Second wind..

[Sithramir]

I need some advice from Imms or those that have had long lived characters. I'm about to turn 300 hours and I've completely lost my desire to login lately. I really don't want to let this character go, but I just feel like I've hit a massive wall. I know 300 hours is nothing to most of you. I've seen ages 3 and 4 times that. So... what did you do to keep your character interesting? What do you do when you feel like you don't have anything to strive for any longer (this is the biggest killer)?

I do know that I still have a lot of pk knowledge to gain from fighting specific classes, but that isn't as motivating as it once was. I also know that it really isn't going to do me much good to start another character. I see myself getting to the same point eventually.

When I started I honestly thought I would be con dead by now. I set certain goals, all of which I have achieved, the final of which will be at 300 hours.

I suck pretty badly at RP, and though I've considered trying to think up some 'mini plot' type thing for myself, I don't believe I have what it takes yet to keep it alive.

My cabal has been great, I've learned so many things, and everyone has been so helpful and friendly to me. Yet I don't really feel like a part of anything.

The one idea I have thought of is to try to latch on to someone else's RP plans and see if I can be a part of something bigger than myself.

Please help.

[The Professor]

Honestly, I think now would be a perfect time for you to work on rp. If the rp plot doesn‘t take, that’s fine, use it as a learning experience and device another method to keep it alive. How well you can keep others interested in your story goes hand in hand with you remaining interested in your character. Characters do tend to plateau and become stagnant when you feel like you have nothing left to achieve, so never let yourself get to that point. A little trick I use to keep a character alive; setting an unattainable goal. Whatever you decide, I wish you well.

[Archbishop Monk]

I also think you've the right idea. Latching onto someone else's RP will help. Not that you want to actively go out and search to join someone else's RP, but let other people RP affect your own. You set your goals and achieved them, so now let other people influence your RP goals.

Just an example, when I made Pandegulant (demon cleric), I started out as Onero. I had no plans to become a cleric and was going to be a warrior or battlemage. Volgathras showed up though when doing a desc check and RP'd a dragon servant coming to me. So, I decided meeting an immortal would affect my life and so Onero went to the cleric guild to ask about the 'gods'. Made some of the best RP I've had in a while as the plot just kept going and going.

Point being, it doesn't just have to be for q-race this or that, but let other people affect your RP and it can give your characters new life.

[Tantangel]

I have that same problem, especially since coming back. I get about 100 hours into most characters and find that I'm bored, even after I've just been allowed to apply to the Cabal I want to be in. A strong solid RP base is what keeps the foundation of any character fresh, especially when you have others you can RP with whether their ideas and beliefs reflect your own or oppose it, it keeps things fresh. My longest character I've ever had was Egui and I had something crazy like 1200 hours or something like that. The first like 800 or so of them was spent in Savant, then I left for something I can't remember why. I remember telling a FG Cleric that if he beat me, he could keep everything I had, and being a Healer with massive saves, I figured I would win, but guess what? I lost my ***, but got it all back eventually by myself and a little help from others.

The entire time I played this character, I did pretty much a few things. My Cabal kept me interested a majority of the time, but when Savant totally stomped Warmaster back then and we had lands up the wazoo including Nexus being backed into a corner I got tired of it essentially. Then I basically looked for the best suit of shinies I could possibly find and try and do my damnedest to keep them. That kept me intrigued the rest of the time though. RP was a huge part of it, PK wasn't even thought about unless someone actually irritated the hell out of me, then I got OUTCAST. That part was probably my undoing, otherwise I think I probably would've had another 400 hours on him in the end easily.

I'm not saying that will work for you 100%, but RP doesn't have to be about it completely. Set another goal of kill X by Y date. Perhaps if you do that, as long as you're not a Healer, it could keep you interested that much longer.

[Enethier]

I know exactly how you feel about your RP getting stale. What I do in these times for my characters is really reflect on something that happened recently. I try to take in what it would truly mean to the character. Does it remind them of a past event? Does it cause them to reconsider their position on something? Does it cause a crisis of character? Is it interesting to them?

Find something that affects your character deeply. It can breathe the life you need into your character. For my current character, it was a love between characters. Instead of considering only her wants and her plan for life, she began to consider what would be best for the two of them, as a prospective family. It opened up a mini-rp plot with a third character, as competition for her love. And it all started while I was tossing back concoctions at the Red Dragon Inn, when a character that was close to mine walked in. I started asking myself the above questions in regard to that character, and how mine would react without inhibitions, and it went from there. Took fifteen minutes to breathe several months of life into my character.

[Sithramir]

Thank you for the suggestions and different viewpoints. I have some renewed enthusiasm, and will try to focus more on RP for a while using some of the ideas that were given.

[Mmm Coffee]

If you are new, there are tons of other things you could teach yourself too if you haven't figured out already. Things such as:

- How to farm gold/consumables quickly

- Become an expert at areas like Volcano, Isle of Souls, Winter's areas, etc

- Learn the Underdark (create path aliases for quick escapes/chasing)

- Learn more quests

Just some suggestions. RP isn't always readily accessible if the right chars are not logged on.

[The-Nameless]

My tip? Start trying to solo areas, and explore areas you do not know. Also stop in the library and read some of the tomes players have made over the years. Some very neat stuff there.