Just a thought on the IC Curfew

[faaide]

Hey guys!

So, I just wanted to bring up my thoughts on the IC curfew imposed on the village (and by village, I mean Faaide). This is not an attack on the policy or the people who made it, not in the least, it's simply my view on something that drastically impacts my RP habits in the dream. So please, if you disagree with my view on it, go for it, but don't take this as any kind of a personal attack or 'angry rant' or what have you. It really isn't. xD

I'll start out with the blunt statement that I can't stand it OOCly. I'd really like to see it re-considered, or at least extended. I realize it's an IC thing, but I'm begging anyone who has any say in this to consider the OOC impact it has as well. As one of two child characters in the town, I'm hoping my opinion on this matters to some degree.

I work shift-work right now and many of those shifts occur in the evening. Specifically, they often run until about 8:30pm and I'm not home until 9pm. The curfew currently sits at 8pm, and obviously this means I can't RP when I get home. Nobody visits the Children's Home save Ehen, and since my RP is restricted to there after 8pm, I'm effectively done for the night. This is prime RP time and I'm a little frustrated that I'm forced to miss it because of something as non-consequential as an arbitrary curfew. If this were extended to 11pm I would at least have some leeway to get in some RP in the evening. I just feel it's an unfair imposition on my OOC ability to contribute and be a part of a dream I've grown fond of over the last year. IC is important, I fully support that concept, but I'm hoping that for something so minor an exception can be made that puts my OOC enjoyment of the dream ahead of an IC rule which doesn't affect anyone but myself at the moment. I had a bedtime when I was a child and I didn't like how I had to go to bed when all the good tv was starting, so imagine how I must feel when, effectively, the same thing is being imposed on me as an adult with RP replacing TV. xD

Now, I understand that anyone still reading this is thinking, "Well just make an adult character" and I agree, that would solve the problem of the curfew. However, I remind you that I work shift work... this leaves my time online very sporadic. I simply do not have the time, inclination or frankly, ability, to properly develop 2 characters simultaneously. I will not abandon Faa as a character. I realize this may make it seem like I'm the cause of my own problem, but I ask you to think about how you would feel to be asked to abandon YOUR favorite character simply so you can RP. It's a bit of a "rock and a hard place" situation, and I feel that abandoning the character is a heavy-handed solution to a problem that can be resolved through much simpler means.

All I'm asking for is the ability to be more active and available within the dream when other people are around, as evenings seem to be far more active than days. If this has come off as rude, again, it really isn't my intent and I apologize. I enjoy the company of everyone I've met in the dream so far and the last thing I'd do is openly criticize or berate anyone; I just feel the need to express myself on the subject. Faaide may be a child, but I'm not, I'm a player who's just looking for a bit of fun and escape like anyone else. So please, I'd really appreciate this being looked into by the admin staff at some point.

[Ã…lov]

Alov will definitely start visiting the children's home, regardless of if the curfew is lifted. I do agree it puts you at an unfair disadvantage, because I think the children are a nice touch to the dream.

Maybe have the curfew still, but allow it so the children can be outside of the home after that time if they're with an approved adult? Then if they get hurt or whatever that adult will be responsible for medical fees/etc.

[Illiandi Bondsmiller]

There seem to be three main complaints here that we will try to address. We see a request for the effective lifting of the curfew, a request for easier participation in group roleplay, and some help finding roleplay for Faaide, in particular.

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It's best to simply state immediately that unless your character achieves an apprenticeship* that requires Faaide to be out after dark that the curfew will not be lifted for him. It will not be changed for child characters without apprenticeships.

The protection of children is more than enough to realistically make sure that a child is not wandering around in the vicinity of carnivorous merpeople, kidnapping tribesman, dangerous visitors, and erratic spellwork. That being said, there are also lore-related reasons that go beyond this simple and realistic restriction. If a child is allowed to come to harm on the island, very serious ramifications will be levied (that go far beyond a simple fine) on everyone residing there, regardless of their participation in the scene.

