metaquad4 wrote:A true roleplaying experience is a BS phrase. Someone who says they are offering a true roleplaying experience is shoving some of the more meaningless marketing phrases at you. Like a tomato vendor who promises a "true tomato taste" or a car vendor who promises a "true motor vehicle experience". Its a silly set of words to tote around.
All roleplaying experiences are true roleplaying experiences. If they aren't, then they aren't roleplaying experiences.
Same thing with its variate I saw tossed around in this thread like "True Roleplay". All roleplay is true roleplay.
If you are using "true" in the context of "correct", then, we are diverging into a different territory. Everyone might have their own opinion of what makes an enjoyable (what is correct for one will be enjoyable, as the purpose of roleplaying is entertainment) roleplaying experience.
I agree with this. To me, roleplaying is supposed to be a thing we do for
fun, and what each person considers "fun", or what they consider "proper" roleplaying, is already subjective to begin with, so someone who comes along claiming that there is one way to have fun, or to
roleplay, is already getting the salt shaker from me.
My comment was more of a tongue-in-cheek remark on what "true roleplay" really is, and the lack of people wanting to define/deny the term amidst the arguments.
I'd disagree with this. Mechanical progression and RP are tied together in D&D (and, for that matter, in most PnP games). As we are playing a video game based on D&D, we of course carry this to us. This is only natural that this is the case (and its not a bad thing at all, its part of the game), as mechanical progression displays what your character is capable of. Spells, Feats, Skills, Attribute Points (and even some items) are all these for this purpose.
Even if the rule wasn't in place, its kind of a given that you won't RP your level 1 elf wizard as a ice mephit in disguise, who is an archmage, and has 50 in every stat. The rule doesn't actually make much difference at all. You'll have to roll your skills or prove that your character is who you RP it when you do anything which involves mechanics.
The only way to avoid that would be to stick to campfire/inn/purely talk RP, not attend any events, not get involved with NPCs/server plot, etc (even if you don't roll anything, your DM can look over your character sheet to ascertain exactly what your character can do). If one enjoys that, then, one can do that already with the "play your character sheet" rule in place. Imo, the rule is more of a redundancy than anything, and a way to "officially" stifle out any elf wizards who play ice spirits trapped in the body of teenage humans.
There are RP experiences without mechanical systems, but they mostly lie in chatrooms, dedicated fourms, etc. Fun, I suppose, but not quite like nwn2rp.
As long as there's a mechanical system to represent your character and everything that entails, there will be people who will seek to improve their character in that mechanical system, whether it is due to strictly mechanical gain, or to reflect their character's growth, or for some other reason. It's as true in a turn-based RP on a forum as it is in a game.
It's difficult to have certain valid character concepts, such as a grizzled warrior, when you start at level 1 and your mechanical killing power is limited to feebly slapping rats and zombies with a sword. It's
possible, but it's not the easiest dichotomy of mechanics and roleplaying to reconcile, and most of the time, if that grizzled warrior wants the bite to match his bark, he's got to go out there and mechanically get the levels as if he was a callow swordsman once again. Otherwise, you will have people complaining that he didn't "play his sheet", or they won't be able to take him seriously in RP.
You could say that I shouldn't need to start as a grizzled warrior to more accurately play my character sheet, but by that same token I shouldn't need to roleplay all my characters as callow folks who see rats as mortal enemies to barely prevail over because my character sheet could start no other way.
Personally, given that I've done both free-form and mechanic-based RP, I see the mechanical aspect of roleplaying games as a limitation, but a necessary one given the alternative. Most of the time it's bearable, but it becomes especially chafing with certain concepts--though not enough to want to do away with it altogether.
Well, I suppose one could always give everyone level 30, all the items they want via OOC vendors, and set them loose into the world with a few dungeons here and there (so as to facilitate some adventuring RP) to RP their hearts out. That would minimize/remove the desire/need for players to seek out mechanical benefits (they already have them from the getgo) and would place the focus 100% on RP and events.
Alternatively, you can make the mechanical gap between a new player and an older one not so vast (such as a lower level cap, among others). But I think this might segue into off-topic territory so I'm not sure if I should elaborate.
Even now with the 100% RCR thing, I've seen a whole lot less xvart/giant/naga parties and a whole lot more people spending time in RP hubs/just generally RPing everywhere. People don't need to grind up new characters to experiment with new ideas, create new characters, etc etc. They can just skip that process and go ahead with their fun. And, they are.
The 100% RCR thing does highlight the issue that people seem to feel like they need to grind for levels/items/gold and/or pay off a daily quota before they can "go ahead with their fun". While it's nice to hear that more people are roleplaying and generally doing something other than grinding, it sometimes makes me wonder if, back during 50% RCR days, the reason some people deferred from roleplay was because they felt they have an EXP quota to satisfy before they can get to typing.
