A lot of players have been asking me a couple of frequently asked questions lately, so I thought I would take the time to clarify those specific issues.
What do you mean my character can be any IC rank?
I've been trying to make this as clear as possible, but I guess I haven't been doing such a swell job of it. The easiest way to put this is: Your character can be any rank. For example, let's discuss the aforementioned Captain of the Guard. If this is the role you want your character to play, you need only come up with a plausible story to justify it, and ta-da! Your character is the Captain of the Guard. Now, the specifics of the position, such as being the Captain of House Haillenarte's guard, or perhaps the Captain of a lesser House vassaled to Haillenarte, isn't entirely up to you. Things like that will be determined on a first come, first serve basis - and NPCs count! So, let's say that Dwayne Johnson joins first wants his character, The Rock the Roegadyn, to be the Captain of the Guard to House Haillenarte, the rank is his. However, let's say that Heavensward introduces an NPC who is the Captain of the Guard to Haillenarte, then Dwayne Johnson will have to choose a different role. So, he chooses for the Rock the Roegadyn to be the Captain to vassal House Awesomesauce. Next, David Bautista joins and he wants his character, Drax the Au Ra Destroyer to also be Captain of the Guard. He'll have to choose a vassal House too, and a different one than Awesomesauce. Our forum will have a place for characters and their ranks to be cataloged so that this information is easily referenced.
So, I can choose my rank, meaning I can just be an Officer if I want to?
This is the one that seems to be confusing most people. Officer is an OOC rank. It is the rank of the player, not of the character. Everyone joins as a Patron, the standard rank. Officers are selected based on a number of criterion like leadership experience, attitude, and availability. And they're selected by me and a consensus of all Officers at the time. The purpose of an Officer is not to have authority over anyone, but to be a helping hand and in the event of OOC disputes, to help settle them. They also have access to the third page of the FC Bank, a place specifically reserved for valuable items and materials. The only way a Patron could gain access to anything on the third page of the Bank is to ask an Officer to withdraw it for them. This way we can have things that help everyone in big ways without worrying that access will be abused.
And your own character isn't IC in charge of the FC?
The answer to this is two-fold. The first part is to understand that House Haillenarte FC covers a wide array of characterizations - some characters will be vassal nobles beholden to House Haillenarte, others will be merchants that are employed by independent organizations but frequently do business with House Haillenarte, others will be inquisitors of the church who work with House Haillenarte, some will be mercenaries that work for their own mercenary companies but have been employed by House Haillenarte, so on and so forth. There's no real organization to be in charge of, and since no character may be an actual Haillenarte noble, no one can be in charge of Haillenarte itself. So, there's that.
The second part part is - no. My character wouldn't be anywhere near the top of anything, and I fully intend for him to keep to realistic stations that he happens on via RP. Even if that means he's hired as a tracker for some Haillenarte soldiers, and he stays a lowly tracker.
I can play a mercenary that's loyal to his own mercenary company, within the House Haillenarte FC? Like an FC within an FC?
Yes! Exactly! This is something we're really excited about. The ability for characters to tell their own stories won't be limited to simply narrating one's place within Haillenarte's structure, but to also expand and illustrate the surrounding structure of the character itself. So, let's go back to Dwayne Johnson. This time he wants The Rock the Roegadyn to be the Commander of the Awesomesauce Mercenary Company, who has been employed by House Haillenarte. He can build, rank, manage Awesomesauce Company however he wants, including recruiting players into House Haillenarte FC specifically to join Awesomesauce Company. If he wants, and his support grows large enough, we'll even give him his own section on the forums to manage Awesomesauce Company specific things. We cannot emphasize enough the freedom that will be granted to players to create and tell their own stories within the FC.
I hope this clarifies for anyone else who wants to ask these same questions. As more arise, I'll do my best to answer them!
What do you mean my character can be any IC rank?
I've been trying to make this as clear as possible, but I guess I haven't been doing such a swell job of it. The easiest way to put this is: Your character can be any rank. For example, let's discuss the aforementioned Captain of the Guard. If this is the role you want your character to play, you need only come up with a plausible story to justify it, and ta-da! Your character is the Captain of the Guard. Now, the specifics of the position, such as being the Captain of House Haillenarte's guard, or perhaps the Captain of a lesser House vassaled to Haillenarte, isn't entirely up to you. Things like that will be determined on a first come, first serve basis - and NPCs count! So, let's say that Dwayne Johnson joins first wants his character, The Rock the Roegadyn, to be the Captain of the Guard to House Haillenarte, the rank is his. However, let's say that Heavensward introduces an NPC who is the Captain of the Guard to Haillenarte, then Dwayne Johnson will have to choose a different role. So, he chooses for the Rock the Roegadyn to be the Captain to vassal House Awesomesauce. Next, David Bautista joins and he wants his character, Drax the Au Ra Destroyer to also be Captain of the Guard. He'll have to choose a vassal House too, and a different one than Awesomesauce. Our forum will have a place for characters and their ranks to be cataloged so that this information is easily referenced.
So, I can choose my rank, meaning I can just be an Officer if I want to?
This is the one that seems to be confusing most people. Officer is an OOC rank. It is the rank of the player, not of the character. Everyone joins as a Patron, the standard rank. Officers are selected based on a number of criterion like leadership experience, attitude, and availability. And they're selected by me and a consensus of all Officers at the time. The purpose of an Officer is not to have authority over anyone, but to be a helping hand and in the event of OOC disputes, to help settle them. They also have access to the third page of the FC Bank, a place specifically reserved for valuable items and materials. The only way a Patron could gain access to anything on the third page of the Bank is to ask an Officer to withdraw it for them. This way we can have things that help everyone in big ways without worrying that access will be abused.
And your own character isn't IC in charge of the FC?
The answer to this is two-fold. The first part is to understand that House Haillenarte FC covers a wide array of characterizations - some characters will be vassal nobles beholden to House Haillenarte, others will be merchants that are employed by independent organizations but frequently do business with House Haillenarte, others will be inquisitors of the church who work with House Haillenarte, some will be mercenaries that work for their own mercenary companies but have been employed by House Haillenarte, so on and so forth. There's no real organization to be in charge of, and since no character may be an actual Haillenarte noble, no one can be in charge of Haillenarte itself. So, there's that.
The second part part is - no. My character wouldn't be anywhere near the top of anything, and I fully intend for him to keep to realistic stations that he happens on via RP. Even if that means he's hired as a tracker for some Haillenarte soldiers, and he stays a lowly tracker.
I can play a mercenary that's loyal to his own mercenary company, within the House Haillenarte FC? Like an FC within an FC?
Yes! Exactly! This is something we're really excited about. The ability for characters to tell their own stories won't be limited to simply narrating one's place within Haillenarte's structure, but to also expand and illustrate the surrounding structure of the character itself. So, let's go back to Dwayne Johnson. This time he wants The Rock the Roegadyn to be the Commander of the Awesomesauce Mercenary Company, who has been employed by House Haillenarte. He can build, rank, manage Awesomesauce Company however he wants, including recruiting players into House Haillenarte FC specifically to join Awesomesauce Company. If he wants, and his support grows large enough, we'll even give him his own section on the forums to manage Awesomesauce Company specific things. We cannot emphasize enough the freedom that will be granted to players to create and tell their own stories within the FC.
I hope this clarifies for anyone else who wants to ask these same questions. As more arise, I'll do my best to answer them!
