Verad

1. The Odd Things That Happen Before Things Get Serious Do you want antlings?! Because this is how we get antlings! Emergency Leve Notice: An unfortunate structural flaw has led to the partial collapse of the Nanawa Mines tunnel as an Amajina steam engine and several cars worth of cargo were en route. The engine itself is currently trapped under rubble. Stone Torches and Amajina company engineers have been dispatched to ensure the tunnel is cleared and repaired to avoid interfering with delivery timetables and possibly to avoid laborer casualties, if feasible at a minimum of expense. Adventurers are requested for security duty to ensure thieving beastfolk and Lost Hope refugees don't swipe any of the cargo while the engineers complete their task. Time: Saturday, September 8th, 7:00 PM CST 1. Anstarra Silverain (From tumblr) 2. S'imba Tia 3. Virara Wakuwa 4. Cassidy Thorne (From tumblr) 5. Will O'The Wisps Patrols of the combined Resistance-Alliance forces have reported sightings of an aetherial and ghostlike figure in the Dimwold, "akin to ashkin" in the words of one soldier. This was treated with appropriate wonder and awe until it stabbed one Maelstrom soldier through the chest unprovoked. Commander Haelstyrmm Eynnarhmsson, one of the Maelstrom's liaisons to the Alliance operations in Ala Mhigo, has requested the creature be caught or dispelled by veteran adventurers. Time: Sunday, September 9th, 7:00 PM CST 1. Jophoix Suinuet (From tumblr) 2. Tiergan Vashir (From tumblr) 3. Amh Jomalah (From tumblr) 4. Jana Ridah Notes: This story is the beginning of a potentially-long-running series of events, depending upon reception and results. Tonally, it will be pretty over-the-top and silly. Most of my plots start that way, though that tends to fall off over time as past participants can attest. It will use the HQE dice system, a conversion of the HeroQuest tabletop RPG which can be used with in-game /random to resolve conflicts. Rules for this system can be found here: HeroQuest Eorzea. We will be using the "Limited Standard" rules; your character will progress through the use of XP, but this will not carry over to other plots. New players are welcome and encouraged. Contact me here, in-game, or through my tumblr at Memoirs of a Master Merchant if you would like to try the system and need help making an appropriate character sheet. You can also join the Roll Eorzea linkshell and Discord for more assistance.

This is exactly as much of an issue as your social anxiety makes it.

Power-level is a vague thing and if the players are invested and you seem to be handling it fairly most people will let all sorts of weirdness slide. The larger problems are going to be handling the well-done narrative of a split personality villain in an interesting way. Some significant problems: 1. Frequently played not as Jekyll and Hyde, but as Hyde and Hyde's- Slightly-Less-Of-A-Dickbag Twin. That is to say, people play a snarky jerk normally, and then a snarky jerk who loses control and becomes even more of a jerk with superpowers. Do not do this thing. Give people a reason to care about the Jekyll side of a character, otherwise there won't be any real moral qualms about killing the character and leaving the Hyde element to rot. The idea of playing a "charming" thief as a Jekyll can easily turn into this if it turns out you don't play him in as charming a manner as you think you do. 2. Metagaming will be your worst enemy. By my example alone, split personality antagonists are as old as the Victorian period and no doubt farther. People know the trope, will roleplay knowing the trope in game, and will pick up on tells that your character is a split personality faster than you will like for the sake of plot progression. As such, don't place a lot of weight on the surprise that the character has a split personality. 3. Assuming player and character naivete will be your second worst enemy who hangs out with your worst enemy and talks shit about you behind your back. Despite the above, I can't even say you should ignore characters who just assume the truth; unfortunately, split-personality villains are a popular RP villain concept, so it's likely that other characters will have encountered it before and therefore have plausible reasons for being prepared to deal with it accordingly. I say this partly to reinforce that you shouldn't over-emphasize the surprise with this character as above and partly to emphasize that you will have to walk a fine line in determining whether or not a character is metagaming or is making a reasonable assumption based on past experience.

None of us have done any empirical research on this, so everything is basically supposition. That said, straight characters are probably a majority. Maybe a slim one for the reasons others have said above - players more comfortable engaging in LGBTQ characters as escapism on a fantasy server being the largest - but still a likely majority nevertheless. It's a pity the Daedalus Project is now defunct. It would have been nice to see some numbers in the 2010+ and outside of WoW. I guess OP's last post is the most telling. This could very easily have been another "Why can't I get anyone to RP with me" thread in general terms, of the style which the board receives on a regular basis. Narrowing it to "Why can't I get any straight guys to RP with me"* makes it look different, but it's fundamentally the same problem with the same responses, which OP has provided herself. While LGBTQ+ characters are highly visible and tend to congregate together, that says more about where people are congregating and at what times. I can't reasonably expect that my time spent around the Quicksand selling garbage gives me a good sample of RP character demographics by sexuality, otherwise every Roegadyn and Highlander has 12". Other areas like FCs, events, and world RP, may have more accurate representation. Straight characters, on the other hand, tend not to advertise straightness (heteronormativity and all that, as mentioned above). The characters that have advertised straightness tend to be part of a small, highly obnoxious minority of guys interested in assembling in RP harem through manipulation and abusive tactics. They don't leave a good impression. I can see why people would not want to be associated with that. *Answer: Frumpy appearance and a reliance on somebody else starting first, as stated. Straight RPers are not approaching for the same reason straight guys would not approach the same IRL. Change approach, change the problem, although you'll have to ask yourself how much change you are willing to live with: can you survive losing the frumpiness or the passivity and still enjoy the RP?

