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Naunet · **07-02-2013, 12:06 PM**

(07-02-2013, 08:56 AM)FreelanceWizard Wrote: As for ignoring quest storyline generally, I personally feel that ignoring it out of hand leans towards lore breaking (after all, the quests establish a lot of the lore). It's a fine line between incorporating the storyline and the lore it contains into your story and using too much of it to become The One True Hero. In my experience, rejecting quest storylines entirely is only really common in some MMOs, but that's a topic for another thread.

I wasn't saying ignore the lore that takes place as though it doesn't exist. I was just saying that it's typical for roleplayers to acknowledge that their character is not the specific person doing the quest (especially if it's an important plot point). This true especially for non-combat characters, but even typical "fighter" characters in my experience don't really RP the quest storyline (not ignoring the lore: just not incorporating the quest storyline into their character's story).

FreelanceWizard · **07-02-2013, 02:31 PM**

Like I said, some games promote that more than others. In CoH, for example, it was pretty common to tie the various plots in to your character, "genericizing" elements as required. Using one of the last dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King in WoW as an example, in my experience, you have some people who say the events happened but they weren't involved ("I never fought the Lich King"), some who say they were involved but as one part of a larger group ("I was part of the last great battle against the Lich King"), and some who genericize the event ("I fought a really powerful undead in the service of the Lich King"). The first approach is totally fine unless you're running around in gear that only comes from that dungeon, because then you have to explain how you got ahold of it IC... unless you want to tell people that you look different than your character model, and to me, at least, that's pretty immersion-breaking.

Of course, you also have people who say the event never happened "in their storyline," which I think we can all agree is Not Good.

moody · **07-02-2013, 02:42 PM**

(07-02-2013, 02:31 PM)FreelanceWizard Wrote: Like I said, some games promote that more than others. In CoH, for example, it was pretty common to tie the various plots in to your character, "genericizing" elements as required.

Not doing this and being determined to keep all of the plot elements IC on a character caused me to quit playing my main for 6 months or so at one point because of a major plot point for 'natural' characters where they put a techno-wizardry heart pump into your character... which if you followed the IC plot pretty much meant they weren't natural anymore.Â

I had a plot arc for that character and she died near the end of one of the final dungeons ICly. I took several months and finally wrote out an extended story to explain the intervening time and altered her personality and setup accordingly off-screen while hooking into other character arcs with permission to bring her back and finish off her story satisfyingly. And yes, for those wondering, she stayed dead after. Retcon/magic resurrection setups cheapen that kind of plot event imo.

Quote:Using one of the last dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King in WoW as an example, in my experience, you have some people who say the events happened but they weren't involved ("I never fought the Lich King"), some who say they were involved but as one part of a larger group ("I was part of the last great battle against the Lich King"), and some who genericize the event ("I fought a really powerful undead in the service of the Lich King"). The first approach is totally fine unless you're running around in gear that only comes from that dungeon, because then you have to explain how you got ahold of it IC... unless you want to tell people that you look different than your character model, and to me, at least, that's pretty immersion-breaking.

You can also pretty easily say that your purchased it, traded for it, or were given it as a gift after saving the life of an off-screen adventurer who was involved in that particular battle. Possibilities are pretty endless without resorting to "my character doesn't look like this". I do think you should respect the uniqueness of that kind of gear by working out an IC explanation for it that's better than "Well I was walking around and found it" or that your supposedly non-combat character killed the hero of [whatever] or won it in an epic duel of some sort. Though I've seen those too.

Quote:Of course, you also have people who say the event never happened "in their storyline," which I think we can all agree is Not Good.

I agree with that. It's like going into a shared fiction anthology work and ignoring the world bible. Poor form imo, but I solve it by not playing with those people and end up placing them on ignore if they won't accept a friendly "I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in your form of RP."

FreelanceWizard · **07-02-2013, 03:54 PM**

(07-02-2013, 02:42 PM)moody Wrote: You can also pretty easily say that your purchased it, traded for it, or were given it as a gift after saving the life of an off-screen adventurer who was involved in that particular battle. Possibilities are pretty endless without resorting to "my character doesn't look like this". I do think you should respect the uniqueness of that kind of gear by working out an IC explanation for it that's better than "Well I was walking around and found it" or that your supposedly non-combat character killed the hero of [whatever] or won it in an epic duel of some sort. Though I've seen those too.

Yep! That's exactly what I'm getting at. Smile

The important thing is to have a plausible explanation for why your character has something "weird" about them. If you've got that, you're golden.

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So if IC =/= IG...

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