Guide to playing on TRON

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K.Kragh
Server Leader
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Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2022 5:50 pm

Guide to playing on TRON

Post by K.Kragh »

Guide to playing on TRON

In recent months we have had a huge influx of new players, and it is not lost on us that they are used to playing on very different style servers. In the first few months of the server’s life, we gave people a lot of advice on how to navigate in this world, but most of that information has drowned in our busy discord since then. I have therefore decided that is about time to write this guide that can help players with their expectations, and hopefully give them the confidence they need to start pursuing their character’s goals.

As mentioned in the server philosophy, TRON is a dynamic and player driven world. Unlike other servers, we are not playing in a fixed and controlled setting. From the day the server opened, the timeline was able to divert, and history could be rewritten. New kingdoms or even empires can be forged, old and powerful bloodlines can be destroyed, and new gods can emerge, either via player actions, or by player characters ascending. There are no predetermined limits to what you can achieve with your character.

These awesome opportunities should not give players reason to optimistically and naively believe that they are destined to succeed. The world of TRON is a dangerous and ambitious world. Players will not only be competing with other players for attention and power, but also with the NPC’s. The DMs will play the NPCs as if they were real people with their own goals and motivations. Sometimes this has confused players, because they think that the DM in question wants to try and sabotage their goals – but that is never the case! We are simply portraying an NPC that has goals or ambitions that clash with that of the player’s.

This also means that it is not predestined who has the power. While we welcome powerful characters that has managed to become Kings, Lords, powerful traders or leaders of military companies, these positions can also be retaken and held by NPC’s if they manage to position themselves there.

To get the full experience out of playing on TRON, it is vital that players are driven by their own ambitions and goals, and takes initiative to make these come true. The DMs primary responsibility is not to entertain the players and create a story for them – on the contrary – their primary responsibility is help further stories and make the world come alive and feel realistic. They do this by focusing on different styles of events. My primary responsibility for example is to make the grand narratives come alive and make the political scene in and around Neverwinter come alive. My job is not to involve the player’s characters, but to create a setting in which the players can decide to involve themselves, and work towards achieving the goals of these characters. It is a central philosophical tenant of TRON that it is the players’ own responsibility to seek out plot involvement. We want to create and awesome and challenging stories together with the players, rather than tell them –to- the players.

This is quite different from what many are used to, and I have noticed that a lot of players are hesitant to be “pushy” and reach out to work towards their goals. This is a mistake. We welcome such initiative, the server depends on it. TRON will only be a long term success and tell the most amazing of stories if it comes from the initiative of the players.

Now I realise that this does not come natural to a lot of people. Some are simply more comfortable playing characters that are not too central to the story – but that is great and welcomed as well. These characters are part of what makes the world come alive, and feel meaningful. In their deaths they become heroes, villains and help foster the dynamic environment that we want to play in. But some players want more, but struggles to achieve this. For them I would like to offer some concrete advice that might be helpful to them:

1) If you have specific goals and ambitions with your character, make sure to write these down as short and as precisely as you can. Then send them to me, or to another DM, so that we can make notes of it.

2) Reach out to a DM that you think is a good match for your ambitions. If you are working towards seizing the throne, reach out to me. If you want to climb the ranks and become a leader in the Bjornheim northerner styled community (former West Harbour), reach out to DM Gaiagirl, etc. Let them know what your intentions are, and what your first steps are towards achieving your goal.

3) Do not hesitate to contact a DM about your goals if you have no idea how to get started on them. DMs are not allowed to tell you what to do, and how to go about it to succeed, but they are allowed to give you some general advice and some ideas. It will then be up to you to decide if you want to follow them or not – maybe they inspired another great idea that none of us had thought about. Be creative!

4) Be persistent, and patient. Things move slowly, and stuff takes time. Brinsen did not take the throne and became King swiftly. It took him half a year of play time, in which he carefully positioned himself in a way that gained him increasing support from both players, and some NPC’s (others had him as their archenemy). And on top of this, he had to strike just when the situation was right. Be prepared to fail several times before you succeed. Sometimes you are unlucky. Sometimes your actions were ill advised, maybe for reasons unknown to you. Learn from your mistakes, and keep at it. Nothing ever comes easy, and neither does it on TRON – but that makes it that much more satisfying when you succeed.

