Roleplaying: How To Make Things Interesting?

[deskoft]

How To Make Things Interesting?

Hello! I come to you with another one of my topics, hoping everyone else can chime in and give some ideas about. The basic premise is: Armageddon is a game that doesn't rely on coded achievements. Code is there to support your play. The object-oriented nature of the game makes it easy to resort to just code (you fight a monster and emote nothing, you spamwalk, you tavern-sit without emotes), and even I do it sometimes, until I start growing bored and wonder: Why? And realize it is because I have been focusing on the code rather than the story. So, here we are, to discuss how to make things more interesting and how YOU make things more interesting.

• Realism: Think about your character as a breating, living character with a routine and needs. Nothing stops him from resting in the middle of the Red Desert for the morning, but is that really fun? What would you do if you are in the middle of the desert and have a massive storm: you could seek shelter for example and if you do not find it a series of scenarios could come up. This makes your original 'wait out the night silently or talking about what I will do tomorrow' into something far more engaging: both you and your party is having trouble and need to find shelter. There's no coded affect to a scenario that is shitty, but you're roleplaying it. You could also consider the affects of injury on you: maybe roleplay being injured and having to battle through it. Instead of realism, this idea could easily be named: 'have a meaty character.' While staff tries to animate NPCs, the game relies on PCs not acting as NPCs to make things more interesting: don't be an NPC!
• Emotions: This is all about having a PC that also reacts to things but on an emotional basis. So you just came off from fighting 30 gith. Back to the sparring hall? Or would your character take a time to sit somewhere, maybe process it through. If it fits your character to just get back on it, that's cool: but consider if seeing 30 intelligent creatures try to kill him (and him succeeding at surviving it) might affect them in any way, even if it did not affect you.
• Spamwalking can be bad: This one took me some time to realize but when I realized it was affecting my fellow roleplayers I ceased. I'm not saying to emote in every room you walk to, but maybe consider how the gameworld around you will affect your character. If you're in a crowded street, maybe your PC will have to walk through the crowds to get to his destination? If you're in the salt flats, maybe your PC will want to take a moment to see the beautiful shimmer of the Suk-Krath with the salt? If it's not for you, it's about your fellow characters: spamwalking cuts out all roleplay for them. They have to wait for the spamwalk to be over. It's not nice. At least for me. And hopefully for you.

So based on your experience, how can one player make things interesting for the rest through their roleplay?

[Medena]

Thinks and feels.

When I first started on Arm I believed that the think command was the dumbest thing ever.  And I don't think there was a feel command yet, though I could be wrong.  I also thought that solo roleplay was dumb -- roleplay was all about interacting with others!!

At some point I had an epiphany:  RP is about interacting with the world around your PC.  Thinks and feels really help you to do that because they keep you in the moment, whether you are interacting with other PCs in a tavern, riding across the salt flats or trying to cook something.  Thinks and feels keep you engaged with the game world and with your character.  Having an internal dialogue going helps to shape your PC's personality and keeps the game world fresh and interesting too.  I couldn't live without it.

[Bebop]

Let Stories Incubate

Yes, I know.  Murder, corruption, betrayal - I know.  I would point out murder is only ONE THIRD of those options.  Stories must be allowed to incubate and wind their fibers longer and around one another to begin to form a tapestry that can support an in depth plot.  PK often times cuts those threads before stories can form.  It ends up creating stagnation and causing  the plot to flatten.  It can also result in good RPers stepping back from the game temporarily or long-term.  This has the potential to shrink the game or at the very least shrink the area you are playing in as players flee to other areas they have less potential get PK'd frivolously.  To me, I see the sandbox shrinking.  Logging on on a Friday at what should be peak hours to see 13 players?  Not good.  I'm not saying don't PK if you feel you absolutely must.  But there are other ways to sabotage and niggle your enemies and that is part of the fun - observing those long term rivalries.  I would strongly advise to keep things interesting a good hard look be taken at PK, a thread of it's own I plan on starting soon.

Find Reasons to Interact With People

Find reasons to interact with people.  Just do it.  Ew, a magicker.  My character would never interact with them.  Then just wrinkle your nose at them.  Call them a witch.  See a half-giant?  Try to get one over on them.  Walking down the street and see someone, find a reason to ask them what's up.  See someone in a bar just tavern sitting?  Find a reason to engage them.  What do they do?  Can you trade with them?  What are they all about.  And if you can't be their friend how can you be their rival?  Not all interaction has to be a positive, happy go-lucky interaction.  Just interaction.  Start stories, connections and plots.  Ask people what they do.  Ask personal questions.

