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Mugwump

Curious about Role Playing, but just asking...

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I hope as my grumpy dvarven self pops out of character, that it is okay to ASK about RP without indulging in it.

 

In other words, I know there are specifics that RP engages in and protocols to follow, but when and how are these implemented in EL? Dvarven folk need slivers of the pie known as "pizza" from time to time, and this brings about the 'outhouse necessity' on occasion, to be dvarvenly tactful...

 

I have a fascination with RP, but haven't really tried it on a regular basis, mostly just for fun. I do know it's a serious venture and don't want to mess it up. I have an Alt character that is based on a web comic Darken and the upcoming PK server is just right for some of the characters in the story. There is a whole dynamic involved which I won't bring up, but EL is just right for Darken, and vicey versey!

 

I would like to bring some EL'ers to read Darken, and some Darken fans to try EL (they are all D&D folk which is a RP big deal, right?) and at the same time remain my human self without becoming absorbed into fantasy!

 

How should I approach this? And please have a good look at the comic, it's top notch for story and characters!

 

Oh, I forgot..... deep down I'm a pirate. Yar. :whistle:

Edited by Mugwump

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I'd like to hear from some dedicated RPers, too. :angry:

 

I say I'm RPing all the time, but when it comes to the traditional online or D&D-based protocols, I just ignore them. Never even learned those rules.

 

I take a sort of improv theater approach. I have this character -- I AM this character, every time I am in EL. EL -- or other people in EL -- give me situations, and I respond to those situations IN CHARACTER. I'd say, at least 70% of the time even in channel 4, I'm talking as Peino, not as me.

 

So in that way, everything I do in EL is RP, because it all gets fitted into the Peino story, as lived by and told by Peino himself.

 

Heh, think of it as method acting. :)

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My way of approaching and playing Eternal Lands is this:

 

- My character’s actions and talk on location is always in character. Those are never me talking, but my proud and sometimes blunt elf. I like using small action descriptions as "grins", "whistles a merry tune" and so on. I do this even when alone actually, to always keep myself actively roleplaying.

 

- In the chat channels, I am myself - the player of the game. Especially in channels like 1, 2 but also 4 since one often talks about game mechanics that would be beyond the world of the character. The exception is channel 5, but that one seems rather quiet?

 

- To me the PMs are the tricky part. I am pretty much myself there, since it seems most realistic that instant messaging across the lands are done by us communicating as players and not our characters using super fast carrier pigeons. :happy:

 

/ Corlith

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Heh, carrier pigeons. :D I just assume Draians are telepathic. :)

 

I have a few RPer friends with whom I pm in character, but my character does not talk in an archaic or "fantasy" manner. No "yea, verily" unless he is being sarcastic. The point about discussing game mechanics in ch 4 is a good one, and I do tend to slip without warning between Peino's voice and my voice. Usually, you can tell by the topic. Game mechanics, RL stuff, gaming as a topic, are all the player talking (I sometimes describe myself in ch 4 as Peino's puppeteer). Things like invasions or other in-game current events will be the character talking about his own life. I -- or rather, Peino also keeps a journal, written in his voice, about his life in the Eternal Lands, in which I/he incorporates levels, points, bots/npcs, respawning, etc, into a coherent (enough) fictional reality. I use that journal to keep track of Peino's progress in the game.

 

It kind of reminds me of something I saw in a morning talk show once. It was a short-lived show about 10+ years ago -- Tom Bergeron (of "Dancing with the Stars" and "Hollywood Squares") was the host, with a female co-host and a puppet. It was a fuzzy orange monster puppet -- I think the puppeteer was the same guy who does Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog -- and it popped up from behind the sofa to make jokes, bedevil, and sometimes even interview the guests.

 

One time Richard Dean Anderson was on (promoting the SG 1 series), and every time the puppet spoke to him, he'd turn around and direct his answer to the man hiding behind the sofa. Finally, the guy started yelling at him, through the puppet, saying, "Talk to the puppet, dammit!" And then the puppet turned to Tom Bergeron and wisecracked, "This guy's too smart to be on this show."

 

So, I guess the challenge in EL is to talk to the puppet, not the puppeteer.

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Do we talk to the puppet or the puppeteer - and do we talk as our own puppet or as ourselves being puppeteers? :D

 

Perhaps start all PMing as in character roleplaying and see where they lead? Should one or both switch to real life issues or whatever, then nothing's stopping you as long as both are in on it. PMing in character sounds tempting, since it's easy to get things clearly stated and discussed through that excellent tool.

