Indies; why do we need them/what is good about them?

[Jihadjoe]

The following is my personal opinion and nothing more.

I'm going to make a distinction between factions which uphold the canon roleplay of their NPC affiliation, and those who either do not have an NPC affiliation, or do something which does not fit within canon, by description.

There's a hell of a difference between them, and they both have their place. I'll use the examples of two different factions which I have been involved in, to some extent.

- The Mandalorians - Non canon based official faction.

The roleplay for this has no basis in freelancer canon. It's been invented entirely by those who have played the characters. This creative thought needs a lot of very careful work to invent in a way which is unobtrusive on that which already exists. Official factions which are born from this often have worked rather hard at creating it. See the VE as an example.

A responsible faction which does this will use a generic ID, and therefore will not fill the official faction slot (one official faction per ID rule) for an NPC faction.

If a faction does this, it has no responsibility to work with indies, or to set guidelines for their roleplay.

- The Liberty Navy - Canon based official faction.

The [LN] official faction is designed to hold itself to canon RP for the NPC faction. The characters will be indviduals with their own personalities and method, ways of doing things, etc. However they do so within a canon framework. The structure of the faction, and it's general methods of operating have to be within a realistic framework for the way the Liberty navy NPC faction has been represented.

This involves reading a lot into someone else's work (Digital Anvil's) and interpreting it into a workable format. The creativity in this case comes from analysis and interpretation (on a large scale), and the actions of individuals (on a small scale).

Factions such as this have a degree of responsibility to provide guidelines for an independant to roleplay within.



- Independants

Indies are important to discovery. Very important. They fulfil several roles...

- Filling the space. Official factions can't do this. They simply don't have the numbers.
- Providing a method for those not in the official faction to fly X ship without ranking requirements.
- Not having the responsibility to canon roleplay that official factions that directly represent their NPC faction have. (described above.)

The last of these provides a degree of freedom for the individual to roleplay their character as they like. A responsible indy who is not following discovery canon for their character's roleplay within their chosen NPC faction, will not attempt to dictate what others roleplay should be. They will limit that to their own character.

For example a Liberty navy indy saying "We (liberty) are not hostile to the order" would not be acceptable. However an indy saying "I, Dude McGuy am unusual within the navy, in that I never shoot at the order." is acceptable as it does not attempt to dictate the roleplay other people follow, although it may potentially have roleplay consequences.



All three types of player, Canon based official, non-canon based official and independant, are extremely worthwhile in discovery, and each presents a valuable resource to the roleplay environment.

However, I strongly disagree with official factions which use up an NPC faction ID for their officiality, without following canon roleplay. If you wish not to follow canon roleplay with an official faction, then attempt to find a way of doing so with a generic ID. I find it extremely selfish to use up an NPC slot, while not making any effort to provide a guideline for how that NPC faction should be roleplayed, and thus preventing other people from being able to represent a straightforward interpretation of the NPC group.

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