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A Guide to Role Playing
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This guide was created with the invaluable input of many seasoned
Role Players. If you have any comments or additions, please email
RoKWorld@RoKWorld.com. Thanks!
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What is Role Playing? You may not know it, but you
already know how to Role Play. Chances are that you've even done it before.
You just might have just called it "Playing House" or "Cowboys and Indians."
"Let's Pretend" games are the precursors and the foundation of role playing
games. In those games you would pick out some sort of adventurous situation,
pick what kind of person you are within that world, then play out the scene
you've set up to see what happens to you. In "Let's Pretend" games, you are
never yourself. You're always someone who leads a more exciting life and
frankly has more fun than you do.
Role Playing is putting yourself in someone else's place and reacting to
situations the way you think that person would react. In Cowboys and
Indians, if the Apaches are waiting around the corner for an ambush, the
sheriff's posse wouldn't pull out a laser gun and blast them all to pieces.
No, they saddled up, loaded their six-shooters and rode out to look for
them.
Sometimes Role Playing is compared to theater, but it's not like a play
you'd see on a stage. There your role has been predefined and your actions
set by the script. Your story is already written out for you, but the sort of acting that you do when you play out a role in a game like RoK
is more like improvisational street theater. There's no script and no one to
tell you exactly what to do. You start out with a basic idea of who you are
and how you got here. Then you meet situations as they arrive, making it up
as you go and having a great time doing it.
What is the purpose of Role Playing? The best way to answer this
question is to ask RPers themselves:
Sorna:
RP in game is just another step (or a different step) of applying my imagination. RedRum:
Role Playing is a way to learn new things about new people, without the
same old dry conversation. It opens up doors to new players and new ideas, as well as seeing old friends in a new light. Antares:
Role-play is a form of escape for the stressed (that doesn't involve drugs or bodily harm to themselves or others). It's a creative outlet for people whose minds are overflowing with ideas, a chance to live in a time period that they can never visit, and a healthy opportunity to have abilities that they will never possess. Mortis:
I enjoy RPing because it's fun. It's fun to interact with people in a way that's different than normal. It's fun to entertain people when you can do it. It's fun to step outside of your thoughts and think differently than you might normally think. It's fun because it allows you to think on your feet, it's improv. It's just fun.
Aslanna:
I RP because I find it enjoyable, and a wonderful exercise in creative
writing. My best death was when Krullwolf PKed me on the forest road, he RPed
the whole thing, it was fantastic. I RP all over the place, and not all RP is
serious, in fact, a lot of my RP is comedy. Hurrah for RP
Adar:
What I personally get out of RP is another aspect of game play. I used to
play the game constantly, killing, leveling, repeating. It got old. With RP, I
found another way to enjoy the game.
Where do I begin?
First thing to do is: create
your character. It may sound simple, but it's the foundation of
role playing. First you need a role to play. How involved
you are with your character will almost always directly effect how much
you enjoy role playing. Create a personality for your character
first, maybe by writing up a little story of your character's background
and how they came to Syndar. Several people have histories like this
posted in the Cornerstone Inn Forum or on a website linked in their bio.
Reading through those may help you develop your own character. There's
no need to be godly powerful (in fact that's probably a very bad idea),
nor high level or well equipped, just be someone you are comfortable
with. Role playing is a chance to live out in a small way things
that you would or could never do in real life. While that gives
you a considerable amount of freedom, please remember that there are a
few expectations, some guidelines, that should be kept in mind.
See below for a list of some general tips and guidelines for role
playing. While
building your character's personality, there are some things to keep in
mind. Statistics have no effect on role playing ability, they do have some effect on
how people see your character, at least from their description when someone
looks them over. Integrate your characters stats, divinity, class, race, and alignment (PK,
APK, etc.) into his or her personality. You don't have to be limited by them,
but it can help to guide you. For example, a Half-Orc with 6 charisma
would most likely not be a brothel worker, or at least not a very
successful one (except to other Half-Orcs, maybe). A Cleric or
Paladin would be very devoted to their God or Goddess, possibly invoking
their name often, a character with low agility might be prone to
tripping a lot, etc. Click here for a detailed
explanation of what the different stats mean. When it comes down to it
though, stats don't matter for RPing, in the most general purposes. You can play off them...or
you can play against them. People can't see your stats, they can only tell a few remote things
and even being able to know these few things...what does that matter? All they can do from there
is guess as to what the character is, stereotype it based on it's appearance. Nothing has to fit
its appearance.
You may also want to do some research on racial characteristics.
Say you're a Halfling, and you want to smack someone in the face...well,
if they are a Saurian, you're going to need a chair to stand on to even
think about reaching their face...and probably a quick escape plan since
Saurians tend to think Halflings make tasty snacks.
Click here for detail on commonly accepted
racial characteristics. Some people, especially when working with a new character or
new to role playing, find it helps to have something to fall back on, one
distinct characteristic that you can rely on in many situations. Some very good ideas
have been: a Cannibalistic Slayer, a mute who can only communicate through
actions, a blind Monk, and a Pyromaniac
Assassin. These sorts of characteristics are what give your character
individuality and personality. If you have one defining thing you can
keep foremost in your mind, it can help when trying to decide how to act or
react to something and stay in character. You can get your personality down
and work out details or catch-phrases, actions, items, etc. while you play your character. It's nice to have a few
identifying characteristics, but those aren't needed to role play well.
Mortis posted some excellent advice to new RPers:
My advice to everyone is to start wherever you want, and go from there. Try and stay within reason and limit, but if your imagination takes you somewhere...let it take you. Become that character, know why you act the way you do. You won't know this all at first. You start with a general idea, and you learn what you like/dislike, how you react to situations, why you do the things you do, the details of your background, your morality/ethics as you go. RPing over time is like growing as a person, you start out with your general ideas and they evolve, and you learn new things as you go that you incorporate into your character.
