Setting the Example

[sarahjc]

No, this is not a popularity contest. But I have recently hooked up with a cool clan and the PC leader playing has been doing an excellent job of promoting RP and in general keeping things moving. Examples like this I tend to find few and far between.  

Playing a PC leader in the past, I know how hard it can be, and had always tried to keep things going, and most importantly introduce new players to the fact that this -is- an RP game with in depth characters.

So, my question is, if you have someone who has done this for you or a few people, Pick one PC and let us know why and how they defined to you that this game was more than just killing NPC's and spam fighting.


Mine is a cluster in Winrothol. Three very strong players that involved me and gave chores, played out those chores with me and worked with me IC'ly to correct mistakes as well as giving me tips OOC'ly on how to do things better.

On top of that all three of them showed me the humanity and three-dimensional nature that a PC was capable of through emoting and speaking.  It was through those three that I first started to see the mud as a moving novel and not a story enhanced fighting game. They literally changed the game for me.

How about you? And please don't list the first Person you mudsexed, well, unless they were also a great leader.  :wink:

[RunningMountain]

A group of Byn from the golden age of the mercenaries.
Kroz, Mazzel, Gowynn, Berlian. Iltrin. That Lieutenant d-elf. Can't remember all of them. Pretty sure Krrx ran them.

Kroz- Our great leader. The all-time great. I think he was the first PC to make it to lieutenant in the Byn. Regardless though he brought that 'father' figure to the Byn and no matter what PC I played I always managed to look up to him for some reason. He had an air about his PC to me as a newbie was hard to ignore and made you want to try and live with a PC like he did.

Mazzel- Champion of allanak? He brought a unity to the Byn by being the guy who just wanted to do his job but did so much more. He made you think about just playing that greasy, simpleton merc but also being able to grow and become much more then what you started out as.

Berlian- Besides his Kadius stint, he was a good Byn sergeant. His patience for newbies was always limitless. This was especially true with me and several others I know.

Iltrin- "Be shure sho wassh oush for she mekilloth." Iltrin was probably one of the funniest PCs I ever met in my 'newbie' years. I never found out what happened to him. Anyway he made me look to character quirks and personality traits. Instead of playing the same PC over and over. Each PC can have different qualities, and all that jazz. His speech impediment was played masterfully.

Gowynn- He proved that an elf CAN make it. But you still get fucked in the end.

[sarahjc]

Since we have 5 Fav PC lists now. I was hoping to have more of an indepth look into why you think those people are so great and what they provided you with, as opposed to just a list of names.

[Agent_137]

yea, that was pretty indepth. sarahjc, you ain't going to get pages from everyone, espescially when your example was just a paragraph.

My first Sergeant ever, the halfie Vanir.

In my newbie time he was something solid I could look up to and latch on to while the whole of zalanthas was spinning around in confusion, as it does for newbies.

He was also the first character that I heard of dying, oh, the woe!

[Ritley]

No, this is not a popularity contest. But I have recently hooked up with a cool clan and the PC leader playing has been doing an excellent job of promoting RP and in general keeping things moving. Examples like this I tend to find few and far between.  

Playing a PC leader in the past, I know how hard it can be, and had always tried to keep things going, and most importantly introduce new players to the fact that this -is- an RP game with in depth characters.

So, my question is, if you have someone who has done this for you or a few people, Pick one PC and let us know why and how they defined to you that this game was more than just killing NPC's and spam fighting.


Mine is a cluster in Winrothol. Three very strong players that involved me and gave chores, played out those chores with me and worked with me IC'ly to correct mistakes as well as giving me tips OOC'ly on how to do things better.

On top of that all three of them showed me the humanity and three-dimensional nature that a PC was capable of through emoting and speaking.  It was through those three that I first started to see the mud as a moving novel and not a story enhanced fighting game. They literally changed the game for me.

How about you? And please don't list the first Person you mudsexed, well, unless they were also a great leader.  :wink:

.... private Gock.... I miss him...  their was something underneath of what he made out that made me like him so much... he made out he was so tough, but you could kinda see a sort of kindness deep within him. He really helped my RP skillz and is probably the best played half giant out their.

[crymerci]

Templar Daejaye Tor and Lady Nerissa Oash got me hooked on the game by the way they belittled one of my characters from across a tavern.

Further development in my RP (same character) I attribute to the examples set by Pearl Terash and Lord Vedelarin Borsail.

And for making that character's life maddeningly complicated, I'd like to thank a certain hairy-chested Guilder.

If I had to pick one, I'd pick Pearl.  The bitch drove me crazy half the time , and I considered killing her, but I learned a lot.

[LoD]

Influential leaders are a rare breed, and I haven't had enough direct contact beneath one for them to be listed.  The people who did change the game for me did so by demonstrating the depth to which the game can be played if you have but two willing participants.

