Roleplaying 101
From UO Community
Appropriate Snippiets from Dartanian Lestor
OOC Events, translated into IC
OOC: Experience as a number
IC: Experience should be vague. If you're close to having your next insight, you could say "I just need a bit more practice with that goblin..." or "I'm so close...so close to being a battle-honed warrior" If it's far away, "It seems I have much learning to do" or something similar.
OOC: Stats as a number.
IC: Similar to experience, stats should be vague. You wouldn't say to someone on the street "I have 30 strength" You'd do something along the lines of "<flexes See this muscle? That's earned well from battle" or "I know I could take that guy with my bare hands!" Creativity is a nice addition into it.
Some say they lack creativity. Well in that case, just avoid the matter all together. If you play an arrogant person, if the situation ever arises that someone asks you, you could just reply "I need not explain myself to the likes of YOU." If they are kind and calm thinking, say "I appreciate the concern but that's not really relevant at this time." or simply "I haven't tested it out lately so I'm not sure..."
OOC: Lag, crashing, logging
IC: If someone is lagging, then they could say they're "feeling a bit sluggish", or they "can't pull themselves together." Could also say "The aethers are really thick this time of day/night" Crashing...I personally like to say I "blacked out" but even just saying you were temporarily distorted into another realm works. This is a land of magic after all. Logging on/off can simply just be waking up and going to sleep. But you can also leave for a journey where you can't be contacted, "going to your study" (I always use this when I go to work on writings and such), or simply just going deep into the forest/town/castle as to be unreachable.
OOC: Server maintenance/reset
IC: Chaos is affecting the land and rising up! In a land of magick, things are bound to get out of hand from time to time.
OOC: IC
IC: I hear people saying "What the heck is he talking about? but it's true. If people are truly "in character," the "character" would never notice it. They're simply acting like themselves! The most ironic statement is people who say "What? I was acting IC" (note the lack of double paretheses). Now unless your character is a thespian, they're not acting period (with the exceptions "acting crazy", "acting odd" etc.) Your person just IS.
OOC: Being "in character" is an excuse.
IC: Have you ever played a pen-paper roleplaying game? Yes? Have you ever tried to beat up the town sheriff because it was in your character? If so, did you quickly find yourself jailed faster than you could open your mouth to complain? Just because something is "in character" does not automatically make it acceptable in society. Most people argue laws because they prevent some "in character" behavior and they think people should be allowed to do whatever they want "in character."
But personally, think on it. If a person isn't punished for being "in character," they're still the same goody-two-shoes that he despises in everyone else. He's still following the letter of the law if it's acceptable. I'm always conducting myself as an official and I always wish once, just ONCE, that there'd be someone out there who would roleplay a true outlaw. Someone who sees the laws there and says "Why should those apply to me?" and works there best to outwit all the guards and officials there.
Personally, I think the law is a GREAT roleplaying device. It defines you as an obediant citizen or a branded criminal. And if someone actually roleplayed it (hiding outside the gates and persuading people to aid them, jumping behind a citizen and clamping their hand over their mouth, trying to get them to let them in), I think that would just be ideal. Or even better, a criminal at large. One who everyone knows is committing crimes but are just too clever to get caught. Now I'm not encouraging people to do this (standard disclaimer here), but I do think that this would be far better than simply saying "((You can't make that illegal! I was roleplaying the whole time!))"
OOC: Net speech.
IC: I think this is fairly obvious. I even hate this chatroom talk in CHATROOMS. I don't think it's too difficult or time consuming to put the extra letters "y" and "o" attached to that other vowel "u"...same with "are" and "thanks"...they're at most 3 letters! If you want to say a word, write the word (or better yet, use a dialect/accent <grins).
But the other things that are still seen and less common. Also easily corrected. "lol" for example. Why not just say "<laughs" I'm sorry if 5 extra key strokes is tedious...brb turns to (not again!) creativity. Make something that your character might busy themselves with but that they can still stand still. Monks can "sit and meditate for a while." Priests can "close their eyes and focus on the majesty of [diety]." Rogues could do a lot (and of course I use it a lot), but a good one (that can work for warriors too) is "sits down and concentrates on checking his blade for sharpness." Wizards can "focus their concentration on the elements around them." They're longer certainly, but add a nice flavor to your character.
