Atlantic Roleplay Community Boards

[Evinyatar]

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Ok... forget about all the item-discussions... forget about all the other issues for a moment and think about that phraze for yourself: What IS a roleplayed fight all about?


For me there are a few key ingredients:

1) The fight itself should add to a roleplaying atmosphere and should enfore the role of your character
2) The fight should occur as a small ingredient in a larger roleplayed 'event-group'. (This doesn't mean plots or scripted stuff)
3) Nothing is to be gained or lost during a roleplayed fight, as such it is more important how you arrive at your destination then crossing the finishline.


If I apply these basic rules I arrive to a few conclusions regarding a few key elements... other people may arrive at others but here are mine.

Skills:
- Certain skills simply do not belong on certain characters in my opinion. The best way to handle this is to start from the troleplaying aspect and apply game mechanics as you go and NOT the other way arround. Most people think about a certain character template they want to play and then invent a roleplaying background arround that. If you go that way, you ALWAYS find some excuse to 'make it work' roleplayingwise. (i.e. Yes I'm an Orc but my mother was human and when I was a little chield I was dropped in a kettle of magic potion so I can be a mage. Yes I'm a Moonglow citizen but Gandalf used a sword so mages can be swordsmen right?) Is every skill that you have enhancing your roleplaying, or simply making you a more pvp viable character?

- Also, are the skills you have ensuring that you have something unique that distinguishes you from the other organizations creating dynamism and creativity? (Too many guilds/organizations fight 100% identical with a mix of all possible templates and styles... in the end what's the difference except your guildtag?)

Items:
- Since the journey is more important then the destination all items are allowed IF they adhere and enhance the roleplaying background of your character. Having a great warrior wielding his dagger or cleaver of whoopass simply isn't doing that. A dwarf wielding a Hammer of the Titans then again may very well be perfectly enhancing to roleplay.
The general of an army wearing a Jestershat because it completes his 70's suit just doesn't cut it.... no, not even if you write in your profile that you're a jester turned general to 'make it work'.
Mages wielding shields, although very effective... just doesn't LOOK right.
A swampdragon gives you 6 extra points in all resists (making a 70's suit a 76 suit) I don't understand why anyone in pvp wouldn't use em. Since I don't know about anyone playing Dragoon I don't see why anyone in RP WOULD use em. Same goes for Ethereals...I assume some undead can ride ethereal steeds. Everyone else...pay 700gp for a horse you cheap bastard and give the Orcs something to eat if they kill you.

Choice of characters:
- Avoid the "I'm a big powerfull fighter" syndrome. If you really feel the need I assume you can roleplay to be a powerfull Liche or really powerfull mage or warrior. But always leave plenty of high level weaknesses as well. That's best illustrated in the Comic book hero situation. We can all, and only, sympathise with Superman cos hes a tough cookie but on the other hand everyone knows a bit of kryptonite turns him into the geek of the century. Or everyone knows to go for Lois if you want our man in tights.
- There's more to life then fighting. All those trading routes, merchant maps and everything are all nice.... but it's MULE traffic. How many of you still have a crafting skill or non fighting skill on your roleplayer? Be honest...I would be 452543536635 times more interested to roleplay a few merchant scenario's and simple spontane roleplaying with a Dwarf smith then to put a message on the boards saying Dwarfs are smelly and to organize another fight


Offcourse most of these things require you to actually put effort into roleplaying so I don't think many people would go for it

[Horace Telver]

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Excellant excellant points, but you will soon be met with a chorus of nay-sayers. I like these ideas, marvelous ways to streamline, and improve our Roleplaying Community.

[Teh Glouris Lrod Kujabis]

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Nobody in the community will ever agree on the same thing wether it be about how we PVP or how we RP. Everyone PVP's differently, or not at all, and everyone RP's differently, or not at all.

[Serpentine]

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Agreed on all points. One of the major reasons I personally stopped fighting in RPvP is because none of the fights had any RP reason at all. They were fights for fightings' sake. While I can understand a guild like the Orcs doing this, having everyone that wants to try to hack being 'evil' by doing this really gets old after the second or third time.

