How to live long and prosper?

[Angela Christine]

Keeping a character alive for a long time is easy: stay in the lawful part of a city all the time and don't break the law.  All you have to fear is random assassination, angry Templars, or slow starvation (even with no income it takes a long time to starve to death in the city).  All of my long-lived characters have been people who couldn't, or didn't care to, go to lawless areas.  If I go plodding through life, always taking the safe road and never sticking my nose out, then my characters can live a long time.  It is realistic, in my RL I avoid extreme sports, bad neighborhoods, and excessive sunlight, and I've kept me alive for nearly 32 years.


The problem isn't keeping them alive, it's keeping them alive -and- enjoyable to play.  After a few months I'm praying for death.  Logging in becomes a chore, but I have to do it because people are expecting to see I, depending on me.  My real life starts to seem slightly more interesting than my character's life, and that is always a bad sign.  The dread of getting trapped in the undying character keeps me from trying different kinds of roles.  For example: I'm nosy, I like real estate, I think it might be fun to play a Nenyuk.  I like playing scholarly characters in other RPGs, but to be a scholar in Armageddon you basically have to be Noble or Templar, which can be a very restrictive role (and the scholarly Houses aren't even open to PCs).  In other RPGs I've always had a soft spot for Psionicists, the exquisite balance of mind and body, but even if I had the karma or was willing to special app, I don't have a clue what you could actually -do- with psion other than sit in a hole somewhere and plot, because everyone wants to kill you.  To a lesser degree the same problem afflicts mages, except that they have the choice of sitting in a hole or a temple.  All of these roles seem to involve a lot of sitting around and waiting, followed by more sitting around.


So how do you keep a character alive and enjoyable?


I think part of the problem comes in the character planning stage, with a lack of long-term goals.  Early short to moderate term goals are easy: get a mount, find a bow in your strength, get an apartment, decorate your room, special order something, get the right "look" for your clothes and armor, get introduced to so and so, save X amount of money, become established.  Once my character is established I look around and think, "Now what?"  There seem short term goals that can be accomplished in a month or two, and fuzzy eternal-term goals that don't progress at all.  If you are in a clan you generally want to preserve and increase the social position, wealth, and security of your clan, but there is rarely any real movement of social position, wealth or security of an established clan, so that is a goal that doesn't really go anywhere.  I need concrete goals with measurable progress.  I once had a Dwarven merchant with the focus to own a wagon, which meant saving up a ton of money and/or learning how to build a wagon, and that provided a slow but measurable progress as she accumulated wealth and learned new crafting skills.  With clan characters I rarely find goals like that, partly because you are given everything you need to do your job.  Why own your own wagon if you can get permission to use a House wagon?  Why own your own home when you get space in a secure clan compound?  Why save up money
for a rainy day when your clan provides everything you need?  I'm left adrift in a life with no purpose, and I can get that at home.

I assume that people who successfully play long-term
characters, the ones that last for years of real time, must be doing something different.  If you've had (or observed) long-lived wonders: what do they do differently?  How do they keep the spark alive?  How do they keep themselves from role-playing their character into a straightjacket?  Or is it something innately different in the players themselves, that they enjoy role-playing in the gilded cage?

And don't say they "get it" unless you are prepared to explain in detail exactly what "it" is.  Otherwise it is meaningless and infuriating.  


AC

[Larrath]

I'm still a new player, but since I already consider my current character to be fairly long lived...

What I do is this:  Am I bored with my character's life?  Wow, my character must be at least TWICE as bored!  And what do bored people do?  Get drunk, find new friends, break a rule or two, have a party (or in your case, a wild vestric orgy, perhaps), cheat, lie, risk things simply to liven things up for themselves.

It's not an OOC thing, people can do that in real life, too.

