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PAXLAIR - July 10, 1999 - Tycho Veg, Chancellor
PaxLair Citizens Initiates Stone | 
PaxLair Citizens Stone |
Tycho, Chancellor of PaxLair |
This article was authored by Tycho Veg, Chancellor of PaxLair, with
additions by Winfield, Mayor of PaxLair, and Shen, Chancellor of PaxLair.
We are proposing a restructuring of the PaxLair citizen stone. The
restructuring will involve the creation of two stones: One for those wishing
to become a citizen of PaxLair and another for the accepted citizens. The
intent of these changes is to enhance the role-playing in the town of
PaxLair, give the people dedicated to role-playing recognition in other
towns and throughout the realm, and still allow those interested in PaxLair
to become a part of it in as natural a way as we can.
There are two important reasons for restructuring the use of the
PaxLair citizen stone (and with it the structure of the town a bit).
First, the citizen stone itself is in need of
updating. There are several people on the stone whom have rarely been seen
in town---some were in PaxLair only long enough to get added to the stone,
then have disappeared. We need to clear the defunct members from the
citizen stone and put newer ideas in place, which will give PaxLair a
larger sense of community and role-playing.
A Knighting Ceremony in PaxLair |
Second, PaxLair itself needs to place more emphasis on
role-playing. While the town is open to all, role-players and
non-role-players alike, one of the stated goals of the town is to
facilitate role-playing. Such a goal can be better realized with a readily
identifiable group of players, who engage in and encourage role-playing on
a daily basis. The PaxLair citizen stone is one way to identify these
dedicated "town" role-players, along with other PaxLair associated "group
stones".
A long-term goal of this reorganization is to bring the town of PaxLair
to life. Buildings like the twin towers, the taverns and the marketplace
can give a town a physical presence, but to give the town an emotional
presence, we need active role-playing citizens. Imagine the following
scenario:
A newcomer to town approaches the city limits. He is greeted by a
slightly grumpy man on patrol duty, who has clearly not had enough
sleep: a little unfriendly, but civil, he directs the visitor to the
twin towers, and to seek out Chancellor Tycho Veg, or Shen, or Mystarr,
or any citizen, to learn a little more about the city. As he makes his
way through the streets, our newcomer hears the distant sound of a
blacksmith's hammer: as he continues, the sound grows steadily louder,
until he sees a large man, covered in grease and sweat, hard at work. He
is about to greet the smith, but at the last moment thinks better of
disturbing a man so clearly hard at work, and who is also so clearly
holding a very heavy hammer…
Mayor Winfield |
The newcomer passes on, but makes a note to come back another time to
make the acquaintance of the resident iron-worker. A few private
buildings later, the twin towers loom up: the dweomer of magic fills the
air as an apprentice does battle with a summoned fire elemental, with
two senior mages watching and noting the apprentice's technique, ready
to heal should the wizard in training find himself in trouble. A simple
man, unaccustomed to things magical, our visitor gives the tower a wide
berth, heading round it and towards the second tower, now visible
through the mist of the early morning. He spies a man, with a long white
beard and carrying a walking staff, coming down the steps. Could that be
Mayor Winfield himself? Our visitor adjusts his cap, takes a deep
breath, and steps forward to introduce himself…
The PaxLair citizen stone will help identify and unify those
individuals interested in being a part of the town of PaxLair---those who
would like to help make this scenario a reality.
Yet, the PaxLair citizen stone should be explained a bit to keep it in
perspective for all who come to PaxLair. Many role-play in PaxLair from
various groups and guilds, and perhaps more role-play as individuals. The
citizen stone grants an opportunity mainly for the individual role-players
to become associated with the town in a public way, and with some "role"
in mind. We recognize many individuals are not willing to leave their own
guild stones to become an official or "recognized" role-player in PaxLair
and leaving one's roots or family is not a requirement to participate in
PaxLair. In the future, we will venture to offer a larger framework to
recognize those who are "citizens" of PaxLair but not listed on the
citizen or group stones. For now, we only focus on the citizen stones
themselves.
PaxLair Library |
The reorganization of the PaxLair citizen stone should achieve these
goals:
- Raise role-playing within PaxLair to a high level, then sustain at
that level.
- Identify those interested in role-playing in and around PaxLair.
- Allow people interested in PaxLair to become involved quickly.
- Preserve the integrity of guild warfare for role-playing purposes.
The restructured PaxLair citizenship system
In broad terms, the reorganization will be achieved by have two stones
for the PaxLair town proper: the PaxLair citizen stone (Pax) and the
PaxLair initiates stone (PxI).
