I am conflicted. There is a larger issue that rick is touching on here in the hey elorii thread and that's the meta activity of players having knowledge that they share on a selective basis. in this case it was shared between players of the same race.

I think that is a huge negative play experience for people not in the know, particularly when players are rude to other players. I feel this as having a fairly significant impact on attracting and retaining new players.

And I don't want to single out the Elorii here, its happened before with other groups, all the way back through the 3rd edition campaign, and it will continue to happen, because that is the nature of the game we play.

Understandably, Characters are going to be backstabbing, thieving, jerk faces to each other under certain circumstances, but the players shouldn't be.

So instead, I'm going to ask everyone to have a bit more consideration of their fellow players, because what goes around will come back around eventually, its one thing to win, its quite another thing to screw over other players.

I'm under the opinion that is the nature of the game. There are so many factions and groups and etc that the are going to be secrets held. There are going to be things that one group knows and my not tell for a long time or ever. Every group has an agenda and motives and holding secrets close helps prevent knowledge of goal clashing.

@Josh: how does one back stab someone's character but not them? Or vice versa?

New players : I will say LARPs leave a little of a bad taste in the mouths of new players. Lack of lore and knowledge, newer players feel left out, overwhelmed and out maneuvered. I've had players say they felt like vets were being rude to them for not being in the know. I feel like I haven't done anything to make any other elorii feel that way, but I don't know. As per non - elorii, in the larps I try to pry info out of anyone and everyone.

I totally have an incharacter voice and an out of character voice. Its very easy to mix those up, but its usually very obvious when Delbert does something, and when Josh does something.

when players and characters don't have an obvious line between them it can cause misunderstandings. as an example of this I recall someone at a larp, turning to look at my name tag, and said to me (rudely), "I'm not talking to you." and then went off. I was fairly put off by this.

Conversely, at the Larp where the Sean Molley was playing the Ymandrake, I made it a point to say, "I'm not talking to you IC, but hey how ya doin?" and I recall saying that to someone as Delbert, but I forget why.

Devin I'm not sure how to say this politely but make sure my message comes across clearly. I'm certainly going to try, but feel free to call me to task if i don't ( or anyone else ).

Devin your character is a Racist, in this game that's is not intrinsically bad, and makes sense. However a racially motivated agenda that has a negative impact on other characters of other races is going to piss off the players of those characters.

I think in part this is because, Devin, you and your character are inseparable in the eyes of the person who's character just got condemned to death. An additional part of that is the players character that just died, is part of them in some fashion, and they are looking to blame someone.

Yeah its just a game, but its just a game that we spent a significant portion of our personal resources to play(for a variety of different reasons) and a character is usually representative of one person spending time and effort, and created some attachment, if a character actually Dies watch and you can see the classical stages of grief happen. One of those stages is blame.

I think I said it at the time, but the problem I had with that particular BI is that the deaths were meaningless in the large scope of things, I couldn't even tell you who died at this point. (there is a whole separate discussion on that topic if we want to have it again please do it in a separate thread)


*Note the term Racist is an emotional word, and should be looked at in context of the game.

I agree, that isn't a bad thing in Arcanis. I haven't met an Arcanis player character that wasn't a little racist.

Delbert and Vaerdos do need to get together at some point. I do so little playing most people don't realize my character isn't a kill all the vals kind of guy. Vaerdos is a racist, but he's not Arii and doesn't hate humanity or vals. He's a devote Knight of the Order of the Twelve Oaks and an even more devote member Twilight Bough. But I'm sure Delbert is too.

Oh, The Twilight Bough: taking humans and making them into an Elorii army, and subverting the worship of the Pantheon of man in favour of Elemental Worship.

I think he and Haakon need to talk

All good points Josh. I don't have an anti-human agenda, just a pro elorii one. It just wasn't my intention at all to piss anyone off or worsen elorii - everyone else relations. And again, I'm sorry if I put anyone off by anything I, or another elorii did.

ArcaniCon was the most fun I've ever had at a LARP. I, as an elorii character, I actually got to participate. Something I'm sure I won't get a lot of chances to do. I thought things would be better at the Origin's 12 LARP, with the whole not working for anyone thing, but no one wants/needs anything from the elorii. And that general paranoia and tension, leads most to not want the elorii to get anything by default. Again, I just feel like if this were 1 human nation instead of the elorii vs all, no one would bat an eye. If Canceri was playable, everyone would be like, "Whatever, they're from Canceri. I expect it." My biggest thing is that if you want to chastise Vaerdos or me (Devin) in that light, go ahead if I've unintentionally hurt you, but don't condemn or shun all the elorii.

I guess in player terms, yeah. Either way we wouldn't be dealing with the elemental again in adventures. In universe terms, the threat has been permanently removed, at least until Henry says so. And I thought it was pretty cool and epic. I love their monument, but there is something I wish Tony would do for those characters....

Lol. Humans and vals have good in them, just like some elorii have bad, they just need guidance.

Haakon should talk to all the PoM players that have let me Benediction of the Gods them.

Probably

I would love to play Haakon as more of a hard-ass, but alas that does not make friends unless you have a VERY specific table. As such, Haakon is generally easy going in terms of Holy Judges of Nier. He is fine with Elorii worshiping their Gods, and will even accept a blessing from them in the spirit that it was intended, but he doesn't look kindly to those trying to pull the "Children of the Gods" away from the Pantheon. The various Churches of Man he accepts but believes the Mother Church to be the right church, but he does equate humans worshiping Elementals or even Belisarda as being the same as them worshiping an Infernal Lord, as in both cases it risks their souls when they go to Beltine's Cauldron. For Elorii and Ss'ressen, they have their own deities and their souls don't go to the Cauldron, so their affairs (and possible damnation) is their own affair, but keep away from the Humans

I think a pinch of moderation goes a long way. When/how information that starts out as private gets transmitted to a wider audience is a matter of art. Some things I've learned is: ONE-the story eventually comes out. Always. And TWO-players have really long memories when someone thoughtlessly hurts their play experience. Just about the only 2 ways you can play a Role Playing Game "wrong" are when you are not enjoying yourself and when other people around you are enjoying the game less due to your presence.

If you try to be mindful of other peoples experiences, I think most things work themselves out.

I have met a variety of characters who don't give out their real names to the other party members. And have watched information about private discoveries trickle out. I am reminded a little of the the old living campaign character Grutan who was played by a guy named Jeffrey. Grutan started out as a Mourner and then tried to get the word out that he thought they were tools of the Silence...along with other issues that seemed important to him at the time. Grutan did everything "passionately" and was always convinced he was doing the right thing, even when it was suggested that what he was doing was 180 degrees from what he was doing 2 months ago. Grutan also managed to get himself hunted for his trouble and apparently made a habit of lying about his name when sitting down at tables with other players. Some of these behaviors might have been problematic, but I have never heard anyone tell me they somehow wished the character of Grutan (much less Jeffrey) was absent from the story-line.

The game has secret societies, some mysterious special characters (soon to be more after the kickstarter), ancient grudges, differing religions, rival nations and secrets that only slowly unfold. You shouldn't expect every character (or player) to make full disclosure. You should have a reasonable expectation that all players will actively work together to make tables function even as their characters bicker..