[RideTheDivide]

Many people do get bored in real life, and that's why lots of them get drunk or stoned whenever they're not at work.  So I can see characters going down that road.  Probably won't live long.  Especially if they escalate into doing risky things.  This is from personal experience...   :wink:

For the character that you want to keep playing for a long time, I think there has to be some bigger goals.  Dwarves are easier to play in this sense - when you create them you have to come up with a focus and that focus gives you something to... uh... focus on as you play other than just improving your skills and making lots of 'sid.

Now I am as guilty as any of *not* thinking of this type of thing for my characters.  Often I'm most focused - especially early on - on branching to the next set of skills and getting my outfit just right.  And I have to say, it makes for some pretty frustrating playing.  When I do focus on longer term, more personal goals, I have so much more fun.

[jhunter]

I also try and make my pc with some kind of hobby, some sort of craft or interest I can put time into whenever I get bored with the day to day stuff.

[grog]

I think that's why I like playing dwarves and elves so much.  With my dwarves I always have this elusive goal to build my life around, the more difficult the better.   And with most of my elves there is sense of screw everybody else,  I only have to stick around when I'm bored if your somebody I trust (or who can hurt me), otherwise I'm leaving an elf shaped hole in the air, I'm out so fast.   I've never had an elf that bored me, and very few dwarves.

[Petra]

I think the people who sit in ultra long-lived roles are a special people, really.  In a game where you can only play one character, I think it's hard not to get bored with whomever you may be playing sooner or later.  The meat of Armageddon are the people who live anywhere from one month to three.  The super long lived ones are a rarer breed, for sure.

I've had one mega long-lived PC, who lasted nearly a year of real time.  But she was one of those "special" guilds, and honestly, if she hadn't met an untimely end, I'd still be playing her.  Since then I haven't really stuck around much with any character, but each time I make one I have every intention of becoming super long-lived, it just doesn't end up happening.

So I think that by and large, it's one of those things where .. you're either one of those people, or you're not.  As far as how to become one?  I dunno, heh.  Learn patience?  You have to accept the fact that there will be days -- no weeks, months perhaps, even -- where there's nothing exciting going on (because like you said, AC, these long-lived roles are usually people in rather cushy positions where they aren't out and about exploring the desert wastes or otherwise risking their life on a regular basis).  It's about hanging tight and waiting for the fun stuff, and learning what to do between now and then, that makes or breaks whether you'll stick with a long-term role or not.  If you can't handle the downtimes, ain't no thang, just play what you have fun doing.  If you more enjoy romping through the desert as an elf, even though there's always high odds you might lose link when an aggressive NPC is after you, or an evil sorcerer will do you in, if you don't mind the risk and knowing you'll have to make another character, then so what.

[Bogre]

With anyone, find a rival. Rivals are awesome, it can lead to some fun RP for all. It doesn't even have to be a life/death thing. Try to make better goods faster than your nemesis, etc. Elves are wonderful for this, because they can try and screw over everybody, just because its easier to do that than work for sid. Dwarves you will always be able to work for a focus. You just need to sit and think for a bit, some ideas will come.

Now, if you just can't, store the char and start with another.

[Angela Christine]

Now, if you just can't, store the char and start with another.

Oh, just to be clear, I don't have a character I'm bored with right now.  I'm trying to drum up stratagies to head off boredom before it gets extreme, for _future_ characters.  

Once you've painted yourself into a RP corner getting out often seems impossible, because you've already established that your character is a control freak, or a snob, or a neat freak, or some other traits that make it unlikely she is going to go take up a spice habit, start stealing from people sleeping in the Gaj, or try to find herself an elven lover.    When I get bored in real live I don't go get drunk or go cliff diving, I usually read a book or take a nap.  Boredom isn't a good reason to pick up a crack habit.  

I guess what I'm looking for is ideas for trap doors to build into the character from the start.  Traits, habits or struggles that don't necessarily get used right away but are consistant with the character so that when you do use them it isn't a radical departure.

