Character Speech & Typing
Proper typing and grammar is important. If your native tounge is not English, don't worry about slipping up, but please, do try and make it as clear as possible.
Slang.
Please, do not use abbreviations or slang. This means no use of 'lol' or 'u'. Try not to use these even on Out Of Character (OOC) boards, as it can make it difficult for some people to understand. In Character (IC) it's just plain unnacceptable. Do NOT use them.
Out Of Character.
When in game, put words between a pair of brackets, for example, ((Sorry I have to go and eat dinner)). Try to use the whisper function when speaking OOC, and try not to use it too much, as it can get annoying to other players.
Flowery English.
This can get very annoying. If used properly, it can vastly improve roleplay, but when it is thrown in just because you want to, it sounds like you're being overly dramatic. Flowery English is what my friend Brendan likes to call words like "Thou" and "Thee". Proper use of this could be in a poem your character has composed, or some kind of religious texts. Please, don't use it too much in your character's everyday speech. Remember, it can make you seem rather idiotic.
German in Illarion
Sometimes, there are problems with communication. This is because many of our players are native German speakers. Most can speak fairly fluent English, but some have a hard time communicating with English speakers. If someone speaks in German and you cannot understand it, don't just ignore them. Try telling them that you cannot understand. This works both ways, if you have trouble reading English, tell the other person so. Ask them to slow down or use simpler words. If the other player is using #me commands, feel free to ask them about it OOC, but if their character is speaking, have your character ask their character. Always be polite.
If anyone has any suggestions to improve this, please, feel free to send me a message.
A Guide to Roleplaying
Moderator: Gamemasters
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Dónal Mason
- Posts: 1115
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Moskher Heszche
- Posts: 338
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 3:32 am
- Location: You can never be too stupid or too pretty to be a puppet king.
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Moirear Sian
- Posts: 1214
- Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:12 am
I have some things I'd like to add and arrange with all the submissions that have been made so far. But I'd like to have every chapter standing as is for now.
Also, the whole guide is still up for proposing new chapters.
If nobody else has a go at it, I'll be tackling "Collective Storytelling" next.
Also, the whole guide is still up for proposing new chapters.
If nobody else has a go at it, I'll be tackling "Collective Storytelling" next.
The thin red line:
I don't know if this is the way you want it but i've written down my thoughts about this.
In roleplay-games like Illarion it is important to not mix OOC and IC. OOC stands for 'Out of Character' and includes everything that does not play in Illarion but in the world the player lives in. IC stands for 'In Character' and means all that plays in the characters world or in his view.
It's not everytime easy to separate these two "worlds". Because of that i wrote some tips for some situations where you have to think about how to handle them.
The character you play, acts, thinks and solves things in his very own way then yourself would do it. Your character is an individual: you give the shape like you want to play him.
You direct your character in a specific way but the character should not become as yourself. Else, there is a big danger that things that happen IC you take personally and feel attacked and angry.
There is also the possibility that you play your character like a superhero (because you identify yourself with him).
Bad way:
1) You play your character like you act in real life. You have the same feelings and act the same way. To become powerful and strong in everything you powergame a lot. When another character kills your character, you get angry and insult the other characters player.
Good way:
1) You play a character that is completely different then yourself and concentrate on the weaknesses and strengths of the character. When something bad happens to your character, you take the chance to make some more roleplaying out of it instead of being angry as a player.
Your characters do not know of each other. They have different memories and think different about things. When one of your character knows about a something, it's maybe totally unknown to the other chars of yours. One of your characters may be the friend of character 'x' when another character of yours is the enemy of 'x'.
In this case it's neccessary to roleplay with caution and keep in mind how your character would act. Also, you should not hate another characters with all your characters, just because one of yours dislike them. The same thing it is with other players: If you dislike another player, your character will not hate all the other players characters.
That's a thing between you people, not between your chars. Illarion is not a place to play personal feuds.
Bad way:
1) Your orc character Grub is getting killed by the human Titus. You get angry and log in with your elven mage-character to kill Titus.
2) Bart, the spy tells your character Harold a special secret about an ambush planned on king Brutus. The player of king Brutus is a real-life friend of yours. You log in with another character and go to king Brutus and tell him about the ambush.
3) You meet Jaron, a character of a player you dislike. Without any reason your character provokes and kills him after that.
Good way:
1) Your orc character Grub was killed by the human Titus. Grub gathers some orc friends and plan a revenge on Titus.
2) Bart, the spy tells your character Harold a special secret about an ambush planned on king Brutus. You help Bart to realize the attack.
3) You meet Jaron, a character of a player you dislike. You try to rp how your character would act with the other character without thinking about the other char's player.
I don't know if this is the way you want it but i've written down my thoughts about this.
In roleplay-games like Illarion it is important to not mix OOC and IC. OOC stands for 'Out of Character' and includes everything that does not play in Illarion but in the world the player lives in. IC stands for 'In Character' and means all that plays in the characters world or in his view.
It's not everytime easy to separate these two "worlds". Because of that i wrote some tips for some situations where you have to think about how to handle them.
The character you play, acts, thinks and solves things in his very own way then yourself would do it. Your character is an individual: you give the shape like you want to play him.
You direct your character in a specific way but the character should not become as yourself. Else, there is a big danger that things that happen IC you take personally and feel attacked and angry.
There is also the possibility that you play your character like a superhero (because you identify yourself with him).
Bad way:
1) You play your character like you act in real life. You have the same feelings and act the same way. To become powerful and strong in everything you powergame a lot. When another character kills your character, you get angry and insult the other characters player.
Good way:
1) You play a character that is completely different then yourself and concentrate on the weaknesses and strengths of the character. When something bad happens to your character, you take the chance to make some more roleplaying out of it instead of being angry as a player.
Your characters do not know of each other. They have different memories and think different about things. When one of your character knows about a something, it's maybe totally unknown to the other chars of yours. One of your characters may be the friend of character 'x' when another character of yours is the enemy of 'x'.
In this case it's neccessary to roleplay with caution and keep in mind how your character would act. Also, you should not hate another characters with all your characters, just because one of yours dislike them. The same thing it is with other players: If you dislike another player, your character will not hate all the other players characters.
