The hardest thing to roleplay?

myzmar · Post by **myzmar** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 2:27 pm

Hey guys and girls,

A poll but not a real poll. What is for you the hardest to roleplay?

For me, thinking of it, two things:

1 - to roleplay a real bastard. I'm LG in RL (the test someone mentioned on this forums is yet another proof

) and find it really, really, really damn hard to play a bad guy. Well of course I'd like to, I try, I can try making evil plots etc but there is always a line I will never cross (damn, the RL guy playing this character will take this hard.... I don't want to hurt him... etc). This is based on not-NWN experience btw.

2 - to roleplay a bard. And I would really love to! The problem is, english is not my native language. Even if I can speak it rather well, its certainly not good enough to make poetry. When I think about it I always come to the conclusion all the rhymes I could make would be really childish...

Waiting for some input on this, thats a question I was always asking myself. What's really hard to RP for you?

Mothandric · Post by **Mothandric** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:09 pm

I agree with the fact that RPing evils is difficult. Especially trying to keep to alignment without ruining anyone else's game. Other than that I tend to find Paladins difficult to play, as the limitations placed upon the class make it oneof the most restrictive out there.

In all the years I've been playing PnP (since first edition) I've only come across two paladins that were well-played. Though I must say that there's more than two well-played here on Avlis.

myzmar · Post by **myzmar** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:14 pm

Mothandric wrote:In all the years I've been playing PnP (since first edition) I've only come across two paladins that were well-played. Though I must say that there's more than two well-played here on Avlis.

Hehe, I'm playing a Paladin (Estelaurin), doing my best. But probably still a lot to learn

The new thing is she is not too stupid. I've played a stupid Paladin twice in PnP, both died in a similar way (all the team hiding and making plans, Bruno charging on his horse shouting "Your end has come, evil dragon!" and the likes

)

Dirk Cutlass · Post by **Dirk Cutlass** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:23 pm

I hate doing the accents ... I've tried but I just end up slipping into normal speak. I really admire those guys that can stick with a good accent, particularly the Dwarves are good.

Vichan Lyonsen · Post by **Vichan Lyonsen** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:36 pm

On Avlis...Evil...hands down, is the hardest. in PnP its not quite as difficult because you are usually up against the DM's minions and there is no such thing as griefings and having to worry if everyone else is getting the most out of it.

Also difficult, a follower of Mikon, not as hard as Evil.....but to be able to embrace all philosophies equally and do it believably without looking like somebody who simply cant or wont take a stand on something.

Paladins, can be difficult, but difficult only if there are sufficient external forces working against him/her.

In PnP Ive played heinous evildoers, and have hatched many a nifty plot against the do-gooders but TBH I dont know how I'd go about it here on Avlis.....maybe I'll try someday

Post by **Sarmanos** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:39 pm

It does take a certain talent to play a unique paladin. So many people play paladins alike that you could line them up side-by-side and not tell the difference between who's who.

BeelzeBoy · Post by **BeelzeBoy** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:47 pm

but I just end up slipping into normal speak

problem be when ye dwarven speak be slippen into ye normal speak

I think a bard is hardest to RP myself..to truelly play a bard character I would think one should really come up with songs or intrigiging tales of adventure..or whatever their craft may be....and then actually draw in a crowd to listen...Ive rarely seen a good crowd for a bard on Avlis...if ever?

blackrose69 · Post by **blackrose69** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:53 pm

Evil hard? Hah. I think not. It's the easiest.

It's being good aligned that I can't do.

Anganthyr · Post by **Anganthyr** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:07 pm

Well, if I had to play good... real good, life would be hell.

Give me evil anyday.
It comes more 'natural' to me I suppose.

~A.

Nob · Post by **Nob** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:10 pm

I can't do Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil.

Both of those are just....difficult.

Post by **Nighthawk4** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 5:09 pm

I would say that the extremes are the hardest to play.

Thus:

1). Lawful Good (what do you do when you encounter a Law with which you disagree on moral grounds?)

2). Chaotic Evil. To be honest, I find it impossible to play any form of Evil, but the truly psychotic, 'doesn't give a s### about anybody or anything' is probably the hardest. It might be great fun to play, but not fun for anyone else = griefing.

3). True Neutral. How do you sit on the fence and not commit yourself to support or fight anything?

IIRC, in the test I came out as Chaotic Good, which is exactly what most of my characters are. I have great admiration for those who can play any of the above successfully, without falling into the pitfalls I have mentioned.

