Reaching a plateau ?

[Incognito]

Ever get so burnt out from regular Arm'ing that you find yourself in a rut, using the same emotes, using the same laugh, chuckle, snicker and nod routine?

But at the same time, you dont wanna take a break, and you dont wanna store your PC......

Do folks who've had long-lived PCs have any suggestions for folks who might be reaching that 20 day mark or 30 day mark and are in-between the stage where they're a new PC and an influential PC?

[Anonymous]

Do folks who've had long-lived PCs have any suggestions for folks who might be reaching that 20 day mark or 30 day mark and are in-between the stage where they're a new PC and an influential PC?

Take a break.  After somewhere around 45 days I took a break on my most recently long-lived PC.  I know you said you don't wanna, but you should if you are feeling something funny like burnout.  Because otherwise you'll grind along, feeling enslaved to a PC you don't want to retire because they are so long-lived and accomplished but you secretly hope will die so you can do something else.

You take a break, a month, maybe three, you come back and the fire gets lit.  Somehow, someway.

[Kankman]

I'd recommend the same as CRW, except perhaps try a week, then come back to determine if more is necessary. Especially if your character is pivotal for the good-times of any others.

Try thinking about what inspired you to make the role in the first place? A good book? Film? Song? Blah? If that doesn't help, try reading another good book, seeing a film, or... a song...

That should help you either refresh your love for your character, or solidify the fact that it is time to move on.


I am terrible at not practicing what I preach.

[Dakkon Black]

I've run into this before and it's sort of strange, like you said, this PC other people out there would probably love to have, power, money, influence, reputation in the sack. Whatever it is for some reason it stops to tweak you, I noticed on the first char of mine to every hit the big 30.

So what made me have fun again? I sorta took up an ooc focus, like a dwarf, but not quite so freakishly obsessive. I decided that I wanted my fighter/nilazi/sorc/templar to head get really pissed of at something, get in trouble and start a downward spiral into alcoholism.

With another, I just plain went sorta batty, and set a goal as the pc to start luring elves out and make them watch my two kanks mate. I've never had more fun then breaking people expectations of the course a char will take.

There's a line, it's not that plausable for a 30 day captain of some house to start swinging at heads, but maybe to start developing an intense dislike for ears? And eventually it brings him to start acting out on it.

Basically, if your bored with the concept and the direction, set some new goals, it's not only always worked for me, but usually ended in much more fun, enjoyment, and ultimately engrossing RP with others.

All of those examples are false, other then the purple phallus and the Templar.

[Cuusardo]

Setting goals for a character really helps.

[Space Ace]

Setting goals for a character really helps.

Absolutely helps. My longest-lived PC (62 days playing time) took me over 18 RL months to play.  There were definitely periods where I wondered what was next, but I have to say that setting up short-term and long-term goals really helped keep me from falling into the same old routine.  I think the short-term goals are the real key, because you can get bummed out by having long-term goals that are so far out that they feel unachievable.   I tried to set my character's short-term goals to work out in about a RL month, give or take a couple weeks depending on how things play out.  Keeping focussed on a near-term objective always gave me something to work towards that I could achieve success with, yet maintained enough diversity to keep me from getting bored when I started going after the next objective.

[Seeker]

Setting goals for a character really helps.

There are some very difficult things that can be accomplished by a devouted PC working 10-20 years IG.  Start one or two of those.  Just struggling fruitlessly for decades against the cruel winds of fate can certainly entertain you and those around you, and actually finally getting close to the completion one of this "life-time" goals will absolutely give you motivation and make your mouth water before it is snatched away.  :twisted:   This is Zalanthas.

Have a couple that are more obtainable, say 2-5 years out.  Still very hard, but vaguely possible, and when (or if) they reach fruition, your character will have achieved something that few others living PCs can claim, and might even leave a more lasting impact on the shifting sands before it is finally erased.

Next, if you are feeling the constriction of the role, allow your PC to screw-up.  

You don't have to Pkill anyone, or RP possession by evil spirits.  You can just know that you are making a poor choice, and let your character do it anyway.  Get drunk and hit on your employer's mate.  Being complacent and comfortable with your place in the world, over-estimate your importance and cheese off someone *really* important.  Not enough, necessarily to have them to kill you... just enough to have them teach you a great, very playable RP lesson.  Then, six weeks later, do it again.  Tension is roleplay.  Tension is ARM.  Let your kank get sick once in the middle of ash-central.  Just once.  

Characters that are constricted by their player's best smarts and desires to succeed can have great lives... their players can become miserable.

And belly-ache to the IMMs about how your character's life is just not very eventful every year or so.  Mention to them how bland and quaint Armageddon has become.  Try it sometime. Really.  Let me know when... I'd love to be around.

Finally, DO take a break.  Plan it IG, and set up the world to go on without you.  Then step away.  See how long you can stay away from your PC.  Really.  After awhile, you can choose to store your character if you are not drawn back; start absolutely fresh and squeaky clean.  It might be the right choice.  Or, you can come back to your PC *hungry*.  Scurry around desparately to pick up all those threads that you thought were tying you down before.

The biggest challenge to a long-lived PC is that the player can fall into the repetitive thinking habits that are the foundation of any character's life.  The solution is to remember to allow yourself to think and plan things outside of your PC's own routine to have things happen to him.  You can send your PC surprises.  Great or nasty.  I like watching to see what the poor sap is gonna do next.

