After a good deal of work, the cabin defense system is now live. Here's the quick summary of how it all works.
If you play a good character, you don't have to worry about it. You have the option to bunk in an in-play cabin, but it's not a requirement. Even if you do so, alignment rules still prevent other PCs from engaging in PvP against you, so the only real reason to do it is if you want to bunk with neutral characters or you want to allow monsters to raid you.
If you play a neutral character, however, pull up a seat; this is important for you to know. Neutral characters must bunk in an in-play cabin. This means other characters, particularly other neutral characters, can raid your cabin. This can happen whether you're there or not, and the intruders can come to kill you in your sleep.
The full rules on cabin raiding are in the game guide, but here's the abridged version: You can only raid an in-play cabin, you have to have a raid marshal with you, and only neutral or evil characters may initiate a raid.
The occupants of an in-play cabin, on the other hand, can establish cabin defenses to hinder a raid. Each occupant can declare one cabin defense that they know at check-in, which lasts for the entire event. You can have multiple defenses on the same cabin, but not of the same type (e.g., you can't have two Guardians). Cabin defenses come in several varieties:
- An Alarm defense makes a loud noise if an intruder tries to open a door, window, or large container. A Sabotage effect can disable it for the duration of the raid.
- A Cache defense creates a 3' by 3' square in the cabin. Any item in the cache is impossible for intruders to find without a Sense Secret effect.
- A Guardian defense creates an elite monster to guard the cabin. This is played by the raid marshal during a raid.
- A Seal defense locks all doors, windows, and large containers. Intruders cannot open these objects without a Breach or Sabotage effect.
- A Trap defense causes an offensive effect to go off on intruders who attempt to open a door, window, or large container or disable another defense. These can be found with Sense Secret and disabled with Sabotage.
- A Warning defense alerts a cabin's occupants at the onset of a raid. Intruders are placed in a hold for a few seconds while occupants have time to prepare.
Occupants are never affected by defenses on their own cabin; they can automatically bypass them without triggering or disabling them. Your chance of success in locating or disabling a cabin defense is otherwise based on your level versus the level of the occupant who established the defense.
It's worth mentioning that this is still a system in development. We'll be giving it a go next weekend and fine-tuning as necessary. Most classes can learn some form of cabin defense, but there are still a few gaps. This will be addressed as time and inspiration allow. As always, suggestions and feedback are welcome.
If you're neutral, now's the time to queue up those cabin defense actions.
We plan on doing that as best as we are able, but there may be some spillover if we have more good or neutral characters at an event. We'll do our best, but we can't guarantee that nighttime activities won't disturb your sleep even if you bunk in an out-of-play cabin.
I dig it, and think it is a great addition for the PvP players. One rules clarification I had was whether cabin defenses from good characters would need to be overcome by Neutral characters in a raid. For clarification please read the example below before answering.
Heather and I are bunking in an inplay cabin. Heather is Neutral and I am a Good character, so I am required to sleep in an in-play cabin. We both are allowed to put defenses up, she puts a guardian up and I put up an alarm. Zarmcher decides he wants to do some roguing and decides to raid our cabin. Does he have to overcome both the alarm and the guardian, or just the guardian because I am a good character? I know that he can not loot any of my stuff in the end, but the question is whether Zarmcher needs to overcome both defenses to gain entry into our cabin? Also, I believe the way I read it that a monster would need to overcome both defenses, but I am not sure about a PvP character.
Thanks for the clarification, and I think that Heather's idea is a pretty sound one. At the very least, there will need to be some sort of marking system to alleviate confusion. Mind you, I am more concerned with my beauty sleep (god knows I need it) than anything in this regard, but I had to put it out there for those of us who will be sleeping out of play!
I suppose there could be. Previously, we had said for those who were sleeping out of play to put white headbands on their doors. Honestly, though, it's never come up, and those who wish to go cabin raiding have to check with a raid marshal first, who of course will have a list of all cabins and their occupants.
Is there a way to split the campsites? I know at Crabtree, there was an A side and B side. If we have Good in one site and Neutral in another, it may aleviate confusion as to who is where. It also puts combat in the middle of the night on one side of the site so it won't affect the sleep of the Hero characters not involved. Just a suggestion. I think the cabin defenses sound great though. Fantastic job Thad.