Still other things are e-motes. They're cute and all, but it's much better in my opinion to just indicate the action. So "<smiles" for ":)", "<frowns" for ":(" "<looks crossly at you and then sticks his tongue out" for ":P" There are many possibilities.
Technical issues (read: pet peeve)
As far as I see it, anything you're saying OOC (i.e. in the (()) parentheses) is NOT actually heard by any of the characters in Temuair. This seems a simple enough concept but a lot run into these few problems. Even I'm guilty of them sometimes but I try not to. Because of that, I don't blame people for falling into the traps of it but it's something to at least try and recognize.
First of all, transition. Since they can't actually hear anything said OOC, there needs to be something IC mentioned about it before the topic actually drifts to it. This is very hard, and I fall prey to it many times, but it's something to try and recognize. It's much too easy to simply jump straight back to the IC and assume the character has been subconciously listening to the conversation all along. One thing that might help is trying to keep the whole conversation just OOC and never making mention of it IC. The other is to try and come up with a transition. The trap I usually fall into is "When's the next class going to be?" It's obvious that the character needs to know it, but the player will have trouble understanding the time if I gave it in Temuairan. I try to, if I remember, reply back "About a moon or so from now" and then immediately after, translate "((Monday at 6:00 pm PST))" It doesn't hurt to sometimes give approximations IC but I, personally, feel the response is warranted.
The other situation are what I like to call "broken sentences." If you put an OOC statement in the middle of an IC statement, it doesn't always work. An example where it does work is "I haven't seen him ((since last Friday))." Since the OOC statement is never vocalized by the character, they would be saying "I haven't seen him" which is perfectly acceptable.
But consider this "I've been in this realm for ((two months))" or "I have ((56700 experience)) to go until I gain an insight." The character, in essense, is saying "I've been in this realm for" or "I have to go until I gain an insight." The first one doesn't make sense at all. I don't think anyone would say "I've been alive for" and leave it at that. The second one, though it makes a complete sentence, completely loses what was intended to be meant. "Ye have t' go where exactly?" (I've never been in a pissy enough mood to actually say this :P).
So ways around it? Make the whole statement OOC if you have to...it's the easiest way. That or translate it so it can be all IC to the best of your ability.
Now that we have that out of the way, what's next? Ah, probably the most difficult issue: seperation. What do I mean by seperation? Well, keeping OOC comments out is all well and good, but what about OOC feelings? You as a player may feel strongly about an issue, but does your character as an Aisling feel strongly about it? Or would they be indifferent? The more you practice it, the more you'll be able to put yourself in the mindset of your character. For beginning roleplayers, I wouldn't recommend changing the personality at all. Refer to things in the world of course, but react how you would react to things normally, as if you were there. This technique is called 'displacement' (Well, called by me. I've no idea if there's an official name for it.)
But the inevitable comes, of course, and that's always the bad day. A lousy day at work, a rough day at school, your dog ripped the seat out of your favorite pair of pants, whatever. In that case, I would recommend a day off. The roleplaying world won't disappear because you failed to show up, but there just MIGHT be a lot of hurt or confused feelings later on if you can't control an outburst. A healthy vent would be good to have. If you do come on, (maybe, and I know this happens a lot, there's a really good confidant that plays that you really need to talk to) talk seldom. If you need to talk to a confidant, explain the situation first and that you'll probably be OOC while you vent. Any true friend would find that completely acceptable, but it is best to let them know first.
