Best Roleplay nation
 

Hi All

Playing as Caelum and loving picturing the realm. My Eagle Lords spam a few buffs and then launch themselves into the fray to spam shockwave (when the AI gods smile on me).

Massive mammoths, wingless heavy infantry and the unstoppable chill spreading from the frozen peak....

Awesome!

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

what exactly is the point of this thread...? what are you trying to say...?

the title suggests you ask about the best nation to role play with, which is a stupid question Imho as role playing is not nation dependent at all... but than you start rambling on about Eagle Kings, what do they have to do with anything...?

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Well mate, I thought I'd say that I find the fantasy aspect of the game to be great food for the imagination. I was looking to hear if others have nations that get their right-side brain neurons firing.

For example for me Marverni seems as shiny to my imagination as a black matt wall on a dark night. Abysia however burns as bright in my mind as the Smoldercone erupting.

Thats my point dude.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Squid heads. But holy crap trying to write in Cthuvian is rough.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

I think Bandar Log is pretty characterful. Monkey Yogas blowing away enemies with their minds. Huge apes with clubs throwing rocks. Monkey tiger riders launching heroic charges. Sacred spirits occasionally enlisting in the simian army and gracefully slaughtering it's enemies. Also, Lanka, though I have only played it single player, feels like an appropriately dark and oppressive demon realm.

Pangea, also feels very themed, though EA Pangea's lack of magic diversity makes it seem kind of weak to me. I think to a large degree the best roleplay nation depends on the user and what they like to imagine.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

there was a thread about the historical civilizations some of the dom3 nations represent, such as C'tis being ancient Egypt, Marignon being France/Spain during the Inquisition, Man being Ireland, etc. pretty sure you can still find it here, or at the very least google. there's also the dom3 lore in the guide IIRC. would help with the whole fantasy aspect if that's what floats your boat.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

The problem with monkeys is all the poo flinging. However, Strength of Giants and Wind Guide help a lot in effective poo tactics.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Heh. So I keep wishing I had time to write a guide to Kailasa, about how to play Kailasa with a Tien Chi sort of twist. The image I have is an exile on the run from the losing side of some political intrigue in the Celestial City, ends up in the jungle. King Louie (from Disney's The Jungle Book) is lounging on the throne, and wants to know why they shouldn't just stone him to death on the spot. The Celestial promises to teach the Kailasa actual tactics and strategy, and rises to be the power behind the throne.

Sadly I don't have the talent to write in-character AARs or guides, or the time to do it even if I did.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

I remember that thread, I do find the mythology behind the nations interesting. I've wanted to play as EA Mictlan for this reason alone but the micro puts me off.

I usually tire of computer games quickly but not this one, I'm amazed I'm still playing it. My next game will be the blood sacrificing Mictlan, mythic winged serpents and tzitzimitl's lead by the dark onaqui's....

Excellent!

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Generally I like human nations for the RP aspect. To imagine "normal" humans trying to survive and build an empire, with all their weaknessess, in this strange magical world, is inspiring to me.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Not only that, but i would argue human or near human civs are the only ones you can really roleplay, because you can understand how they think.

I mean, Eagle Kings are fricking celestial beings. They've descended from the heavens to lord over mortals and guide the race they fathered. How can you possibly roleplay that - its so completely alien as to be an incomprehensible mindset. It could very well be the case that today the color orange is the most important thing in the heavens for theological reasons, and so the EKs decree that no one wearing or displaying the color orange is to be harmed. Why is orange so important? Its beyond your comprehension - you're only human.

If anything Rlyeh is like 10x worse.

Anything sufficiently divergent from human might as well act as if it were insane, because from a human perspective that's what it would look like.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

I tend toward roleplay for all my nations even in mp dom3 games. :target:

My favorites for roleplay would be Pangaea, Marverni, Tir na n'Og, Arcoscephale, Caelum, Kailasa/BadarLog, early Ulm, Marignon. Oceania.

