"I ran through the forest to kill a bird"

[Kasume]

Why do we need to know what is not going on inside the game?
If you have actions in the game to role-play, then do it ingame. You, telling me that your character is shaking his head or spitting on the ground, DOES NOT, help me role-play.
Frankly, I personally think it clutters the RPG board.

Anyone's opinions about this?
Some people enjoy it, but my opinion towards it, is unnecessary.
Why do we need to know that someone is throwing a fit, in actions, on the RPG board.
I see some of the dumbest crap on the RPG boards anymore.

"Shakes his head at the note and goes back to fishing."

End Post.

This is my personal opinion about it.
I want to know what other people think about it. I'm just curious.

Edit: I admit, I have done just this that I rant about. But, I do not anymore. If it is, the actions do not take place on the island. And usually do not affect any other characters on the island towards the main idea of anything.

[Korg Blacktooth]

I have to agree...if it is just an action there is no point i mean your not going to write what your doing on a parchment and post it you you just going to do but but i reackon in the long rpg posts it is good to have it there to get rp going

[Kasume]

I don't read any of the long RolePlay threads. Though, I'm not saying you shouldn't.
As if I knew that information, I would be wasting my time. In which I have no use for it.
When I goto the Role-Play forums, I am looking for information to help me forward the knowledge of my character. So that I can keep him up to date on the latest news for him.

[Jeremy Gems Willowbrook]

I have to agree too. Though there a good points and bad points to this. Its good because it can be entertaining to read the stories etc. At the same time however a lot of the time it gives you knowledge of things that your characters have no way of knowing. Far better to play them out IG and get RP going that way than post something that nobody will react to because their characters have no way of knowing about it.

[Bloodhearte]

Agreed. Although, I used to do it (a lot).

There's already a hundred posts on the board about the actions of a character. But, how is my character supposed to react to this? Well, he can't, because he never saw it take place, nor was it a "written" message. It influences people OOC only, but I, as a person, don't care what a character did; my character does, however.

It's best to keep the RPG board for actual messages that players can respond to.

[Gro'bul]

I read it sometimes I just can't roleplay via messages. At least in mud's your talking to people in real time. I guess some people just like writing rediculously long posts.

[Kaja Wolfagen]

On another hand, the rpg board must be used for actions, to give players a meaning of what has occured in game. If actions occured ingame due to certain things that a character did, and no one realised the character did these actions.

Well yes it would be more realistic, but it would make for a very boring game. I play Illarion as if it is a story in which i am aiding in the writing.

[Aragon]

One of the problems of a game such as Illarion is, that a day longs 24 hours. You aren't able to be there all the time.
So it is also an information board for the ingame actions happening, when the player needs a rest, but the char is living in the world further on.
But I agree with Kasume, that such one sentence posts, as he mentioned, are rather useless.

[Kasume]

But that would suggest, that I can create a character, and never log into the game.
All I would need to do, is varify certain things with people.

If *I* the person wants to find out what happened. I'm going to ask someone on my buddy list.
If I want my character to find out, he's not going to mentally think up this story that is true.

I can see the rumors topic continuing. And I use it.
And if there is really a question to ask, my character is going to pin a note asking. Instead of completely skipping it because someone constructed the most detailed story of the entire event (Well, that is if his actual character explained it).

Edit: I took the top ten topics in the RPG board.
Seven of them, I did not read. As they had completely nothing to do with my character's role-play. All seven topics, could have been either:
-Not explained, as it... was stupid to even post it (The soul purpose of the topic may have had a reason, but the colaboration of other people posting made it stupid).
-Could have been done, in game.

How do I know they could have been done in game if I didn't read them?
Because there are multiple people posting in the topic.

Some, may be excluded, as I admit. I didn't actually read them!

[~ZION~]

RP means role playing which also includes actions. Why not just change the name of this forum to "The Trollsbane Wall".

[Kasume]

Good idea ZION.
Illarion, should be based off of the client. The forums are becoming 75% of the game.
And if I may be the only one against it, I'm the only one against it.

Why are we constantly wanting more people to join in the game?
Cuz'... their character left the island and it's easier to Role-play on forums. Quick thinking needed for the client.

PS: I think encouraging people to go in game is great.
It would make role-play more "pure."

[Hermie]

I don't mind people posting stories etc of what their char is going through, it's interesting stuff. It's just when people reply to a notice and just write *Looks at the writing on the wall and laughs* I don't see the point to those. Stories, goood, pointless expressions, baaad!

[Kasume]

Stories, are OK.
As long as they don't affect other characters, and only that character. It's something to read for enjoyment, that is if the person writes well.

But, it's the one paragraph "I'm going to tell you what my character is thinking about, and what he/she is doing at night" that aggitates me.
It's things that happen on the island, but they affect other characters. And multiple people telling this story thing from their characters veiwpoint of something (vague example).

Frankly, I don't care.
If it's a story in which I can read and understand, and enjoy. Without it affecting the island as a whole, I'm good. I *sometimes* read them. And I know many people read them, because they find it fun (though as I do not ).
Hell, I write them! But, they don't take place on the island. And it's for sheer fun.

