how do you roleplay at the bar?

[Xarnia]

When you arrive to a tavern, for instace the Gaj, and sit at the bar, how do you visualise it in your mind?: Is it a counter with the barkeeper behind the bar? Are all the patrons in line? Do patrons sit in front of each other? Do patrons look to the centre of the tavern?

In my mind, we are all sitting in line and people who enter the tavern can only see our backs. So, how can a newly arrived see our faces when he/she looks at us?

Also, if I am sitting at the bar, it would be difficult for me to see someone who is sitting 3 or 4 stools further away. How can I see a magicker's gem when I look at him/her?

If the bar is pretty busy, how do you know if the stool next to your friend is free?

At the bar, PCs emote turning their heads both sides to acknowlege certain person. So I guess we all have some kind of picture in our head. However, I might visualise PC1 on my left but that doesn't mean that in PC1's mind, I am on his right. Should we avoid emotes such as "talk (looking to ^me right, to ~PC)"? When there is a conversation amongst 3 or 4 players sitting all in line, how can we see each other? are they all on my right? one on my left, two on my right? how do I encounter the gaze of the one furthest away from me?

I am not suggesting to change the code or anything, I just want to know how you deal with it.

[Pale Horse]

Most, if not all, of the taverns describe where in the room, the bar is located, and some even describe just how the bar it's self is made and positioned.

Most of the time, I imagine the "bar", be it in the Gaj, End or Sanctuary, as being flat surfaced, having a counter (with or without a hanging lip), and a number of stools stationed at it.  Where and how you sit, is up to you and how you emote it out, as there isn't a "stool 1", which is at one end of the bar, followed by "Stool 2", that defines where everyone ends up placed.

As for seeing everyone's back when walking into the bar, well..think for a minute, how people sit in the bars that you yourself frequent (or have seen, if you don't).  How many people there are turned (partially, if not fully) sideways, to either hold a conversation with someone seated near, or to scope out the room?  Quite a few, at least from the one's I've seen and visited.  Assuming this is how Zalanthan bars are, then I wouldn't think it to be "bad" or "bad RP" to take note of everyone that moves in, out and through the tavern, while the guy sitting "next" to you doesn't bat an eye, because he's got his back to all of that and is focusing on his drink/conversation.

[Malken]

That's my Sanctuary gameplan:

[Maso]

The Sanctuary for me:



I am aware that this is absolutely nothing like how it is described. For some reason I can't shake this mental image and the same applies to a lot of the bars/taverns and other communal places. My imagination just won't budge!

For this reason I tend to avoid dictating the layout through my emotes and such and instead use people/npc or objects to dictate where I am or where I'm looking to allow people to interpret this themselves.

For example:

Rather than: em looks eastwards towards the small table in the back

I would do: em looks towards the small table in the back

Rather than: say (looking to the right at ~tall) Hi

I would do: say (looking towards ~tall) Hi

Etc.

[Tisiphone]

I personally have no problem at all dictating in my emotes where people are in the room relative to me, so long as I don't run the risk of contradicting something else. How do I know?

I only do it for people I came in with/have been in the bar longer than, and only in conjunction with anything they've said on the matter.

Reason being, we -are- in some sort of spatial arrangement, and frankly, there's no advantage or disadvantage either way, so I make the environment come alive. Chances are others won't do it anyhow.

[Gimfalisette]

If the bar is pretty busy, how do you know if the stool next to your friend is free?

emote shoves a half-breed off the stool next to ~friend and claims it for ^me own

[musashi]

If the bar is pretty busy, how do you know if the stool next to your friend is free?

emote shoves a half-breed off the stool next to ~friend and claims it for ^me own

Rock on!

[brytta.leofa]

If the bar is pretty busy, how do you know if the stool next to your friend is free?

emote shoves a half-breed off the stool next to ~friend and claims it for ^me own

> tell elf (cheerfully) 'ey, free up a stool for a Trooper, won't yeh?
The thin, grizzled elf looks at you.
The thin, grizzled elf stands up from a boxy wooden bar.
> tell friend (craning ^me neck) Oh, look, table's free--c'mon, then.
> sit 3.table
The thin, grizzled elf sighs.

[Barzalene]

I visualize many of the bars as having seats down the length and then a few seats at each end. Some of the larger bars I imagine it as a square, like the bar at cheers.

[Rhyden]

If the bar is pretty busy, how do you know if the stool next to your friend is free?

emote shoves a half-breed off the stool next to ~friend and claims it for ^me own

> tell elf (cheerfully) 'ey, free up a stool for a Trooper, won't yeh?
The thin, grizzled elf looks at you.
The thin, grizzled elf stands up from a boxy wooden bar.
> tell friend (craning ^me neck) Oh, look, table's free--c'mon, then.
> sit 3.table
The thin, grizzled elf sighs.

'Hit elf' usually works pretty well too, if you're unarmed.

[brytta.leofa]

'Hit elf' usually works pretty well too, if you're unarmed.

Which is more satisfying--smashin' a skinny, or making him do what he's told? 

[Malken]

What's really important in this thread is.. "Who's gameplan would win between mine and Maso's?"