I have seen and very much understand the RPG factors for nations such as Ermor, R'lyeh, Sauromatia, C'tis, Hinnom, Tien Chi but the appropriate attitude for those just doesnt match me. I cant seem to get into them altho I do appreciate it when someone else in a game Im in does it.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

[quote=Squirrelloid;754551]I see it as, yeah they are divine magic beings but the wanna-be gods of the world are driven by the desire to kill all the other wanna-be gods and send them to the plane where they get summoned back after 10,000 years as crippled crazed Tartarians.

In Dom3 Divinity = Organised crime family in the middle of a turf war.

So Eagle Kings are very understandable, your either with them or you fry.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Pangaea and Tir na n'Og are my favorite nations for roleplaying in MP.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

No. The pretender is totally distinct from the nation. Sure, the pretender just wants to kill all the other wannabe gods and send them to tartarus. But that has nothing to do with what the *nation* wants. Roleplaying a pretender chassis is totally different than roleplaying a nation.

Now, the nation ends up worshipping the pretender gods. But why? How? Of course, there are many possible answers, but all of these are going to have nuances based on the people in charge. And since I don't know how an EK thinks, because its totally incomprehensible to mortals, I can't figure out why they follow a pretender god.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

I agree with the above.


We may not know how an Eagle King thinks, or a wizard for that matter, but it is fun to take a stab at it. By your line of reasoning, we would be regulated to role playing militia.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

[quote=Foodstamp;754607]Now that would be interesting, an AAR from the viewpoint of a lowly militia. I think it would be awesome but getting a militia to survive in-game to the end would be an effort. Maybe beeline to GoR and then make the militia a prophet for hit-point bonus and then add items to increase survivability.

"Our giant masters have plunged the whole world into winter, is there no limit to their power?"

or

"Today an abomination was summoned into this world to fight for my master. As tall as an elephant with only one eye and reeking of decay, they wielded in battle lightening from the heavens themselves."

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Here's a roleplaying challenge:

MA Ermor, Pretender has to be the Ghost King, Prince of Death, a Lich or a Vampire. Scales have to be at least Sloth 3, Cold 3 and Death 3.

The theme is MA Ermor meets LA Ermor, the land is becoming unproductive waste filled with the undead. Large armies enter your dominion at their peril.

I'm playing with sites at 50 and have found a decent death gem income. I chose dominion 10 to try and push my low supply but so far I have not had the money to build temples, I'm investing heavily in the Grand Thaumatics (whatever they are) and have researched Twiceborn but so far after around two winters no oldies have gained any afflictions. I chose Order 3 (no-brainer?), Magic 1 and I think Luck 3. The occasional +money random events really help.

Playing on Parangos a highlight has been getting knocked back to 4 provinces, 2 castles and 2 no castled, in an early Pan rush. The home province was under siege but two turns of mass casting Revive Wight provided a leathery group fit to provide the central mass and support the flanking longdead cavalry. Now Pan has been totally pushed back and I'm faced with risking having to enter their dominion.

Anyone else got a roleplay challenge?

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

I like EA Aboleths for roleplay. They're a challenge. Getting inside the heads of a Nation of eldritch abominations isn't for the weak of heart, mind, or imagination.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

You left out stomach there.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Nah...Aboleths are great for the stomach.

Good beer batter, quick deep fry, little squeeze of lemon...

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

I dont think the role play capabilities of this game have been properly explored. If we did we might see some more personal activity from the developers. Kristoffer in particular.

Ive alot alot of projects on my wishlist along those lines but due to medical situations I will not be taking on anything longer than a day at most. Altho some find it horribly irritating of me to do so, I may be resurrecting some project threads in hopes that a few particular people here might pick them up.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

That has actually been done before, a few times. In the Yarnspinners games, for examples, and their successors, the Chronicles games, where even KO was participating in. They're on the Wiki:

http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Chronicles:Main_Page
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Chronicles_EA

Regarding the "AAR from the viewpoint of a lowly militia", you'll probably have fun reading Caelum's story, featuring Eagle Kings, no less. The others are quite good as well.