 

I think you're right about channel 4, it does switch back and forth a lot between different topics and during invasions it seems to be in character. Who knows, maybe someday we will get channel 5 going aswell? :happy:

 

Further on, roleplaying does raise a few other questions or thoughts I think:

 

- If I play a truly good person, I should always do the right thing. Sounds easy enough, but might not always be. You are perhaps soon expected to be the perfect hero in all situations, one to never be selfish and always helping others in need.

 

- If I play an evil or selfish person, could I choose to bagjump even at harvesting teleports and such - aswell as steal away death bags to keep? My character would be all over the outlaws section, but what if he/she really is supposed to be an outlaw and a thief?

 

- If my character is a loner, someone to seldom talk and not easy to get to know, I as a player might miss out on a lot of fun things as I stay in character.

 

So, is the roleplaying of some personality types and traits worth it? I mean, expect to be judged as a person by your roleplaying but try not to judge other people based on what their characters do. Or are "bad" characters just a poor excuse to be rude, dishonest and mean to others?

 

As far as EL goes, I have been in character and gained rewarding experiences from it - but I know that so far I have also lost out on some fun interactions for me as a player. So it's a balance there sometimes perhaps, between enjoying roleplaying staying true to your character's character (:icon13:) and just having fun with others in any kind of situations?

 

Oh and yea, about the language - I stick to plain english too. But if someone approaches me with too much "chat talk" my character might not understand them. He would tell them that - or he might not respond at all. ;)

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Do we talk to the puppet or the puppeteer - and do we talk as our own puppet or as ourselves being puppeteers? :(

LOL, now we know why there are so many horror stories about puppets and mad puppeteers. :hug:

 

Perhaps start all PMing as in character roleplaying and see where they lead? Should one or both switch to real life issues or whatever, then nothing's stopping you as long as both are in on it. PMing in character sounds tempting, since it's easy to get things clearly stated and discussed through that excellent tool.

Though it limits it to a 2-person drama, of course.

 

I think you're right about channel 4, it does switch back and forth a lot between different topics and during invasions it seems to be in character. Who knows, maybe someday we will get channel 5 going aswell? :)

 

Further on, roleplaying does raise a few other questions or thoughts I think:

 

- If I play a truly good person, I should always do the right thing. Sounds easy enough, but might not always be. You are perhaps soon expected to be the perfect hero in all situations, one to never be selfish and always helping others in need.

 

- If I play an evil or selfish person, could I choose to bagjump even at harvesting teleports and such - aswell as steal away death bags to keep? My character would be all over the outlaws section, but what if he/she really is supposed to be an outlaw and a thief?

 

- If my character is a loner, someone to seldom talk and not easy to get to know, I as a player might miss out on a lot of fun things as I stay in character.

 

So, is the roleplaying of some personality types and traits worth it? I mean, expect to be judged as a person by your roleplaying but try not to judge other people based on what their characters do. Or are "bad" characters just a poor excuse to be rude, dishonest and mean to others?

 

As far as EL goes, I have been in character and gained rewarding experiences from it - but I know that so far I have also lost out on some fun interactions for me as a player. So it's a balance there sometimes perhaps, between enjoying roleplaying staying true to your character's character (:w00t:) and just having fun with others in any kind of situations?

 

Oh and yea, about the language - I stick to plain english too. But if someone approaches me with too much "chat talk" my character might not understand them. He would tell them that - or he might not respond at all. :)

One of the problems with RPing in open channels in EL is that it isn't strictly an RP game, so there a LOT of people not RPing, who won't get what you/we are doing. Also, a lot of people don't "free-form" RP the way I like to do, where they just go through their game day in character. Rather they prefer formally organized RP events, which are few and far between except in forums. I personally don't go in for the organized events/stories much because I can't keep track of all the protocols.

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Hello,

 

Roleplaying free form isn't hard at all, every little kid has done it. Ok, we're gonna play let's pretend and I'm the fun loving but completely Light Side Elf who enjoys working with people. You can be whoever you want, but address me as Jayim Duinara, and I as Jayim Duinara will pretend along with you! Since we're using EL as the backdrop for our play, we can talk about anything medieval as long as it's in game.

 

I did this all the time with my sisters when we were kids. Sometimes we'd be a pioneer family on a trek across the wilderness, sometimes we'd be Aliens and our spaceship crashed, or I'd be a Magician and warp us to different worlds, or time travelling, or any number of things. The problem is people quit doing the Let's Pretend stuff. I think it's partly because of single player computer/video games. They give you a complete story, but you just follow along with it and can't add anything to it or change it. Also when people get a little older suddenly it becomes "childish" to make believe.

