What Makes A Good Roleplayer?

Tacita

Whilst the title to this thread is pretty much self-explanatory, I shall nonetheless give it a bit of a blurb so that it is not just me hurling a sentence at you, yelling 'Discuss!' and promptly fleeing. Also, I have a reputation for verbosity to uphold.

So, there are all sorts of guides on the internet about how to be a good roleplayer, including lots of preachy sermon-type ones. I do not wish to encourage or indeed create that sort of list: I think, to the extent that they don't harm or impact on the enjoyment of others, people should pretty much roleplay how they enjoy doing so. That said, I know that I personally like to think about and improve on myself as a (person and) roleplayer, so I'm interested in what people try to be as roleplayers, what they look for in roleplay chums, and what people generally think is important to bear in mind when roleplaying.

I'm not just thinking of the obvious and glaring ones like 'don't be a dick', 'you are not your character' and 'do not Godmode other peoples' characters', but also overall attitudes to roleplaying. Things like...if you're roleplaying with someone, try to be both active and reactive, so that both of you are equally involved in the scene (in my experience this is not only polite but also makes things a lot more fun and often unexpected).

At the moment I'm trying (and failing tremendously) to work on being a more supportive/enabling roleplayer. I have a tendency to go off on a self-centred flight of fancy where everyone must pay attention to me because I am developing my personal plot omg look at me I'm so shiny. I would like to, er, not be that - all the time, that is, I am not saying it isn't okay to have personal plot, hehe. But yeah, I would like to be better at coaxing people out of their shells and generally letting other people have their me-time (no, not that sort of me time, get your head out of the gutter).

Go forth, lovely people, and tell me of your roleplaying tips, tricks, and aspirations.

Karlach

From the dark bastardry side of things, remember you aren't being mean to a person, you're being mean to a character. If it makes sense for your character to act or react in a cruel, harsh or unkind manner then do so. Much like "you are not your character" they are not theirs, and if you find it hard to make the distinction, perhaps consider toning down the dark side of your character to something you are comfortable playing.

However, bear in mind that some people will (rightly or wrongly) have emotional attachment to their characters and take it personally. Hard, uncomfortable RP scenarios are great in measurement, and add a level of immersion where actions and consequence come into play, but they can also be excessively tiring for some people to the point where they quickly stop being fun. Know when to engage and when to back off, repeatedly targeting someone with unfun RP is dickish, and likely to get them to simply avoid or ignore you in future, which sucks for everyone involved.


Lastly there will also be people who cannot distinguish between your character and you, and simply assumes if the character is a bastard, the player must be too. Talk to those who will listen and learn to let go of those who don't, you can't please everyone and it's unbecoming of your character to try. Though take it as a compliment, if people start to hate you because you play the bad guy so well, you're doing something right!

Ultimately, communication is key, when both sides are able to realise and respect that what is being done is in character with no OOC slant, that's the best environment for RP. If you can maintain a scenario where two characters loathe each other to the point they wouldn't urinate on the other if they were on fire, yet out of character you could sit down with a few drinks and laugh and talk with the other person, you've got the great distinction. Trust matters, they need to trust you that you aren't being malicious IRL, and you need to trust them to tell you when they've become uncomfortable with the RP.

Cyndarin

Remember the character is a character. The biggest obstacle I have is people equate me to Celina all the time, even in RP environments. Really kills the mood.

Astraea

Spontaneity! The number of times I've written a post, or created a ritual, or written a book all in one sitting, all stream of conscious with no time to dwell, or consider, or revise, and gosh, those are always the best (mostly). 

Sometimes I'll have a glass (or three) of wine and just go to town, and really get into Astraea in ways I would have avoided or considered inconsequential in a less lubricated mindset :-c . It's really fun to me, to throw myself into situations where I don't know what my next move is, but I have to MAKE IT RIGHT NOW!

Diniah

Remembering for those of us that are true roleplayers, being made to cry is nae a bad thing. Sometimes, tis the best thing you will find occuring.  The recent events for Diniah made me, the player, cry. And it is still one of the best roleplay sessions, spread over several days, I have had in a while.

Let the character live. Remember that they will do things that, even though it leaves you weeping like a child, are what must be to be true to who THEY are. An revel in the glory of those who will carry that torch of roleplay with you. Hold them dear, for they will help you bring your character to life.