Don't be Afraid to Show Emotion - Don't be Afraid to go There

Is your character having a mental break down?  Show it, or hint at it.  Wounded?  Roleplay the shit out of it and then role play your injuries.  Develop your characters weaknesses, nuances.  Consider writing a short story about them.  Add it to your bio.  Know when something would trigger them a little or a lot and then role play it out subtly or not so subtly.

Take Risks

This isn't Instagram where it's about living the perfect life.  This is a harsh desert world where everyone is scraping for power, coin, prestige and maybe a few precious people they can trust.  Take a risk on that newb.  Let someone live.  Stalk, steal.  Say something blunt.  Don't constantly resort to PK but don't always worry about hurting someones feelings.  Make fun of them for being a breed, magicker, mutant, elf.  Have bias.  Start a company.  Go on crazy adventures.  Get people in on wild plots.  The game stagnates when PCs treat everyone like they're equals and it's time to network IRL.

Keep the Lore and Society in Mind

This game has been running for a long time.  There is a wealth of lore and while it's fun to play little exceptions here and there the game, in my opinion, really comes alive and starts chugging along when people embrace that lore.  Half-elf or rinther?  There's gotta be a way to sling a micro-aggression or be passive aggressive.  Maybe to your dying shame you're attracted to half-elves, but publicly?  Ew.  See a noble or Templar, grovel and throw coins at them.  Help them get plots started in their roles.  Learn about the Elements, superstitions, diseases - find a nuance of the lore and run with it.  Make it come alive.  Play up tropes in the game when you can.  Think less about how long a PC has been alive and where their place would be in society.

Avoid Exposition

One of the first rules of creative writing is show don't tell.  Write yourself a background, figure out who your character is and the filter that out through interactions.  IRL you don't walk into a bar and drop your life story.  Take it slow.  Hold those biases, return to those fictional traumas you've made for your character and let them seep into everything you do.  Make people curious about why you're acting the way you are.  Let the storyline unfurl and then let RL events shape you.  Combine this with only PKing when necessary this gives time for stories to truly develop which will increase interesting interactions.

[Bogre]

Complications, not final solutions:
Just gonna jump in and say that while PK is a solution, a lot of time's it's more interesting to just complicate someone else's life or work for a more strenuous goal. Naturally, sometimes people just gotta get stabbed, but if you do choose that option; try your hardest to make it worthwhile.

Don't play to win.
Play to develop a cool character, to build a great story. You want things to be wild and stressful and to have meaning. Set goals, take risks achieving them, but don't get discouraged if you don't check the box off. Play someone who's down on their luck, or needlessly makes things hard on themselves. You can only gain redemption if you lose something first.

[Delirium]

Goals are a means to an end, not something you have to achieve:
Giving your character something that they strive for is great, because that allows other characters to bounce off of that, and sets off a whole domino effect of plots for and against you. Do not worry if you don't achieve those goals. Your character may be infuriated, but as a player, be happy!  You created something for other people to do just by existing!

Sometimes it is tiring if you start getting dogpiled on, because it can feel like other people have latched on to your plots out of boredom created by the lack of their own plots. Still, when you're tempted to feel that way, just remember that in a way, it is the greatest compliment you can receive. People took notice of something you presented to the gameworld and they ran with it and used it to create a story, even if it didn't go the way you wanted.

Take GoT or any novel. If the characters got what they wanted and were always clever enough to win all the time, it would be a very boring story. Just try not to take any setbacks personally, be willing to be patient, be willing to adjust your strategy and ultimate agenda, and have fun with the insanity of the roller coaster ride you are embarking on.

[daughterofauset]

Hemotes

Subtle tics and gestures are a great way to show things like tells when lying, or have people lock eyes from across the room when looking at each other, or to add any number of other details to play. Just like in real life, sometimes in game, much of the context and meaning of a scene may lie beneath the obvious surface.

[Hauwke]

Be vulnerable:

I learned this one a few characters ago, if you get your leg chomped on by a mekillot, spend a few rl days emoting about how your leg got chomped on by a goddamn mekillot. Were you standing right next to your best friend as they took an arrow to the head, killing them instantly and spraying blood over you? Spend a few RL days having your guy come to terms with that. 1 Zalanthan week is not long enough to heal a grievous injury, it is not long enough to overcome mental trauma. You can hide it, but remember that it is in fact there. Even the hardest, dumbest half-giants can have a memory that suddenly strikes them about that one time this super shitty thing happened and spiral into a brief depression. Let people fix it for you if they care.

