Roleplaying (this is ooc, right?)

[Lerris]

Well, this isn't discussed much here. And well, why not! I know only a few of the WoDers are hardcore roleplayers *cough* Goric *cough* and that's a big reason, but I don't see any others. I was just wondering how many of you have actually considered a character history or any real character (that doesn't belong to you) in your character.

Recently, I have considered creating a character history and maybe giving Lerris a character trait that I DON'T have. You know, make things a bit more interesting. I've considered giving Lerris a dark/evil past (mainly because I accidentily made a really nifty silheote (spelling, help, please, help). So far I've been lucky, I've never been in a situation where I had to make up a story on the spot. It's nice to be prepared though, and I thought it would be a bit easier if everyone shared their insight on developing a character's past, or developing a character in general.

I'm not looking to become a hardcore rp or anything... just to give Lerris some depth (he's sooooo shallow, like me). Any depth would help. So, information on your character(s)'s past(s) as inspiration or any tips would be appreciated. I'm just sick of saying, "Erm... I was born here, yeah. That's it."

-Lerris, who has nothing to type right here, excluding the "who has nothing to type right here"

[Aerick]

See, awhile back, I burned out on the super melodramatic histories. You know, the top assassin, national hero, bastard son of a noble with a divine quest one. So I have a history. But it's comparatively common (though it's the least 'normal' of all my recent characters of all the different systems I play).

So, Aerick is a lot like me, but I like that because I'm basically a decent guy, and if I RP'ed a jerk, it would get obnoxious. And also, I don't have to worry about whether I'm in character or not, as they are plenty similar.

So, I sort of half-assed roleplay all the time, and have enough background to drop into full-out hard core roleplaying when needed (except cheesiness makes me cringe).

[NOTE: Aerick's attitudes and actions are consistent with his past. But the past was created to allow for the present, rather than the present being defined by the past]

As to advice, I ask you to not have amnesia.

[Konoko]

LOL! Good advice Aerick! :)
I always got confused with that amnesia thing...


Good luck with the history thing. I've had ideas and such for myself but never really formalised anything.

Konoko

[Althus]

I third Aerick's advice. Amnesia stinks [:D]

I tried hardcore RP for a while, and found I hated it. I have 2 stories for Althus. One that he tells people, and one that actually happened. I don't use either of them much ;)

Truthfully, I'm more interested in the story of the game world than the stories of the exiles in it, since I know that the game story is guaranteed to have something interesting to do in it. Whereas, exile stories get tossed around a bit, then largely ignored or turned into hardcore RP.

I have a range of characters I play, from the goodiest little freak on two shoes to a real bastard (all the rest. they're more like me that way <G>). I find that mostly my chaotic neutral and neutral evil characters are way more fun than the others, which explains why Althus (neutral good) hasn't been out that much recently.

Hope that helps at least a little,
HWC for Althus (and five others)

[Aerick]

Although, I actually suspect we all have amnesia. DT doesn't really have an accepted world story, so there are all kinds of conflicting histories. In my life, Sylvans live simple lives, in simple structures, and I'm sure others have them in grand sweeping metropolis's. And someone said that DT said that the conflicting histories are consistent with their backstory.

So I guess we ALL forgot our memories, and some of us are just in denial over it. =)

Wasn't the Marsh Hermit caught once talking about Thermonuclear Weapons? Perhaps we're the decendants of sucha holocaust, and he's a direct survivor (like Zifnab in the Death Gate Cycle).

[Nuvali]

I'm pretty much with Aerick and Althus on this. I love to rp, develop stories, and read/participate in other characters' plots, but I can only do so much of that before I need to break away and just do some good ol' fashioned hunting.

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time developing Nuvali's character with his journal/poetry and rping with a few people who seem interested in that sort of thing. It's not something I expect many people to participate in or enjoy, so I usually avoid shoving it down anyone's throat, unless they express some interest, first. The story is very convoluted, but I tend to look at it as a exercise in character and plot development. But again... I can't do it all the time. I really have to be in the right mood, and there are many moments when I stop and ask myself--"what is the point to this? This [plot] won't have any real impact on the game, will it?" Probably not, but over time it, rping and character development help fill certain gaps, and tend to enrich the overall experience of CL for me.

[Delirium]

While, in principle, I agree amnesia is bad, the game mechanics force it do a degree. I mean, Delirium was raised in a Sylvan-speaking family! I did come up with a sketchy history for Delirium, but I decided she would not know it. This allows me to revise it occasionally [;)] . Gradually, as the game mechanics work out, and as I firm things up, Delirium remembers things. (She has now remembered how to speak Sylvan).

