RPing insularity (wild elf, ghost hin, outsider, etc)

[tidal]

Hi, this is for sharing thoughts and experience on playing hard cases.

No doubt a few of you have come across characters that are all about "leave me alone -- but also come play with me".
Personally I once made a great cleric of Fenmarel Mestarine, she was done in a day. Another character of mine specialized on perfect crimes; she never really got revealed on any of her schemes and dreams, so by lvl 18 she was too old and too low-key to be fun.

Some races like forest gnomes and svirfs can have their own insider community and be otherwise quiet and mysterious, ok.
But what about wild elves or ghostwise hin? They wouldn't really be on Arelith at all if they were completely normal, right? Not only you are in a wrong place, but you also aren't heading back to your homelands, and instead you cling to this weirdo island and interact with everyone all the time. But if you don't live like a wild elf, why play one? It easily makes the race choice just an excuse for mechanical benefit or looks.
How do you go around that?

[Lunargent]

By virtue of being a player character, your character is an 'exception' already. Being a xenophobic or insular race doesn't mean you have to avoid people. You can represent the insular nature of these races by merely being mistrustful (or even outright dislike) of other people and independent in nature. Roleplay with people, but make it a challenge to win your trust. If you're a wild elf, take stewardship of a wilderness area and ask outsiders passing through about their intentions. If you're a ghostwise, 'adopt' people you like as your clan.

It's the same conundrum that people with low charisma face, but I say that having low charisma or being of an insular race doesn't mean you have to avoid roleplay.

[Borin Drakkmurl]

For me, back when I was playing my own skittish, very stealthy wild elf, what helped me with this dichotomy of lone wolf vs interactive rp, was focusing on "moments". Whenever he did interact with other people, no matter if it was friendly or hostile, I always tried my best to impart on the other player this mental image of: "I am dealing with someone who can just bolt and run off at any moment if I say or do the wrong thing."

That can go from simple and basic things emotes, descriptions of posture and stance, to actual dialogue.

Having some underlying theme or goal to that character that justifies them being where and with who they are also helps.

EDIT: The player before me hit it right on.

[MineTurtle]

I very rarely play my Unseelie Fey for this reason. Ultimately I think my advice would be to stay away from character concepts that by their very nature, make it difficult to play them in an Arelithian environment.

For an extreme example, let's create a character that has agrophobia. Now your character innately never wants to leave their home and go outside. But outside is where the roleplay is. So to go and actually do what Arelith is about, you have to bend or break your characters core concept. Therefore, while doubtless a wonderful concept, the concept is a bad fit with what the game is trying to do.

Equally, playing a pacifist is a bad fit for an adventure game in which one is expected to a degree to go murder things to make game progress. Can you do it? 100% Will it be fun for you as a player? Less so.

You can play characters who are wary of interaction to varying degrees, and it can be pulled off. But ultimately, interacting is what the game is all about, and based on my own experience I would urge people to instead pick concepts that embrace interaction.
[Unless you're someone that enjoys hiding from people, stealth RP, or just soling for most of the time - If that's your bag, carry on!]

[Emotionaloverload]

You can play a difficult race, be reasonably true to the lore and still have fun/play with others. I find the best way to do this is to decide what traits you want to exemplify (bending your character a little to still be able to rp with others) - for example, I played a wild elf that was a spy (due to months of IG rp) because this allowed her racial traits to come into play. She wasn't the undercover spy type; rather she would perpetually be on stealth tracking or wasting away in a secret meeting so while she didn't actually get to rp directly with many people, she spied on everyone and rp'd with a few (in a mistrusting sort of way).

It is important, when deciding on a concept, to think about how you will be able to play with others. While also keeping in mind that some concepts will be easier and some will be 'hardmode'.

-S

[Tomato]

Don't play things that are not inclusive, you will not have fun.
Writing a story of that personality would be a more worthwhile use of your time.

[WanderingPoet]

Generally speaking your character is not your race, your race is part of your character. That is to say, choosing a particular race means you can add traits of that race to who your character is - but this includes more than just insular. It can have a heavy influence on how people earn their trust, the character's prejudices, cultural preferences, goals, social interactions etc. Much of this is racial, but also just a character's background which can shape them far beyond just what their race is.

