OOC Info [OOC] In the Murder

[Evarista]

DUDE I LOVE THE CANINES! I do have one question if a Galatos wanted a Lark dog or vise versa how would they get them, since the families will not sell their dogs to each other?

Buy via a third party. But since the dogs are very iconic and symbolic of their families, a Galatos walking around with a Lark dog would send mixed signals to their own family members. Maybe even question their allegiance. Something to think about.

[Maya Lark]

Didn’t think about the third party idea. Hm very true, though I have to say a very beautiful write up done Prophet.

[Shainn]

Hey, anyone with a spoon want to jump in my thread: An Unexpected Spoon after my third post when Shainn discussed vers the spoon? Would anyone be interested?

[Prophet]

Members of one family would not want a dog from another.

Third party sales will be rare. This is why I said ALL dog purchases have to go through an ST. The whole concept is that these dogs are a status symbol. "Hey, we're connected." or "Yeah, I'm rich." Also, please know that I"m going to be picky about outsiders having one of these so make sure you have a good IC reason.

[Sayana]

So I've been seeing a lot of new NPCs being written up for Ravok (myself included), and I wanted to bring up a bit of a pet peeve that's been bugging me. Children NPCs, less than 15 or so, should not be experts in any field. They simply haven't lived long enough to reach that level. You might have the rare autistic or incredibly driven child/teen who has one skill in which they are passionate about, and thus have reached expert, but their personality would be slightly skewed to meet that.

Now in terms of competence, you might have a teen who is reasonably competent in one or two skills. It's definitely plausible. But if you look at NPCs who are 10 or less... would you really trust a young child to be competent in the desired field? Would you pay them to complete said skill? Or are they really just a child who hasn't matured enough?

One last point, I say this for NPCs and it does not apply to PCs. Why? Because PCs are meant to be exceptional people and characters. NPCs should not overwhelm your PCs unless they are fulfilling special roles (eg. Druvin etc.).

Alright, there's my little rant. I'm certainly no voice of authority, but I hope people will give a second thought to the skills they are assigning to make them feel realistic.

[Prophet]

That's a very good point, Sayana. For the Pavilion and Endrykas NPC creation thread, I made these rules:

NPCs under the age of 18 cannot exceed 40 skill points.
NPCs under the age of 12 cannot exceed 30 skill points and cannot have any competent skills.

Should they be applied to Ravok as well?

[Maya Lark]

Isn’t there a limit for children NPCs in the article or did I misread it? Mind you I was trying to think at 2:00 am doing the skills for the NPC crew I am working on

[Sayana]

Personally, the Endrykas rules look a little bit harsh and restrictive. Because you might be designing a mere orphan who knows nothing, an orphan who has had to live on the streets (and might have twice the number of survival skills), or a child of an influential family in which they might have a rigorous education.

I'd make the suggestion of:
Children under 12 - cannot have any competent skills and can only have a maximum of 5 skills.
Children between 12 and 18 - can have a maximum of 2 competent skills and 3 novice skills.


Another small pet peeve is regarding NPCs with a list of 20 different skills (I know I'm exaggerating). But it means that it's hard to focus on what the NPCs actually is like and what they specialize in. I think sometimes people do this in attempt to be thorough, but then you kind of lose focus.

[Maya Lark]

They are a little restrictive there, but there is just no place for orphans in Endrykas. I’m not saying they can’t be made by any means, but the way the pavilions are set up kinda prevents that from happening from what I have seen in the past. If the family was killed a different pavilion would take the child in so that it would survive in the Sea of Grass

[Sayana]

Oh and Maya, if you were working on those NPCs at 2am, then kudos to you. It's really great seeing more NPCs fleshing out Ravok. And I certainly don't want to sound like I'm berating you. Just trying to do a double check on realism.

Also, whatever rules get decided upon, it would be nice if they were referred to as 'guidelines' and make a mention that people are allowed to create NPCs that are in contrary to the guidelines, so long as they have good rationale for it. I don't want to restrict people, in general, especially when they are creating useful city NPCs, but I want people to remember to keep things realistic unless the NPC is an anomaly for some reason.