[Inix77]

I could go for they BOTH WIN! But unfortuantely I can't....Malken wins for sheer artistic talent and Maso wins for cleverness...see everyone is happy 

[Maso]

I think that the Sanctuary should be renovated....to look how I imagine it to look. It's cooler than how it actually looks. 

[psionic fungus]

I disagree.

I just wish people read descriptions more (and descriptions were more... descriptive) and were more aware of the "actual" positioning of things rather than their arbitrarily decided layout.

Of course, a positioning system for 2.Arm would certainly help keep room layouts consistent.

[Qzzrbl]

Of course, a positioning system for 2.Arm would certainly help keep room layouts consistent.

I say we start collecting one penny from each armer on the GDB every time Psionic Fungus pushes the positioning system idea.

[psionic fungus]

That doesn't make any sense...

Would I get to keep the pennies just because I'm so damn smooth?

It would make more sense if I paid out the pennies...

Eventually y'all would acquire enough to buy a clue. 

[Cutthroat]

I don't think a lot of taverns currently have solid descriptions of where everything is, so just imagine it however you want, and don't refer to things locationally in emotes, as someone else mentioned.

[psionic fungus]

A lot of them do have fairly solid descriptions of where things are located.

For example:

   Smooth, sanded cylini planks have been laid across the floor of this
cramped room, their polished surface flickering in the lights of the candles.
Dark stains splatter the wooden floor at odd intervals, disrupting the
otherwise smooth contour of the wood with slight warps and bends.  A curved
bar, formed from what appears to have once been highly polished agafari wood
extends from the northern wall.  Spaced around it are several bare, ascetic
wooden barstools.  A sturdy trapdoor has been set in the floor behind the
bar.  Several rows of shelves have been inset into the wall behind the bar
and contain a variety of local ales and liquor.  Willowy, vine-like plants
drape from rounded clay bowls, the gloss of their leaves reflecting the dim
light of the candles spaced around the room.  Rows of booths line the
northern and southern walls while the center of the room is occupied by
two rounded tables.

I highlighted the tables and their relative positions...

Granted you can't tell which table is closer to the exit, but most of the details are there for your viewing. Many times when you look at a table you will find additional information related to the positioning.

Read them!

[Malken]

ALL OF YOUR LACK OF FENG SHUI ARE BELONG TO I MOTHERFUCKERS1!1111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111111111111!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS A GUENINE POST, PLEASE DON'T DELETE IT.

BY CROM, I LOVE FRIDAY NIGHGHTS.

[Xarnia]

A lot of them do have fairly solid descriptions of where things are located.

For example:

   Smooth, sanded cylini planks have been laid across the floor of this
cramped room, their polished surface flickering in the lights of the candles.
Dark stains splatter the wooden floor at odd intervals, disrupting the
otherwise smooth contour of the wood with slight warps and bends.  A curved
bar, formed from what appears to have once been highly polished agafari wood
extends from the northern wall.  Spaced around it are several bare, ascetic
wooden barstools.  A sturdy trapdoor has been set in the floor behind the
bar.  Several rows of shelves have been inset into the wall behind the bar
and contain a variety of local ales and liquor.  Willowy, vine-like plants
drape from rounded clay bowls, the gloss of their leaves reflecting the dim
light of the candles spaced around the room.  Rows of booths line the
northern and southern walls while the center of the room is occupied by
two rounded tables.

I highlighted the tables and their relative positions...

Granted you can't tell which table is closer to the exit, but most of the details are there for your viewing. Many times when you look at a table you will find additional information related to the positioning.

Read them!

I think my post was not understood. Of course I know where the bar in each of the taverns  is, that appears in the description. My point was about sitting all in line. If we are like 6 o 7 people at the bar all in line. How is possible to talk to all of them? further more, how can I look at the person who sits 6 stools away from me and be able to check whether he/she has a tattoo or a magickers gem? I suppose I am just complicating everything. I will just accept the generosity of the code which allow me to notice everything.

[Gimfalisette]

If we are like 6 o 7 people at the bar all in line. How is possible to talk to all of them? further more, how can I look at the person who sits 6 stools away from me and be able to check whether he/she has a tattoo or a magickers gem?

Obviously, the code allows you to "look" at a person and see details such as tattoos and a gemmer's gem. I'm not really sure what the issue is--do you think you should NOT be able to notice these details? It's up to you whether you want to play it like that or not, but IMO anyone who has hung out in Allanak enough would be extremely aware of what the gem means and hyper-alert to seeing it. It's small, but very noticeable because it's so frightening and creepy.

Also, 6 stools away is really not that far. If the stools are centered 30 inches apart, then someone 6 stools away from you is only 15 feet away. That's certainly close enough to see a lot of details on a person.

[Lizzie]

Well, I don't sit at the actual bars, in barrooms. I sit at tables. And sometimes they're very long tables, or many tables pushed together so a lot of us can sit with each other. That is, in a way, lined up (at least on each side of that long table it is). So how do we do it in real life?

