Disappointed

[Brigade of Starlight]

Edited for conciseness and to better fit the forum guidelines:

Last night, a friend and I who had been away from the server for some time decided to try reinvigorating our old fondness for Arelith. We made new characters and, as something fun to do, felt we should make them very awkward in their mannerisms.

An innocent enough story to begin with, but would you believe it ends with us almost being PKed by a paladin?

This was meant to be some innocuous fun for ourselves and those around us, but we apparently ‘bothered’ the wrong group of people.

Now, I'm not certain what I hope to accomplish with this post, if anything, but I felt I needed to speak up; this sort of PvP-hungry 'good guys’ behavior is precisely what turned me away from the server in the first place, and I'm disappointed beyond measure that my literal second interaction back in the game almost ended with my friend and I bashed into the dirt.

Why does it seem like all the 'good guys' in Arelith are bloodthirsty and PvP-seeking?

[PinataPlethora]

If you feel like someone was acting inappropriately, this should be sent to the DMs as a PM. Otherwise, discussion of specific IC incidents is not allowed on the forums.

[Queen Titania]

If you feel like someone was acting inappropriately, this should be sent to the DMs as a PM. Otherwise, discussion of specific IC incidents is not allowed on the forums.

[DM Avalon Soul]

Would it be possible for you to send a PM to the Active DM team with the details of this incident so we can look more into it? I understand your frustration but Pinata's right: Public discussions are not the place to resolve cases like this.

[Vincent]

I too have met an abundance of paladins very eager to draw blades for the most pathetic reasons. Undead summoners and warlocks should be slain, sure, though a character who's ever so slightly erratic is not someone who you can justify cutting down on sight, at least not by people who should lose their powers for such a blatantly chaotic evil action. It feels like the line between sadistic evildoer and the triad's most devout chosen is a very blurry one these days, which leads me to believe the people doing this are only looking for PvP opportunities (and opportunities to gank low levels at that).

[Brigade of Starlight]

This was less of a, 'I want people punished,' and more of a misguided attempt to spark a discussion about alignment, but I see I've gone about that in the wrong manner.

[Mastersir3]

It seems like this issue is going to private discussion, but I have to agree that there are an abundance of players who choose to play paladins just to always have the failsafe of their characters actions being outside the realm of scrutiny. Many paladin characters commit acts that would range from bloodthirsty to wholly evil, were it not for the fact that they are paladins. I don't think any paladin should be threatening to hunt someone down in cold blood because of dislike. I'd be encouraged to see some sort of action taken to stop this, such as the shifting of alignments for players that RP paladins with evil or overly aggressive tendencies, as that is the way things are supposed to operate in DnD.

[flower]

You get the most famous murderers hanging casually in Tower and other places, in friendly chat with PCs, both, PCs and NPCs being fine.

Why should a paladin, eager to draw a sword be immersion breaking.

[Brigade of Starlight]

Paladins should be eager to draw blades - at undead, or demons. Not a pair of men being silly. This expands beyond any isolated incident, as this sort of 'kill first, question later' mentality seems to have infected every self-proclaimed good-aligned person on the server.

If you're playing an actually evil character pretending to be good, then by all means, I applaud you for taking that risk. But all too often I see paladins or otherwise good aligned characters doing things that would, in any other DnD setting, get their alignment shifted. It's not so much immersion breaking as it is simply un-fun to be around.

[PinataPlethora]

This was less of a, 'I want people punished,' and more of a misguided attempt to spark a discussion about alignment, but I see I've gone about that in the wrong manner.

You can totally do that, if you want to explore the issue, but it should be done in a detached manner, without bringing up IC incidents, characters, or factions, and it's best done for your information rather than for others. Preaching is never received well.

[Xerah]

I'd be willing to bet that is targeted at my character.

The reaction was completely IC, given the issues that the Trade Minister was having being potential the target of assassins. My character asked yours to move aside given the risk that the Trade Minister could have been in by those two acting strangely. I oocly thought they were assassins as well as ICly.

