Is it just me, or...

[V'rass]

Where are you people finding all the social RP at?

Lol its everywhere? Fire at the farmlands, fire at the Fai, the Muse, the halls of inner light, the tavern in the palace district... and it just keeps going.

[aaron22]

i would look for this:

Where are you people finding all the social RP at?

away from this:

"this person tortured me", "this person is killing people"

usually two different play preferences.

[chad878262]

i would look for this:

Where are you people finding all the social RP at?

away from this:

"this person tortured me", "this person is killing people"

usually two different play preferences.

Wait.... There are people that don't consider social RP torturous?

I'll let myself out...

[Hoihe]

Where are you people finding all the social RP at?

Lol its everywhere? Fire at the farmlands, fire at the Fai, the Muse, the halls of inner light, the tavern in the palace district... and it just keeps going.

I'll guarantee you it's 75% going to be some intrigue-heavy roleplay dressed up as niceties, the remaining 20% will be split between dealing with someone who got kidnapped/tortured and are now traumatized, someone talking about recent DM even that threatens apocalypse, the recent Coven of Darkness mass PvP or what have you.

The remaining 5% concerning casual adventuring, living in the setting (be it religious RP, normal day-to-day interaction in a fantasy setting with its unique opportunities, working (scholarly, sailory)) is pretty damn hard to find, especially since intrigue and trauma is all over the place.

Where are you people finding all the social RP at?

Lol its everywhere? Fire at the farmlands, fire at the Fai, the Muse, the halls of inner light, the tavern in the palace district... and it just keeps going.

Intrigue/Drama/trauma-tending/Reacting-to-Yesterday's-Apocalyse. Non-exhausting, character developmental RP that isn't intrigue or other forms of power grabs? Hard to find.

[V'rass]

True for some of the locations but not all. The Muse for example rarely has such rp,... mainly just people drinking, telling tall tales, and occasionally attempting to annoy each other for amusement.

[whatsittoya]

Come to me for benign religious/socializing RP

[Mercator]

True for some of the locations but not all. The Muse for example rarely has such rp,... mainly just people drinking, telling tall tales, and occasionally attempting to annoy each other for amusement.

100%

[Tekill]

I try to rp my chr score especially in social rp. Low chr can be a lot of fun.

[Steve]

insinuating I am privileged

You're the guy that has their Toon squashed by a demigod...in the context of my experiences on BGTSCC, I'd definitely rate that as privileged!

.

[enginseer-42]

Where are you people finding all the social RP at?

Lol its everywhere? Fire at the farmlands, fire at the Fai, the Muse, the halls of inner light, the tavern in the palace district... and it just keeps going.

I'll guarantee you it's 75% going to be some intrigue-heavy roleplay dressed up as niceties, the remaining 20% will be split between dealing with someone who got kidnapped/tortured and are now traumatized, someone talking about recent DM even that threatens apocalypse, the recent Coven of Darkness mass PvP or what have you.

The remaining 5% concerning casual adventuring, living in the setting (be it religious RP, normal day-to-day interaction in a fantasy setting with its unique opportunities, working (scholarly, sailory)) is pretty damn hard to find, especially since intrigue and trauma is all over the place.

Where are you people finding all the social RP at?

Lol its everywhere? Fire at the farmlands, fire at the Fai, the Muse, the halls of inner light, the tavern in the palace district... and it just keeps going.

Intrigue/Drama/trauma-tending/Reacting-to-Yesterday's-Apocalyse. Non-exhausting, character developmental RP that isn't intrigue or other forms of power grabs? Hard to find.

I mean, maybe it's because I'm low level and only log on for a few hours in the evening. But I don't really ever get involved in end of the world traumatic RP. I think the most 'urgent' RP I've had was an IC Rush for a spindly armed wizard (My character) to carry their fallen friend to a temple for revival.

