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I am at a bit of a quandry and would like to have the team's opinion regarding DM events and using "proper ettiquette" to partake in said event. I think the best thing is to outlay what happend and then be advised on expectations.

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My character was crafting at Claire's when a "shout" from the DM came that something was happening in Old Hamlet. So being a fair distance away, I RP'd that my character had no clue and continued crafting. That being done I meandered my way to Old Hamlet because it's a common place for folks to gather and my character could easily have been thinking of a little social time with friends.

Upon arriving at the fire, I sent a tell to the DM asking "would my character notice or see anything suspicious".. my way of asking "is it OK to join up yet or did I miss it?". Either answer would have been fine for me as sometimes you just miss it. I was advised that the tracks led to the well and thusly followed the path to the group down through the well and joined the party.
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So I rp'd it through in hopes to be able to join up. It's fun when you get to party up with friends and take part in a DM event!!! However, it starts to become unfun if DMs are getting annoyed with last minute arrivals or suddenly much higher level players are showing up for something that the DM geared for lower level players.

I've gotten to know that not all DMs are alike. In some cases I've been "led" to a scene to party up and in other cases I've been teleported the minute I logged on *laugh* (I have been advised that it's to be expected).

The team here has been AWESOME and given me no reason to think I've done anything "wrong". This has just been a concern of mine and also of a couple of other players I know. It's just sometimes hard to determine when something is OK and when it's not, or the preferred way to go about things. RP is fun, but so is being able to join a DM event. It's even tougher when you're getting tells from other players about "are you going join us?" .. when my joining the event really isn't completely up to me but it's also up to the DM. I might want to but whether I get to or not might be DM driven. I don't know what they had planned and whether my character factors into the parameters of what they are doing.

Also, in conjunction with this, how does the TEAM feel about the party "waiting" for the person to show up when in an RP sense they wouldn't even know the person was on the way? My personnal thought is to play it out. If the DM wants you there in a hurry they'll teleport you. *laugh*. If they want you to find your own way so they can try and hit you with something along the way, well, that's part of their job and we know how much they love it.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Speaking from a few days experience here I feel confident in saying that any event is open to any character who is on line. Our DM do an amazing job of balancing the event for who is ever there, no matter the spread on character levels.

The two characters I play her are Sonja Pyre and Da'emona. Sonja is starting to become a force of her own and will toggle back and forth from bow to sword as required. She is also a party buffer and will buff lower level PC as readily as the epics. Depending on the character will determine the buffs she can give out. Da'emona on the other hand primarily uses a bow or runs around trying to keep everyone healed. If the DMs feel you may throw the balance they will ask you to hold back, use a bow or heal. Every now an then the Tell will also come to drop the darn bow or they will all die.

You mentioned that you had been DM jumped to an event in progress, well that happens frequently to pull the characters together. You will not be dropped into the middle of the party but some short distance away and can RP catching up with them.

And don't worry, they do an excellent job of keeping everyone entertained. They boost or lower spawn toughness based upon who is on line. Trust me they can take out an army of ultra uber epics with a field mouse if they want to.

*Looks for Ed*
Here kitty, kitty, kitty

Ok. heres my thoughts on this.

1. Responding to 'shouts'
Shouts are generally a DM's way to gather a group together for an event, when the players are spread out over multiple areas. I often use this to kick start my events. In the example given above if the shout was about noises hearing it anywhere within one area of the hamlet walls is fair, including inside buildings. Visible effects would obviously only be 'seen' from the same area, but only outside. If unsure a simple tell to the DM is perfectly acceptable.

2. Tell invites from other players
Invites from other players to join an event that has started when you've not seen anything ICly is often considered metagaming. In these cases its fine to shoot a message on the DM channel asking if its ok to show up, chances are they won't have a problem with it. Afterall we all know its more fun to be in the party than being alone on the server when everyone else is busy

3. Waiting for players
Waiting for players that you know are on the way is usually ok too. It helps if one person shoots a tell to the DM, so they know that its waiting for a player, rather then lack of interest which often leads to messy party deaths

4. High levels joining events
Not a big deal for me personally. It all depends on how comfortable the DM is with balancing the challenge level of enemies. From my perspective the higher level will either get the majority of the ass-whuping sent in their direction, I may send them a tell to hold back in a support role, or my event may change into an RP driven rather than combat driven event

5. The DMs
My DMs do what they do because they enjoy it, but also because they want to make Arkaz fun for you guys the players. They'll quite happily jump people to events rather than holding things up, usually to the transition to the area so the arrival isnt so sudden. Using the DM channel to ask if you can join an event usually isnt a problem, occasionally you might get the response that the event is too far in, or that it isnt appropriate for your PC, but theres usually enough DM love to go round

I think Al said it well enough.

The only thing I'll add is when in doubt ask the DM. No DM well ever get mad at you because you asked a question. I will add though that if you send a tell wait for the answer, sometimes it can take a bit for the DM to notice the tell...I know it's easy to miss them. That being said if you send a tell to a DM and don't get an answer back, wait a litle bit and fire off the tell again, go ahead and start heading toward the group, chances are you'll be allowed to join up. I for one let everyone play, I might ask you to hang back and provide support, depending on your level and how much work others have put into the event, but you'll still get to take part some how.


Then again most of my events end up moving into the PM and offline range of events, so it's all good

I agree with Al!


Just one wish:


Try to avoid spamming the party channel..... that is one of my main reasons why I miss tells send to me.

...some of the players know my attitude about extensive party channel use

Else....

Enjoy and GAME ON!!!