What kind of RP partners would you like most?

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AuthorTopic: What kind of RP partners would you like most?
Shock Trooper
Member # 3980
Profile Homepage #0
Read through some recent RPs and just registered to ask this question.
The yearning for some ideal RP partners appears to me much closer to fulfilment on this board than the more (carnal/fleshly/sensual/animal) preferences or desires that can be discussed here only in theory - at the price of preventing oneself to make any progress towards fulfilment in reality.

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Wisdom grows from trying to find structure in our experience - looking backwards in time - while living goes forward.
Theories are expectations that help us live forward - like possible ways to put the mosaic together. If they are worth the effort to remember, they should predict something and in case the prediction does not work out with time they should autodestruct.
And then there is something that we cannot test - something we have inherited in form of customs, attitudes, culture and the spirit of stories told and retold - that is like our individual SQUARE ONE.
This runs deeper than we can know.
Posts: 311 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00
Master
Member # 1046
Profile Homepage #1
hard to say. i tend to play the cunning and/or agile assassin/thief/samurai kinda character, though in one currently ongoing RP i'm a general. i guess a good partner would be someone willing to play the meatshield. IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/tongue.gif)

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Urban wisdom is not actual wisdom. It's more like the seemingly philosophical statements that sometimes leak out of my strange mind through my mouth, or in the case of message boards, my hands.
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Clan Xeon - Warcraft III clan
Polaris - Weather Balloons YAY
Undead Theories - Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Posts: 3323 | Registered: Thursday, April 25 2002 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3377
Profile #2
The ideal RP partner... hm. One who reads all the posts, keeps the characters in character and shows respect for the other RPers. As for individual styles, everyone's different. IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/smile.gif)

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From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant fins the slumbering green.
Posts: 356 | Registered: Saturday, August 23 2003 07:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #3
I prefer people that aren't afraid to take control of characters, as long as they play them in a reasonable way. Someone who's read all of the posts and knows how the characters think and would act, and how they can separately keep that information from their own character.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
====
Drakefyre's Demesne - Vahnatai Did Do It
desperance.net - We're Everywhere
The Arena - God Will Sort The Dead
====
You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
Profile #4
Dead ones.

EDIT: SOrry, wrong thread.

[ Saturday, February 14, 2004 03:26: Message edited by: Distantly Bemused ]

--------------------
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
I'll tell you my story, man
Though I wish I'd never been born
I'm loose at the seams,
I've broken my dreams
And my hand it shakes the pen
Come on, come on now baby,
Let the good times roll again
Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #5
There was a right thread for that?
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
One Thousand Slimy Things
Member # 66
Profile #6
Yes, most likely the "What kind of girls do you like" -thread. Not sure if that answer gives me any comfort.

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Saundersw3: And bitter is better!
Posts: 995 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #7
I like RPing with people who enjoy placing events or themes in the story beyond that which appears at the forefront. This, of course, is the reason why Ring of Fire was burnt in an effigy.

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We're all amazed but not amused
By all the things that you said you'd do.
You're much concerned but not involved by
Decisions that are made by you
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song,
Telling us how you are going to change right from wrong,
'Cause if you really want to hear our views,
You haven't done nothin'.

Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #8
There are, imho, three fundamental types of Roleplayers. These are the Numerical, the Performative, and the Narrative (funny names, I admit, but they fit.)

The numerical RP-ers concentrate on realism and on trying to control the actions of characters through rules. Characteristic is their use of numbers. What I'm getting at is sort of like this (exaggerated into parody of course).

quote:
Tom the adventurer tries to get up, rolls a 7, and succeeds as this is lower than his combined stamina and strength values. He feels a splitting headache, however, and will deduct 1 from Strength, 2 from Dexterity, 1 from Stamina and 4 from Intelligence for the rest of the day until he manages to cure it.

He walks toward his group, who have meanwhile slain the ogre that hit Tom on the head with his club (+2 ?3) [2d8+5], knocking him out (on a roll of 2-4 on d6) rather than instantaneously killing him (1 on d6). Since Tom was not conscious when the ogre was slain, he does not get full experience benefit, but he receives 25% for being conscious for 50% of the rounds, plus 30% for causing 45% of the wounds that slew the ogre. Out of 235 exp points ? as the ogre was aged 28 years and had a strength bonus as well as good armor ? that equals 129 points. Tom advances to Level 13 (receiving the standard curse of ?5 to Luck that will abate upon reaching Level 14), and improves his Stamina by +2. His Sword Skill automatically increases by +3, and he decides to allot the rest of his points into an additional +2 for the Sword skill, lifting it to 26.

The Performative concentrate on *being* their character. They see it all from a first person perspective, and visually. Their RP posts are most like drama scripts. They also are liable to use either 1st person or present tense (or both). Picture Zephyr.

quote:
Tom: *Tom gets up* Ow, my head. *rubs his head, which is hurting badly*

*walks toward his group.*

Other adventurer: *wipes sword clean* We've killed the thing. *points at dead ogre lying on ground.*

Tom: *still holding his head* Good. That beast gave me quite a headache. Well, at least I learned a few things about fighting with a sword. *makes a few practice moves.*

The Narrative, finally, are RP-ers who attempt to write a story about their character. They use 3rd person, past tense, and - most importantly - thoughts and inner monologue. Their character can show development and self-doubt.

quote:
Ouch.

