I do this. Emphasis on the I like blue.

Sadie and her collection of body parts is adorable in a creepy aslaran Dr. Frankenstein kind of way.

*cough cough cough cough cough*

/forum RP

Defeated, Demetrios is cast out of the arena.

Use next Pokemon?

I always enjoy people whom you can't exactly say "This is the root cause of it" or decidedly say that it's a certain illness. It adds a bit of flexibility and confusion which can really get people going and interested in learning stuff about others.

I tend to see things as gimmicky when it's either done poorly, or everything revolves around the gimmick. If you have to sit there and keep going on, and on about how he's mute or something, then it's usually a failure. Don't keep attracting attention to it, just let it flow. Whereas, I notice a lot of people develop a lot of really nice flow when it isn't forced, and they blur the lines a bit. A mute might speak in tells every so often just to clear the air, but will still use a great deal of facial expressions to get their point across.

Some people love Jigan, some people hate him. But I hope they hate the character, rather than how I play him.

I started this topic hoping it would be something of an educational resource for me. You've given me a lot to think about, so thanks!

Okay, so let's look at what an "awesome story" is then. By awesome, do you mean epic? Do you mean interesting? And if so, then what is interesting? I mean, what if I had a character whose background was simply a farmhand? That probably wouldn't be interesting to a lot of people, especially if nothing big happened. Also, not everyone is going to have these epic or interesting lives. Roleplay to me is about believability, not so much anything else.

Also, how realistic is it for people to continually "deliver" their story? For a book, this is fine, since it is narrated around specific people. You can't assume a character of a book to be narcissistic because it revolves around him. However, if somebody kept "delivering" their story to me, then I might consider them as narcissistic. Most people I know don't talk much about their personal life. I don't know a whole lot about their background, their family, their job. That is realistic, and part of life. Sure, they share some of their problems, as friends do. I could ask them more about their background and they'd probably share it. Maybe though I misunderstood what you meant by deliver a story.

I'm not saying that background isn't important. I'd imagine anyone who is serious about their character and their roleplay would have developed one. I did with my character. What I believe though to be the most important thing to roleplay is believability, as shown above. Believably also encompasses consistency. The background doesn't have to be epic or interesting, just believable.

I like to think my character has a lot of depth. Most people only see bouncing, some odd behavior, and an occasional few words. However, I have a reason for everything on my character. Simply asking her why she does what may or may not give you an exact answer, or even an answer at all. This is because of another trait I've decided for my character, which is that there are some behaviors she doesn't even realize she does (which is actually realistic to reality anyway). So, maybe to others it appears a character lacks complexity, but that isn't always the case. My character's written background which I've never submitted isn't exactly an essay, and certainly not a novel. It fills in enough for people to understand initially where Fay is coming from and some of her quirks, which I think is important. What more is required?

I appreciate the reply!

Tangentially related:When I first interacted with Sadhyra in Glomdoring, I was amazed at the way she used says and how fluid her rp seemed. The transition from one of her 'moods'(or something like that) is seamless. You can check out a few of her rp logs somewhere in the forums.

This would be less of an issue of people actually used the BACKGROUND and HISTORY features, both of which have their own help files. If I saw anything at all whenever I checked for it on someone, it would become more of a habit for me. It would also handle the 'retelling' issue.

Honestly, I think composed backgrounds and histories are the single most neglect and underused, yet incredibly useful tools that a roleplay intensive player has available to them. Personally, I still haven't composed my background, and honestly I don't believe anything about a character is 'canon' to their RP unless it's written in one. It's more of an issue of lazy for me. I know I should, but there really doesn't seem to be a point, as no one would bother to read it. Heck, most people don't even know that backgrounds exist in the first place.

(I'd really like to see guilds start including composing a background, if not updating personal histories as part of their advancement requirements. It would give the entire world a deeper layer of depth and give people access to your back story and the ability to understand and maybe appreciate where your roleplay is drawn from.