When I see people doing this "role-play" on the forums, I literally feel like we're just writing stories and short paragraphs taken from a story.
I'm looking to "ROLE-PLAY," not write stories to each other. As I said, so called "role-playing" does not feel pure when done on the forums (explained with actions, not messages with writing).

Thanks for your opinions though guys.
I've pretty much got what I wanted from this topic.

[Pendar]

The only real question for my part is are people able to seperate what they read on the RPG board from in game interaction.
Example from reading the RPG board I am aware of 2 or 3 plots characters have going on that I should not know anything about. Even though I know the characters in game. If I choose to act on that information in any way, even small ways like not persueing a friendship with that person as a result of what I read. Then the rpg board has actually stolen something from the game. This is of course my short coming and not the actuall forums fault.

For my part I am very knew to the game but have allready posted a message in the RPG forum. I dont believe it was especially useful for any one else as it was a personal expierence "rpg" and a string of thoughts posted. However I rather enjoyed writing it and used "responsibly" may serve as a form of reference for my character.
I say this as we are all roleplaying a fantasy world one our characters live and breath daily. yet due to the nature of the game I may not see some of you for weeks. The Pendar you met last week may be rather different next week. Especially in the formative stages of a character.
The value of those posts will only be decided by player maturity, and peoples ability to seperate occ information from there characters knoweledge of me.
Firstly the rpg forum should be a bit of fun and a way to communicate plot movements and information to people despite time zone.
Secondly they are a place for players to experement with the evolution of there character and add a little meat to there life stories. As long as people can keep such information out of the game until it is shared in game.
I dont see that does very much harm.
Just my 02
Pendar

[Pronon Palmsuger]

Well honestley they dont help at all, your not supposed to mix OOC with IG so you shouldn't even ead them because your not supposed to know so there really just a waste of time.

[Pendar]

The only real question for my part is are people able to seperate what they read on the RPG board from in game interaction.

Secondly they are a place for players to experement with the evolution of there character and add a little meat to there life stories. As long as people can keep such information out of the game until it is shared in game.

So i think that was a large part of my point. If people are not capable of seperateing the two then they will propably arrive at a wedding they have never heard of, come up and comiserate with me on the loss of all my gear, share my anamosity towards lorck who they have never met and as such shouldn't be playing at all.
How ever I was involved in a situation with a couple of people last night, ooc i really enjoyed reading there rpg forum posts as it was a nice amendmant to the story we were busy creating through action.
I just dont see the harm.

[Garett Gwenour]

What I do with Garett's story of his plotline is so the players and a select few characters will know what makes Garett tick. Why he pushes himself so hard. Why he feels he must do everything he can to protect everyone he meets. Why he despises himself eternally.
I suppose I should do that ingame, but I think it would be silly for Garett to tell people who hardly knows about his past. The RPG forum simply fills in the gaps, about why Garett leaves alone or gets silent when people speak about family around him etc.
Plus I think my roleplay is too weak to successfully act Garetts part without needing help on the Forum.

Opinion about people doing the old "Looks shakes his head and walks away" post, yeah, it just clutters.

[Zordakh]

i can only agree here.
as i see it the rpg forums are way overused and cause people to use OOC information which they dont have.

for my personal definition of an rpg this is not really fitting. i can read up in the forums whatever i want and can get all the information i need in no time. especially with the handy search function.
of course one shouldnt use this gained knowledge but people do and we all know it. if i would read the rpg forum i would use it too. maybe not even knowing it.

maybe i can take garetts example.

of course i understand the need to show the inside of a character.
but honestly. i dont know what you are thinking or why you are thinking it. if you get quiet around people talking about family i CANT know why you do so untill i ask you. so why not leave the whole thing exciting?
if i realise that garrett suddenly gets quiet when talking about family my chara can approach him and ask. this might lead to great ingame rpg.
just knowing it beforehand makes me:
"bwah, garret gone quiet again"

as i see it the rpg forums should only be used for informations everyone on the isle might know. like the laws of trollsbane. or a memberlist of a clan. official information that everyone knows or might know.

i dont really see how i could follow 10 people at night and know what and why they did it.
i agree that single character threads are a good and interesting read (if nicely written) but still i find that my character cant know that stuff.

just my 2 cents

[Kaja Wolfagen]

Well people i think that some people enjoy writing these small stories, for example Garett himself by writing this adds some depth to his charatcer.

You would not know of these things of course, but i for one enjoy reading them. If you dont like these posts, simple answer dont read them

Or would you like the rpg board to go back to how it once was

http://illarion.org/community/forums/vi ... php?t=1652

I do really recommend reading some of Damiens old posts

(( Wants to marry a town guard indeed muahaha ))

[Zordakh]

hehe thats what i do. i read only the guilds info.

and that link is worth a laugh. so id say the rpg forum is in good shape at the moment. i take everything back

"you @ss" i found the best part but im going off topic here.

