Atlantic Roleplay Community Boards

[Lady LaBelle]

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Look, whatever started it that was inappropriate, most of us are not aware of...less you are referring to the first meeting in Skara which I found to be much more OOC than IC...but so are those times I have walked upon Regency officials PVP'ing, and talking OOC, when I was IC and stepped into the area, or much like peoples arrangement of things over Alliance so that a female and a prospective abductor are in the same vicinity to further or begin a Role Play scenerio, what of OOC manipulations to see that someone is placed into a position, happens all to often...Do all of these instances not leave player such as myself, forced as you say into situations, or rather in most, forced out of situations. I use the word forced, ever lightly. These again are not for me to judge, monitor or regulate, they happen, often in fact. And I nor you are to say that it is "right".

Please Arines, yes, the guidlines to Role Play are clear, I have no use for any more lists of standards to keep with, I am already conservative in my Role Plays, and catious of what standards are, have been and will be held in this and all online Role Playing Communities.

[Drayden Calamyr]

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Well....this is certainly decent conversation going on.

I will DEFINENTLY agree that here in ARPC everyone seems to have a different idea of RP is.

Separation of the community is necessary if and only if the people involved have separate ideas what RP truly is. In my opinion, it seems like there's a clash between people that want scripted RP the ones that don't. RP is RP. Regardless of wether or not it's scripted. I come from a dynamic and involved tabletop roleplaying background. I have run games and storylines for years and years, so with that burned into my brain, I HATE scripted RP. As a GM I wrote stories and the players interacted in the story. Anyone who has played any tabletop rpg knows that it requires some abstract thinking to be a GM.
At NO point would I ask: (example)
"Well, is it okay if the Dark Prince takes over?" before he actually did.
The PCs of course would be given chances throughout the storyline to stop him. And it might have come to the point where he actually won.

Thats simply not how my mind works in roleplaying. There are things that OOC or IC that no one would know besides me in that particular game.
Why did I do it this way? Well, it wouldn't be much fun if I didn't. The players would get bored quickly if I told them what was going on behind the scenes.

Asking me to "clear" things with others in what I consider an open RP community is like asking me to join the KKK. I don't want to godmode, force RP or whatever.

But a small group of people saying that RP is one way and litterally forcing everyone to adhere to scripted/ask for permission to start a story is ludicrous. Will things get taken personally? Most likely it always happens to someone.

So, with that in mind. Try to understand how I think.
RP breaks down(for me) like this:

I know tabletop and UO RP are very different. I know this very well as I am a vet of both. I don't know about everyone else, but if the next part of a story is dependent on the actions of the characters, then I wait for them to act. And then progress the story based on their actions.

In UO, a similar concept applies. If the "improv RP" (meaningless term for me, since that what all RP is to me.)takes hold and people are having fun then its all good.

Maybe the solution here isn't necessarily deciding what RP is for us, maybe we should take our egos down, stop the gods coming to sossaria, and all of the OUTRAGEOUS storylines that get thrown out there. Maybe some people should slow their roll and stop worrying about how much a another story will hurt yours. If we're going to have HUGE storylines with GODS involved. Shouldn't alot more people be involved with it? Shouldn't it be controlled a little more so everyone isn't randomly throwing out their stories?

If its an OOC comittee thats needed so be it. But don't make it a form of government. We need people that can take the stories in and apply them to the RP world we have established here. A group that can be unbaised and accurate.

This group should be able to manage the storylines, give each person the info their character would have, regulate the story's progress and most importantly who's involved. This is a rough idea so far, but I could have more detailed info on it later on.

And keep it off the boards if it isn't known by everyone. Its hard to keep OOC knowledge out of the equation if everything is openly posted here. And everyone can read the other side of the story. I'm not saying we have to do this. Just think about it, everyone. It could work. If it was given a chance. And some time.

[Malo]

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Drayden you made some good points. I am also a veteran of Table games like D&D. and although as you said many aspects would not crossover well to UO, just the fact that you have raised these ideas point out the confusion and it's causes in UO. some want to control a scenario to death and others have no idea what to do with their scenarios. Too many people think they are great playwrights. I say less scenarios and more spontaneous interaction and let the play evolve on it's own.
_________________
Guildmaster of the Legion of Honor
You get more with a polite word and a sword than with just a polite word
"The most merciful thing in the world is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents"- H.P. Lovecraft

[Teh Glouris Lrod Kujabis]

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[Arcana]

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Malo, that was really well put.

I think that what happens often in these discussions, and I see some of that in this thread, is that many people bounce between two extremes of "RP Nazis" and "RP anarchists" and don't strike that common-sense balance in between. In an ideal world all that would be needed OOC was for people to say "hey, what time will you be online? I wanna RP." and then everything goes from there.

But, things unfortunately aren't quite that simple and something inbetween is needed. I don't think it so much matters what the standards are per se, so long as people agree that they should be followed and there are actually consequences for the standards being violated or disregarded in a disrespectful way (penalizing someone for an honest mistake like the occasional lol would be the nazi way, and this isn't what we're talking about there).

I do think however, that the people who say things like "far be it from me to tell anyone how to RP" etc. are being unrealistic and are just fooling themselves. I doubt that there is anyone out there who truly does not care how others RP.

