RP question

[the_nightmare]

I am asking it in general discussion, because I wish more people to spot the post and answer.My question is simple, what is considered RP and silent PK?

Let me just tell you my point of view.For me RP means to stay in character at all times and to have any clear idea of some basics, like:

1.Who your character is?

2.Where does he comes from?

3.What are his goals?

4.What is his history?

Everything else for me is an exceptional RP, like using smotes, emotes and etc, that is good but only to backup your character's main RP.

Silent Pk for me have always been something which doesn't exist.I think that some people are so frustrated that they have been killed in a PK enforced mud that they do not look the mistakes done from their part, instead they blame others.To be honest I don't feel anyhow obligated to sit there and chat with someone after I kill him IG, especially if I have cabal duties to perform or some other character business.

It is beyond me how people want to sit next to them and explain why you killed them, that looks quite odd to me.Please tell me what do you think?

Btw at the moment for me Kahnt is an epitome of good RP, he doesn't use much smotes emotes, but you can still laugh your *** off when he talks.

[f0xx]

RP is, first and foremost staying in character. Everything that lets out a slightest hint that there might actually be someone behind the character is OOC, be it old grudges, snide remarks or comments made out of frustration...

Recently on Quillyx, after I killed a cabal enemy of mine and didn't take a single thing from their corpse, I was told, straight, "This is stupid, enjoy playing the game alone." Then the person left. 15 seconds later, he entered on his other character, which was actually in friendly cabal and had extremely friendly relationships with my character. Me knowing that, decided to convey a small experiment and contacted him with my character's usual playful manner, talking about cabal stuff. After sending three different tells in the span of 5 minutes, I gave up because he never replied (there were no cabal enemies of his in the lands).

That being said, having a general idea of your story, goals, values and maintaining them, is what RP is. Maintaining means, to actually follow them, and not just change them when things get rough i.e. if you are a zealous avatar, you go after EVERY evil, not just the easy ones - it's really funny to watch how zealous they are when after non-pinns that hunt in the caverns, but once Thulgan logs in, they sit inside their cabal.

As for silent PK - such thing doesn't exist, and the term has been created as an excuse by soar person who was PKed and since they can't hurt you (PK wise), they have to flame your RP, since RP is a vague thing. They forget that its vagueness goes both ways.

That being said, I think that anyone who spits on someone should have his PK protection towards that person instantly removed.

[the_nightmare]

f0xx for first time to be honest, I completely agree with you on 100%.

[Ajindaar]

things might have changed a bit, but from my understanding, RP basically means to stay in character, no matter what. this also includes, for example, an introverted swordsman suddenly sensing the presence of a foe ('who pk' is so IC ). quietly honing his sword and preparing for battle, he's as much RPing as a chatty bard on central square.

hopping characters, however, was always frowned upon.

[KRins]

My only issue with "silent PK" is when it is blatantly someone just playing the PK side of the game. A thief that shows up off the shelf for 3 months and engages everything he sees, especially when you were around 3 months prior and that wasn't the character. A character that is suddenly incredibly opportunistic when someone is hurt and he wants his item... yet has claimed to be an honorable paladin or something like that for the other 200 hours the character has logged.

The essence of RP, in my mind, is the essence of human relationships in the real world. Developing those feelings you have towards people. You love your close friends. Take me and Twinblades for instance, I definitely have had moments where I wanted to shoot him completely in the face. I also love the kid and would super willingly fetch a shovel to help him hide a body. We disagree on some things on a level I can barely explain. We also agree on things as though we were the same person. He believes a few things I think are completely wrong, and I am sure he feels the same way about some of the things I believe. There have been times we literally did not speak for 15 days, despite living literally 10 feet apart. There's depth there, it's real. Some days we were completely inseparable, he was literally my saving grace in many situations. Sometimes he or I did something that caused the other one to express how they felt in pretty heated fashion. It was usually me, but if I were a character I would certainly be considerably more fiery, prone to emotional swings, and a poor practitioner of logical reason relying more on fleeting desires. I would see great symbolic meaning in actions and feel as though I had little control over what happened to me. I would constantly seek external affirmation of what I am and the value it brings. I would be intensely depressed when something didn't turn out my way and feel like I was a karmic victim, turning my back on the things I could do to help others because "What's the point if I only get screwed in the end?" He would be played with a level of detachment some would call a touch cold, he would be intensely thoughtful, he would see the world as a rather large game where his choices dictate how the game plays out. He would need little external input, relying on his own analysis of the situation. If you can find depth like that... then you are an RP god in my mind and I would gladly interact with you until my fingers bled from typing and my eyes were blinded from screen glare.

