Creative RP and Settings

[Rigwyn]

I have a question about being creative and staying within the settings .. some of this is probably grey and I'm sure there will be varying opinions and understandings on the matter.

When role playing, how creative is the player allow to be when it comes to creating their own:   Roleplayed weapons, armor, charms ,  Spells,    Origins / History

Let me give some examples...

1. Origins.

Some players claim to be from a distant land accessible via the Stone Labyrinths.
Is this still ok to do ?
Is is encouraged, tolerated, discouraged ?
Can I make a character and say they he/she wandered in from distant land and is of royal descent  ? And
perhaps still has ties with that land ?

2. Spells.

Can a player ONLY role play spells that the mechanics support ? Or is it acceptable to for a player to create or modify spells
so long as they fit in and the other players are ok with it ?
The setting guide for Dark Way for example talks about demons and raising the dead .. however the mechanics do not support this.
If a player can cast healing spells is he/she free to role play casting a variant of a healing spell.. ( ie. one that appears different visually, or one that perhaps cures a poison instead of regular healing ?  )

3. Weapons, Armor, Charms

I've heard of players role playing special abilities.. Armor that resists a certain way, special skills, etc..
Is this allowed ?
Is it bending the rules a little ?

I guess what this boils down to is an understanding of how liberal one can be without going outside of the settings.

[Falcon Avian]

If making our own stuff was out of setting, then everyone in Yliakum would be out of setting  

No, we are not limited to what Gm's create.

Edit: I can give some examples of things that I think are out of setting:

People who rp kings/queens of Yliakum.
People who rp as semi-intelligent creatures.
People who rp godmoddish characters who can't be stopped.
People who rp they came from Earth.

A spell that can control people entirely [I think this fits more of godmodding]
A spell that gives them full protection from any weapon/spell.
A spell that never misses.
A spell that causes permanent death.

Armor that can stop any attack.
Armor that can transform the person.
...

You get the point 

[EStripus]

I can only offer an example and a humble opinionof what I have had the experience of RPing around in the last year.  

Character with a special power/ability: In the case of Atagal; it is a character that has been played for two years, and the ability came to the character's attention through RPing. She was not miraculously created with it straight out of the tutorial.  Her fire ability has been RP'd for greater than the 13 months that I have been RPing with that player.  In addition, we are working closely with veteran PSers to make sure Atagal discovers her unknown origins of her power within settings of the world's magic system.  The fun for us is RPing her discovering how/where/when she received the potential to control fire. It was lost in her memory along with much of her earlier years because of a psychological block to alot of bad things that happened to her when she was younger. For those that are doing this RP with us, please don't tell anything that you know about the OOC portions of the RP, as I was intending the very end to be a surprise for me and the reader's of the Earth and Fire RP [only Atagal's player knows exactly how this will all turn out, since it is all being RP'd with only basic planning to make sure the answer is not too bizarre or too far outside of PS's liberal magic boundaries.]

Create variants of an existing spell. ie: Brown way [body] armor could be altered slightly to be RP'd as a Brown way battle shield. But creating a new spell that doesn't already exist, I think that is questionable. I would think something like that needs to go through the wishlist process for the devs it bring to PS reality.

Items: need to be carefully thought out to have a strength and an equal weakness. http://www.trhop.freeforums.org/artifacts-t14.html But ultimate items such as immunity to a type of magic way is a little over the top. Some items are harmless little pickups to keep characters interesting. Emmara has an armband with a piece of Atagal's life force in it; it protects Emmara from being injured by most fire, but no immunity to Red Way if she is directly targeted because the full benefit of Atagal's power was simply not transferrable by Levrus' limited magic knowledge when he created the armband for Emmara. However, Emmara came to have the item created when Atagal had a nightmare and accidentally set herself on fire. She was unharmed but Emmara was injured, so the RP line of logic was RPing Levrus creating the armband to protect Emmara from when Atagal loses control of her power while sleeping. Atagal also wears a wristband with a bit of Emmara's life force in it to know if Emmara is in trouble with DW or is dead when they are apart. Virtually, no bearing on other character's activities or choices other than that Atagal might show up in an RP if Emmara is in a particular type of trouble. The whole creation of that item was also RP'd into existence.

Finding your way to Yliakum through the stone labyrinths and being royalty from another land: In the case of House of Purrty, they have consistently RP'd that storyline [by my understanding] for a looooooong time of PS's history. I don't care. Technically that is how the enki found Yliakum was by stumbling through the stone labyrinths. However, it does become old and trite when suddenly everyone wants to do that just to be able to justify they are royalty. For those of us that RP with the Cheshire Brothers they are Lords because their family once ruled a Yliakum based tribe of Kore Enki [presumably for a few generations, I don't know that detail] in the country which technically would be a form of royalty in that culture, but the tribe was wiped out by a natural disaster. The rest of the brothers' history is not fit for open discussion .

