Portal Placements

[Nottingham]

Can we make a rule about the placement of the portals? This bothered me two years ago, and now once again I am reminded about it when I enter a map and right in the middle of a road are two portals. Maybe a rule could be something like the following. Place portals in out of the way locations as to not affect the overall beauty of the landscape and enjoyment of the game world, like off the main road and in out of the way places, in the corner of rooms, etc., in places modest people would go to relieve themselves. How hard is it to go off the road and over a little hill to make a portal?

[Roland Deschain]

we dont always have the luxury to run over the hill( if i am fighting the dragonkin or wyvern im not gonna go hide my portal ) and besides policing where we put portals is a little much.

[Nottingham]

Common courtesy is all I am talking about. If you are on the run and need a portal, that is one thing, but heading back to town for supplies or throwing one up for a friend is another. And I am not talking about policing, either, just to say that placing portals without forethought is frowned upon.

[wdpepsiman]

frowned upon by whom? YOU.....i really do not see the problem as the player base is not that big at the moment perhaps if they were in the middle of the oak tree area or all over town i could see a problem but not at this moment

[Nottingham]

Please do not flame me for putting on my paladin hat.

I guess I am trying to have vision when it comes to rules or ideas, and I am thinking toward the future. But I remember the past here at BSK2 from a year and a half ago, before it closed. I remember times when I would enter a map, and right in the middle of a road were three portals, shimmering, standing tall. So what, you ask. What is the effect that has on other players? What are shimmering portals to players?

This is not a Monte Hall gaming world—far from it, which is one of the many reasons why I like it—but the excessive use and availability of magic like town portals gives it the illusion or impression of a Monte Hall gaming world.

Sure, a person could go, cool, a player is near by and that is their portal. Or someone more in character could go, how rude, leaving their portal right in the middle of a commonly used road. How are caravans supposed to travel down the road with that portal there? And then they go, oh, wait, there are no caravans, for this is a persistent world—and then the in character feeling is gone.

Or a person could go, wait a minute, is this Dungeons and Dragons or is this Diablo? In Dungeons and Dragons, shouldn’t only very high-level mages have access to the magic needed to make such perfect portals?

When I am in character and exploring the world, seeing a portal is kind of like being slapped I the face with an anachronism. All I am suggesting is that people who use them should keep these things in mind.

I do get that many players like the portals. They seem too powerful to me, out of place. But as long as they remain, I will continue to use them as well, although I would not be sad if they disappeared. In the end, all I am suggesting is that when they get used, they get used with tact.