Resources for Good Roleplay

[Aruven]

I asked about a leadership style and some how-to feedback from someone I considered epic as a player back in 2009 ;

This was the PM I received.

Other leaders and I also might have a different point of view on several topics, including harshness, as seen through a few posts on the GBD in the recent leaderships thread.

In either case, my advice first and foremost is the stereotype: Make the game fun for you. Make the character interesting for you, and keep an active part within the plots that you generate. You always have to think of new things, and how others might be involved in them. Typically, what I do is take a pre-existing situation and apply it to see how our particular clan or individuals might benefit from it. However, if your character is more interested in self-promotion, then this can clearly be swapped in the place of the former ideal. If your character isn't interesting for you, you won't last. You can't just be an order-dispensing machine, because people like that aren't realistic, and if you aren't realistic, and your sole contribution to the game is for the sake of other's enjoyment, you're going to get burnt out, real quick.

The second thing is delegation. You can have a firm stance in your plot, but you can let those beneath you do the grunt work for it. You aren't going into those alleys to collect the information yourself, your merely taking the smaller pieces provided and adding them into a much larger picture. Your minions needn't really be in on the matter, as long as the sub-plot itself is interesting enough. Eventually, you may find it ideal to let people into the bigger scope as time comes along, but, part of having others invested and enjoying the role is to make this process gradual, and it also provides incentive for good work. If I sat you down and explained the history of Oash, everything from point A to point B, there'd be nothing new for you to learn within your employment, and your commitment to your tasks might suffer from that.

This next point is where some and I differ - punishments. I am not saying you need to murder your employees at the drop of a hat, but those that feel you'll murder them and everyone that they ever loved if they had betrayed you, typically won't betray you. Sometimes, you're going to have to be the bad guy, but this is taking a apathetic approach to the situation. Especially if your in the stance of a Noble, you're not going to be weeping over a few lost commoners, you're thinking about things in a much larger scope. I've been of the belief that Nobility can feel the impact of a loss of resources, feel angered that something was -taken- from them, and emotional attachments make for a particularly interesting character flaw, but overall - Nobility aren't in the position to have 'friends'.

It's a very lonely role, as is any position of leadership. If pulling the trigger sometimes, and setting an example prevents those from making the same mistake in the future, then I feel this is more appropriate than having a Noble or Leader suddenly break character to nuture or coddle the betraying employee. In this sense, I am a realist, and I believe that consequences of such actions should be dealt with such IC.

Am I stating that death is the only solution to these problems? No - But they are a final solution to dealing with a situation, and one that shouldn't be avoided at all costs, because mercy -does- come back to haunt you (And I speak from experience).

Anyway .. So yes,

-Having fun for yourself first of all
-Delegating tasks to those beneath you and keeping them and yourself involved
-Acting realistic to situations (A believable character is much more rewarding than a coddler)

I am not quite sure if this answers your question, but I hope this helps!

[Cind]

Why don't we turn this thread into a depository for inspiring stories?

I once played a peg-legged human woman who had lost her leg to a salt worm while salting as a kid. She was a ginger and smarter than me--- which I wasn't sure I could pull off. I never really tell anyone this, but these are my numbers from every I.Q. test I've ever taken--- 129, 130, 130, 131, 133. I had a 126, but I skipped the last ten questions because I was getting bored. See, I wanted to make a natural Einstein--- someone in the 170, 180s range, someone who couldn't help but change the world around them, at least for her close ones, simply by virtue of being alive and having that kind of brainpower.

I have absolutely no math abilities whatsoever, probably due to the damage schizophrenia does to one's brain simply by having the disease. But I can understand the Rule of Nines. This is the rule in math that says when a number's digits are all added together, if they make nine, then the whole number is divisible by nine. I had my ginger human salter counting rocks discover this concept, at least for two-digit numbers. It probably flew over everyones' head because, honestly, who knows about the Rule of Nines? I don't know why I remember it myself, but I used it in my roleplay. And since it is true and I explained it, people knew something was up with her from the day I solo rped that bit out in the desert, among some rocks.

I don't remember much of how else I managed to continue to pull that concept out of my ass because it seemed to convince people that a smart player was behind the pc and I became known as an unaffiliated threat, as I did not appear to want to join anyone. I even made casual friends with an elf gemmed, a pretty laidback guy who lived a long time, Tears. He died because he was a homewrecker, and we had the sort of off-on friendship that was faintly possible between the two of us. I don't know how much he knew about me, but I was trying to portray her intelligence as above the skies but he didn't really seem concerned like the humans seemed to be.

Basically if you've got like an 85 I.Q. and want to play someone twice that smart it can be done and it will be convincing. If you lack an ability to express subtle things in your words and emotes, you can just look up some math, some language, my character did not go the route of knowing long and barely-known words because she didn't have an aide or mercantile background--- she was a dirt grubber, someone who had salt encrusted under her fingernails her whole life, who walked funny because the salt worm had really done a number to what remained of her leg, although I never rped this particular detail out.

Maybe later on I'll remember someone else that might inspire somebody.

[deskoft]

Added: Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets A Novelist Can Learn From Actors.

I have been reading this one and it is quite fascinating! I am still on the first secret but it's very appliable to roleplay. It applies techniques of method acting into the novelist's trade. I think in the RPI's setting where you have to have the speed of thought of an actor and the depth of actions of an actor (because MUDs are much more action-descriptive than writing, in which you can choose to censor things in lieu of pace), it is very pertinent.

[Cind]

If you're familiar with illness, like you're a doctor, nurse or someone who has an illness, it might be fun to play it out. I've played a couple of people who saw things, you know like schizophrenic hallucinations, although I don't actually have that. I feel like I can pull off the nervous energy, though, or the scatterbrainedness that would be thorough enough to be a symptom of a disorder (although this last one is sort of my go-to number one subtle trait; its just too much fun playing somebody who's an airhead, for me.)

[mansa]

Here's another good resource:

https://thewritepractice.com/character-interview/

37 Questions to Ask Your Character
...
Pretend you are an interviewer for a newspaper, a secret agent, or a novelist, and you are interviewing, or interrogating, a character for your story. Imagine the character is sitting in front of you, you have a new fifty-sheet yellow writing pad and your favorite pencil your cat chewed, and you are about to ask them a list of questions.
...

[deskoft]

When trying to figure out the mindset of a smart, cunning antagonist who does bad things, this interview is rather GREAT at it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U-yqm9H_Sg
Highest Paid Mafia Boss Tells the TRUTH About the Life

[Is Friday]

When trying to figure out the mindset of a smart, cunning antagonist who does bad things, this interview is rather GREAT at it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U-yqm9H_Sg
Highest Paid Mafia Boss Tells the TRUTH About the Life

This is very good research for nobility/politics in Allanak.

[Cordon]

  One template for personalities I have come across is the Zodiac signs and the traits linked with them.
Pick a sign and build the PC around your ability to bring the most of that personality into the game.

I have found this post to be an amazing help I hope this adds to it in some way. Thank you to all who shared something here, there is a lot to go over and learn.
                                      -Cordon