Conquest of the Horde

Yep, the title says about nothing at all!

So, what this thread is supposed to be about, is how people RP. Now, some may consider this a rant, and while I will admit that there is plenty of personal feelings put into this, I believe many of you will agree with me.

So onto the subject at hand!

So what kind of RPers are there?

There are good ones, and bad ones of course. But what makes them who they are?

Here are some examples of good RPers I have seen.

When playing a Deathknight, they take great care to keep it noted that their character is constantly suffering.

If you read the characters profile, you feel like you already know them because everything you read is exactly how they act IC.

When they do something, they stick to it. Relationships? You can see them in other RPs having that relationship affect their character.

Those are just a few, but here are some examples of some things that have happened to me or others close to me, that I think...

Shows how not to RP:

Putting ones character into an important situation, one that can and will affect other peoples characters, and then just up and quitting on that character. If you get bored with it, talk to the others involved.. Don't just up and quit playing the character and stop talking to them. In my opinion, it's wrong to put yourself into those situations without commitment as it is.

Designing ones character as you see fit. That is good and all, until you make a profile. You see, the difference between a character with a profile, and one without, is that character profiles are to show that character has a set personality, history, skills and all that. If your character is a light loving priest or paladin, don't just up and say "Oh they are evil now". Stick to profiles please, that is why they are there. Or at least have a good reason for the sudden major change.

Relationships are a big thing on this server, wouldn't you agree? We have humans getting with humans. Elves with Elves. Draenei with Humans. Gnomes with Elves. Dwarves with Draenei. See, all kinds of different relationships! They are a great thing, and can give you a lot of character development. However, far too many people take it too lightly. Now, if your character is the kind of person that would be with multiple people, that's fine. If they are the kind of person that doesn't take relationships seriously, and jumps into them a day after meeting a person? Sure, go for it.

But then you get the cheaters. This is partially along the lines of the last point, but more of just "Stick to your character" rather than profile. Far too many times have I had a character in a relationship, only for the next day the person to be off with someone else. No, I don't mean RPing with someone else. Why would I care about that? I mean ERPing.

Now this isn't anything against ERP. If that is your cup of tea then have at it! But the thing is, there are people that let it dictate their RP. Some would rather go and ERP with some random person, rather than wait around for the person they are with to get online so they can RP. Once again, far too many times has this happened to me. I have my character happily in a relationship, and then suddenly the player is saying "Oh, they have to meet again." If you tell a person that your character loves their character, then stick to it. Don't just change your mind so you can go ERP with people because you are bored.

So yeah... You can see that this thread is based off of my personal feelings. But surely plenty of you agree? I honestly would rather an environment that I actually know the other peoples characters. Instead these people decide they can just make major changes whenever they want, without taking much note of it.

So now onto the reason for the threads name.

Look at yourself as a RPer.

Look at your characters. All of them.

Do you RP all of them?

Are some of the ones you don't possibly affecting other people by not being around?

Are some of the ones you do normally play possibly going to be getting involved in such things soon, if they aren't already?

Do you RP your characters like you said they act in their profile?

Ask yourself one of two questions.

If you are looking from the character profile point of view.

(A): Are you RPing your character as you originally intended? Or did you get bored of such a personality, and little by little changed it so that it would be more fun. But in the end, your character is a completely different person than you originally intended?

If you are looking from the affect on other characters point of view.

(B): Why did you originally allow the character to be put into a situation that affects others. Of course you didn't intend to stop playing that character from the beginning. But you might. You may have already. Now look at the character and think. How will this affect the other characters involved with mine?

Now, think about yourself. Are you a good RPer? Do you take things IC seriously, or do you shrug things off and just RP as you wish without consequences?

Your RP affects the other peoples RP around you. That is why we are a community.

So please, take it into consideration that other people could be negatively affected by your actions.

And if someone tries to talk to you about it, and ask you to stop doing something that is hurting their RP?

Don't just say "It's a game get over it." This is CotH, not retail.

The short version: I like this. It brings up interesting points.