Tom woke, and wished he hadn't. He attempted to get past the clouds of red pain in his brain and into his memories of the last few minutes, and succeeded after a few moments of struggling. There'd been an ogre, and from the enourmous flaming sphere of lava that seemed to be firmly attached to his shoulders in place of a head, he assumed it must have flattened his skull with its enormous club.

After a few moments of colorful lights swirling before his eyes, the mists cleared partly, and he could make out a fellow adventurer looking down at him in concern.

"I'm... all right...", he managed to mumble indistinctly. The words hurt in his ears and jaw as they left his mouth.

"You bet," was the other one's sarcastic remark.

[...]


I think it should be obvious by now which I prefer. IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/biggrin.gif)

Oh yes, and whoever I rp with should have at least some natural apprehension against controlling other players' characters. IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/wink.gif) Aside from that, I think the overpowered PCs aren't an issue, really, because the Narrative players I described earlier don't overpower their characters generally.

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"And all should cry, Beware, Beware!
His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge
---
"It is as if everyone had lost their sense
Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence
And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey.
---
Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Master
Member # 1046
Profile Homepage #9
i use too much conversation and inner monologue actually IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/tongue.gif) . but then again, my main RP character likes to taunt powerful and important foes.

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Urban wisdom is not actual wisdom. It's more like the seemingly philosophical statements that sometimes leak out of my strange mind through my mouth, or in the case of message boards, my hands.
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Clan Xeon - Warcraft III clan
Polaris - Weather Balloons YAY
Undead Theories - Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Posts: 3323 | Registered: Thursday, April 25 2002 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 1877
Profile #10
I have to say I also like the narative.

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MDNZZZ
ZMMMBIS
WBLOONZ

33111-CRUSADER-4849
Posts: 662 | Registered: Friday, September 13 2002 07:00
Shaper
Member # 517
Profile #11
That is because

1) Aran does too, so his examples were biased towards making the other two look silly, and

2) The other two actually always look silly.

-E-

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Let them eat cake!

Polaris Boards: The System is Up. Perennially.
Posts: 2314 | Registered: Tuesday, January 15 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #12
You say it. So sue me for making the examples biased. IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/tongue.gif) I wonder, is it bias if you depict the thing just as silly as it always is? IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/biggrin.gif)

Note one thing:

I don't say it's the best approach to RPing as a whole. It's only what fits best to this form of RPing (play by post). The one with the numbers is best when playing a game you can win or lose, with dice and a GM, at a table round. The performative style is... ah... *struggles to find situation where Zephyr's style is acceptable* ... That's it! *hits head*

The performative style is good when pseudo roleplaying in a normal post. Like this *points at above paragraph*. IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/wink.gif)

--------------------
"And all should cry, Beware, Beware!
His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge
---
"It is as if everyone had lost their sense
Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence
And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey.
---
Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #13
I disagree. The sign of being a good RPer is being able to control other peoples' characters accurately for the advancement of the plot.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
====
Drakefyre's Demesne - Vahnatai Did Do It
desperance.net - We're Everywhere
The Arena - God Will Sort The Dead
====
You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #14
I've seen good RP of all kinds, although numeric RPing only works if the RP is established to work bu numbers. Particularly, I've seen plenty of narration in the present tense that works just as well.

My preference in an RPer would be the ability to advance the plot with new twists and turns without forcing anyone else to follow or killing anyone else's plot ideas.

—Alorael, who didn't say he was particularly good at it. He just said that he holds that to be the principle virtue of an RPer.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #15
Not that that's easy. I've never seen a player who could do that well (nor could I myself). Essentially, in a play by post game, the urge to 'win' is replaced with the objective to get your ideas of a plot into the RP. A good RP-er will have less of either in each case.

And the 'controlling other people's characters' is my personal opinion only, naturally. I admit that it's fine if a fellow player can control your character true to your own style and to the plot, but I have yet to see someone able to do that well. If the other player will just 'misuse' your character and play another personality, it pisses me off. IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/wink.gif)

--------------------
"And all should cry, Beware, Beware!
His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge
---
"It is as if everyone had lost their sense
Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence
And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey.
---
Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
Member # 919
Profile #16
I think that any good RPer needs to be able to control others' characters without going against their grain, annoying the character's creator, etc. (That's part of my reason for creating Corina, for those of you who know what I'm talking about.) Rps just get too boring when each RPer controls only his/her own character; focus on one, yes, but control all.

I certainly prefer the past tense narrative style, and fancy language is nice, but I think clarity and simplicity are very important (along with correct spacing, etc.). All posts should have a mixture of action and dialogue; the proportions vary, and a good RPer should have a good sense of this.

Keeping track of the RP is a must, but that goes without saying. I'm willing to forgive those who make mistakes based on false assumptions and mis-reading/remembering, mainly because I do that so much myself, but RPers should definitely be willing to accept a change in their post, if it makes the RP better.

