Roleplaying and Storytelling

Brody · 07-27-2005, 02:01 PM

Ever had a character that started out one way in your mind, when you first entered a roleplaying MU*, but had it evolve into something totally unexpected over time? Share those experiences in this thread!

Jazuela · 07-27-2005, 04:34 PM

Yes! One that really stands out was my first character in the current game I play.

I created her just to test out the commands and syntax of the game. I picked what I felt was the most well-rounded city-based skillset, according to what I'd read in the documentation. In this way, I figured I could become useful as an employee of a noble house, whether as an aide OR a guard.

I had to explain why she suddenly showed up out of nowhere the first day I logged in, so I RPed that she was from the opposite end of the world, and had been abused by the farmers she lived with and ran away from home to explore.

She was intended originally to be extremely sweet-tempered, polite and well-groomed, with no particular twitches or anything like that.

She ended up as a double-agent secret spy for two different clans, set up the assassinations of one noble and several commoners, and hung out at one of the more notorious taverns in the city.

She also became a fanatic of devotion to that city's sorcerer-king, believing in her heart of hearts that everything she did was to benefit him.

Good times - she got killed by her secret clan boss.

kalaazar · 08-15-2005, 04:18 AM

Me too! Though my experience was rather the opposite of Jazuela's.

I wrote said character with the intention of being a double-agent, working to overthrow the current regime of things. But I made the mistake of trying to show how 'evil' and morally bankrupt she was, so my imms gave me a good whack on the head, and I started playing more of the truth of my character. That she -was- incredibly sheltered and empathetic, it was merely her reasoning that was slightly skewed (according to the rest of the world, I still think she was in the right.

It made the RP all that much more enjoyable. And in the end she too got killed by her clan boss, though not her secret one.
Fun, fun!

Benreece · 08-15-2005, 09:03 AM

Kalaazar, and Jazuela where talking about Arm weren't they? anyway I had a Water Elementalist who was polite, kind, and very helpful, but over the course of time he slowly changed, and became an evil, spy who worked for the "guild", unofortauntly my Water Elementalist had no combat spells, and ended up getting killed a day later.

Mnemosyne · 08-16-2005, 05:55 AM

I had a few. Most recent was a dispassionate, nihilist elementalist who was too far removed from her own morality to be able to fight those occasional nasty urges (like 'boil the baby', 'lightning bolt the dog and watch his eyes pop', 'burn the girl's scalp off with acid'... y'now, normal stuff) that pop up. An essentually OK person, perhaps a little distant, but due to her own emotional weakness a perpetrator of horrible acts. Problem was, she had to keep trying to justify herself and... well, if you believe a lie enough, it turns into the truth. She kept masquerading as a good person enough that she BECAME a good person, even if one of those overly-smitey types.

Another was an elven sorceress I made, played with a bit, then promptly forgot all about. I eventually revisited her and whipped up some backstory about the town she was born in, completely oblivious that the town had been destroyed some time ago. So, when the character returned, she got a face-ful of smoking rubble and torment-eyed shades. I originally made the character as a fun-loving sort, perhaps a bit morbid but with an active sense of humor and a great degree of love for the world. That changed pretty much instantly

.

kalaazar · 08-17-2005, 06:24 AM

Actually, I was talking about Towers of Jadri, Benreece.
But I'm pretty sure everyone else is talking about Arm.

Brody · 09-09-2005, 08:05 PM

Anyone else want to chime in on this topic?

tehScarecrow · 09-11-2005, 10:33 PM

My character Strung in aetolia started out a vampire hunter, but when he got older he had a midlife crisis (my boredom) and couldn't hunt vampires effectively, so he became a vampire thinking he could use their powers against them. Once he became a vampire he was good for a little while but then gave in and became evil

prof1515 · 09-15-2005, 08:01 PM

It's a common experience to have characters that move beyond your original concept. Same for life.

I've had characters that were designed to be poor end up well-to-do, characters that started out pious commit all sorts of deeds that violated their religion's philosophy (of course, the point was that they were able to "justify" in their own mind their acts, much like religious hypocrites today), and characters that ended up in places and lifestyles that they despised when they started. All of these were, to note, the natural progression of the character and not a case of me violating the character concept so much as their inability to fight circumstance. Just like life.

Unfortunately.

Take care,

Jason

Dalar Ragnos · 09-19-2005, 05:51 PM

I started as a near-rabid defender of the Light, in one MUD. Devoted to Telkar, the god of Battle, I wanted nothing more than to grow mighty in the arts of magic and scour the world clean of the forces of Darkness, so that the Light would have peace for eternity. I wandered the streets on occasion, praising the glory of the Light and vowing destruction upon the Darklands. I boasted that we would meet them in outright battle and crush them head-on. It was then that I began my training as a mage, guided by one of the more experienced mages of the Light. Whenever I could, I helped those less experienced than myself.