Creating Characters, in twelve easy steps
So now you have some basic and some advance terms down. So now we're ready to create our characters. Now hold on, drop back and think. This is not an easy process as many know. There has to be some pattern or guidelines to follow...well, yes there is. Here is a technique that might work. At least it's the method I use. Funny...it ended up being a 12-step program. <grins
Step 1: Personality Picking and Gender Getting
Now this seems like a strange thing to do first, but I would recommend it. One of the building blocks of characters are their personality. Everyone has a general disposition that they follow and if you pick this first, everything else can fall into place. Is your character normally happy-go-lucky? Secretive? A blabbermouth? Cynical? Arrogant? Gentle? A trickster? Overly analytical? Are they intelligent or dim-witted?
For a beginning roleplayer, it'd probably be best to not pick something all that far from your own personality, just adapt it as if they were in that world. As you get more advanced, you can try variations on your own or even the complete polar opposite of your own.
Gender also comes into play here. It'd seem an obvious choice that you'd choose your own gender but sometimes the personality you pick determines what gender. It might fit one better than the other. Or you might choose to be a tomboy as a personality. So they are intermingled somewhat.
Once you have a personality, you can move onto:
Step 2: Background Basis (sketch)
Now that you have a general personality, you can start sketching out your character's background. But don't expect to finish it in this step. The background is a continuous process that'll finally end when your character is fully fleshed out.
But now we have a personality. There has to be something in the past that makes them that way. If they are to be arrogant, maybe they were in high society. Or maybe they had something that no one else had, a special gift, a certain item. Maybe it's just inherited from the parents. If they're cynical, maybe something major happened in their life that really disappointed them or disillusioned them. If they're secretive, maybe they used to talk a lot but one day it got them into trouble and they took the other extreme.
Never will you find someone have their past not define who they are in some way. It could be as simple as genetics or an elaborate twist of fate that brought them to the point they are at today. Remember this is just a sketch. You'll be working on this through all the steps bit by bit.
Now that we have some background, we can move to:
Step 3: Childhood Community
Seems easy, but choose the place that they were born. Unfortunately, DA makes this seem too easy: just select the name of a town, but it's more than that. Were they born in the midst of the town, where all the hussle and bustle is? Or were they born in the suburbs? Maybe a farm. Maybe they weren't even born in a town at all, but lived in one of the ransacked cottages in the East Woodlands? Or they could have even been raised by goblins or kobolds.
Again, this ties a bit into personality too so that should narrow down your search a bit. It is hard (but not impossible) to be arrogant if you lived on a farm. It's hard to be cynical if you lived in a wealthy neighborhood and always got what you wanted. But the overlying personality is a guide, and an interesting one. Arrogant on farmlands? Maybe your character's father always praised you and left you in charge of everything. Maybe you've never been off the farm and had no idea of things being better outside it. Where you are, to some extent, defines who you are.
But region does come into play as well. A farm in Suomi would be much more common than a farm in Rucesion. The whole community acts, behaves, feels a certain way. In the region of Suomi and Undine, the locals would be more likely to be bitter about the conduct of Loures and more critical of them than Piet or Loures itself. A wizard from Rucesion might not raise any eyebrows, but a wizard from Mileth or Suomi might call some attention.
Also as far as religion goes, you'd be far more likely to know about the gods whose temples are close by than those that are halfway across the world. Maybe a child from Rucesion got stories from their grandmother of the glory of Deoch and were stunned when they first travelled there to examine the temple. There are many roleplaying elements that you can draw from the background, one only needs to look for them.
So you're starting to be a flesh and blood Aisling now...but we still need some things. Onto...
Step 4: Mundane Monotony
Your character is an Aisling, which means they were once a mundane. How does the transition feel? Glorious? Disappointing? Enlightening? Does your character feel amazed by the new found freedom or frightened of it? The stories we see on television of blind people regaining (or simply gaining) their sight usually portrays it as a wonderful gift, but it doesn't always happen that way. Many are terrified by the new sights, some are disappointed, some break-ups occur because who they thought they were going out with or marrying was someone completely different. Becoming an Aisling is somewhat like this. It will definitely be a different experience, but it might not always be bright and cheerful.