There was I guess a brief scene where my techsmith joined a band hunting for a 'kidnapped' tiefling. But that turned out to be nothing.

Instead, I've had some casual adventuring, some back and forth chit-chat on personal histories, and a discussion on the nature of good and evil and their place in the Multiverse. Also watching an extended argument between what may or may not have been ex-lovers.

[Hoihe]

but true legends never die.

Nor do any other Character unless the Player decides it.

Legend or Loser, the real truth is that one plays a "legend in their own mind" mostly, whereas I'd argue the POINT should be playing in a Legendary Campaign, Epic Storyline, Life-fulfilling Event, as part of a group experience.

Thus, both the minor and the major Roles are have purpose, in the total of the Tale.

While this is not a point on permadeath and retiring, I do feel it impacts the quality of the RP/server experienced.

My personal experience with how just about 90% of all characters I enjoyed being retired/killed off, even if the player still plays, I've greater difficulties finding RP afterwards - even with new people.

If there's nobody online most of the time to guarantee interaction and to motivate one's character to go somewhere, they will never meet new people. I can force myself to log in and play around, but with the unrewarding PvE giving no reason to do anything (especially consider the moment I do something, I get dispeled and have to bail, so back to the same old area for 9001st time), with no characters on to guarantee positive interaction - and even if there is interaction, it will likely be concerning some doomsday event, I find little enjoyment in logging in.

"Start a new character" you say. Only excabarates the issue of knowing nobody and thus having no reason to go anywhere. Especially since apparently RP happens in random out of the place areas.

Might be just me, but I always found it unnatural to RP with random strangers in Elfsong patio or taverns, UNLESS my character is explicitly looking to hire adventuring companions, and that is pretty limited kick-off point. I don't know about most people, but it feels awfully rude to me to go up to a random group with nobody you know amongst them having a drink or just sitting at a separate table and butting in.

Campfires kind of combat this issue. They combat this issue especially well if they are a sort of "caravan stop" along a stretch of road rather than beside some inn. With a campfire, you have perfect reason (or can make one) to stop and butt in. There are no separate tables to make you feel like a jerk - there's a campfire, and people getting some rest on the road.

There is one way to make inns/taverns work and that is by advertising. See the tavern called "The Crack" by a halfling whose name I forgot. He went out of his way to leave fliers all over every reset, inciting curious people to go and check out his tavern hosted in an underground ruin. As the tavern keep, he even went out of his way to interact with DMs and have them introduce strange NPCs you couldn't find elsewhere (we've had various monster races stopping by for the drinks, it had a very Mos Eisley Cantina feel. There were gamblers and whatnot. You had natural reason to interact with others, if simply due to participating in some gambling match.) The design was also handy for being inclusive - there were no separate tables, there was a campfire in the corner if you were cold, and a counter with bar stools if you wanted a drink. Gamblers improvised with tarps for tables.

With the DHC inn/Hall of inner beauty, the only advertisements that exist are on the forum/word of mouth, and both feel "exclusive" and out of the way with no benefit. The Crack WAS out of the way, but there was benefit - it was outside of civilized lands, allowing for strange characters to make their presence. It was seedy without PvP gurus exploiting it. There WERE fights, but explicitly non-lethal within the grounds. You can't have a random fist fight ensue in a civilized tavern in a city full of guards.

[Tekill]

^ Really clever idea. Really thinking outside the (sand)box.
What's holding us all back from us all creating similar ideas?
I have plots ideas that fell through...but were a lot of fun until they did fail. They were still worth trying.

So far DM response time is too not bad for me. It takes a couple weeks but it keeps me from moving things along too fast.

[Necromantis]

From various people I hear contradictions like "No one is talking about anything interesting." and "I see no reason for my character to get into a conversation with strangers.". (Because clearly, the latter propagates the former...) We all want our own version of a perfect roleplaying environment but the sad truth is that it's impossible, because such is entirely subjective.