That's a thing between you people, not between your chars. Illarion is not a place to play personal feuds.
Bad way:
1) Your orc character Grub is getting killed by the human Titus. You get angry and log in with your elven mage-character to kill Titus.
2) Bart, the spy tells your character Harold a special secret about an ambush planned on king Brutus. The player of king Brutus is a real-life friend of yours. You log in with another character and go to king Brutus and tell him about the ambush.
3) You meet Jaron, a character of a player you dislike. Without any reason your character provokes and kills him after that.
Good way:
1) Your orc character Grub was killed by the human Titus. Grub gathers some orc friends and plan a revenge on Titus.
2) Bart, the spy tells your character Harold a special secret about an ambush planned on king Brutus. You help Bart to realize the attack.
3) You meet Jaron, a character of a player you dislike. You try to rp how your character would act with the other character without thinking about the other char's player.
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Estralis Seborian
- Posts: 12308
- Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 9:14 pm
- Location: Sir Postalot
- Contact:
Do you think we could include some of these paragraphs into this guide:
http://illarion.org/general/us_rpg_guide.php
Feel free to modify the current guide! Mark your modifications (i.e. in red).
http://illarion.org/general/us_rpg_guide.php
Feel free to modify the current guide! Mark your modifications (i.e. in red).
RPG Guide
Introduction
The main point of Illarion is the roleplaying aspect. We want to describe this principle here to those, who don't know it yet. Also we hope to provide some useful hints to experienced roleplayers.
* What is roleplaying?
* The game world
* Your name
* Know your character!
* Character creation
* Athmosphere breaks
* Out of character (OOC) vs. In Character (IC)
* OOC knowledge / Charakter seperation
* #me
* Player/character level
* Take part in others roleplay
* Races
* Technical limitations
* Always friendly?
* The wrong path
* No fun to play anymore?
* Revenge without end
* Stay in exercise
* Evil guys
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What is roleplaying?
A roleplaying game is like a stage play, only that everyone can take part, and the plot is open. What happens next depends mainly on your own behaviour. It is all about improvisation. Our task as "creators" of Illarion is, to provide a set (the game world) and to enable all players to enter this world (by setting up a server and providing the software). Your task as player is to play a person in this stage play and to act - from the person's point of view - logical. A computer software like this can only enable you to do things, that the programmers thought of before, but you will surely have more ideas. So you must overcome this lack of flexibility in the software by creativity, but more on this topic later.
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The game world
The world of Illarion should be like a medieval country. To make this more interesting, we added things like magic, strange peoples (elves, dwarves, ...) and a lot of gods to the setting. We thought about a time, before complex machines were created. Besides these changes, the normal rules of nature apply like on the earth. The world is currently restricted to one island. If the population grows and time passes, we will add other islands, which are, of course, already known of and the poplulation of Illarion maintains contact to them.
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Your name
Choose a name, as it might be used in a land like Illarion. SuperHero666 will not be a good choice. In fact a character with this name will be deleted without further notice. Names like Gandalf and Aragorn sound more fitting - but only on the first view. Generaly the names are good, if they had been created on your own. If you have taken these names from a book or film, you should be aware of one fact: Other players will know these names too, and have a certain expectation for people having this name. If someone is called Gandalf, all other players will think he is a human, old, mighty and a wise man. You will define your character too precisely and prevent your own development of this character. If you leave the path of your model, other players will be irritated and disturbed in their roleplay. So try to avoid known names.
Choose a name, that fits your race, that can be remembered and be well spoken. Many rules that must be fulfilled can be found on the website.
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Know your character!
There is no script, so there are no fixed roles. Therefore choose a role that you always wanted to play. The only important thing is, that it fits to the setting of Illarion. An engineer of the arms industry would not fit in, while a medieval blacksmith would.
Once you have choosen a person, you should think about his personal background. The motivation of your character should be derived from your background: What are your goals? What do you like or hate?
If you are talking to other people, you should be able to answer questions without a lot of thinking. What are the names of your parents? Where were you born? How old are you? What does your home look like? What is your religion? How do you talk? Do you speak with short and precise words or tend to give endlessly long speeches? Are you using a noble tongue or are you talking like a peasant? Do you have any speech defects or are you speaking a dialect?
While working on your game character, keep in mind that the world does not only consist of super heroes. Not every player should be the son of a king or an orphan searching for his lost parents.
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Character creation
After you know everything about your character, you can create a character (game avatar) in the game. To do that you must set some mental and physical attributes. Choose them in a way that fits the character, that you made up, best. Don't distribute the points in a manner that brings the most advantages from the rules system (it is changing often anyway)!
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Athmosphere breaks
Imagine watching a film: A child is walking through the dark forest towards its home. Fog is lying on the small path. Trees are creaking, shadows of branches moving in the wind form various shapes on the ground. The child is singing a timid song to fight his fear. Suddenly - a microphone comes into the picture from above and a cable runs with the camera man behind the child through the setting. The director is shouting "Camera 3 off! micro in picture!".
Before this film will hit the cinemas, the scene will of course be filmed again and will not stay as it is. The same applies to roleplaying, with the exception that we can't film the scene again. It must be right the first time. The microphone that was reaching into the picture is in our case perhaps a character, who's player lets him talk like this "One moment - my telephone is ringing - I will be back in two minutes!". The situation could even be worse, imagine this: A mushrom vendor is lamenting to a customer about her misfortune that the new taxes of the count doesn't leave her enough money to buy her little ill daughter some medicine from the druid. The customer then replies: "Talking about medicine - Do you know a website where I can get a free virus scanner?"
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Out of character (OOC) vs. In Character (IC)
IC refers to everything that is said from one character to another. OOC is used for everything said by a character on the screen, but that is directed from the player of this character to another characters player. The question if someone wants to trade 20 apples against some sheep cheese whould be something IC while the sentence "I must leave, I have to watch Star-Trek now." is clearly OOC.
OOC should be avoided generaly. If it can't be avoided (you are showing a program bug to a programmer for instance), keep it as short as possible and do it in a place, where no other characters are roleplaying. Additionally mark your OOC sentences to avoid missunderstandings. Mark them by placing the sentence in brackets or add "OOC: " in front. ( "((If I click here with the mouse, it crashes))" or "OOC: I must leave"). If the OOC talk involves only two persons it should be whispered (add a "#w" in front of the sentence), to avoid interrupting other players.