In addition to a lore-issue and a law issue, there is also an issue of character balance here. When you play a character in Nasmara we absolutely require there to be restrictions on character abilities. If you are a character who gave up one eye in order to see magical fields out of the socket, your depth perception sucks and stairs will always be an obstacle for you. If you are a character who can swim for days without needing to surface for air, then you cannot be adroitly mobile on land. And if your character is, by his youth, immune to physical punishment by law he WILL have other restrictions placed on him to ensure that he cannot get into the trouble that would invite the law's censure. Due to the lore of the island a child can be ridiculously overpowered here, and so we have both an IC culture of child protectiveness and laws to make sure that cannot be abused. If they ever were abused, we would have to take very drastic steps to ensure that the abuse is halted immediately. No one wants that to happen.

As for the time chosen, due to the multinational playerbase we have in Nasmara it would be difficult for us to say something like “11PM”, because it isn’t the same time for everyone playing. Night in the dream DOES take place at the same moment for everyone playing, and so it is both a realistic time to call children inside and a convenient and obvious shift in time.

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Regarding group roleplay, there are several things that happen during the day when you are often on, that other child characters have been able to interact with. There are even in the evenings safe roleplays that happen near the children's home that he could do with supervision, and Ehen or Alov or other volunteers are often on at night to supervise. In particular there have been parties that he could have attended, with magical games he could have played, but you have missed them.

While a compromise may seem to be to mark these things on a schedule so that you could plan your shifts and responsibilities around them, there are two problems with this idea.

The first is that most of our large group roleplays are extemporaneous. While we have a general plot that we move along in a timely manner with scenes planned only so far as "this is the end goal for the night", a great deal of what happens occurs because individual players choose to make them happen. This is not something we wish to restrict by requiring our roleplayers to post about them before they are enacted.

The second problem is that when we have tried to schedule things before, many people do not respond at all, those that do respond change their availabilities many times during the planning stage, and then at the zero hour quite a few 'forget' to show up. Having been forced to delay and delay and delay events due to this behavior before, we made a style change.

We run our large plots when 'enough' eligible people are on early 'enough' to start. By eligible we mean that we will not count the very young, the very old, or the pregnant when choosing to do something dangerous, and we will not count the grumpy, the dangerous, or the very-very-new folks when choosing to do something silly and lighthearted. By early, we usually aim to not start things as late as 10pm EST.

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Specifically in regards to your desire for engaging roleplay on Faaide, it's understandable that having a child character as your main makes you feel very limited by the above. We can empathize. All of us have had to put up with roleplay locks and work schedules before. Some of us even write regular locks into our characters in order to force ourselves onto alts.

At the same time, we do need to comment on the fact that the character Faaide has been around quite a long time, and you have not allowed him to age. This is, as you've stated your awareness to, a self-inflicted problem. There is currently a minor plot that has been running for a couple of weeks now to find Faaide an apprenticeship that has been running into complications both ICly and OOCly. The latter there being achieved by you preferring to sit idle rather than have Faaide seek out the characters who have offered apprenticeships, while the former meets with repeated IC refusal to show any interest in any craft.

So in closing, if you want us to be able to get more roleplay for you on Faaide, you need to nudge your character into helping us help you. We will not be allowing a child-character free reign of a dangerous habitat that late at night, as to do so not only breaks lore, but chafes against the emphasis on reality that we try to carry in this dream. He must accept work*, he must always ICly arrange and obey an approved chaperone, or you must allow him to age.

* If he decides to take a job, you as a player will be under the same rules for ‘keeping an IC job’ as anyone else would be.

