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Coral Ferrinas · **09-25-2013, 08:02 AM**

I have spoken to my leader, Gilbert La'pine, about the frequency of us speaking more OOCly than ICly within our Free Company, Gridanian Surveyors.

I think the biggest obstacle that keep us in OOC is because of the game mechanics, specifically the end-game requirement (Primal Hard Mode, Castrum Meridianum and Amdapor Keep Run).Â

Another problem is probably the way we include non-RPers into this, but I think we can solve it by switching to OOC during the run, and switch back to IC after the run. We can explained that the person is day-dreaming when he is AFK, and we can say the person is resting in an inn when she is offline. I also understand that most people RP when you made an arrangement with friends to RP, and went back to OOC as soon as you are finish the episodic RP.Â

I wish to know how, for those who are commit to speak ICly the whole game, navigate around the game mechanic and game play requirement.

Taeh Niumoenwyn · **09-25-2013, 08:16 AM**

I'm quite adaptable and will fit in with the rules of which ever Free Companies or LinkShells I belong to.

However personally I like to get to know the players behind the characters that I'm playing with. Therefore I like there to be an OOC channel for members of a roleplay group (FC or LS) for this purpose. This channel can then be used for those discussions that are difficult to fit within an IC conversation.

That doesn't mean you can't use an IC conversation to mention abilities. So asking a THM to put a beastkin to sleep so that your team can have an easier fight is something you could do IC.

If you specifically thinking of the /party channel then I'd consider that an OOC channel unless agreed in advance otherwise. Whilst you're standing together, about to fight some big bad boss, you can use /say for IC planning.

FreelanceWizard · **09-25-2013, 08:32 AM**

We do a fair amount of PvE content ICly in Mysterium, and while we're largely lower level at this point, what we've taken to doing is explaining mechanics IC. Taking Halatali's Glaive boss as an example, one of the Apprentices identified the creature and commented that his coloration implied a certain elemental aspect; the others concurred and thought it might be Lightning, in which case standing in the water could be fatal. Then someone mentioned that they detected an Aetheric disturbance that might provoke the appearance of corrupted elementals when the glaive begins charging.

Of course, we only do this in our own groups, not with non-RPers -- where we usually treat /party as OOC and just don't speak IC in the group. That said, among RPers, it's entirely possible to do content IC with a bit of improv work. Smile

That said, we do have an OOC LS for discussions among players, and everyone understands that sometimes you have to go OOC to clarify game mechanics.

Cato · **09-25-2013, 08:36 AM**

As far as I'm concerned there needs to be a healthy mix of both IC and OOC chatter to ensure the long prosperity of pretty much any group of role-players. I find myself getting terribly bored by people who go on and on and on about what they had to eat for lunch during what is meant to be a dramatic bit of role-play. On the other hand, I find myself equally bored by role-players who try and take anything and everything that comes their way as potentially IC even when it directly contradicts the situation at hand or the game's lore.

Ildur · **09-25-2013, 11:38 AM**

Communication is mighty important. Out-of-character chat is more important than in-character chat. Not only because you can't properly weight a player's intentions based only on their character reactions, but because you can't get to know the player behind the character. It might be more immersive to only have IC interactions, but you have a greater danger of misunderstanding each other.

FreelanceWizard Wrote:We do a fair amount of PvE content ICly in Mysterium, and while we're largely lower level at this point, what we've taken to doing is explaining mechanics IC. Taking Halatali's Glaive boss as an example, one of the Apprentices identified the creature and commented that his coloration implied a certain elemental aspect; the others concurred and thought it might be Lightning, in which case standing in the water could be fatal. Then someone mentioned that they detected an Aetheric disturbance that might provoke the appearance of corrupted elementals when the glaive begins charging.

I don't have enough cookies to represent how awesome that is.
Sadly, roleplay in instances is severely limited thanks to the useless timer. There are later instances where my groups have reached the boss with about 30 minutes left to it. I'm quite sure we would have only a few minutes left if we roleplayed. Even if we limited it to pre and post boss fight interactions.

Magellan · **09-25-2013, 12:33 PM**

I think FC chats being OOC is typical, as OOC is very important for pve, which most people enjoy, but also for setting up good RP. Keeping RP flowing is a collaborative effort, which often requires OOC communication.

And personally, I find all the good RP I've been a part of has been face to face, not over linkpearls or FC chats.

FreelanceWizard · **09-25-2013, 12:54 PM**

(09-25-2013, 11:38 AM)Ildur Wrote: I don't have enough cookies to represent how awesome that is.
Sadly, roleplay in instances is severely limited thanks to the useless timer. There are later instances where my groups have reached the boss with about 30 minutes left to it. I'm quite sure we would have only a few minutes left if we roleplayed. Even if we limited it to pre and post boss fight interactions.

