Shattered Kingdoms

I've been chewing on this idea for a few days. Removing cabals entirely wouldn't really make any IC sense (imagine the havoc caused by the disappearance of all the major history-making organizations of Pyrathia), but what about removing abilities?

A quick pro/con list:

+ Large variety of abilities made available, allowing room for enrichment of current classes as well as the addition of new classes.
+ Reduces/eliminates desire for access to abilities, forcing RP to be the focus of any cabal.
+ Reduces necessity for complete symmetry/balance between cabals. Eliminates class favor once imposed by the nature of a cabal's abilities. Think HQs and beyond.
+ Makes dual membership mechanically viable, more balanced.
+ Cabal secrecy made viable.
+ Tribunal numbers will increase.
+/- Reduces/eliminates mechanical element of cabals.
- Cabal numbers will drop.
- Reduces visible thematic distinction between cabals, makes them feel less unique.
- Reduces ability for characters to mechanically distinguish themselves.

How bad would this be? I'm not infinitely wise, I can't see all the angels, but keep an open mind and think about the possibilities. It really opens up the doors for Tribunal CRS, as well as dual cabal/tribunal membership. It's a different way of bringing about the changes Cannibal and Lei Kung were suggesting a few months back. This would be a simple (though large) step in making cabals more focused on RP, as well as enabling cabal secrecy. Since there's no PK advantage to being in a cabal, nepotism shouldn't be an issue.

The biggest problem I see is simply that cabal members wouldn't want to give up their abilities - it's nice to have some of the options that cabals provide. There's no other way a warrior or adventurer will ever see a change of pace or get any use out of mana trains. However, I think the game as a whole would benefit more if they were available via new classes or enhancements to existing classes. What do you guys think?

Hm... I like that you think and bring a lot of creative suggestions. Keep on doing that, even though I cannot agree with you on this one.
As I see it balancing the cabal skills into either new or current classes would probably take as much as it would creating new skills. i'd rather see more new skills to refresh the mud or entirely new classes -- even races.

I can see the hammer/druids/Harlies/Adepts all doing well enough after such a change to thiere cabal skills/spells.

The problem comes with the Fists, Without thiere spells I really doubt anyone would want to be in that cabal, unless it was changed somehow (I have no idea how).
Also the MC? WTF do we do with our cabunial? Do we lose a cabal and make it solely into a tribunal?

I still VERY much like it. The Cabals should be allowed to keep thiere HQ, and guardians.

I disagree. Without the cabal abilities, I don't think there'd be a purpose for Hammer to exist. Consider that in game, they are very similar to the goals of the peacekeepers - without the abilities, it's just a peacekeeper special forces unit with no powers whatsoever. Without the cabal powers of harlies, uxmal has absolutely nothing left over (remember their distinct LACK of a tribunal).

On the other hand, Gremlin and Ilk proved that adepts could survive without powers. Druids probably could too.

While I am all for specializations, customizations and generally more unique characters - I agree that cabals need these distinct powers to exist. They need to do the talking and be able to back them up too. Cabals with powers are part of what makes SK fun to play, imo.

I disagree that certain cabals are meant for certain regions, such as Harlequins for Uxmal. Cabals are meant to have gone global instead of regional since the not-so-recent changes. It is just that historically there has been generations, and most notably -- freedom fighting.

Besides, let us hypothetically imagine Dulrik agrees to completely revamp the skillsets to create new classes. When would we be able to play with them all? 2017? ^_^

This gets added to the [REDACTED] files

Starters the Fist to my knowledge have no spells anyhow.

You know what he meant. Don't be an [REDACTED] in SK while drinking your juice on the MUD.

ROFLOL

I actually wouldn't mind seeing cabals in general just being dismantled entirely, and some sort of minor "multiclassing" in the form of "prestige classes" in a sense being implemented to enrich all classes.