Orderites-Or the lack of

[Eldar]

Because of the lack of any active orderites at all at the moment, would it be possible to-temporarily at least, reconsider (selectively at least) the policy about mages having alts in the order? A great many players, particularly the experienced ones, have one or more mages, and while they love playing an orderite, simply enjoy playing a mage more, or were unaware of the policy when they created their mage.

Yet, given the chance, several of the people currently playing mages would surely create orderites, and frankly, fill the ranks of a guild which is, at the moment effectively nonexistent in terms of activity. Both GL's are currently inactive, and there are absolutely no active inquisitors or priests to cover or take over for them either.

And frankly, those types of characters are absolutely neccesary for the MuD. Whether by providing benedictions, mass, confession, or services to the poor. Not to mention inquisitors rooting our heresy and magery wherever it is to be found. Not to mention the fact that if a mage is caught, an orderite of some sort is necessary to prepare them for the pyre.

And also, inquisitors provide an undertone of fear whenever they are in a scene that creates very, very interesting rp. Not to mention hauling people in for reviews of faith and other great fun.

Just my two cents really, feel free to chip in with your own comments and ideas.

[Geras]

I've done the whole mage-and-orderite at the same time before and I didn't find it the end of the world, but I think it takes something away from the fun of the game when you are both the cat and the mouse.

[Leech]

And when the Orderite can't find any mages because all Orderites play mages, and they can't very well kill their own alts?

I don't like being provided chances for cross-over. It's already insanely easy for people to plan things in IM that fall under pseudo-twinking, and I wouldn't have it be easier.

Kinda like driving, I roleplay defensively. I don't trust people, I guess?

[Eldar]

Maybe just prevent them from being inquisitors and limit them to priests and possible just non-gl positions? Because I kindof feel that the total lack of an order is worse than a low amount of ooc bleed to the mages. Espeically when you consider mage attacks, which DO happen on a not completely uncommon basis IC. A priest is, at the least, very helpful for that, and the follow up rp that comes with it.

[Geras]

There seems to be at least 2 orderites right now though, as their GL positions are filled. Census is showing me 6 but that has random noise.

[Eldar]

Do a who is neither of them is at all active.

[Geras]

They might have fallen inactive this week, but they wouldn't still be in their positions if this was the norm. More Orderites would be nice for sure, but do we really need to change these rules? I personally prefer it when the cats and mice aren't played by the same person.

[Eldar]

Yeah that's true. And looking a bit more closely, they have logged on, even if they havn't been on for long or engaged in any actual rp. Regardless though, another orderite or two really wouldn't hurt the dynamics of the MuD. Especially considering the fact that it just doesn't really make IC sense for the cardinal to be taking care of all the priestly duties himself, and to a lesser degree with the grand inquisitor and the hunting of mages.

Perhaps merely opening up the priest position to application from current mages to increase the pool from which people can apply from instead? Because that application has been there for quite a while without any new priests showing up.

[Temi]

Orderites can have mages. They just can't have manus members. Which makes sense because that, by default, involves knowing about several other mages rather than just themself. A number of previous times before it hasn't been any issue, but a number of times it has been an issue as well. It's not perfect, but it reduces awkward situations for those involved.

[Applesauce]

They might have fallen inactive this week, but they wouldn't still be in their positions if this was the norm. More Orderites would be nice for sure, but do we really need to change these rules? I personally prefer it when the cats and mice aren't played by the same person.

As one of the (active) Orderites in question, I appreciate and agree with all of the above. Yes the Order GLs are around, yes we need more Orderites, and yes it has historically worked better when mages are not also Inquisitors/Knights. The pbase is just not big enough to avoid being assigned to chase yourself if you're active in both roles. Possibly due to this thread, or possibly just good timing, there have been new Order seekers so maybe things will move in a better direction.

I often dip in and out of "RP Active" despite being online and available 5+ days a week. I'm easy to stumble across ICly, and often people do approach for RP. If I get more mail than in-person RP for a while, then I'm not "RP Active" even though I'm clearly involved and moving stories forward. I don't really pay attention to whether or not the code says I'm playing; my focus is being consistently available, fast to respond to pboard/mail, and making sure I'm not the bottleneck for anyone else's RP.

That said, I do have plans to be more visibly active, but it's hard without PC support. Without getting too deep into the IC situation on an OOC medium, there are three factions that should be 100% behind the Order, and for a long time they have all RPed ignoring the Order at best, or opposing it at worst. It's been discussed ICly amongst Orderites, but there's just not anyone physically able to enforce a solution at this time.

Ultimately we all have to crap or get off the pot, so regardless of how much support the Order does or does not attain in the near future, I plan to go ahead and pretend that we're as strong as Theme says we are. Worst case, hopefully it will at least expose the IC problems to a wider audience so they can be addressed for future GLs.