Niara - THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading our guild rules AND pontificating. I created the Tyrs Paladium rules with our brave and fearless female co-founder Paks back in 2008. I also discussed guild rules in the Old Timers Guild which pre-dates Tyrs Paladium. As for role players, I played D&D tabletop since 1977. (I was 7 years old, in day camp.)
Im exited to discuss what our plans are thusfar in Baldur's Gate 3.
Since this is neither an actual free-flowing D&D game, nor an MMO, but rather a video game with set story and world information that it can present to you and unfold - that information, while it can be experienced in a few different ways, can ultimately only be revealed once, after which it is simply knowledge that cannot be experienced fresh again. If a new player joins your group, will they find people talking about game world, character or story information that the game presents but which they have not had the chance to experience first hand for themselves yet?
We are VERY aware of this reality in BG3. Many of us have played Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, and go back even further. I played ALL the Zorks. All the SSI Gold Box games. Many of our guildies have. So we GET OLD SCHOOL gaming. Traditionally, EVEN IN MMOs are aware of new players getting to FULLY ENJOY their player experience. So in a game like this, it will be quite easy to enforce this need and desire for new recruits to be ABLE to enjoy the game TO THE FULLEST for the FIRST TIME. We will not have WALK THROUGHS in our Tyrs Library like we have in MMOs where that can help. In this game it would be a SPOILER. We might discuss character builds for those that would like to discuss that, but not in a way that would ruin their experience, but enhance it. We feel that having a tight knit group of no drama gamers just enhances EVERYONES enjoyment of the game. I also feel that players will want to re-run the game on different characters. CAMERADERIE is D&D. Friendships make people stay and roll new characters. And OLD SCHOOL is always COOL! :)~~~
Conversely, are your members - even new players who have played part way through the game with a group - expected to conduct themselves and their conversations in a spoiler free way at all times in order to prevent this?
YES. Absolutely.
What do you consider to be an exploit, in BG3's extremely mechanical-exploit-prone game engine? Is a group that reloads a quick save in order to get a conversation roll to go the way they want exploiting? What about a group that uses dialogue locking NPCs in order to manipulate/negate their sight cones and to steal from them without risk or repercussions? Is dialogue locking an important encounter in order to move the rest of your party around, load the field with explosive barrels that you have been keeping in a stacked tier of containers to make their weigh not count, and position themselves in the perfect locations to immediately nix the encounter entirely when it starts, by shoving most targets down bottomless pits or into lava from stealth so they cannot resist and will always fail and fall. Are any of them exploiting, despite using only mechanics that exist within the game itself? What about if you have players that are not comfortable with such flagrant mechanic circumvention and abuse and object to other players breaking the game by doing that?
GREAT questions Niara! -- Love them all and I think I'd like to answer them all together. I am not sure what we will consider an exploit JUST YET because I haven't played the game through yet. But many MANY years of experience here, so here's how I look at it. PLAYING THE GAME THE WAY IT WAS INTENDED is always my baseline. Reloads a quick save in order to get a conversation roll to go the way they want ? I'd call that cheating personally. ESPECIALLY if others in the group have their experiences ruined when that happens. And that's the same answer for the rest of the examples. The way we've survived for SO LONG in such a positive light is because we have a group of lovely would that ensure that EVERYONE is enjoying their game and characters. No drama. No Zerg (running off doing your own thing and ruining it for everyone else). NO BS.
So officers will lay out a good set of recommendations to follow which will set the bar. For individual groups, party leaders can discuss beforehand if the group is ok doing something outside of the Tyrs Way. Most people in our guild will just not want top do anything that will ruin another's player experience. We don't play around with the elitist mindset or one that would do that. Their time in Tyrs would be very, very short lived!
Your rules imply that if someone joins, they are rule-bound to fill their party for any given game of BG3 they play with other guild members before asking any of their other non-guild friends; that they'd risk discipline with your guild if they invited a few of their RL friends to play the game with them, without waiting until a time when there were no available guild members to fill the slots (which may never happen). I'm sure that's not the case, because that would be ridiculous, but it Is what your guild rules charter currently says; Please clarify.
Ahh GREAT questions/insinuations, I'll jump on these. Ok we LOVE guildie's friends and family members. Its part of our makeup. My two sons play. And two of my best real life friends. What I found is that almost every time guildies ALREADY UNDERSTAND the Tyrs Way, so in the rare case if they know that one of their friends would be the WRONG TYPE to fit in, they won't even ask us to run with that person because they know it wouldn't work. However MOST TIMES, they simply ask us if they can JOIN TYRS. EVERYONE has to fill out a guild app. So we can also tell before everyone gets out there if they will fit in. Works great that way. WE very much WELCOME FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!! We LOVE IT in fact. Many more times than not it works out very well.
I hope that answers every angle of your questions... if not please rephrase and I'll break it down in a more beneficial way!
