No help for the new if they try to RP!

[John80sk]

Agreed, unfortunately.  The other day an enki who seemed quite skilled in RP was attempting to get involved, but most ignored him, I tried to help but was being hassled at the same time irl so it was a bit difficult.  To be honest, I had similar problems when first starting the game, while everyone was willing to show me the sewers and where to train, jumping into an RP was far more difficult.  Fortunately I:
a) managed to find one of those popular players who basically greets all newcomers warmly, and introduces them to others
b) decided to be really assertive, and jump at every opportunity to RP, almost forcing my way in some of the time

It shouldn't be that hard though, you all wonder why there are so many "1337's" around.  Everyone's willing to help with the OOC part, but not the IC part, it's not exactly complicated.

[lanser]

consider this RL scenario you are a newcomer to a big city, you spot a large cluster of heavily armed people in small groups, maybe talking, shopping or just enjoying the day. You walk up to this group of strangers some of whom have weapons in hand and you ask random people for help.

Unfortunately it is a sad indictment of our society today that you would be more likely to get abuse than help, and that would carry over into a medieval society you'd be lucky to keep your head.

I would hope that anyone who knows enough to roleplay in the first place would understand that real people do not just drop everything and rush to help, secondly the community that makes PS great is by and large an OOC one most help is given OOCly and a little [hi i'm new and trying to learn to rp] works with most.
A third point with your experiment if your new char was so obviously able to handle the interface, (run jump use of /me /my) that to me says that the player may not be as new as the char and should be looking for rp as mentioned at the tavern or fountain

[Idoru]

A third point with your experiment if your new char was so obviously able to handle the interface, (run jump use of /me /my) that to me says that the player may not be as new as the char and should be looking for rp as mentioned at the tavern or fountain

True, but my attempt was not purposefully not to get OOC help. Trying my best to look new but having actually read up on the game. We as a community are constantly irritated by those who dont bother to read the settings or the newbie guides on this forum. Then when someone comes along who has, they get little help from those around them because they think it is just an alt. Even if it is 'just' an alt, IC it should make little or no difference to people.

b) decided to be really assertive, and jump at every opportunity to RP, almost forcing my way in some of the time

People in the past have seemed to get quite annoyed when people do that, and ICly, its understandable. If I was having a conversation in the street IRL and some one just walked up, stood for a while then joined in the conversation id tell them where to go. However, if someone IRL came up to this same scenario and said to me, 'Excuse me, but im lost, could you show me.....' I would be more than happy to help them out.

[emeraldfool]

Maybe I was just on at the right times, but I never had a problem with RPing as a newbie. Of course, I suppose I might not have come across as much of a newbie, 'cause there was a long wait for the download, and I spent most of the time excitedly reading all the guides I could... (The only things that identified me as a newbie were things like lack of equipment, money and knowledge of spoilers. But people usually don't pay that much attention to those things anyway)

I never asked for help in how to RP, or even asked to RP with someone. I'd just find one or more people, stalk them, then make up interesting 'mini-plot twists' as I went along.


I'm interested to know exactly how you simulated a 'newbie'. Personally, I'd be far more likely to RP with someone who was a little more original than "Hail, friends. I'm new to this Level. Can you help me?"

(For example, one newbie heard me making random IC comments and got my attention by stealing my purse and refusing to return it until I agreed to help him)

[Zan]

Personally, when I try to help I will do it as in character as possible. I do my best to RP all the time and if some new person asks help I'll respond in character most of the time. Now since not all my characters are bent on helping out strangers, let alone being friendly towards them this isn't always easy. So when I help someone IC it can be rather 'rude' or demanding .. this usually ends up in the person disliking me or going away but if they play their cards right (aka stay in character as well) they'll usually get something out of me.

Thing here is you shouldn't be waiting to join into RP. RP should ideally be going on all the time, a good RPer is always in character unless s/he talks in brackets and if you want to RP as a new player you should just stay in character as well. Now RPing some interesting event going on .. that is another matter. There isn't always something interesting going on in Hydlaa but that doesn't mean there is no RP going on.

One of my characters is found a lot around Harnquist, since he is a smith. He'll seem to be just standing around if you don't interact with him but he's usually at work. Of course I can't make him do every detailed smithing act in /me commands because then I'll probably get complaints about flooding the chat with useless babbling

[Akaye]

@Akaye: so nothing has happened to this character before he gets created by you? He've just been stoning all his life not really anything interesting has happened to him? His personality comes from his life, and this life is his background story . I'm sure you know that :O.

Peacer if you are going to respond to my posts then can you please read them and not just skim them. You more often than not misunderstand what I am saying or talk about something that has nothing to do with what I said.

I clearly stated that a character has a background story, yes. What is a background story? It is your life that has already come to pass. So of course interesting things have happened to your character. Or maybe not, maybe your character leads a boring life. The point is you build on that story as you role-play in Yliakum everytime you log into the server. You have role-played long enough that I am sure you know that. :/

BTW his/her personality comes from you and the stories you tell or the actions you role-play out as that character. It doesn't all come from the background story. I have nothing in my "Zorbels life story" thread that tells of her fear of heights (That is my background story, and it was created since the first day I started playing planeshift. I didn't make a background story until I had enough role-play in planeshift to begin one). It just became because I wanted to have a weakness for her and I decided one day to start role-playing it out.

[Peacer]

re-read your post again, but it tells more about the story you actually rp on the server and not the one you write, about your characters life things that have happened, not a substory rp taking your previvous example, your groffle missing and you're in hydlaa to look for it.
but both are stories, one which you live out on the server and one to determines your characters personality before he became independent and went out on his own (or whatever happened :p.)