General Tips and Guidelines for Role Playing:
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When you take your
RPing out into the world of Syndar, speak and act, it even helps to think, as if you
are your character, rather then just you playing the game. It may take some time, but eventually it will become more natural to speak
"in character." Its easier to start role playing with a few friends, that way you don't feel very out of place
if/when people don't
RP back.
One thing to remember, something absolutely invaluable for role
playing, is the "/me" command. Emotes are great to enhance interactions, but
they are very limiting. The /me command allows you to describe subtle
things like facial expressions, actions and reactions, any number of things,
whatever your imagination comes up with and the moment calls for. Some
people role play through emotes and /me alone.
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Stay away from things that don't fit within the world and times of RoK.
Talking about bugs in game, stats, websites, things about
your computer, etc doesn't fit in the world of Syndar. There are no cameras,
no light sabers and certainly no huge robots with giant laser eyes. Also
refrain from talking about your alternate characters. If you walked around saying, "I'm also this guy
Brian who lives in California," people would look at you kind of funny.
There are creative ways to describe RL (real life) things. For example,
when trying to describe a server crash that caused several players to miss the
end of a mosh, a reporter for the Syndar Gazette described it like this:
"Unfortunately, an evil and powerful spell from beyond the Realms of Syndar
befell the many warriors and seemed to hold them powerless and suspended,
apart from the world. When the spell finally was broken by the will of the
Gods, many of the entrants were unfortunately unable to find their way back
into the mosh."
When you do find that you want to say something that doesn't seem to fit,
but can't think of another way to say it, just note it with an "OOC" (out of
character) beforehand. That way people know your comments are coming from YOU
and not your character. Don't mix OOC chat with IC freely. Most people prefer to conduct OOC chat, if
they do it at all while role playing, through pages or whispers. It's alright to 'OOC:' and then say something OOC every now and then...but freely mixing OOC and IC chat
can ruin the believability of your character.
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Along the same line of limitations, try to keep your characters abilities
and actions with reason. Role playing is all about creativity and
freedom, but you should remember that your beliefs of your character can be
tested by any other character. If you think you are that quick, that strong,
that god-like, when someone else slaps you upside the head with their staff
your character's thoughts of himself have just been proven wrong. There is
nothing wrong with embellishing your character's abilities, as long as you are
willing to let others prove your worth.
Sorna made some excellent points about language useage while RPing: Do not use the King's English (thee, thou, art, etc.) unless it actually fits with your character's background,
like human royalty or maybe the odd cleric/knight/paladin. If you are going to use an odd manner of speaking (like the King's English) then please learn how to use it correctly, like which words go where and in what order in a sentence
- they aren't all the same as 'modern'
English. On the topic of language, there might be some
adventurous types wishing to speak solely in Drow (Dark Elvish). I would suggest for ease of
RP in game that you don't, or only use it sparingly, like curses or starting a phrase then stopping to 'correct' yourself. If you do speak an entire sentence
or conversation (message boards or in game) using a fantasy language then please make all the words in that language. Some translators don't recognize, or some concepts don't translate. If so, then use as many other words as possible to describe the 'word.'
E.G. I want to say "the night calls to me" in
Drow.
The translator I use says "l'isto calls ulu ussa" Well a
Drow/Dark Elf is not going to have one word spoken in common with the rest in
his/her native language. So I could say: "the night call me" - "l'isto lar ussa" sounds
weird but okay.. Or "the night does call me" - "l'isto 'udtila lar ussa" In
English the last (and the second) sounds weird. But the last probably works better than the second for readability and sense and
definitely far better than the first.
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One thing that is a major no-no is RPing the actions of others, or how
they perceive or react to your actions. To really carry on enjoyable
interaction, you must allow others to form their own responses to your
actions. Aslanna posted an excellent way
of explaining this:
Its a cardinal rule to not dictate the action of others. There are minor exceptions... but specifically when your stating if your
attack hits or not.
/me leaps forward with a snarl, swinging her heavy blade in a dazzling arc
that causes you to suck in a breath of surprise.
*attack*
would be permissible.
/me gives a cry of rage as she lunges forward, her blade burying itself
deeply in your body causing you to drop to the floor, mortally wounded.
*attack*
Is not.
Personally I would take this to the extreme and say that anything at all,
even the "that causes you to suck in a breath of surprise" would be
unacceptable. You never know how your actions will effect someone else
until they are done and the person responds. There are many layers to
this, and it really depends on how seriously you take your role playing.
Some people can be quite vehement about it.
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This one is more of a personal pet-peeve than a real rule: If you want to role play someone who is excessively "friendly" or even a
blatant brothel worker you certainly have that option, but please try to
remember that many people see excessive kisses, hugs, even any form of
touching from a total stranger under the guise of role play as a violation, and it is rarely welcome. Try to be sure of who you're RPing with, and if they want your attentions or not.
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This is the most important rule. Have fun. Don't get discouraged. If RPing become a
hassle. Just stop for the day. No one is going to laugh at you because your out of
character, but rather, admire the fact that you even have one. Realize that all of these "rules" are
bendable if not breakable in some circumstance or another. Role play by it's
very nature is extremely flexible. These are just
general guidelines to help make your RP experience, and the experience of
those you interact with, the most positive that it can be.
Resources:
There are many many excellent resources available to those who want
to learn more about the various races or Role Playing in general.
Credits:
Many thanks to those who contributed their wisdom and experience to this guide:
RedRum
Aslanna
Mortis
Cal
Fenian
RoK Paper Scissors
Sorna Z'Tqoln
Antares
JoJo the Monkey Boy
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