WrathOG777 · Post by **WrathOG777** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 5:28 pm

Acting in accordance with what your character would do without letting your OOC knowledge of alignment affect your decisions.

find yourself doing any of this?
Meeting a malekite then atomaticaly treating them hostilely regaurdless of how convinceing their statements or how good they treat you.
Meeting a paladin and assuming they are right in an argument with whoever it is they are being a bigot to right then.
Seeing someone fighting a commoner and assuming they are evil instead of listening when they claim the commoner started it.
Attacking any PC or NPC of any race for no reason other than race unless of course that race is your hated enemy list and you are a ranger.
Treating a Dominator, Justicar, or Paladin as if they are any different under the law.

All character races and major nine religons have equal footing on avlis. Start acting that way.

Morbid Ridicule · Post by **Morbid Ridicule** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 5:41 pm

Well, as someone who actually has both a Chaotic Evil character and a Lawful Good character, I feel the need to speak up.

Your characters are only as hard as you make them.

Chaotic Evil does not necessarily mean planning to take over the world, or running around getting into fights with everyone. There are many things you can do that will be evil, but won't actually get you in trouble ooc.

eg: stand over a dying character and taunt them as they bleed to death. Or, if no one's around, "end their misery" Then take a potion of cure light wounds off their corpse and go your way.

The chaotic aspect need only be disobeying orders, robbing houses, doing actions spontaneously.

My chaotic evil character tends to wander off into the wilderness on his own

My lawful good character is a paladin. I find her to be a lot harder than my chaotic evil character, but only because I decided she isn't a typical paladin. Her lawful side isn't following/upholding any laws so much as it binds her to a personal code. She's very introspective, and second-guesses most of her actions, constantly praying/talking to Gorethar, asking him if she's following his teachings correctly. She actually doesn't like any of the three other paladins she's met, (especially Mr. Arch Paladin), and has very low opinion of the Order of Gorethar.

Nob · Post by **Nob** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:07 pm

WrathOG777 wrote:Acting in accordance with what your character would do without letting your OOC knowledge of alignment affect your decisions.

find yourself doing any of this?
Meeting a malekite then atomaticaly treating them hostilely regaurdless of how convinceing their statements or how good they treat you.
Meeting a paladin and assuming they are right in an argument with whoever it is they are being a bigot to right then.

All character races and major nine religons have equal footing on avlis. Start acting that way.

I don't mind the others on the list, but these are a bit questionable.

Consider the reputation of Malekites in the general region they're encountered.

A. The biggest follower of Maleki in Mikona is(surprise surprise) Tollgaroth.

B. The second most infamous Malekite is Jack...

Need I go further?

Reputation in a region and the general philosophies of the Gods are clearly outlined and should be common knowledge, for a good character to take a Malekite truly seriously when they have act all pleasant is a bit questionable if you ask me.

The Big 9 have "equal" footing, but that doesn't mean their followers will be treated the same way. It's laughable to think that just because they're considered equal, a lizardman will be treated well in T'Nanshi(given how the followers of Aarilax are acting to the nation) just like how elves shouldn't be expecting a free ride in M'Chek. Same with gods, you think a city or nation where 2/3rds of the populace are aligned with a Good deity of some sort would be open to a God whose area of control is slaughter/chaos? Doubt it...

WrathOG777 · Post by **WrathOG777** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:34 pm

Nob wrote:The Big 9 have "equal" footing, but that doesn't mean their followers will be treated the same way. It's laughable to think that just because they're considered equal, a lizardman will be treated well in T'Nanshi(given how the followers of Aarilax are acting to the nation) just like how elves shouldn't be expecting a free ride in M'Chek. Same with gods, you think a city or nation where 2/3rds of the populace are aligned with a Good deity of some sort would be open to a God whose area of control is slaughter/chaos? Doubt it...

You bring up a good point there... only thing is

T'Nanshi, that 2/3 good nation, is also 2/3 chaos. That would make gorethar and maleki equaly liked/disliked.

M'chek, where malekites are commonly mistreated, has a temple. The Malekites are amoung the respected cleragy of the land. Not many folks think about that. Tollgaroth does not invade mikona, adventurers invade his lands. Occasional retaliation should be expected. Offers to make peace have been turned down.

This world is not about good vs evil. There are nine alignments, nine major dietys, nine philosophys. Gorethar is just as opposed to Dru'el as Maleki is.

Nob · Post by **Nob** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:10 pm

I think depends on the philosophy of the God whether you value the law/chaos aspect over the good/evil aspect.

For example a follower of Senath or Toran would find any sort of chaos to be abhorrant, whereas a follower of Dru'El or O'Ma wouldn't have much problem with the IDEAL of a Goretharite.(Isn't to say they'd like him, being the pompous, condescending people they are...) To say that "Maleki and Gorethar are similarly disliked by Dru'El followers" is a bit ridiculous. It completely ignores the TOTAL philosophy of Dru'El over the arbitary definitions set in the(as you point out) OOC alignments.

