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On reading through the boards I noticed many comments about how poor the RP has become. I was wondering if each of the good RP'ers could give an example of a situation where good RP occured.
I don't want names just an idea of what is considered good RP. I think it would help me, and others, to improve our RP. Many of us want to join in more but are worried about making mistakes.

I would suggest that you simply go in game and watch. Watch, watch, watch! Sit by a bush, while baking some bread or sharpening your sword on a stone. Perhaps even invite some people to a campfire with the lure of a cool ale. Watch them interact with each other...

Watch how players react. Good roleplayers can adapt to different situations and not have to proceed with long, thought out quests all the time. Just see how they roleplay in different situations, and then you can get an idea of different styles of roleplay. It's hard to define good and bad roleplay. Perhaps people prefered the kind of roleplay that used to go on.

Personally I think the mark of a good RP is a believable character. I don't konw how much my opinion matters, but if a player makes his character evolve.. into a person that another player could "imagine" and see that imaginary person's personality as if it were real, that's good RP. That's not the only kind, but characters that change all the time, and don't have any real personality, (not the one's that are just insane.. that is acceptable to change if you're a skytzo or something) just seem.. too made up. Ha, that's a new thought, characters that are too made up in a game! I agree with the post above though, it all comes with practice. I'm not the BEST RPer around, I'm sure many will agree, but at least Dom has a set personality that you can rely on. Whether you agree with his quirks or not. But that's just my opinion, it's all in the eyes of the beholder you know.

Everyone has their ups and downs.

I don't class people under "good" or "bad" RPers.

We all have our RP problems.

Good rp is consitancy and not being influenced by rl.

I like the way I RP even though I must admit that it does affect MY feelings in RL sometimes. ::nudge::

Don't act like your character... become your character...

ha ha that means Darlok was an evil monarch in some backwater country

Becoming Thurik isn't a good thing...

Iekka wrote:Don't act like your character... become your character...

No no, this is the complete wrong approach.

Always keep a healthy distant to your character, else you become affected by the things that happen to your character.
See him like you would see a third person.
Speak of him/her not of me/my.

If you keep this up then you can criticly watch at your character, his/her doings and his/her aims.


Bumbol,
who said that my family was not aristocratic?

Not me.

#me throws an apple and misses.

That usually turns me on all the time.

Darlok wrote:

Iekka wrote:Don't act like your character... become your character...

No no, this is the complete wrong approach.

Always keep a healthy distant to your character, else you become affected by the things that happen to your character.
See him like you would see a third person.
Speak of him/her not of me/my.

Okay so I put it bluntly... I feel when RPing you need to see things through your characters eyes and put yourself into your characters spot to make it seem natural. If you cant see something happening through their eyes, then it probably wont look right if it's acted out.

Personaly, I feel people who start to be affected by actions taken against or by their character in their everyday lives shouldn't RP... those people scare me... though my uncle is one of them when it comes to D&D...

For good RPing... my best live experience is Improve, which I join every year at my school, in a situation like that you are forced not only to think like your character but also take quick actions as your character - yet over all you must be detatched from your character to over look what you are doing.... I guess thats where the "Don't act like your character...become your character..." came from

A few words for Iekka:

Beach, Sunset, Kishy.


Everyday life

Shudders at mention of Kishanta

Dude..she CANT RP...she just like to wreck things and be the center of attention...

mmhmm,

And the beach?

You liked the beach!

this is about MY feelings about the beach, its about how RP affects everyday life

Lets recap then shall we...

Now... who forced RP Kishanta and pushed her into a hell dimention?
...who later decapitated her
...which then later ended up the next day with a text book wacked at full force into the back of my head because someone killed her in a one post forced Rp?

Okay...so yea Kishanta is one of those players who scare me cues if something happens to her character it happens to her and she hurts you! Even when you didnt do it!

Rubs back of head

Well...ya, I guess thats part of it



sorries

Hmm. Got to say its not been as helpful a post as I'd hoped. I will sit and watch and hope I get inspired ingame. Thanks for all your input though.

Don't act like your character... become your character...

I took this a different way...I see it as don't make up a story for your char, base it on events that happen in game. "ACT LIKE YOUR CHAR" means you have already made a predestined fate. "Become your char" is like you go with the flow

Sam wrote:Hmm. Got to say its not been as helpful a post as I'd hoped. I will sit and watch and hope I get inspired ingame. Thanks for all your input though.

Sitting and watching that empty street, very boring. Mostly Germans at a campfire. Or an overly dramatic American.

Val De Gausse wrote:go with the flow

Bruce Lee supposedly said that about martial arts, too.

Kasume wrote:Sitting and watching that empty street, very boring. Mostly Germans at a campfire. Or an overly dramatic American.

One could always meditate, that's supposedly helpful in finding the self.



But seriously, I don't think anybody could put good RPing into a nutshell, only fragments of its essence. I believe that good RPing is spur-of-the-moment, intuitive, and depends on several people, not just a single individual. If only one person is RPing "good", and the other people are not participating in it, all the solid RP is for nothing.

If you look around you in real life, there are people that are mutable, change every week or day; while others seem to stay the same all their life.

There's all sorts, I guess.

Best Rp'er ever = Eliza
She is in game all day long and never once breaks into any ooc nonsense. Always acts the way she should.

Worst Rp'er ever = The pigs
You hack at the for 20 minutes with a knife...and they never run. I bet they are one step away from logging out everytime they are about to die too.

@Ark:

Reading more books can help a lot as well, it seems, though I know time seems to gradually slip through everyone's fingers more and more days. Not to copy, but to gather ideas, or take several and combine them in a different way. But at any rate, bringing up a mental image of the situation the character(s) are in also helps me sometimes.

And then sometimes, if you need to aggrandize things, once in a while....

v.1
#me glares angrily at the elf.

v.2
#me eyes the elf with a trembling rage, his knuckles gripped bone-white on the sword hilt and anger smoldering in his gaze.

I think you got some good suggestions there, Delakaniam.

And alternatively, or actually following those lines of advice:
If you're into reading and dissecting alot, you can try dissecting characters from plays, or get into live acting; acting in pre-written plays as well as improvised acting sessions. Those exercises are quite helpful to learn "good" RPing.

Moirear Sian wrote:Bruce Lee supposedly said that about martial arts, too.

Great guy. He proved that one didn't have to be a 300 pound steroid guzzling monster to win a fight (though I imagine, being 300 pounds would sure help).

But that's off subject.

Kasume wrote:Sitting and watching that empty street, very boring. Mostly Germans at a campfire. Or an overly dramatic American.

I found the same thing. The American players I know are substandard RPers who care more about uberpowering a collection of pixels rather than creating the down-to-earth characters that the Germans usually make (and let's face it, those kind of characters are more enjoyable to play with).

That, or the overly dramatic American characters make every mundane action or saying like it's something that can destroy existence.

Just think of RPing as a play.

Jim boneclub is a orc charictor I made . He is not very inteligent at all , the following is a RP that I did as him at least once .

Jim Boneclub looks into the watter and sees his reflection .

Jim Boneclub : me Jim drouwning me save me jim !

Jim Boneclub jumps into the watter .

Jim boneclub gets out of the watter holding his arm as if he was pulling himself out .

Jim Boneclub : was close me almost drowned me Jim saved me Jim .