Also, what does your character remember from being a mundane? My character, for example, has an ELABORATE mundane background (if you ever want to know it, I'd tell you, but it might spoil the reaction later) but he remembers precious few of it. Some think that making a character have amnesia is a cop out of not fully developing a background, and sometimes it is. But many true roleplayers have the actual background drawn out but their character doesn't know the half of it. What they remember, and how much of it they remember also affects who they are. Did they have a job? A specific task that no one could do without? If so, what did the society do when they found that your character wanted to travel the world? Can they ever go back or are they scorned from there? If they didn't have a job, how did they make their living? Maybe they were too young to even consider it.
Youth...that brings us to our next step:
Step 5: Age Adaptation
How old is your character? Again, it seems like a simple question. But those who are older have more experience and background. If they're young, are they young and impetuous, or did they always listen to their parents? If they're old, are they wise from it or do they continue to make the same mistakes?
Ah...now mistakes leads us into the next section...
Step 6: Fatal Flaws and Character Calamities
They don't have to be exactly FATAL, but are there any personality quirks that your character has? Can they not stand a certain race? Why? We're gradually learning that there are many more humanoid, intelligent, and semi-intelligent races in Temuair than we previously thought; we have the Mukul, Kobolds, Goblins, Grimloks, Dubhaimid, Dwarves, the Tuatha de Danaan (basically faeries or fae), and (thanks to Nenya) the Eldar. That brings up another good point, does your character see mundanes and Aislings as two different races, or do they respect their mundane brethren?
Does your character have any fears? If not, are they reckless in the face of danger? Is the fear just an inconvenience or does it completely paralyze them or make them flee all together?
Is your character completely fascinated with something? Could be simple infatuation but it could also be something that they completely drop everything if they see a beautiful flower or a cute girl.
With the major flaws out of the way, you can work out:
Step 7: Lovely Likes and Detestable Dislikes
These are fairly obvious. It doesn't necessarily have to be an item, it could be a person. Or maybe just a personality trait. Maybe it's the morning sky as the sun appears over the mountains. Or maybe it's simply a type of food. Whatever it is, the character acts it out.
Again, this ties into background. Everything does. With all these steps, simply add another question: Why does my character do this? If you ask the why, something in the background should surface.
Now the character is a nimbus of feelings and emotions and events. It's time to start giving them a shell to exist in.
Step 8: Fun with Follicles and Fleshing the Face
DA gives the ability to choose hairstyle, color, and draw a portrait. If you can't draw, at least have a written description of yourself for your own purposes. When all else fails, you can choose a haircolor and style you like, but it could also reflect in your personality and/or background. Maybe where you come from, a child with green hair is only born once every 100 years. Maybe the hair is stained red with the blood that your family has spilt over the years. Maybe their eyes and hair is red to match their flaming personality. Be (I know people hate this word, but tough) creative.
DA also allows for hairstyling and dying. This is an interesting aspect. Maybe your character is so vain that they need a new style every day. Maybe they're never satisfied with the way they look so they do this every once and a while. Maybe your character needs a cunning disguise to try and talk with someone or sneak into a place. Maybe they just want a change. Whatever the reason, the possibility is there. And if they never want to change it, maybe they scorn the people who aren't satisfied with themselves who do constantly change it.
Once you have the top, you need a bottom to it though...that brings us to..
Step 9: Body Building
Is your character average build, husky, lanky, well-muscled? Would you consider their figure attractive? Maybe they have a distinguishing scar. It doesn't necessarily have to be from Sgrios. Maybe they have some sort of mark or tatoo. Some distinguishing features are always interesting to add.
But we also know, clothes make the man (or woman), so next we go to...
Step 10: Crafty Classes and Glorious Garments
Before you can figure your clothing, you have to wonder what class/path your character is going to choose. Choose one that fits their personality and background (in fact, you might have already based the background around this). In case you haven't already done so, this is the time to do it.
