Hey guys.

Me and a friend are hunting around right now for a good RP Mud to get involved with, and -- surprise -- we obviously found Carrion Fields. We like the place: we like that it's Smaug, which we're used to. We like that it's an "immersive" IC world in that you're in-character all the time -- we also both love the Role system, too! We understand that the game is very PK-Intensive, and while neither of us have a "heavy" PK history, we're willing to give it a go -- neither of us are new to PK, either, but that alone isn't a full draw for us.

What we really want to know is the style of RP that takes place here on Carrion Fields because we're having a hard time figuring that out. Does the Role Playing consist mostly of the PK and a bit of interaction or such, things with multiple says, socials, etcetc, or is there more there?

What we want is a place that engages in conflict roleplaying -- you guys obviously have that to some degree with the cabals -- but also has in-depth RP that's more than just fighting people code-wise. We prefer longer emote styles, where there might be a few minutes between posts, even. Ultimately, we'd be happy to find a place that just has the ability to be a deep, immersive rp experience where we're able to tell and share a story with others. Both of us have made characters and like the system but have concerns about the style of roleplaying being one that we really mesh with.

So, do you guys think Carrion Fields -- or a certain Cabal or group in Carrion Fields -- might fit the bill?

Thanks a lot,

Gale.

In Carrion Fields, roleplay means that you behave like your character would while playing in the game, without going OOC. Roleplay of a hostile character would involve chopping you into pieces without an advance warning, just like an enemy soldier would kill you in a war. While what you see in this situation might not differ from what you get from a PKer with no roleplay, the attacker is probably acting according to his own roleplay when attacking you.

Playerkilling in CF is driven by roleplay and characters are expected to have a reason to attack someone. However, they are not required to communicate this reason to the victim. Due to the fact that hostile characters attack/avoid each other on sight, it is rarely possible for them to sit down in a same room and communicate with emotes and says. However, CF has a tell command that allows you to speak to any character online, not depending on their location. Interaction between hostile characters is handled mainly by on tells.

As for emoting, most people do use both emotes and premade socials as part of their roleplay. CF can be fairly fast-paced at times, but there can be calmer moments which allow the use of longer emotes. In places of relative safety such as the Inn of Eternal Star, it is possible to have a slower-paced emote interaction, but most people in CF are not used to waiting a few minutes for your emote, so it would be generally wise to adapt to that. So rather than long emotes that take few minutes to write and think up, it would be advisable to use medium ones with a quicker response than those few minutes or break your long emote down into shorter parts if it can be done.

As for creating your own stories via roleplaying and sharing them with others, that can be done in CF as long as you remember that you can't make others to act according to a prewritten script and that you shouldn't script up in advance things your PKing abilities can't back up.

Anyway, welcome to CF!

Think about common quirks of your character and things they do often. However, either don't over use them. Will just be annoying if you scratch your crotch every 10 seconds. Also, if you do this, try to have a large number of them instead of just 3-4 that you use all the time.

Most characters do not, in fact, use a ton of emotes and esays. The role-playing is more of the "I have a role and my character behaves in accordance with that role" variety. Like if your evil character has in his role that, for some weird reason, he really loves dwarves and would never harm one, then you should...not harm dwarves. That's role-playing.

Do note that the Herald cabal (and Inn of the Eternal Star) is the typical place where folks who really enjoy sitting around and interacting verbally hang out. That's kind of its niche. But it also doesn't exempt you from the PK environment. You're "somewhat" safer inside the Inn (since bouncers will assist you when you're attacked and you can't be stalked by assassins), but nothing stops someone from running and bashing you down.

From my experience CF RP runs the gamut from non-english speaking players who exist only for PK to deeply complex relationships between mortal enemies.

To be perfectly honest, a good portion of the playerbase leans towards the minimal RP requirements of the MUD, but all it takes to have a very rewarding RP experience is to link up with the right people, of which there are many. Like many things in life, the RP that you get out of the game is based, much of the time, on how much RP you put into it.

It's also been my experience that most quality RP happens either between characters in the same cabal or between characters in diametrically opposed cabals. But, your mileage may vary.

So, welcome and don't get discouraged. It's a tough row to hoe with a very steep learning curve, but the rewards are fantastic.

>Does the Role Playing consist mostly of the PK and a bit of interaction or such, things with multiple says, socials, etcetc

You're free to engage in whatever depths of roleplay, just be ready that not everyone will be willing to play along. Please understand that not all roles lend themselves to chatting or even explaining the reasons of one's actions. Also, some people just enjoy the competitive aspect or focus on exploration and so only do the bare minimum of RP.

That being said, there is still a lot of space for roleplaying, at least in comparison to every other mud I have known. I personally will be happy to have you around because I like to talk more than to PK and there are never too many people to do so.

tl;dr
Things that are valued in this mud:
Following your role > PK Quality > Verbal interaction > Everything else.

It depends on the path you take, and even then it can vary from one char to another, even within the same cabal.

I find that you get as much RP out of people as you care to put in, for the most part. There will always be the guys who are just there to PK you, take shinies, and move on to the next. Heck that's even a valid role. But there will be others who will kill you and call on you to doubt your beliefs and whatnot.

And of course the RP between allies is quite a bit deeper than all of that. Again depending on the cabal and type of character, you can go from allied buddy-buddy beer-swilling comrades-in-arms to carrying out a full life with someone you marry, IC.

If you're thinking that you want more in-depth RP, storytelling, lots of emoting and such, I'd suggest you try a Herald of the Eternal Star-type character first. Even if you don't get inducted, you can still sit in (relative) safety at the Inn and interact with Heralds and all sorts of adventurers who come in for a bit of RP.

Welcome and hope you enjoy your stay here at CF! Don't take it personally if you get PK'd! :)

Hey guys, thanks for the answers!

The Heralds really weren't on my radar as far as Cabals go, but honestly I was still fumbling about trying to come up with a good character concept to play with anyways and figure I'll go and give it a shot.

And yeah, I don't mind a PK environment, it's just not all I look for. But it's better to have a ton of PK than absolutely none, imho.