You also hate your enemy. You would rather choke on an entire CutCo factory of knives than accept even the slightest bit of help from them. You will harm yourself a little to harm them a lot. You would delight in taking from them and bitterly grumble when they succeed. Even if it was just a poor turn of luck you could not possibly have caused, you would congratulate yourself on something bad happening to them just because you wished it or you put that negative energy out towards them. Verbal badgering, kicking them when they are down, even baiting them into things that would jam them up wouldn't be below you because "Screw that guy, he totally deserves to have this (insert unpleasant thing) happen to him"

[Celerity]

I'll take this a bit further and point out that "passive" RP isn't enough. We can't just assume that every action you do is perfect RP or IC...it has to be actively portraying whatever your RP objective is. On top of that, it extends to working with OTHER PEOPLE's objectives...either for or against them...but still interacting with them. It can't be 100% or even half internal.

So a silent PKer is the type that never does any RP outside of using the mechanics of their character. So PKing can be OOC, passive, or active RP..depending on how the character is doing it.

If you can look at a name and know what makes this character unique (attitude, relationships, goals, whatever), that char has done a decent job actively RPing--again, it could be through PK, emotes, conversation, etc.

Personally, I hate sitting there emoting, but I typically like conversation. So my RP is usually done through that over a long period of time.

Like mentioned above--if you can guess who plays the char, they aren't RPing well enough. We are all guilty of it, of course.

Another thing to remember is that it isn't simply just RP or no RP...usually it is a continuum. You have people who are almost exclusively passive with a few remarks (both active and semi-OOC)..these people are the ones with 'poor' RP...usually not clear, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Decent RP is usually clear, sometimes very good, maybe very rarely bad. Excellent RP is a step above that.

[Ajindaar]

"The essence of RP is the essence of human relationships in the real world. "

"He believes a few things I think are completely wrong, and I am sure he feels the same way about some of the things I believe."

"I definitely have had moments where I wanted to shoot him completely in the face."

"Sometimes he or I did something that caused the other one to express how they felt in pretty heated fashion."

sums it up pretty well i guess. aslong as those emotions are tied to a single character.

"My only issue with "silent PK" is when it is blatantly someone just playing the PK side of the game."

reckoning FL is still enforced RP, i wonder how they got to 50 then.

[Twinblades713]

I don't RP. Not in my head at least. I am my character. I am not playing his role. When I played Oppressant, and I had a situation to judge... I thought, "What would I do here." or "What do I think of this." A response would immediately formulate itself. It is a compartmentalization for me. I am not an evil demon doll. But I do not have to sit there and wonder what the character Oppressant would have thought. I know, exactly, how it is that I, Oppressant, would react to a given situation.

Too apply this to your questions:

1.Who am I?

2.Where am I from?

3.What are my goals? Do I even know?

4.What is my history?

I write these down on paper before I play the character. I do have a period of inspection on the character, combo, race, align and general ideals as a player first. But once I finish my description, especially if I am into the character, I am that character. This isn't always easy to achieve, especially if it is hard to get into the character. For that reason, you may, but will likely never see me roll an ogre ranger. I so far, have not been able to find any attractive RP for that combo, should I want to try it.