The long version: There are some spectacularly awesome Roleplayers out there on CoTH, hear you me. And some ancient gods of role-play have been returning of late, too, which only adds to the bundle of wonderful people you have the possibility of meeting.

I disagree vehemently that a DK has to show suffering every moment of their existence. But other than that, I agree with the majority of the points in the post.

Sentiment is taken way too lightly nowadays, with races that in Lore take thousands of years to find a proper mate finding it in a week. A week. Or less. Makes me proud I've RP-ed out relationships lasting years, with months of the characters knowing each-other before actually committing to a relationship.

But it's the same problem I have with stuff like instant or hyperspeed pregnancy. I've seen some done incredibly well (I'm looking at you, Cressy 'n Xigo. You're awesome like that.), and some done... well... with a distinct lack of respect to the subject matter. I'm of the opinion that if you're going to portray something so... sensitive, as the creation of a life, do so properly or not at all.

As for the ERP bit... Does that actually happen? (Insert "ON MY COTH?!" here)
That... should -not- happen. Not by a long shot. Not to such an extent that a character can be shaped for and by such. It's against the rules, to my knowledge.

ERP's fine and dandy, so long as it is done sensibly, and is not a major part of a character. It's kinda' like the cherry on the cake. You can have cake without cherries, and a character without ERP.

As far as other people affecting your own character... well, you have ownership of the Retcon button. Though, I dislike retcons an immense amount, due to being a sucker for continuity. And when continuity is broken, the storyline becomes less and less cohesive. It stops making sense and simply jumps from scene to scene without reason or rhyme.

Then again, I do dislike certain things. Like this:

Quote:If your character is a light loving priest or paladin, don't just up and say "Oh they are evil now".

I've seen it happen a gajillion times. I still dislike it, for its massive tendency to go bad, and end up a shallow and generic 'fall from grace' type of story. We've -all- heard that story where the hero becomes a villain. I'm fed up with it. I enjoy having characters that don't change alignments. Especially not at the drop of a hat.

So, yeah. In short, just give things time, when roleplaying them. Go slowly, especially with things like feelings. It'll be all the more worth it in the end. There's no gratification in finding someone whose clothes drop at a glance and who has the approach a rabbit would to love(No offense to any rabbits on CoTH. I'm sure you are all respectable rodents.).

(04-02-2012, 08:03 AM)flammos200 Wrote: [ -> ]But it's the same problem I have with stuff like instant or hyperspeed pregnancy. I've seen some done incredibly well (I'm looking at you, Cressy 'n Xigo. You're awesome like that.), and some done... well... with a distinct lack of respect to the subject matter. I'm of the opinion that if you're going to portray something so... sensitive, as the creation of a life, do so properly or not at all.

I am proud to say that me and my bestest friend on the server are going through pregnancy and will be going the entire 9 months!

But the problem I have is how hyperspeed pregnancy too can affect those around you.

Day 1: What, you are going to try and have a child? Good luck!

Day 2: What, you are pregnant? Congragulations!

Day 3: what, your son signed up for the army yesterday? Oh light protect him!

Whaaaat?

I think there should be certain requirements for having a child IC. Only certain, trustworthy people should be allowed to do such. It's not as simple as "1,2,3" we had a baby! If you are going to do that, just say they have been around already for a while...

(04-02-2012, 08:03 AM)flammos200 Wrote: [ -> ]As for the ERP bit... Does that actually happen? (Insert "ON MY COTH?!" here)
That... should -not- happen. Not by a long shot. Not to such an extent that a character can be shaped for and by such. It's against the rules, to my knowledge.

Yes, one person in particular who I will not name fingers nor point names. But I can tell you that this person has two characters I know of that they RP normally. The rest they ERP for hours on. There have been others such as this, but they have either left or quit for the most part.

(04-02-2012, 08:03 AM)flammos200 Wrote: [ -> ]As far as other people affecting your own character... well, you have ownership of the Retcon button. Though, I dislike retcons an immense amount, due to being a sucker for continuity. And when continuity is broken, the storyline becomes less and less cohesive. It stops making sense and simply jumps from scene to scene without reason or rhyme.

