I think one of the biggest dangers for a roleplay community is that it easily becomes to biased. Those of us who are experienced roleplayers, and I'm guessing it's most by the looks of it, will have seen so many horrible characters, so many clichés that it's easy to dismiss everyone showing a sign of them. Sadly, that also closes us to a lot of really great roleplay, because even though they are rare, some people manage to pull them of extremely well.
Some of my best roleplay was with a guy who played an evil overlord. Sounds tried and tired, right? He did it really well. The entire guild was based around having a secret agenda, he never came out and said he was evil, instead hired goons from other guilds to do the dirty deeds, making sure it couldn't be trased back to him, all the while his own guild held large scale events, markets and parties. It worked so well, but it only worked because the community allowed it. They could have scowled at the idea, but people played along and that ended up creating some really interesting story lines.
But yeah, most of this has been said before, and now it's starting to sound like I'm lifting my finger or something, which was really not my intention! This topic just got me thinking.
All above being said, there are things I'd shake my head a bit over too. I'm gonna say being related to a major lore character is one of the worst ones, because you almost HAVE to bend the lore. It wouldn't be so bad if you claimed to be the 3rd cousin of Uther, twice removed, but it's always Illidans son or Sylvanas' sister (yeah, I'm playing WoW at the moment <.<).
It's good to be aware of the cliches and then twist them and use them to create interesting roleplay. But in order to do it effectively, you have to be aware of them first
Some of my best roleplay was with a guy who played an evil overlord. Sounds tried and tired, right? He did it really well. The entire guild was based around having a secret agenda, he never came out and said he was evil, instead hired goons from other guilds to do the dirty deeds, making sure it couldn't be trased back to him, all the while his own guild held large scale events, markets and parties. It worked so well, but it only worked because the community allowed it. They could have scowled at the idea, but people played along and that ended up creating some really interesting story lines.
But yeah, most of this has been said before, and now it's starting to sound like I'm lifting my finger or something, which was really not my intention! This topic just got me thinking.
All above being said, there are things I'd shake my head a bit over too. I'm gonna say being related to a major lore character is one of the worst ones, because you almost HAVE to bend the lore. It wouldn't be so bad if you claimed to be the 3rd cousin of Uther, twice removed, but it's always Illidans son or Sylvanas' sister (yeah, I'm playing WoW at the moment <.<).
It's good to be aware of the cliches and then twist them and use them to create interesting roleplay. But in order to do it effectively, you have to be aware of them first
![[Image: Serajbannernew3.png]](http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t304/Nevermoria/Serajbannernew3.png)
I came for the ERP, I stayed for the free booze.
