Taking Suggestions! It's an ugly one.

[Akamhara]

Hello, hello. This is a taking suggestions from the community on what to do - as I'm all out of options!

The shard that I am on, we have a small weirdness with Defiants in Argent Glade. They come for the tavern, will stand around insulting Guardians all day - immediately lapse into brackets and OOC if you respond to them, claim to kill you and all your whatevers if you say "excuse me, are you aware you're a Bahmi and that barkeeper is a High Elf?" IC.

We've had demonic exorcisms of a Bahmi performed in the middle of the inn by a Guardian who then goes on to bracketrage about how her character is neutral, and how she can remove demons from people wherever.

We've got a High Elf werewolf who is pregnant by her Kelari boyfriend and who will immediately become bilious if you refer to the Kelari as... Kelari. Defiant. Eth in their company will immediately start going - this is before I've roleplayed with them - on how they could be Mathosians, which I'll grant them, they could! It's not likely though with the mutterings of "death to god-worshippers".

We've now moved up to this guild of nightmares announcing they are going to "take over" Argent Glade - and I am curious as to how anyone else would proceed in trying to explain that this simply will not work, lorewise, or without consent from a lot more people on our shard. I've spoken to their guild leader about it - because this guild is actually putting people off coming to AG - a lot are going to Ember Isle, Moonshade, or wherever they are not - and it's not a good sign of encouragement for new roleplayers on our shard, the first thing they say is a pair of non emoting defiants hopping around with planar shift in the bar going "I stab you". However since he plays one of the Bahmi who offer to cut off your head in the middle of the market square and claims to have paid off the guards, we're outta luck

So. Community. How would YOU change this? Also, this Defiant guild is considered to be the only guild for roleplayers if you are a Defiant, which the guild leader states with pride, but then he doesn't seem to understand what I mean by metagaming, godmodding, lore-smashing, or not emoting in smilies means. Halp.

[Remissus]

...Owch. And I thought Argent Glade was a den of drama and bad RP skills on Faeblight. You have my deepest sympathies, friend.

[Akamhara]

Now you can face the bads there with a sense of relief!

Honestly though, just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to improve the roleplay, since shunning is only leading to a strength to strength of impossibilities.

[BMEgal]

Ok, a couple questions/pointers for you:

1. Are you on a role-playing shard? If yes, then these guys are definitely NOT the best/only Defiant RP group available, and I can point you towards some other options if you're looking for Defiant-side interaction with intelligent people--including some who organize events for both factions to attend. If no, then is it feasible/preferable to move to a role-playing shard, where the RP will be of higher quality?

2. Are these people considered friends? If not, then feel free to just stop interacting with them. If so--then you've got an uphill battle ahead, should you choose to fight it.

3. You cannot control anyone else's RP...you can only control your own. If if these people are god-modding Mary Sue's with no respect for in-game lore, then there really isn't much you can do about changing their behavior except to stop giving them the attention they crave. Don't think of it as 'How do I fix their RP?' The short answer is: you can't fix their RP. Only they can fix it...assuming they even grow up enough to recognize that what they're doing is wrong.

However, there are options available to you regarding improving your role-play experience. You could organize or host some events of your own in a new location where this group can't troll you; you can research RP guilds to join on your shard that emphasize quality RP; if no such guilds exist, you can start your own guild that focuses on quality RP. If you have a group that you regularly RP with, schedule some activities among yourselves away from this Defiant group's usual hangout, like a wine-tasting party or a political debate or even a fishing outing.

Just a few thoughts that came to mind while reading your post...hope that helps a little bit, and hang in there!

[Akamhara]

Annnnnd the answers to all these are:

1. Yes, there's only one roleplaying shard on EU servers as well, so we're all thrown in together - I have found a couple of other people Defiant side, but everyone seems to automatically defer to this lot.

2. No, not friends at all, and in all likelihood we will stop responding as it has become farcical - it's just a shame to see a few sour it for so many and to give up a starter zone. I know it deters some new faces.

3. Agreed. We've made a start on open events, and will have more - we've also now had a couple of questions on "how to" do X, Y, or Z because at one point it was turning into Rift-does-Twilight due to lack of lore. It really is from the basics upwards on these questions - but it's going somewhere at least!

Thank you for the suggestions, I have been checking out the lore and roleplay forums already, and all of the posters on here have some fantastic ideas, and input.

[Myuriel]

We've dealt with a trolling presence in AG by Defiants on Faeblight. It has driven my group to seek other places to roleplay -- which is bad for the community, since AG happens to be the first place newcomer Guardian RPers tend to go.

I really wish Trion would up the guard levels and have them randomly patrol into the tavern. Or, move the placement of the wardstone so it could shoot into The Quill. I'm not anti-faction RP, but I do think that Argent Glade (where Guardians are lobbing bombs at any Defiant heads poking up out of the water down the road) is -not- the appropriate place for mixed-faction interactions.

Logically, wouldn't the guard step up their patrol of this area once word got out that Defiants were hanging about like it was their own home turf? This is not netural or contested territory, it's the heart of pro-Guardian land, and it should be openly Defiant free. Sneaking and lurking about as a Defiant is a-okay, but I wish we could put the brakes on Defiants openly walking about and pretending to be everyone's best friend.

It's just not so, not in Argent Glade.

Sadly, the best advice I can offer is to just move your roleplay elsewhere. This is an unfair recommendation, and I wish there was a better solution.

[Akamhara]

Well, I had a little snort this evening as one of them made the mistake of killing the porticulum NPC - which spawns level 52 porticulum-defenders, nyehehehe.