Trudging In The Dark - or how the Black Flame is underepresented

[MishkaL1138]

I believe there is almost no roleplayer out there that hasn't felt curious about that mysterious temple the NPCs in the sewers talk about. Some wonder why they're crazy, or ridiculously calm and uncaring, or treat you like a madman when you mention it. The truth is, however, that the temple is reachable for players - there is evidence (even if OOC only - admitting to being a Black Flame is a death sentence in itself, be it thanks to the own members, or via pterosaur flight to the Crystal) that this temple does exist, and that their members are active and mingling among the general public, some of them you'd never expect, even.

You know who you are.

Frustration hit me, however, and for a good reason. While I'm not admitting to playing a Black Flame character -and for the reasons listed I wouldn't, and you'll see why- I agree they're the baddies with the least help and representation. "Oh but Mishka, the Outlaws have a special guildhouse hidden somewhere!" Well, let me remind you: not all Outlaws are Black Flame, and not all Black Flame are Outlaws, and this is just an example. Let me be clearer: when you become a Black Flame, there is no handholding. No support, no visible lead, no nothing, whatsoever. Nada, niente, nyet, zero, nil.

There is no lore other than "bf is ebul," there is no visible lead, no joining a guild, not even a GM telling someone "do this, idc how just don't get caught alive." It is a great, or rather a huge opportunity to give people a constant source of conflict, something they don't know when and how will strike, distrusting everyone and their mother.

Just saying this out here in case someone wants to think about how to fix it.

[Rigwyn]

Heh heh...

Silly Mishka, spinning paranoid childhood tales of creepy things under the bed, closeted sock eating monsters, and "black flames". There is no such thing as this "black fire." There is no tongue stealing hit man hiding in your closet. There is no fleshy octopoid monster creeping under your bed with the intention of binding and gagging you to the point of suffocation in your sleep. Nobody is following you when you walk though Hydlaa, or Ojaved. Nobody is taking note of who you associate with, where you buy your potions, your books and your daily rations. There is no secret list of snitches and nosy bodies crossing hands in the depths of the sewers between silent informants and deranged psychopaths.

Folks, these are the kinds of tales that are told to small children in order to help keep them in line. They keep them honest, obedient, and subservient to their protective guards and gods. Most eschew such believes as they enter adulthood, though some do fail to develop a more mature mindset and are plagued by these silly fears.

Nothing to read here aside from the rambling of a fellow who's cheese slid off his cracker long ago.
Move along if you know what's good for you.....

Hear no evil.
     See no evil.
           And you shall have no evil to fear.

Move along now...
Move along.

[Volki]

If there was something like a guild or OOC organization between BF members that would be pretty cool. GMs or entrusted players giving out commands. Would improve the roleplay immensely.

[Rigwyn]

We did that during the Black and Blue role play. Characters who participated in the beatings were either Blackflame characters or non-Blackflame characters who were bribed, paid or talked into cooperating without them knowing that their actions would aid the Blackflame. This worked only because we had enough people playing at the time, that we could pull this off. ( and just barely ) .

You can do this now, and you don't need a gm to do it for you.

Here's one way to do it:

1. Somebody makes a black flame character. ( Just do all the sewer quests )
2. That character should make plans to achieve a large IC goal using IC knowledge only.
3. That character should recruit followers and use them to execute small portions of the plan.

Working by proxy as described in #3 above is something that you will see Relliom do if you follow the quests. You'll notice that he never does any of the dirty work himself, rather he'll send out aspiring novices like yourself to do a small portion of the work for him in exchange for promotion within the flame or whatever. By assigning different players a small portion of the work, they never get to see what what the puppet master is really doing behind the curtains.  Perhaps when plan is complete and comes to fruition they will see the end result... or maybe not.

The completion of these tasks also gives the leader a gradual view of your character and your willingness to serve and to keep quiet. In the same way, you can "feel out" new characters who want to join the flame ( your bf group ). You delegate trust and larger tasks progressively as they prove themselves to you and become more entangled in your group ( thus less likely to leave )

You can certainly set up a Blackflame guild, but part of being in the black flame is infiltrating other groups and guilds, so in my view, the guild mechanism kind of gets in the way. My last argument against the guild mechanism is that it encourages OOC planning and OOC leaks - intentional or accidental.

Whisper Bless
o/

[MishkaL1138]

Working by proxy as described in #3 above is something that you will see Relliom do if you follow the quests. You'll notice that he never does any of the dirty work himself, rather he'll send out aspiring novices like yourself to do a small portion of the work for him in exchange for promotion within the flame or whatever. By assigning different players a small portion of the work, they never get to see what what the puppet master is really doing behind the curtains.  Perhaps when plan is complete and comes to fruition they will see the end result... or maybe not.

So in the end it's just a big, good ol' pyramidal scheme. I KNEW IT.

[Garris Shrike]

I've played both the proxy and the proxy giver.
 
It's just dependent on player base, like Rigs mentioned.

It's silly to say they're under-represented. All the religions, races, etc. are at this point, lol.

[Dilihin]

I've played both the proxy and the proxy giver.
 
It's just dependent on player base, like Rigs mentioned.

It's silly to say they're under-represented. All the religions, races, etc. are at this point, lol.

yes, what RP currently misses is religion i think, i cant see it much around nowadays.

[Sirial]

yes, what RP currently misses is religion i think, i cant see it much around nowadays.

Only some religions, for example, Xiosia is over-represented as that religion is seen like a sort of extreme love toward nature that in a lot of Xiosia's followers mind is kind and full of flowers.

I would like people to RP religions accordingly to their precepts after researching informations in books and lore, no matter for the religion, some are harder to RP but this is part of their charm.

[Ironstark]

Who says they aren't busy at work plotting the downfall of us all? 

[Dilihin]

Just out of curiosity, how many would be intrested for Black Flame guild actually?   

[Ironstark]

Just out of curiosity, how many would be intrested for Black Flame guild actually?   

While I think that with a larger player base, this sort of thing would be a fantastic thing to have, I believe that most Black Flame iligned players are probably already aligned with certain guilds already, or wish to be lone wolves.

That said, if one was created, while i wouldn't leave my guild to join it, I would certainly like to help RP and generally assist wherever I can! You can count on at least 1 person's support in such an effort.

[Sirial]

The base of lot of BF roleplay is based in introducing current institutions like other guilds, the octarchy, guards and so on.

Why do you think the guards do not investigate the sewers despite they know that lot of people that go down there are erm.. shady?

"The Blackflame's tendrils extend deep in the society to burn it from the inside"

[Rigwyn]

I don't play anymore, so no interest here. The idea might be interesting to some, but you won't know until people respond.

Good luck.

[Mairon]

Well, Dakkru is also misrepresented, and the conflict between Her and the BF too.

[Mairon]

Also Dakkruists look just like ordinary fanatics.