But what type of clothing attracts your character. I assume you've already chosen a gender so that essentially cuts your choice in half. If you've chosen a class as well, that cuts it to 1/5th as well, but there are still many possibilities. You start, as a peasant, with one choice (shirt or blouse) but after you've taken a class, there are at least 5. Once you've reached your 11th insight (2nd Circle), there are 9 possibilities. At your 41st insight (3rd Circle), there are at least 13 possibilities. At the 71st, at least 14 right now, but eventually it'll be 17. And more possibilities open earlier if you gain noble recognition.
Warriors have a couple extra choices earlier (I think 26 and 55 but I'm not sure)
At your 15th insight, there are (technically) 4 more possibilities but I would not enter this into your decision. The political garments should come only if you want the OFFICE first. The garment comes second. And even if they take a position, will they wear the uniform constantly or only occassionally? Is it because they're proud? They like the style? Dartanian rarely wore the demagogue pelisse because he didn't want to put himself above anyone else. He DID like to wear the burgess cloak because of the style but he didn't like the position it put him in so he wore it rarely.
So which of these choices will you wear most? You don't always HAVE to wear the best armor. And note that it is not "dyed" but tailored to fit a region. Maybe, no matter how ugly it looks, your character stays true to their region.
And there are also the two wedding garments if you think they are appropriate.
There are also several rings, earrings, gauntlets, and such. Sometimes you wear what you think is the best protection, but also sometimes the creativity lies in the ABSENSE of wearing them. Until he lost it, Dartanian always wore only one gauntlet, always on his right hand (which is a task, I always have to equip lockpicks, then the gauntlet, then remove the lockpicks :P). You can develop a story around why they wear or refuse to wear certain things.
So now we pretty much have our entire character planned. There are two things left...
Step 11: Distinct Dialects
The only real necessary part of this is to speak with semi-formality. Try not to use common slang. Also try to link it to your character, though this is not always necessary. What I mean is that a warrior would be more apt to grunt when they speak, have a harsh tone, maybe use bawdy jokes and (if you can find some of this, great, but it's not a requirement) older slang. If you read some of the notes in Shakespeare books, you might see some slang terms. But it's a suggestion and not a necessity. If you speak of things affecting and relating to Temuair, you're in the spirit of it and roleplaying.
As you get more advanced, though, regular speech might not be enough. Some sort of speech impediment might be interesting. Thome might with thoo speak with a lithp, whilst others would find it meet to have their discourse take a haughty tone. Meybe ya spake aws a fawma, or <nods his head, and points to his mouth, showing he's mute. Or ye might 'ave a wee bit o' th' Scottish accent in ye. There are many ways to do it or insert your own dialect. (By the way, if you couldn't understand them, they were, respectively: Some might wish to speak with a lisp, while others want to speak like high society. Maybe you speak as a farmer, or maybe you're mute. Or maybe you use a scottish accent. And another by the way, that's the type of hybrid accent Dartanian uses if you didn't know.)
You could actually speak some language that no one else understands. Keep this to a minimal though, as lack of communication doesn't help roleplaying at all. But there could be an occassional interjection that they use ("Brethic commreda Diaso!" or "My god's curse upon you!" and yes I completely made that up :P) or they use it to describe something that doesn't exist in the society. Maybe their culture doesn't have a word for something that exists in the DA world at all. This can make for some interesting roleplaying.
And also, if they speak another language, where did they learn the common Ardmagh tongue? DID they learn it fully? You have to use it somewhat or else people would be mad, but your grammar could be extremely poor (don't confuse this with people who can't do it normally :P).
All in all, speech can say a lot about your character. You only need to look into it. Also note (which actually was pointed out to me by someone else or else I'd still be doing it today) that people with impediments or dialects don't WRITE with the impediment. Their thinking might draw out a bit of the accent, but overall, you wouldn't write something with a lisp or leaving out the letters. If that were the case, the mutes would be SEVERELY handicapped since they couldn't say or write anything at ALL.
Now, bear with me. This last step should be easy now that everything is underway.