[Sir Robert]

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First...

I consider we have for one, the Greater Roleplaying Community, which consists of anyone who roleplays, be it in ARPC or FAR or independents who are neutral or simply wont be bothered with officially joining one subcommunity or not. Since ARPC and FAR often play together, we are part of one community. We just have two different forums. And is it IC or OOC? It both.. It is IC interaction from OOC people. IC and OOC affect each other and they can't be as easily seperated as one would cut good meat from too much fat. It's the whole slab of pork chops that counts.

Also, being a former D&D Dungeon Master and Player myself, I know the headaches that come if you plan a game/story too detailed. You have to learn to wing it and be flexible.
But... No scenarios or stories, but just spontaneous interaction? I played that before and it turned into a stagnant soapopera where more or less nothing happens. But a scenario where everything is scripted? That's just one person telling a story without true interaction from the others, not that good either. What is needed, in my opinion at least, is a middle thing. A spontaneous surrounding with events/scenarios that are open. Where the creator of the story is able to adapt and has contingency plans. What happens if what he hopes happens, but also with a plan of what happens when it doesnt happen, without pulling a godmoding deus ex machina.
But what about forcing rp onto someone? I personally think that if you force something onto someone that clearly and definetely affects someone's character, guild or alliance it shows a huge lack of respect for that player. If someone would make a story where he finds a way to kill all Dodo's I'd say "screw you", and ignore it. Same happens with posts that would affect Trinsic, building burned, people killed. I would find either a way to lessen the impact on Trinsic, or if necessary I would ask to stop it. However, it also needs to be done in a timely fashion. To simply stand back and say "Let's see what happens first" is like saying "okay, have at it". And it needs to be done in a polite fashion. Screaming and bitching and cramming your words down the throats of the other person doesnt solve anything. It just increases the other persons stubborness.

Remember... We all play that game for FUN. We PAY for it. Please respect each other and each others way of roleplaying.

The Player of Sir Robert.

PS.: Yes, I know I was rambling.
_________________
Reality, the refuge of those who fail in RPGs

Though this be madnes, yet there's method in't

[Arcana]

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Robert's post made me realize that the short version of what I am trying to say is that a "RP community" is a place where someone can comment OOC that something done IC was too controversial, dumb or otherwise uncalled for and subsequently have a short and simple discussion to resolve the issue to if not everyone's satisfaction at least to a mutually agreeable compromise... not a multi-thread flame war (which is what happens historically ).

[Teh Glouris Lrod Kujabis]

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[Arines]

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Here is the wiki definition of godmoding...this has great info on different variations that some could describe as forced RP. Think perhaps with these in a mind a guideline and consequenses should be set.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godmoding
_________________
"There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." -Washington Irving-

[Molly]

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Alright. Sorry it took me so long but I have been intrenched with dealing with family. I have a few moments now to respond and I will try to make it as simple as I can.

Roleplay Community: anyone that roleplays on the Atlantic shard whether they are part of one group or another or independent of either group.

I refered to 'the Community' in my post on the ic board as a group of people that live under the same sky in sosaria not as a roleplay community. It would be obvious that those interested parties would be roleplayers. The reference refered to the members of the League of Nations as a community of membership.

The members that join the League would be representing guilds or kingdoms or cities, perhaps I should have made that a little clearer. I refer to guilds all the time in game or out personally. To me guild is a group of people under a guild leader, like the Legion of Honor. But in the cases of specific groups such as Sanctus they are a Kingdom, the House of the Gauntlet is a guild they have no specific area they call a kingdom. Only I and Will have a title of Grand Duche and the House of the Gauntlet is only the caretakers of Luna under the Grand Duke and Duchess not the leaders of that city. I hope that clarifies what I refered to in the ic post.

Now for the OOC post:

Incorporated in the background must be a group of people to represent their guilds to further some skelleton plots to keep things moving. Otherwise we have 'Mary had a fight with Jim over some silly flirtation with the barmaid. On her way home to cruse him out she was kidnapped by Vlad the Impailer and demands their first born child as payment for her return. This involves 3 people and if the rest of us don't know them *shrugs* why are we going to go rescue her? Her guild leader is out of town and has no clue about the roleplay and the poor girl is held and tortured for two months until the gm comes back to handle a rescue. By then she is either dead or pregnant by the second in command for Vlad because Vlad got bored and quit the game. This still only involves one guild and one bad guy cause the guild has fallen apart since both the gms have left.'

OR Molly get's married again or kidnapped again...who wants that? Not me!

With some forsight from a group of guild leaders they can work to form some skelliton plots...example the Isk plot. Without some conversation between guild leaders this would have fallen apart years ago. And as bigger things come along it goes dorment on the back burner until something else happens to bring it back to light.

I hope that helps.
_________________
Grand Duchess Molly Kaldhel
Oracle of Truth
The House Gauntlet
Sanctus, Luna, Malas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXoGDbJ5nLU
_______________________
"In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman."
-Margaret Thatcher-

[Bailos]

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At the request of the original poster and after they have had a chance to clarify themselves, I am locking this post.

I am pleased with the positive discussion. If there are more questions regarding this topic, I encourage you to PM or ICQ Molly, or if there is an unrelated question you may start a new topic.