Aside from that, they should be nice, forgiving, imaginative... good at writing... hmm... references to the past and things that have little or nothing to do with the RP really annoy me, although I know Arancaytar will probably disagree with me on that (come on, who needs a Central Library??). Oh yeah, also, a good RPer MUST be modest, and willing to use a weak character. RPs are just so much more fun and realistic when the characters have believable flaws, such as Sir David in the Dragonfire RP (yes, yes, another Polaris reference, I'll stop now). It's kind of hard to describe the ideal RP partner, really, because it changes by RP, and anyway, I don't always know what I like about someone's RPing when I do like it.

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And though the musicians would die, the music would live on in the imaginations of all who heard it.
-The Last Pendragon

TEH CONSPIRACY IZ ALL

Les forum de la chance.

Incaseofemergency,breakglass.
Posts: 3351 | Registered: Saturday, April 6 2002 08:00
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
Profile Homepage #17
Sideline events are best delivered as buckshot through a double-barreled shotgun: none and things get predictable and contradictory, and too few and any plot twists get obvious in a hurry.

The best sort of plot twist, as a matter of fact, is the one you should have seen coming from the beginning, but couldn't due to everything else you saw coming at the beginning.

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In a word, gay.
--Bob the Impaler

Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
Profile #18
I've changed my mind. I was right to give my answer as 'Dead ones.'

--------------------
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
I'll tell you my story, man
Though I wish I'd never been born
I'm loose at the seams,
I've broken my dreams
And my hand it shakes the pen
Come on, come on now baby,
Let the good times roll again
Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #19
*psychiatrist voice*

That is probably because as a roleplayer you have an aversion to interacting with other players. It is a difficulty that many have to overcome in order to participate in an RP.

*psychiatrist cut off*

Seriously, if each of us played like everyone else was dead, the result would be a roleplay in which each player pursues a different plot that is only marginally - if at all - connected to the others by means of being in the same world. I must mention MSW at this point, but he is by far not the only one.

--------------------
"And all should cry, Beware, Beware!
His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge
---
"It is as if everyone had lost their sense
Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence
And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey.
---
Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Master
Member # 1046
Profile Homepage #20
i agree. sometimes even i have my character go off on a tangent plotwise, without noticing until it's too late...

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Urban wisdom is not actual wisdom. It's more like the seemingly philosophical statements that sometimes leak out of my strange mind through my mouth, or in the case of message boards, my hands.
--------------------
Clan Xeon - Warcraft III clan
Polaris - Weather Balloons YAY
Undead Theories - Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Posts: 3323 | Registered: Thursday, April 25 2002 07:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #21
quote:
Originally written by Distantly Bemused:

I've changed my mind. I was right to give my answer as 'Dead ones.'
But surely this counts Junglebum and Hiccuper, who are certainly not the best RP partners.

--------------------
"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
====
Drakefyre's Demesne - Vahnatai Did Do It
desperance.net - We're Everywhere
The Arena - God Will Sort The Dead
====
You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse!
Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3980
Profile Homepage #22
Thank you for all your enlightening answers!

Now "the yearning for some ideal RP partners" no longer "appears to me much closer to fulfilment on this board than ..." but just as difficult as most other things that are worthwhile to pursue in real life.

Is there any elementary task that a bloody beginner to the ART OF RPing like myself could have a realistic chance to accomplish with some minimal grace, i.e. without provoking death threats/wishes or amateur psychiatrist treatment?

The texts I produce for a living adhere to strict rules in structure and content. They are not supposed to be "creative" although they are very much so, imho.

Your fellow procrastinator - who might be encouraged by some old moonlight submarine gang
(http://content.barewalls.com/closeup/j8lif06020888c.jpg)to join the prohibition cast.

Alorael, may I license your style of personal self-commenting? - at least for occasional use?

[ Wednesday, February 18, 2004 03:17: Message edited by: Your Fellow Procrastinator ]

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Wisdom grows from trying to find structure in our experience - looking backwards in time - while living goes forward.
Theories are expectations that help us live forward - like possible ways to put the mosaic together. If they are worth the effort to remember, they should predict something and in case the prediction does not work out with time they should autodestruct.
And then there is something that we cannot test - something we have inherited in form of customs, attitudes, culture and the spirit of stories told and retold - that is like our individual SQUARE ONE.
This runs deeper than we can know.
Posts: 311 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00
Infiltrator
Member # 1877
Profile #23
I think he allready did it himself. IMAGE(What kind of RP partners would you like most_files/cool.gif)

--------------------
MDNZZZ
ZMMMBIS
WBLOONZ

33111-CRUSADER-4849
Posts: 662 | Registered: Friday, September 13 2002 07:00
This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
Profile #24
Nah, it's just latent necrophilia.

--------------------
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
I'll tell you my story, man
Though I wish I'd never been born
I'm loose at the seams,
I've broken my dreams
And my hand it shakes the pen
Come on, come on now baby,
Let the good times roll again
Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00

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