This happened quite accidentally once, a long time ago.  I created a character who had, until shortly before the time of creation, worked in a classy whore house.  She was clever enough to recognise that opportunities in the sex trade don't get better as you get older, so she was changing careers, and planned to join the Byn.  She had something of a cleanliness fetish, and I actually roleplayed through the things she did to stay clean and tidy, spent money on soap and water, etc. (this was before soap had any coded use, before the dusty, sweaty, and bloodied flags for clothing were imped).  Because she was tidy and well-spoken she got hired to be a noble's aide before she found a byn recruiter.  A clean place to work, yay!  She didn't tell anyone (except her boss) that she had been a full-time prostitute for most of her teen years, but it was still part of her background and personality.  So occasionally she would have a drink, unbend a little and tell bawdy jokes, to the surprise of those around her.  Then she would return to robot-like service of her noble.  Neither being a clean freak nor an ex-prostitute had anything to do with her coded skills, or her IC employment, but I think those two traits made her a more interesting and rounded character.  It was unintentional, but it worked quite well.  Other times I've done it on purpose and it falls flat.


Things like:

Hobbies: crafting, rock collecting,  sorcery, elf-ear collecting.

Dark Secret: secretly a half-elf, secretly a mage, secretly the child, sibling or lover of an enemy of the state, into kinky elf sex, not really a citizen of X but instead from another place with a similar accent (and working for the militia or a noble house that only hires citizens of X).

Bad Habbit: on again - off again gambling problem or spice addiction.  Prone to occasional binge drinking.  Tactless.  Loud.  Ill mannered.  Inept.

Goals: find your long lost X, or find out what happened to him.  Visit every city and town in the known world.  See the north!  See the south!  Have a garden or green house.  Own a house.  Become rich.  Destroy X.  Try to take over the world, or at least corner the market on spiral carved green marble incense burners.  End the pain and hunger by destroying the world.


Things like that.


AC

[Marauder Moe]

With anyone, find a rival. Rivals are awesome, it can lead to some fun RP for all.

The problem with long-lived characters and rivals is that you need a rival who can at least live long enough to find out that you hate him/her.  :x

[jhunter]

That's why I really like the idea of getting together with another player and creating rivals from the get go, ones with a history of why they hate each other so much.



I think this would be so fun to do someday.

[Trenidor]

It's good someone brought this up...I do the exact thing as you AC, but I have a different way of going about things:

First, I play out a character, hopping something good will happen.

Eventually, the character will get boring, and I'll begin designing and plotting the next one.

I take the biggest risks it's funny, I just laugh them off.

WHen my character dies, within 1 min I have my next one submitted and his life all planned out. Things never turn out as they are planned, but I get the most fun out of them.

I've had a friend tell me I'm stupid cuz I get myself killed all the time, I just shrug it off and tell him he's missing out on the finer things of life just because he plans on making his characters die old.

[jhunter]

My longest lived char was a bit off his rocker...hot-headed...always looking for some way to get into trouble it seemed like...but, he was soooo fucking fun ...narrowly escaped death on numerous occasions...I figured when he died he end up taking one of his friends with him...


...he did.

[Cameron0202]

If you get bored with a char. do somthing with it. If you are a girl get pregnant, with a VNPC. Get a disease, or ill somehow. Go mad. Brake a bone. Go blind. Anything that will change stuff around. I have done it lots of times,

[Dracul]

I have the suspicions that AC is looking to add another thread to the archives. And that suspiscion branches off the opinion I gathered when I read the first post, that it should indeed be archived.

Anyways, although I'm not really a viable reference for the subject, as my longest lived character was about ten logged days. (Specifically an elven warrior with absolutely no combat training. Kindof amusing to have a warrior that old who would get beat down by a noob....)

I think having only one character isn't the factor of boredom if you are fresh, or have good memories, coming from another mud. That being because many muds lacking permadeath set you up with one character...forever. And that would be lacking here, in a very positive manner.

