Dearth of RP

[Andur]

Now, I realize that I haven't been back terribly long, but I have to say that RP is virtually non-existent at the lower ranks from my observations.

I've interacted with probably 7 groups, only one of which had a single person who actually went out of his way to stay in character.

I've had run-ins with several of you level 50's, and only one has taken the time to actually interact. Most just remain silent, intent on the next kill.

Now, I understand the joy of PK as well as most, but at the same time, it would be really nice if RP were actually enforced-as-advertised. I see people talking about "tnl", " exps", all manner of OOC stuff. Now, I won't be so rude as to report them, but perhaps some manner of positive reward could be arranged for those who display exceptional roleplay?

I'm not sure if there is a minimum level where one has to have a complete description, but as it stands, I haven't seen once even decent description on anyone < level 20.

Am I wrong on this?

[bassball]

RP is definatly pretty much gone. I do my best and I personally think I am a really exeptional RPer, but unfortanatly at the lower levels there is alot of OOC talk. The changes to the realms have brought alot of new players(witch is good) but along with new players comes alot of horrible RPing and there isnt much of a way to fix it.

As for the minimum description level I thought it was 15 but I saw a character with no description at level 28. Either it isnt 15 or the imms are slacking off horribly

[Andur]

Well, I think that a solution to the problem would be to encourage good RP, (at the Immortal level), and do it publicly, so that other characters get the clue early on.

Punishing bad RP at low levels is a waste of time, but with cabals like Herald around, who have little else to do that RP, why not give the power to Heralds to reward good RP, in terms of experience, items, or other 'cookies'?

[bassball]

Sounds like a wonderful idea to me

[Nuonorp]

The latest that you can go without a description is 15, and every time I've tried some Imm has pulled me aside. However, at least some people change their descriptions, so that might've been what you witnessed at lvl. 28. As for heralds, I was under the impression that they weren't a cabal anymore?

[bassball]

Thier a cabal. Live in timmaran all that jazz. And I talked to the guy and he said he was running from the imms and told me not to say anything

[ib3ndt1m3]

...wouldn't rewarding good RP be OOC in and of itself? *After an interesting conversation* "This was RPed very well. Here's 500 exp.

[bassball]

Ibendtime has a really good point there maybe it isnt a good idea



And you messed up my post record it only lastered half an hour!

[ib3ndt1m3]

what record? having your name on every single topic?

[bassball]

Ya I had the last post on every forum for half an hour!

[bassball]

Ya I had the last post on every forum for half an hour!


I am bored beyond all reason

[ib3ndt1m3]

Then get on the game and do something about it...getting hte last post over and over is just gonna annoy people. Wasnt post count taken out because of this?

[bassball]

Hey dont get mad I havent done anything annoying and all of my posts had a reason and an answer to a quiestion or whatever behind them Im not just spam posting

[ib3ndt1m3]

hey, I was thinking. If you think someone does a real good job RPing...there's a topic called role play oscars down below...

[Amdorin]

Well you can't get past the newbie OOC-speak, we all did it. After a few characters they set into RP, so don't say RP is dead, be excited at all the RP (due to the new amount of newbs) that is about to come!

Also, I remember reading log of old times in AR and noticed that the Imms RP a hell of a lot more back then, mainly because there were more Imms with different personalities that often acted out (or went out of their way) to RP with the mortals.

Most of the Imms now are developing AR, or just watching morts. Tattoo bearing Imms (which encouraged mortals to go after certain Imms and gain their respect, which caused much RP) aren't around really as the only Imms in Tattoos are caballed Imms.

Yes, it's possible to gain the Tattoos without being in the cabal, but it's easier to be reknown throughout Thera in a cabal. But the decrease in RP isn't the Imms fault or anything. Many of the RPers have taken short or extended leaves so newbs are coming in, when they learn the ropes of staying alive, RP will follow. I'm excited personally because there's a huge lot of newbs on their way up.

[Sebryn]

With regard to the description thing... personally I like to consider myself a member of the 'Description Gestapo' when it comes to hovering over those approaching their 15th rank. I'm like a vulture circling a slowly-dying animal in the desert, waiting for that last exp gain from 14 to 15, then I usually send a simple tell ('Busy?') and take it from there. The Implementors and higher-ranked Imms don't have time to mess with things like that, so we gimps get to have all the fun there.

The biggest thing I can offer to you/us (the playerbase) with regard to RP is this: you only get out of it what you put into it. If you guys want to see more RP, then do more of it yourself and send a pray or note to immortal if someone's blatantly breaching RP guidelines in-game (OOC talk, repeated PKs without RP reasons, etc.).

As for the Heralds idea, I don't think that'd fly for SEVERAL reasons. The biggest is probably the fact that you'd have Joe that knows Bob the Herald through OOC connections, goes and "RPs" with him for a few hours, then has his buddy boost him a few levels through giving experience. Ain't gonna happen.

One thing that a lot of people need to realize as well, is that ("Now, I understand the joy of PK as well as most") this is a PK-mud, first and foremost. Yes, RP is enforced, but you're a helluva lot more likely to get yourself in trouble for violating PK guidelines than you are for doing something wrong with regard to roleplaying. Player-killing comes first in ALL of the Implementors' eyes, and it will likely always be that way. Look at the new skills and Combat Modules - oh, wait... there haven't been any 'Roleplay Modules' implemented lately, have there?