But, while I like to do some role-playing, I agree with Nuvali, in that after a while I just want to hunt. This sometimes causes me to drop out of character a bit, unfortunately.

[Mehan]

Well. I really didn't have much of a choice with Mehan's backround. My Brother (ic and ooc =P) kinda chose it for me.

But My other character *grins* she has a backround. For those of you who know who it is, you'll find out eventually.

[Farhope]

Farhope is certainly not me, close (it is easier to play) but not me.
If you are interested, you can read a summary of her history on her scroll (the whole story is in a draft state, but need lot of corrections and, ... translation :-)

I was inspired by the (sorry I don't the word) "american indeans" for her story.

She is close to the nature, very sociable, kind (I try to play her so), a little "mother" who never had a child, optimist (when playing Farhope, I always try to see the good side of things), not smart (she would like to be alchemist, but she will not... too difficult for her).
That said, Farhope is certainly a character close to my (the player) personnality but I, usually, have a (little?) distance.

[Coriakin]

Heya.

Coriakin is basically HWC, except thoomier. This is because I suck at roleplaying, having difficulty even being myself. :P

You can make a great, grandiose history for your character, but who's going to believe it? I can only hear about so many sage princes, princesses hiding from their fathers and arranged marrages, and sons of gods before I just scream "Enough, already!"

Phineas's character is good, in my opinion. He's a serf, a pauper with little or nothing to his name. There's far more paupers in the world than there are heros and lords, except in Puddleby.

Coriakin was originally going to be a fallen star (like in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader), until I realized that was stupid. He's now a happy thoom who is innately curious about everything, and gets into trouble because of that pretty often. Just like me. :)

I pretty much use my WoD newspaper interview as my 'story,' and that was 90% made up on the spot. :)


My advice is to just start with something simple, and let it grow naturally as your character grows. Or make your character a raving lunatic who thinks he's got super powers. :P

--- Quote ---

Wasn't the Marsh Hermit caught once talking about Thermonuclear Weapons? Perhaps we're the decendants of sucha holocaust, and he's a direct survivor (like Zifnab in the Death Gate Cycle).

--- End Quote ---

5/23/01 7:57:54p Marsh Hermit says, "Nuclear war would really set back cable"

:)

HWC Cori

[Sargon]

Hi!

I don't remember whether I have amnesia or not. [:p]

I think there are several degrees of being out-of-character. While Sargon is (usually) not ooc in the sense that he'd talk about ooc-related things like 'MacOSX rocks!' I wouldn't consider him ic either. I kinda lack the ideas and spirit (not that I'm dumb, but.. [:)]) to behave as ic as others. I remember when Tuan and me were both fallen in SF and departed. 1 minute later helped arrived and I SSed him that I'm sad that he departed. He answered that it's ok he intends to build a summerhouse in Purgatory. I mean I could never come up with the 2nd part. :) And I had to laugh. :)

I have some basic ideas about Sargon and even started a page but since I'm a technical person and my role-playing skills are close to non-existant I soon started to write scripts to automatically download the stuff to the web-server instead of working on the content itself. Sheesh! :)

I think that the best ic-scrolls are the ones from the RQ-members and Nuvali's. (wish that darn chest would still be there! [:)]

I think that being together with these RP-people is great fun and I wish it would happen more to me. (yeah, I should also work a bit more to make that happen :)

Sargon

[Aerick]

I never believe people when they claim they can't roleplay. It really is rather easy. Maintaining a long term, slowly evolving plot is not easy, but having a personality quirk or two is all that is needed to be 'roleplaying'.

Hate the Orga. That's roleplaying. Not too terribly difficult. Actually, it's probably easier to hate vermine.

Sure, talking in a thick Scottish accent and verbally harassing the critters as you kill them is difficult, and fun for viewers, but roleplaying isn't an all or nothing situation.

I always think what a loss it is, those people who think that they can't roleplay and so don't try. Practice and confidence make one better.

[Aerick]

Wait a minute...

Sargon, you IDIOT!
(and I mean that in the nicest possible way)

You're a pacifist. That's hardcore roleplaying right there.

What are you on about?

[Sargon]

/action gasps for air!!!!!!!!

Why do you consider Sargon being a pacifist hardcore roleplaying? Do you imply that HWC is an axe murderer!? [:)]

Sargon the Idiot (tm Aerick) [;)]

[Aerick]

lol!

No I don't think you're any form of real life death merchant.

But I do say that anytime you do something at odds with the computer system for character reasons, you are roleplaying.

