Great Guides to Roleplay

Mr. Erth · 05-13-08, 01:27 AM

The brilliant DivisionByZero from the City of Arabel NWN RP-PW has written some EXCELLENT guides to roleplaying. Both people who have never roleplayed before and old timers who've been at it for years can use these guides.

The Art of Roleplaying
Mostly for newbies, this guide contains:

Roleplaying and In Character Defined
Rolling with the Punches
Balancing Realism and Fun
What is OOC Consideration, really?
Retiring a Character
Respectful Disagreement

Mr. Erth · 05-13-08, 01:29 AM

Next up, Roleplaying a Character: Tips and Tricks
This one isn't complete yet, but still contains some great tips, especially for clerics.

Mr. Erth · 05-13-08, 01:33 AM

Last but not least, Creating and Developing Lasting Characters
Don't forgot to read Moloch's guide to characterization!

These two guides have proved themselves invaluable to me when it comes to creating a character. While everything in these guides are, of course, just opinions and up for discussion, then I do believe one could benefit greatly from them in terms of adding depth to characters.

I hope others will enjoy these as much as I did

Filatus · 05-13-08, 04:25 AM

Still reading, but from what I've read so far this is great.

Acacea · 05-13-08, 10:18 AM

I've always liked their guides, as well as just about any character creation guide that encourages thought. It's never really too late to apply these to your characters, either...in fact, it is good to look over them again periodically, in my opinion. The older or higher level your characters get, the harder it is sometimes to remember what they're kicking around for other than the loot and XP. Sure, most of us like to adventure, it's fun, but why do they adventure?

It's good to re-evaluate the server every so often and re-think your character's goals and motivations, especially when so much has been changing around the place... how a character has changed, what new phobias or favorites they've picked up, what factions they associate with freely... though most of us try to maintain a sense of change and development, it's easy to either a) get in a rut where you just fall into the same old same old or b) get almost too involved and lose track of your character's priorities and visions. Look the characterization over again and change some stuff around and freshen up a bit. ...Or find out maybe you need a new character.

For example, after Bloodstone was destroyed, a lot of players re-evaluated their characters and asked, "What is their purpose for hanging around? I don't really feel like they belong anywhere anymore or have a place." and retired those characters. It's kind of a bummer on one hand, but on the other, at least they're not just sitting on the benches as tired old has-beens if they weren't really feeling it.

So don't wait for a new character... look and see if there are things that can flesh out your current ones, too.

Mr. Erth · 05-13-08, 10:28 AM

Yeah, especially the goals bit is a great help to keeping a character interesting to play. The more, the merrier I say, as it'll give you something to choose from. Hmm, I've finally realized my dream of learning to play the lute, what should I do know? Should I try to pursue my dream of becoming a legend swordsmith or maybe attempt to find my father's murderer? No wait, I'll go look for the divine rod of fishing (+5) and catch the King Cod!

Well... So maybe that wasn't the best example, but you all catch my (and Acacea's) drift, right? With goals, your character will always have purpose and will be interesting to play as and with.

Filatus · 05-13-08, 11:29 AM

I recognized Daeron a lot in the part about retiring a character. After Blood was defeated, he made the founding of Stort his one remaining goal in life, but when that one came to fruition there was little left. At least not enough to keep my interest.

He lacked the drive because he was to a degree very successful and had little left to strive for. For all intense and purpose, he's pretty much retired. Though I would have preferred to have seen him retire in a more gratifying manner.

I've considered ways to retire him several times, but there never seemed to be a good way that I could find. And the longer you way, the more you get out of touch with your PC and people even forget about him.

There's something sad about characters just fading away. It is so much better to go out with a bang like Varka did. But for Daeron that moment passed a long time ago.

So I would say that retiring your PC in a satisfactory manner is not easy. It's easy to be tempted to keep them around, just in case. But if you don't put much thought into it, they can just fade away.

Acacea · 05-13-08, 11:33 AM

I wasn't really talking about Daeron in particular...it happened to a lot of people. Even Acacea at some points, but more because of the content shift after... her problem was too many goals that were no longer recognized by anyone as achievable. Strangely though, your comment about wishing Daeron had gone out better gave me a few ideas on old characters and proper endings. Maybe we could figure something out for the ones that fell through the cracks and give them a last go sometime. :P