Step 12: Naming of the Beast
No matter what order you decide to do the rest of these steps in, I would always, ALWAYS recommend saving the name for last. The name is the first impression that people get of your character. It should reflect the personality, background, everything that you've worked out. As well, it should reflect the world of Temuair. "2kewlD00d" simply doesn't cut it. Even if you choose an alias instead of a name, pick one that relates to the personality and world of Temuair. One that's creative. Using something like "TheWizard" or "RoguelyOne" just isn't using that interesting muscle, whereas "ShadowKnight," even though no one would call their child that, holds some creativity to it. And if your character uses an alias, make sure they have a "real" name too, maybe one that they only use with their friends, or something their parents call them that is a constant embarrassment. Don't accept that that is really their name, unless the parents were feeling REALLY spiteful.
And one last tip for general roleplaying before I end this off, don't treat people as if you know their name right off, even if you do. Be sure to introduce yourself. If you're polite, call them "sir" or "madam" until you ask their name. If you're not, you can always say "Hey you!" but don't assume. Even if you can say you know their name from their writings, act amazed when they first tell you their name "YOU'RE the famous bard, Kallestra???" I assure you, it'll be a much more pleasurable experience when the attempt is made.
Character Knowledge: IC & OOC
The "Five-Character" - Problem
It is for precisely this reason that I DON'T tell anyone of any other characters I use, because no matter what, people always treat you different, even if you say "((Hey it's me, Dartanian))" I've created three characters in my time, each completely different. (I kind of felt bad after one because he was played as a stuck-up, rude, self-centered wizard) and I'd never tell people who they are because I don't want to be treated any different. The only problem is having a main one because you might slip (which I've done a few times) and reveal yourself. Fortunately no one noticed when I did that. ;) Or at least they didn't let on that they noticed.
Calling them your family is fine, but overdone. Personally, some characters I don't see WHY you have to even reveal that they're the same person in the first place. If you reveal that you are, no matter how "good" a roleplayer you are, you start to treat them differently. If they're a friend, you'll naturally act more friendly towards them. If there was some bad blood between you, your character will usually be more overcritical of what the other does.
Even the best roleplayers have a bad day and it affects their roleplaying. Or sometimes they even have a good day and it might affect a normally gloomy character. Likewise, while judging the character, we too often judge the person with them. Just because someone plays a real jerk doesn't always mean the person is (though with the lack of roleplaying, it just very well might.)
I'm wandering like I usually tend to. There should be an IC justification at least. But you could leave it alone at best. A better way to justify it rather than say that they are brother and sister, is just act as if the item disappeared on its own and some "mysterious thief" must have gotten away with it. Or maybe a wicked form of mind control caused them to send off the item and they have no recollection of giving it off. I personally wouldn't use the votes at all unless they might be family or you think that the character would support their actions too.
It all leads to the distinction. There is character knowledge and player knowledge. This you see in a lot of RPG books. Distinguishing between these two things is the toughest, but most rewarding thing about roleplaying. It's this that allows you to be surprised, angry, sorrowful, disgusted, etc. If you have "seen it all," try to not make it as if your character has. Trust me, it is a lot of fun.
Alternative Cursing for the Role-Player
Just on this topic got me thinking, there are plenty of ways to curse. Why does it have to be "official cursing" to be a curse? I just thought I'd compile a list of ways I would "get around" the filter. Feel free to add onto this list with your own suggestions:
Common curses:
Zounds
Ye gods
Goddess/Danaan bless (it)
Blast it (all)
By Chadul's beard/toe/little pinky/any body part
Specific curses (i.e. against people you don't like or heretics):
Blasted heathen!
May the pits of Chadul claim you!
Maggots feast on your lifeless corpse!
Rabid wolves gnaw at your bones!
Chadul curse you with the infinite dark!
Danaan rob you of Her warmth!
Ugly insults:
I'll tell the goblins to quit aiming for the face then, alright?
That mug would scare the dubhaimid.
Why not travel to Tagor? With that face, you'd fit right in.
Stupidity insults:
Did a goblin smack you on the head when you were young?
Luathas must have been drinking some fine wine with that one.
