The Withering

[Howlando]

It's entirely IC appropriate to be horrified by the Withering, and I fully agree that we can do make things to make it more interesting/provide more counters.

But for those of you who have some kind of huge OOC fear about it...

I think in all of EFU:M we have had only one PC that was retired from it?

Very, very few PCs have ever even reached the half-way point... people think they are a lot more withered than they are sometimes.

Generally speaking with more withering you actually get some kind of nice mechanical bonuses, so although obviously IC your PC won't want it it is a little surprising to me that players have this kind of OOC dislike of it.

[River Walker]

I don't like getting spammed with messages telling me all the different ways my character is becoming horrible. I've never gotten past "Touched by the Lichess: Infected," but the things I'm told are happening to my character would send any sane person to the hospital. No one would go to work when they're vomiting coffee grinds and sweating motor oil, much less adventuring with armor and a weapon.

[Teeth in a Bowl]

Ever thought about the bowel movements message while you're wearing full plate?

Yeah.

Personally I'm not too worried about it, I've only ever reached the second stage on.. one PC?

[The Old Hack]

Your mileage may vary with the messages. I let my character reactions to them vary from character to character. I will agree that they get pretty horrible as you advance and that some of those I've gotten at the far end of Moderately Withered totally freaked me out. Though partly in a "OH MY GODS HOW DO I GET A CURE!" sense.

I will say, what OOC reactions I do have have nothing to do with fear of character retirement. They are largely simple squick factor. River Walker is right, some of this crud would send anyone sane running screaming for medical attention. By the time I got messages like starting to get afraid of extremities falling off... we were reaching the limits of my personal comfort zone. >.<

[prestonhunt]

Dont care for the messages, or the mechanic tbh.  Although I understand what you're saying Howland, I dislike things that punish you for going outside into the world.  I like wandering, and the spawns out there are plenty punishing enough.

[TheBarmaid]

having been a druid back in the day when we chilled in the withered unyielding pass, and our groves were withered, I do not see the withering as a huge deal for exploration.

[Pigadig]

There's also the factor that it feels like it gets exponentially harder to reduce. I'm not sure if that's the actual reality or player/PC perception but if you get to medium and find that you're having an incredibly hard time reducing your withering the natural IC reaction is "stay in the mists, stop going to the withered lands or else it's zombie time".

Which is perfectly IC, but tends to lead to people being bored and annoyed OOCly.

[Bobbybrown]

Another problem is since it seems to get harder to reduce, it actually does depending on the stage, much worse is the fact if you get out of moderate into heavily whithered you get shunned for it and have an even harder time finding ways to reduce it.

[NecropolisV]

Personally i love the withering, it teaches caution, and really makes you think if what you are going to do in the withered lands is really worth it, however i dislike having withering in faction places, that potentially makes being a part of that faction over time condemn you to wither away, because a majority of time is spent serving your faction ,at least i hope so. Now factions that are purposely supposed to wither i understand. As to the messages I don't mind them, but if I see a message that would drive my pc insane or make them flip out as bad to seek medical attention: I ignore it, i love roll playing the messages out but if my character suddenly is puking his guts out every five minutes and feels like he is dieing, then i rp some of it out, maybe instead of doing the message every 5 minutes i do it every other message, because since my guy has touch of the maiden perk, im guessing the messages are more frequent because of that. But if i rp'd all these messages out it would greatly hinder playing my pc and even result in killing him in the moments when you need to be fighting for your life. Overall i like the withering, but if you don't like it then rp out some or most of it, and ignore the stuff you think would drive your person mad. Unless you are withered so much that you would have those things.

[TwilightCircus]

I don't understand why people are afraid of losing PCs to the Withering like that.

Characters die to PvP all the time. They die and kill because the two-month Mayor is doing stuff they don't like. Because they have mugged someone or been mugged and want revenge. Because it's Caermyn or Aberdenn. They also die permanently when you get annoyed after a silly fugue in a quest.

Losing them to the withering really seems that bad? Or even getting badly withered... no curiosity about what the process entails, OOcly speaking?

I hardly doubt there's a cure to the withering just waiting in the safety of Mistlocke, and while your character doesn't find it he'll still suffer from the curse, unable to leave the island, and a gigantic undead army closing into town as the mist grows thinner...

And the boredom of just sticking to town, heh.

[Marlin Silice]

If the IC apperance of the PC really becomes that terrible, it will make most players stick in town, and that'll be rather boring. NWN is about building storylines of heroic or villanous dudes slaying hordes of stuff, note the slaying part, i remember i had abandoned a server some time ago because all the players did was sit arround a campfire and chat.

So maybe it would be a good idea to remove the most visible changes (ICly speaking) and keep the rest the same?

[River Walker]

I don't understand why people are afraid of losing PCs to the Withering like that.

Characters die to PvP all the time. They die and kill because the two-month Mayor is doing stuff they don't like. Because they have mugged someone or been mugged and want revenge. Because it's Caermyn or Aberdenn. They also die permanently when you get annoyed after a silly fugue in a quest.

Losing them to the withering really seems that bad? Or even getting badly withered... no curiosity about what the process entails, OOcly speaking?\

For me at least, it's not that I'm not afraid of losing my character to the Withering. I don't want to play a Withered PC. If I wanted to play a pale master I would apply for one.

[granny]

rofl....

I love the answers.

[Pool]

The Withering's never been too much of a problem with me, even for my first character's duty to go thump whatever was around Marcail and the surrounding withered grounds.

Still, if the Withering is anyone's problem, there is a certain Shaundakulian Priest with a public Sis Laman/Mistlocke ad of doing cures for only a prayer. :>

[xxWhisperingWindsxx]

My $0.02.  This confuses me.

At one point we were told that we did not fear or respect the Withering enough, so mechanics and ambient messages were put in place to make us aware of it and fear it.

And now that there is IC & OOC reasons to fear it, we're being told we shouldn't.

I'm a wee bit confused ....