Within four days of beginning my mage training, I had already been driven half-mad by the nerve damage I had recieved from overcasting too often, and I slew one of my friends over a minor insult. I was summarily banished to the Dark, the very place I had sought to wipe out.

It was a rough adjustment. Surrounded by Dark Elves and Half-Orcs, as a Human I was mistrusted and shunned. The fact that I was the only Mage they had seen in some time also increased their distrustfulness of me. My former goals gone, I settled on a new one: to become the most powerful mage the world had ever seen, and take my revenge on those who would so quickly turn their backs on me. I would destroy that which I had wanted to protect, and build a throne from the bones of the innocent. One benefit of the lands of Darkness was that nobody thought me mad for desiring power; it was the norm there instead of the exception, and they were glad to have a walking weapon on their side.

Cloaked and garbed in inky black, I grew rapidly in strength and began taking apprentices under my wing, to train as fellow instruments of destruction. I became sociable with the Darklanders once they saw that I wanted to destroy the "Sunlovers"; I intended to use them as pawns to exact my revenge. Merciless and cruel, I often tortured people for fun, and had regular duels to the death (of my opponents) as I further honed my abilities. Devious and manipulative, cold and cunning, I favored ambushes, flanking manuevers, ranged combat (me hurling fireballs and lightning while our archers fired arrows), and sneak attacks.

I eventually became the Lord of Storms, Duke of Vordlir Keep, Headmaster of the Mage Academy, Grand Admiral of the Fleet of the Darklands, and High Archmage of the World. And then the RP atmosphere went to ####, the GMs quit listening to the players, and I "retired to an alternate dimension to further conduct my arcane research". It was a shame... when I joined, everyone RPed... when I left, only a couple on each side would RP anymore. Everything else was OOC.

Circumstances beyond my character's control forced him down a different path than I intended... though I think I had more fun playing a hero-turned-supervillain than I would have if I'd remained what I originally intended.

Shiro · 10-18-2005, 03:41 AM

My character went from being someone who avoided relationships at all cost and warned against them to being a well known heartbreaker and ladykiller, all because I was bored one summer day and decided to give another facet of the game a shot. He ended up having several relationships, one with a follower of an evil god his guild opposed, and betrayed the one woman who was almost totally devoted to him to get married to his first love.

It was quite a ride.

07-27-2005, 02:01 PM	#1
Brody Moderator Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: North Carolina Home MUD: OtherSpace Home MUD: Chiaroscuro Home MUD: Necromundus Posts: 1,372	Ever had a character that started out one way in your mind, when you first entered a roleplaying MU*, but had it evolve into something totally unexpected over time? Share those experiences in this thread!

07-27-2005, 04:34 PM	#2
Jazuela Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: New England Posts: 612	Yes! One that really stands out was my first character in the current game I play. I created her just to test out the commands and syntax of the game. I picked what I felt was the most well-rounded city-based skillset, according to what I'd read in the documentation. In this way, I figured I could become useful as an employee of a noble house, whether as an aide OR a guard. I had to explain why she suddenly showed up out of nowhere the first day I logged in, so I RPed that she was from the opposite end of the world, and had been abused by the farmers she lived with and ran away from home to explore. She was intended originally to be extremely sweet-tempered, polite and well-groomed, with no particular twitches or anything like that. She ended up as a double-agent secret spy for two different clans, set up the assassinations of one noble and several commoners, and hung out at one of the more notorious taverns in the city. She also became a fanatic of devotion to that city's sorcerer-king, believing in her heart of hearts that everything she did was to benefit him. Good times - she got killed by her secret clan boss.

08-15-2005, 04:18 AM	#3
kalaazar New Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 21	Me too! Though my experience was rather the opposite of Jazuela's. I wrote said character with the intention of being a double-agent, working to overthrow the current regime of things. But I made the mistake of trying to show how 'evil' and morally bankrupt she was, so my imms gave me a good whack on the head, and I started playing more of the truth of my character. That she -was- incredibly sheltered and empathetic, it was merely her reasoning that was slightly skewed (according to the rest of the world, I still think she was in the right. It made the RP all that much more enjoyable. And in the end she too got killed by her clan boss, though not her secret one. Fun, fun!

08-15-2005, 09:03 AM	#4
Benreece New Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 16	Kalaazar, and Jazuela where talking about Arm weren't they? anyway I had a Water Elementalist who was polite, kind, and very helpful, but over the course of time he slowly changed, and became an evil, spy who worked for the "guild", unofortauntly my Water Elementalist had no combat spells, and ended up getting killed a day later.

