Roleplaying tips

[LucidApex]

Hello, everyone!

I have been attempting to play Armageddon mud for a little stretch of time, but every time I created a character, some stupid mistake would cause my characters to die, or I would simply becomne bored with a character and have it stored, or, more often than not, real life would set in, and I would not have time to play.

Now I am really getting into the game with my most recent character, and I'm hoping to keep this one around fro quite some time, but, to get to the point, I feel that my roleplaying skills are lacking, and am looking for any and all advice on roleplaying. I read through old roleplaying threads, but still have a lot of questions, and am just curious as to what other players consider good roleplaying. Thanks for any and all help!!


-Lucid Apex

[Tamarin]

Can you post a few more specific questions?  I find that's the best way to get the info you're looking for.

[Maybe42or54]

I don't know. We will give you a whole slew of what we think, but the best way to actually learn is to try a Pc that requires you to do a lot of things differently than you normally want to. For instance, I did what goes against I was taught and made a female Pc that acts like a man. It didn't really make me do things I normally don't, bbut it gave me insight into what Pcs can really go through, in terms of Ooc sexism brought IC, and I learned a whole lot.

[LucidApex]

sure

basically I can sum it up with these few:

Do flowery, descriptive emotes make good roleplay?

What defines roleplay as either good or bad, barring talking about ooc things or gratuitous use of the OOC command, or using OOC info IC, of course.

Is good roleplay defining s sort-of trend for your character, and sticking to it?

or is it just making your character believable?

A combination of all of those things?

I guess it is pretty subjective, and hard to describe really...but i have had this on my mind for awhile now, so I felt the need for a bit of guidance. does that clear it up a bit?

[Yokunama]

If you read the documentation, it will give you some idea about the ''dos'' and ''don'ts''.

[grog]

Good roleplay is pretending your character is a real person in a real world, the rest is just learning the tricks to protray it so others can see.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Do flowery, descriptive emotes make good roleplay?

No.  Emotes are not equivalent to role-play.  It is possible to role-play without emoting.

However, it isn't very fun.  If you don't put forth an effort to emote, think, and describe your character's actions as much as possible, most players and staff will assume that you're a twink, and I don't blame them if they do.

Emotes are equivalent to story-telling, and in the end that's what this game is about.  Make your emotes flowery if you can do so without butchering the english language.  Make them descriptive within a reasonable limit.  But above all, emote as best as you can.

What defines roleplay as either good or bad, barring talking about ooc things or gratuitous use of the OOC command, or using OOC info IC, of course.

Good role-play is paying attention to your surroundings and treating them as if they were real.  Read room descriptions.  Read the documentation.  Constantly ask yourself what room descriptions and documentation are failing to tell you, and find out these questions by asking other players and staff members.

Create your character in alliance with the documentation.  Give him a personality, appearance background that accounts for the documentation.  Use his personality and background to fuel your think, say, and emote commands.

Is good roleplay defining s sort-of trend for your character, and sticking to it?

If you mean making a consistent character, than yes.

But you should also realize that not all characters are consistent.  Some characters will frequently change their minds.  Some characters lack deeply rooted convictions.  Other characters have these convictions but find them undermined by the world around them and thus begin to question them.  Therefore, an inconsistent character can be just as well role-played as a consistent one.  Hopefully you can understand that inconsistency doesn't mean insanity or simply taking random actions.

or is it just making your character believable?

Clarify please.

[Hymwen]

Do flowery, descriptive emotes make good roleplay?

Not necessarily. Descriptive emotes are good, but if what you're doing is simple, a simple emote will be fine. If you're just nodding at someone, don't describe it in three lines of text.

What defines roleplay as either good or bad, barring talking about ooc things or gratuitous use of the OOC command, or using OOC info IC, of course.

For me personally, good roleplaying is when the participants are interesting, entertaining, and are willing to work with eachother. When noone's trying to win, everyone plays an interesting character and nobody feels left out, it's good roleplay.

Is good roleplay defining s sort-of trend for your character, and sticking to it?

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

or is it just making your character believable?

That's part of it, but not all of it. You can be a very believable tavern-sitter who never speaks, does nothing and has no interesting personality. But that won't make for good roleplaying. You'll want a believable character, but it also has to be interesting to the people you play with.

A combination of all of those things?

Yes.

[Tamarin]

Do flowery, descriptive emotes make good roleplay?

In my opinion, they do not.  They occasionally have their place, but just because you can emote monstrously verbose things, doesn't make you a good roleplayer.

Now...NO emoting is bad roleplay, imho.  It doesn't have to be horribly intricate, but it should be there.  Otherwise, there is just no indication of the physical space which your PC occupies.

Basically....emoting != rolelpay.  But.
Roleplay - emoting = not roleplay.

What equals good roleplay....

Just that.  Playing a role.  You have a character, and that character is a real person.  She has biases, likes, dislikes, abilities, handicaps, just like any normal, real person.  Making your character come alive is within the framework of -herself-, to me, the ultimate goal of roleplay.