Thanks.

My time in CoH got me thinking a lot about how to handle IC PvE. It's more challenging in XIV due to the instance timer, but it's still doable, I feel. It's always a careful balancing act for us, because we obviously don't want to fail the instance because we ran out of time due to RP. Usually, it ends up with the setup RP (which we usually do outside the instance), occasional IC comments in the midst of the run, and any IC discussion/communication of tactics if needed. We haven't yet cut it close on any runs, but my experience so far is based on the early to mid-game dungeons.

Since it's come up, I have to agree that you can't really be 100% totally IC and never speak OOC. There's always going to be a need to talk OOCly, whether it's to apologize for your character being a jerk, planning when to get together, or deciding on company actions -- and that's even before you get into fellowship with your fellow players. Smile

Every group and player has their own style on this; Mysterium, for instance, has a fair amount of IC and OOC LS chatter in its two linkshells, but we also get together for IC dungeons and in-person RP ad hoc (usually based on those IC LS interactions). Some groups prefer to only do in-person RP, while others stick purely to their LS. Some do all PvE IC, others keep it all OOC. That's one of the major reasons I advocate groups having a charter that anyone can view that explains their RP style, since "heavy RP" or "45-75% IC" doesn't really capture the depth of what a group is actually like.

Cato · **09-25-2013, 12:57 PM**

I actually like the instance timers since they tend to keep people on their toes regardless as to whether they're in a dungeon IC or OOC. After all, it isn't particularly realistic to have all the time in the world to break into an enemy stronghold and poke around at a leisurely pace. Once the timer runs out I tend to assume that the band of adventurers is forced to retreat or even killed as a result of being unable to deal with the various threats occupying the instance before enemy reinforcements arrive.

Ninety minutes is also a pretty decent chunk of time, especially if you add potentially lengthy queue times on top of it. I've only failed a dungeon once due to the timer running out and that was due to being stuck with a group that just couldn't seem to grasp the mechanics of the Garuda fight no matter how many times I tried to explain it to them. If you're role-playing in a dungeon you don't necessarily need to get to the end of the dungeon, either. If I decide to use Satasha as a generic pirate stronghold for some role-play then I'd probably settle for reaching one of the middle rooms instead of going right to the end.

FreelanceWizard · **09-25-2013, 01:35 PM**

I have to confess that, while the timer does make IC PvE a bit more challenging to do (it'll sharpen your typing skills, that's for sure), I actually like the sense of urgency it provides both IC and OOC. Then again, when Mysterium does IC PvE, we're RPing "field work" of some sort -- the IC setup involves an actual expedition with a specific objective, and so the timer has IC relevance (enemy reinforcements, the Aetheric disturbance growing out of control, the mine collapsing, or what have you).

That said, I think EQ's Lost Dungeons of Norrath was probably one of the best MMO concepts before or since, and all of its missions were also timed instances, so I have a bias. Smile

VonSchlichten · **09-25-2013, 02:26 PM**

My experience with running RP groups is to keep everything IC as much as possible. Roleplaying doesn't always mean speaking in long winded terms of phrase.Â If you are in a combat situation, you do not break out your prose and speak eloquently about the situation.Â You speak in short phrases, sometime laden with profanity.

As long as you keep the topics of conversation about the task at hand while avoiding breaking the 4th wall, you are staying in character.Â Â If some directions cannot be translated into IC without lots of writing, I use OOC brackets within a message.

Example:

"When you see its health get to 5%, burst DPS it down ASAP!"

"When you see it's near death ((5%)) hit it with everythin ya got!"

_____________________________________________________

You can even make more silly emotes to explain things like AFKs.

"brb afk 5min"
vs
emote: "*suddenly falls asleep standing up ((afk 5 min))"

"brb smoke break. be back in 5"
vs
"*takes out his pipe from his robe and lights it ((smoke break ))

Coral Ferrinas · **09-25-2013, 10:22 PM**

Thank you for all of your reply. It gave me more insights and understandings of how you guys operate ICly.

For some of the replies above, we do have a LS (also named Gridania Surveyors) that serves as our OOC channel. Thus we have FC channel that is IC, and LS channel that is OOC. The problem is we spend most of our time in OOC chat. In fact, we hardly ever use the FC channel at all.

I originally thought that we could use some advice in learning how to translate OOC to IC, and thus making the transition easier. Now that I have read all of your replies, I think another problem we have is the fact that we don't much talk ICly.Â

I think we need to figure out how to tackle this. For example, we need to move some of the in-game topics from OOC to IC chat. I was thinking, may be, someone could mentions how to make gil OOCly, and I'll just try to speak of it ICly and continue the topic in IC chat. I hope it works.

From OOC to IC

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes