A difficult RP Question

Ziel Oden · Post by **Ziel Oden** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:01 am

Everything RP is influenced by Real life. So i saw something on 'a guide to rollplaying' so here is my what-if question:

Your best friend in Real Life plays a character that owns a very well known guild that runs a large building.
In-game your characters friend tells you about a plan to kill your best friends char and take over his guild.
Your friend has worked for about 1 1/2 years to get his guild well known.

At this point you have two options:
Show signs of bad RP and dont help out the person that wants to take over and inform your friend/set up the take-over man by making the plan a suicide mission.

Go alone with the mission, fighting to your fullist, and crush your friend.

Becuase ask yourself honestly, if you lost something you worked so hard to achieve (dont think of items, think of something you worked a LONG time for), even if it is in a game, would hurt alot?

Post by **Estralis Seborian** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:28 am

There is always a third option: Talk to each other OOC about the situation. An d all this "crush him" can be replaced by marvellous acts of roleplaying, like taking hostages, negotiations, searching allies, attempted attacks from the shadows of unknown assasines...

Turning someone into a cloud is no way to solve such a situation.

Ziel Oden · Post by **Ziel Oden** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:54 am

You misunderstood. I ment Crush Him as in crush him mentaly, as in saddened. "You crushed his heart when you dumbed him" not "you took a hammer and crushed his skull in"

Moirear Sian · Post by **Moirear Sian** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:04 am

It's just a game.

Estralis is right. You people should just sit together and have an OOC chat off the game. If all parties know of it OOC, it doesn't mean their characters do. You could work out some awesome RP scenarios as Est suggested.

There are ways to win or lose like a sucker... or win or lose with style.

Aristeaus · Post by **Aristeaus** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:08 am

If he has got so attatched to the guild, he sshould never have created it

Yes we all make attatchments but nothing lasts for ever. The character Aristeaus has a daily conspiracy thrown in his face. And i would hope in the future for him to be beaten by a friend.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

If its a friend, you have only half the work load

Cliu Beothach · Post by **Cliu Beothach** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:10 am

I agree with Arist, but I also do not like the idea of discussing IG events OOC. If it must come to it, fine, but I feel it dampens the mood by letting the PO knowing how it will happen. You may say it won't with good rpers, but people who are surprised would act differently and open up a whole new set of unexpected events.

Aristeaus · Post by **Aristeaus** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:14 am

As cliu has said.. Half the fun of the game is the suprise. And you can ask any player who knows me, i rarely speak of IG events OOC due to it ruins the suprise.

And with that wastefull post i bid you g'night.

Moirear Sian · Post by **Moirear Sian** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:25 am

I agree with you fellows but I disagree that the element of surprise is exclusively when you don't know it OOC, either. This is not true. I can speak out of experience of several occasions of RPing that sometimes, if you know things OOC, and seperate well between OOC and IC, it can actually be even more suspenseful. I guess it just depends on your mentality towards roleplaying, because RP is not about winning, but having a blast together, at least in my eyes. If I for example know that someone RPs better if they know things in advance, damn straight I will do such.

In literature, authors use a technique called "foreshadowing"; where they set up basic information conveyed in the build-up of the story to coming events. Sometimes you can take lengths of doing the same for your RP; either or both IC as well as OOC. The outcome is most oftenly more interesting, because you're not smacking the other player constantly in the face.

Sometimes a book or even RP is more rich in quality if you know where it's headed—but not the exact outcome.

Cliu Beothach · Post by **Cliu Beothach** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:28 am

Foreshadowing is fine, but it doesn't flat lay out the plans like you said. I don't mind if you KNOW you are going to be attacked, but if you discuss plans even deeper, it ruins it

.

Moirear Sian · Post by **Moirear Sian** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:43 am

Again, that is not true.

If you for example agree on a basic, rough outline of things that might happen, you have chances to RP certain scenarios otherwise not possible in the client alone (e.g. hostage situations)—if the player is surprised and "forced" to RP along it's possible that great RP ideas go to waste and are reduced to Ctrl-Click till someone turns into a cloud. And what it also can serve for is to give the others a good time to think over their relevant RP in advance.

What happens then in the game is spontaneous. Players shouldn't have to work by scripts, that would defeat the purpose of RP.

And as Estralis said, the little blood marks and the cloud thingie are not terribly interesting.

Cliu Beothach · Post by **Cliu Beothach** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:45 am

We shouldn't need a discussion OOC to talk about logic, it should be implied.

Moirear Sian · Post by **Moirear Sian** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:50 am

True, but: If the person in question is already emotionally attached to the going-ons in game, this person might want to either call it the quits till they've learned the meaning of roleplaying, or else predefine the logic before they continue with it.

Emotion tends to win over logic, sadly enough.

If nobody was attached to their characters, I wouldn't write this all, but sadly as far as I know, a whole damn lot of people here are emotionally attached to their characters and what happens to them in the game. Especially not when something happening in game does not fit their ideal of the character.

I personally demand a bit more flexibility than that attitude, but I don't express it and I sure as hell don't see it as spoiling anything if the person needs an agenda first on how to RP (flexibly).

Pendar · Post by **Pendar** » Wed May 04, 2005 2:11 am

Look it is always variable and often depends who you are rping with, If some one has actually built a large guild they love and care for and it is of any importance at all. Rest assured they are use to betrayls in this game.
How ever if you want to orchestrate a specific set of rp events some ooc can be useful as sian pointed out to avoid you becoming a cloud.What should not be done is...I am going to ambush you in the forrest and then we are going to rp fight. While you are rp fighting So and So is going to be kidnapping your wife....then in the end she escapes us but you dont know that....etc etc
All of this repetition is simply affirming what is stated above. As sian also said sometimes ooc is needed to rise above the limits of the client, were can i find you at what time?..we are now tieing you up and hiding you in a hole in the forrest. Assasination attempts would need some ooc is they are going to be meaningful as how many of us are really ready to die a bloody death from a #me plunges a dagger in your back ?

Emotional attachment is a tricky one,
I personally feel some emotional attachment is present in all truly stunning rp characters. Some people can rp with such vigour i feel there emotions on screen in some small way. I am attached to my character yes, but i am not in love with an image of him...I do not need or want a happily ever afer, The constan hero or steady station. I am curiouse to see were he goes be it to ruin or legend. He is evolveing with the world and yes I am attached to that evolution I love rping him.
Were it gets to be a hinderance in my opinion is were some one loves a character enough to be inflexable about what happens to there rp persona...or cannot rp through there sadness or failures...as such would be crushed by the loss of a guild.
When as and if Pendars station leads him to ruin I will revel in all the new rp oppurtunity that presents and his evolution through them
Thats me done
Brian