If someone ooc is really, really shy, and doesn't want to disturb others by toggling and yelling when fallen, I would call that roleplaying. Even though they are really only playing themselves, it's still RP. It's being different from everyone else, for whatever reason, and adding flavor and variance to the game.

And Sargon's pacifism is superior to any roleplaying Aerick's done, as far as I'm concerned. Yours has been around for as long as I can remember. Anyone here remember Aerick's War on Spriggins (bums stole 32c back when that was a fortune)? How about the anti-gambling morality? That's because I come up with an idea, do it for a day or two, and forget about it.

So anyway, I thought I was being kind of silly to try and counsel someone who I hold to be more skilled than I.

[Goric]

RP???

Do we roleplay here???

Im glad someone brought this up. Well, I have been accused of being a horid RP'er. I wont mention any names.

Its something I do enjoy but I find it a constant challenge and often a down right imposibility. lately I have tried to strenghten my efforts. With this Garkazian order and all. Nuvali provides me an outlet for such and I am enjoying his efforts immensly. His chararacter does seem to have become quite mysterious of late.

Sir Goric ahs taken on much. I would imput even more into his character but I find that I am limited by my knowledge. I had an idea of incorporating some sort of disease of some sort which would make his speech iratic but I could not figure out how to make a macro that would accomplish this.

I have many plans up my sleeve for Sir Goric for the future. Or at least possibilities. Cl needs something as it is getting stale. I still have not figured out how to get things moving with the KNighthood. I do know of anyone that really role plays KNighthood in CL anymore. It seems that all or most of the Knights have given up hope or lost interest.

[TerraHawk]

Whilst I have been known to RP occasionally, I have also been known to get silly and OOC a lot.

Depends on my mood at the time really.

Like others, TerraHawk is an extension of me, of what I would like to have been if we lived in such a world.

TH does have a history, and can be seen in one of the WoD newsletter issues.

In any case, that's my 2 coins worth.

HWC TH (and I can just hear the yells of "You're back!" as people read this! :-)

[Sargon]

Hi Terra! =)

[Lex]

I don't think PWC is much like Lex at all. I sometimes act in ways I wouldn't in real life, but as Sargon pointed out (or was it Aerick?) there are many levels of OOC. If someone asks what a wendie is, and you respond that it looks like a big white monkey, this is OOC, but not on the same level as discussing a movie you just saw. I do have a habit of slipping OOC an awful lot, but I try not to do it around people who I don't know, or people that I know enjoy keeping things as IC as possible. Even when I seem to be OOC, or discussing OOC things, I am still the persona of Lex for the most part.

Lex has what you could call a "history", but it really developed as a result of things that really happened in my first few days on the isle. Some of it is made-up, but it's not too fantastical.

Mehan: you have a brother IC? I never knew. Was he playing before you or is he newer?

Coriakin: there are none more Thoomier than you. Go forth and spread your Thoominess across the lands!

Lex

[Mehan]

Yup! Skirwan is my brother IC. He's third circle, he takes me hunting. [:D]

[Lilly]

I am very big into roleplaying. Lilly has a very involved story and alot of quirks. She never departs, matches clothes to moods, has a need to be totally reckless and throw herself into battle mindlessly (though i dont roleplay the last one if i sense it will ruin other peoples fun). Ive pretty much got her plotline down from start to finish, and as people inquire into it it moves on piece by piece, until it will either lead to her salvation or her death - if the latter case occurs, ill have her name and personality changed and start a new story. Thats a very long ways off though, and unlikely to happen as i am rather fond of the redhaired lass =). My other character intentionally has no story. hes a complete senile. Hes tailored specifically to counteract the seriousness of Lilly's situation, so that i can pick whether i want to roleplay something deep and subtle or just be an inept fool. I do not take either of them so seriously that i am unwilling to sit back and babble about ooc stuff though.

[Mehan]

muahahahahaha! Mehan never departs either.

I finally saw Purg for the first time with my other character. Pretty drab. [:p]

[Goric]

What did you expect to see in Purgatory Mehan??

Flowers??

[Mehan]

Well.. maybe a few. Scattered here and there? [:D]

[Goric]

How about a few trees and a couple of lakes? Maybe we could build a town there an hold concerts. WE could call em, Concerts for Purgs!!

[Mehan]

ooooooooooooh lakes are GOOD!!![:)]

[Goric]

and maybe a few Lamas!!!!

[Mehan]

OH OH! LLAMAS!!!!!!!

Purg would be so awesome then!!

I'd depart!! I would, I would!!