition talk, about how possibly the Wardens are to blame for the rift(Dont get it? ok I explain). So I thought about how some in the order are more radical than others. Some will do really bad things to win. Others will negotiate with a cultist to kill more cultists for example whereas their friend may just kill the cultist.

This is my own personal idea to why greywarden/nightswatch protagonist would work in 4.0 if you have any other questions or possible problems as to how things would work in this version of protagonist just post below.

[leave me alone 995]

teryn loghaine disaproves

 

EDIT: this is literally grey wardens from dragon age in a nutshell

[IrishPerson 693]

Should not be protagonist in the first place. 

[Temp 2006]

Yeeeeeaaaaa- no. No protag. It'll be like the most recent protag. Go into enemy territory, push them all the way back to their final foot hold. Can't do jack-didly because the protag isn't there to deal the final scripted blow.

While I know there is some form of the proposed antag to just give a hand, I'd much rather some guild form while the antag is active, with absolutely not gifted knowledge or advantages.

[Ricky 321]

 

Go into enemy territory, push them all the way back to their final foot hold. Can't do jack-didly because the protag isn't there to deal the final scripted blow.

As said above, this version Is not scripted it is there to offer a little help the only scripted thing is to let the people do it themselves and help them a little bit here and there if they need it (doubtful) literally this group are less about slaying antagonist and more about creating fun RP in the nations so much is in flux, if you are a person who does not like the protagonist and your nation does not like them then they don't have to have them and they will respect that request and hold no grudge. It is a minor mortal protagonist for those who want it, really aimed to guide a little, help a very little and generally create fun RP around the combat based off the conflict.

[Aedan The Bard 350]

I remember how Adunians were the protagonists of the Scourge when they first came out of the north. We kicked their butts really hard, on an almost daily basis. The best part was we didn't ask for it, it just sort of happened. With this said, I must insist the server shouldn't have pre-made protagonists.

[Devland99 180]

Should not be protagonist in the first place. 

[Dr. Eggnog 74]

There should be no protagonist, if the races are too stupid to stop fighting eachother, to deal with a greater threat, then we deserve to die out.

[susitsu 871]

One of the big points that you all seem to be missing is things like...

 

    vii.            To hunt powerful objects against evil and destroy them, for only mortal races can destroy the great evil not any fancy trinket

 

The only difference between these and normal players is the fact that the GreyWardens are better at killing Antagonist.

 

·         No magic just a small advantage which improves through activity (you’re only going to kill antag if you’re active…)

 

Also, it states right in the first sentence it's based off the Grey Wardens.

[Ricky 321]

Guys I did link the thread for personal opinions at the top of the topic, can we keep this in relation to this.

[TheBareSheet 194]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.