It is a good idea to have some phrases for different OOC-occasions at hand, that your character can say without explicitly using OOC. If you say "Gandalf is daydreaming" for instance, it has the same effect like writing "OOC: One moment - someone is ringing my doorbell". Or you are saying "I will send you a messenger when I have thought about my answer" instead of "I will send it to you via email".
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OOC knowledge / Charakter seperation
Who is taking an active role in the game will use the boards on our website for sure. You will find a lot of information there. You should only use this information in game, if you character was able to gather the information. If a player is describing on the boards, how his character manages to sneak into a guild meeting and listen to it, this would be some information that your character hasn't got for sure. If someone is writing a price list for his little shop on the boards and adds a note to it, that the list is pinned to the flag pole on the market place, your character can use this information.
Similar things apply, when you are playing different characters (not at the same time). Things that one of them finds out, aren't available for the other. Therefore it is generally difficult to play two very active characters. Also no information, goods or money should be traded between the two. It is absolutely a bad style to play a druid, only to mix free potions for the magician from the same player.
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#me
You can only see very limited what a character is doing by looking at the screen, so you have to describe its actions. In Illarion you use "#me" to do so. If the player of Udolpho types for instance "#me bows down to the river und washes his hands in the water" the text on the screen says: "Udolpho bows down to the river and washes his hands in the water.".
You should use this only to describe what others should realy be able to see. The sentence "Udolpho thinks Melmoth is an idiot." is nonsense, because the thoughts of Udolpho can't be seen. More appropriate would be a sentence like this: "Udolpho looks at Melmoth and shows a superior smile around his lips.".
#me-commands are important under many circumstances, to overcome technical drawbacks. On the screen you can't see or hear when a weapon is drawn. Therfore the opponent has no preparation time. The sentence "Udolpho draws his weapon and points at Melmoth." would be useful.
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Player/character level
Learn to seperate between these two levels. When a dwarf calls an orc a stinky beast, it would be a conflict between the dwarf and the orc, not between the player of the dwarf and the player of the orc. If the orc player changes to another of his characters, that is a dwarf too, both dwarfs could be close friends. This seperation also counts for the boards on the website. A misunderstanding of both levels often leads to a disgusting battle between players on the boards.
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Take part in others roleplay
In a game like this all your companions are controled by real players and not by a computer. Therefore they have the same wishes and rights like you. If you want them to react on your characters actions, do the same for them. If everyone is only playing his own game, you can also play a single player computer game. So if a group of three people catches you from behind and describes with #me commands, how they overpower and tie you, take part in their game (even if it would be technical possible to simply walk away!). If you are extremely strong, you can describe an escape attempt also using #me commands, but don't ignore them completely even it has bad consequences for you.
If you are planning a bigger action, it is a good idea to announce it on the boards before in an appropriate form, to get other players to take part. If you are playing in a gang of robbers for instance, that are planning to raid the village, you can start several days before to post small notes on the board, about some dubious persons lurking around the village, spying on the guards and camping in the nearby woods. This would give other players the possibility to participate so that perhaps 20 instead of 5 person will have fun with this situation. Fun may, in this case, not only mean "win", because the goal is to have fun roleplaying. You may also have fun if your side "looses".
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Races
Behave according to your race. There will always be persons that don't represent their race, but they will be more seldom the more they differ from the "standard behaviour". So don't try to play a dwarf that is seven feet high and that earns his money as a bard. Also don't play an elf that earns his money by digging for worms in the mud to sell them to fishermen. You can find descriptions of the races on the homepage.
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Technical limitations
Try to overcome software limitations with fantasy. When there are no technical possibilities to tie someone up it doesn't mean that you can't do it using #me commands, if all players involved take part. Only because there is no beer, doesn't mean that you can't drink in the tavern till the lights go out. If someone is drunk, he can of course stagger around, even if the server doesn't force him to.
In another online game that I played once, there was no possibility to build houses. We piled up parcels to form walls and used flour to symbolize a sand coast. The result was a town with several dozend villagers, shops and a castle that reached over many screen widths (with towers, a throne room and many luxuries). So don't let yourself be limited.
On the other hand there are logical borders, that aren't yet technicaly realized. For example you can dig in the ground with your shovel, even if the shovel is placed in your backpack instead of your hand. Also you can walk around always wearing your full armor and a whole lot of weapons without someone noticing. It is up to you, to set yourself a limit here and put away your weapons before entering a temple, take off the armor while goldsmithing and taking the shovel in the hand to dig.
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Always friendly?
The players of Illarion are manualy selected, so the most of them are so friendly, that they overdo it a bit. Act as your characters nature is. Therfore the most person may have the one or other outburst of rage - without conflicts it would be boring. A wide spread bad habbit is, to give a lot of gifts to new players. This has a few drawbacks, because it takes the fun out of the game for the new player, even if he is happy at the beginning. For many players it is a motivation to achieve wealth in the game that attracts them. If they get a complete high-end equipment set on their first day - what can they achieve more tomorrow? Another drawback is the negative impact on the economy. If expensive equipment is given away for free from some persons, where should the craftsmen earn their money from? The prices will drop to the bottom. If you want to do something good to a new player, than give him something to do. Include him in your roleplay and give him impulses what to do. The good stuff you are doing to him can also be something evil...
It is extremely annoying, if characters that are supposed to be evil (by their background story), quit their evil business for a while to meet with the simple people for a beer in the tavern and give away presents to their enemies and have a nice smalltalk or watch a stage play on the market place. The day after they will be murdering and devastating through the village again and will be hunted by everyone. If you want to play an evil guy, be aware from the beginning that you will exclude yourself from the "normal", peace loving society.