Raised by dubhaimid, (s)he was. And even they thought her/him a little dim.
Omens/bad feelings:
Fiosachd seems to have forsaken me/us.
It is an ill wind that blows here.
May [Diety of choice] protect us.
Can you have a completely self-sufficient community in an Online-RPG?
I think, in an ideal situation, it could be self-sufficient. However, people consistantly and painfully point out that things work out far from perfect.
People don't keep their mind in the game, even some of the best roleplayers. If you make enemies with someone with one character, chances are good that other characters are going to carry that resentment as well. Especially if it's taken personally (Cali is a good example of this).
It's something called suspension of disbelief that immerses us in movies and games and such, but it is also that same suspension that makes things appear more realistic. A good movie can draw you into it and make you feel as if the characters really truly exist. Similarly, a good game can draw you in and make you feel THEY exist, even if only they are a few pixels with another person determining their personality from another end. You inject your own feelings into characters and that makes them come alive, but that same injection can become toxic when resentment is there.
"Respect the person, hate the character" is a notion that would be great to have in roleplaying games but much too often falls short. People you like on the game you get to know, and you think you know. Your mind works a mile a minute trying to project what their personality is really like, how they'd react and such. A "good" character must be projecting good personality traits of themselves onto their character so they are "good" people. A "bad" character must secretly get a thrill from being nasty so they must be "bad" in real life. These "conclusions" happen a lot subconciously, but the wall between the reality and fantasy wears thin. Some people can manage to realize that a "good" character might be a jerk in real life and a "bad" character can be the nicest person if you'd met them, but those are few and there are usually degrees of that. To some extent, projection usually takes place.
Then you get the people who act "evil" because THEY (not their character) are bored. Another projection for the worse, it influences them. People can have a bad day in real life and that can influence their behavior (personally, I'd refrain from taking it out on an RP environment in the first place).
It also doesn't help that people feel they have to immediately justify it, which stems back to the subconcious projection, only in reverse. People think that if their "bad" character is hated and despised, they (the person behind it) are hated and despised as well. They often feel they have to rationalize it ("It wasn't me, it's just my character!" and they're mostly right. When I exiled Max, I heard a plea for help exactly like this, and I said I understand it, but my character couldn't let the wickedness just pass. I pointed out that *I* (David) felt no hatred towards him but I (Dartanian) did have some resentment for someone who would slaughter innocents. It was my character who stuck by his convictions and wanted to protect what he believed was right, where as the person behind it could never see themselves even having that much power. Dart doesn't always speak for me and I don't always speak for Dartanian (although we do have a lot in common).
You will always have those people too who believe it's "only a game." And those will not see what they do as wrong. What they fail to realize is that characters don't usually see it as a game, it is all too real to them. You CAN have a character who treats life as a game (one of my other characters is definitely like that) but they should act accordingly. If they treat life as a game of chess or checkers or chance, then that works. If they treat it as a game with pixels and clicks, then that's wrong. This subtle distinction many miss and is another way where a self-sufficient community falters.
People cannot make actual roleplaying laws without being severely criticized. Putting a tax on something would be wonderful, if it was a roleplaying community. It would also be perfectly acceptable to certain people and not to others (nothing is going to have 100% support). Yet people take it outside and think "I hunted to get this, I'm keeping it." Certain items could be made illegal, and then we'd have tyrants. Personally, I think a law stating that a sword must be sheathed in city limits would be reasonable, but many would see it as tyranny (Dart rarely carries an exposed dagger in towns).
People also look simply at stats too (called min-maxers in RPGs, people who try to find out which specific skills and attributes are needed to be the best and forgo all else). This one, I admit, is hard to distinguish because no one wants to be deficient but some variety would be nice. This takes people out of the game too, as characters simply become calculations and numbers and not flesh and blood.
So what's my point? The point is that any time you have people taking their minds outside of the game, you cannot have a completely self-sufficient community. If people's evils and good deeds stayed inside the game, then it might work. But taking vendettas out on or with other characters, looking out for their own (and not necessarily their character's) best interest, and treating things as simply toys takes away from it. It will seem kind of silly to some, but you get the most enjoyment and the most fun out of being serious sometimes. And if you are serious about the roleplaying, much more elements would be added by characters to make it more interesting. Thank you.
