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Naunet · **08-19-2013, 06:30 PM**

1. What chat channels do most RPers constantly use? Say/Party/Tell? Or do most people switch it up depending on where they are and/or who they are with?

I'm sure this has already been answered, but just for completions' sake, I always use /say or /em when roleplaying, unlessÂ I happen to be doing a scene that is supposed to be inside some private building (like a home, or a secret base, or whatever). Then I use /p. I am a huge proponent of keeping roleplay as public as possible, as much as possible.

2. How are custom emotes used? Are they used to express a simple action (i.e.: Nald'thal looks down upon Uldah.), or do people tend to be more wordy and reveal inner thoughts (i.e.: Nald'thal looks down upon Uldah, wondering where all the puny people went. Surely the city was full just moments ago!)?

I try to steer clear of explicitly stating a character's thoughts in an emote, as emotes are supposed to be providing information to other players that they would be able to glean from observing my character. Rather than stating what your character is thinking, try to describe their expression or body language in a way that would communicate - or not communicate (depending on how expressive the character is) - their thoughts/emotions.

3.Â Exactly how often are emotes used? Are they more scarce in a simple conversation between friends, and seen more in like, a scene... or something?

All the damn time! If there's RP going on, there are bound to be emotes!

4.Â Is it commonplace for RP to be planned, or is 'freestyle' RP more popular?

For me, it's a mix of the two. I might go into a scene with an idea of "Characters X, Y, and Z are meeting for _____" or whathaveyou, but I'm not going to be pre-planning the results for the most part. Other times it's pure free-form, such as in tavern RP or whatever.

5.Â How does one with a crippling sense of inadequacy find people to RP with?Â

I can relate to this. It is difficult, but having supportive friends helps. Smile

(Optional) 6.Â Does your character prefer sweet, sour or spicy food?

Antimony is shaping up to be a rather food-loving character (or at least, someone who enjoys creativity in their food), so probably a mix of all three!

***

1.Â What's the best way to respond if someone meta-games?

A gentle OOC reminder of what their character should or should not know about another character/situation/scene/whatever is appropriate. Depending on the information in question, it's possible to construct a soft excuse of sorts to explain away why/how their character learned what they did. For bigger things (such as very seekrit plot points that come to light OOCly but not ICly), it may be necessary to just pause the RP, rewind, and then pick up prior to the oopsie. A retcon, basically.

2.Â For planned RP sessions, I've seen some of you said they're usually just simple "Let's go x and do y," but how exactly are more storyline RP scenes planned out?

I've done kind of an insane amount of story in my TERA roleplay, but almost none of it was actually pre-planned. Most of the "planning" we did was meta discussions regarding certain mechanics we were playing with - OOC talks about the nature of the Dream, how mana works in bodies, what that other dimension that you travel through via waygates is actually like, the metaphysics behind souls, teleportation, blood magic and its capabilities and limitations, the finer points of building an evil magic construct and the consequences of dreaming that construct to life only to have its connection with the original body severed... and more! So basically, we talked a lot about the "world building" details surrounding the plot we developed, but not so much about "My character will do X and this character will react Y and blahblahblah".

3.Â This isn't so muchÂ my concern, but something I would like some clarification on. If someone plays a character who is inept at combat, are they likely to purposely perform poorly in-game? I've heard stories about this happening, but I always figured it was a rare thing. Thoughts?

Ah, this is especially relevant to me, as I tend to roleplay characters who are more "normal" in their abilities. I love the concept of an average civilian getting involved in things that are probably way over their head.

I'm also an avid end-game player, however, so I just divorce the concept of my character OOCly from what she/he is ICly. For Antimony, I wholly intend to level just about every class on her and will be entering into extremely competitive end game with her. But that's certainly not reflective of her IC abilities. While she has some magical aptitude, she is not a fighter by any means. I will very deliberately limit her capabilities if she ever gets involved in IC fights.

I would, of course, neverÂ do this when I was actually playing the game, though.

4.Â How are spells like Raise and the like treated in RP? This is a pretty broad question I know, but if someone's character gets K.O.'d in like RP combat, I wouldn't want to do something that's immersion breaking and ruins it for someone.Â

Your character cannot die unless you say so. If you get K.O.'d in combat, it's best to play it off as simply grievously injured (or otherwise taken out - such as knocked unconscious). Spells like Raise are not really meant to bring people back from the dead - rather, they can bring people back from the brinkÂ of death.

5.Â What is your characters sleeping posture like?

Either on her side or on her back - she rolls about in her sleep quite a lot.

Asyria · **08-19-2013, 07:19 PM**

As others have expressed there isn't really any Good or Bad answer. However there are certainly General Tendencies, which you can determine for yourself by reading on people's personal answers.
Here's mine!

1. What chat channels do most RPers constantly use? Say/Party/Tell? Or do most people switch it up depending on where they are and/or who they are with?
Say is nearly always In Character. Party and Tell can both be used for more private conversations (more likely Party, considering the game's default channel thing and the annoyingly high mistell chance). However Party is rarely used IC during dungeon runs, unless all party members are RPers and want to do the run in character.
In any case, linkpearls allow for lore-friendly long-distance in-character communication, unlike most other fantasy MMO's.