Therefore your definition of silent pk is wholly irrelevant to me as a player and as a character. If I am an Avatar, I'm coming directly for you, and you might not be warned. This is not my RP, that I don't talk to those I kill... I just didn't think to warn you I was coming. If I am a Tribune, I am going to try to reign you in and barter a better prison sentence if you cooperate. You will have all the time in the world. This is also not my RP, that I thought you deserved a chance before I came after you. I just thought it was wiser, or more fair perhaps, to allow you an opportunity. If you are a real character, and not a puppet of a character through a player (No demon puns intended) you don't need to address these questions at all.

[Ajindaar]

"I don't RP. Not in my head at least. I am my character."

looking forward to meet you in game

[KRins]

"My only issue with "silent PK" is when it is blatantly someone just playing the PK side of the game."

reckoning FL is still enforced RP, i wonder how they got to 50 then.

I've partied with people for literally hours, thrown out says, emotes, gtells... I've consciously not used combat skills because they wouldn't talk to me. Would you ever accept a coworker not handling their business after they've proven they have the skills to make X, Y, and Z happen? You can certainly play this game with a level of passivity and indifference and rank to 50. You can even RP a completely ambivalent character remarkably well. If I were in the shoes of the person carrying me in a party and were RPing a completely nihilistic individual... I would at least manage a say of something like "I don't care about this either..." Total passivity not only strikes me as... poor RP (my personal opinion, please feel free to disagree) but it even makes me feel slightly discouraged to try to put my character's "self" out there. You would be surprised what a word in passing, or even an emote can do to impact those around you. That's why we are here right? To create a world where there's danger, excitement, love, hate, friends, foes, tears, smiles... I mean... if I just wanted to kill things it is soooo much easier to do that in a shooter without annoyances of eating things to maintain a character. I get it, sometimes its damn annoying when someone is like "wth man? Not even a word?" But you know what... a sneer, a dismissing glance, a completely sociopathic grin before hacking off that dude's head mercied at your feet... its so real and impactful you don't even realize it.

Twin is totally right. You are in character when you are the character. I can't manage it often. I think my single best RP'd character was Edicaln. It bled into me even away from the keyboard. He would snarl and show his teeth, screw it if it is Volgathras himself and Grimulfr was physically stopping me. I, as a player, knew Volg could slay me with one command and I couldn't take him down even if I did 5 billion HP worth of damage. Edicaln didn't even begin to give a damn about Volg's power. He frankly didn't care about Grimulfr's power either, he only respected his wishes because he had shown love for Edicaln's brother Tala and a kitsune never forgets family (at least in the kitsune lore I created in my mind). He would hit on Velian (the third kitsune) because that's what an adolescent fox-spirit would do, despite the fact that I KNEW the person playing Velian was a guy. Edicaln occupied, and still does, a place in my mind where I am not Kevin, a 20 something dude with confidence issues and yada yada. When he was logged in Edicaln took total control. I consciously "unlearned" somethings I know about the game and played it how he would. I used a lesser Watcher pet all the time because Edicaln liked the idea of a canine being subservient to him. I honestly loved the character too much to allow Kevin to interfere with who he was.

[Ajindaar]

"Total passivity not only strikes me as... poor RP (my personal opinion, please feel free to disagree) but it even makes me feel slightly discouraged to try to put myself out there. You would be surprised what a word in passing, or even an emote can do to impact those around you."

i full-heartedly agree with you there. an emote/smote often says more than a hundred words. ...and if you pick your nose while mr. paladin talks about his most recent kill, it might also provide for some escalating fun talks ;-)

edit: ...or if you disagree with your group mates, just leave group and fireball them. also spikes a plentitude of things to talk about.

[KRins]

I want to take a moment to throw a shout to another really well RPed character that helped me grow as a character. Tala was Edicaln's brother. Tala was this delightful, whimsical figure. He honestly believed when we killed things they were just sleeping really hard. It was so incredibly believable, it dictated things I did as a character. I would always sacrifice corpses so my dear brother never had to know the things we had actually done. He was entirely too short lived, but he made way for another amazing character Fizzie so I can forgive it. He was so impactful, I literally spent hours looking for him despite reading the deletion thread. I would often utter "Tala, be good!" I bet the player thought I was trying to be a commanding individual... I wasn't. I was wishing that he always carried his innocence. Edicaln hated demons because they stood for the opposite of the innocence he loved in his brother. Tala, you were a beast and I still miss you to this very day. I don't believe he ever once actively hunted someone down. A character that didn't have 500 PKs is one of the greatest characters ever played in my mind, because he made me change and grow as a player. He made me aware that there are other people with other goals and that they not only deserve my attention, but they also deserve the respect of impacting my character because they showed me the respect of letting me into their own glorious imagination.