The PaxLair citizen stone will be strictly for role-playing---its
members will be considered the full citizens of PaxLair. Those on the Pax
citizen stone will be expected to remain in-character at all times,
provide a written character history (to be posted at the PaxLair website),
and to assist the Initiates in their transition to Pax. The members of the
Pax citizen stone will also be expected to help further role-playing on
the Chesapeake shard by becoming involved in other towns such as Corwyn,
Aryslan and Duir, and groups such as the orcs and Clan of Vampires. The
citizen stone will be warred with other roleplaying groups to facilitate
role-playing. Except in special cases, membership to the PaxLair citizen
stone will be by approval of the Mayor, typically after spending time as
an initiate (see below).
The PxI initiate stone will be for characters who have expressed an
interest in becoming a citizen of PaxLair, but are not yet established in
the town. Members of this stone will be expected to develop themselves in
the town of PaxLair, including writing a personal history and establishing
relationships with others, with the intention of becoming full citizens by
moving to the Pax citizen stone. Membership will be granted on a liberal
basis (typically, will need only to express a genuine interest in Pax),
but no character may stay on the stone for more than three weeks.
To apply to the Pax citizen stone from the Pax initiate stone,
characters must satisfy the following:
- Spend at least one week on the PxI stone (preferably longer);
- Role-play in the town of PaxLair;
- Interact with citizens of Pax and others in the town of PaxLair to
develop relationships with them;
- Be sponsored by two current citizens of Pax by having them sign a
book telling the story of their time in PaxLair;
- Submit a character history, which will be posted at the PaxLair
website.
After the application is submitted, the citizens of PaxLair will be
able to make comments in support of or opposition to the application. The
final decision to accept or reject the application will be made by the
Mayor. Obviously, staying in-character at all times and otherwise behaving
as if already on the PaxLair citizen stone are key elements that will be
considered in the evaluation.
Benefits of being a citizen of Pax include:
- Instantly recognized as a member of the Chesapeake role-playing
community;
- Friended to at least one building in PaxLair;
- Access to a private section of the PaxLair website for internal
documents and discussions;
- Recommendation for membership in Pax "satellite" groups such as Pax
Knights (PxK), Pax Wizards (PxW) and Ladies of the Lair (Pxl).
Requirements to retain citizenship in PaxLair include:
- Stay in-character at all times---out-of-character (OOC)
discussion/actions should be restricted to private settings such as ICQ
or chats;
- Do not engage in "pking" or "noto-pking"---this means in particular
following the central guidelines for role-played combat:
- Provide context and warning before initiating combat;
- Only fight those who wish to fight (something akin to "I have no
wish to fight" should be sufficient to excuse a person from combat);
- Do not loot, and try to protect the belongings of others (even
role-played enemies);
- Do not report murders for any role-played deaths (if the
circumstances are questionable, try to give the benefit of the doubt);
- Respect the PaxLair rules on keeping the peace in town;
- Assist Initiate characters to become full Pax citizens (more on this
below);
- Work to improve role-playing in PaxLair and on the Chesapeake shard;
- Above all, have respect for all people on the shard (role-players
and non-role-players alike).
A Seance in PaxLair |
Assisting Initiates through inclusion in plots and mini-quests
A common problem many people encounter when first getting involved in
a group is that they are not known and do not know others. While other
people talk and interact, the newcomer is often left out, though rarely
intentionally. Part of the purpose of having the PaxLair Initiate stone
is to help identify those people who are new to PaxLair but want to
become a part of it. This will provide an automatic "ice-breaker" for
many of the citizens, who will be ready to include the initiates in
their conversations and adventures.
One way for initiates to become involved is to assist in whatever
plots the PaxLair citizens are involved in. Initiates can form a ready
supply of "extras" who play small, but important parts in the plots, or
perhaps even have a major role (n.b., the initiates should play these
roles as themselves, not as some newly created person). Assisting in
plots is an excellent way for new people in PaxLair to become acquainted
with the more established folks.
Another suggested method of including initiates is to give them mini-quests -- short "adventures" designed to introduce the initiate
to a citizen and give the initiate the chance to role-play their
character. These quests could be simple ones, such as "Go find a man
called Fleeble in Moonglow. He has a book that I need for my work.
Please get it from him and bring it to me." The initiate will have to
interact with Fleeble, perhaps even perform another task for him in
order to obtain the book. The intent is not to turn the initiate into a
lackey, but to give him a chance to have some fun role-playing, as well
as the citizen.