That's not a good idea, and here's why: very few people know for a fact what they want their background to be in the period of time in which they're doing guild advancement. Even fewer will never want to change that background, which is something that can't be done once it's been officially set (to my chagrin, back on Achaea >_<). That is why at most a guild should ask a person to have some idea of their background and be able to discuss it briefly.

I'm saying that a solid RP base should be a part of being in a guild, honestly. It's a bit of effort to sit down and really think of who you want to be, and where you came from, but guild reqs are supposed to be a mild challenge, and it will really help to get that player into their character role. Besides, backgrounds can be as brief and short as you desire. They don't have to be an epic length narrative. One or two paragraphs often works.

Hmm, when I finally get have a firm decision on what I'm going to do when I create a new character (and retire my main) I think I'm definitely going to write a background when I get started, rather than leaving myself on an unsteady RP base for a very long time. It would also definitely help me get back in-role if I ever needed to take a long hiatus again.

Doesn't matter. If you ask newbies to set their background in stone it will not end well. Can you think back to the first background you ever wrote for a character? Would you like that to be publicly available and immutable?

Ileein is right. The Portal of Fate enabling everyone to have an excuse to figure out their background later on and adjust as necessary is one of Lusternia's better thought-out features.

Yeah the Portal of Fate wipes the memory clean. It's up to you if you 'rediscover' parts or all of it later. My characters tend to only ever remember bits and pieces of theirs after several decades. Why? Because I really like the whole 'your life begins at the moment you step out of the Portal' thing. It really opens things up, IMO.

That's certainly fair, and one person's interesting story is going to be boring to another and so on. What I was trying to get across was not so much, "Great RPers are people whose story is interesting to me," as "Everything about the way this person portrays their character is tied to the story they're telling." It very well could be someone could want to play a farmhand, and that's the character they want to portray. I would expect, then, that this character's values and priorities, the way they spend their time, the metaphors they use and the things they tend to talk about would tie into that. While that may not be very interesting to me, personally, I would say that would be good RP. As you pointed out, it's consistent and believable, and what makes it believable is that it consistently flows from their concept.

What I'm trying to differentiate from is this idea that simply picking a quirk or a shtick and doing that over and over does not equate to being a good RPer. If someone decides, for example, to say all their "S" sounds as "SH," even if they're painfully conshishtent with that, that'sh shimply portraying a quirk. There's nothing about playing a role in that. It's merely a habit of SAY or EMOTE.

That's why, I guess, I get a little twitchy when people start talking about taking their RP in new directions, and this is followed by a list of potential quirks. To me, taking your RP in new directions means changing the trajectory of your character's story. Once again, I'm not saying everyone needs to have that same viewpoint, but I hope that clarifies a bit what mine is.



It's extremely realistic.

When I think back to my days playing with Shayle, Yeralih, Nariah, Linaeve, Synl, Druken, Dylara, Aiakon... none of those people had some unique habit of speech or emotion. Nor did any of them go on long discourses about their backstory. But everything they said, did, and thought flowed out of a very thoughtful and consistent presentation of their character concept, and their concepts were deep, thorough, and multifaceted. When you played with them, you were about to have a vivid, definitive experience with a unique -character-.

So, to back to your farmhand example, if that was someone's concept, then when I played with them, I would probably be turned off by someone who just kept going on and on about being a farmhand in a blatantly narrative way. But when I talk about delivering the story, I don't mean necessarily someone verbally sharing their backstory with you - although that could be part of it, I suppose, if it came up. Nor am I talking about the use of HISTORY and BACKGROUND, which are essentially OOC ways of telling other players what you're about.

But when you talk to a character, the things they say, the values that come out, their motivations, their attitudes, their allusions to the past when appropriate... these are things you can present the way we do in real life - conversations and actions - without having to hit someone over the head with it.

But the point is, those things come from a character concept.