[f0xx]

Like mentioned above--if you can guess who plays the char' date=' they aren't RPing well enough.[/quote']

I think I told someone the exact same thing 4-5 days ago. That basically sums it up, and as stated, we are all guilty of it.

f0xx for first time to be honest' date=' I completely agree with you on 100%.[/quote']

That's a good thing and means you are getting wiser

[the_nightmare]

How I see things are that people mess up supremely RP and no RP at all.I remember Opressant, he had an exceptional RP, even after hundred years I won't be able to RP that good.However this doesn't mean that having some basic RP is not RP at all.We cannot all have the RP skills of Irpel and PK like despiser at the same time.

[Enethier]

RP, to me, is never silent. Silent is stoic. Stoic is unchanging, unevolving, and unmotivated. Yet all characters have a motivation. All characters have something that drives them forward through life. We are not machines, so how can one expect a character to be? We are affected by others on a day-in, day-out basis. Does that mean talk to everyone you kill? No. But it's not managing a cabal army and typing "where pk" all day. It's something much more rewarding.

RP, to me, is taking your character's base attitude, disposition, and everything you started with in your head, and tossing it to the wind. When I play a character, I set basic goals to start with.

"I want to be a Merchant." Okay. Cool. So start with a race... Gnome! Brambus is the biggest merchandising name I know. Easy. Class... Invoker! I knew an invoker once that enchanted my equipment. Seemed desirable. Should be easy to sell that. Hey! I can even locate equipment and sell that knowledge!

So I made that character, fleshed out the physical details, a background, and logged in. I made that first note to act as an advertisement flyer and then... I stopped. No longer was that character in my hands. Instant immersion into a world full of other rich, developed characters that didn't give 2 craps about my life story. Sure, I had them. But I'm selling them spells, not an autobiography. Let's see if I can find out about them instead. Maybe some insight on them will lead to finding out their needs, so that in the future, I can make more money from them.

And then as I listen I become involved in their story. It affects me. It sheds light on a subject, it gives me some new insight to a past event, it teaches me a lesson, it teaches me how I can manipulate them. It teaches me how I can love them, empathize with them, die for them, and how I am still just a speck in the universe. It teaches me that I am capable of change, that I can find reasons to get more from life than a few gold pieces. Next thing I know, my life has passed me by. I'm an old gnome on my deathbed, unable to make good on my promise to give a new world to the one I loved, watching her fortune disappear, and my empire crumble as I close my eyes one last time.

Now, you may notice that I am using "I" a lot. It's because when I log in, I am no longer me. I am this entity that I have created, and that has been shaped. I don't have to think "What would this character do?" I just... do it. Yet for each of my characters, my actions are unique. Because again, I am no longer "me" when I am playing a character. I am them.

tl;dr Silent RP isn't a thing, in my mind. RP is always something deeply rooted in others, where your ideas and goals form merely the roots of the metaphorical tree.

[The-Nameless]

Sometimes RP IS silent. What I feel is that too often that is given to be the norm. I try to toss snippets of RP into my PK, and post pk actions. Sending tells out during combat, little things that my character would do.

Personally if I was going to kill you in real life, I would ambush you in some trashy fashion, and never give you a chance in hell to defend yourself, then I would get the **** out of dodge without telling a soul. I would not stand around as a crowd shows up and start talking about what my childhood was like, and why I decided to kill this poor SOB.

[f0xx]

Personally if I was going to kill you in real life' date=' I would ambush you in some trashy fashion, and never give you a chance in hell to defend yourself, then I would get the **** out of dodge without telling a soul. I would not stand around as a crowd shows up and start talking about what my childhood was like, and why I decided to kill this poor SOB.[/quote']

The thing is, that FL is not RL.