For example with a wild elf:
- Generally playing any elf, there is a natural dislike of Dhaerrow. Wild elves have plenty of reason to hate or distrust sun elves as well
- Tribe or no tribe: You're on the isle so not with your tribe; were they killed? Did you grow up with a tribe or were you taken away? Were your parents part of a tribe, if not when was the last time any of your ancestors were to impart the cultural aspects of a tribe?
- If you were not part of a tribe, do you know much about wild elves? Were you treated differently for being a wild elf wherever you did grow up (which can also lead to distrust).
- If you were part of a tribe, why did you leave it? Was it destroyed and you want to seek revenge on the people that did it? Did you get kicked out for some flaw in your character? Do you want to build a new tribe on the isle? Did your tribe have any particular oddities or preferences that can reflect in your character (maybe they only ate meat, or were vegetarians, maybe you never used metal before and this is fascinating to you, for example)
- As a wild elf you generally live in forests, do you dislike cities? What of myon which is a city in a forest?

That's just some of the differences of a wild elf vs a non-wild elf vs a non-elf. For example a wild elven character could:
1 - Their tribe refused to eat anything but meat, and were masters of the sling as a hunting weapon, but unfortunately were destroyed by orcs. Hate Dhaerrow, orcs and Sun elves on principle and be hostile to them, be untrusting of other non-elves, but more trusting of the rest of elves with a natural inclination to trust wild elves for no reason other than they are wild elves. Because of their dislike of sun elves they dislike Myon with a passion, choosing to make their home in the heartwood grove (close enough for the RP, far enough to make a stand against them). As their tribe was destroyed they take on the role of alpha and convince people (wild elf or not) that they like to join their tribe, being ferociously protective and loyal to them and hostile to anyone that would harm them.

2 - The wild elf grew up in a small 'tribe' of wild elves who's whom was demolished centuries ago and now live within the village that grew nearby. For two generation your 'tribe' has struggled to keep tribal while bound by laws, becoming 'tamed'. Picked on for being 'wild' growing up, the character struggles to trust humans/elves, but has no issues with other races. Struggles to live outside of cities, but feels a natural inclination to be in the wilds, unable to pick a world to live in. Tribe's qualities were diminished over the years but they live on in beautiful woodwork to remember their tribe's histories, leading the character to the path of a carpenter, especially where it pertains to history.

=====
Both of these characters, in my opinion at least, would be very 'wild elf', shaped by their past and race. However neither of them is entirely 100% insular and unwilling to talk to people. They may dislike speaking with large swaths of people, but they still make their mark in certain areas (be it building a tribe, conflict with Myon, leaving behind pretty wooden fixtures, etc) and have quirks that if people take the time to get to know them will deepen the relationship. Even shy characters can have friends, even grumpy characters can have allies and family and often just breaking through that outer shell to the character beneath can be its own reward.

I wrote too much but hopefully that makes some sense and is helpful

[tidal]

Thanks for the awesome replies everyone!

[The Kriv]

My own experience of a wild-elf char on Arelith:

I had a wild elf for a long time that I played came from a very remote and magically hidden part of the Dark Forest.. specifically the part of the forest that isn't accessible to we gamers.. the part of the Dark Forest that borders the Dale, but is inaccessible.

To my Wild Elf, the island of Arelith 'was' the known universe. When he got as far as the sea... that was the edge of the world. And his tribal home WAS the defacto CENTER of the universe.

I played him at first as illiterate and unable to understand common, only communicating in elven tongue and animal language (cuz he was a barbarian/druid) -in fact, when people asked him to speak "common" he would respond (in Elven) that he was speaking the common tongue... because, if all your life, you only communicate in elven, with elven people, and everyone else is a foreigner, the tongue you speak 'is' common. And even though he was a 'barbarian' ... I played him as if in his mind, his tribal-ways WERE the civilized way, and everything we do in civilized society... THAT was the barbaric way. He also had a very limited vocabulary... i.e. -everything was a hut.. if it was made of stone, it was a stone-hut. Every user of magic was some sort of shaman... every character that weilded a weapon was a warrior... and if you were something in between, that made you a warrior-shaman... or a shaman-warrior (yes there is a difference!!) I tried to filter all his perceptions and responses through the eyes of someone who spent 200 years in a community of complete isolation.

It was a lot of fun, and looking back I wished I had played him more... but that char was a MoD, and eventually the D part of the MoD caught up with him.


Maybe it's time to make his brother.. hmmm....

[Ebonstar]

customs and own set of rules also come into play. My hin is ghostwise and he is wary about anyone new. But once you gain his trust he is more relaxed but still standoffish save for those who he sees as clan.

his ways and culture also will clash with the norm and make people feel odd if they dont really know him

he follows his own customs for doing things, his own names for common things, he even has shrunken heads created in inventory in case someone comments on them in his description.

its the small things that show the culture and background whether or not if he fell into a hidden portal in his home or the isles are his sole world