[LARAGORN]

Idoru, I wouldnt mind seeing your chat log for the experiment. You can edit the names of others so no one gets ticked off. It would give us a clearer picture of what the general mood was at the time and might help some in rethinking their RPs when it comes to Newbies.

With all the "here to help" guilds, it is funny that we ever see a disappointed or frustrated newbie at all. I would guess that 2/3rds of the guilds have, as one of their main priorities, 'help those in need' but it doesnt always work that way. How many of the helper guilds have a member posted at Harnys for this pupose alone? I understand it isnt an exiting job for a lot people, and there are many other ways to help the newcomer. I was once a member of a small secret guild whos main purpose was to help the newbies, with a search for family RP theme. I found it very difficult to be in the right places to actualy help that many newcomers. With a total of 29 members, 4 of which were knowledgable enough to help, we had many other duties to aid our own members which made it almost impossible to help anyone else. I was able to help many more newbies when I was alone than part of a 'helper guild', I had no time to be a part of any mass RPs that were going on around me because all my time was for helping.

I dont get in-game much any more, due to crashes and RL responsibilities, but when I do, most of my time is for the Newbie.

[Akaye]

re-read your post again, but it tells more about the story you actually rp on the server and not the one you write, about your characters life things that have happened, not a substory rp taking your previvous example, your groffle missing and you're in hydlaa to look for it.
but both are stories, one which you live out on the server and one to determines your characters personality before he became independent and went out on his own (or whatever happened :p.)

Thanks for re reading my post. 

My concern from your last post is that you are seprating the background story from what you role-play on the server. Don't they all go together into one story at one point? That is what I have done. I could log in today and do a role-play and once done it becomes an event in my life that has come to pass, therefore adding itself to my background story. So there is the main story but sub stories with in the main. As I have said before your stories are just your character written by you and it is you who gives that character the personality. You can add things to your character without even having a story for it. That is the beauty of creation of a character. Then you have something in which you can role-play out and build on the characteristic.

[Idoru]

How I see it is the same as RL, you cant, now, influence your past, that is as it is written. You can influence your future and present. I can have a premise, although not written down, as I did with the Character in question (Hew had run from his village, it would have been OOC for him to have explained further unless engaged in RP and been befriended by some one he could trust to explain it to) that is fixed, although I should not change anything that invalidates that original idea. (just as you can BS about your past in RL aslong as it doesnt invalidate what you have already told someone or you will end up with a bad reputation as a BSer)

[emeraldfool]

How I see it is the same as RL, you cant, now, influence your past, that is as it is written. You can influence your future and present. I can have a premise, although not written down, as I did with the Character in question (Hew had run from his village, it would have been OOC for him to have explained further unless engaged in RP and been befriended by some one he could trust to explain it to) that is fixed, although I should not change anything that invalidates that original idea. (just as you can BS about your past in RL aslong as it doesnt invalidate what you have already told someone or you will end up with a bad reputation as a BSer)

Not necessarily; you could say you were lying, or had amnesia, or was brainwashed, or your memories were tampered with in some other way. There's always a way out.

But I can see how that might clash with your belief in your own character - If your character was 'real', you wouldn't be able to change his/her past on a whim. 'Course you wouldn't be able to control them either...

[Peacer]

re-read your post again, but it tells more about the story you actually rp on the server and not the one you write, about your characters life things that have happened, not a substory rp taking your previvous example, your groffle missing and you're in hydlaa to look for it.
but both are stories, one which you live out on the server and one to determines your characters personality before he became independent and went out on his own (or whatever happened :p.)

Thanks for re reading my post. 

My concern from your last post is that you are seprating the background story from what you role-play on the server. Don't they all go together into one story at one point? That is what I have done. I could log in today and do a role-play and once done it becomes an event in my life that has come to pass, therefore adding itself to my background story. So there is the main story but sub stories with in the main. As I have said before your stories are just your character written by you and it is you who gives that character the personality. You can add things to your character without even having a story for it. That is the beauty of creation of a character. Then you have something in which you can role-play out and build on the characteristic.

they indeed do go together in one story at the time, you continue the story you wrote for your character before you have logged into the server when you actually log into the server to play this character, maybe it's public, maybe it's not, maybe it's public but undone. As long as you have the story though .


as emeraldfool says you can't really change your characters past if you try to make him real in the world he lives in.

[Zan]

Not necessarily; you could say you were lying, or had amnesia, or was brainwashed, or your memories were tampered with in some other way. There's always a way out.

But I can see how that might clash with your belief in your own character - If your character was 'real', you wouldn't be able to change his/her past on a whim. 'Course you wouldn't be able to control them either...

Well if a real person comes to me with a story of being brainwashed etc. ... I'm not going to believe him unless there is very compelling evidence of it. If a character comes to my character with such a story I treat that character in the same way. Whether it's a compulsive liar or an insane person, I don't want anything to do with him/her.

You should always roleplay your character as 'real' and never be able to change their past or personality without a reason (sadly I see this happen too often when players notice their character isn't as popular as they wanted it to be), you have to create their past before you start playing your character. And you wouldn't be able to control them no, you would have to be them

[Zellgadess]

I changed my history a bit, but i've been away long enough for anyone to know me or remember what my story was muahahah ^_^

[emeraldfool]

Well if a real person comes to me with a story of being brainwashed etc. ... I'm not going to believe him unless there is very compelling evidence of it. If a character comes to my character with such a story I treat that character in the same way. Whether it's a compulsive liar or an insane person, I don't want anything to do with him/her.

You must miss out on a lot of interesting RPs that way...