Well...you have 10 seats on each side...so let's assume we're just worried about one side at a time. So I'm on the left end. I turn my head right. Guy 3 and 4 are each lifting their glasses. Girl 5 and 6 are leaning back slightly to whisper some gossip to each other. Girl 2 is in an animated conversation with someone across from the table. Guy 7 and girl 8 are leaning over their plates, eating. I have a -clear- view of guy 10, WAY down at the other end of the table. He waves to me..I wave back. We turn our faces toward each other, and start talking. Oddly enough, the positioning of people in close proximity causes something akin to a wind tunnel of sound, and girl 1 (me) and guy 10 can hear each other very clearly, without having to yell. What's more, I can see the bling hanging down his neck.

Voila. How to interact in a line of people.

Edited to add in girl 9: she either went to the bathroom, or is picking up her fork that fell under the table, or is giving the guy across from her a blow-job under the tablecloth. You get to pick which

[BlackMagic0]

If we are like 6 o 7 people at the bar all in line. How is possible to talk to all of them? further more, how can I look at the person who sits 6 stools away from me and be able to check whether he/she has a tattoo or a magickers gem?

Obviously, the code allows you to "look" at a person and see details such as tattoos and a gemmer's gem. I'm not really sure what the issue is--do you think you should NOT be able to notice these details? It's up to you whether you want to play it like that or not, but IMO anyone who has hung out in Allanak enough would be extremely aware of what the gem means and hyper-alert to seeing it. It's small, but very noticeable because it's so frightening and creepy.

Also, 6 stools away is really not that far. If the stools are centered 30 inches apart, then someone 6 stools away from you is only 15 feet away. That's certainly close enough to see a lot of details on a person.

I do believe he is adding in the factor of all the people buzzin' about the room or at the bar or around the bar or sitting at the bar itself. Can you see through 5 or so people's bodys? Even if it is only 15 feet away. Is his point. I think... Perhaps I am wrong. lol

[Inix77]

If we are like 6 o 7 people at the bar all in line. How is possible to talk to all of them? further more, how can I look at the person who sits 6 stools away from me and be able to check whether he/she has a tattoo or a magickers gem?

Obviously, the code allows you to "look" at a person and see details such as tattoos and a gemmer's gem. I'm not really sure what the issue is--do you think you should NOT be able to notice these details? It's up to you whether you want to play it like that or not, but IMO anyone who has hung out in Allanak enough would be extremely aware of what the gem means and hyper-alert to seeing it. It's small, but very noticeable because it's so frightening and creepy.

Also, 6 stools away is really not that far. If the stools are centered 30 inches apart, then someone 6 stools away from you is only 15 feet away. That's certainly close enough to see a lot of details on a person.

I do believe he is adding in the factor of all the people buzzin' about the room or at the bar or around the bar or sitting at the bar itself. Can you see through 5 or so people's bodys? Even if it is only 15 feet away. Is his point. I think... Perhaps I am wrong. lol

Superman can see through people....

[Reiloth]

Yeah. I always imagined the Sanc. as having a curved bar sticking out of the north wall, with a curved ramp leading up to the common room, and a slight overhang over the ramp maybe five feet up that has tables on it. Dunno, just me.

[psionic fungus]

If we are like 6 o 7 people at the bar all in line. How is possible to talk to all of them?

The same way you do in a real bar?  Ever been to one?

further more, how can I look at the person who sits 6 stools away from me and be able to check whether he/she has a tattoo or a magickers gem?

Positioning code could certainly assist with determining visibility... It could be assumed that seats always start at the north end and work around clockwise, and seating position is determined by the number of the seat your are in.

Also, 6 stools away is really not that far. If the stools are centered 30 inches apart, then someone 6 stools away from you is only 15 feet away. That's certainly close enough to see a lot of details on a person.

Having two feet between stools in a bar is pretty uncommon.  Most of the bars around here have stools that practically touch one another.  That would put someone six stools down the bar from you about nine feet away, assuming each stool is a foot and a half in diameter.,,, Which is huge, really.

Anyhow, I think you're probably pretty close to people at the bar with you... Close enough to speak to them... You might have to raise your voice, but you -can- converse at a bar (IRL, that is).

Well...you have 10 seats on each side...so let's assume we're just worried about one side at a time.

I have rarely seen tables this large in game, and feel that they should only be used for feasts or in certain dining halls of clans.  A table that seats twenty people or more seems pretty absurd to have in a tavern.  It would take up a huge amount of space and likely force patrons to sit together when they would prefer their own table.

I think tables that seat 4-6 are (and/or should be) much more common, and really, how hard is it to pay attention to one person at each side of a table, or even three in a line on opposing sides?

Anyhow, I think most of the information needed is contained in the descriptions, and if a simple "rule" were enacted that stated that seat numbering started at the northernmost seat and worked around clockwise the seating positions would be easily determined by both players and code.

[Reissata]

I drew out a rough sketch of the Sanctuary at my perspective a few days ago.




The layout. (Why it's shaped like a Tetris piece, I don't know.)

[manonfire]

Someone do the Gaj.

[Only He Stands There]

There's the old Barrel.

[Barzalene]

That really captures how I imagined it!
Mindbender!

[Biscuits]

Haha I can't believe you posted that before I finished it.

Well, to be fair, it has been like ten years since I've worked on it.