 

That's the reason I started EL in the first place. I've never lost my love of make believe, but at 22 years of age people would think I'm REALLY strange instead of just a little. :) Then I found that most people in EL play it like it was a single player game with a chat program attached. :D If I walked up to a group of people ingame and addressed them like I was my character, as soon as they start talking about real life stuff my character wouldn't have any clue what they were talking about so I have to drop the conversation or go out of character. In that respect Eternal Lands has been very disappointing. The game itself is awesome, all the BEAUTIFUL places, the creatures, all the different things you can do... But no one that I've seen takes the most advantage of this and uses it as the backdrop for their imagination.

 

Thanks for listening to my rant,

The_Saxman (ingame: Jayim_Duinara)

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(I have to do something, so quick post on my part...)

 

I love RPing, I write a lot of RP-posts in other forums, it would be nice to be able to do it here. I've been on the RP channel, but after a while I just feel sort-of silly, although I don't quite know why... It's a MMORPG, a fantasy game, the idea is you're not (x) person in modern society.

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I agree with Sax_man. It's kind of a shame that more people don't play off the wonderful backdrops and props EL gives us to make stories out of what they are doing. Live in the fantasy, as it were, even if we are grinding for points. :(

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I've never lost my love of make believe, but at 22 years of age people would think I'm REALLY strange instead of just a little. :happy:

 

Read your post and felt I should comment :) I wouldnl't think you're strange at all, however, I have found it more difficult to go back to that land of make-believe I often went to as a child.

It's just like..not interesting anymore, doesn't keep my attention, I've got other, more important, things on my mind....in short, it's lost all it's magic.

 

 

Not rping something like D&D with friends though, that still works-just as reading a book takes me to that land :) Of course, I'm not lucky enough to have anyone to play d&d with, would be really fun though!

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Ah, Roja, I do understand how you feel. I wouldn't find Sax_man odd at all, either, but I have a kind of different mental approach to it, maybe. I do that make-believe RP thing like developing a character, maybe a little the way an actor does. I often think of games like this as a kind of improv theater. I create a character, and then, like an actor improving scenes or a writer in the process of writing, I respond to EL's situations, creatures, and resources "in character." That's why I won't get IEDP perk and why I don't train certain skills, etc. -- because I will only do what suits the character. And I can only play a character if I really "feel" it, if the backstory and personality make sense to me. I have an alt who I haven't played in weeks because her story just wasn't coming together as well as Peino's, so I found it hard to enjoy being her, RPing as her. So she is percolating quietly at the back of my mind, and when I find the key to that personality, I will play her again.

 

I play this sort of mental game with all the characters I develop for stories. I can only write for them if I can live inside their heads.

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I find it odd, I can't really roleplay much at all, infact, in any pretend game I ever played with friends they all got frusterated with me because I'd try to plan out everything for them and tell em all how it should be :happy:

 

Yet I love writing, and I'm told ( I can't really judge my own writing, but other people say) that I'm good with developing characters in stories. But i have to be on the outside, the master force controlling everything and how every character responds to the others, in order to develop a good character.

 

I just found it interesting how peino and I write differently :)

 

I also find it odd, that i can write, and I can roleplay to act in plays, but I can't roleplay for something like EL.... peculiar.

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I find it odd, I can't really roleplay much at all, infact, in any pretend game I ever played with friends they all got frusterated with me because I'd try to plan out everything for them and tell em all how it should be :)

lol, you really want to direct, eh? :happy:

 

Yet I love writing, and I'm told ( I can't really judge my own writing, but other people say) that I'm good with developing characters in stories. But i have to be on the outside, the master force controlling everything and how every character responds to the others, in order to develop a good character.

 

I just found it interesting how peino and I write differently :)

I spend the most time of all working on characters, mostly independent of the story. I have a horror story that was stuck for years (!) because I didn't have a handle on the heroine's personality. Until I understood her, I couldn't make any of the scenes/plot lines about her work, let alone her relationship with the hero. When I finally worked out her personality, it forced major changes to the plot because it changed the way she would react to whatever I threw at her.

 

I guess my stories are more character driven than plot driven. I have all these little tricks for creating these personalities that I can RP in my imagination in all kinds of situations. Maybe that's why I find it easy to be "in character" as Peino for hours in the game, even without a script to follow or story to act out.

 

I also find it odd, that i can write, and I can roleplay to act in plays, but I can't roleplay for something like EL.... peculiar.

