Looking to improve the quality of my roleplay
 

Hey all,

I've been a MUD user, primarily hack'n'slash, for years and years now. More recently, my interests have been changing and I'm getting more into doing roleplay.

Anyone have any resources I can look at, or tips/suggestions to improve the quality of my characters.

Any general advice would be much appreciated.

Specifically, I'm interested in playing thieves/members of the criminal underworld. So any tips or pitfalls to avoid on that front would be greatly appreciated as well.

Also, apologies if I posted this to the wrong place.

Re: Looking to improve the quality of my roleplay
 

Come up with a basic character idea and then get involved in a number of scenes and plots before you join your guild. When you do join, you should have a feel for how your character acts. Think of it like writing a few short stories for a protagonist concept before writing a full-length novel.

Don't make yourself into your character. You and your character should be two separate people.

Don't let RP get personal.

Re: Looking to improve the quality of my roleplay
 

You can learn by doing, that's the most effective way and it should be very fast.

Don't spend too much time, energy and worry on figuring your character out before you even start. Instead, develop an idea about who you want them to be and what they're like, and then make up a backstory for them which gives you answers to the questions your character will get from other characters about who they are, and then just get in the game and go RP!

You do need a history, but it doesn't have to take an all-nighter to make.
A smart and good little how-to that I've seen is the "Why x3" method described in the newbie file at Sindome MOO: See this link and scroll down to the section entitled "Guardians Why? x 3 History Writing Method"


Very quick, and resulting in a rich set of "experiences" which will be already built-in when your character hits the game world and starts interacting with others.

Beyond that, any roleplaying game is going to have a concept of separating the IC (in character) and the OOC (out of character). Stuff you, the player, know, your character might not know, so, be ready to have the character act how they would act, not how you would act, in a given situation.

Anyway - once you have a history and an idea who your character is, learning to roleplay happens when you get in and do it. Don't be shy, don't be afraid to just log in to the game and find where the other 'live' characters are and let your character stretch out. It's very easy to learn from others, so, I'm sure you'll do great once you get in there.

You titled this thread with 'improving' the quality of your RP, but, somehow I wound up writing this as if you were a complete brand newcomer to roleplaying. At any rate, the best way to improve is to spend time doing it with others, and, having a consistent character history helps too. Roleplaying gets hard when you change your mind about who the character is and what they're like and you change how you're roleplaying them on a week to week basis. Consistency is one of the important factors if 'quality' is what you're really after.

Re: Looking to improve the quality of my roleplay
 

I remembered that about ten months ago I answered a similar question on another website.

Copied and pasted here:

Don't be shy. Just put your guy (or whoever) into the game, and pay attention. Let others show you how. How do they talk, how do they reveal their characters' lives, motivations, traits to you? How are they using the emoting and communicating features to act out their characters' stories? How do they "win" at their goals? What are they getting out of participating in a roleplaying M**?

Re: Looking to improve the quality of my roleplay
 

To copy/paste our roleplay helpfile from End of Time, it sums up my view pretty well:

Roleplay is the act of assuming the role of a character. In the case of End
of Time, when a person creates a character, it is assumed they create an
identity, background, motivations, and a personality. While not everyone who
connects to End of Time is interested in roleplay, a large focus of the MUD
is to cater to the roleplayers.

When a person is roleplaying, they are considered to be acting "In Character".
The "IC" and "say" channels are both considered to be In Character channels,
and are the primary means through which characters interact and roleplay with
one another. In the right context, emotes and socials can be considered in
character, but are not to always be considered such. The Roleplay Board is
also used to roleplay, although is a more effective tool for posting character
backgrounds and summaries of roleplay.

There is an important difference between In Character and Out of Character.
For example, any knowledge gained in an Out of Character manner is to never
be used for any sort of In Character benefit. Character backgrounds posted on
the RP Boards are very often considered OOC information, and anything said over
an OOC channel, or instant message, email, etc. is OOC information. Joining
a clan with one character to act as a spy or gain information for another
clan that you are currently a member of or plan on joining with another character
is another example of abusing OOC information. Any information gained by one
character is to be kept completely separate from any other characters.

Since such an emphasis is placed on roleplay, one of the main rules of End of
Time is to not spoil other people's roleplay, which includes but is not limited
to: Using OOC info for IC benefit, using OOC knowledge to spoil the motives or
plans of someone, revealing other people's alternate characters (alts), or just
being a bad roleplayer in general. There is a difference between being a bad
roleplayer and being an inexperienced roleplayer. Bad RP is mostly just abusing
common sense, being inconsiderate of others, or breaking any of the RP guidelines.

One common practice in many various instances of roleplay is to roleplay an action
but to never dictate its outcome and allow the other person room to have some say
in the outcome. To clarify, if two people decide to roleplay a battle rather
than engage in PK Combat, it is customary for Person A to send a roleplay message
of swinging their sword at Person B, and allow for Person B to have some say in
the outcome of the action. If Person A just roleplayed swinging their sword and
cutting off Person B's arm, this would be an example of bad RP and for many
people would be reason to avoid roleplay with that particular person. Another
example that actually happened involved someone roleplaying firing Midgar's Mako
Cannon toward Baron Castle, and rather than dictating that the blast hit, the
note was sent that the cannon was fired, and one of the heads of Baron posted
a note following that about the cannon actually hitting and taking out a good
portion of the castle. When done properly, this is the preferred method of RP.
It takes a certain amount of trust, but most people will roleplay fairly. On the
other end, if roleplaying the previously mentioned battle, it's not considered
good RP to never RP being hit and only dodging and hitting back.

It is also important to note that we strive very hard to keep roleplay within
a common level of decency and comfort level. Before RPing something with someone
that could make them extremely uncomfortable, such as anything sexual (consenual
or otherwise) or anything more violent than your typical automated mob fight,
discuss it with them in an OOC manner. If at any point anyone involved in an
RP scenario is made to feel uncomfortable with the subject matter, they are
encouraged to take it to an OOC channel to discuss it. If the RP persists in
a manner that is still making someone extremely uncomfortable, anyone involved
has the right to cease the RP immediately.