how to roleplay

[Proskill]

i have never played on rp server. how does roleplaying actually look like ? what do u do ?? to me its something artificial u guys do. theres no reward for it like there is for pve or pvp, u force urself to do it. whats the point of it (fun i guess), and how do u do it ?

[Sal the Shieldhog]

There really is no reward, other than fun memories and such. It's just another way to play.

There are a bunch of ways you can do it. The majority of us tend to role play in the game itself to some extent, as well as a group outside of the game itself (dice rolls and all that), and here are well. All ways have their similarities and differences, but retain some basic rules, like godmoding is a big no-no, being "Illidan/Arthas' half-dragon half-gnome warrior-priest love child" and such is another.

Generally, all RPs have some some sort of backstory for their character, and tend to act as that character as they role play them. For example, I'm a cheerful, sociable fellow IRL, but one of my characters is a sullen, silent-type assassin who generally doesn't talk unless she feels its worth saying something. I place myself in my character's shoes, try to act and feel how they would. That sort of thing. It's kind of like acting, instead of dressing up and doing it in real life, I'm doing it through an avatar or a pen and paper (and dice).

If you look around, there are a few RPs here that show how we do it on MMO-C itself. If I'm not mistaken, Maddy has some videos of our old pen and paper sessions lying around, and I'm sure there are videos on YouTube or twitch or similar sites showing how some people do it in the game itself.

[Karnak]

Make it consensual with all players involved being able to make decisions and contributions. When doing something to another character state it in a way that makes it an attempt and allows the other player to play through the event. If you RP doing something to another character as already done it takes the control of the other player's character out of their hands.

This is wrong:
Bob: "Valkash grabs Edinya and throws her to the floor."
It is wrong because Edinya's player is taken out of the flow and is having decisions made for her. She can respond that she dodges the attack, but that is awkwardly rewriting what has been stated to have already occurred.

This is right:
Bob: "Valkash tries to grab Edinya and throw her to the floor."
Because Edinya's player now has choice to reply with:
Sarah: "Edinya ducks back and evades Valkash's attack."
Or
Sarah: "Edinya dodges back, but Valkash catches hold of her arm, but she manages to maintain her feet when Valkash tries to spin her down."
Or
Sarah: "Edinya is surprised by Valkash's sudden attack and struggles to catch her breath after having it knocked out when she was thrown to the floor."
Or something else.

This is, of course, a two way street. Nobody wants to RP with somebody who persistently tries to control other player's characters, but nobody also wants to RP with somebody who's character is always successful or better than everybody else's characters.

I suppose one could come up with a dice based system, or point based system, but that seems overly complex. Well, now I am intrigued about how a point based system would work. Hmmm.