[Tadano Hitoshi]

I`m always very wary about stepping outside the bounds of what has been set (in my opinion `in stone`) by the Settings Team.

Spells and Items
Using items and spells inventively, however, I am all for. RP using a weaker version of Flame Burst to light a candle or pipe...Freeze to chill a drink...Defensive Wind to blow dust into someone`s face...Electrotouch to electrify some water, etc. Kudos to those who use their imagination.
If someone crafts a makeshift bomb with oil, falka and whatever-else then good for them...just don`t do it all the time. Once off makes it special.
And don`t over do it. You can`t Freeze the Lake of Tears with Blue Way level 5.
As for necromancy, I`d love to see this RP`d more (as I and Rigwyn have talked about in the past). Not only as in raising corpses (raiding the Burial Well, perhaps substituting some organs from monsters to create your golem-esque creation via a well RP`d ritual) but also communicating with the dead (could be done via a RP`d ritual...perhaps with a possession of the deceased, and simple Tells if the target happens to be in the DR at the time).

Origins
A difficult subject. We have so little information about the homeworlds of the races that it`s tempting to make up backgrounds...though it`s far safer to stick with characters who were born in Yliakum, It was (IIRC) several centuries ago that the races came to Yliakum, and none have come in later times (confirmation from Settings on this would be much appreciated). A few traditions might have been kept alive, but there will have been a lot of cultural blending since then (we all speak the common lemur/kran language for one). For those who want to have titles such as royalty and the like, I think it`s alright so long as they realize that the Octarchy is the authority in Yliakum. The character`s subjects might obey the king/queen according to their title, but all fall under the purview of the Octarchy.

Weapons, Armour, Charms
Someday I`d love to see graphical animated effects on weapons...fire enshrouding a Fire Long Sword, etc. In the mean time I see no problem with RPing it. Don`t have a tinder box? Pull out that Fire Dagger and touch it to the kindling.
I guess I prefer to keep things subtle.
In all things I like to keep in mind “If I say I can do it, I can`t complain if others think up something of equal power/magnitude”. Also of course, since it`s not supported by Settings, any player has the write to ignore it completely. That`s very much something to bear in mind.

[Falcon Avian]

I`m always very wary about stepping outside the bounds of what has been set (in my opinion `in stone`) by the Settings Team.

Spells and Items
Using items and spells inventively, however, I am all for. RP using a weaker version of Flame Burst to light a candle or pipe...Freeze to chill a drink...Defensive Wind to blow dust into someone`s face...Electrotouch to electrify some water, etc. Kudos to those who use their imagination.
If someone crafts a makeshift bomb with oil, falka and whatever-else then good for them...just don`t do it all the time. Once off makes it special.
And don`t over do it. You can`t Freeze the Lake of Tears with Blue Way level 5.
As for necromancy, I`d love to see this RP`d more (as I and Rigwyn have talked about in the past). Not only as in raising corpses (raiding the Burial Well, perhaps substituting some organs from monsters to create your golem-esque creation via a well RP`d ritual) but also communicating with the dead (could be done via a RP`d ritual...perhaps with a possession of the deceased, and simple Tells if the target happens to be in the DR at the time).

Origins
A difficult subject. We have so little information about the homeworlds of the races that it`s tempting to make up backgrounds...though it`s far safer to stick with characters who were born in Yliakum, It was (IIRC) several centuries ago that the races came to Yliakum, and none have come in later times (confirmation from Settings on this would be much appreciated). A few traditions might have been kept alive, but there will have been a lot of cultural blending since then (we all speak the common lemur/kran language for one). For those who want to have titles such as royalty and the like, I think it`s alright so long as they realize that the Octarchy is the authority in Yliakum. The character`s subjects might obey the king/queen according to their title, but all fall under the purview of the Octarchy.

Weapons, Armour, Charms
Someday I`d love to see graphical animated effects on weapons...fire enshrouding a Fire Long Sword, etc. In the mean time I see no problem with RPing it. Don`t have a tinder box? Pull out that Fire Dagger and touch it to the kindling.
I guess I prefer to keep things subtle.
In all things I like to keep in mind “If I say I can do it, I can`t complain if others think up something of equal power/magnitude”. Also of course, since it`s not supported by Settings, any player has the write to ignore it completely. That`s very much something to bear in mind.

Esorono is able to make something that seems like necromancy  But it is actually dark way energy controlled with azure way and made from using his death glyph with his book. I don't think that falls under necromancy though.

I guess it's okay if the kings/queens came from out of Yliakum, still makes me want to facepalm though.