Well, if you like that storyline control, the lack of a specific storyline to act out might be what makes the difference. Or else, the RP event storylines just don't interest you. :D

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lol, you really want to direct, eh? ;)

:D It runs in my family :blush:

 

I spend the most time of all working on characters, mostly independent of the story. I have a horror story that was stuck for years (!) because I didn't have a handle on the heroine's personality. Until I understood her, I couldn't make any of the scenes/plot lines about her work, let alone her relationship with the hero. When I finally worked out her personality, it forced major changes to the plot because it changed the way she would react to whatever I threw at her.

 

I guess my stories are more character driven than plot driven. I have all these little tricks for creating these personalities that I can RP in my imagination in all kinds of situations. Maybe that's why I find it easy to be "in character" as Peino for hours in the game, even without a script to follow or story to act out.

But thats just it, I see my stories as being very character driven as well. Except I don't fuss about understanding a character before hand, I just start writing and the characters form. Sometimes this takes several tries before the characters turn out right, then once i have a decent start, I just continue with it, and the stories form around the characters based on what their reactions are to everything that happens.

 

Well, if you like that storyline control, the lack of a specific storyline to act out might be what makes the difference.

:o thats a good point, I do tend to like specific things with a definate end already planned before you start :D

 

Anyway I think I've derailed the thread enough

Edited by Enly

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I was thinking, that funny as it may sound, some of Eternal Lands' best features also makes it sort of confusing as far as roleplaying goes. We have the local talk on location, the different chat channels that are both in and out of character, along with the direct PM system. These are great features and really makes the game better. But at the same time it becomes a mix of roleplaying and players talking about anything. The only downside to an otherwise complete client I guess. :P

 

Another thought is the multicombat maps. Like in Naralik, I can fight a goblin and someone else joins in. Looking to the game and one's exp, I could be like 'what are you doing messing with my monster, my exp and my loot?' Or I can choose to roleplay, and in that sense my character would be welcoming any help he can get in battling the raging monsters of this world. Even further, with some good loot he (my character that is) might be wanting to share it with his fellow combatant.

 

Like Aphistolas I have done some roleplaying and writing on other forums, not here yet though. Eternal Lands to me is a fascinating world with many sides to it that I feel I wish to know more in depth before I make any attempt at writing. I sometimes miss the roleplaying board games too, with pen, paper and dice. Although being comfortable, I do enjoy the computer games that do all the dice rolling and math for me. :)

 

I agree with Peino as in choosing attributes, nexuses and perks that fits the character. My only debate with myself (!) so far has been whether to enlist with some gods or get the Godless perk. I finally chose to serve gods that fit my character and his views, which gives an extra dimension to the game.

 

I also have an alt, that I feel like roleplaying very differently. But he quickly felt sort of flat compared to my main, so he aswell is sitting somewhere until I get a better grip on who he is or will be. I guess my split personalities ability is limited? :)

 

The way it sounds, have you ever tried being a game master, Enly? Or set up stories for others to GM? Might suit you very well.

 

Anyway, I know that I for one will be applying to participate in Thyralax' roleplaying thread here. :)

 

Hmm, and hey, how about we start frequenting channel 5 some? I too am usually on there, but I just don't know where to start should I choose to initiate something. No big speeches required, how about just some in-character talk or whatever?

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I agree with Peino as in choosing attributes, nexuses and perks that fits the character. My only debate with myself (!) so far has been whether to enlist with some gods or get the Godless perk. I finally chose to serve gods that fit my character and his views, which gives an extra dimension to the game.

Same here. I made the same decision about Godless versus serving appropriate gods just recently, but haven't done anything about it yet.

 

Hmm, and hey, how about we start frequenting channel 5 some? I too am usually on there, but I just don't know where to start should I choose to initiate something. No big speeches required, how about just some in-character talk or whatever?

I'm game. I sometimes tune in to channel 5, but I'm usually alone there. My in-character and out-of-character speaking styles are almost the same (Peino doesn't curse the way I do :) ), so I don't know how dramatic it would be. :P It would be fun to talk about life in the Lands in his voice, though. On that future day, when I finally get back into the game, I'll keep ch5 open, just in case.

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The way it sounds, have you ever tried being a game master, Enly? Or set up stories for others to GM? Might suit you very well.

Perhaps it would :) And I would love to try more roleplaying sometime, haven't even really attempted it in ages... its just I enjoy writing and/or playing the game like a video game that you want to beat (just i never can :D ) more than attempting to roleplay :)

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