5) DMs are chosen on TRON primarily because of their talents as role-players, and their proven abilities to navigate this style of server, and involve other players in their ambitions and awesome playstyle.
- Rebel, the handsome specimen of a man that plays Brinsen, the mercenary, turned Slumlord, Turned Hand of the King, Turned King – was chosen as the server’s first DM because of his excellent ability to gain the support of other player characters, and involve them in his ambitions. It was this very ability to involve other players in his play that allowed him to outmanoeuvre my NPC Lord at the great Council that elected the next King. You will notice that Rebel is not doing many DM events. The primary reason for this is because his character has reached a power level, being the King, where I do not allow him too much DM freedom, but instead expect him to create story lines with his character. Do not mistake this for him being guaranteed success though. I welcome all attempts to coup him and take over the throne, and many of my NPC’s are working actively towards it. So far the players I have involved has betrayed me, and been faithful to him – but that is not because he is predestined to succeed.
- DM Bonkers was chosen because of his amazing play with Alfred Thistle, turned Bane’s Chosen after sitting his Throne, risking perma death, later the conqueror of Tyrant’s Bastion, then Lord of Neverwinter after he kneeled for the old King Henry of House Bailey.
- DM Gaiagirl was chosen after half a year of excellent roleplay, where she, together with the character Yamish (Riggz Raggz / Whatevr who is dearly missed), became custodians of the destroyed Neverwinter Library, restored it, and made it a plot centric area.

DMs on this server are chosen because they are great examples of how one should play on this server to maximize its potential. They are not expected to give up their characters upon becoming DMs. On the contrary, they are expected to continue lead by example. If you want to achieve the awesome things they have achieved, engage with them, learn from them, and be inspired by them. And most importantly – do not believe for a second that their characters are somehow protected because they are DMs – they are not. Their characters can be the victims of a coup, they can be killed and they can be betrayed by groups of players organising against them. If you want to take over a position they hold – start scheming, or get yourself in a position where you are a natural heir one someone else one day defeat them.

6) TRON utilizes plot characters to help tell stories when we do not believe that a character can be played to a satisfying degree by a DM. Throughout the server history, we have had a couple of those. Some might remember Bailey, who turned out to be the bastard daughter of the old King Henry, and who gave birth to the only blood heir of the old King before she died. The most notable one we have now, is played by the amazing roleplayer Kari/Shadowfox, who has been playing Lady Henriette of House Gullenberg, the NPC that was offered to the King as part of an alliance with a powerful noble house in the south. She has spent the past month giving me plenty of headaches, and outmanoeuvring my NPC’s ambitions. If you would like to one day play a cool Plot Character, the way to do so, is by proving your abilities to play your character, rather than your RL personality, and do it in a way that creates stories and player interactions even when no DMs are around.

7) And lastly, remember that we are all grown up people with real life, kids, jobs and other obligations. We depend on a community in which we give people the benefit of doubt, in which we have charitable interpretations of their intentions when we are in doubt, and where we show understanding for each other’s busy real lives outside of the game. This often means that we are not always able to swiftly able to schedule advances in stories. But do not despair. Even if time zones and work schedules makes your playing time a challenge, a lot of the progress with a DM can be done without them being present. By sending them short and well formulated PMs, with a few screenshots when appropriate, you can keep them in the loop about your character’s advances.

So go have some fun, you do not need DMs to start working towards your goals, you can do that with other players, by RPing responsibly, and then involving DMs when needed. TRON is your sandbox and your playground, but only if you yourself make it so, do not expect other players nor the DMs to do it for you – but they can do it with you.

Thank you for a fun first 13 months – may the next year be as fun as the first, and hopefully this guide will help inspire a lot of newer players to get their hands dirty and start challenging the current powerful players – maybe some of our next DMs are among you –I hope so!
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K.Kragh
Server Leader