(10-09-2013, 03:36 PM)Naunet Wrote: I'm just gonna leave this here, and it may mean nothing or it may mean everything. Who knows!
Roleplay people, not characters.
I am so firmly on the fence on this I almost don't know what to say, but I'll try.
On the one hand, I completely agree, and understand what you are saying; a character's actions, beliefs, and mannerisms should be believable, founded on past experiences, and limited to what they know, not what you the player know. I'm fairly certain I have achieved this, and have never received complaints (but have received compliments!) about my RP. Breathing, living, fleshed out people, not character archetypes.
On the other hand, there are so many different RP styles and tastes, that I feel as an RPer, you should have a degree of detachment from your character, so that you can try and find the right story for them. The one that fits who they are best.
I find a lot of grim dark out there, and I'm not much of a grim dark fan, particularly not on my hero character. It is not the theme nor the story I am trying to explore. The whole purpose of RP is to have fun, and when characters are no longer fun to play, its usually because something has gone wrong in the telling of their tale.
As a writer, if I wanted to RP Peter Pan in his natural setting, I'm obviously not going to stick him in a dark mercenary themed guild, that would defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to achieve. If, however, I want to explore Peter Pan thrown from his comfort zone into a gritty, realistic setting, a dark merc guild would be the perfect platform to explore this with.
I guess my point is that I do role characters, with a specific aim towards finding and telling specific types of stories; I have a comedic relief airheaded Miqo'te who does best in 'slice of life' settings. I have a grim-dark BLM crafted for exploring darker themes, and I have my hero.
Of these three types, the one I struggle to find a home for the most is the hero, hence my post. When I join a hero/good guy themed guild, I expect to explore heroic tales and adventure stories. Instead, people seem to join with characters that don't fit. They are perfectly fine rpers, but they don't seem to understand the theme they have signed up for, and an inevitable implosion/clash of ideals occurs.
Each character has a range of what they can effectively contribute to. To put this into a people setting; if my hero is surbaban housewife, to thrust her into a gang-ravaged ghetto is not what I'm going for, so I'm not going to subject her to that brand of RP. If I wanted to tell that story, then yes I would absolutely plunk her down in the middle of that.
I try to flesh my little toons out to be as believable and realistic as possible, but in the end they are characters to me, whom I have specific goals for, hence I seek out like minded individuals in the guilds I choose.
((As a side note, I am a pretty inclusive rper who will at least attempt to rp with anyone, so don't misread that! :p))