AC is totally right that the safest way to living a long lived character is to lead a safe life. My example would be that my longest lived character, the ten day (which nearly everyone could have me beat ;p) primarily didnt leave the city, didn't stray into the rinth dressed well. And was a barfly in general. Due to a few interations, and adding a few twisted obsessions into his charcter while in the midst of play. (obessessions iwth other chars) His generally unactive life was pretty fun.


I think the way to keep a long lived character intresting, esepcially if they are a control freak charcter, have an emotional breakdown. You know, stress making them snap. Just take them off in a new direction, over a little time subtly make things happen, things that show in your thinks, and maybe to those who pay close attention. Somethign that the imms will catch on too (even outright telling them) And then bam. Snap. Wahlah .

btw...again really nice post AC

[Cenghiz]

Be crippled!... Break your leg! It always works.. Once I was really bored with my last 'rinth character.. He got high with some spice, ran ito the whiran tower, danced there for some time, fell down with a current of air and... Broke his leg.. Life seemed to spice up to me. Try it..

[Gaare]

If you are bored of a character.... (Don't know anything abot Nobles and Templars.. I believe noone can't get bored of those since if you are bored.. find a hobby of collecting animals, begin to collect magiker, begin to collect some 'rinthers..)

I can't understand how that can happen...


If you are bored, do a favor for yourself and for game world... Get a relation with a noble or templar.. Follow some suspicious PC's.. at last you'll begin to learn what's going on in a plot.. Go inside and probably you'll be known by many other PC's. At most your PC would die.. but it would a day to remember..

[spawnloser]

I have been playing my clanned character for over eight and a half months...and my secret?  I found an OOC desire to improve the clan from an OOC perspective.  That makes it easy to stick around.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I'm not going to tell you to 'get it'. I won't give examples of things to do to break up your boredom. What I'll do is make an observation.

Many people seem to think that being long-lived means that you are either extremely lucky, or you are extremely paranoid. But it doesn't. What being long-lived entails is playing your character realistically.

The majority of characters that I hear of dying do so because of some unintelligent activity, not like hunting, but hunting a mekillot, and not trying to piss off a templar, but trying to piss off that templar in front of him and to his face. You get it. *grin* ICly unintelligent activity.

Don't be afraid of conflict. Carried out intelligently, you can live for a very long time and still manage to have fun. Don't be afraid to try something new with your character, as long as it remains within the realms of that character's persona. And never think of your character as a character.

You'll find your average playing-time-per-character rises sharply.

ON A SIDE TANGENT: Magickers and PSI should not sit around in some hole, practicing their skills. Don't think that just because these folks are special that they always while away their lives in utter and complete isolation. Of course they guard their secrets with an iron hand, but they are people, just like the average hunter and warrior are. They need to piss, eat, drink, and fuck, just like the Noble there or the elf here.

People who play magickers and feel that they must never leave their temples should perhaps reevaluate their strategy. Since there is a complete Quarter for you in the Red City, I find it likely that you are probably a part of an entire culture, much like the Rinthers. Let's get some of that culture going.

[Uglyhead]

I have another suggestion on how to stay alive: Keep away from my characters. Not all of them are overtly bloodthirsty, but the chaos I sometimes create occasionally results in angry templars and dead innocent bystanders.

[Tamarin]

I find some way to get a mortal enemy.  Or several mortal enemies.  Or just someone trying to kill me.  Makes the game more interesting when you have to avoid death.  My last four characters honest to god all died this way.

[Akaramu]

That doesnt help you have long-lived characters, uberjazz.

I'm very careful not to do anything silly IC or take high risk chances... however, if I ever get low enough wisdom at start, I might try that out. Being careful isnt always all that exciting. You need to get your kick from elsewhere. Ever made up erotic dreams and partially emoted them out while being asleep IC? Now that was fun.  

[Tamarin]

That doesnt help you have long-lived characters, uberjazz.

Nope.  But it makes it fun.