I suppose I'll use this also as an opportunity to explain why some of my own characters seem to violate these rules and give everyone a chance to judge my reasoning. Feel free to comment on these; I'm always eager to see what other people think of my logic, as well as their opinion and interpretation of the rules.

Rule: Certain skills simply do not belong on certain characters in my opinion.
Character: Katrina Swansong
Violation: She has Tailoring on an otherwise solid-dexer template
Reason: Tailoring was actually her original profession, IC *AND* OOC. Then I got tired of paying obscene prices for hides from the resource campers, so I decided to go out and kill my own stuff. Weaponskills evolved as a refinement in the kill-my-own-hide trade, once I realized I liked being able to kill the hostile things near my hide sources too. ICly, Katrina will usually tell you the same thing.

Rule: Since the journey is more important then the destination all items are allowed IF they adhere and enhance the roleplaying background of your character.
Character: Sara
Violation: She has a chain coif that she may or may not be seen wearing.
Reason: I'll admit I'm guilty of this one. The coif completes my LRC suit, and it's a great convenience not having to tote around a lot of regs when I have other things I could be carrying. However, I try to keep the feel when I can and take the coif off if I plan to be staying anywhere for a length of time. There is no real RP explanation for its being there, it just is.

Rule: Same as above
Character: Katrina Swansong
Violation: She has an artifact weapon (Berserker's Maul)
Reason: The Maul fits her fighting style perfectly, which I can best summarize as being "First to charge, first to fight." She's usually one of the first casualties of any major battle, but she's also usually able to take a lot of people with her. This is as close to a berserker's fighting style as it gets.

Rule: Same as above
Character: Patricia
Violations: Ethereal horse, heavy magic hatchet is her primary weapon
Reasons: The hatchet is easy to explain. Small, simple, fast, harmless-looking weapon for a small, simple, fast, harmless-looking elf. As for the ethereal horse, it is well known that most elves have a bond with nature, and when said elf spends a few too many years in the forest with the animals, she may be able to summon the spirit of an animal to aid her. In this case, it's a horse. Nothing special about that.

Rule: But always leave plenty of high level weaknesses as well.
Character: Sara
Violation: Surge
Reason: Sara uses Surge as the universal answer to any weakness she might have in the combat arena, which is pretty much the only weakness most people know she has. She has a few others too (I'm not telling you people what they are though ) but the fact that she responds to any act of aggression with overpowering force annoys a lot of people. Perhaps one of her weaknesses is that she's not very tough without Surge?

Rule: See above
Character: Lyria
Violation: She acts like she's nearly indestructible
Reason: She usually is. If presented with a conflict in which there is a definite physical danger to her person, she tends to react by causing a diversion and running while the other side is distracted. If actually engaged, she's weaker than 90% of other RPers, mostly because she doesn't have a combat template at all. She can harass you with Necromancy, and can be a big problem in a large battle, but she's generally a pushover. She acts like she does because she knows she can probably escape before her actions can be payed back to her.
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[Sir Robert]

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Does the same with Sir Robert:

Violation: Tricorne Hat
Explanation: The tricorne hat thingy came out even before Publish 16 I think. Ever since its part of his character. (When I removed the helmet, I generally doffed a tricorne hat, had a collection of them, due to the lack of quick loot/insurance). That I wear now a tricorne hat exclusively is because a friend gave me one with very nice resists. But, I think in Sir Roberts case its a rather good roleplaying thing.

Violation: Ethereal Dodo.. erm.. Ostard.
Explanation: Guilty as charged in creating a way to explain why he can ride it, than other way around. My, admittedly rather weak, explanation is, thats its not an ethereal ostard, but the ethereal projection of the image of the Great Dodo. Fortunately others played along. *grin*
But I am also often seen walking on my feet.
As example, when i go hunting/earning money and find a spawn that is good and not crowded, I dismount and fight on my feet. I also generally dismount when I enter a building, or just walk around in a town.
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Reality, the refuge of those who fail in RPGs

Though this be madnes, yet there's method in't

[Cal Hurst]

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I might as well comment on one thing of Vaen

Yeah Vaen has his 70's resist suit, but its complete warrior armor, and it goes with his character. His father being a blacksmith (another character that I roleplay with on occasion), and him being at war most of his life, he knows good quality armor and weapons when he sees them. So I don't view that as a fault. However...