FAQ
- This PaxLair citizenship sounds like you people in Pax
acting like role-playing gods again. How can you tell someone else what is
role-playing and what is not?
It's certainly not the intent of the citizenship system to dictate to
others what is or is not role-playing---such concepts are very much up to
individual tastes. The goal of the PaxLair citizenship system is to offer
people an opportunity to participate in the role-player community and
interact with other role-players to create their own stories and
experiences.
However, there are certain guidelines and percepts generally agreed on
by role-players (see Role Playing 101 at http://uo.stratics.com/rp101/index.html for a start). One such
guideline is that role-playing should preserve the illusion of the setting
in which a character lives. In UO, the setting is fantasy/medieval times,
so language and actions that destroy the illusion of this setting could be
said to not be role-playing. Using such modern expressions as "sup"
or "cya", or discussing stats, as in "I have a 93.4 magery, but can't get
another .1 no matter what I do", would be examples of things that destroy
the illusion and should be avoided.
There is room in UO (and in PaxLair) for many different styles of
role-playing. Citizenship in PaxLair does not tie someone to one
particular flavor, and we would hope that people would learn alternative
styles from others, thus enhancing their UO experience.
- I play the role of a murderer---some people call me a
pk---does that mean I can't be on the citizen stone?
It really depends on how you play the murderer. Do you have a
motivation, some reason to murder (e.g., to gain power, a touch of
insanity, a need for revenge) that you convey to other people? Does your
character do other things than murder than would be considered
role-playing (generally, murderers in medieval times were not murderers
all their lives, especially in the case of revenge)? Do you work to
positively enhance the experience of other people, in particular those
that you murder, rather than ruining hours (perhaps days, weeks or months)
of a person's time by killing and looting him? If the answer to these
questions is yes, then citizenship is a possibility.
A murderer is perhaps the most difficult role to play convincingly –
for who can say what is in the mind of a murderer? It is part of the human
psyche furthest away from the experience of most people---a great
challenge to play effectively. People who wish to play this role should
talk with at least the mayor or the chancellors first to help establish
trust, and to discuss the murderer's role in a city that promotes peace
and neutrality in addition to role-playing. A plot developed with other
citizens would also help develop the murderer as a member of the
role-playing community.
Murderers do not all come from the same mold. How people classify you
will depend much more on how you conduct yourself than the label you wear
because of game-mechanics.
- How are the citizen and initiate stones different from just
having a guild?
The purpose of the citizen and initiate stones is to identify those
interested in role-playing and allow the non-guilded to participate in a
somewhat structured role-playing environment. Guilds are often founded
with an "in-game" purpose (for example, to combat evil or protect woodland
creatures) while PaxLair is founded more on an "out-of-game" purpose (to
promote role-playing in UO). Describing PaxLair as a guild takes away from
this emphasis on an out-of-game concept---there really is no "PaxLair
Guild".
Belonging to a guild also implies a certain kind of relationship
between people that is again most often displayed in-game. Characters in a
guild tend to rely on each other in combat, provide pro bono services (such as making armor or potions) for each other, and (usually)
are on friendly terms. Characters in PaxLair might not help each other in
combat (in fact, may even fight each other), they might sell goods to each
other, but not give them away, and may actively dislike each other (all
within a role-played context). Further, guilds often ally and war with
other guilds---the town of PaxLair is neutral with respect to role-played
conflicts.
- I was fighting a pk when another citizen just walked right
by and didn't help. Shouldn't he have gotten involved?
Citizens of PaxLair pledge to aid visitors and citizens whenever they
can, but this pledge is made in a role-played sense. Even when faced by a
pk, citizens of PaxLair are encouraged to remain in-character. Since many
of the citizens are craftsmen or scholars---not fighters---they will avoid
combat whenever possible. This is another difference between a guild and
the citizen stone. PaxLair is a town made up of individuals---individuals
able and encouraged to make their own choices with respect to how their
characters act (or don't act).
Keep in mind also that some people come to PaxLair with the express
purpose of causing trouble, in the hopes of gaining easy loot. Since these
bothersome people are not in town to role-play, or interact with others in
a positive way, even citizens that are quite able to fight may ignore
them.
All people are reminded that PaxLair is a wilderness town and as such
they should behave as they would in any non-guarded zone: be careful, have
your wits about you, keep your guard up. There are no guards, though
chances are that there will be people in town willing to help. However,
that is their individual choice---there is little that any citizen
"should" do besides remain in-character.
If you have questions or comments regarding this system, please contact
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, Chancellor of PaxLair.
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