You were quite far away from getting PKed. All warnings were given ICly. But for someone to call me PK hungry is rather amusing.

[Kreydis]

This thread is doomed to get locked. Rightfully so. Calm down everybody, and wait for the lockmasters to arrive.

[Eters]

I think it should be pointed out that "Good" alignment doesn't mean being "nice, naive, always smiling and forgiving." A good aligned character would gut the hell out of a necromancer / Blackguard / Monster / Dubious human with shady affiliations.

The other side of the coin is that usually, because you know someone is a paladin, you don't expect them to act in a violent way, and push their buttons too far (I played a paladin, experienced it a lot.)

Paladins have different oaths, different believes, different Modus Operandi, they're not all the same, not all follow Tyr, not all follow Torm, many paladins, follow many gods, and have different believes, and that is something that should be kept in mind when dealing with paladins, they will strike you down if you do something that, in their belief, is wrong.

"This was meant to be some innocuous fun for ourselves and those around us, but we apparently ‘bothered’ the wrong group of people. " Is what you said, but I am willing to bet you were warned before being killed, and you chose to ignore the warning and follow up with your innocent goofiness, expecting that a good aligned character wouldn't apply the threat they gave.

If in their eyes, you are acting shady and irrational, expect to be cut down. especially if the situation is tense and carries weight and danger (That you, on the other side may not be aware of.)

For example Jack stands with Paladin Bob, Jack is threatened by assassins, Jennifer and Mathew come around Jack, and start acting shady, Paladin Bob notices so, and asks them to leave, Jennifer and Mathew are enjoying their prank, they push it one step, two, then three steps further, Jack is terrified, Bob is tense, he draws steel. While in the eyes of Jennifer and Mathew , that is bloodthirsty, in the eyes of Bob, him protecting Jack from death is right.

PvP is part of story telling, and some situations will lead to PvP, it is to be expected, and always kept in mind. So just don't stir the story towards it if you don't feel like you can manage it. (Usually, the air is quite tense ICly when something is about to turn violent, many signs are given, hand on sword, wards flying around, etc...)

While I agree that there are paladins who jump the gun too quickly, I think the same can apply to every other class, But to say that the server is "filled" with paladins that jump the gun, is a bit too much. In my personal experience, I did quite the inverse, and spared many that, following my oath, should have killed.

[Brigade of Starlight]

I am willing to bet you were warned before being killed, and you chose to ignore the warning and follow up with your innocent goofiness

While I should mention no PvP took place, that is frankly the opposite of what happened, and perhaps why I was so bothered by it. As soon as tensions rose we ceased our 'joking' in favor of trying to de-escalate the situation. Pushing peoples' buttons was the last thing we had intended.

But for someone to call me PK hungry is rather amusing.

I understand both sides of this encounter severely misjudged the other, and I apologize if I sounded standoffish or confrontational in my original post. I'm sure you can see how, without the context you've just provided (of which we were wholly unaware of both IC and OOC), my friend and I would be upset at how that situation handled itself - especially with how, in the past, similar situations resulted in unwarranted pvp or unenjoyable conflict RP.

[Invader_Nym]

I tried to broach this subject in another thread. The problem is that it's very easy to orchestrate a scenario in which a PVP follows the rules of engagement, but /doesn't/ follow the 'be nice' rule, and so the players are inadvertently placed in the position of having to report their fellow players for being mean, which is something they generally don't want to do. The problem is further compounded by the vagueness of the 'be nice' rule. It's so general that it's basically meaningless as a governing principle. How do we know when someone has broken the 'be nice' rule?

[Rwby]

Perhaps try exchanging some tells with your adversary first to understand why the experience isn't working for you first, before heading to the forums? I find a lot of these issues can be resolved in game and are often simple miscomunications.

[MalKalz]

This should have initially been taken to PMs. Posts after the DM messages were unnecessary in the topic as they were clear where any of this discussion should have been had.