Seeker

[Nidhogg]

I've had an experience, and I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, where I wasn't board with the pc. I was bored with me. How many times had I said this, this way, emoted that, that way. People must want to yawn everytime I gesture. Eck. Which is a slightly different thing than other people have been addressing, and may not be at all what you meant.

However, if I have hit on it, one thing that might do you is to go back and read over the first few weeks logs of playing that pc. Cause you weren't bored then. You were clever and magnificent.

[Delirium]

I've had an experience, and I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, where I wasn't board with the pc. I was bored with me. How many times had I said this, this way, emoted that, that way. People must want to yawn everytime I gesture. Eck. Which is a slightly different thing than other people have been addressing, and may not be at all what you meant.

However, if I have hit on it, one thing that might do you is to go back and read over the first few weeks logs of playing that pc. Cause you weren't bored then. You were clever and magnificent.

Totally agreed. Been there.

Of course, your character has probably changed a lot since the very beginning if you've had it for a long while, but you can still drum up inspiration from the way you emoted and interacted with the gameworld back then.

And belly-ache to the IMMs about how your character's life is just not very eventful every year or so. Mention to them how bland and quaint Armageddon has become. Try it sometime. Really. Let me know when... I'd love to be around.

Just make sure you warn me first. So I can watch what happens next.

[Maybe42or54]

But can you do something Virtually to make something happen..
Let's say you had a bad sexual experience and started to walk like a gith?

[FiveDisgruntledMonkeysWit]

Others have mentioned more long-term ways to make your PC interesting, but here's some little things you can do to spice up any one RP session:
Get drunk.
Get spiced.
Gamble.
Get into an argument.
Engage in fisticuffs.
Get into an argument with some one you don't even know.
Engage in fisticuffs with some one you don't even know.
Get bad gas.
Get the hiccups.
Try a new food.
Challenge some one to a game.
Learn a new game.
Invent a new game.
Get sick.
Have your kank break some of its legs, and need to be put down.
Misplace something important, and have others help you look for it.
Buy some new trinket, and make sure you show to everyone.
Others have discussed setting short-term and long-term goals. Try setting some -very- short term goals, ones that can be accomplished in one or two playing sessions, even. Some good ones are getting laid, winning a game, or finishing all your chores by high sun.
Just some ideas for what you can do in the short-term, just to make things interesting.

[Xygax]

I think one thing that has helped me to endure longer-lived characters pretty successfully is to become less resistant to change in their lives, OOCly.  It's tempting, OOCly, to do your very best to keep your character "on top" and in control of things; to look for ways to improve your lot in life gradually, doing whatever you need to do in small increments to avoid risk and push forward.  It's natural, frankly, especially when you grow to care about the character, and especially grow to care about the bonds your character has developed with the rest of the world.

The problem is, that tenacity also tends to lead toward less exciting play.  Now:  I'm not saying that you should take your Borsail noble out wyvern-hunting.  You still need to do what is in-character for your character.  But you -can- let your character make mistakes.

I don't mean that you should plan for them to make mistakes.  I've seen some examples of that, and I don't think it is great RP, or particularly beneficial to the mud.  A bad example would be setting up a character who is a member of a tribe with the specific design of methodically going against that tribe's laws/customs/traditions (this makes you the elf riding the kank).  This is particularly bad if you haven't even suggested flaws like that in your character's background.

What I am suggesting is that, sometimes, just sometimes, you succumb to temptation, when it presents itself.  Or, sometimes, you tell a little lie that will benefit your character in the short-term without any regard to long-term consequence, or you drink one too many shots of brandy at the bar (even though you OOCly know it will probably knock your character out).

I -love- to see subtly flawed characters.  I -love- to play them...  the hard part is finding that subtlety.  It's easy to make severely flawed characters:  the game has had more than its share of paranoics, maniacal murderers, plotters-to-take-over-the-world, and so on.  There aren't enough losers, and there aren't enough really subtle losers...  our players are often too smart to allow themselves to get into losing situations (and no, I'm not kissing your collective asses, this is actually a critique  ).

It's all about subtlety, though:  a lot of players think that the only response to a mistake is instant death, and so a lot of times what would otherwise be good, subtle RP is cut short by a significantly less subtle response.  Finding the balance here is hard....  but, then again, dying gloriously (or brutally, at least) is a lot better than sitting around wishing your long-lived character were more fun to play.

I think letting your character make these subtle mistakes will prevent you from reaching (and remaining on) a plateau for very long.  Instead you'll probably find yourself scrambling out of lots of valleys.  In my opinion, that's pretty enjoyable.

-- X

[Savak]

Ah yes.  The infamous rut.

Everyone gets into and out of these in different ways -- ultimately you'll just have to find yours.  Personally, most of my characters got grumpier as they aged, and much less concerned with what most other characters thought about them -- their place in life was already pretty "set."  However, the trend is -usually- that people try to make friends with pretty much everyone, or at least not piss them off -- after a while I always found that not only draining, but a little too fake.

Having goals is a great thing.  But, in most cases they need to be flexible -- dwarves are an exception, and I think this is one of the reasons they are difficult for most people to play.  The attitude your character brings to you can (and often should) morph with time and experience -- less of a conscious effort on your behalf than simply what happens as you play them.  Not waiting on someone or something else to pursue any goal of your characters is important -- don't find yourself sitting around waiting for someone else to appear, or something to suddenly push itself at you to do.  That something can be as simple as getting a new pair of boots or as complicated as taking down the Dragon -- it's not about the goal, really, it's about the story of trying to get there.

-Savak