Absolutely! No one that I'm aware of has batted an eye lid at any part of Juilin's background, or of Vaexarius's background - which was really way out there. They were PCs and can't set things in stone for other PCs (and there's a warning there for James for when I decide to play a Barbarian and make up my own clan). Daenaram only created upset because his background contradicts some of the few campaign facts - otherwise no one has any real issue with it, evidenced by how fast people moved on to other discussion when it was released.
The problem with Tobin's background is that it's general and is placed in a position of predominance over the players. When the Committee present the approved commanding NPCs and their background states that all the guilds, everywhere in the Barony, recruit people as if they were universities, even the Temple of Might campaigning for students like everyone else, then that suddenly gains officialdom status. It's the generalisation of the statements which create the problem.
If Tobin's background stated that he grew up in the town of Torn, where the presiding Lord was heavily Freedom aligned and had ordered, erm, requested in strong terms, all Guilds within that town to respect the rights of his subjects and ask them to join, then that doesn't state anything about how Seeker Harold Cumberland got to where he is today, or indeed about how Master Sarevok did. If Rich wanted, Sarevok could have been clubbed round the head in a back alley at age six and dragged in by a recruiting/enslavement of homeless orphans party, but now there's this thing saying he must have petitioned to join the Temple of Might voluntarily, at age of adulthood.
That's what's got people so riled up - it was the level of official approval, suddenly stamped out by people that others didn't trust to make that decision.
It's like your posting Daenaram's backplot and immediately stating that it had committee approval as being non-harming to anything. The assumption is that the committee's approval gives it official strength, which it does, to a degree. Yet that rolls on into everything else and when Dom finds that the committee line is revealed for the year, telling him his character can't be played after he's already played him once and invested in plate armour for him then Dom gets upset. And so do other people.
The problem comes when people aren't given the choice to care or not.
And that's where the symbols get through and the npc backgrounds don't. Nowhere does it state the npc background stuff is optional. Everywhere does it state that the symbol stuff is optional.
You and I could come up with a map of the Barony and post it on a website and post links to it on the Blades boards, saying "Hey, we came up with this which matches what we know of to date, as a potential map of the Barony. As usual for the style of time period (feudal) the map doubtless has errors that will be discovered with time, however if people felt like using it as an aid, we'd be happy to add anything we can and juggle things around to give people a world to look at. Of course, it's all strictly for fun, so please don't harrass us if you don't like the idea of any kind of map at all." A few people would mutter in corners about it existing, but they wouldn't have to use it. And a few people are muttering in corners about the symbols, so that's par for the course.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-02-04 06:08 pm (UTC)The problem with Tobin's background is that it's general and is placed in a position of predominance over the players. When the Committee present the approved commanding NPCs and their background states that all the guilds, everywhere in the Barony, recruit people as if they were universities, even the Temple of Might campaigning for students like everyone else, then that suddenly gains officialdom status. It's the generalisation of the statements which create the problem.
If Tobin's background stated that he grew up in the town of Torn, where the presiding Lord was heavily Freedom aligned and had ordered, erm, requested in strong terms, all Guilds within that town to respect the rights of his subjects and ask them to join, then that doesn't state anything about how Seeker Harold Cumberland got to where he is today, or indeed about how Master Sarevok did. If Rich wanted, Sarevok could have been clubbed round the head in a back alley at age six and dragged in by a recruiting/enslavement of homeless orphans party, but now there's this thing saying he must have petitioned to join the Temple of Might voluntarily, at age of adulthood.
That's what's got people so riled up - it was the level of official approval, suddenly stamped out by people that others didn't trust to make that decision.
It's like your posting Daenaram's backplot and immediately stating that it had committee approval as being non-harming to anything. The assumption is that the committee's approval gives it official strength, which it does, to a degree. Yet that rolls on into everything else and when Dom finds that the committee line is revealed for the year, telling him his character can't be played after he's already played him once and invested in plate armour for him then Dom gets upset. And so do other people.
The problem comes when people aren't given the choice to care or not.
And that's where the symbols get through and the npc backgrounds don't. Nowhere does it state the npc background stuff is optional. Everywhere does it state that the symbol stuff is optional.
You and I could come up with a map of the Barony and post it on a website and post links to it on the Blades boards, saying "Hey, we came up with this which matches what we know of to date, as a potential map of the Barony. As usual for the style of time period (feudal) the map doubtless has errors that will be discovered with time, however if people felt like using it as an aid, we'd be happy to add anything we can and juggle things around to give people a world to look at. Of course, it's all strictly for fun, so please don't harrass us if you don't like the idea of any kind of map at all." A few people would mutter in corners about it existing, but they wouldn't have to use it. And a few people are muttering in corners about the symbols, so that's par for the course.