2. How are custom emotes used? Are they used to express a simple action (i.e.: Nald'thal looks down upon Uldah.), or do people tend to be more wordy and reveal inner thoughts (i.e.: Nald'thal looks down upon Uldah, wondering where all the puny people went. Surely the city was full just moments ago!)?
Most people frown upon revealing direct inner thoughts on RP, advising instead the use of facial expressions and other behaviors to let other players figure out by themselves what the character is thinking.

(Warning:, getting wordy here, feel free to skip)

There are two schools of thought about what Role-playing really is.

A) Role-playing is acting. This means that RP, even using a read/write medium such as a MMO or even a RP chatroom, should only use spoken words and visible actions and expressions, rationalizing that unless one is a telepath, it's impossible to know another character's actual thoughts. Of course, if a character *is* a telepath, the player can always ask in Tells for those thoughts. Wink

B) Role-playing is writing a story. When you write a story, it's customary to give a character's thoughts to the reader, whether it's written in 3rd or 1st person. In RP, that means doing exactly the 2nd example you gave above.

The majority of people seem to be in group A. I am in group B and have always found it difficult to adapt (but I'm getting there). don't let anyone tell you that either is wrong. They're both perfectly fine and anyone trying to "teach" you otherwise is simply believing a bit too hard in their own way.

Still, it pays to adapt to the majority to avoid conflict.

That said, many in group A (in my experience, anyway) agree that revealing inner thoughts can be sometimes appropriate in a small, private RP, like between two people whose characters know each other well.

3. Exactly how often are emotes used? Are they more scarce in a simple conversation between friends, and seen more in like, a scene... or something?
I have no idea. Personally, I use some of them like wave and greet and laugh and such whenever they feel appropriate, without abuse. After all, I spent at least 5 minutes picking the most fitting voice for my characters so I better /laugh every now and then to let people witness my clever choices. O_O

4. Is it commonplace for RP to be planned, or is 'freestyle' RP more popular?
Again, no idea. I know both are done, but I don't know to what degree. What I can tell you is personally favor freestyle, but sometimes I plan for something to happen and simply let the how be discovered as I RP. And sometimes something else ends up happening!

5. How does one with a crippling sense of inadequacy find people to RP with? Laugh

You know, I wonder about that every time I get into a new MMO. ^^;
A few things I've tried....
- Get a Mentor
- Find a Linkshell or Free Company (whatever you do I highly recommend joining your chosen server's OOC Linkshell)
- Ask here!
- However difficult it seems to be and even if it seems like it would be strange, try joining into RP you might stumble upon in-game (I for one always had trouble with that...)

(Optional) 6. Does your character prefer sweet, sour or spicy food?
Azyria: sweet or sour, depends
Agata: spicy
Helena: not picky
Jeanette: skillfully cooked

PART DEUX

1. What's the best way to respond if someone meta-games?
If it's disruptive to your RP, politely ask how come their character know this or that, be prepared to either accept their answer (they might be meta-gaming after all!) or to politely tell them their character is not supposed to know.

2. For planned RP sessions, I've seen some of you said they're usually just simple "Let's go x and do y," but how exactly are more storyline RP scenes planned out?
I've once participated (but not planned myself such a RP scene. My understanding is it was prepared much like a D&D (or other such game) encounter. Basically, you get some kinda Game Master, the player organizing the scene who will act as the E in the PvE. The players simply play their roles and the GM guides them through the scene, playing the role of NPC's etc.

Another way to do it is to know the desired end result. For example, you get together to create a Free Company, but you want to RP out its creation. You know that whatever happens, the scene must ends with the FC's creation so there's a few guidelines to follow.

3. This isn't so much my concern, but something I would like some clarification on. If someone plays a character who is inept at combat, are they likely to purposely perform poorly in-game? I've heard stories about this happening, but I always figured it was a rare thing. Thoughts?
I've never done this myself, but there's (again) more than one way to do this. the two I know about are...

- Play as skillfully as you like but do OOCly and RP as being weak/inept/whatever. This means any fighting your character does is not canon.

- Simply don't level your War/Magic classes! It's not possible in every mmo, but in FF XIV, I don't see why someone couldn't have fun RPing and playing the game with nothing but one adventuring class at level 10 (since it's required) and the nothing but gathering and/or crafting classes.

4. How are spells like Raise and the like treated in RP? This is a pretty broad question I know, but if someone's character gets K.O.'d in like RP combat, I wouldn't want to do something that's immersion breaking and ruins it for someone. [Image: cry.gif]

Depends on people. Personally, how I see this is as follows...
HP are called Hit Points as opposed to Life Points for a reason, Losing them doesn't mean you're dying. It could be you'Re simply getting knocked unconscious, possibly with your life at risk, possibly not. So a Cure or Raise spell simply brings you magically back in shape.
That would explain why some people die permanently when there's white mages with Raise spells around.
Another possibility is Raise is only efficient if the person died a short time ago, or any other such limitation.

(Optional) 5. What is your characters sleeping posture like?
Azyria: curled in a ball
Agata: sprawled out
Helena: partially curled, hugging her pillow
Jeanette: on her back, hands joined, looking almost like she's meditating peacefully

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