How to run a new player off.

[Mariana Xiechai]

So yeah, all of that to say... what Volki and Illysia said just now?  Nice, polite, not accusatory, or abrasive.  THAT type of comment or request?  Yeah, you say that, and I'm more than willing to tone my RP down to play around you.

Ditto.

or use more jovial alts for the benefit of all, at least occasionally

Also ditto. Ditto like the damn pokemon.



Though I have to say frankly most of it is hindsight, and the lovely 20/20. I don't really run large scale role play any longer. I wouldn't be too terribly worried about it in regards to it any longer. I got nothin' left to give. I am, as they say, whipped. (No awkward jokes kids.) My creative tinker is tinkered out! So I apologize for any former discomfiture, but it shouldn't be an issue in the future.

[Volki]

no

[Mariana Xiechai]

Mariana and Wulfar's characters have gone through a lot. And when I'm in the same guild with them or at least the same general group of roleplayers, I hear about those characters' pasts often. It's not that the subject is too heavy for me. It's that it's too relevant. Do you get what I mean now?

Somehow, I find it hard to believe you would hear about it quite that much. (I could be wrong, though, and often am.) As you might suspect of someone in reality, my characters at least don't tend to walk up and word vomit their stories all over people. I certainly cannot recall a time when any of them would have opened up to Sarras. I could be wrong on Mariana...but somehow I doubt it. It could be via hearsay, though. I based my character's story around a book, actually, which might explain the asserted relevance. I tend to dumb down and filter what I have her explain, and who she explains it to. As Tessra mentioned, only to friends. Unfortunately, many of those friends were in the Adani Order, as that is where the character found a lot of her growth. When you've already been roleplaying that sort of character with people who are totally comfortable with it for a year, and someone new pops in, it doesn't occur to you somebody might get upset. As far as I knew, I was doing a fairly decent job of being vague and only interacting with specific people on such topics. But it's good to know it leaks easily. At the time I created her character, many people had similar backstories from what I could tell, so I merely assumed it was the norm.

But I reiterate hindsight of 20/20. I don't even play Mariana anymore, frankly. And Evirea's backstory is un-relatable to most. I don't really approach others for Role Play any longer. I no longer have the energy to do so. And well, you know, Wulfar's essentially quit. It's something I'll look out for in the future. So there you go.

[Illysia]

It's that it's too relevant. Do you get what I mean now?

You mean it hits too close to home?



For me, certain things don't matter much, but the dark/creepy/gritty is where I draw the line personally. I'm from a completely different school of RP and for the most part people find the RPs I do boring or the kind they can only do in small bursts. I prefer lighter character driven RPs to plot and location driven RPs. Goodness knows in the past I used to RP everywhere from the BD to the dungeon and I used to fall/pass/shift in and out of other people's stories, but it kinda doesn't matter to me where it is or whether the RP is deliberately "going somewhere" as long as it gets somewhere eventually and I get to interact with distinct characters who have varied reactions to the same "prompt". For me, just watching two characters wittily quip at each other or two character that have really good/bad chemistry bounce off each other was enough to keep me happy for hours. Providing no one died at least.

But it looks like now people want a story more so than a character study, so it kinda doesn't matter what I do, I just don't really fit into many RPs anymore. My characters are typically bit players, the kind that add color to the location or situation but not the kind that typically advance plots or wade too deeply into them. If you want an opinion, I have several characters good for that and they can all give you a different opinion because they are all distinctly different from each other, but if you want them to pick up a sword or go track someone down... eh... not so good for that.

All of that being said, I do however do soap operas really well. It's the closest I get to plots, but I don't have the rapport or the variety of characters needed to do those anymore. But I do like them because though they have a distinct narrative, you don't have to work the story out. They have a tendency to direct themselves. The only frustrating part is that as a player and not someone watching TV, you have no clue what is going on in the other parts of story since you can't just switch cameras and follow the other players. :p ...unless you are a Dev or GM. I did manage to get one or two of them to stop, follow, and watch my characters go through the drama of their ordeals after other players that had a part in the story had left. XD Used to get a fair bit of eavesdropping players to stop and listen as well.

[Volki]

no

[Mariana Xiechai]

why I tried to avoid you. Maybe I'm the problem and I'm too thin-skinned.

I'm not entirely sure that I would go so far as to call you thin-skinned. I have, as to the best of my ability, tried to make sure I did such RPs in /tells or in exceedingly obscure locations. There are a sparse number of people who've gotten any full recount of events that I'm aware of. I apologize if you were upset, as it certainly wasn't my intent. As for avoidance, I didn't notice. You never mentioned anything, and never seemed to have qualms about approaching me for role play, so I never had a clue at all that there was an issue. You are welcome to tell me. I am open to hearing such a thing. I shall try to make it more private if it's an issue in the future, but as I said, I don't really approach new people for role play any longer. I have neither the gusto nor the confidence. All I can do is offer an apology for past events I cannot change.

All of that being said, I do however do soap operas really well. It's the closest I get to plots, but I don't have the rapport or the variety of characters needed to do those anymore.

I don't mind character dramas, and I don't mind character exploration. In fact, character exploration is one of my favorite types of role play, I enjoy digging into a personality. Often the level of enjoyment also flows with the story as well, the one that forms as you get to know such a character.

I am not against light hearted Role Play. I'm not even against soft and fluffy. But I'm also a soft and fluffy snob. That is to say, I'm a total sap at heart, but if the characters don't grow and develop to create their report with one another, be it love or just really deep friendship, it comes out as hollow for me. It's why I can't read a lot of romance novels and enjoy them. However, if there's a story along with the constructive of the relationship...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cULvtpaIK9I

Well then I'm all over that. (I love that movie so much...)