Player-versus-Player in Role-Playing Games
It is difficult to have a fair pvp system in most online RPG and that's for one main reason, most RPGs aren't very realistic. Forget the magic and demons and stories and such, those I can understand. But having a variable HP system in itself makes it difficult to set up a fair system. It's fine for all intents and purposes for single player RPGs, but if you're going to fight against other people, you're going to need some type of balance and each person having a different amount of "healthiness" is going to disturb that balance and make some abuse it.
Let's be honest, even a peasant with a butcher knife could have a chance at killing someone if they hacked at the neck and were lucky enough to avoid the onslaught. It's not likely, but it's possible. Now take that same peasant, just say they do 5 hit points of damage, and they might manage to kill a real lowly person but if a person has 3000 hit points, the only way they're going to come close to finishing them off is if the other person constantly misses. People often say "It's silly that people can just walk down the street and be hacked at and not be killed" as a defense for pro-pvp, but isn't this the same thing in reverse? I don't care what anybody thinks, a knife in the back would hurt, no matter how "healthy" you are.
The hit point system makes things simpler for single player games because you don't have to bother with such things as where the person was hit, was the attack deflected, did they dodge enough to get only nicked, and so on. It also makes your character seem heroic because they can take on impalement and still lug their sword to hack off the poor whimpering monster's head off. You pit those people against each other and it doesn't work as well. You can see this easily in single player RPGs as well. If you fight things in the area you're supposed to, they are a challenge and can do the damage they're supposed to. But when you're trying to go against that final boss, you don't go back to the first area and kill those wimpy little blobs you first encountered.
Now there might be a way around this though in DA. If it can judge insight and only let those that are close in insight fight each other, then it would work fine and people would have a chance. But suspension of disbelief has to stop where abuse would set it. Thanks for reading a long-winded opinion/rant/rational explanation.
Chatroom speech in RPGs
Um, I have never heard "lol" spoken in real life..that's a chatroom abbreviation pure and simple. The only thing close to sounding like it is "lull" which means "to calm or induce sleep." Very different from what they mean by "lol." Usually if you're going to laugh, you just do.
If you want to laugh, what is so wrong with typing <laughs>? It's not that much longer than lol and seems much, MUCH more RPish. U, r, c, 2, and 4 bother me as abbreviations because, seriously, how difficult is it to type two more letters? Plz and thx only have 3 more letters to them so why there had to be an abbreviation made, I have no idea. Brb, if you're lazy, can just turn to <leaves>. It's not exactly as clean, but it gets it across.
And, now that I think of it, isn't cursing really just "poor etiquette" too? And speech too? Just because they're thought of as "universally wrong" doesn't mean they're really all that different...thx is especially rude to me, as I think, you want to thank someone but can't even have the decency to take effort to type 3 extra letters.
So to me, I'll stick with my heckling that some will get and some won't. Berebe, as Deksar so wonderfully pronounced, will be nothing but babble. Reminds me of someone taking their finger to their lips and twiddling it. Lol, I'll assume, is their attempt to put someone to sleep. Not clear exactly who. Lvl I always take as two things, either the stories of a house or that they want to deck someone ("Level you? Sure thing. <smack>"). Plz I'll accept as please but ask them if they have a lisp or some other affliction. And of course, something could be thx as bee's honey or mollasses, right?
And sure that it could be pronounced phonetically those ways, but rest assured, that's not their intent. It's good old fashion laziness and grating on me. Although it does seem silly that someone who can speak like "I'd 'ave ne'er seen th' lad." or "Ah'm shua thaut if'n ye go dawn tha road past tha ol' bawn, ye canna miss it" (a privileged few have heard my rural accent ;) ) can't have the creativity to accept "oic." Tis a thing I 'ave t' work on, eh lad?