There isn't one. Everybody generally makes it up as they go along, and reactions to how they should be played or accepted depend on the individual. Some of them are like vampires, and that is fine with me. Others are not, and that is also fine.

Bolded emphasis partly mine. I have to know why you think these two are connected.

Scams, luck, and an extreme minority stake in Vesper Bay.

Sure, but the IC circumstances that allow people to have good IC reasons to react that way don't suddenly make the people who are doing it any good at actually doing it, or weathering a daily barrage of this stuff any less boring or unfun.

Apart from being more racist than your opponents, you can integrate comedy of the commons and start treating this exactly like the everyday occurrence it appears to be. You have heard all the same replies, so pre-empt the replies. Make up nonsense. Invent stereotypes that nobody would ever think to apply to Dotharl and act as if they are commonplace. Bluntly, people playing racist characters are all doing exactly the same thing, because there's only so many ways people playing racist characters can think of to be racist. Take notes on the commonalities and adapt to it.

Be more racist than your opponents.

Have them play neglectful parents.

In the interest of giving an example, I shall take one of my jokes and slaughter it at the altar of over-explanation. When I am not running a storyline, I put Verad in the Quicksand and have him sell junk to strangers. These are obvious pieces of garbage or amusingly weird curios which he passes off as "dubious goods." Most of these pitches are scripted in advance in some way on my part - I can get away with a lot of repetition because the population of the Quicksand is pretty fluid, especially given the high number of ERP alts. I will use one of my most common pitches as an example: Imitation Fool's Gold. The first hook is in the name itself. It's a concept that sounds immediately and automatically absurd if you're in any way familiar with what fool's gold is. It's already "fake gold," so why would I need a fake version of that? Is he selling actual gold in reverse or something else? So the first part of the joke is to create a hook that prompts the other person in the conversation to keep asking. When the customer/victim does ask what I mean by imitation fool's gold, I provide an example. I don't have this exact phrase written out in advance, but the following usually occurs: "Verad reaches into the space around his belt, rummaging around a disturbingly roomy set of pouches. He produces what is obviously a rock that has been painted gold. Some of the paint has chipped off." When i say "omniscient" narration in this case, I'm using a mild form of it in the adverbs. To suggest that the pouches are "disturbingly roomy" indicates that there's something unsettling about how much space he has available despite not carrying a large sack or having a stall for his wares. There might be other crimes against retail lurking in there. "Obviously" indicates that the "imitation fool's gold" is so badly put together that even an idiot would notice it. Some players do not like this, even in mild form, because I am telling them what their character thinks. I think these are very necessary to help highlight that the entire situation is absurd. If Verad rummages around a "roomy set of pouches," it's just an action. If it's "disturbingly roomy" it becomes weird. From there, if the customer has not threatened Verad's life or asked him if he has any other products available, he continues to explain the possible uses of imitation fool's gold, e.g. "It's just the thing for when you need real fool's gold, but haven't any to spare." Because of course there are many uses for regular fool's gold; Verad likes to give the concrete example that "What if you have a ransom situation, and they only need gold in payment, but of course you don't want to give them gold so you use fool's gold as a decoy, but you don't have any fool's gold! Well, then you'll be very glad you bought several ponze of imitation fool's gold at only five gil to the onze, won't you?" By this point the customer's will has broken and they either pay Verad to go away or give him money for "selling the junk so well" and ask him if he has anything else. The routine then proceeds with another member of the Quicksand, often with a different product since other people are listening and to avoid repetition. Most of the actual joke is in the difference between what Verad says the product is and what it actually does (nothing) or in how it's a very bad version of what he says it is. In order to make that clear, I have to rely on the inclusion of third-party omniscient narration in small-to-medium doses depending on the complexity of the item. That highlights the difference between his words and the reality of the situation. The interesting thing about this to me, and why I keep writing this stuff years after introducing him, is that in real life he'd be a very goofy prop comic, but because I'm working through a written medium I can use a style that, coupled with his own overwrought speech mannerisms, pulls the material into the realm of dry prose comedy in the style of Pratchett and Adams (both major inspirations and it still hurts). I think you'll find that written comedy often has to rely on highlighting the absurdity of the situation in the narration of the text, and often does in a very dry manner. It's a style that works well in roleplay, because the narration often seems as annoyed or embarrassed or confused in describing the material as the customer is in listening to it. This, at least, is my style, and it works. The number of tells I get from players saying they enjoyed it confirms that much. Your own may vary. As for @Faye mentioning that comedic characters are one note, I half-agree. Verad is currently in a storyline in which he has realized exactly how one-note he is and is having a crisis of identity because of it. On the other hand, it's a very pleasing note to my ears, so he's probably not going to give it up.

You would probably have better luck on F-list, OP.

Make the players laugh. Rely on third-party narration to highlight a contrast between what the character is doing and the events at hand. This goes against RP orthodoxy, which suggests that third-party narration is unacceptable, but you'll need it in order to keep people from thinking your character is just really weird and inappropriate.

What is the value of sympathy points from strangers?