I'm not sure how much is IC, so I'll just stick to the safe side and avoid sharing the names of the players mentioned below:

1. The first leader of the Guild had a surprising and frightening habit of showing up in places you felt the most secure, such as a locked apartment within a Merchant House compound.  He went about his business in a realistic fashion and wasn't trying to be a "badass ninja" or an "uber assassin".  He was what he was - an intelligent undworld leader that had a long list of ambitious plans.

He didn't walk around hooded, nor did he try to pad his kill count with pointless PK's as a method of building his reputation.  His manner was business like, straight forward and smart.  His approach left you feeling as if you had options, and that even though you were handing money over to him for intangible services, there was more going on than the strong shaking down the weak.  It was a bigger picture than "city raiding".

2. Clegane (the player) has a wide variety of colorful characters that almost everyone has probably experienced to some degree.  While his emotes can sometimes fall into the category of "wordsex", he really helps bring the character's clothing, weapons, hair and features work within every given scene.  While I don't have the same vocabulary and love for such sustained keystrokes as he, I do appreciate them very much and what they can do for enhancing the atmosphere of the game.  They remind us that our characters are people, and that there is much more to be done on every conceiveable level (i.e. am I caked with dust, does my armor make sound when I move, is my hair messed up, do I have shit on my face, are my teeth all there, do I have clean fingernails, am I the human equivalent of a fleshy blob weighing as much as a braxat and how does that work into how I sit, stand, walk, have sex, eat, crap, etc...)  RPing with him always makes me enjoy the smaller things about the game.

3. Nessalin.  I really have to attribute some of my major changes in thinking and attitude to him.  On a couple of occasions, he chose to step in and encourage my potential rather than punish my faults.  He may be short with you or accuse you of hacking the MUD (*stare*) but knowing that someone like him expected more out of you was motivation (at least for me) to try and do better.  There's a point when you finally begin to view the game as it is, a living and constantly growing novel.   And it takes a different amount of time for everyone to be able to reach it because of the different backgrounds, experiences and expectations we all have.  I'm always grateful for each new point of view I can see

-LoD

[Vanth]

Let's not get into personal snipes at other posters, please.

[Ritley]

The guild guy was skilled... very skilled.... he was scary as well....  if we're thinking of the same one which I'm pretty sure we are.

Dude he said the first leader of the guild.  The first ever.  Years and years ago.  I doubt you were even old enough to speak in coherent sentences at that point.

Yeah. Probably couldn't speak then.  *chuckle*  Vanth he is right though. I was thinking of another one. I wasn't playing the game back then........ or was I  :twisted:

[Intrepid]

This wasn't a clan leader, but a certain mul slave owned by House Fale
wayyyyyyy back had a profound effect on my roleplay.  A pc does not
need to be epic to have a distinct presence upon his surroundings, and
that still remains the best slave rp I've ever seen to this day.

[Gaare]

I remember sergeant Akasha of Tza'i Byn (reading a lot of byner sergeants in such a tread remainds me how important Byn is). She was extremely harsh, rudeless and very smart  making her underlings enjoy by not only slashing mobs, but very interesting kinds of scenes which require and show certain level of RP. Now, I have a dim sight why she was a good leader. She knew the game world and its dynamics very well, and able to put her clan into part of it.

Unfortunately after my newbie days, I did not have chance to play with such PC leaders (because of my playing time zone.) I think "Ammit" gave me a lot of good examples about how one may play a better leader. S/he was kind and encouraging in pointing the direction with showing respect to self-learning curve of a player.

Edit: Smoothing

[WarriorPoet]

Kratuk Tor. He was aloof enough to keep the fancy, too-good Noble facade up, yet he was available enough to his underlings that we never felt alone or neglected. I remember a few times speaking with him when he didn't ask about anything in particular, instead he just kind of maneuvered the conversation until he could figure out what -we- felt the mood in the city was like.

He would go out of his way to offer a compliment on something small, so as to let us know that he -was- watching, but he never heaped praise on us unnecissarily. I see alot of leader PC's, noble and otherwise, who manage to 'fit in' with their unit as 'just another of the boys'. They're too amicable, it seems to me. Kratuk was a part of us while still remaining above and untouchable.

My favorite leader, and one I've always tried to emulate in my few leadership experiences.

-WP

Edited because of my own stupidity. Wrong name. KRATUK was the man.

[waroth]

I'd have to say as far as PC played characters, my favorite was a Byn Trooper who eventually made Lieutenant by the name of Bela.  I played a mul slave of the Byn at the time and the six or so months I played with her were my most enjoyable.  She played one of the best rough/mercenary types I have been around and really brought the world alive around her.  It makes it that more enjoyable when a character comes off as believable.  I would also like to add that most of those in the Byn at that time were nearly as fun and I'll never forget my time there.

