The "I'm Bored" Conversation Thread

[LigH]

PlaneShift was my first MMORPG. I tried to adapt from my little experience in single-player RPGs (that is one game - Gothic 1) as well as from my real life: Listen, ask, be as polite as necessary — there to NPCs, here to human controlled chars just as well.

[Illysia]

@Candy: I was fortunate, I didn't run into snobs much and only got a few lashings in the beginning. But I think I took to the concept of RP in PS fair quickly even if I didn't do so hot on the difference between OOC and IC. But I heard from many people that they caught more flack. Fortunately, I think the current community is better about that sort of thing. I wonder if an FAQ style guide on very basics of RP and how to ignore the more obnoxious RPers would help some, the ones that are willing to read that is?

@LigH: Ah... do you know it took me years to figure out you could talk to NPCs? The first two years I just smashed rats in Oja occasionally; I didn't talk to people or do quests. However, nowadays I find that that trying to develop my characters as if I were going to write a single author story about them helps my RPing. The hard part is just finding RPers with compatible RP styles.

Anyone have any favorite resources for helping with character development?

[LigH]

My character developed while roleplays happened next to him. Often with Zorbels. Also with Lolitra. Business was not yet so strict in those times, so meeting friends was easy, and serious roleplays developed next to unimportant gossip. The world was small. The plaza was full, or we went playing hide-and-seek in the steep maze the road once was.

Today we have the quite elaborate tutorial. I believe that players can be prepared better for the more serious roleplaying now. If they want. If not, they may bail out already there instead and keep prefering WoW or GW...

[Illysia]

Well, then perhaps players need to make sure there are highly visible "light" non serious RPs so that new players don't feel they have to jump in the deep end immediately. I know I face, in other games, situations where you absolutely cannot get into an "open" RP because the players are too focused on the characters they already know and have background stories with. That is frustrating and will make someone give up.

[Candy]

Well, there's still the FAQ that Aiwendil put together on the Outlaws forum, I think it's also here somewhere.

As for resources, there are a million character questionnaires to flesh out details like backstory and stuff. I should use them but I don't. It's like LigH said, the roleplay develops the characters.

Edit: Totally agreed, Illy; it's hard enough to break in to a new RP community as it is! I pretty much played fishmaulks on WoW just so people would be interested.

[Illysia]

fishmaulks? 

[Rigwyn]

Well.. the stage is there. You just need to get out there and do stuff.

I think the hardest part for newer players is "getting the ball rolling", so to speak. Once somebody steps in and initiates something, It's much easier for fellow players to tag along.

[Illysia]

Ah well, that is a completely different problem. I find that most RPers are not initiators. Usually they play along, but for too often they sit around and wait for someone else to engineer their fun. I find this frustrating since lately  that means someone asks me to RP with them only for them to toss all burden of making the whole thing work on me. >.> I mean at least do half the work if you come to a person asking to RP with them. And rather than learn how to engineer RPs, some just toss some half thought out ideas and then drop the ball back in my lap.

I think that kind of stuff leads to burn out among the people that do initiate RP in pretty much all MMOs. But, when you do find someone else willing to engage you and contribute the RP becomes fun and not a drag to keep going and that's when you risk falling prey to ignoring any incidentals as you don't want to ruin the flow you only just finally got going.

[Candy]

Fishmalk. I spelled it wrong. You should know this one, Illykins, it's on TVTropes!

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanNickname/TabletopGames

[Illysia]

  as much time as I have lost on that site I have never seen that before... or heard of it before.

However, my most desperate ploy to get someone to RP with me recently involved throwing bottle caps at the head of a "droid" character that was patrolling the cantina looking for out of line occupants. I was having a real hard time getting other RPers to RP with me and I was out of patience with the other RPers and out of options for interacting logically with that character. Throwing bottle caps was the last idea I had left and fortunately it worked.

[Rigwyn]

That sounds terribly antisocial... but I get it.

Adventures, quests and plots take planning. They don't just materialize on their own. When you see awesome things like this happening, either someone is working behind the scenes, or its sheer coincidence and not likely to happen again.