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The wrong path
Keep in mind that the goal of Illarion is to have fun roleplaying. If you have other goals or your playing style even violates the rules, you should think about choosing another game that fits your needs better. Especially it is not the goal of Illarion to collect as many points of any kind as you can get. If it is your goal to rise your smithing skill to the maximum in the shortest possible time (even if you are a barkeeper), or if you are a magician, but you intend to perfect your use of great axes, better leave the game. There are enough other games out there that tolerate or even support this kind of behaviour. We use the term "powergaming" for every action of this kind, that doesn't fit the characters nature and is only carried out to achieve technical advantages. An example would be the old and honored wizard that can barely move, because of his illnesses, but is training great axe battle 24 hours a day. It is contrary to his nature (moving does hurt him, he would be rather searching for books in the library and he has to sleep a few hours a day and take breaks). On the other hand, the only goal in this is to achieve technical advantages (he will be able to kill the strongest beasts without using magic after a few days with this training). The described behaviour might fit for a young warrior a few days before his final exams on the warriors school (if he takes a few food breaks and sleeps a few hours). Therefore you can't definitely say if an action is powergaming or not, without looking at the person that carries out this action.
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No fun to play anymore?
If you want to quit Illarion, please don't trade your character to someone else. You have made many friends and enemies in your Illarion life. They have gotten used to a specific behaviour of your character and they have some memories together with you. When you trade your character, the new owner will neither have the same behaviour or language nor know about the common memories with the characters old friends. Therfore he can't go on with his life correctly and is irritating other players. The same applies for giving away a character for a short time.
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Revenge without end
You will love your character after some time. If he dies, a world will break for some players. Therefore we have made the death in Illarion less serious but still hurting. You will be able to keep on playing with some losses. The only permanent death is sentenced by gamemasters, if they find you with a massive rule violation. Therefore players shouldn't make themselfs the law and enforce it on their own. So if you are taking revenge on someone and have to kill him because of the seriousness of his guilt, kill him only once. It is not possible to explain logicaly why someone has to die more than once for the same guilt, so only kill him a second time when he has earned the death again. Also be warned that this "multi killing" is forbidden by the rules and you have to face the consequences if a gamemaster catches you.
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Stay in exercise
To avoid loosing the feeling for roleplaying now and then, keep on roleplaying even if no other character is present. You can moan and wipe the sweat from your head when you are chucking wood, even if noone is there, that can see this good show. If you don't do it, you will only be working mechanicaly and will get bored. You will not be able to start roleplaying fast enough if other players come closer.
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Evil guys
The characters that are played with a bad style the most are "evil" characters. To play a bad guy is really hard! Many dull persons just want to kill other people like in other games. They have no reason why they kill and are just killing randomly.
If you are playing a murderer for instance, you won't kill anyone without choice that comes along. The risk of getting caught or killed yourself is too high. He will only kill where he has a motive and will be relatively sure that no one will take revenge. Also he should have a nature that enables him to kill without regret. Even a lunatic would not kill randomly. He also has a story, how he got mad and perhaps there are some situations that provoke an outburst of rage. All this must be logically from the persons background story.
People tend to think of murderers if they think of "evil", even if a murder is perhaps the most seldom crime. What about tricksters? Thieves? Rowdys? Schemers? Spys? Road robbers? Blackmailers? Kidnappers? Badmouthing about the merchant concurrents? Conflicts between neighbours? Peasants that put vermin in the barns of other peasants? Isn't it more pleasing to infiltrate a guild, sell their secrets and set them against another guild, to get rid of two guilds that are concurring with your (third) guild?
Whatever type of "evil" you are playing, play him consistent. Don't be a fierce robber on one day and, as soon as it gets attractive to take part on the life of a simple citizen, play a friendly villager that takes part on the banquette of the king (where of course many people know him as a robber, but don't act against him, because it is so nice sitting together talking).
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Moirear Sian
- Posts: 1214
- Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:12 am
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Nilo
- Posts: 1446
- Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2003 4:50 pm
- Location: Josh.com is much cooler than chris.com!
- Contact:
Maybe some pictures would help?
Or perhaps you could just forward everyone to a site like.. oh i dont know... Ultimate Illarion?
Well here are some things many people have trouble with:
Your Invetory:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/I/Illarion/newbies.html
The Controls:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/I/Illarion/controls.html
The Counter:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/I/Illari ... unter.html
These are the main things I think people have trouble with.
Or perhaps you could just forward everyone to a site like.. oh i dont know... Ultimate Illarion?
Well here are some things many people have trouble with:
Your Invetory:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/I/Illarion/newbies.html
The Controls:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/I/Illarion/controls.html
The Counter:
http://free.hostdepartment.com/I/Illari ... unter.html
These are the main things I think people have trouble with.
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Moskher Heszche
- Posts: 338
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 3:32 am
- Location: You can never be too stupid or too pretty to be a puppet king.
There are still three items to be filled in. I am once again offering other players the chance to write in this ancient tome of wisdom before I go ahead and write another, and beg two friends to write the other two.
We've seen a lot of new faces lately, and quite a few of the faces behind the pieces written above, including the one who started it, have left us completely. I would just as soon have one of these new faces add their own input than write another one myself. Here is your chance to leave an impression in this community that may just outlive your stay in it.
We've seen a lot of new faces lately, and quite a few of the faces behind the pieces written above, including the one who started it, have left us completely. I would just as soon have one of these new faces add their own input than write another one myself. Here is your chance to leave an impression in this community that may just outlive your stay in it.
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Moirear Sian
- Posts: 1214
- Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:12 am
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Moirear Sian
- Posts: 1214
- Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:12 am
- Collective Storytelling
How to avoid egotistical role-playing, and create interesting stories.
- Collective Storytelling
- Introduction
Illarion is not a single-player game. It's a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game (in short: "mmorpg"). This game does not revolve around you alone. The moment you start behaving like it does, you're likely to be stepping on someone else's toes. This chapter deals in several various subjects, but overall, it contains ideas on how you can prevent from taking away the fun for other people—and some tips about how you can make it fun for everybody. Enjoy.
- Tact
It's not rare that a player will tell you that roleplaying in Illarion is also a lesson in patience. Especially when the gameplay and roleplaying gets intense, and people type furiously into their keyboards, some tend to forget the factor of humanly possible response time. The driving factor here is also that while Illarion is a "graphical" roleplaying game, it's very heavy on text. You may feel tempted to type your fingers bloody, and keep churning out those precious #me's and dialogue lines, but please keep some things in mind.
