What do you think makes a great roleplayer?

[BegoneThoth]

Never heard of god-emoting till I came here, frankly.

[Blood on my Lips]

I think it's important to bring attention to this statement right now.

Willingness to bend/alter things to make roleplay enjoyable for others. A great roleplayer is willing to change where the roleplay's going, or back off entirely, if the other party isn't having fun or isn't comfortable with where things are going. .

[Dreams]

Not everything is comfortable happy cuddles.

[DarkDreamer]

Not everything has to be, but you try and force stuff on me I don't like or want, I -will- lens or log out and go to a different character. While its your story, its mine too. Respect for the other players story is a must.

[Dreams]

Logging out isn't really an appropriate solution, is it? If your character needs to use a portal lens to get away, that's fine. Logging out is an entirely OOC move and really does show a lack of that IC/OOC separation.

[BegoneThoth]

Not everything has to be, but you try and force stuff on me I don't like or want, I -will- lens or log out and go to a different character. While its your story, its mine too. Respect for the other players story is a must.

Wheu.

Logging out and logging another character is poor form. "Respect for the other players story is a must" indeed.

[Cortex]

Think less about "your" story and more about a collaborative story.

[Scurvy Cur]

Not everything has to be, but you try and force stuff on me I don't like or want, I -will- lens or log out and go to a different character. While its your story, its mine too. Respect for the other players story is a must.

Well, we were asking what makes a great roleplayer. This is instructive.

[DarkDreamer]

Not everything has to be, but you try and force stuff on me I don't like or want, I -will- lens or log out and go to a different character. While its your story, its mine too. Respect for the other players story is a must.

Wheu.

Logging out and logging another character is poor form. "Respect for the other players story is a must" indeed.

So is forcing situations like slavery, torture and anything along those lines on a character. While I will in general RP most things myself, if I say stop and I am not enjoying it and it keeps being forced, I am well within my right to log out. A good rper, respects the rights and OOC requests of other players.

[BegoneThoth]

Not everything has to be, but you try and force stuff on me I don't like or want, I -will- lens or log out and go to a different character. While its your story, its mine too. Respect for the other players story is a must.

Wheu.

Logging out and logging another character is poor form. "Respect for the other players story is a must" indeed.

So is forcing situations like slavery, torture and anything along those lines on a character. While I will in general RP most things myself, if I say stop and I am not enjoying it and it keeps being forced, I am well within my right to log out. A good rper, respects the rights and OOC requests of other players.

Rights? Ooc requests?

I think it's best I just don't talk to you any more.

[Cortex]

There is no "forcing" slavery or torture, there are options around those, and if the players are obnoxious about it even after telling them you're uncomfortable, you can report it to the DMs.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

There is a very real and palpable culture conflict between certain segments of players that rises its head every once in awhile. Ironically, it often occurred in non-human settlements, and Benwick (so Brogendenstein, Myon, Light Keep, and I think Bendir).

It basically boiled down to, a very real and understandable divide, about some players wanting to login and have this element of "comfort." They didn't want the pot stirred. They wanted a kind of traditional heroic experience, where there was lore, and social interactions, and some kind simple, non-confrontational roleplay, where you fought the big bad other guy, who existed outside of your faction. Where you held to the past, sort of "served your time", and everything moved at a kind of glacial pace. Too much change too quickly was uncomfortable.
The other side disregarded the concept of "comfortable roleplay", and usually invoked a myriad of stories: wanting change, wanting to move past tradition, wanting to stir the plot, wanting to scheme, wanting to create conflict to create dire roleplay.

I don't really know what "school of roleplay" is, principally, better. But it is very much echoed in the above divide between DarkDreamer and BegoneThoth - sorry for drawing specific attention to it.

You can certainly have very strong reactions from players who think roleplayers who create conflict is detrimental to their own roleplay, and thus do not think those individuals are "great roleplayers." While conversely, other sections of the community could herald these individuals as fantastic roleplayers because they are always Making Stuff Happen.

This touches on Dr. B's and PinataPlethora's point about subjectivity of Roleplaying and its evaluation. I think it's interesting stuff.

[Cortex]

this looks like a political compass meme begging to be made

[BegoneThoth]

Do it.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

this looks like a political compass meme begging to be made

There's some really bizarre moments in Arelith when you run up against subsets of players who totally make you feel like you've been playing on a different server than them.

[Iceborn]

I get that feeling most times in the forum, than in the game.
Luckily.

[One Two Three Five]

I think there's a misconception that the sort of.. 'rp is king, my character is a distinct being from me with a personality I don't control, no player rights just my own opinions' up-my-own-backend sort of obnoxious personality and being a great roleplayer are the same. It was an attitude that saw me without people to play with, in _house, and just generally not enjoying the server and staying in the 10 rpr range for a long time till I sort of went outside, did other stuff, played tabletop! and got over myself.

Nowadays, I see a 'great roleplayer' is a distinct entity: a person who understands that this is a game, that the people in the game are playing a video game in their probably limited free time, for fun, to tell a cooperative story, and that the fun is the core of it. Not having perfect grammar, not 'rp is king,' not even really being The World's Best storyteller- but people who can put together a coherent character and make the process of storytelling and adventuring fun for those around them. Because it's a game. I don't care if you're writing NYT Best-seller level characters if that character is a spotlight/attention hog or if you think other players don't deserve to also have fun within their comfort zones. (But, lets be real, having been there: If you're an attention hog or don't care about anyone's comfort and fun but your own? You're probably not writing RP characters at that level.)