It's not that anybody 'looks down' upon RP; quite the contrary, there are Imms that dedicate a large portion of their time to roleplaying (Torkalen is a prime example of this - ask him about some of his equipment), and several others that will openly and frequently roleplay with mortals. Sethronu, for example, would sit (with his pet bull 'Excelsius') and talk with just about anyone at the entrance to the Arena in Seringale... until the Warlords' hometown got moved to Timaran, at least. Vhrael has "tried" to RP several different elements as an Imm (being personally offended with chaotics/lawbreakers; raising a 'private army' to war against Valour; claiming to be the "true" king of Valour, etc.), to varying degrees of success. Other Imms do it all the time, regardless of the size of the audience.

Jeradan, Resatimm, Davairus, Eldorian, Burzuk, Clesa, Lydana, Torkalen - all of 'em RP'ed with Sebryn at one point or another (some more than others) before I deleted him. That's why it's hard for me to believe that the view is that RP isn't "enforced" or sought after, because it's readily seen frequently in-game to me. However, I don't see all the conversations that go on, I don't see all of the non-RP'ed kills, so I can't say whether it's just a string of bad coincidences for a few players or if it's a wide-spread epidemic. I do still see roleplaying's heart beating strong within AR though.

Some roleplay concepts/ideas I've seen recently:

- A burning tree fell on a certain half-elf during his early life, and he lost his arm. He had Aanam the blacksmith forge him a metal prosthetic replacement which is seen in his description.

- A gnome Justice that's constantly afraid of being "squished," with a pet boar that's larger than he is, that was temporarily promoted ABOVE the gnome within the Justice ranks.

- An individual that lost his family to a goblin raiding party, and now constantly yells in reply to the guards/goblin yells in town, cheering on the death of the goblin invaders.

It's all there, it just might not be where you're looking. If you're really wanting to get an RP overload, I'd suggest applying to the Heralds - that's a great place to jumpstart RP for the whole realm, and they could definitely use some members right now.

[marsd]

I've spent 3/4 my entire AR career at lowbie ranks, and so far the problem I've seen with newbie groups is that they feel compelled to tell the groupmate what their real life situation is, for example:

Blahxx tells the group 'My hands are freezing now'
Blahxx tells the group 'ooc: Off to my kitchen for some coffee'

And so on and so forth, at which point I normally grouptell them back: "gt Say that not again.." or "gt Them in Heaven see and hear all... best not to say those again." etc whichever suits the situation best.

Maybe the Gimps should be allowed to hear grouptells, and thus they can do what Aberdour did that fixed my old OOC problem, for example I used to like to "say ?", so what Aberdour did was to bring out his asdflhjasdf sword and do some UNSPEAKABLES, and say to me if I continue to "say ?" he'd use that sword on me, etc etc. Shock therapy, hah. Milder means can be used to help correct the OOC problem.

[Sebryn]

Until the gimps are given whatever (which ain't gonna happen), why not try this:

If you're an experienced-enough player to know that OOC talk and the like is wrong and you see it, pull the character to the side (or send a tell or whatever) and tell them POLITELY that they're breaking RP rules. If you either can't or don't want to, then send a pray or a note to immortal and it'll be dealt with.

[Nuonorp]

I've personally not witnessed that many drastic faults with the newer player base. At one point, an IMM even had a more experienced player guide a complete newbie around the newb school, to the goblin village, etc.

[Andur]

Sebryn, while I understand your point in theory and application, I must address the issues where your logic is somewhat, well, flawed.

First and foremost, the concept of giving Heralds the ability to reward good RP is no more abuse prone than multi-playing, or having a cabal leader induct one of his pals. Can it happen? Yeah, sure. But the staff would be all over that in a matter of moments. So it's not about 'we can't do this because people would abuse it', more of a matter of 'if we do this, we will have to enforce its use', which are two quite different considerations. As I stated before, the suggestion of experience gain was purely hypothetical. In fact, I do have a module that will reward you points the longer you communicate with it in proper english. It is able to parse sentences to ensure they make sense (between two targets), and accumulate points based on how long two targets communicate. It can be applied to says, tells...whatever. It worked quite well in my testing, and would be easy enough to implement and automate monitoring communication between characters.

But that is neither here nor there. The point that I will vehemently argue against you with is your "This is a PK MUD first and foremost" statement. Allow me to cough 'bull$*it' momentarily. If you think it's a PK mud first and foremost then you are as guilty as anyone else for not contributing to the world. Do I see any RP modules added in lately? Oh, hell, I dunno, how about every area ever written for the Mud, every mob program, of which there are countless thousands, and how about those silly little quests that were put in that required extreme effort on the part of the coders to provide? Those are ALL RP modules, and can and should be used as such. The problem with the lack of RP stems not from the players, it stems from lack of interest by the immortal staff. RP DOES often have to be facilitated by Immortal staff, though once it starts, it will generally continue and flourish. Players will focus only on the killing if that is all the MUD has to offer, but, speaking from experience, it has a lot more than just PK to offer...I can PK on Everquest. I don't come here for that.

So, perhaps we will have to agree to disagree. I believe RP is something that can be coaxed out of the players over a period of time. It's not like we have three hundred players on at any given time like some big fat commercial MUDs. AR has a manageable playerbase, and based on what I've seen in these posts, a playerbase that would love to have more RP, just like me.