08-16-2005, 05:55 AM	#5
Mnemosyne New Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 16	I had a few. Most recent was a dispassionate, nihilist elementalist who was too far removed from her own morality to be able to fight those occasional nasty urges (like 'boil the baby', 'lightning bolt the dog and watch his eyes pop', 'burn the girl's scalp off with acid'... y'now, normal stuff) that pop up. An essentually OK person, perhaps a little distant, but due to her own emotional weakness a perpetrator of horrible acts. Problem was, she had to keep trying to justify herself and... well, if you believe a lie enough, it turns into the truth. She kept masquerading as a good person enough that she BECAME a good person, even if one of those overly-smitey types. Another was an elven sorceress I made, played with a bit, then promptly forgot all about. I eventually revisited her and whipped up some backstory about the town she was born in, completely oblivious that the town had been destroyed some time ago. So, when the character returned, she got a face-ful of smoking rubble and torment-eyed shades. I originally made the character as a fun-loving sort, perhaps a bit morbid but with an active sense of humor and a great degree of love for the world. That changed pretty much instantly .

08-17-2005, 06:24 AM	#6
kalaazar New Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 21	Actually, I was talking about Towers of Jadri, Benreece. But I'm pretty sure everyone else is talking about Arm.

09-09-2005, 08:05 PM	#7
Brody Moderator Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: North Carolina Home MUD: OtherSpace Home MUD: Chiaroscuro Home MUD: Necromundus Posts: 1,372	Anyone else want to chime in on this topic?

09-11-2005, 10:33 PM	#8
tehScarecrow Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 66	My character Strung in aetolia started out a vampire hunter, but when he got older he had a midlife crisis (my boredom) and couldn't hunt vampires effectively, so he became a vampire thinking he could use their powers against them. Once he became a vampire he was good for a little while but then gave in and became evil

09-15-2005, 08:01 PM	#9
prof1515 Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Illinois Posts: 516	It's a common experience to have characters that move beyond your original concept. Same for life. I've had characters that were designed to be poor end up well-to-do, characters that started out pious commit all sorts of deeds that violated their religion's philosophy (of course, the point was that they were able to "justify" in their own mind their acts, much like religious hypocrites today), and characters that ended up in places and lifestyles that they despised when they started. All of these were, to note, the natural progression of the character and not a case of me violating the character concept so much as their inability to fight circumstance. Just like life. Unfortunately. Take care, Jason

09-19-2005, 05:51 PM	#10
Dalar Ragnos New Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1	I started as a near-rabid defender of the Light, in one MUD. Devoted to Telkar, the god of Battle, I wanted nothing more than to grow mighty in the arts of magic and scour the world clean of the forces of Darkness, so that the Light would have peace for eternity. I wandered the streets on occasion, praising the glory of the Light and vowing destruction upon the Darklands. I boasted that we would meet them in outright battle and crush them head-on. It was then that I began my training as a mage, guided by one of the more experienced mages of the Light. Whenever I could, I helped those less experienced than myself. Within four days of beginning my mage training, I had already been driven half-mad by the nerve damage I had recieved from overcasting too often, and I slew one of my friends over a minor insult. I was summarily banished to the Dark, the very place I had sought to wipe out. It was a rough adjustment. Surrounded by Dark Elves and Half-Orcs, as a Human I was mistrusted and shunned. The fact that I was the only Mage they had seen in some time also increased their distrustfulness of me. My former goals gone, I settled on a new one: to become the most powerful mage the world had ever seen, and take my revenge on those who would so quickly turn their backs on me. I would destroy that which I had wanted to protect, and build a throne from the bones of the innocent. One benefit of the lands of Darkness was that nobody thought me mad for desiring power; it was the norm there instead of the exception, and they were glad to have a walking weapon on their side. Cloaked and garbed in inky black, I grew rapidly in strength and began taking apprentices under my wing, to train as fellow instruments of destruction. I became sociable with the Darklanders once they saw that I wanted to destroy the "Sunlovers"; I intended to use them as pawns to exact my revenge. Merciless and cruel, I often tortured people for fun, and had regular duels to the death (of my opponents) as I further honed my abilities. Devious and manipulative, cold and cunning, I favored ambushes, flanking manuevers, ranged combat (me hurling fireballs and lightning while our archers fired arrows), and sneak attacks. I eventually became the Lord of Storms, Duke of Vordlir Keep, Headmaster of the Mage Academy, Grand Admiral of the Fleet of the Darklands, and High Archmage of the World. And then the RP atmosphere went to ####, the GMs quit listening to the players, and I "retired to an alternate dimension to further conduct my arcane research". It was a shame... when I joined, everyone RPed... when I left, only a couple on each side would RP anymore. Everything else was OOC. Circumstances beyond my character's control forced him down a different path than I intended... though I think I had more fun playing a hero-turned-supervillain than I would have if I'd remained what I originally intended.

10-18-2005, 03:41 AM	#11
Shiro New Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 3	My character went from being someone who avoided relationships at all cost and warned against them to being a well known heartbreaker and ladykiller, all because I was bored one summer day and decided to give another facet of the game a shot. He ended up having several relationships, one with a follower of an evil god his guild opposed, and betrayed the one woman who was almost totally devoted to him to get married to his first love. It was quite a ride.

Roleplaying and Storytelling

Your character's arc