Consideration: A player can only react upon your input as soon as they have read it, and if you write alot into one single entry of either character speech or a #me, that will require more time till they finish reading it and can respond. If you continuously bombard them with input, not only will it be difficult for them to react to anything, but it might reduce the potential of blossoming and multi-faceted interaction.
Solution: Be patient. Respect all your fellow players. Of course, an inquisitioner or detective-type character might use the "issue" at hand to his or her benefit when interrogating a subject, but not every character is Sherlock Holmes, right?
Consideration: The size of the in-game message history is limited to a few lines and cannot be browsed during gameplay. This makes it extremely difficult to follow things if alot of player characters are around or if someone types alot and particularly fast.
Solution: In case you're the person lagging behind in following the action, all I can do is recommend you to be attentive as to what the other player characters emit (perhaps reading directly on screen instead of in the message history). In case you're the turbo-typer, you should always give other players a fair amount of time to react (unless of course, you wish your character to come across as impatient, an eccentric, or as a fast-talker).
Consideration: The majority of the players either natively speak English or German (warning: Some speak neither English nor German natively! They try hard though, please give them a chance too.), and might not understand your messages.
Solution: A character may be eloquent and use sophisticated vocabulary, but keeping #me's simple will make roleplaying easier for those whose native tongue is not being spoken. Furthermore, you could simply learn the other language to accomodate to others. Although this is just a game, you might find it practical in later life to be proficient in another language.
Consideration: You have a great in-game story in mind to share, or something else you deem important for the character to express, but you notice that another character or other characters are trying to divert the group's interaction into a new direction.
Solution: It's oftenly better to give in and "go with the flow", rather than continue recklessly. If your character is not strong in Willpower and Essence attributes, consider that they might be more susceptible to giving into someone else's verbal or gesturative manipulations. Just because you couldn't get the juicy input across today, it doesn't mean you can't save it for another day (and perhaps even place it in a better, and more interesting context).
Consideration: Let us assume a short scenario for this one. The classic situation occurs, and a thief is trying to mug your character. You (and maybe your character) are willing to risk the character's life to not comply to the criminal's demands. Conflict slowly rises. You compare character attributes in a short exchange of whispered ((OOC)) messages. Is this exchange necessary?
Solution: No, it is not necessary. You can use the #me's to the advantage of translating such knowledge straight into the game. To illustrate the example accurately, read these and decide which one would be perceived as the fastest:
#me sluggishly raises a knife to the man's neck
#me holds a knife to the man's neck
#me 's movements appear to pass as quickly as lightning bolts as she raises a knife to the man's neck and hushes a whisper into his ear: "Money or life."
I believe this example speaks for itself. You can avoid such ((OOC)) exchange completely by being descriptive with your #me's. Just keep your character attributes in mind and be fair.
- Facing the Game's "Reality"
A growing majority of Illarion's community greatly enjoys the game for the atmosphere that can develop within the game. You can contribute to it, in the best cases enhance it for others, or in the worst cases, completely ruin it.
Irritant: ((OOC)) messages in game
Tip: Try to reduce your OOC talk to a minimum. If possible, limit the possible recipients of the OOC messages if they are only meant for some specific people, and whisper (#w) the OOC whenever possible. Other player characters might be nearby, and OOC messages blurted from across the screen might interfere with them.
Irritant: Emoticons (e.g.: , 
, 
, etc.) in character speech or #me's
Tip: On the RPG forum, the Guild forum, and in the game, these are not used anymore. I've been informed that in older days of the game, they were used, but those days are over. Please do not use emoticons in roleplaying.
Irritant: Abbreviations (e.g.: omg, wtf, lol, etc.)
Tip: Do not use these within character speech. Just like the emoticons, these abbreviations do not belong within the roleplaying environment.
Irritant: Spamming (as mentioned above in "Tact", the message history is limited)
Tip: Please refrain from hitting enter after every word, or running people over with tons of dialogue lines and #me's. A good way to counteract this is by combining speech straight into a #me, e.g.: #me scratches his chin and says: "Alright."
Irritant: Real life
Tip: It's no surprise that real life can be a disturbing factor in the roleplaying, and most oftenly, there's nothing you can do about it that the doorbell rings, someone calls you on your phone, the stove catches fire, or your cat explodes outside—you might want to exit the game and attend to your real life (*grins*). Sometimes though, you might have the time on your hands and find ways to "elegantly extract yourself from gameplay" without even letting your players know this is the case, e.g., letting your character say that he or she needs to go do something and leave swiftly. Even if you can't spontaneously come up with an in-character excuse, you might come up with one before you log in again as to explain it to the others another time.
As the GM Aegohl once wrote on these forums, you can extend this from the spur of the moment, and also come up with clever stories about what your character was doing in longer stretches of time when you (the player) were absent from the game (the character's "downtime").
- Organization
To repeat what the introduction states—this game is not a single-player game. If you feel like exclusively playing loner-type characters who do not socialize with anybody, and who just "do their thing alone" 24-7, you may want to go play another game. This has a serious reasoning behind it: the setting of the game is medieval. Now, for all those who are either behind in history, or didn't listen up in class, please let me inform you that according to records, loners and outsiders did not last long in medieval times in our real world, or they were somehow exceptional in their own ways if they did. Point given, Illarion is fantasy, not just medieval; but a character who is a complete loner is highly unlikely to achieve anything significant (in the sense of social integrity within the game's world). Following are some proposals you may want to consider to integrate a character within the game world and make them "three-dimensional" characters.
• Guilds/Clans, Politics, Alliances, Citizenships, Parties
Having your character found a guild or clan or government or a party, or simply join one, are both good ways to let your character socialize. Furthermore, entities like these give you good possibilities to let your character(s) have impact on the game—even when you're not playing.
Joining a faction of sorts can also serve to let you further distinguish how a character of yours discriminates the world around him/her, because most macroscopic organizations like these have clean-cut agendas or ideals and goals they adhere to. This will often impair a character with restrictions and responsibilities to be met, which, if roleplayed with properly, will never let you get bored.
And finally, what you also achieve with this is fleshing out the game world. This is an important aspect where Illarion is rather unique—most online RPGs do not offer the possibility of such a flexible and roleplaying-oriented setting. In Illarion, the player characters can be the movers and shakers, and the world feels empty without them. Large-scale organizations help to fundament the credibility of the setting.