[Illysia]

I am not against light hearted Role Play. I'm not even against soft and fluffy. But I'm also a soft and fluffy snob. That is to say, I'm a total sap at heart, but if the characters don't grow and develop to create their report with one another, be it love or just really deep friendship, it comes out as hollow for me. It's why I can't read a lot of romance novels and enjoy them. However, if there's a story along with the constructive of the relationship...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cULvtpaIK9I

Well then I'm all over that. (I love that movie so much...)

See that's just it, there aren't enough people to make that kind of RP work. You need multiple intersecting friendships, romances, family connections, ect. and there just aren't enough people willing to spend time forming those connections because they confuse that kind of RP with talking about the most inane things. That's why often it doesn't go anywhere. There's no rapport, no consistency, no substance which will allow a story to develop, and often times there just aren't the right characters. RP characters are like people some have the right chemistry and some don't. That is why more of such characters are needed. You need exposure to find the right character to help develop a story.

But most people would rather an action kind of story. It's what I used to call episodic(like TV episodes) RP versus saga RP(like a book). They seem to want a story that can be started and resolved in one sitting, leave them on the edge of their seat, and then come back and start a new one next time that may or may not be related to the last. I can't really do that, I need time to get steam going and then I want to see where it goes by letting it meander. If you have well developed characters with complex chemistry, even meandering turns up some pretty interesting stuff.

In the past, I had really wanted to create a Caterean clan where players created family members, blood relation or married, and then play out the family dynamics in game. There would have been weddings, intrigues, funny/embarrasing tales of the past, a drunk uncle, a loud aunt, so on and so forth... but it just never panned out. Shame. :/ I really miss the kind of character to character RPing I used to do. Honestly it's why I keep coming back. I keep hoping that one of these times I'll find it again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cULvtpaIK9I

Well then I'm all over that. (I love that movie so much...)

Keanu...  *cough* umm... I mean, that looks like a really sweet movie and I would like to see it now.

[Rigwyn]

So, maybe you should keep the sensitive topics to yourselves... Or at least warn other people before diving into traumatic shit that you know not everyone is comfortable with.

NO. End of discussion.
If you don't like it, f*ck you.

What I would strongly suggest for anyone here who doesn't like the RP that is currently happening is to be proactive and start your own RP.  If someone joins and gets too dark, gritty or whatever, then politely send them a PM asking them to conform to your group. If you wish to have further control, then RP in an isolated place - this was done in the RCD way back when, and other well established RP groups have done similar things to control the content.

One thing that works is making a post on one of the town message board threads or making an ooc announcement on the forum. You can also spread word via tells, gossip or PM. You have options; use them.

[Illysia]

I can kinda see your point Rig but there is no need to go digging up trauma for other people. A warning isn't too much to ask in that case. Trauma is a very real problem and not just being a pansy.

[Rigwyn]

How would you like it if people told you that you had to issue a "violence not welcome here" warning to everyone who stopped by? Sorry, that's asinine.

It was explained numerous times, that many of us use ....  REMOTE LOCATIONS... to remove us from those who might find our RP objectionable. Somehow that point seems to get missed.

If your character stubles into an RP and you do not wish to participate, you are always more than welcome to opt out. I think that's been common knowledge since I started to RP here.

[Illysia]

I think I could make that adjustment without getting my undies in a twist. I had to do just that during running the Stonehead and RCD. Someone was always trying to bring that kind of stuff in and those were not the places for those kinds of RP.

And she isn't saying do it all the time, and she's not saying that there aren't times when it's fair game to get exposed. But she is asking others to be mindful. Taking a little extra effort won't kill anyone.

[Rigwyn]

What, each time someone runs close, I have to backspace over what I was typing and then give them a warning? No. We're not talking about RP that's disallowed on the server or anything.

WARNING: You should ask your mommy if it's ok to RP with us.

CAUTION: Exposure to this rp may result in feeling something. If this is problematic, then you should avoid all forms of art at all costs while you're at it.

WARNING: This is not the fifth anual Teletubbies festival. If you're looking for Tinky Winky, he's in Kada El's showing Allelia his purple proboscis.

You did the right thing when you ran the Stonehead. You had a specific genre that you wanted everyone to stick to, so you found a spot, set up camp and let everyone know. You didn't mull through the sewers and ask people to stop their rp and have a tea party.  You didn't go to camp banished and insist that everyone stop and change.

[Illysia]

Technically, all you have to do is put a / in front of the line you are writing, enter, type the new text and enter it, then use the up arrow in chat to recall the line you were working on. I did it often.


I don't think anyone is talking about going to camp banished and trying to set up goodie RP, but despite this not being a teletubbie convention, this isn't a dark gritty settings game either. Either extreme is actually outside of the range of the baseline, so as a compromise both sides can be mindful of the other. People who can't take that stuff can avoid certain places and people who do like the gritty traumatic stuff can avoid certain places and when in doubt give people a heads up that you are about to risk traumatizing them or give them saccharine poisoning.

I had a tendency to do the sweet lovey dovey stuff in out of the way places too, mind you, at the time Kada's was so empty that it counted as out of the way as well. :/ It was kinda weird not having to worry about ANYONE over hearing you.

[Rigwyn]

...this isn't a dark gritty settings game either. Either extreme is actually outside of the range of the baseline

Can you please support this? Do you have a quote?

The way I see it, the settings support dark RP, so its fine. Read the blackflame books, read about Dakkru.

[Illysia]

Ok, I'll give you that, right before Xil and UTM left they were in the process of grittying up the settings. I keep forgetting to factor in settings updates. The settings was lighter back when I spent more time reading them. But by the same token you can say the teletubbies have a place as well as the Octarchy tries to stamp out anything that would make their lands' image less than pristine. Thus everyone compromising.