There are lots of tools that let you do this.  The emote system. Thinks.  Feels.  Your actions.  I think it's valuable to understand the game in a spacial way.  What I mean by this is...say you're sitting at a bar.  If a templar walks in, you don't necessarily have to auto-stand and bow, because there's a decent chance you didn't see him/her.  Maybe your back was turned.  Maybe your attention was on something else...perhaps another person.  Having a spacial awareness of the world, especially within a given room, is key to roleplay (but it's just my opinion).

[Maybe42or54]

Some ideas to keep in mind for playing your future Pcs, that I personally, use.
What traits of other people do you like?

For some of my Pcs, I liked the ones that weren't all that friendly to me. On others, I enjoyed flamboyant, all talk, and no walk pcs.

What genders/races do you like? Even if you don't RP sex, I don't think your Pc would want to be abstinent til death. And if they do, Rp that.

Have faults. This is a big one that I have seen. Some of my pcs have had an eye on that half elf race after a certain templar had them so he could "be just like the rich and famous." Others liked to drink and sell stuff that was left around in the compound. Perfect human Pcs aren't very much fun.

[LucidApex]

Excellent, this is the kind of stuff I am looking for I based my character loosely n a character from "pulp fiction" but I am really aving a hard time thinking what my character would do in certain situations. These replies have given me excellent ideas for my character. Thanks a lot for the help!

[amoeba]

Do flowery, descriptive emotes make good roleplay?

Yes amd no.  The best of roleplayers use emotes to help flesh out their character and make it more entertaining.  If this is done through using an emoting style that is sparce, or one that is flowery is not importaint, more importaint is the -quality-, not the quanity of the writing.  A flowery emote that does little to enlarge the character in some fashion, does little to enhance roleplay. It's just fancy words.  Flowery does not always equate to good.

What defines roleplay as either good or bad, barring talking about ooc things or gratuitous use of the OOC command, or using OOC info IC, of course.

OOC is a take away from roleplay in most cases.  It throws us out of our story and sticks us into the real world.  OOC is a person talking behind you through a movie. Best avoided unless needed.

Is good roleplay defining s sort-of trend for your character, and sticking to it?

or is it just making your character believable?

A combination of all of those things?

IMHO, a combination.  

The best advice I can give for what is good roleplay, is to look at the players around you. Find ones that really do it for you, that are a joy to listen to and interact with, and see what they do.  Then be one of those people.

[Cuusardo]

Staying true to your character is very important.  For this, you have to separate yourself from your character.  Do what your PC would do, not what YOU would do.  For example, if your character is a pacifist, don't go pick a fight in a bar just because you're bored.  And so on, and so forth.

A good way to develop a character's personality is via the think command.  You can flesh out an entire train of thought without anyone else (except the IMMs eating your brainz) knowing.  It will help define who your character is, his motivations, and feelings.  Say your PC is sitting at a bar, and two other PCs come in.  What does your character think of those people and what they are doing?  Let's say it's a couple of Bynners who frequent that bar and get drunk often, for example.  Does your character find their drunken shenanagens amusing, or detestable?  Go from there.  You can make it as detailed as you like.

[LucidApex]

I just had sort-of an epiphany I'd like to share. I'm kinda realizing that while this is a game, it's mroe of a story, or a play if you will. My character is just that, a character in a play, and I'm the actor. It's my job to convey my interpretation of this character. It's like...an improv play type-thinige. Yeah.....I have been bitten by the roleplaying bug!

[EvilRoeSlade]

I just had sort-of an epiphany I'd like to share. I'm kinda realizing that while this is a game, it's mroe of a story, or a play if you will. My character is just that, a character in a play, and I'm the actor. It's my job to convey my interpretation of this character. It's like...an improv play type-thinige. Yeah.....I have been bitten by the roleplaying bug!

I think you're definitely on the right track with that thinking.

[jhunter]

All I can say is -be- your character while you are playing. Put yourself in their shoes and use the tools we have to show that character off to everyone else in the gameworld.

[mansa]

The hardest part in the game is to play your character as a different person in a different world.

My most favourite character I've played didn't do -many- emotes.  In fact, most of them were basic.  I did try and emote the little things, like where my hands were at most times, where my feet were when I was sitting, when I leaned forward and when I touched your elbow or shoulder in order to get your attention, -rather than- just shouting out your name at a busy bar.

I played my character with realistic goals.  I didn't want to become the head of my house.  I just wanted to make enough money to relax, and be comfortable, and drink and smoke a lot, and hire the perfect person to replace me and become their boss.  And when things didn't go well with my character, like a failed assassination attempt on a certain other character, I freaked out and stumbled as to what to do next, in game.  I didn't just think about it OOCly and then decided OOCly what to do next.. I showed in-character that my d00d was studdering with his decisions, using the think command to show how confused he was, and sat down and paused to think about what to do next, WHILE THE SHIT HIT THE FAN.

And when my character hit the lowest point in his life, he tried to turn to someone he could trust and someone who might have the cure to his problem, and went along with it, KNOWING OOCly that this was a "BAD IDEA".  And then that mofo killed me with a kick to the face.

If I played all my characters as -me- in a different world, then all of my characters would be the same.  And have fun doing it, too.