• Family
Well, let's assume you fleshed out the background of your character to a grade of detail where you know your character's family tree. You might have infinitely interesting ideas, but when you're actually in game, you can only play one character. Thus, your character's family is pushed into the background, that is, with the exception of someone else playing a member of your character's family.
Although a bit trickier to handle than guild matters, you can work out some history and other details with other players off the game and coordinate a base of background, with which you can group together and roleplay a family of characters. This breathes alot of life into the fictitious world of the game.
• Enemies
As it is said throughout the website and the forums, it is intended that some characters who are roleplayed correctly will eventually make themselves some enemies (mind you, there are many types of enemies, not just types that cross blades whenever they meet for some reason like hatred. Rivals together in the same guild, competitor merchants, or simply quarrelling love-hate relationships within a family tree; the only limit is your imagination.)
You might know the famous saying already: "Hold your loved ones close, hold your enemies even closer." This saying could not hold more truth for Illarion. Take this two ways. For one, consider the people who roleplay enemies of your character to be friends of yours off the game; after all, you're working together on the central source of drama: conflict. Try to find a good line OOC to the people who play enemies of your characters. This will make coordination of conflict-laden events easier for both of you to manage.
Secondly, take this the other way. A conflict between enemies does not have to be carried out with crossed blades every day. Sometimes, conflict brews quietly, and enemies stand next to eachother or sit together at the same table, conversing over trivial things, each one only waiting for the other to express a sign of provocation. With this in mind, you can neatly dramaticize the roleplaying of both sides, making it believable, and infinitely more interesting, and working towards a climactic finale between the parties.
- Quests
Quests seem to be a difficult subject for many players. Some like attending to the "official" quests as much as they can, because they enjoy roleplaying condoned under the overseeing of GMs, or because of the simple fact that GMs can throw wildcards and completely unexpected elements into the course of the gameplay. Sadly though, some might attend to quests eagerly simply in hopes of some kind of reward or toy for their character in game.
Some others however prefer the common roleplaying, they do not care too much for the quests condoned by GMs or players, or in fact they even think a step further and evaluate every time whether their character would participate in such a quest or not.
The result of a manyfold of opinions on quests leads to alot of confusion and mayhem during the quests. It cannot be said generally whether this is good or bad, but it does evoke an undeniable amount of negative resonance overall. Thus, some tips considering quests are lined up here:
• When a quest is announced, be it by GMs or players, and it is running in the game while your character is around, ask yourself this question: Would my character really do this?
• When a quest is running, please refrain from using any ((OOC)) if not whispering it. Announced quests oftenly attract a large deal of players, and due to the nature of this plethora of participants, things are oftenly hectic, crowded, and chaotic. ((OOC)) messages blurted out in a crowd will no doubt bug alot of players if they hold no significance.
• Try to think of the GMs too. They put alot of time and heart into preparing the quests (which are basically like open scripts for a movie, of which the outcome is unsure), so if you have the time and will, but your character does not fit in, consider playing a different character who might fit in, or just try to maintain your role while the quest goes on around your character or elsewhere.
• There is a widespread term for people who rush to all quests and start persona-playing, using their own full capabilities (I mean the player's capabilities here and now, not the character's), presumably with the goal in mind to make their character the hero of the day: "Glory-seekers". Please keep the "role" of "roleplaying game" in mind. A mage or priest will probably know best how to deal with things concerning religion and mysticism, a fighter will know how to deal with battle, a leader will know how to organize and coordinate parties, and so on. The amount of possible "roles" is infinite—this is the glory of an RPG system that is free from "class" restrictions as they are known from other games—while you should not change your character's core personality and background and abilities, you can adapt your character's role within a large group of characters depending on the situation and the others.
Final note: On the last point, I'd like to recommend from personal experience, in case you enjoy things like solving puzzles or riddles, to take a character to quests who is stronger on the non-physical attributes, like Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, or Essence. This will prevent you from falling into giving the impression that you are persona playing. After all, a mentally handicapped character is highly unlikely to solve a puzzle given to him in prose.
- Concluding Thoughts
Remember: What we're dealing with here is a game. The purpose of a game is to have fun. It can't get any simpler than that. In short, there is a central virtue to "avoid egotistical roleplaying": respect.
I do sincerely hope this piece of the guide was helpful or at the very least enjoyable for you, dear reader. I don't bite awfully hard, so feel free to PM me too if any questions have transpired or you feel like discussing the given subjects in detail.
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Speaking with languages
While this may not apply for many characters, it does apply to characters who speak with dialects in the common tongue. When speaking in your race’s language (I.E. “Halfling Language”) do not speak with dialects, this is due to the fact that this is your characters native language, he speaks it nearly flawlessly. A few may be acceptable, but if your character speaks brutish as an orc would he/she would speak very well in orc language. Also, keep in mind your characters thinking style and traits, if your character is a brutish, primitive orc, do not speak long complicated paragraphs, although they may be good at their native language they are still primitive and do not use 8 words when 3 would do.
Another note: when the ability to learn language is implemented, you may want to use poor grammar and mispronounce words because you are still learning it and it is not your native tounge.
I wrote this short little paragraph (probably riddled with errors) about speaking in different tongues, I guess you can add it to the speaking in illarion section.
While this may not apply for many characters, it does apply to characters who speak with dialects in the common tongue. When speaking in your race’s language (I.E. “Halfling Language”) do not speak with dialects, this is due to the fact that this is your characters native language, he speaks it nearly flawlessly. A few may be acceptable, but if your character speaks brutish as an orc would he/she would speak very well in orc language. Also, keep in mind your characters thinking style and traits, if your character is a brutish, primitive orc, do not speak long complicated paragraphs, although they may be good at their native language they are still primitive and do not use 8 words when 3 would do.
Another note: when the ability to learn language is implemented, you may want to use poor grammar and mispronounce words because you are still learning it and it is not your native tounge.
I wrote this short little paragraph (probably riddled with errors) about speaking in different tongues, I guess you can add it to the speaking in illarion section.
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Adano Eles
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This does still happen from time to time, so I thought I would add a paragraph:
Introduction, the #i- and !name-command.