I have a cleaver. It is 14 Poison area, 46 Manaleech, 25 Swing speed, and 12 damage increase. I use it when I hunt for reds or pks when there is no roleplay going on. Have I used it in RP battle? Yes. However, I do not draw the weapon first. If I see someone weilding a cleaver opposing me, I might pull mine out.

Cleavers are not role play at all. I actually hate taking it out, because it doesn't look right. I will always keep it for when fighting those 4/9 artiwhore pk gimps, though. *chuckles* But for roleplay? I think out of the many times I've fought and dueled in roleplay, I've only used it twice. I prefer my Katana or UBWS War Fork anyday.
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[Dryzzid]

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I don't think I have any "violations" for the stuff that I wear on my characters.

Tyranthraxus wears GM made leather crafted by the Ebon Skull and carries a spell channeling, no -1 black staff.

Dryzzid wears GM leather and his Royal Guard sash.

Both wear 1/2 jewelry.

[Grishnak da Orc Chief]

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I think we're drifiting away from the original topic, which was, if I understand correctly: why do we have PvP in RP?

For Orcs, it's simple. Gotta love being an Orc.

For me, RPing an Orc has a lot to do with being childlike intellect. What I want, I want now, and if you dont give it to me, I'll make a fuss and try to take it. Orcs just come with better weapons than the average three year old (not counting those from 'da hood). Unless Orcs are all rilled up (or being paid off or just bored), fights can be avoided by distracting them with shiny rocks, money, food, or women (bring on da femmies!).

My two bits. Do with 'em what ya will.
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" Got Orc?"
"A day without orcs is like a day without oxygen"
" Orcs may not be that cuddly, but God are they cute!"
- Polly The Hobbit

[Arcana]

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This is something that I thought long and hard about when forming OSL. We are rangers in a bit of a mix between Tolkien's Grey Company and D&D. Our alignment is chaotic good. Arcana the "First Ranger" is simply first among equals. We aren't interested in politics and cities or money. We are interested in protecting ordinary citizens and "our" forest from nasty beasties in the wilds. For the most part, that means we are a PvM guild (we can't have the ancient wyrm maurading amongst the gypsy camps, can we?). And since everyone is required to have archery or taming (preferably both) in their template, we are really going to suck at PvP as a general rule. But that doesn't bother us. We would be willing to PvP for a plot, but the members are not intersted in being warred on a regular basis.

Our motivation to PvP would be protection and self defense - like preventing orcs from slaughtering the NPC rangers in Skara Brae, or the good creatures in Lakeshire from champion hunters. Necromancy is a perversion of the natural order to us, so we would likely attack a practicing necromancer on sight if we caught him in the act in our territory. The only good vampire is a very dead one. The only good use for an orc is as a hunting trophy on the wall. We don't think too much of those Humanis types who are so anti-elf (lots of shunned half-elves in the guild) but as long as they don't come looking for trouble, we won't give them any. Someone encouraging or planting reaper seedlings in our woods would meet with a nasy reception. The simple country lumberjack might be allowed to pass unharrassed, but a large party seeking to clearcut our forest would meet with a lethal reception.

[Horace Telver]

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*lowers Picture of Arcana in a Red Star* Hail the First Among Equals! *salutes, as soviet anthem plays in backround*
...
Aside from that. PvP in RP is in my opinion a tool for plots, the old played out Paladin vs. Undead ideas, supplement character RP, orcs famous brawlers, or to provide as a hook to people interested in a safe enviroment but not so much interested in RP.

[Arcana]

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rofl! *cough* ahem, I prefer to think of us as green libertarians rather than communists.