What are rumors?

[X-Tuornen/LF (Geir)]

Should not Rumors be for DM stuff? Lets put the player tall tales in the Bard.

[X-Ilien & PCE/GeM (Linde)]

Why should rumors be for DM stuff only? Are we other not able to shape peoples perception of the world as well?

As I understand it, all that is written in the bard isn't something that every regent knows or even have a chance of knowing.

A rumor is something that every player controlled character should have a fair chance of knowing. And responding to rumors is how you normaly try to control them.

I would say the appropiate place to reply to a rumor or post a player created rumor is the "Courts of Anuire" board.

That being said, it could quickly get difficult to sort out what responses go to what rumor, and when the response was made in relations to the development of the rumor, so I can se how it could be perceived as smart to post your official IC responce to a rumor in the thread where the rumor is posted.. That is, if you feel the need to adress the rumor at all.


Posting a rumor regarding what I plan to do and what I know or think others will do, is for me a fun way to generate an IC dialogue regarding that..... Much more fun and involving for me, than just writing a dispatch stating my intent. But perhaps less clear.

If for instance I make a post where it is rumored that Ilien is going to be visited by Archduke Carvelon Diem and SM. It should show a degree of IC planning and importance behind that visit.

If it is not disallowed I will continue to post rumors that I feel are important in the "Courts of Anuire" board. People (Regent, non regent, player controlled and dm controlled) are welcome to make official statements regarding the rumors in the treads that I create. And everyone is encouraged (Atleast by me.) to act IC to the rumors if they feel they are important to them.

Wow, that was a lot I just put in writing here

I am open to imput on my views ^_^

[X-Mhoried/Droene Kavarra (Iasonas)]

Why should rumors be for DM stuff only? Are we other not able to shape peoples perception of the world as well?

As I understand it, all that is written in the bard isn't something that every regent knows or even have a chance of knowing.

A rumor is something that every player controlled character should have a fair chance of knowing. And responding to rumors is how you normaly try to control them.

I would say the appropiate place to reply to a rumor or post a player created rumor is the "Courts of Anuire" board.

That being said, it could quickly get difficult to sort out what responses go to what rumor, and when the response was made in relations to the development of the rumor, so I can se how it could be perceived as smart to post your official IC responce to a rumor in the thread where the rumor is posted.. That is, if you feel the need to adress the rumor at all.


Posting a rumor regarding what I plan to do and what I know or think others will do, is for me a fun way to generate an IC dialogue regarding that..... Much more fun and involving for me, than just writing a dispatch stating my intent. But perhaps less clear.

If for instance I make a post where it is rumored that Ilien is going to be visited by Archduke Carvelon Diem and SM. It should show a degree of IC planning and importance behind that visit.

If it is not disallowed I will continue to post rumors that I feel are important in the "Courts of Anuire" board. People (Regent, non regent, player controlled and dm controlled) are welcome to make official statements regarding the rumors in the treads that I create. And everyone is encouraged (Atleast by me.) to act IC to the rumors if they feel they are important to them.

Wow, that was a lot I just put in writing here

I am open to imput on my views ^_^

Well I kinda disagree..

Surely characters can instigate rumors. However it depends on the magnitude of the rumor's effect. For example, domain wide rumors should be a result of a successful espionage action. Otherwise a really important aspect of the aforementioned action is lost. Who would pay to start a really intricate rumor, when he can merely post it to the forums? The result will be the same (especially if you are not interested in revealing yourself as the instigator).

Character related and limited rumors should definitely be a within the jurisdiction of any character. However rumors involving domains should be a result of an espionage action.

Just my opinion though.

[X-Bellam & BC/TB (Bobby)]

Rumors created by a regent would have to have an Espionage action or something similar to get them started, yeah.  What I posted in the Rumors section is different from that, and I felt it was appropriate there.  It's a fact - South Hold troops marched to Gulfport and sailed away to the east (away from Anuire completely), flying the ETN's banner.  It's something odd that people would talk about.  It doesn't draw any conclusions or try to lead people to believe anything.  It simply takes something internal to my domain that would be noticed by people and puts it out where the other players can hear about it, similar to the post by Bjorn wherein the new Osoerde Court Mage arrived in Moriel. 

If I wanted to make something up or attach an implication or claim to it, I'd need to at least do a Decree, maybe an Espionage.  If anyone wants to know WHY my troops are sailing away, THEY'D need to ask me or do Espionage.  This is neither of those, and I think it's appropriate here.  If anything, it's potentially detrimental to me - I just announced that some portion of my army is wandering the high seas somewhere.