Introduction is a nifty feature of Illarion, as it allows characters to be "unknown" to each other until they met and introduced. Most MMORPGs allow you to see the names of any character on the screen, regardless wether you actually know them or not. This might result in strange rp situations when characters call you by your name although you never told it.
The #i- command prevents such situations.
However, the #i-command is solely a technical gimmick, it does not replace a proper roleplayed introduction. So if you just walk up to a character and press #i you should not wonder if the other character still treats you as a stranger.
Bad example for introducing:
A walks up to B
A: #i
B does not react
A: ((#i please))
Good example for introducing:
A walks up to B
A: Greetings, my name is Cyrian Thorfall. Who might you be?
A: #i
B: Greetings, Cyrian. Nice to meet you. I am called Largosh Ondral. How may I help you?
B: #i
You see, the #i-command is sort like a memory marker. But of course it only makes sense to remember something you actually heard before.
Also, you cannot force a player to use the #i-command. Sometimes it happens that a character does not tell you his real name, and hence refuses to use #i. So if someone told you his name but it does not show up over his character and in the textbox, first check if you have been within proper distance to recieve the command. It will work if you stand within two spaces horizontally or vertically from the introducing char, or within one space vertically. If you suspect that the other player might have just forgotten to use #i or you stood outside the aforementioned space you might whisper a request to repeat the introduction once. If the other player refuses then do not push any further.
So what do you do if the other player does not properly introduce after telling you his name, or if you hear the name of someone who you have never been properly (rp-) introduced to?
That is what the !name-command is for. This allows you to assign a name to an "unknown" char which will then show up when pressing F12 and in the text box.
The format of the command is fairly simple:
!name number name
For example:
!name 55512048679 Gandor Dragonheart
This way you can also enter short descriptions of people whose names you do not know but who you want to remember.
For example:
!name 555106954787 strange old man
!name 555115487951 thief
These will remain until you use the !name-function again to change them or the character properly introduces.
Introduction, the #i- and !name-command.
Introduction is a nifty feature of Illarion, as it allows characters to be "unknown" to each other until they met and introduced. Most MMORPGs allow you to see the names of any character on the screen, regardless wether you actually know them or not. This might result in strange rp situations when characters call you by your name although you never told it.
The #i- command prevents such situations.
However, the #i-command is solely a technical gimmick, it does not replace a proper roleplayed introduction. So if you just walk up to a character and press #i you should not wonder if the other character still treats you as a stranger.
Bad example for introducing:
A walks up to B
A: #i
B does not react
A: ((#i please))
Good example for introducing:
A walks up to B
A: Greetings, my name is Cyrian Thorfall. Who might you be?
A: #i
B: Greetings, Cyrian. Nice to meet you. I am called Largosh Ondral. How may I help you?
B: #i
You see, the #i-command is sort like a memory marker. But of course it only makes sense to remember something you actually heard before.
Also, you cannot force a player to use the #i-command. Sometimes it happens that a character does not tell you his real name, and hence refuses to use #i. So if someone told you his name but it does not show up over his character and in the textbox, first check if you have been within proper distance to recieve the command. It will work if you stand within two spaces horizontally or vertically from the introducing char, or within one space vertically. If you suspect that the other player might have just forgotten to use #i or you stood outside the aforementioned space you might whisper a request to repeat the introduction once. If the other player refuses then do not push any further.
So what do you do if the other player does not properly introduce after telling you his name, or if you hear the name of someone who you have never been properly (rp-) introduced to?
That is what the !name-command is for. This allows you to assign a name to an "unknown" char which will then show up when pressing F12 and in the text box.
The format of the command is fairly simple:
!name number name
For example:
!name 55512048679 Gandor Dragonheart
This way you can also enter short descriptions of people whose names you do not know but who you want to remember.
For example:
!name 555106954787 strange old man
!name 555115487951 thief
These will remain until you use the !name-function again to change them or the character properly introduces.
End note to Adano´s
Some new players tend to walk into crowds and #i themselves to everyone without saying a word
1) Do not tell everyone who you are, unless you have a good reason... that way if you do something illegal (stealing items) nobody will have a good name...
2) Some people wouldn´t care who you are anyway.. sometimes the player forgets who the person on the other end of the name is.. especially if he never talked to him...
Some new players tend to walk into crowds and #i themselves to everyone without saying a word
1) Do not tell everyone who you are, unless you have a good reason... that way if you do something illegal (stealing items) nobody will have a good name...
2) Some people wouldn´t care who you are anyway.. sometimes the player forgets who the person on the other end of the name is.. especially if he never talked to him...
Your Friend, Downtime!
Downtime is what happens when your character is not online. It is not assumed that your character just dissapeared from existance, nor is it assumed he took a three to four day nap.
In pen and paper roleplaying games, the issue of downtime rarely ever becomes a problem, because everyone experiences downtime at the same time--between sessions. It is often assumed that the character took care of their personal life during the time between adventures and, thus, not even an issue.
Some good roleplayers like to use downtime for character development. For example, in a roleplaying game that I played set in the tough streets of Detroit during the depression, a friend of mine played a character that was always down on his luck. Every time there was downtime he would come to the next session with some story of what happened during his character's downtime, such as him getting divorced, getting into a fight and losing, or his apartment getting infested with cockroaches due to him accidentally leaving the refridgerator door open during the last adventure.
That sort of thing is fun, but the problem in Illarion is that we all experience downtime at different times and thus while you might be imagining that your character had a normal week while you, the player, were away, other people might be imagining that you dissapeared during this time. For people with little time for Illarion, this especially becomes a problem, and they may find their character losing friends over it and feel that they have been abused due to OOC reasons.
A good example that keeps popping up involves a good buddy of mine, here at Illarion, PO Aristeaus. The player behind Aristeaus has a very busy life and the recent explosions in London have not helped the situation. Between long working hours and the stressful times in England, the player has little time for Illarion. I often hear people saying that they haven't seen Aristeaus in weeks or that Aristeaus must be off on some mission, but the appropriate way to deal with downtime would be to imagine that they've seen Aristeaus about, now and again (during downtime), but haven't had the chance to have an indepth discussion with him.