I'm guilty of flat out complaining about a great deal myself or trying to provide constructive criticism, as is everyone who puts their heart and effort into creating stories with other people, and expecting more, expecting better. But at the end of the day, it comes down to perseverance. Bad experiences are out there in equal measure as pleasant surprises, all you have to do is find the means to seek them out.

It is bad experiences, OOC drama of the past, or a sensation that 'you've seen it all' that brings trepidation and hesitation, causing people who've been about for some time to feel like things are growing 'stale'. I've seen it many times before, in many kinds of roleplaying communities. It's understandable. But again, it comes down to perseverance.

People are IC talking about a subject boring to you or your character? Try to insert the topic that is close to your heart, instead of walking away in disappointment. Be curious about the stories of other people, and they will, on occasion, be curious about your own, in turn. I can't recount the amount of times I asked someone about themselves, and they turned out to be characters that my character still talks to this very day, or has a complicated relation with. Or the times I saw an opportunity to involve them into something I was working on, even if they were unaware.

If you only stick to what you know and never take a leap of faith, then it's pointless to complain about the lack of changes perceived around your character. People grow throughout their lifetime and change, and applying such to your character is the very essence of storytelling. It is perfectly understandable that there can't be 24/7 DM entertainment, and that in an old game as this, the world is quickly and easily explored to the point there is nothing new to see.

When -I- hear people talking about DM plots, I'm just happy anything is going on at all. I haven't been in a single in-game DM event since my character became open Zhentarim about a year ago, and everything I'm currently involved in are plots that I either started by sending a message to the DM Team, involved myself in (also through the same means), and have even involved other people in. More often than not, it takes a great deal of time, yes (Real life must always comes first, for all involved.) - and as a result it can sometimes be disheartening to see others get either frequent, or random, in-game events. But on occasion, with some patience and no small amount of dedication, such efforts -do- get rewarded. And you know what? They -feel- more rewarding, at least to me, because of the effort and because they weren't given on a silver platter.


TL,DR: There's always more going on than you can know. Don't wait for the adventure or the story. Find it.

[casadechrisso]

That's all good and true points Necromantis. I've seen it a lot in the past too, and it requires some effort sometimes to overcome that stale feeling and force oneself to be open again. I have only played here since April but feel that I'm at a tipping point already with quite a few burnout symptoms. I haven't seen it all, surely not, but I also try to stay at the mid levels as long as possible and avoid everything high level, epic, because I love low key characters.
I'd rather roll a new char than crossing the level 20 line...

But then I often feel low key characters are not very appreciated, they don't try to turn the world upside down, don't take part in epic events, aren't the kings and queens of lore, maybe don't appreciate the epic battles DMs set up for events... maybe they're just a little uninteresting, providing only ambient roleplay here and there and seem like they don't have to say much.
OTOH of course, they also don't show that much care and interest in the world-changing, epic things, more in daily life.

What I miss most atm is some true IC adventuring at my levels. Most of it is just killing stuff, as if everyone just does the dirty work of killing Xvarts for hours until the charcter is finally epic enough to be up there with the stars. Or it's just - and I do appreciate the effort at least, tonight it was actually fun - running with or after a high level character who buffed you to the heavens to get quick xp at areas your character would normally not survive. This is of course an opportunity for some roleplay and a nice gesture, but I really miss the meeting of three characters at roughly the same level who go exploring, on real adventures, testing their newly gained feats and skills at something challenging, and all that IC with some appropriate roleplay for flavor. I feel that this is mostly an afterthought, most just want to get to the high levels as fast as possible and then... I don't know... chat at the fireplaces until an epic DM event happens? Anyway, I think it's just the right time to go on a one week vacation, hope it'll cure that stale feeling a bit.

[chad878262]

There are players that enjoy adventure rp, but in my experience the only way to have it consistently is to form a group and agree to meet on regular days and times. Otherwise it can be difficult to find the d&d type experience you're looking for.