(11-01-2013, 02:51 PM)K Wrote:(11-01-2013, 02:40 PM)Siobhain Wrote:(11-01-2013, 02:14 PM)Theodric Ironheart Wrote: It's pretty questionable to role-play one's character as being royalty. It doesn't matter if it's a huge secret either. In fact, if you're unlikely to ever reveal something like that to begin with it seems rather redundant to tack it on as a potential plot hook in the first place.
I saw a lot of role-players try to do something similar in WoW as well. No role-player is special enough to be able to create an entire country to justify their character's existence. Why not simply work with the setting as it is currently depicted instead of trying to add various 'hidden' locations that don't even exist as far the canon lore is concerned?
The majority of WoW nobility I ever saw were humans or Blood Elves. Blood Elves sort of kind of make sense of you take in the Convocation of Silvermoon-- as at least five of the houses were unnamed so far as I've ever found. One large effort on Ravenholdt was to re-establish seven houses (not including Sunstrider or Drathir) in place of the seven that had fallen in RP. It was done entirely through roleplay and for a while it worked out really nicely, consolidating smaller houses into larger one and generally using political marriage and manipulation to get things combed out.
I never played on Ravenholdt, so I can't speak for that, but we had dozens of Sin'Dorei 'noble houses' on Moon Guard... and they were all awful. The idea itself isn't bad, in theory. But you're taking a major lore component into the hands of players at that point. Especially if you're going to present your house with having any sort of merit that's to be respected or acknowledged ICly.
I think it can be done, I think it can be done well, again in theory. But you have to have the drive, the ambition, the organization, and perhaps most importantly the lore knowledge to pull it off and run a respectable establishment.
Standing in bars all day playing spin-the-bottle is not what nobles do, and organizing whole houses around that perception is even worse. And that's what they all were. In fact, that's all any 'noble' type RP I've ever seen, really bad played up 'Victorian Playboy' types. Thus, my long running apprehension.
I completely understand your point and I've heard horror stories of MG's hack at 'nobility'. I saw the same thing happen on Wyrmrest Accord and honestly when Ravenholdt began to deteriorate, it happened there too. I'll list my issues with poorly-done noble houses in a moment but on Ravenholdt there was organization. The cornerstone to the whole thing was two large Sin'dorei houses run by an OOCly married couple. One ran one house and his spouse led the other. Their conflict and their openness to bring other houses into the 'fray' provided the building blocks.
More, and here's my stance of noble houses, they fulfilled what I consider to be one of the most IMPORTANT parts of running a house-- GIVING YOUR MEMBERS SOME STORY. Too often do I see a clique of people who are all ICly connected or related expecting all their roster to simply support their story. They commonly walk around with their posses who exist, seemingly, only to credit their 'power' or 'status'. In our house at least, each person who was brought into the fold was given plenty of attention. Our officers turned us, trained us, and stayed with us. Our guards actually did their jobs and spent much time talking and training amongst themselves. Our diplomats lived endangered lives, we had spies, infiltrators, scape goats-- no one was simply a servant with no other purpose except to add one more to the roster.
We had goals, rivals, and conflict. Nothing was swept under the rug simply because a member who got involved with an issue was 'too low rank to notice'. I mean when it really boils down to it, it's RP. For the nobles, you should have some sway and notoriety. You're not going to get that by trying to accumulate as many RPers as possible then neglecting them or focusing solely on your own story.
The revival of the Convocation of Silvermoon made no real efforts to try to twist the actual lore. No one was trying to dethrone Lor'themar, no one was trying to usurp the Horde or pretended that the united 'power' of the group could accomplish such a feat on behalf of the whole of their people. What they did was fill their niche-- whatever job they did that made them a noble house, they continued to do.
The conflicts that arose were often two wealthy houses having an issue over territory or jobs that they wanted to fill that some other group wanted as well. The IC decisions they made and topics they discussed affected the united houses as a whole, and perhaps the 'retainer-houses' that were allied with them, but they didn't try and control NPCs. If, say, a war broke out on their doorstep (there were huge non-Elf groups like the Shadowtusk Clan which was a giant Troll guild who hated belfs and loved to start issues that could turn into full scale blood-sport, or evil guilds such as the Knights of the Icy Blade who readied themselves to attack the living houses eventually), they'd use that Convocation to persuade the other houses to aid the effort, throwing whatever accumulated weight they had around and pulling all the ties they'd forged.
 Another fun part of it was the 'Shadow War'-- all members of all houses and even non-Elf houses were held to the single important rule 'No fighting in the cities'. The NPC guards would no doubt take you and put you away. Rather than testing that rule and saying 'Oh well that Sentinel just ran by me and didn't do anything' people honored it and took it a step further to the Shadow War. They worked in manipulation, kidnapping, subterfuge, and there were people in the houses whose sole purpose was to do the dirty work and keep the reputation of the house pristine. It's almost unfathomable now-- people not being called on their guild tags simply because they're floating over their head or recognized because of their name.
 I don't know. All the memories and the work and how well things went for quite some time still leaves a nice big place in my heart for nobles and noble houses that are done well. I always feel a little sad for an aspiring crime-lord or a noble who doesn't have anyone to beef up their reputation but I feel it's something that can be accomplished in character. I certainly don't want to see nobility demonized OOCly by people who assume everyone who RPs nobility is going to do so poorly and they don't -deserve- to RP a noble character-- but I know the vast majority if not the entirety of the RPC doesn't feel that way because of the general open-mindedness I find here.
Someday I'd be happy to have Siobhain swear her loyalty to some noble or another if their views were in line with her own. But chances are, just because of the character type, it'd be far more likely to see her connected to some type of militia or school.
*On another note, I yearn to see some large scale criminal coalition in Ul'dah filling different niches that are connected and work together. Similarly, I'd enjoy, I think, seeing a few nobles grouped up and doing noble things together. I'd like to see the dynamic of different nobles and how they interact with each other despite their different origins as well as non-nobles interacting with them. *dreamy sigh*
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