[Rindan]

My longest played character was a character that I built from day one not to be dragged down for too long in any one place AND had a personality that dragged conflict with him.  I swear, people are too damned nice.  This character tended to stay in one place for two IC years then move on.  Along the way I OOCly went out of my way to piss people off in a reasonable manner.  I didn't march up to Lord Templar Inbreed and spit in his face, but I had absolutely no problem not only brutalizing the annoying little half-breed runner while I was in the Byn, but also trying to get others to join in.  If someone pissed my character off and I thought they were in a lower station then me, I generally expressed my discontent with threats, vulgarity, and even a certain amount of social assassination.  

Even a dirty Byner can be a social assassin with those on his own level.  Getting all of the troopers of a unit to beat up on a runner is just as affective as whatever noble do to each other.  In fact, with folks living on the edge such social assassinations can be even more brutal and lethal.  I am sure my character indirectly killed at least half a dozen people, and it wasn't because I was playing a particularly bright or crafty person, I was just more inclined to dive head first into conflict when others might back out.  They key is just to balance conflict with caution.  You can be a storm of conflict, but you need to be sensible in how you do it.  Even an idiot knows there are people not worth pissing off and when to back down.  I find most people seem to take it to one extreme or another.  They either play the sort of person who gets lynched within a few hours or a person who never speaks above a whisper.  Finding that space in-between truly is the key.

Conflict is the key to an enjoyable life.  I think the best way to make a character enjoyable is to decide how that character will create conflict and run with it.  If you have to grit your teeth and wince when you type out your character's actions at times, you are probably doing the right thing.  Make it an OOC goal and go out of your OOC way to stir things up.  If you think that it is OOCly a bad idea to have chance cause you spill your drink on someone who can cause you trouble but can't instantly kill you, do it.  If you think your soldier might get in trouble for sniffing that spice he found in a Noble's compound after investigating a disturbance, do it and accept the lashings if you get them.  Walk the line to avoid death, but don't let yourself get bored.  The most boring characters I have played have been the ones who were passive and avoided conflict.  The ones I enjoyed the most were the type who would divide people wherever he went.  The ones that created conflict made great friends and great enemies.  The ones that avoided it just faded into obscurity.

So, to sum it up:
1) Play for the longer term.  Don't be that stupid twit who flicks off a templar unless you are Rping someone who is retarded.  Don't be the dumb insubordinate runner who tells his commanding officer to go fuck himself.  You are just going to die and fail to create any conflict.

2) DO create conflict wherever you go.  You might not mouth off to your commanding officer to his face, but you can do it behind his back and try and get some buddies to agree.  You can undermined the bastard.  Just consider things as your character might.  If at any point something you are doing might get you killed, stop, step back, think if your character really wants to risk his life, and make a choice.  I am not saying never risk your life, but make sure that when you do it your character (and you) consider the grave consequence of your action.  Few people risk death lightly.

3) Make sure that you can sustain conflict.  As soon as you stop creating conflict you go stagnant.  Create a plan to keep conflict alive and make it something that is actually sustainable.  It might simply be that you have a shitty personality that can't help but create conflict.  It might be that you are so driven for the top that you are always in conflict with the guy above you.  However you do it, make sure you can keep doing it over and over again, and make sure that it doesn't get boring or lead to sure death.  The more general your method of conflict creation, the better.  A personality that breeds conflict is the best in my opinion.

[Akaramu]

That doesnt help you have long-lived characters, uberjazz.

Nope.  But it makes it fun.

I dont consider taking a course to almost certain death fun... but to each their own. I prefer making enemies who will most likely not try to end my Zalanthan life, but annoy my character in other ways. One time I made an enemy who I would tease and mock each time we ran into each other, and he would do the same, tossing insults across the tavern or wherever we were... with gestures, sarcastic little comments, and sometimes VNPC involvement. Usually to the amusement of whoever else happened to be in the room. I consider that more fun than getting death threats over the way and knowing I'm going to get killed if I dont hide at the other end of the known world.

[Akaramu]

Somehow there often is silence after many of my posts.  :lol: