Lately, I've been attempting to round out my character's personality, and I'm trying to come up with ideas that, while keeping with the general idea, don't annoy those around me. I want to include mannerisms that would give him a unique personality. Nothing disruptive to others, though, and that's what I'm afraid of doing. I'm experimenting with a few things, some seem to work, some causing somewhat of a headache to others. This is the first MUD where RP is important, and I realize this is a little late considering how old he is, but I feel it's never too late to start fleshing out a character. (Better late than never)

So my question is: How much is too much? And this isn't about making a history, background, or description (although those are important parts of a character). It's more how one presents themselves in the public light.

Here's a good rule of thumb- if you find yourself typing emotes more than four times a minute, you're overdoing it. If your character can't express him or herself in words without constantly giggling, hopping, eyerolling, grr'ing, etc, you're either doing something wrong or are making up for something that your character lacks. Obviously, that's for truly irritating characters, but's generally a good thing that everyone could do with thinking about. Feel free to use emotes when they're appropriate, of course!

It's hard to suggest anything because I'm not really familiar with Rauros, but I have a few more basic ideas to throw out there- no one in Lusternia is truly a child so acting like one is bound to annoy people, acting like a dismal, angsty Paladin whose sole desire is to wear black and worship Nil is a cop-out (idea is the same in any respective combination), and if you are interested in Lusternia's political arena, make sure your character's personality is COMPLETELY separated from your real personality. Too many awesome Lusternians have been driven away from the game because they couldn't make that separation.

Good luck, and most importantly, have fun with it! Don't get frustrated!

What if your character is Myrkr, who is the most hyperactive Faeling currently in the game? I think most people who have really dealt with her -- not just watched her in passing -- know she has at least an inkling of a personality.

This is sort of what my question is aiming to discuss. I know there are hyperactive faelings and such, but at what point does it become too much?

Druken makes some good points, and it does clarify a few things for me. Beyond emotes, what are some other things that would go too far? For example, if I wanted Rauros to be a holy zealot, preaching to every person who comes to the Pool, would that be a bit too much? (Btw, already tried this, and got some negative feedback, both IC and OOC, so I won't be doing this again)

Eh. Well. Zealots are zealots. How many ones in real life do you know in real life who don't get negative feedback?

I think with Zealots, you reserve the preaching for when someone mentions something your character has an opinion on. They can be the type of Zealot that only speaks up when Mag or Glom is mentioned, or the type that interrupts people's conversations to boast about the Light. Also, as a Zealot, your character should be referring to the Supernals and the Light... a lot.

Misconstrued understandings of history would help, too.

My $0.02

This is just me but I never understood why emotes are so frowned on. I agree if you repeat anything constantly it would get annoying, but that holds true for speech as well as emotes.

I think custom emotes for common situations are some of the best RP tools you can have. I wish more people would put some effort into defining some nice subtle changes to common actions like greeting or laughing or whatever.

The key is to preplan things so you do not have the moment pass by while you try to type out the emote. This also allows you to ensure you have no typos in the emote which tend to be far more obvious that typos/mispelling in speech.

A good rule of thumb for me is if people start sending you OOC tells about how disruptive you are, then you've gone too far.

As far as mannerisms, maybe just try adopting small things, like an emote or a turn of phrase Rauros consistently uses in certain situations. Little things can be remembered as much as big things like zealotry or egotism, sometimes.

I never state that using emotes are bad. The administration didn't write hundreds just for creativity's sake! I'm just playing devil's advocate and letting Rauros know that emotes are generally the bane of a good role-player. For whatever reason, people tend to discredit someone that's spending their energy skipping and hopping rather than having a constructive conversation.

Volroc brings up a good point- Druken has a few very specific expressions that he uses frequently. One is a dismissive gesture and another is a narrowing of the eyes. He'll smile when it's appropriate and exhale when he's stressing, but his personality doesn't allow for rampant giggling and over-abundant expressions of emotion.

Try a few things out! It's all up to you. If Rauros has been deterred from a specific realm of self-expression and you'd rather he fit in, just approach the game thinking that your slate is clean. Inevitably, people will begin to recognize the subtle changes you're making. Try to change up the way he greets people, for instance. If you want to play a holy person, try graciously inclining your head. If you want to play a zealot, try nodding at people. Whatever you do, make it a regular thing so that it becomes more second nature. People will start to recognize you for your credible roleplaying skills rather than someone that's trying perhaps a little too hard to fit the made-for-TV action movie molds.