I don't just mean small things. I mean such as, going back to relationships, the other person stops playing because they got -bored- of the character. This happened to my brother, and there was a lot about his character that was based off of the other persons. so retconning? It would have to almost completely put him back to the start. Continuing and just saying "She is gone"? The character was already on the point that if he lost another mate he was done for.

(04-02-2012, 08:03 AM)flammos200 Wrote: [ -> ]I've seen it happen a gajillion times. I still dislike it, for its massive tendency to go bad, and end up a shallow and generic 'fall from grace' type of story. We've -all- heard that story where the hero becomes a villain. I'm fed up with it. I enjoy having characters that don't change alignments. Especially not at the drop of a hat.

I say that if you get bored of the character [because that is usually the reason], then just make a new character! But of course keeping with the rest of the point of how your lack of playing that old character can affect others.

There are many factors that people forget that makes me sad.

Our characters are people.
People do not change willy-nilly.
Change is something that takes time and effort.

I agree with a vast majority of points you brought up, Aadora. There is a certain sense of realism that should be put into consideration when trying to make your character more legit.

ERP should be discussed and executed privately with consent from both parties.

I love using my own characters simply because examples make things easier for me to explain. I'll use Leron for this. When it comes down to relationship RP, people looking to deal with it seriously should look to Leron. He committed to Salor approximately six months (Yeah, six months of RP, een though one month was an absence on McKnighter's part) before considering proposal. He would never look to another the same way he does Salor.

But maybe X character is afraid of commitment. That's understandable. But if you want to bounce about relationships because you're bored OOCly, no me gusta. There should be an IC motivation to every IC action. Don't let OOC effect IC.

And when it comes to ultraspeed pregnancy, it irks me. "Amagad I've been pregnant for three hours and I'm gonna have a baby in two minutes!" No. Just no. It makes me rage. Probably because I'm a woman and my instincts tell me "IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE HNNNNNNG"

But all in all, to me, a good role player comes from those who understand that their characters are to be treated as if they were a real person. To enter into their character's mindset and think how that character would. Immersion into your character is the only way you can begin to be a good RPer. I don't care if they're a good speller or their grammar is poor. I only look for, if one person played three different characters with three different personalities, I want to assume that it's three different players.

I thought women pumped out children every four hours?

You learn something every day!

Man, with all these guides being made, I'm tempted to make a pregnancy guide.

Not like 'what should happen and this is what you should roleplay', no, though that could be included I suppose.

I mean a random dice table which you roll on every hour to determine what horrible thing happens to your character.

(04-02-2012, 08:58 AM)Xigo Wrote: [ -> ]I thought women pumped out children every four hours?

You learn something every day!

Man, with all these guides being made, I'm tempted to make a pregnancy guide.

Not like 'what should happen and this is what you should roleplay', no, though that could be included I suppose.

I mean a random dice table which you roll on every hour to determine what horrible thing happens to your character.

Waaaaaaaay ahead of you Xigo. It's in the works, and nearly done.

Random aside: I loathe people who have pregnant characters and then roleplay as if their characters have suddenly become ridiculously psychotic because, hey, that's how women during pregnancy totally are. It's a pet peeve more than anything, but almost every time I see a character with a character description saying that she's pregnant, I roll my eyes and shy away. It's a safety mechanism, I think.

It's also probably not very fair since I'm certain that there are players capable of portraying pregnancy in other ways, but I can't help it. Sorry, Conquest of the Horde.

(04-02-2012, 08:58 AM)Xigo Wrote: [ -> ]I mean a random dice table which you roll on every hour to determine what horrible thing happens to your character.

We could break out the old Hackmaster smackdown tables. The premise behind them was that, as players grow out of hand or act out inappropriately, the dungeonmaster could open up the book, roll the dice, and start doling out justice. The more that the she was required to do this, the deeper into these tables she would roll. The punishments became increasingly bad as more smackdowns occurred to the player.