We all know, OOC, that the player behind Aristeaus loves Illarion and will be back when he has time, but we also know OOC that he just doesn't have the time. It isn't helpful if his character is evolving into a mysterious lurker in the shadows when he isn't even playing his character--that's tantamount to forced rp.
In any case, this is not the only situation like this and it doesn't take long ingame or on the boards to find other examples. Once the problem is realized it isn't so hard to be avoided. Often, a good PM to the player saying that your character wants to interact with the other person's character but there really isn't the time, then going on to explain what your character would say and asking how their character would react is helpful.
Keep a careful eye on your friend, downtime, and enjoy Illarion while you have the time.
Downtime is what happens when your character is not online. It is not assumed that your character just dissapeared from existance, nor is it assumed he took a three to four day nap.
In pen and paper roleplaying games, the issue of downtime rarely ever becomes a problem, because everyone experiences downtime at the same time--between sessions. It is often assumed that the character took care of their personal life during the time between adventures and, thus, not even an issue.
Some good roleplayers like to use downtime for character development. For example, in a roleplaying game that I played set in the tough streets of Detroit during the depression, a friend of mine played a character that was always down on his luck. Every time there was downtime he would come to the next session with some story of what happened during his character's downtime, such as him getting divorced, getting into a fight and losing, or his apartment getting infested with cockroaches due to him accidentally leaving the refridgerator door open during the last adventure.
That sort of thing is fun, but the problem in Illarion is that we all experience downtime at different times and thus while you might be imagining that your character had a normal week while you, the player, were away, other people might be imagining that you dissapeared during this time. For people with little time for Illarion, this especially becomes a problem, and they may find their character losing friends over it and feel that they have been abused due to OOC reasons.
A good example that keeps popping up involves a good buddy of mine, here at Illarion, PO Aristeaus. The player behind Aristeaus has a very busy life and the recent explosions in London have not helped the situation. Between long working hours and the stressful times in England, the player has little time for Illarion. I often hear people saying that they haven't seen Aristeaus in weeks or that Aristeaus must be off on some mission, but the appropriate way to deal with downtime would be to imagine that they've seen Aristeaus about, now and again (during downtime), but haven't had the chance to have an indepth discussion with him.
We all know, OOC, that the player behind Aristeaus loves Illarion and will be back when he has time, but we also know OOC that he just doesn't have the time. It isn't helpful if his character is evolving into a mysterious lurker in the shadows when he isn't even playing his character--that's tantamount to forced rp.
In any case, this is not the only situation like this and it doesn't take long ingame or on the boards to find other examples. Once the problem is realized it isn't so hard to be avoided. Often, a good PM to the player saying that your character wants to interact with the other person's character but there really isn't the time, then going on to explain what your character would say and asking how their character would react is helpful.
Keep a careful eye on your friend, downtime, and enjoy Illarion while you have the time.
An opinionated way for proper introduction
http://illarion.org/community/forums/vi ... hp?t=15788
http://illarion.org/community/forums/vi ... hp?t=15788
Hello,
I'm a newbie. As such, if I may give a short point of view about the documents I found on forum and website, and how a newbie can read them, it would be the following : there is an amazing quantity of material you wrote to help and promote role playing in Illarion, and that's really good. As a "pen & paper roleplayer" since 1982, I'm in line with about everything you wrote, and so, I know that I found fellows roleplayers in an online game, at last...
On the other hand, that's mostly general material, and after reading them, I'm still lacking a little specific, practical information, for a "quick newbie startup", with answers to some questions like : what are the known cities around ? how one can usually find a job and/or a master in these cities ? how do you find a home to rent or to buy ? How to get some money to start a new life ? Does the roads are secure enough to travel them alone or not ? Who is the mayor and does he want to see newcomers, or to the contrary, does he shuns and despises such low-life wanderers ? etc... etc... Something about the life of the community the newbie is going to join...
Admittedly, I'll get most of these informations by playing the game, but a "quick start information" could help people waiting for their account validation to get a picture of the game and think of their character *before* exploring the game...
What is noted above is just my very humble opinion (and still, maybe I didn't read the right page, that is maybe waiting for me somewhere and I just didn't find it). Moreover, I mean no disrespect to the amazing amount of work that was done, and well done. It was just a bit of constructive criticism, or maybe just and idea of something more to write, that I maybe could write in a few weeks/months from now, when I'll know better the ins and outs of the game.
Please, keep up the good job, and thanks for your commitment and for making this game possible...
See you soon in game or on the forum,
Thorvalt
I'm a newbie. As such, if I may give a short point of view about the documents I found on forum and website, and how a newbie can read them, it would be the following : there is an amazing quantity of material you wrote to help and promote role playing in Illarion, and that's really good. As a "pen & paper roleplayer" since 1982, I'm in line with about everything you wrote, and so, I know that I found fellows roleplayers in an online game, at last...
On the other hand, that's mostly general material, and after reading them, I'm still lacking a little specific, practical information, for a "quick newbie startup", with answers to some questions like : what are the known cities around ? how one can usually find a job and/or a master in these cities ? how do you find a home to rent or to buy ? How to get some money to start a new life ? Does the roads are secure enough to travel them alone or not ? Who is the mayor and does he want to see newcomers, or to the contrary, does he shuns and despises such low-life wanderers ? etc... etc... Something about the life of the community the newbie is going to join...
Admittedly, I'll get most of these informations by playing the game, but a "quick start information" could help people waiting for their account validation to get a picture of the game and think of their character *before* exploring the game...
What is noted above is just my very humble opinion (and still, maybe I didn't read the right page, that is maybe waiting for me somewhere and I just didn't find it). Moreover, I mean no disrespect to the amazing amount of work that was done, and well done. It was just a bit of constructive criticism, or maybe just and idea of something more to write, that I maybe could write in a few weeks/months from now, when I'll know better the ins and outs of the game.
Please, keep up the good job, and thanks for your commitment and for making this game possible...
See you soon in game or on the forum,
Thorvalt
I've added my thanks and not actually two cents, probably need change from a one cent piece, but it's there (here http://illarion.org/community/forums/vi ... hp?t=15788 ) and I thank you for directing new players to the thread, maybe it could be stickied, the last post was in the year 2005!!