Roleplaying, and the many varieties

I thought since this server is new, though with many experienced players I would like to point out something that have made me very frustrated on many servers.

I'm speaking of rolepalying, and the many type of rolepalying styles. And of course, I'm not pointing any fingers. I ask people to be considerate, and leave other peoples character to the player. Becasue it is not up to you, to tell how others should play. People are different, while some mind find it incredibly fun to RP a social characters, others might find it more enjoyable to play characters who are more reclusive.

There are also many other examples, but it is really with the whole social vs reclusive I felt labelled. That, when I played a character that I designed, through the backstory and personality to be more reclusive, some people would see this as bad roleplaying, because the character would try to escape gahterings and spend time alone.

Roleplaying simply means to play the character as it was designed, and how the character is shaped by what happens to them as you play.

I definitely think it's important to give everyone some freedom when it comes to role-playing. Also, and perhaps even more importantly, I think it's important to remember that we are all just playing a game. It is one of many ways in which we choose to spend our leisure time. And not everyone wants to spend it the same way.

So while we may be logging on to an online multiplayer game, I do not think it means that we always need to surround ourselves with other people, if we choose not to. There are many players who love to role-play, but on some nights they may just want to sit back, kick their feet back, and relax by themselves for a bit. I am one of those types of players. Sometimes I like a bit of time to myself.

But we are playing a multiplayer role-playing game. I think it's important to find a balance. You can have a reclusive, more-inclined-towards-a-solitary-lifestyle character, but hopefully you do engage in some multiplayer activities. An example:

A character I used to play was a bit of hermit and a druid. Always out in the woods doing druidy things, but I was always eager to role-play when the opportunity presented itself. (In the end, we had formed a small group of tree-huggers and woodsfolk who got to RP a lot together and I got to stay true to my character concept.)

So I wouldn't say that playing a more solitary character is poor role-play, but I would definitely say that it makes it more difficult to either find or express one's good role-play.

Just a brief note on this that I believe taking the time to develop character personality is rather important. It helps with segregating in character and out of character thought patterns. It is those many style the original poster speaks of that can make these games much more fun. After all, how fun is it when every character one meets has the same personality? Some of the more interesting RP I've had over the past year has involved the more reclusive character types.

Having said that there is a line in the sand with acceptability and that line in the sand is when a player creates a character that skews lore so badly it kills willful suspension of disbelief. Example: Lawful good, drow, Shevarash worshiper who is a Dark Lantern/Bard/Warlock/Blackguard.

Personality development is important and helps define characters more.

Fyrekrest wrote:
A character I used to play was a bit of hermit and a druid. Always out in the woods doing druidy things, but I was always eager to role-play when the opportunity presented itself. (In the end, we had formed a small group of tree-huggers and woodsfolk who got to RP a lot together and I got to stay true to my character concept.)

So I wouldn't say that playing a more solitary character is poor role-play, but I would definitely say that it makes it more difficult to either find or express one's good role-play.

Of course, that is what I meant. Appologies for not explaining it well. When I play reclusive characters I don't activly avoid RP, but I certainly avoid the people my character finds annoying, and tends to watch people more than take part.

I think people should just not look to label people as a bad or good roleplayer, since people who play on RP servers tend to do so for the reason to RP. And that implies that they try to RP well, as they see it.

DM Anonymous wrote:
Having said that there is a line in the sand with acceptability and that line in the sand is when a player creates a character that skews lore so badly it kills willful suspension of disbelief. Example: Lawful good, drow, Shevarash worshiper who is a Dark Lantern/Bard/Warlock/Blackguard.

Personality development is important and helps define characters more.

Yes, on RP servers people should definatly have to take note of the lore.

The problem I have seen haven't actually been about the classes, but rather their characters behavior. Far too often I have seen elves and dwarves cuddling up to grey orcs. I have also seen way too much accepted RP of races like grey orcs, tieflings, and drow.

There was this one time on a server where I came up to a group with a tiefling standing in plain sight, showing her horns, and my character (who was an elf) acted with suspicion towards her, then everyone around the camprire defended the tiefling. Talking about how blood doesn't matter.

That is the problem I have seen too often. People introducing anti-racism from our world into forgotten realms. It really, really breaks the immersion.

Hehe, that definitely sounds like the type of environment we hope to avoid. Some of the game systems will be coded to create an unfriendly/unwelcoming environment for specific races. (example, if a drow enters Myth Drannor, the guards will attack if they notice them). "Hanging out" with a known racial enemy will not only draw the ire of the NPCs, but the characters can also expect in-character consequences.

And for the more quiet types of characters, emotes can go a long way in really fleshing a character out, even if they never say much. Behavior and mannerisms can really bring a character to life, so even if a character is likely to stay quiet in a social situation, the player can still portray their character through various forms of body language and actions. *Nervously wrings his hands* can be more effective than speaking, but doing nothing just leaves a toon standing their contributing well... nothing.