I'm not going to name names, but by counterpoint, there was a Lusternia player who had a shtick about liking pie. Always talked about pie. YELLed about pie. Put pie in his motto. And, when asked about why he was into pie so much, would say, "I just really like pie."

To me (once again, just speaking for myself), this does not equate to being a good RPer. I'm not saying it wasn't funny. I'm not saying it wasn't fun for that person. I'm not saying they shouldn't have done it. But I am saying I would not confuse talking about pie all the time with good RP. Now, if he wanted to be a pie-maker. And he baked different kinds of pies he designed, sold pies... even if he went insane and believed pies were the incarnation of Raziela's power - it would be part of some kind of unifying picture for his character, and maybe I would feel differently. I don't know. I guess I would have to see it.



I've already bored you to death with this, but just to beat the dead horse a little longer, let me give an example.

I had an idea for a Seren monk. A lobo. This lobo would have very deep beliefs against the use of violence. He would, however, be psychotic about defending his home, and would do so with alacrity. He would also carry in his heart a hope for the restoration of Gloriana.

How would I deliver this story:

1. Refuse to go on raids or defend villages and take the appropriate RP heat for those decisions, suffer CDFs, etc. with humility and meekness. If pressed, I would explain my pacifistic views.

2. When the Serenwilde was attacked, I would be first to fight. I would indicate my eagerness in defense. I might even act impulsively if I thought I could do it without actually screwing up the other players. After the raid, I would portray deep regret. I might seek solitude, or I might come up with a personal ritual I performed for absolution. I might go to a shrine or temple. I don't know. I'd come up with stuff. This rather obvious contradiction would probably become apparent to people over time. Maybe they would ask about it leading to some revelatory dialog. Maybe they wouldn't. Maybe I would be persecuted as a hypocrite. It's all good.

3. When speaking about Glomdoring, I would do so from a perspective of pity. I would not join in any kind of bloodthirsty-oriented talk about Glomdoring and, on occasion, might even try to dissuade others from thinking about Glomdoring in that way. When speaking to Gloms, I would speak to them as if they were victims of some terrible malady rather than hated foes, and I was working to save them. I might even pick out some Glomdoringians and try to work more directly with them on this line.

And things like that.

I'm not saying that's some tremendously awesome idea, but I hope that more clearly differentiates the thing I have in mind from more of the "quirk selection" view of RPing a character.

Alright. So it doesn't sound like you have to be an awesome writer, like I was afraid you were indicating! I'm certainly not a very good writer.

I tend to take things a little too literally so I need to have them explained more. Thanks for being patient!

I know what you mean by picking quirks out and just doing them. People aren't just a set of quirks, they are much more than just that! They have a whole personality that should be expressed consistently and believably. I think we were talking about the same things, but we were using different explanations!

I liked your example of delivering a story. That's something I do. Well, not the exact same thing of course, but the method of expressing. Roleplaying isn't always fun, or beneficial for your character. I've had to do tiring stuff on Fay just because it was part of her personality. I've had to put up with rude behavior towards her even. Normally I'd give that person a piece of my mind, but not Fay. It's all worth it though!

I think you also just reinforced my desire to not submit my characters written background. I wanted people to discover and learn about my character through experience, not through some piece of history I've written. I wrote the history for my own reference anyway! Maybe though people can better experience a character when they have an initial understanding.

I've never seen you write, so I can't say, but you've certainly been more than articulate, here!

But, no, I didn't mean a person had to be an author, per se, and looking back over the examples I used, I can see how it might have looked that way. Visions of multi-paragraph emotes and stuff.

And it really isn't that at all. It's really just, are you playing a role, or are you playing a quirk? People might have fun doing one or the other or both, but I wouldn't mistake them for being the same thing.

I actually feel very similarly to you about written histories. On the one hand, they can be very helpful for you and other -players- who play with you, but on the other hand, if you're playing your cards right, someone should be able to put your character together over time and interaction, too.