[X-Mhoried/Droene Kavarra (Iasonas)]

Rumors created by a regent would have to have an Espionage action or something similar to get them started, yeah.  What I posted in the Rumors section is different from that, and I felt it was appropriate there.  It's a fact - South Hold troops marched to Gulfport and sailed away to the east (away from Anuire completely), flying the ETN's banner.  It's something odd that people would talk about.  It doesn't draw any conclusions or try to lead people to believe anything.  It simply takes something internal to my domain that would be noticed by people and puts it out where the other players can hear about it, similar to the post by Bjorn wherein the new Osoerde Court Mage arrived in Moriel. 

If I wanted to make something up or attach an implication or claim to it, I'd need to at least do a Decree, maybe an Espionage.  If anyone wants to know WHY my troops are sailing away, THEY'D need to ask me or do Espionage.  This is neither of those, and I think it's appropriate here.  If anything, it's potentially detrimental to me - I just announced that some portion of my army is wandering the high seas somewhere.

In that case I agree . However I personally am not able to be certain to correctly make the distinction and I leave it to the DMs.

[X-Medoere & RCS/KE (Thorsten)]

To me, rumors (those in the Rumors & Events) should be done by the DM(s) for several reasons, and the fact that Bjorn has moved every rumour not created by DM's or which is in response to rumours created by the DM's in this sub-forum should help cement that fact.

Posting your own rumors, would in my eyes constitute as PR in some manner.
You either want to discredit someone, or blow your own trumpet... Either way, this is either a decree, a grant, espionage or the likes, and should, if it works to your benefit, be posted by the DM's or with the DM's permission, as very few actions are automatic.
If you, as a player/domain wish to instigate rumours, there is (usually) a point to it (and if there isn't, paranoid players like myself will still ponder why this news origin from this player instead of the DM).

To me, the rumor/event board is the tool which DM's use to keep people up to date and interested regarding current affairs... but where we as players have no immediate say. We may react, sure, but not instantly and besides the rumors could be false.

Allowing players to create their own rumors: say for example "troops are marching through province X towards Y" will get someone paranoid (like me) to jump at shadows, possibly activating troops I would otherwise have garrisoned, redo my DO etc. and in effect waste a lot of (IRL and IC) time and effort on nothing. 

The word of Bjorn is the law... we (I) therefore take rumors posted by him seriously. They represent stuff that is actually known by enough, that is in fact a rumor. I can rely on him to be unbiased and post both that which I perhaps wanted (or used actions on), and that I'd rather hide. I can also rely on the rumors to be warped to the point where a feather becomes five hens, but that is another matter.

I cannot, however, ask the player of a domain to post news from his own territory and expect it to be totally unbiased. Some may be able to do so, but for the most part I would believe that some manner of self-censorship would enter the picture.
Honestly, I know very few people who are masochists enough to initiate a devious strategic move, and then afterwards post rumors of said move for all to see...

But that is just my PoV.

Edit:
I realize that I may be an extremist here, nudged severely by my current studies as a budding journalist. But I'll still claim that there is no such thing as negative stories from your own interest group unless someone rats on former employees.

[X-IHH/Wallac Isilviere (Kasper)]

Lol Thorsten you do seems to be quite focused on PR tough the paranoia as sugar ontop the cake makes it perfect; PR & Paranoia equally being used as tools for navigating the corridors of CoT by RCS will make me whine like a bitch once again. I am so much going to keep a low profile

[X-SASI/Orthien Tane (Rune)]

...Several good points...

I agree wholeheartedly with Thorsten. If you want to create a rumor, do an espionage and let Bjørn deal with it. Or spend a GB on a decree and say anything you want (then it's up to the player if he wants to believe it or not). In any other regard, Bjørn controls the general populace (i.e. the npc´s) and therefore he should post any rumors that occurs.

[X-Bellam & BC/TB (Bobby)]

... and the fact that Bjorn has moved every rumour not created by DM's or which is in response to rumours created by the DM's in this sub-forum should help cement that fact.

Looks like he did move some posts earlier today, so that indirectly answers this question.  Jon had previously indicated he WANTED us to post to the Rumors section, which is what I'd been working from, and both he and Bjorn have indicated several times that they wanted us to stop waiting for them for every little thing, to use our own initiative and contribute instead. 

I also continue to point out that there's a difference between a rumor deliberately started by a regent to accomplish something ("Baron Roesone secretly eats babies!") and one that we post that's non-deceptive and stems naturally from something occuring in our domain.

[X-Tuornen/LF (Geir)]

I have also noted that the DMs wants more initiative from the players, and I love to read the player IC posts. I do hope I will be able to step up my own contributions shortly.
But the player’s writings can not be comparable to what is posted by DMs. The separation should be clear, and absolute.
We are moving into a part of the game where I think player sentiments on many matters will be very contradicting, and in many cases deliberately so, and so there can be no confusion on what is written by a player and what is DM stuff. I expect many IC wars on what is the truth on events. The one we have so far is likely only a calm beginning. I have not played ROE before, but from what I read I believe the PvP action will be a major if not dominant part of this game.

