DM attention

[Driderman]

Now, I've been playing on and off on the server for some months now and although it is my impression that the server has a most excellent and dedicated DM-crew, it saddens me to say that I have rarely experienced any sort of attention from said DMs.
Of course, it's a dirty and busy job being a DM and I do appreciate the work you all do, but it seems to me that it is mainly, if not almost solely, the higher-level longtime players who get DM attention.
Yes, these folks are probably more experienced in terms of storymaking and roleplaying and I'm sure that since you guys have been playing with each other for several years ( ) it's much easier for you to create vivid stories and interesting rp with each other than with new players.
BUT:
The excellence of the server is not solely due to a brilliant DM-team but also the players, new as well as old. And playing with the newbies, creating low-level quests or just causing a bit of NPC interaction will probably go a long way in integrating us new ones much more seamlessly into the setting.

Now, you might take this as critique, but I do sincerely hope you take it as constructive critique. I love this server and intend to play both here and on the NWN2 module as well and I appreciate the work the DMs and players put into it.
But this isn't the first time a new player has aired concerns about the DMs focusing their DM-actions mainly on the long-time players...

At any rate, I hope you'll take my little comment here to heart and if anybody has something to say to disprove or confirm my postulation, please add it.
After all, if I'm not right I'd like to know it

[DM the Usurper]

it's luck of the draw dude, through and through. I have no rhyme or reason behind my DM madness. I go to my list of characters to my right and work my way down. If something flicks a bit of creativity or idea from what is happening I act, if not I might do a little something and move on. But I will tell you this...sometimes we do things very subtle that you might not know it was from a DM, which is intended.

[Aodhan the Unusual]

Words of advice from one who started on the players side... Start your own plots and see what happens. Unless you're one of those sugar sweet goody two-shoes, that gets along with EVERYone, you can start up your own stories. Are you a merchant who's trying to muscle away the competition? Perhaps an andventurer that's gotten so tired of the haughtiness of elves that he's decided to try and wipe them off the face of the planet? Or maybe you're just so dang curious, you have to go everywhere to try and find out what little interesting tid-bits you can?

If you start something, who knows what will happen? ;D

[Quadhund/Greenhouse]

With as many new players these days it isn't surprising that the DM interaction feels few and far between. Here is my peice of advice, DMs arent the only ones that can give you quests and rewards. Similar to what aodhan said, player quests can be just as exciting and more frequent. Find a man wearing black with a red beard, he always has work for those that are willing.

[Driderman]

abdul75 said:

I go to my list of characters to my right and work my way down.

Guess all my future character names will start with 'A', then ;D

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

Also Driderman, I believe you are from Denmark? This puts you in an unfortunate timezone for DM interaction. Most of our DM's are US based. We have been looking for a couple of European DM's, but (personally) I haven't had much time to devote to this recently. I will make a post that we are looking for a couple of European time zoned DM's.

We do try and devote as much time to each player as possible. With so many new faces sometimes we need to look around and see who is going to stick around. It's certainly nothing personal.

Anyway, I hope you do realize that we do our best.

[Driderman]

I certainly do realize you do your best and it is appreciated, just wanted to give you a heads-up of sorts

This is by far the best server I've ever played on and I have been playing NWN online for several years.

I'd offer up myself as a DM, except I don't really have any experience on that side of the toolset ( and besides, I assume you pick the ones you want, not the ones that volunteer )

[DM Richard (Retired)]

I've played NWN since it came out. I have to say my best times were events another player and I created for ourselves.

If the only way you will enjoy NWN is through DM involvement then you will not enjoy NWN. There will always be more players than DM's and the DM's need time to play also.

The player base here has the ability to make FRC a great experience for each other. The only people who will get bored will be those that don't interact with others. If you find a DM's attention on you great! But be sure to involve yourself in things so that you don't need the attention.

[Helgrin Granitesoul]

My two bits -

"but it seems to me that it is mainly, if not almost solely, the higher-level longtime players who get DM attention."

I just flat out disagree with this. I have seen and been a part of DM interact even as a low level character. It isn't always some huge quest or anything. The best one was seeing a person give the necklace to Hashard and then someone making a comment about him always losing that thing. Hashard all of a sudden admits he throws it away but the wife makes him go get it. Sometimes that is all it takes to make a normal day more than memorable.

Don't just click on the merchant or the priest. Talk to them like they were PC's. Ya never know when they are going to talk back and where it might lead. Don't always wait for the DM's to come out of the blue for something for you to do. Giving them an excuse is sometimes the best thing you can do.

[Munroe]

richard said:

I've played NWN since it came out. I have to say my best times were events another player and I created for ourselves.

If the only way you will enjoy NWN is through DM involvement then you will not enjoy NWN. There will always be more players than DM's and the DM's need time to play also.

The player base here has the ability to make FRC a great experience for each other. The only people who will get bored will be those that don't interact with others. If you find a DM's attention on you great! But be sure to involve yourself in things so that you don't need the attention.

I worry this will sound argumentative but here it is anyway.

I have also played NWN since it came out (pre-order ) and the thing that has really made the game for me is DM interaction. It is my honest opinion that DM interaction is just not very heavy here on FRC. (No offense intended to those DMs who are active.) That's one reason I DM as much as I do, which I think is a moderate amount. The other reason is because I get bored as a player, because most of the player-driven plots are not things my characters would be involved in, either because it doesn't go with their character concept or because they are too weak to be useful to the other characters. Well, and a lot of the player-driven plots just don't interest me at all.

FRC is a wonderful module with a number of DMs, however most of those DMs spend at least as much time playing their characters as DMing. That wouldn't be a problem--because most DMs spend a good deal of time on both sides of the fence--except that when DMing, most time is spent policing the module rather than running campaigns. The module must be policed and rules enforced or we'd have a half-dozen drow player characters living in Isinhold, but the problem is that more enforcement is done than questing. The DMs weed-out potential problems but in the meantime the campaign world stagnates.

I'm not sure what the solution is except to recruit more DMs. I know a few people who would make excellent candidates but unfortunately they don't play here.

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

We will be recruiting some new DM's soon. Until then, I am going to just lock this baby up.