And you have to admit, it is fun trying to experiment with some rp items to see if they seem out of setting or not.

[weltall]

sumoning creatures isn't necromancy it's standard brown way. obviously necromancy has something similar but that's with dead bodies.
spell to control people well not directly but indirectly see azure way. plus there are potions to control people and venom can perma kill anyone. those can be rped with the other one consent (hint: use try keyword if the thing isn't previously prepared)

[Akkaido Kivikar]

I'm of the opinion that as more Settings info becomes available, and older RPers and their abilities/items/origins become out of Settings, that they should adjust their RP to fit rather than merely ignore this fact. It's quite prevalent in Enkidukai characters, sadly.

I highly encourage people to read Settings info wherever they can find it ingame, or PSWiki, or asking other chars IC or OOC is even fine imo for getting info right for a character. If you wish to make something that is not perfectly in Settings, use common sense, and ask around the mature end of the community for advice. Try not to overload your character with magic items, aesthetic changes are imaginitive and fun!

Magic, I would stick only to ingame spells and variations of them, such as the Rock Armour > Rock Shield idea.

Also note guilds! Guilds in PS need some work, there are so many that are generic, OOC, or not well thought out enough. A guild should be an IC organisation/clan/business/religious body with IC goals, guidelines, an organisation that WOULD EXIST in a real life medieval town/city/kingdom.

[Falcon Avian]

I highly encourage people to read Settings info wherever they can find it ingame, or PSWiki, or asking other chars IC or OOC is even fine imo for getting info right for a character. If you wish to make something that is not perfectly in Settings, use common sense, and ask around the mature end of the community for advice. Try not to overload your character with magic items, aesthetic changes are imaginitive and fun!

There are a few things that people rp and don't though that would make sense for their character. For example, klyros are cold blooded so after a while they would get sick in real life if they spent as much time around the forge as some of my guildmates do.  So I'm a bit reluctant on roleplaying it 

[kaerli2]

Kaerli has had the good fortune of (almost, there were a few RP missteps along the way always fitting into settings rather well, as her abilities are simply natural talent honed by extreme levels of training (no magically granted powers needed).  (Her precious-metals allergies are somewhat altered from most Ynnwn; however, the Settings description is rather flawed as it does not take into account the fact that the platinum found in nature is never pure: it contains other metals from the platinum group as impurities, which could affect the picture.

[LigH]

We take your complaints serious. Lolitra and HoodedOracle will be working on their settings to be redefined.

Still we hope that not completely PS settings compliant guild settings are no reason to be punished forcefully...

[Mordraugion]

As my alter ego Zinn I will help with removing inconsistencies within the RHoP backstory

As for Kings Queens Emperors Princes and Princesses, if priests and blacksmiths etc entered Yliakum via the portals many years ago and passed down their skills and knowledge to their children there's nothing to stop royalty doing the same, doesn't mean they have any power, the Octarchy would make sure of that, but they can exist.

...platinum found in nature is never pure...

Thats a RL observation as has been mentioned many times Planeshift is a Fantasy world and does not follow RL physics, chemistry and nature despite appearances.

[bilbous]

It appears that there is a noble class in Planeshift that isn't part of the government. I refer, of course, to Uri Djoh-Mas (sp?). He is obviously well-to-do but I have seen nothing to indicate official status and yet he is apparently due the title Sir. Perhaps this is just some npcs way of speaking though as I may have seen it applied to one or two other npcs.

That kind of thing confuses me somewhat.

[Koios]

...platinum found in nature is never pure...

Thats a RL observation as has been mentioned many times Planeshift is a Fantasy world and does not follow RL physics, chemistry and nature despite appearances.

A RL silver spoon is not entirely made of silver, but it wil still react with the sulfur in eggs if used. And a Fantasy example: I don't think that Kryptonite was pure? It still hurt Superman  
If you delute poison in a drink, it's not pure poison. But you will still die.

[Rigwyn]

My reason for asking this is because I tend to play very conservatively. When I rp casting a spell I rp it looking the same was as the game would animate it. I might go as far as using a spell
In a slightly different way.. ( Ie. Using redway to light or warm something ) but that's about it.

I suspect that I am being a little too cautious. And may be missing out on some
Opportunities for some creative freedom. I don't on the otherhand, want to take it too far
And do something silly.

Looking at the messages so far I do see some differences in understanding.

Also, in response to ligh's post I am not trying to suggest that there is anything wrong with rping royalty.. I was just wondering if this
Sort of thing could still be done or not. I know the rhop is well respected and has been around for quite some time.

[Falcon Avian]

Don't feel afraid to try something new out Rigwyn ^_^ If you can explain how it can work in-game, you shouldn't have a problem.