Even plain old socializing requires some effort. Someone needs to be clever and think of something interesting to talk about. One person needs to toss out conversation starters and the other needs to reply and contribute to the conversation. When nobody contributes to the conversation, it just dies. When two or more contribute to the conversation, it thrives.

It's a real treat when you put the work into getting a story/plot/adventure going, and other players contribute to it instead of just watching.

[Illysia]

@LigH: If you are still reading this, I'm not correcting anymore typos since I am tired and the typo fairy has been bashing me on the head for several hours now. I really should head to bed in a few minutes.

@Rigwyn: Terribly antisocial? Doesn't your character cut off people's limbs and what not?

Well, he was a patrol droid on duty and in the Star wars Universe just stopping a droid you have no connection to for a causal chat actually doesn't work logically as a sane person and there was the whole literally walking around the cantina and out of talking range issue. So my character got frustrated with the droid wearing out the deck plating behind her so she decided to do a little target practice.

But you are right on the amount of effort it makes even to make a simple conversation happen and keep going. Although, you can have conversations that drag on without much substance because not enough effort or thought has been put in by both sides. That's what I refer to as "How's your mother?" RP. Even as a social/"talky" RPer, that is extremely grating to try to make work. It ends up being "how's the weather?" "how's work?" and so on and it tends to elicit equally generic and bland answers thus leading to no character development, no interesting reveal, and no potential for engaging follow up. >.> But that's not to say that those questions have to lead to that kind of RP by the way.

However, I wonder if there is some way of setting up RPs so that people more naturally flow into contributing just by being around it, thus increasing the fun and alleviating some of the burden on the RP starter?

[Rigwyn]

Well, if the players present are coincidentally interested in the same things, it will be much easier to spark something off that's of mutual interest. If those who you play with don't share the same exact interests, then you would do well to know your audience.

People will gravitate towards the things that interest them.

Inhibitions prevent people from jumping in.


I look at it like this:

If I wish to have fun as a regular player character, I need to be with other players who are able to reciprocate and contribute to the story.

If I wish to have fun as a lead character, then I need to know my audience and take an active role in getting them interested. I need to provide them with elements that I think they will find entertaining and rewarding.

If my goal is to take pleasure in writing about the rp, then I need to make sure that there will be things to write about. I need to think in terms of plot and plot hooks. I need to leave plenty of fodder for the curious. I need to do a lot of foreshadowing which requires either a general idea of where the story might go  ( MIGHT GO ), or a diligent attempt to make it look like seemingly insignificat tidbits from the past were actually significant ( To give the illusion of foreshadowing ).

I've been tempting to try something a bit differnt - perhaps doing a guided game-like event. Something more D&D style - where success and failure is determined by dice or roll. This would have a completely different feel, but it might also be easier for newer players to participate in.

I say experiment. Try a shitload of different things and stick with whatever seems to work.

[Volki]

Play a character without inhibitions.

[Illysia]

While those things are definitely good ideas when there is a plot, it's a bit harder for RPs where the RP isn't as task driven, but you give me a good idea Riggy. I need to go back and figure out what it is about stories like the one in 12 Angry Men that will let you be able to focus on people in a contained space but still be engaging. Essentially, how to draw out and showcase what makes a character tick in a way that sucks people in.

Learning how to apply that to real time RPing will be an interesting project.

After thought added in later:
Actually, after giving it some thought. I think I might know how to work your ideas in to social non action driven RPs. It's just a matter of having a sub"plot" waiting in the wings that's meant to elicit reactions rather than propel characters into action. I'd just have to bring tidbits of it out to play when the main social aspect lags but never let it take over too forcefully so that there is still room for others to contribute. The foreshadowing and whatnot would only needed when I need a lead in to take the lull in a new direction. I've done it a little bit in some RPs but I often don't put that much effort into it as lately most attempts to catch RPers and get them to RP haven't gone anywhere so that kind of effort is wasted.

Another thing I realized is that I usually have less trouble with getting people engaged when I am essentially playing two characters at once that are opposites of each other. It's harder in PS but in Sci Fi settings it's much easier to have two characters virtually around at the same time. Maybe I just need a way to make sure that the contrast is always around even if the opposite characters themselves aren't. hmm..