[Bestatte]

I've played with some stellar leader-type players (such as Clegane and Nerissa Oash's player), but one stands out among the rest:

Faithful Lady Iluya of the Lirathans.

She was always involved, always involving me, always involving others in her plotting and scheming. None of us were ever given the "full picture" of what was going on in her mind. We'd all get a tidbit here, an image there, a few pieces of the puzzle, and none of us really knew what the rest of us knew. Made for tons and tons of intrigue. What was crazy, is that she kept on top of all of it. If she didn't study her game logs every night and type out pages and pages of planning, I'd be surprised. I was heartbroken when she retired the character, and as far as I'm concerned she was the last of the truly remarkable Lirathan PC players.

I had the opportunity to RP with a later character of hers and she showed the same kind of leadership skills with that PC (albeit on a completely different scale).

[Cyrian20]

Hmm... Moontug's Bynner from way back in the day was an important one. My second character met him and rp'd stealing his long knife. That moment made me fall for arm.

Also Ihsan, I know it is a weird choice and every character I had feared him. Managed to kill four in a row (albeit I seemed to keep getting in his way no matter what I did) At first in my newb days I was pissed. but it helped build the world in my mind and always gives me something to draw from when I need to play a character scared shitless.


[EDIT]removed reference to living pc's[/EDIT]

[Marauder Moe]

I'll second Akasha of the T'zai Byn.

Also Lady Aliera Oash was another leader that always kept one of my favorite PCs busy and entertained.

[Maybe42or54]

Bela. MMMm mm Bela.

Damn her hands. Hope they get better. (They've gotten a little better, last I heard, so hopefully they got a lot better.)

Sargeant Drien of the Byn. He really stuck it to the them when they say "You don't have to be a warrior to be a warrior IG." I swear he was a magicker of some type. Really didn't look like a warrior, or behave like one, but he was one.

[bloodfromstone]

Several people from the Atrium. When my first real (not dead in 2 minutes) character got bumped the school, Farihd and Enlil had a huge part in me learning the setting, how to properly use emotes and visualize the place... They were great.
On top of them, Advisor Reneli was an incredible influence on me. I was never short on interesting conversations and situations with her, and a lot of the time my PC spent with her really helped flesh out the character's feelings and reactions to their current lifestyle. Playing with her was always a pleasure, and I always had a better sense for my PC than I had had when I logged on that day.

[Morrolan]

Lieutenant Akasha and Sergeant Marook of the Byn.  My first real Arm leaders...the first time I did more than think "I wonder if a beetle's tough?" *BEEP*

But ah, there are so many others...

Morrolan

[Mr.Camel]

Fianna Salarr.

[Matrim]

The character that got me hooked to the game when I was a newbie was an immense, black-skinned merchant by the name of Kahn.  Failing miserably at the first few characters I made, he eventually took me in, put me to work, and gave me a reason to log in.  He showed me my first tastes of game politics and how involving the game could be.  To this day I admire his leadership ability, especially seeing as he had so many people to lead.  As a player he really did try to involve as many other players around him as possible.

I know the original post calls for only one character to be mentioned, but I just have to give mention to Lieutenant Kroz of the Byn.  His dry, sarcastic humor often had me rolling on the ground laughing, and i've found myself trying to emulate his personality in a few of my characters.

[Delirium]

Danu.

Always original, always busy, always involving others from all spectrums.

From tiny 'fetch me' plots to sweeping, deadly intrigue, that man did it all.

NPCs and vNPCs were living, breathing people around him.

My hat's off to that spindly Kuraci, he is missed.

[HardCarbon]

For the Byn

  Deno.....  The Man the Myth... feck.. the statue... oh well  Miss ya.



Otherwise

 Falonid  Nenyuk...    Only Person (note That I saw and In my LESS then humble opinion)  who ever actually used his aide as an aide    Miss ya too... sometimes...  at night..   when the rat... err never mind

[Oxidised Lizard]

My first Sergeant ever, the halfie Vanir.

Was he around at the same time as Sergeant Rayarl or was he earlier? (Thought I knew a mix-breed Byn sarge by that name, but I wouldn't have thought that you'd have been a n00b when he was around.

[proxie]

I will second and third the vote for the Fale mul. (His name was Ian, by the way.) I wish my personal RP had been more mature at the time, that I could have treated him more appropriately for a slave, but he tolerated me rather well and did what he could to teach me as a player about the life of a slave.

I still have logged a piece of his roleplay that just moved me immensely and have sent it in with the hope that it will be added to some form of mulish documentation.

One of the richest, but quietest pc's in Fale at the time. I hope he still plays.

Proxie