That is good to hear, and I saw this as more serious than some of the other RP servers I have played on. However, I think that the other servers may have wanted to prevent this, but wasn't being very informal to the players from the beginning.

Perhaps one should create stickies, as well as informing players in game through server msges? It would be a lot of work, but by informing all players (knowing that not everyone visits forum), you reduce the chance of people staying oblivious to the lore.

Yeah, emoting is good and interesting way to RP if you play the more quiet character.

I think often other servers do WANT to prevent such, but they feel
helpless in truly supporting it. I can be very upfront on this issue
and I know many of you that know me are pretty familiar, but if I see
carebearing I won't at all hang around and do events. My view is that I
don't want to road block your rp at all, but just remember that if you
roadblock someone elses by setting unrealistic expectations with lore
than it more so becomes a problem.

I hope we can set a standard
that Drow on the surface will have a big huge bullzeye on their
forehead and I don't ever want to hear about drow complaining about
being pvped while on the surface. Also this is the reverse. When I see
a camp full of human slaves that are walking around with better magical
gear then the drow, that is a sure way to get me to move onto another
map to watch others. I will address my views on slaverly within another
thread, but this I used to see often and it made me cringe.

Couldn't agree more on that one.

Yeah, of course one shouldn't tell others how to play, be it how to RP or build their chars, but there should be directed attention to lore, not in black and white, but such things as anti racism does not exist in forgotten realms. It is a setting filled with hatred and mistrust among races.

That isn't telling them how to RP, it is rather reminding people that the setting is forgotten realms, not our world. I think that much should be demanded of the players of an RP server.

Arath.inc wrote:Yeah, of course one shouldn't tell others how to play, be it how to RP or build their chars, but there should be directed attention to lore, not in black and white, but such things as anti racism does not exist in forgotten realms. It is a setting filled with hatred and mistrust among races.

That isn't telling them how to RP, it is rather reminding people that the setting is forgotten realms, not our world. I think that much should be demanded of the players of an RP server.

That is after all the primary reason we're all playing; to have fun with and the greater scope of the community on this server. I operate awesome very simple standard practices in order to ensure that players will have an enjoyable experience here.

I view my role here as one of the staff members in many respects as the role of a community public servant more than anything else. What I tolerate I validate and should I fail to act upon repeated violations of the server policy I will have created a new standard, which I find to be unacceptable and unfair to the players.

I highly urge players to check their real life of ethics and worldview at the login screen in regards to in character interactions. I've seen tempers flare up far too much between players and members of staff on other servers when players cannot separate what is in character and what is out of character. The setting like any other setting, playground, sandbox, what have you has some ground rules. In order to ensure that suspension of disbelief is maintained.

I personally always find a rather discourteous to say the least when I see a player create a special snowflake character concept That by any measure would have no business in this particular setting.

It is my hope that if players will let us know if they find something such as another player destroying their suspension of disbelief through such things as you mention above. Having said that I would urge all players to try to solve differences on the lowest level possible, and failing that do not be afraid to approach any of us with your concerns.

Tension, adversity, racism, classism is what really brings out the best in role-play. Difficult and dangerous social confrontation may be the essence of what we're getting into. Mind you in many different levels. It just more fun to have adversity or the potential for dramatic circumstance. Why bring the old and tired political correctness of our world into a fabricated one? We're here for fun, leave the hug-a-thug disposition for the real world. Mixed with a healthy sense of creativity a great RP'er can mix these elements together seamlessly.

loki, you need a smaller avatar ...

I believe you're rigt Dormouse, however I'm posting from my phone and for whatever reason it pasted that thing up there. I've never seen that pic in my life until I posted. Might be a small anomaly?? I'll try to fiddle with it from my phone, but if I cant do anything then I'll manage this mischief tonite.

Lol, doesn't it add that to any new registered player by default?

I wouldn't worry about it appearing out of nowhere.

darn it, if anyone can find a nice small appropriate avatar then ill make that the default for new players !

Don't ask me, that's all I can say

Yeah sure, just let me look through my PC. There has to be some appropiate images around here.

Curse you 5gb image library. Ah, there.

https://i.imgur.com/6a4m5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JOitC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YokPA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fV6bk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qvg51.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QufWN.jpg

And back to ME 3 demo. I got a schedule to keep after all.

I'm happy with my Avatar but to get things back on topic.

I've been away from Roleplaying for a while now and am looking forward to getting my RP mojo back.
I love to RP but every now and again I'll have an off day when all I'll want to do is kill things. However never be afraid to approach me when I'm in this kind of mood as a good RP'er will get an RP'd response as to why I'm behaving the way I am. A good RP'er should always have a reason for their behaviour that is in keeping with both the setting and their character. I always try to have something ready that is plausible and not an excuse.