Moi

Many people make the mistake of thinking that "In Character" and "Consistent" are the same thing. They aren't, or, at least, don't have to be. A character who is fun to roleplay and fun to roleplay with will have more depth to that. They'll have complex values that lead them to do different things in different situations - even ones that seem, on the surface, to contradict things they've done before. This is OK. People are inconsistent and weird like that in real life. A Fain-worshipping merian-killing, elfen gobbling nihilist might still be offended if Fain asks them to kill their husband. That just shows they're more than a cardboard cutout in a robe and a mask - there's a real person there who is more than just an extra in a play.

Similarly, being a good roleplayer means roleplaying things that are fun to roleplay. If you play a boring and tedious character, you fill have a boring and tedious time. If you play a disgusting character, you will feel disgusted, and so will other people around you. If you play a villain, you'll find yourself making evil choices over and over again. My advice is not to do that. Pick a character who thinks of themselves as "the good guy" or at least justifiable in what they do. Nobody calls themselves the villain when they write their own story, even if others disagree. But more importantly, pick a character who you can stand to immerse yourself in and who other people can stand interacting with. There's no shame in not wanting to pretend to be a serial murdering cannibal who constantly betrays his friends, and there's even less in someone else's character making the sensible choice by refusing to associate with such a person. If you're too out there and awful, nobody will play with you and you'll have no fun.

Shaddus

My two cents, as a professional alter who enjoys rp:

Keep your characters separate if you have multiples. I've been known to go from snuggling with a spouse on one character to killing them in a raid with another character inside an hour. This doesn't mean that all your characters should hate each other or be diametrically opposed, but if you've got five alts and they're all in the same circle of people, you're missing out on the possibilities of RP.

If you mess up a complex emote during some RP (or someone else does), ROLL WITH IT. If they're intelligent, they knew what you meant and they'll go along with you. If they give you guff about it, they aren't worth the effort.


Don't be afraid to try something new; this includes approaching someone new, be it mortal or divine.

While it's healthy and normal to be emotionally involved in your character, don't be afraid to step back if you're getting too involved or something makes you uncomfortable.

As an addendum to the above note, don't be afraid to take some time away from your character to recharge your RP batteries and get a fresh outlook on lusternia or whatever other game.

Shaddus

Celina said:

Remember the character is a character. The biggest obstacle I have is people equate me to Celina all the time, even in RP environments. Really kills the mood.

This, so much this.

Especially the divine, who likely aren't anything like they are irl.

Except Morgfyre. I have pictures of him actually eating the souls of unbaptised children.

Rialorm

A good roleplayer in my oppinion rolls with the punches. I've had this discussion with a few people across several games, where each is exposed to a situation that affects them negatively and they feel it makes them not enjoy the game. I just don't think that is a fair statement to make, especially if one plays a character who is 'evil'. Yeah sometimes you are going to be on the losing end, and sometimes this lasts for ages. It happens. But you are not going to fix it by ranting OOC about it. Sure, you can do that if it makes you feel better, but in the end if you truely desire and value immersion you handle it ingame. It is an incredible opportunity for great roleplay. And yes it is normal that your character gets upset in the face of defeat, and that even you take over these feelings. But I feel that one should embrace it as a chance. Even if that means doing something unconventional. Because that is where you get to break out of the ordinary and bring new depth.

Everiine

Astraea said:

Spontaneity! The number of times I've written a post, or created a ritual, or written a book all in one sitting, all stream of conscious with no time to dwell, or consider, or revise, and gosh, those are always the best (mostly). 

The are -other- ways to do rituals than off the cuff?!

Kalnid

Yeah, you spontaneously write it one day and then spend the next RL month deliberating over how it could use improvement.

Synkarin

I think my biggest RP pet peeve is when people try to force you into their ideal RP.

The biggest example of this in recent memory (that I can think of, it's been awhile) is when Goloths were around and Seren was demanding Magnagora answer because some citizen said something along the lines of 'serving the Goloths' and when Mag didn't answer, players went to forums and facebook criticizing them for not answering and not engaging in the RP.  In the same vein, I've also seen people in Magnagora do the same thing, so it's an all encompassing facet.

People don't need to conform to your RP ideals in order to be good RPers so I would echo the sentiments that a good Roleplayer is someone who is flexible and has the ability to adjust and change with the flow of things.