Looks like he did move some posts earlier today, so that indirectly answers this question.  Jon had previously indicated he WANTED us to post to the Rumors section, which is what I'd been working from, and both he and Bjorn have indicated several times that they wanted us to stop waiting for them for every little thing, to use our own initiative and contribute instead. 

I also continue to point out that there's a difference between a rumor deliberately started by a regent to accomplish something ("Baron Roesone secretly eats babies!") and one that we post that's non-deceptive and stems naturally from something occuring in our domain.

[X-Ilien & PCE/GeM (Linde)]

If I leak information about my plans I would like to think that it didn't matter action wise wether I do it by a rumor or by dispatches in the court of anuire.

If I wanted to plant a rumor that did not have base in reality or was far fetched I would think it appropiate, and required, to use an espionage action, yes. And then it wouldn't matter for me if it were about a single character or a whole domain.

But if I want to share how I think some actions will unfold then it is far fetched to think that I would send dispatches to everyone telling them facts and plans. It is more beliveable that I will I tell it to a few people important to the plan, who perhaps in passing mentions part of it to others, so on and so forth creating the rumor.

And I think it is fun and involving to have some IC idea of what goes on in other realms.

What I think I am doing is saving you guys time, as you dont need to send a dispatch, or use espionage on me to find out that particular plan of mine. And you have something to write to me about, showing involvement in what goes on in my realm.

And if I am disallowed, then there will just be less insight without the use of actions from your part on what goes on in Ilien.

[X-Medoere & RCS/KE (Thorsten)]

If I leak information about my plans I would like to think that it didn't matter action wise wether I do it by a rumor or by dispatches in the court of anuire.

If I wanted to plant a rumor that did not have base in reality or was far fetched I would think it appropiate, and required, to use an espionage action, yes. And then it wouldn't matter for me if it were about a single character or a whole domain.

But if I want to share how I think some actions will unfold then it is far fetched to think that I would send dispatches to everyone telling them facts and plans. It is more beliveable that I will I tell it to a few people important to the plan, who perhaps in passing mentions part of it to others, so on and so forth creating the rumor.

And I think it is fun and involving to have some IC idea of what goes on in other realms.

What I think I am doing is saving you guys time, as you dont need to send a dispatch, or use espionage on me to find out that particular plan of mine. And you have something to write to me about, showing involvement in what goes on in my realm.

And if I am disallowed, then there will just be less insight without the use of actions from your part on what goes on in Ilien.

It's not disallowed... it should just go in the Bards section, so we know that it's from your Point of View.
Whatever you write by dispatch will ultimately bear *your* mark. I can therefore assume (and in most cases, rightly so) that there's some manner of PR-stunt going on. Rumors is a different thing, as the whole 'feather to five hens' thing applies more often than not. How do you know, that what you write as a rumor will not be severely warped by the mob... unless you employ some professional rumor-smiths, in which case it's more PR.

My main beef: When you write a rumor, you assume that this is the way the public (defined as the whole of Anuire in this case) understands the situation. And that is (however good-natured the intent) god-modding in the extreme as you just influenced the whole darned empire 
Whatever you write, will be from your PoV... you may not have all the facts, or know the entirety of the matter. There may be small influences unknown to you as a PC, which will ultimately influence how some rumors are percieved.

In games as these, truth is very often determined by majority vote. If enough people with enough influence says or believes a thing, then that is the truth (until some very solid evidence to the contrary appear). Just remember that 

[X-Elinie/RiD (Niels)]

...calm beginning. I have not played ROE before, but from what I read I believe the PvP action will be a major if not dominant part of this game.

Calm beginning indeed. There is a ton of stuff going on behind closed doors.

[X-Haelyn's Aegis/RK (Andy)]

...calm beginning. I have not played ROE before, but from what I read I believe the PvP action will be a major if not dominant part of this game.

Calm beginning indeed. There is a ton of stuff going on behind closed doors.

And masses of misunderstanding as a result, even by those who think they know what is going on 

The slight drawback to not posting rumours of loud stuff that you are doing 'a row between x and y, big troops movement, huge construction, etc' is the delay in it reaching the turn report which prevents other's joining in the fun.  I'd expect to make any post very wide (some say X, some say Y, etc) to try and reduce the god-modding aspect, but if people want it in the bard, then really I don't see any problem - or much difference in outcome.

[DM B]

Rumors are created by the DM, sometimes as the result of player action.