Decisions...

[silverfields2]

Would you - or have you in the past - enjoyed role playing the negative consequences of one of your PC's actions?

I had a thought today. ((I know, surprising. )) I wondered how many people who would answer Avlis polls would find it entertaining - or even has found it entertaining - to live by the consequences of one of your PC's decisions? I am thinking along the lines of sticking to your PC's morals/life philosophy when you ~know~ its the wrong answer, or even risking 'loosing', 'getting it wrong' etc.

Stories welcome for the discussion.

[Ronan]

It could be claimed, from a distance, that part of character development is this: you give up something to gain something new, and that this 'wrong' decision is simply a part of that path. From this point of view, no decision is actually wrong. It's also true that in a complex world like Avlis, sometimes a supposed 'right' decision can still have unfortunate consequences. That's really cool.

That being said, I have played through plenty of 'wrong' decisions and found rarely the consequences were so harsh a character can't really recover well; most other times it really helps the character's development. I would say it all depends on the circumstances.

I can't think of a character I've had who hasn't screwed up at some point or another when I was thinking OOCly 'boy that was poor judgement on their part'

[Elradra]

I enjoy going through with poor judgement calls. It's the best part of playing a low WIS character, of which I have many.

One of my favorite mistakes happened when Elra came across the palemaster unlock quest. Despite already being well along the pale path herself she decided to hop into this thing and got trapped at one point even though she had been told what would happen. Instead of cheesing a gate spell and server hopping I decided to play it out and find an IG escape.

For a day or two I limited myself to letters that were sent through her boyfriend to the outside world, and only logged in as Elra on the one server. Eventually help was received, the quest was completed, and a little logical study of the prison led to a memorable experience that shaped my character a little more.

I could've easily played off of her high INT to stay out of trouble but that would've been boring too.

[Pekarion]

I think that's what makes the game exciting altogether. I've never had a huuge fall from grace, but I've been changed alignments on, dry-looted, jailed, ostracized from guilds, been on the receiving end of two manhunts, hustled, set up, banned from cities/countries, lost friends/made enemies and it's all been good fun IC. I remember it all fondly. There are some characters lately where I covet their positions/belongings, but nothing that I wouldn't trade for some crazy fun.

[yorlik]

As long as IC actions are not foul excuses for acting out some weird OOC shit its all good.

[SaraEF]

Of course it's fun. Character development is surely the point.

Paging szabot to this thread, though.

[Zandel]

I choose maybe. As long as I feel the IC negative consequences are appropriate, then yes. I have had times, I did not feel they were, in those cases I would say no.

[dashdot]

Yes, absolutely. I think that some of the most fun RP is when bad decisions have been made either by your character or by those around you. It provides a learning experience for your character and either something to work your way back from... or something to end up pursuing, or trying to hide, or agonizing over (to a degree)... it depends entirely on what you want to get out of it, and often helps shape your character to be someone with a richer background/history.

I've had a very recent example - that I won't go into too much detail on - but at the time, I was kind of oblivious to what was happening. Later on when I was writing my report on the events afterwards, I looked at the log... and I was like "... haaaang on a minute... uh... uh-oh... ok, that was bad. Very bad. How did I miss that?!"

Of course I could have let that slip and feigned ignorance to avoid all the consequences, but I couldn't, not when trying to play a law abiding Paladin who would think on her experiences afterwards. I chose to face it head on, which got other players involved in the consequences, and I think we all had fun with the resolution of the situation.

I think that these kinds of situations in game that force you to make difficult/moral decisions are really interesting, as are characters who maybe don't have such obvious or clear agendas that could provide a certain degree of danger for you to deal with in such situations... if that makes sense.

It all contributes to the RPs - which is what we all keep coming back for, I think.

[TwiBel]

As the player of one of the other characters from the events above, who has just been processed through the M'chekian legal system, YES. It's been great fun.

[Lycanthropy]

Why anyone would vote "no" to a question like this and be playing here is beyond me.

[Ninjar]

Why anyone would vote "no" to a question like this and be playing here is beyond me.

I voted for all three because I could