Cyndarin

I think another big obstacle I had was getting people to come around to the fact that I not just an avid PKer, I also RP. PKers can RP too! I think it's common, and not entirely untrue, that PKers tend to not to be as heavily in to RP as the not so avid PKers. But many of us do try to cross that chasm and engage in both. So give the PKers a chance! Sure they exist in the meta, and sometimes they forget mechanics and RP can't always coexist fluidly, but we try. Don't try to categorize people as PKers or Non Coms or RPers. Just interact and see where it goes. If they are OOC aholes who just want to grief your noobs, well at least you tried.

 

The flip side is this...PKers, you are obligated to at least TRY and present a character. It doesn't have to be indepth, or grandios if you are really here for the PK. It just has to not be OOC. You should not get in the way of other people trying to RP just because you don't like to do it.

 

The people who irk the crap out of me are the ones that complain about mechanics ICly, but do so through a poorly constructed veil of "RP." For example, the people that bitch about Illuminati or Shadowdancers ICly, but instead of saying "your skills are OP and broken, nerf!" they say "You aren't really that powerful, the MAGICAL AND MYSTICAL GODS just favor you right now, but that'll change. You just watch."

Kaalak

Just going on the record to say Celina actually can and does roleplay rather well. I remember the Mag/Fain era.

Synkarin

What if I'm RPing an asshole that just wants to grief your noobs!

Cyndarin

Woa woa woa, let's just say "slightly above average for a PKer." I don't ruin my rep with high expectations

Isune

Great topic! Thought I'd throw in my two cents.

1) Don't get OOCly caught up in people-pleasing. You will never please everyone, and you will hate yourself for trying. Work on doing what brings you (and the people you care about) the highest level of fun. It is not your job to correct someone who calls you 'arrogant' for being really good at PVP, or to endear someone to you who thinks you're 'pretentious' for writing 4 line emotes. Similarly, don't expect people to change their behaviors simply because you don't like them. Just as you'll irk some people, some people are just going to irk you, and that's perfectly okay.

2) Be willing to make changes when you need to! I personally never understand when I read people on the forums declaring, "I wish I could change org/guild/Divine/race, but it just doesn't make sense for my character." If you the player are unhappy, it's going to be very hard to convincingly make your character happy doing the same thing they've always been doing. There comes a point where you have to sit down and ask yourself, the player, "Am I happy playing this kind of character?" And if not, then it's okay to create a new avenue of RP for yourself. It's okay to, say, abandon the god you've been devoted to for RL years, or to join the enemy organisation you spat at since day 1 of playing, or to get labelled a guild hopper. Will you ICly or OOCly disappoint some players for doing this? Yes, but like I've already said, that's okay! You don't have to please everyone, and your character doesn't have to be an unchanging personality if you don't want them to be. If you still feel weird about doing this, there is no shame in alting, or just taking a break.

3) Despite your level of detachment, being OOCly upset about IC things happens. When it does, though, try to be upfront with yourself about it. 'I'm really upset OOCly because I got betrayed by my favorite player ICly and it makes me not want to log in," is acceptable to think. It's not acceptable, though, to start OOCly harassing someone about this, or to OOCly try to convince other players that this person is a jerkface for doing it. It is, however, acceptable to ICly declare a grudge against this person 5eva and to get other people ICly rallied to your cause. This seems like splitting hairs, but it's really not. Imagine if I forum-banned and perma-shrubbed someone for raiding Isune's realm. That would be ridiculous, and completely inappropriate! But if someone waltzes into Isune's fulcrux and calls Her a Wyrd-loving Shikarian concubine, She can totally maggot and disfavour their rude, fresh selves. As always, if something bothers you enough OOCly, it's okay to take a break from the game. It doesn't make you a bad RPer, it just means you understand when you're not enjoying yourself.

As for what makes you considered a 'great' roleplayer? That's up to you. People get admired for all sorts of reasons, because there are so many different kinds of characters out there. People admired Fain and they admired Maylea, and neither RP'd remotely alike. Further, you don't necessarily have to be broody in Glom, or a zealot in Celest, or villainous in Mag, or stuffy in Hallifax, or a drunkard in Gaudi, or a treehugger in Serenwilde (I kid, @Lisaera!), even if you assume that's all anyone in that org is or should be. Variety is the spice of life. Being a good roleplayer means being willing to see the game as more than a bunch of stereotypes, and to be willing to plunge into the complex world of personalities head-first instead of trusting everything you read on the forums, or facebook, or on your Skype chat. Be open. Be willing to be disappointed, but more importantly, be willing to be pleasantly surprised.