In FL killing is more about sending a message, rather than dispatching the person.

"My organization's view are better than yours"

"Drokmar will smash all things evil"

"I am a big bad demon and I kill because I can"

"Syndicate will take your head no matter what"

and so on...

What I am trying to say is, FL is a fantasy land, so comparing it to RL is silly.

Which on it's turn doesn't mean that I disagree with your point, but you just a silly example

[The-Nameless]

I realize, I have several characters right now who I feel I have legit reasons to go after, some of those reasons range from:

Trying to get other characters after me

Throwing me under the bus repeatedly

False accusations

REPEATED threats (I will kill you, I will strip you clean etc etc)

Repeated attempts to tell me how I should act

Repeated gang attempts (though this is not real high up on my angry list, some characters get to a point where you basically have to gang them or they just refuse to die. My main annoyance on this point is having chars who have the ability to kill me still try to gang.)

[Enethier]

That's the thing, when in game, you're not you. So what you would do isn't in question or relevant. I do agree that sitting down and having a smoke with your victim and taking them to breakfast the next morning is not typical, and shouldn't be expected. It is silly to say that one does not RP because they don't do that. On that same token, silent everything is still not RP. Silent at all times is not a character. It has nothing but machinated actions. No sentient lifeform on this planet, or any fantasy realm even, is like that.

[The-Nameless]

Well there ARE characters who would be against chatting.

A male drow assassin carrying out the will of the female leaders of his house.

A slave bound to servitude

A priest so devout he cut out his tongue to show his devotion.

Hell I had an undead blm phaige who had no tongue. I had to use an enchanted dagger to carve words into my chest. I BARELY talked ever, but i got alot of compliments on that RP.

[Mmm Coffee]

Everyone plays this game for different reasons. Some enjoy the RP/creativity spectrum, others the PK aspect, and others a mix of both. Some people have a lot of time on their hands, others do not. Real life is an inevitable aspect of the player behind the character.

A lot of players probably don't care if you can "guess" who they play b/c that's not where the enjoyment is for them. And with all the OOC/AIM/Facebook/whatever that goes on, I find it a lot less likely that you "guess" who certain players play and more likely that you rationalize it by seeing them logged into AIM and FL at the same time...or that person told one person who told another person, etc, etc.

The point is: play the game cuz you enjoy it. If someone is making your life miserable, post in on prayer and it WILL be dealt with. And when you find yourself running out of patience or steam, take a long break.

[the_nightmare]

Of course this RP is very good, Nameless.However my favorite of f0xx characters regarding RP is Zevremeel or something like that(the fire giant).When you told me it is you I didn't believed, you know that pretty well.I hate people that use smotes and emotes all the time.Fantastic RP to me means to play your character exactly like it should.Take a look at Martineius, he rarely used smotes and emotes but all of his words were so careful selected.I will always give as an example for brilliant RP the character Kahnt.However RP can really get you into a trouble sometimes, the true example of this is one of my recent characters.

[Elrozin]

Excellent RP is facilitated by the androgynous mind. Find your androgynous mind. Move from human to chimera to cyborg.

[The-Nameless]

What I see alot of is people who make a combo, then build the RP around the combo. This will lead to the character becoming stale, you becoming bored, and rolling another character 90% of the time.

The trick is find a character concept you like, then build a combo around it. My current char I have had the idea of the RP for a long time, but struggled to find the actual build for it because it was hard to figure out which best suited his RP. After quite alot of deliberation, and thought I was able to construct the character in full, so then I rolled it. It has lead to a character that feels real to me, and has real reactions to in game issues.

[jibber]

Like mentioned above--if you can guess who plays the char, they aren't RPing well enough. We are all guilty of it, of course..

I'll add more when I get home, but this is completely wrong and unjustified to say. I can pretty much interact with a character for 5 minutes and know who it is. For instance, I pretty much have been spot on in spotting every single character of yours the past 2 years.