Salem

Sometimes you have days in Salem that are truly wonderful. I was already feeling good since a quick trip to town revealed that a witch, whom had once tried to curse me, was in the stocks for his foul deeds. Nothing brightens a day then hearing the screams of the damned as leather strikes flesh.
Feeling upbeat I skirted the plagued masses and decided to travel north and hunt the beavers in Providence. As I made my way to the the beaver flats I pass a well dressed gentelman collecting from the bushes. I wave as I went past, its only polite after all.

Only moments later I then hear a shout from a voice I did not recognise. It turned out to be from said gent, who was both surprised and amused by my friendly nature. He had also been on his way to hunt beavers but decided to let me have them due to my gesture of goodwill. This would have been the end of the story had a bear not blocked my passage.Informing the good sir of the bear we decide to work together to bring it down, a risky move for either one of us could decide to turn on the other and let the bear have his fill. Still we took the risk.

The bear prove quick and nimble and it took many attempts by the both of us to initiate combat but eventually a stomp started the fight. Thankfully the beast was taken down quickly with our swords without much harm to either of us.
We were both very polite is dishing out the meat and, parting with friendly words, we dropped the rest in town in the hope that a good meal might help the poor, sick and homeless that clog our once beautiful capital.

Such a lovely meeting from a simple wave. I can only hope that the tale can inspire others to spare a moment for a simple gesture and maybe see that not all meeting must be unpleasant. I wish you luck and fortune Bob.

Hope for the world of salem

What a heart warming post. I always say good morning to the people of Providence but rarely get anything back so its good to know I'm not the only friendly player

a big dilemma arises here...
if people were friendly by default in salem things would be very different from now,
I can see public roads, extended town trade, player made public maps, more massive factions etc etc

on the other hand, crimes would be rare ( because of people helping each other someone could acquire more stuff easily, also there would be more to hunt down criminals and their kind would tend to disappear ), so would be forum drama, and i recon most "end game" players would find that boring and statistically there would be more of quitters by boredom ( i think that that's the saddest thing could happen to a game ) .

and the list of parameters to the one or the other behavior could go on and on,

so, its kind of watch what you are wishing for

Pildream wrote:a big dilemma arises here...
if people were friendly by default in salem things would be very different from now,
I can see public roads, extended town trade, player made public maps, more massive factions etc etc

on the other hand, crimes would be rare ( because of people helping each other someone could acquire more stuff easily, also there would be more to hunt down criminals and their kind would tend to disappear ), so would be forum drama, and i recon most "end game" players would find that boring and statistically there would be more of quitters by boredom ( i think that that's the saddest thing could happen to a game ) .

and the list of parameters to the one or the other behavior could go on and on,

so, its kind of watch what you are wishing for

I can personally promise you that Salem will never be free of criminals. Moments like this are touching because they are so uncommon. Not exactly rare but still surprising. The cunning among the community would too easily pick up to the growing naivety of love and fellowship and, like has happened before, delve into the dark arts and black skills for no other reason than to cull the doe-eyed from the herd. It's like an ecosystem. Sometimes there are many foxes. And when they overpopulate, they die off from lack of food and move on to other areas. And when they do, the rabbit population booms. Until the foxes return and have the opportunity to breed some more. So swings the pendulum.

There's a very well known essay about fellowship and neighborly action, while guarding against the deceits of evil. For the life of me, I can't recall who or which essay it is, though. (Actually, it has been written on several times, so I guess select one of many.)

Oh, don't get me wrong, the reason I posted this is for much the reason Marp gave - its rare. I have no desire for Salem to become a place of rainbows and happiness. As I said myself at the start, a good whipping is what set my mood so high in the first place . But moments of sweetness, glimmers of light, are all the more potent in this world, it makes you value them more. I love the raiders, the witches, the backstabbers and the murderers - without them I would have never been able to see this moment for the miracle it is, for two humans, who have never met and have no reason to trust one another, to work together and achieve more than they could alone.