For example, my eldest brother is a bit of a dick. His childhood best friend was running a game of Hackmaster for us and my brother didn't like that his friend was in this position of authority over him. As a result, he pushed every conceivable boundary, to the bound where his actions were beginning to disrupt the game. As a result, the smackdown was laid upon his ass, causing:

• Him to sustain damage when the ceiling of a dungeon collapsed on his head;
  
• Learning that those injuries had caused short-term memory loss, forcing him to forget the treasure that his character had obtained while running ahead without the pack;
  
• Becoming hopelessly lost and besieged from the dungeons denizens; and
  
• Forced to fall in love with the first individual upon his eyes first laid.

As I recall, the latter made him quit the game since he had the unfortunate luck to run into some horribly disfigured character that was played by my other brother.

I've always wanted to apply things like to this Warcraft-based roleplay encounters because I think that it would be fun and potentially hilarious. I used a similar system when I was a Game Master on a private Ultima Online shard. Of course, that meant that people would intentionally try to break the rules sometimes, but it was all in fun and brought about some very different and very unexpected scenarios.

(04-02-2012, 08:58 AM)Xigo Wrote: [ -> ]Not like 'what should happen and this is what you should roleplay', no, though that could be included I suppose.

This can be brought around to the whole point of 18 = mature for Draenei and Elves and all that.

WHICH I DO NOT WANT DISCUSSED HERE PLEASE.

But who is to say that all the other races have 9 month carrying time too? It would be a bit silly to assume that a race that lives so far, forever... that they would have a 9 month pregnancy. I mean, maybe, but I doubt it.

(04-02-2012, 09:21 AM)Piroska Wrote: [ -> ]It's also probably not very fair since I'm certain that there are players capable of portraying pregnancy in other ways, but I can't help it. Sorry, Conquest of the Horde.

Well... there are already people who, if I may say many people I know have a problem with their characters, but this one was pregnant a while back, and apparently they thought it would be fun to, while pregnant, go and join an arena tournament!

P.S. I won that tournament.

(04-02-2012, 09:22 AM)Aadora Wrote: [ -> ]Well... there are already people who, if I may say many people I know have a problem with their characters, but this one was pregnant a while back, and apparently they thought it would be fun to, while pregnant, go and join an arena tournament!

While I appreciate your opinion on the matter, please do not use my post to publicly call out a single player on how ey has roleplayed in the past. That was not my intent. Thank you!

I wasn't using your post. That was fully me calling someone out. And not specifically. They know who they are, but no one else should. Which is why I won't say names.

Very well.

Don't call people out over the forums. It's rude and degrading.

Man, I must have been playing all my characters all sorts of crooked wrong for years according this rant.



I heavily disagree with a lot of this, personal choice should dictate how people play characters, not "This is how we do it".


I'm such a terrible roleplayer.




Edit: Dear God please no pregnancy guide. You guys honestly miss so much about stuff with pregnancy, only people who have seen it or gone through it with their own kids can do it justice.

It's also why none of us ever WANT to RP someone that's pregnant/got someone pregnant.

I have NEVER seen a hyper pregnancy on coth, with the exception of one, and that played was banned anyways.

Aadora Wrote:Day 1: What, you are going to try and have a child? Good luck!

Day 2: What, you are pregnant? Congragulations!

Day 3: what, your son signed up for the army yesterday? Oh light protect him!

Whaaaat indeed-- I'm not certain I've ever seen this happen, and even if one was carried out during the course of a few months or the like phrasing it like this makes it seem much more drastic than it ever could be. Idunno; if this did happen it should be reported, but to my knowledge this has never been done.

Just a note on my part.

Pregnancy is another case though where people have so many opinions on "How it's done", that it boils down to mere speculation because most people here have not gone through it with their own child.

If you have brothers and sisters, cousins, whatever... it's not even close to comparable to the experience you have as a parent going through a pregnancy. People also forget too, it's a two person dynamic most of the time, and there's so many subtle differences in relationships that happen during pregnancy.

I don't care what you lot say, women DO get freakin' psychotic during pregnancy sometimes. I'm -living- that truth right now. My wife will attest to it too... after she has the baby. Hopefully.

There is sunshine and butterflies. It's an amazing thing. It has it's bad points.

It's harder than -hell- to explain or contain into something like roleplay.