Bringing RP/ powerlevelling together. Suggestions please?

[Kedhran]

We're constantly reminded that this is only an alpha version, so I really don't see the cause for this ferocious defense of the current game mechanics.  The combat system is "Do damage with twitchy animations until your opponent falls down stiffly."  Sure, that's how they designed it.  But if that's really as far as they're going to take the combat system... bleh.  I'll happily call myself a texplayer and enjoy my own little world. 
Being a valid part of the game does not make it good, or fully developed, or fun.   
Granted, I have leveled my character to the stats I saw appropriate, but it took a very long time, and I would rather walk on hot coals then do it with another character.  And let's not even mention the fact that he's not even close to maxing ONE of his skills.  So try and see it that way, at least.  If you have fun powerleveling, good for you.  But I won't be beating down armies of trepors for a loooong time.

[dragnoor]

As usual players lose sight of the thread. To suggest ways of bringing the two schools of thought together. Its not a debate about the rights and wrongs of PL & RP. And lets try to keep IC and OOC out of it. But for the record PL'ers are IC ALL the time, At least in "Main".

[khoridor]

The initial intent  of this thread was to approach this from the perspective of cooperation. This is a good goal, but requires a little effort (read this as a bit less hubris) on both ends of the spectrum. Unfortunately, it appears to be devolving into the age-old argument... and since the PLers don't usually care about the forums, it turns into PLer-bashing.

People who brought suggestions to this thread mostly PL and RP at the same time, so there's no spectrum and no bashing here. Cooperation has been mentioned and is part of the solution. Yet game mechanics are another part, that cannot be dismissed. When, in the current unfinished state, a crafter or a healer spends 99% of his time bashing things to progress, he can hardly neglect that part in his RP. When everybody heals everybody, or mime, or make weapons, there's little reason to interact with chosen others; there's for example no place for a healer as a profession in PlaneShift. And because the mechanics are not there yet, it's totally opportune to debate on how to adjust them. There's still time to orient the mechanics towards a given purpose, and, for me, the 2 major purposes are characterisation and fun. There's an infinite number of ways to promote characterisation without hindering the pure PL aspect. In fact, it would probably improve it.

First, the character creation should mean something. 3 days after creation, a character hardly has anything in common with his past self, except for a name and a race. 3, 6 or 12 months later, he is just the same as the Lambda ulber-PC. The initial choices should influence the entire life of a PC. This is directly related to the inability to max everything.

Then, every step that improves RP is good for the community; setting, rules, player actions, all of it. To RP, people need a role to play, obviously. To level, one may just need the opportunity, but it also should be enjoyable. I repeat myself, but since much of what is needed is in the making (law enforcement, balance, new skills, etc.), I prefer to focus on what is already there and doesn't seem to do the job.

Btw, I'm not sure these PL purists exist; I've never met any.

[Mythryndel]

For the record, I've met a few PL-purists. However, I have not seen them be disrespectful of others or their RP. The most common response when telling them about something I'm doing is "is that some sort of RP thing?". I've tried to explain that all RP is, is just acting the way your character would, or speaking from your characters point of view. As an example, your character doesn't know anything about computers or walkie-talkies or guns. The whole concept of RP to a significant number of newcomers, reinforced by a number of forum posts i've read over the last several months, is that RP is sacred and can only be achieved through knowing all there is to know about fantasy novels and speaking with thees and thous and thys. I, and most here in this thread, know that it isn't that way. Maybe we need to help try to help explain better what RP actually is.

I have seen some immature people that simply like to annoy others... um... I can be one of those, but usually not in-game... welll in-game and OOC anyway. But I digress. Not everyone who runs around PLing uses net/1337-speak. Also, not everyone running around using net/1337-speak is PLing. I don't see it being beneficial to this discussion to lump the two together.