[falco1029]

If you think you would usr the OOC knowledge, and notice that it's a stroy you shouldnt know, dont read it. I myself am fairly good at keeping it sepereate (though I admit I might do some things subconciously). Also, I have used some of it to further rpg.

[Moyáve]

Personally, I don't mind people doing that, I just feel them to be attentionseeking I-have-no-friends. Because I don't give a _ about their characters latest inner conflict, traumata, childhoodmemories that I don't understand since they're given in a cryptic, boring style, like "The black-hooded man pressed himself against the wall, every now and then peered around the corner with his hand tightly attached to his sword. For some reason, he did not know it himself, he could not help but think about Melchiawiel. The memory of her voice was still absolutely clear in his mind as she had said "Go! Go to the mountains, your destiny is waiting in the golden cup" i.e. bla bla bla. Wow, now we know _
But hell, my solution is to just not read that stuff. So post it if you feel like, we won't mind, really.

[Bloodhearte]

Moyáve, I would give you an A for truth, but I'll have to lower it to a B.

"Listens in class but does not get along with others."

[Aristeaus]

Im waiting for her to finish the story.. so does this cup have beer in it or is it a magical juice of flumpalumpas

[falco1029]

*looks at the board, sighs and goes to play illarion more*

[Delakaniam]

DUH, Arist, it's the magical juice of the flumpalumpas..... Geez, I suppose you never read the RPG forum. Anybody who reads the RPG forum would obviously know that .



~

[Kasume]

Personally, I don't mind people doing that, I just feel them to be attentionseeking I-have-no-friends. Because I don't give a _ about their characters latest inner conflict, traumata, childhoodmemories that I don't understand since they're given in a cryptic, boring style, like "The black-hooded man pressed himself against the wall, every now and then peered around the corner with his hand tightly attached to his sword. For some reason, he did not know it himself, he could not help but think about Melchiawiel. The memory of her voice was still absolutely clear in his mind as she had said "Go! Go to the mountains, your destiny is waiting in the golden cup" i.e. bla bla bla. Wow, now we know _
But hell, my solution is to just not read that stuff. So post it if you feel like, we won't mind, really.

That was great!
Sometimes though, like I did in the past, I told the story of what Kasume did off of the island, for pure enjoyment. Even if I hadn't posted it, I probably would have written it and saved it into my documents folder, hoping never to be touched again.
Sometimes, I wonder if people actually read it. Although, at the same time, I don't care. As it wasn't important, and it was something I did completely for fun. I enjoy writing, and I enjoy reading (certain things: I have an attention problem, I can read for about 1 hour, and get completely bored of it to a point where I literally can't stay awake. Wish I could help it).

But, most of what I see on the boards. They don't imply something useless. They tell valuable information that could be used by the characters in game, but we cannot. As our characters, do not know what we (the players) now know due to this seemingly worthless amount of writing.
The #1 most annoying threads (in the RP forums) is when multiple people are posting in a Role-Play thread, in which they interact with each other, but they aren't writing them down where people can see them, they are posting actions.
This is where I think the role-play forum is becoming stupid. People posting what their characters did that night, what they had for breakfast. What dreams they had, what color their underwear is. How much their character hates themselves...
Oh okay, great.

I may be acting hypocritical.
When I posted the actions of Kasume sitting in the forests. He was alone. No one ever took any actions with him in that thread (I think there was, but I ignored it, since it was stupid).
It was a thread, for anyone whom role-played with me, to maybe understand that when they see Kasume. He's most likely going to have a drooped serious face. And he may be pale as well. He's wearing a certain cloak. Things that someone can use, so that I don't have to explain what my character is wearing at all times when playing the game (which gets old).

If I post any actions, I usually try to throw something in there to give other players to work with. Something that they can use, without mixing OOC. It's to save time of saying,
"#me is wearing a grey cloak now instead of a white one."
All of the time.

And, some people *might* enjoy just to read it.

I want to point out examples of posts, in which I thought, were completely unnecessary. And posts, in which, helped *me* (a normal player) in no way at all.
Although, I don't want to be mean. Some may find it offensive. That's Illarion though.

Edit: Did I just argue with myself? *sigh*

[Moyáve]

Sorry, Kasume, I feared I might have missed your topic. That was just something I had been waiting to write somehow.
Yes, I see a point in writing stories that give useful information about the character, like the appearance (since that is something our characters would see when they come across each other)
However, we could never make use of reading about imaginary actions or their feelings, I agree on that one. So we must just accept that those topics are just for *someones* entertainment.

[Kasume]

How about this,
There is a line between too much information and just enough. A fine line.
Sometimes, giving that information out isn't fun for me as a player. My character's feelings should be noticable by my actions when playing in the game.

My character's personality should form in the game. Not on the forums.
My character's fame/reputation should form in the game. Not on the forums.
A/My character's rite of passage should be performed in the game. Not on the forums.

I'm shutting up now. Lock it please, if possible. I'm done with the topic.