[Cind]

Be Willing to Strike Up a Conversation.

When you are playing a non-rinthi human being it can be difficult to overcome that bite of barrier between yourself and a witch or a rinthi or an elf, but if you can and want to I think you should go for the chomp. At worst you won't have any business you can do with them or have nothing to talk about.

[Derain]

Don't use the in game board to further your agenda when you could hire PCs to spread rumors and such for you. Don't hide when you think you've angered someone else, HIRE the Byn or somethjng to that effect chances are your making it unrealistically hard for someone to enjoy the game. If you pissed off the entire known and then hide and hardly log on it isn't making the game any more fun.

[PriestlySiren]

Don't ignore a chance to interact. Interactions MAKE the game.

Don't ignore the virtual world. You are hardly ever alone and should take it into consideration.

[Hauwke]

Want to make an impression? Be a filthy bastard, have lice in your hair and filth under your nails. Not enough people do it, they like to be clean.

[lostinspace]

change ldesc
It's probably my second most used RP tool after emoting. Even if you're not at your PC because you need to get a drink, you're still contributing to the game world. Next time you sit down, sit against something, or under something.

[Alesan]

change ldesc
It's probably my second most used RP tool after emoting. Even if you're not at your PC because you need to get a drink, you're still contributing to the game world. Next time you sit down, sit against something, or under something.

When most "sit" objects overwrite ldescs, this feature is not very useful the vast majority of the time a character is sitting. Unless they happen to spend most of their sitting time on the ground.

Standing ldescs I'll give you.

[Heade]

change ldesc
It's probably my second most used RP tool after emoting. Even if you're not at your PC because you need to get a drink, you're still contributing to the game world. Next time you sit down, sit against something, or under something.

When most "sit" objects overwrite ldescs, this feature is not very useful the vast majority of the time a character is sitting. Unless they happen to spend most of their sitting time on the ground.

That depends on you. There are plenty of things that you can't codedly sit on, but that you could sit on via RP, such as crates, chests, or people, for example.

But, many PCs DO sit on the ground a lot. Especially outdoorsy characters that often meet people in places where they're resting mounts. I should use ldescs more often, I think.

[Alesan]

change ldesc
It's probably my second most used RP tool after emoting. Even if you're not at your PC because you need to get a drink, you're still contributing to the game world. Next time you sit down, sit against something, or under something.

When most "sit" objects overwrite ldescs, this feature is not very useful the vast majority of the time a character is sitting. Unless they happen to spend most of their sitting time on the ground.

That depends on you. There are plenty of things that you can't codedly sit on, but that you could sit on via RP, such as crates, chests, or people, for example.

But, many PCs DO sit on the ground a lot. Especially outdoorsy characters that often meet people in places where they're resting mounts. I should use ldescs more often, I think.

Alright. I had in mind city bound characters, but you're absolutely correct.

[Miradus]

If your client allows for aliases, you can do what I do and alias out these things.

Like instead of say I might use the alias "tsay" which maps to "say (In a low, growling voice) "...

Don't overuse it in everything, but sprinkle it in with your normal says so people remember how you talk.

I will also alias some flavor emotes in on common actions and change them up with each character.

Like "body1" maps to "emote expertly pats down ~body, looking for valuables" for a city thief. Or I might change it to "emote rolls ~body over with his foot, eyeing the horizon for signs of danger" for a wilderness character.

Or I alias drawing my axe to "dax" which is "draw axe (Bringing it swiftly to his thick-knuckled hand)" ... and "sax" to "sheath axe (Sliding the haft into his belt)"

It gives me something to tweak with each passing character, but also lets me differentiate a little bit with flavor emotes without having to constantly think about it. Setting those up is what I do when I'm parked somewhere regenning.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

change ldesc
It's probably my second most used RP tool after emoting. Even if you're not at your PC because you need to get a drink, you're still contributing to the game world. Next time you sit down, sit against something, or under something.

This, here. I use Armageddon's alias system to shorten change ldesc to he or she, ie: alias he change ldesc. Then, when I'm in a room, I enter "he stands against the wall, arms crossed" or "she sweeps the floor here, whistling". I, like lostinspace, consider this my second favorite tool.

[MatisseOrOtherwise]

"alias pose change ldesc" is also good