[Barradoor]

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[The Salt Elemental]

Someone who makes the game enjoyable for others, not just themselves. I find that the best roleplayers tend to take backwards, secondary seats whilst helping to build other character stories up or the put themselves in the lead and give others someone to follow with purpose.


Actually doing this, however, is extremely difficult. I'd say there are only a small few people who can actually do this without spoiling others fun by steamrolling.

That's honestly not the only answer. This question is extremely broad. What defines a good roleplayer is can be many things depending on opinion.

[The GrumpyCat]

So is forcing situations like slavery, torture and anything along those lines on a character. While I will in general RP most things myself, if I say stop and I am not enjoying it and it keeps being forced, I am well within my right to log out. A good rper, respects the rights and OOC requests of other players.

In the case of forced slavery - This is easy to avoid. Just don't talk to the clamper, run away, and if your character is killed fleeing- either log out, or explicitly tell your captor(s) that you DO NOT want a raise by them. Thus the situation remains IC, you avoid slavery, and everything is good.

In the case of torture - this is probably something to talk to your captor(s) with over tells. In certain, very extreme cases, yes - logging out is a good option. (And I bet in all those cases, you should be taking screenshots and contacting us.) In most cases you should probably try and settle for a public execution, or just a death-whilst-running-away, or just accept something lighter.

Respecting the rights and requests of other playerd does go both ways, compromise must be found. I agree that there are times (severe torture, perminent effects like Slavery, Long term imprisonment, ect) where the player should have full ability to say, 'No.' But at the same time, they should - wherein it is possible, seek to find a good compromise with their opposite so that their rp too is respected.

Also - for what it is worth- I think a sign of a good roleplayer is also recognising that everyone has different styles of rp, gets different things out of Arelith and, in so much as they can, works to respect and work with those styles.

[Cataclysm of Iron]

^I think a lot of cases where people's summary of the situation is 'I was forced into this RP which I didn't want to be part of!' are actually instances of 'I was given the choice between this RP I didn't want to be part of an a character death which I didn't want to suffer the OOC penalties for'.

[Black Wendigo]

You should not have to choose between death and forced RP Making people do that isn't nice at all.

[Durvayas]

^I think a lot of cases where people's summary of the situation is 'I was forced into this RP which I didn't want to be part of!' are actually instances of 'I was given the choice between this RP I didn't want to be part of an a character death which I didn't want to suffer the OOC penalties for'.

In the case of surface PCs, this isn't too big of a problem. Its a big module, surface PCs can generally go to a different settlement to avoid being steamrolled by the same PCs repetitively. I think it can be a bigger issue in the UD with UD PCs, where, typically, its not usually one character death, and rather a series of them, over the course of days and weeks, by the same characters, because there is nowhere to go*. Andunor has been made bigger in an effort to combat this problem, but it hasn't truly been addressed.

I've seen more than a few times where a player is not okay with where the RP is going, and makes efforts to escape, like lensing, and the attacking party follows them to the next area and kills them, or blocks the escape by throwing a darkness, -warding the area, constantly hasting during the conversation, or hostiling from the moment they've spotted a specific PC. Sure, IC consequences to IC actions and all that, but when it happens on the third, fourth, fifth time a PC has been attacked by the same group in a short time, the DMs need to be involved, because railroading people into PvP over and over despite efforts to avoid it crosses the line from conflict into griefing very quickly.

Great roleplayers know how to make conflict fun for their PC's adversaries, and do not attempt to PvP them into shelving out of frustration.

*"kiss my feet now and do exactly as I say or die repetitively" is not an example of good conflict.

[Cataclysm of Iron]

You should not have to choose between death and forced RP Making people do that isn't nice at all.

This is the same fallacy as reading 'you are always entitled to flee from PvP' as having [and the other person is obliged to let you get away if you do] tagged on at the end.

This isn't your individual character's story, it's collective. As long was what you're being threatened with isn't against the server rules, other characters can threaten it - if they threaten death as the alternative, that's where you are. You're not forced to RP whatever the alternative is, because you can always resist it. If you die, you die, but don't pretend that just because that's a consequence you didn't really want OOC that you were forced into roleplay you didn't want.

Now, if you're repeatedly ganked within a small area, or the other party lets it continue beyond a killing, that's not Being Nice or Role Playing, to quote the big five rules.

[Iceborn]

Your character may have the upper hand over another in some situation.
But as a players, you are still equal writing a story. If the story you are trying to write is "this is how I took all the fun out of a character and forced them to roll", then you may have to step back a little and reconsider what you are doing.

Maybe DethMachine McSlaughter didn't have a reason to let the elf escape. If you know the other player doesn't want in for more RP under your heavy metal wing, then you let them go. Do something like, dunno, break a leg and do something horrible to stay in character, but you still let them go. Surely, you COULD also kill the elf, bash the body and be done with it, but I see it as imposing penalties and killing RP rather than making use of a possibility to do more. A waste.

There is such thing as consequence for your actions and getting in the wrong place. Nothing comes without a price to pay sooner or later. You can't just 'out' of all the consequence, but you can be courteous OOCly and explain what something needs to be done or what is your character trying to gain.

There is always a way to handle something that is still enjoyable for the parties involved.
There's also this narrative tool that gets the trick done when you need it: The fade to black.