I especially liked Machaka's story, it's a pity that it never continued. A pity in general that there have been so few updates, too, though some people were really proficient at writing and it's a lot of work to play and give a creative rendition of it, of course.

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Well, Helheim with their Hanged Kings and guarding the Gates of Death leaves few to be desired in this respect. :) But when I am feeling in mind for some intrigue, I play Tien Chi.
Shinuyama - they are goblins! :) And what's not to like about them. I once played them in heavily RP/AAR game with Pretender whose dynasty had lost the throne of Tien Chi some time ago. Now he had forged a (relatively) disciplined army out of goblins whom he had taught to make steel weapons and grow rice enough to feed their troops and was going to come back for a throne rightly ;) his. Initially he had made an alliance with Tien Chi so that people and officials there would know him...

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Yomi is always fun, because yeah they're supposed to be evil demons, but they're also the underdogs. They're also so inept that you can't really expect rule by them to be as harsh as, say, Hinnom or R'lyeh, or even some of the human Nations.

I always imagine them failed Mongols, living on a barren plateau somewhere in upper Mongolia, the demon kings constantly *****ing about the weather and their latest defeat, and then halfheartedly intimidating a lackey or kicking a ko-oni, while the Hannya secretly hoarde all the coal, choicest food, skilled slaves, what have you, for themselves, while running everything from behind the scenes.

The Oni visiting their chambers, whenever the Hannya aren't washing their hair, always wonder why it's so warm in there, why the food tastes so good, etc., but they're just not bright enough to catch on, assuming it must be some kind of "hannya magic".

It's practically a Saturday Morning Cartoon, from the perspective of the "bad guys".

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Are you sure, HoneyBadger ? I think Dai-Oni are quite bright, in their own wicked way. But Are you sure their tastes for food or clothing (or hygiene) are the same that human ones ? You can't ignore the extra sex-appeal that blood-drenched furs gives you when you are a Oni, and everybody knows that sucking rotting meat with is a rare delicacy ! But did you know that the term "Marshmallow" is just a deformation (human just can't articulate correctly, because they lack proper-sized fangs) of "Smashed Mellow" ? Human bone mellow, that is:hammer:. Yummy. In Yomi, at least.. And what's yummy in Yomi is not made for human mind (just try to repeat this sentence as fast as you can. If you succeed to do it 10 times in a row, it means you where chosen to be the next prophet of LA R'lyeh's new god...;))

Oni are NOT evil:evil:, they are inhumans. They conception of what is good or bad is totally alien to human mind. And perhaps this explains why my favorite nations are Fomoria, Lanka, Hinnom, Abyssia, Yomi and R'lyeh, because they are so alien. You just have to change all the way you think to begin understanding them. It can be quite funny. Sort of mental yoga.:p

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

HB is now my personal hero. :D I had a laugh reading this, you've really hit the nail right on the head with this description.

While Shinuyama and Yomi may not be my favourite nations (though certainly very fun to play), Jomon is. I really like the whole samurai theme and zen feel. I found it easier me to relate to human nations rather than some giants and/or magical beings. While Hinnom may be fun to play in a sense where you can steamroll just about any opponent, I don't really find them too interesting as a roleplaying nation. They've been given just about every single advantage over the rest, for god's sake, how can that be interesting? The real challenge is to play with nations that are slightly underpowered, that way you can really feel the burden of every lost battle.

@ Nounours: I think it's marrow not mellow, but innovative etymology nonetheless. :)

Re: Best Roleplay nation
 

Yomi's one of my very favorites, although I wish a bit more had been done with them, to make them more competitive, or atleast more strategically dimensional. The whole idea of Asian demons/underworlds/ghosts is quite fascinating, and there's a great deal of information and inspiration on the subject, throughout most every part of the East.