How does this idea sound?

First, I'd like to mention that when my phone died, I lost the original of this post. So apologies if this confuses anyone, due to me forgetting something that was in the original. EDIT; and then i lost the second version to internet problems. grr.

Second, my ridiculous character names+titles should not be taken as an insult by any, they are just for fun, and any resemblance to persons living, dead, imaginary, etc. should not be taken as intentional.

Third, if this has already been considered and rejected, apologies for wasting time

Anyway...
So picture the following. Gene the Generic Goblinoid has been coming to Knight Realms since just about the first event. He's sitting in the Inn, when a commotion comes from outside. He looks out, and sees a few skeletons. They are wearing OOG purple headbands, which say that they are low-level monsters, hardly worth an experienced character's time. So, Gene looks around to see if there are any low level characters fighting them. He sees Adam the Average Alchemist Archer, who is at his fourth event, and a few of Adam's friends taking the skeletons on, and eventually killing them.

Then picture this. The fight goes badly, as Marcus the Mainstream Mage (sixth event) accidentally puts all his friends into their death count. So, Carla the Common Cleric (who's been going for almost as long as Gene) and Gene, and maybe a few of their friends, run in and heal the characters while killing the NPCs.

Now, picture this. All the low-level characters are at Tower Mod, so Gene goes and returns the skeletons to their rightful inanimate state.

What I'm proposing is what I refer to as the Purple Headband Theorem. Basically, it makes "go-out-and-die" monsters less likely to be an exercise in "half an hour of makeup leading to five minutes of playtime" and more likely to be dangerous.

My personal concern would be immersion. As a guardsman my character is likely to fight any enemy of the town, purple headband or no. I don't like the idea of monsters being anything other than perceived as a threat no matter what your level.

Let me start this by saying I am NOT speaking for the staff members in anyway I am simply putting my view as a marshal out there, other marshals and staff members may have differing points of view than mine.


Being both a Logistics Marshal and a New Player Marshal I have seen both sides of this coin in terms of "strength" of monsters. You have a point in that a lot of players pounce on roaming NPC's and these NPC's may be too easy for them. Or they may not. No one knows for sure and that is the point of this game. If you feel like you can take on the world, go ahead and fight everything that comes your way. Or you can pick an choose and hope to choose wisely. If you don't we hope you had fun fighting it as that is what this is all about.

The reasoning behind most "veteran" players jumping misc. roaming NPC's is simple for the most part. There is not as much for them to do outside of plot. Yes there are misc. mods but those are far and between.

Newer Players have certain things that go on regardless of the plot of the weekend(unless for some reason the ST has another idea for it). Tower Mod, Midnight Madness, are a few examples. These are the mods that would be "purple headband" as it were without breaking immersion. "Veteran" players don't have that and so they are compelled to feel like "heroes" as well.

Don't take this as I am complaining that veteran players don't see enough action or get enough to do. Far from it. I am just posing a reason to why. It could be completely wrong. Trust me as a NPM I enjoy writing the mods that new players go on and hope it continues for a while.

Personally I also enjoy not knowing what I face power wise as either of my characters. It adds an element that should be in Travance of fear. Am I strong enough to solo this? Do I need a horde of people in order to take this guy down? These are things that I enjoy roleplaying out when things are wandering around.

Just my thoughts on these things.

All ideas that are put forward as politely as you did are always welcome. There has always been a discussion of how to make all level players feel involved. I know that this is always on my mind, and on other staff member's minds as well. We have made progress over the years, but we can always do more. Thank you for sharing your ideas, and while this exact idea may or may not be implemented, it may spark the imagination of someone with another idea.

I thought that I would chime in here. I'm not a Marshal or an ST, I'm just a guy. I hope that an opinion from "just another player" will be a little something to think about, and all around helpful.
I try my best to make an IG reason as to why my character does what he does. In the topic of encounters, there is no question as to what his action would be, flee. My character has seen the Heroes of Travance. He's fought with them, and has watched them kick some ass. He wasn't there during the fight against Zualla, but Travance is still standing, meaning that to him...It's a force to be reckoned with. Thing is, he knows that he's not like these Heroes. He's just a guy with two daggers and Tavern. So when he comes across an unfamiliar group, it's defense mode. Which reminds me of one of the rules I've learned about Travance, "Never travel alone."
The purple headband idea is awesome to me for one reason; I like purple. Other than that, I feel that it would break the immersion of the game and actually give players a reason to NOT roleplay. The roleplay of KR is my favorite thing about the game, I'd rather not have a system that breaks it. You have a good idea, but if you're looking for the opinion of "just a guy", well...There you go.

Thank you,

As Reece pointed out there are a number of ways to play the game and each one is valid. The more character diversity we have the better our game will be.

As a general rule of thumb, combat is a huge attraction for most players/character types. As a result a lot of "jump the wandering NPC" encounters are sent out, which has its own pros and cons. These sorts of encounters have changed dramatically over the years and will continue to do so as our community grows.. As KR moves forward, we're going to need players with good ideas to come forward and politely make suggestions as to what they'd like to see (exactly as you've done!) if we're going to continue growing as a community. As Mike noted while some of those suggestions may not be directly used, they are incredibly valuable and can spark the next big idea to help our game grow.

While I don't agree with Connor on there being little for higher level characters to do outside of plot (there is always something to do and fun to be had) or the oft repeated adage of "Never travel alone" (I highly recommend you be aware of the risks and to give it a go, if you're feeling particularly adventurous), both have merit. To this effect, the only solution I know of is to really think about what sort of character you want to play and then using the different professions to help facilitate that idea; if you don't want to have to worry about most monsters, building a combat oriented character is completely valid. Just keep in mind, there will always be monsters that are scary and tough regardless of your level and while our characters may play for different IG teams, we're a community as a whole. Taking down the big bads is always going to be a group endeavor and its always going to need a diverse skill set ranging from the combative type to social type characters.

On a funny note, sometimes the wandering NPC group can be something as simple as a pack of low level goblins and still be frightening- I once had the pleasure of seeing a bunch of goblin npcs, all well below lvl 5, take out a hapless paladin who has well above lvl 50. Thankfully the paladin survived, but it was a great lesson in teamwork, unfortunate timing, and the fact that while your character/npc may be a specific lvl, that level does not determine what they can and cannot accomplish.