[faaide]

I appreciate the in-depth reply, but I still feel it hasn't particularly addressed the central issue, while adding other issues to the original one and complicating the core emphasis of my original concern. I won't get into a diatribe here though I will say I've only heard of 2 offers for an apprenticeship, and one of those was accepted within 12 hours of it being offered (Fenris Wolfshock), so I'm not really sure why I'm being held accountable for this. As for the 'idleness', yes, I do idle, and yes, I'm working on being more active when I'm around, but as I stated already my schedule is all over the place and even activities during the day may be missed if I have to work a day shift. For example, tonight I worked from 5 - 10pm, while next Wednesday I'll be working from 7 - 12am, Saturday is 12 - 5, etc. Saying things happen during the day and my missing them is my fault is ignoring the fundamental issue inherent in my previous request for some heads-up when major events are going to happen. That's beside the point though as I never intended that to actually be a major "complaint" (I use the term loosely as I'm really not complaining, simply stating my opinion on the curfew). I don't expect things to be on hold until I can be around, and all I requested was some headsup so I could BE around.

As for the curfew, I still feel that given its absolutely negative impact on my OOC ability to contribute to the dream, that it should be looked at in a, likewise, OOC manner. All I've seen as a reason for it is the potential abuse by players. While I understand how this could be a problem, I'm a little embarrassed that the prevailing thought behind it is that child characters (I.e, me, being only 1 of 2 in the dream) would abuse this. I have done my utmost to respect the rules concerning children in the dream while still allowing for a degree of misbehavior that is inherent in any child; even the best behaved and well-meaning children do something dumb once in awhile. As for aging, Faaide ages in real time. His birthday is in mid-August and, admittedly, I was busy prepping for my last semester of school last August and forgot. Aging him is beside the point however, in my opinion, since if I'd wanted him to be older quickly, I'd have started him as being older.

While when things turn dark is a fine "universal" time-marker, so is `time with the FST. 11pm FST is 11pm FST no matter what your offline time-zone is, and would easily allow for a later curfew.

I am more than willing to accept Alov's idea of curfew exemption if an adult is with him. It's not like I'd be off RP'ing with myself anyway.

EDIT: After thinking it over, I'd really like to stress Alov's idea. It seems like a perfect compromise for both sides. I get to RP past 8pm while in the presence of a trusted and responsible adult until the apprenticeship is ironed out, and the realism of the dream is maintained by restricting his movements throughout the island due to the watchful eye of an adult.

Please man, at least think about it. Everyone wins with that solution.

[Illiandi Bondsmiller]

As you seem to understand that Faaide can be out with a reasonable adult chaperone after dark, we do not understand why you are still finding a struggle.

If Fenris Wolfshock has work for Faaide to be doing after dark, that is for him to decide, and will be some constructive roleplay for your character and theirs to establish.

In strict roleplay, it is inherent that characters must fit to the continuity - not the other way around. If the nature of your character clashes with your ease of roleplay within the continuity, it is your character, not the environment around him, that must change.

If you find that the allowances of your character being allowed out after dark with a reasonable adult chaperone or on assignment from his Mentor are too restrictive, it may be time to consider if Nasmara is the dream for you and your character.

[faaide]

Wait.

Is he allowed out if he's with an adult? This may just be a misunderstanding.

I can't find anything detailing the exact rules concerning this curfew, so please, I just need clarification on this. Can he go outside after dark with an adult? If yes, then disregard this entire thread. I was under the impression through IC reactions to his being out (with adults present) that this was not allowed, leading to my concern. I am more than willing to accept the restriction of needing a chaperone. I simply didn't know it was already an option.

[Illiandi Bondsmiller]

He has always been allowed outside if he's with a reasonable adult chaperone, and you should know this as he has several times been outside with an adult after dark. He's only sent back inside by the adults if they plan on going back to work or leaving the area without him, or if the situation has become too dangerous for him to be out even with an adult.

In the future if you would like things resolved on the forums, please restrain yourself from pestering a number of people via whispers during gameplay on the same topic. Doing so violates rules 11 and 12, found here: nasmara.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=rules&action=display&thread=4 We will either handle issues privately with you on a one on one basis, or work with you here in public, but not both.