Pectus

A good roleplayer is someone who isn't afraid of doing the RP they want to do, even if other people don't like it or think it's annoying. Wanna be a stutterer? Be one. It happens IRL and there's no reason why it shouldn't happen IG. Wanna be a blind scholar? Damn well dooo ittt. It's your character and your RP consequences that make the game fun for you.

Everiine

What if you want golden dragon milk?

Xenthos

Everiine said:

What if you want golden dragon milk?

You don't.

Tarkenton

Isune said:

5eva 

Because 4 evas just weren't enough.  Best part of the whole post, imo.

On a serious topic, be willing to play a flawed character.  Why be the perfect X when being imperfect is so much more fun?  Some of my most fond roleplay moments have come from Tark not being the perfect Shadowdancer/tae'dae/whatever.

Shaddus

I enjoy playing flawed characters with doubts and hangups.

Daraius

I like playing a character with no flaws whatsoever. O:-)

Maligorn

Daraius can't give his family hugs. He is extremely flawed.

Portius

On that note (I promise I'll give you one of my famous walls o'text later, but just a little right now) you should remember that flaws are subjective. What's bad for one person can be the height of nobility to another.

For example, Portius hates most foreigners. Forestals, in particular. He doesn't really consider them to be people. That level of bigotry is usually considered a flaw in most real societies, and a lot of Lusternians would probably agree with that assessment, ICly. But at the same time, there's probably a lot of heavily nationalistic Hallifaxians who agree and think of that level of distrust as a fundamentally good thing. After all, he's just resisting those anti-Collectivist foreign influences, and they aren't like us anyway.

Or take his refusal to lie. He says that it's beneath the dignity of a scientist to lie, and that it builds bad habits in people whose job is to find the truth. But for a lot of people, lying is really useful. Not just for matters of etiquette, but for security reasons. Even within a culture, what traits are considered flaws can be extremely variable.

Vivet

I think I'll agree especially with Celina on not bring mechanics IC, Portius on flaws, and Isune on doing what you need for fun. As a single caveat, though, if you do get a lot of enjoyment out of playing hardline loyal characters, by all means, go for alts if you can stomach it! Alting in a new org is a very different experience from moving to one, especially if people can't pick up on who you are quickly/easily, and can generally tell you more about whether you'll enjoy yourself with a full, proper move before taking the plunge.

Shaddus

Daraius said:

I like playing a character with no flaws whatsoever. O:-)

We can't all be Daraius, the complacent and harmonious. Sometimes we have to be Entrias, who has trust issues, anger problems, trouble letting go, and a need for designing things he shouldn't.

Maligorn

Pectus said:

A good roleplayer is someone who isn't afraid of doing the RP they want to do, even if other people don't like it or think it's annoying. Wanna be a stutterer? Be one. It happens IRL and there's no reason why it shouldn't happen IG. Wanna be a blind scholar? Damn well dooo ittt. It's your character and your RP consequences that make the game fun for you.

I think this is particularly true. You should come to the table of RP knowing how your character would react to a number of different circumstances, and be able to keep IC and OOC from mixing. The best roleplayers have this sort of gravity that makes everyone stop what they're doing and listen up. And to have that, one has to be particularly brave to try and stir up attention, either on the city aether or at the nexus or in the presence of Elders. You have to do it convincingly, without looking trite or overplayed. Perfect syntax always helps. Quick responses. Making everything seem natural. That's what separates the good from the great, in my opinion.

Pectus

Everiine said:

What if you want golden dragon milk?

Weell.. There are downsides to it.

Shaddus

Pectus said:

Everiine said:

What if you want golden dragon milk?

Weell.. There are downsides to it.

Yes, golden dragon cheese isn't very tasty and leaves glitter around your mouth.

Pectus

Shaddus said:

Pectus said:

Everiine said:

What if you want golden dragon milk?

Weell.. There are downsides to it.

Yes, golden dragon cheese isn't very tasty and leaves glitter around your mouth.

But as much glitter as it leaves in your mouth, the person did still.. Technically.. RP as she wanted. Even if she broke most of the description rules, and language rules. Annd a whole heap of other things.

So yes. RP as you want to RP! Be happy.