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(08-20-2015, 03:04 PM)Nebbs Wrote:(08-20-2015, 02:39 PM)Ignacius Wrote:(08-20-2015, 02:21 PM)Nebbs Wrote: You can roleplay what you want. Who is anyone to say if someone can RP, or even to judge their results? This is not a competition.
And yes you can do it with a degree of believability. The OOC use of things like google and the fact that in a fantasy setting the rules of reality are loose and not clear. There are also numerous archetypes to choose from and copy. Such as playing a conjurer as House, or the bard as the Dread Pirate Roberts, or the rogue as Vala Mal Doran. All witty characters.
And why is "witty" excluded from a dumb person anyhow? Take Sheldon Cooper and Penny, I would say Penny is the witty one of the two.
What I find more interesting is a witty and intelligent player. This comes through even in dumb characters. It is this that allows people to find a match that they can spark off and create RP fire. In my experience.
Well, unfortunately, the people who are to say if someone can RP and judge their results are the other players.  People can RP what they want.  At issue is our reaction as an audience. That's a big problem, because, like it or not, the entire point of person-to-person interaction is judgement, and RP is a social activity.
The OP has said, very directly, that the player stated that their character was a genius, and then the character very obviously was not. This is very important, because this isn't all that uncommon.  Genius, wit, etc, that's all based on interaction and comes from the audience.  We, as roleplayers, are also not in any position to be told what a character is when the character can't be backed up with actual writing.  It doesn't make you a bad person to not want to RP with someone whose RP grates on your nerves.  This dissonance is one of the major reasons why that has nothing to do with metagaming and bleed.
So, you can RP whatever you want, but you have no room to complain if you're frozen out of RP (also what commonly happens to these players). Â You are all judging (and being judged) every time you speak in public, including your RP skills. Â Hell, we're all judging each other here and trying desperately not to seem like we are. Â Such is the nature of social interaction.
Characters who actually seem genuinely witty and intelligent are generally written by witty and intelligent players. Â And, to be fair, it's not a pandemic of people who are punching above their weight class. Â Players tend to write characters as witty or intelligent as they can manage, which isn't what I'd call genius but not certainly dumb.
But people who are not themselves witty or intelligent at all certainly aren't going to write characters who are convincingly witty or intelligent. Â Generally, if you have to tell someone what they're supposed to think, as in the OP, you aren't convincing anyone. Â I simply don't think it's right to tell other people they have to take the character description as the gospel even when they are reading that it's inaccurate in the actual RP.
I kind of agree to some degree.Â
It seems that you are saying that as players we have certain standards and expectations that we look for in our RP interactions. That we will exclude those people that do not match our criteria from our RP? I would agree that most people have this to one degree or another.
Yet another person may find that player's RP acceptable, where as others may not.
What we take from what someone plays is up to us. In fact it is quite possible to fill in the deficiencies we see from the other player ourself. In effect compensate for the variations in style, depth etc.. Ever RPed with a children?
Now the more we have to do this the more it becomes a problem and the less likely we are to come back. The less we have to do this the better the interaction will go. I dare say the dumb person in this set-up finds the not so dumb elitist equality as frustrating and boring (Penny vs Sheldon)
I can quite accept that if someone makes no attempts to back up the assertion their character is a genius then it is definitely not convincing. Yet the question is "can" they, and with some effort they can. Some however choose not to make the effort.
Going by this analogy, everyone believes Penny and Sheldon to be intelligent people. Â We're talking about the equivalent of Rick Ross trying to ghost write his own scientist character in, expecting to have the audience receive him as a genius.
Hey, I would believe Rick Ross writing himself as a threatening, muscle-bound thug. Â Not only was he a corrections officer, but he seems to understand that lifestyle. Â But nobody is going to buy him as a scientist when he's running on his own wit.
There's no problem being as witty, intelligent, or charismatic as you can be, but punching above your weight comes across differently in RP. Â Because the writing and acting are happening simultaneously, the audience receives a character who thinks he's smarter, wittier, and more charismatic than he actually is.
Honestly, I can't even recommend people don't play a charismatic character unless they know their limits, as an aside. Â I can't stress that enough.
In any case, it's not endemic because people don't usually play characters like "genius", "charming", or "witty". Â Most experienced RPers know better. Â They throw out witty lines or are charming as a byproduct of the character, and so they operate within their limits simply because they aren't shooting higher.
And, let's be frank, we're ABLE to be things that we aren't, but can certainly RP. Â I mean, most of us can be a lot wittier than we are, but we tend to temper it with some pleasantness so we bite off a lot of our witty repartee if it's too mean. Â Our RP characters might not be anywhere near so limited.
But yes, there is such a thing as trying to play someone above your weight class, and the best way to avoid it is to let the audience decide your characters' intelligence organically and just play what your character would play. Â At the very least, someone might say, "Look, he's not Mark Twain, but the guy knows his machines."