Again! Remember to make it fun!

confusing as it may be, I don't view emotes as just for emotion, I use it for all kinds of things. For example, Zvaka has these bindings on his wrists, so i aliased an emote of him rubbing them.
Think about it this way, I prefer emotes of small actions, and I use them as such, I don't only express myself by 'running and skipping' as you put it, but by smaller actions, placing yourself in the room for example, I like to have Zvaka on a branch leaning against the trunk when he's casually talking, and emote him thus

I find the generally the most poignantly simple RP tools are things just to tack on says (Using the say (blah blah) blah thing). I usually use words like coyly, dryly, faintly, etcetera, which I think gives more mood to says (which are otherwise rather plain and have generic tones).

Also good are those say-substitutes (whisper, orate, shriek, murmur, etcetera), but I think that the very best roleplay tool is someone else who will reciprocate roleplay.

Honestly, it's the little things that make good RP. You can only take fanatical anti-taint or Crazy Geomancer so far. Your character needs quirks just like real people. For instance, with Celina I've started to use a lot of crowtongue when she talks. She uses it always, not just in greating or farewells like most BT do. She is very affectionate towards her familiar but rarely anyone else.

Just don't...roll your r's all the time or snuggle with everything that moves, or something equally annoying. You should be fine.

For exhibit A, I would like to submit Kalodan, pre and post Honeycake Song. He started out as extreme to the point of OOC annoyance. Nothing he did was cliche, it was just obnoxious. He responded quite well to feedback via the forums, and he changed (seamlessly) into a character that was still extreme, and thus still on the receiving end of complaints, but complaints because he was extreme and not because he was cliche or obnoxious. So, use those as your two standards. If you are cliche or obnoxious, you're doing it wrong. The zealous preacher is cliche. The mute character is cliche. The win-at-all-odds knight errant is cliche. Shouting the Honeycake Song is obnoxious. Having an RP that revolves around grieftastic PK is obnoxious.

I feel extreme things like, being a vocal zealot or some such, need to be integrated into a character over a long period of time, not just strapped on top like a gimmick. Without that, it usually just seems like a cry for attention (regardless of whether it is or not.)

As for emotes and the like, I think it's all about context. In some situations, it may be too much, in others, it would be just fine. I guess the trick is finding that sense of knowing when those times are.

There was this one novice I remember talking to, Daedalion remembers her, that talked in emotes. Literally never used the SAY command. When she emoted, it was in paragraphs. Daedalion and I sat there for 5 minutes wondering why she suddenly stopped responding, then we got an essay long emote to read. Quite possibly the most annoying thing I've ever seen. If your emotes take more then 2 lines, they are too long and fall into Xavius's "obnoxious" catagory. This girl, littleraly, had 10 t0 15 line emotes. Don't do that.

I would agree with you, up to where its 'casual' rp. If you're actually acting out a proper scene, using relitivly long ones can be good.

Don't remind me, we sat there staring at her for an hour and a half conversation that should of been over in 15 minutes. I wanted to slap her through the screen.

There are plenty of examples for too much RP and even more where people don't have any at all. Personaly, I find that it takes me too long to think of a good emote for a situation, and more times than not if I do type it out the moment has already passed.. needless to say I hardly emote at all.

I've seen some people using the "say (blah blah blah)" command ALOT, when I say alot I mean every single say they do has something attached to it.. for me that seems a bit excessive.. it might just be me.

Don't listen to Xavius, he just listed off nearly everyone's RP I know of in one paragraph and called it bad. Which in itself probably makes his bad too.

In personal experience with my own RP, alot of people have expressed they're dislike for it (Not that I really care at all). Most of it bordering on starting conflict (Yes, I have RP reasons to do so), which is most likely the reason they dislike like it.

If you can't avoid cliche, obnoxious or one-dimensional (or even one-dimensional with minor trimmings, which causes some people to get it confused with not being one-dimensional) then you're doing it wrong. Xavius just gave some examples of particularly familiar attention-grabbing ones - including the mute one, as unintuitive as that might sound.

I've always been a fan of the RP where certain things happen and your character's personality builds off of that. So they essentially start out as something simple and can stay simple depending on who they meet and what happens or become quite complex with varying layers of personality. I suppose I'll use Sarrasri as an example. She started out quiet, shy, and liking to read. As time progressed and different things happened to her, she became more vocal, less involved with reading and hiding away, more involved with people. Since then, she's advanced further and is now considered a zealot amongst most, having an extreme dislike of cities, seeing them as nothing but tools to be used and tossed aside, and having an extreme devotion to her guild because she finds others lacking. But you won't really know it just by standing around with her until the topic is breached. The entire time throughout, she's been sweet and nice to those in her org, hiding away when in a bad mood. She's gone from simple to quite complex, and most of it has been based on her personal experiences. It's by no means anything great, but it keeps things interesting since she has quirks.

And don't be a mute. Nobody likes a mute.