How many people are actually "open" to RP? I remember I used to be when I was a newb. I didn't really start my characters with their entire life thought out, and thus if I had a really good interaction within the game I didn't mind rolling with someone else and letting that affect which direction my character went and what path I would take during the course of it. My most memorable time I had (with Ocelevan 2-3 years into playing) was when this grimey ass thief (Doccrann or something) wanted to be Kingpin. Now I had no intentions of ever going kingpin but my thief was about honor and I couldn't let him have and I ended up doing a whole ####load of stuff with the character just based off that. The Imms gave me some love too and I ran with it. However if I had went into that char with a 2 page role and I had already decided everything I was going to do before I even rolled him I doubt I would have gone that far and I definitely wouldn't have had as much fun. This has been the course most of my recent characters have taken and I think I'm going to take a step back and go with something simple next time and let the world of Thera actually take over for once again.


So yeah... my question would be how many of you are actually open to RP? Do you let other people sway you if you feel like your CHARACTER would have let them, or is it all the person behind the computer playing the character? Do you let random immteractions and events and stuff maybe shape the way your character acts or has it all been preconceived and you find yourself unable to bend? This sparked up when someone said it would e unacceptable for someone to use coins and then join Outlander and someone said that it would be fair if they didn't know they were going Outlander from the jump and it just made me realize that for the past two or three years I haven't played a char just to play one, which has seriously drained my fun factor out of the game. Anyone else having the same problem with the "this is what my character is going to do instead of playing the character and letting him do what he does" thing?


Also for the imms... do you like it better when someone comes into a character knowing exactly who they are and what they want to do and where they're going to go or somebody who has a basic role and RPs their character the way they feel he should actually act and maybe even "break" RP a little bit in the name of "not breaking RP"? <--- a little confusing but hopefully you get what I mean. Obviously you're not going to get the 1500+ EXP bonus for the masterful role you wrote that explains every nook and cranny about where you came from and where your character is headed with his life, all neatly packed into a pocket-sized novel, but do you consider giving out random EXP or even just recognizing when someone does something very "him-ish"? Just some random thoughts on my way out. I knew I'd forget by the time i got back.

If you are a player whose shelf life for an average character is 100 hours, your character doesn't really have time to evolve in a way that most of the people around you will feel can be justified.

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Personally I appreciate characters who I can see developing over time and have tried to emulate that with my own. Dynamic, evolving characters however are challenging on a number of levels. On one hand I appreciate it when I talk to a character who doesn't seem to have 'all the answers' . It limits precisely how I can interact with another character if I get a sense that they have no room for development... this is probably a common feeling that several immortals and cabal leaders have.

On the other hand, I can see the difficulty in being someone who is seeking entrance to a cabal or a religion who wants to say all the right things to gain entrance or acceptance. It is unfortunate that some people are delayed acceptance because they have not answered questions perfectly.

I find this to be unfortunate because I can tell you as someone who has spoken with many characters over a long span of time as a cabal leader that we get tired of hearing the same cliche responses over and over. So I have always made it a point of interviewing people in such a way that they can express their own character's feelings but also lead them toward certain conclusions that their character may not have had previously. Often times I can sense that there is an experienced player behind the RP of a young or even naive character...but it is not always easy to discern such things.

Then there is the example of someone using coins early in their character's life and later choosing to become an Outlander. I believe that you can have an evolving character without...exploiting, in a sense, game mechanics for your own ease of play. I'm not going to say doing something like this is totally wrong, but in imho it simply isn't necessary and doesn't always equate to character development. Is it possible that something happens to your character and they have a change of heart and do a 180 in their ideology? Yes. Can this happen without game mechanics such as the one described above involved? Yes.

It's a tricky and difficult thing to do, but evolving RP in my opinion is worth the inherent difficulties and I for one, respect players who give it a shot.

Meaning that I, as a player, know what I want with the character. But does the character know? Nope.

For instance, the character might not have decided whether to be Fort, or Tribunal or whatever. But I, as a player, will gear his actions to make that clear to him. I might put myself in a position where I can be convinced, or something.

The way I figure it, when Iw as 17 I didn't know what the hell I wanted in my life. My beliefs then aren't the same as my beliefs now (9 years later). And my beliefs now won't be the same as what they will be 10 years from today.

So my roles are typically a background, with some kind of hint to the characters current personality. Everything else is open, pending the characters future experiences (even if I, as a player, know what I expect to happen).

Some examples of my last three chars:

Deiha, Lyristeon following healer, sphere deception.

Could go either Scion or Outlander, decided to go Scion to take it over and hand it to Lyristeon sorta. ^^ Based on what would happend to Deiha during her life, I decided she would take either path. But she wasn't THAT open as the next two:

Kreo, evil thief, started out with a VERY basic role, no real goals. Had fun while playing and with the sphere greed I decided that it would suit Kreo to become Kingpin. I had 0 plans to go empire, didn't even consider it until I had played roughly 200 hours. First he was thinking of going villager, but decided that it would hamper his ability to make gold, then he was certain that he'd become a Scion, but he got turned down by the chancellor who saw through his scheming for gold. So for a while he decided to be caballess, almost tried to join Heralds since he fell in a love with a herald, but ultimately went Empire after he had a cool interaction with Enlilth (Who by all means didn't want Kreo to go empire.)

Zefta: Evil Arial warrior. All she wanted to do was make her family name immortal. By ANY means. Decided that I'd either go empire or village. Went with Empire but kept the villager door open for a VERY long time. At one point, as an elite blade at lvl 51, I almost got convinced by Gahtho to change to the village, and just the week after Tlingit almost convided Zefta to become a tribunal and seek to become a Vindicator instead. ^^ (But here I put a stop as a player as I knew I'd fail that goal with the legacys she'd have, wouldn't have given me much fun.)

I always write my roles quite open, so that they actually do leave room for interaction to change the way my chars think or act if the interaction does enough impact. It brings ALOT more fun into the game for me. And for me RP is 75% of the game. :D I just LOVE the feeling I have when I logg out after a long interaction with other players or imms. :D

to explain why a char might do what he does. Why did suddenly leave the blade sect to become a villager? Or why did he leave the tribunal to become a dread lord? Why did he abandon the fortress and travel alone?

I almost forgot about my char Bjorn who actually had that intention, become maran, then #### up big time and get booted, travel alone for a time trying to find himself, and either letting the rage take over and join Scion perhaps, or overcome his troubles with rage and rejoin the fortress. ^^ (Was going for alignment change either way to either neutral or evil, then either stay evil or go goodly again.)

The impact of events that occur during the life of my character will be different according to my character's world view.

e.g. Where one might be killed by a village and hate villagers, another might be killed by a villager and fear them. Depends on their original role.