As for Tolly in M'Chek...

The citizens know that the Malekites are responsible for sacrifices in his name. 90% of adventurers are also aware that Tollgaroth PLANS to take over the entirety of Southern Avlis, and that the only way to stop him is to occassionally go out and thin his army's ranks.(Which he even creates by taking sacrifices from the general populace. Unless of course the documents that Tolly and Fully keep on their beings are completely fake or forgeries...

Aradan Kir · Post by **Aradan Kir** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:13 pm

Morbid Ridicule wrote:She actually doesn't like any of the three other paladins she's met, (especially Mr. Arch Paladin), and has very low opinion of the Order of Gorethar.

she's obviously not met Aradan then !!

as to "hard to rp", I find it the most difficult to play a CE character who has to try and convince everyone he meets that he's LG!

oh bugger .... did I say that out loud?

WrathOG777 · Post by **WrathOG777** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:06 pm

Nothing wrong with takeing a few willing sacrifices from the local populace. Helps with the overcrowding it does, and it is for a good cause too. Sign up today!

WrathOG777 · Post by **WrathOG777** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:37 pm

Only real difference I see between a malekite and a Dru'el follower is that the hand only hurts folks that deserve it while a malekite could care less if those in their way deserve it or not.

They both think law and justice are bounds that should be thrown to the side as the need arises. They are both concerned with what the individual thinks and wants.

Maleki's philosophy is about freewill. Enlightenment is the betterment of the self, and the exercising of free will. Dru'el's philosophy is knowing what is in one's heart is the key. When a person is inherently good, their inner intention is focussed on helping others in society. Only thing Dru'el can fault Maleki on is not careing enough about the weak and innocent.

Goretharites on the other hand are actively out to enforce law upon all, includeing the elves.

Judgeing purely off of the philosophys as written, dru'elites are helping people, malekites are busy doing their own thing, while goretharites actively try to bring Dru'el's and Maleki's followers to justice.

Titanium Dragon · Post by **Titanium Dragon** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 4:07 am

Theoretically, most people in Mikona would dislike Gorethar as much as Maleki. Moreover, most of them have had experience with both - the pushy Goretharites and the crazed Malekites. Everyone knows paladins are control freaks, and after all the boards stuff (and experience with them), I don't know why you'd really trust them.

Vroshgrak · Post by **Vroshgrak** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 4:38 am

hardest thing to RP is 1 character. If i just had 1 character, i would blow my mind and quit avlis in a day.

for true neutrals, i really dont think its that hard to play. maybe my version is different than others but with vrosh, he tries to treat everyone fairly (low intelligence helps.) he likes the forest, so if something is damaging to the forest, it is unbalancing, and thus he tries to balance it. the good characters dont hurt the forest near as much as the evil characters, so his balance is more shown by stopping evil than by stopping good. he works hard to make sure shemathen doesnt get overly goody-goody. (thats hard with mari in it ;P) Also, I may seem apathetic to something/someone if it hasnt directly affected me. EG today there was a talk with the gentleman in the warzone, and he wasnt doing anything but talking, and watchin the people dying in the warzone, being true neutral i made sure he wasnt upsettin the balance then i left.

my lawful good dwarf paladin (in rockhome actually) is fun to play, and is pretty easy to make him lawful good, as hes tryin to stop a demon from the abyss come and take over evemur. just shout things like "by kagyars righteous fist!" "For the good of all!" etc etc. And tell the evil/greedy PC's to calm down and let everyone get a share of the treasure.

dont have a CE PC, but i ve got 2 NE ones, they are rather boring. although one is fun, i just cant stand to play him. i dont really wanna talk about it anymore.

myzmar · Post by **myzmar** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 5:08 am

Vroshgrak wrote:hardest thing to RP is 1 character. If i just had 1 character, i would blow my mind and quit avlis in a day.

That's one thing that came into my mind today. My two characters are very different - one is a socializer, the other one speaks rarely and mostly to himself. I've had a terrible week RL, cannot sleep, and could really not login with my socializer and be kind to everyone. There are just times when I prefer to move around slowly and play a char who is anti-social and slow in mind himself.

Other observation: it seems to me we most easily play who we are.

Fifty · Post by **Fifty** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 10:23 am

My bard is quite easy for me to play because I use him completely differently to a typical bard. He is the consummate political animal. He has no truck with this singing nonsense. He is about using his powers of persuasion to build a network of allies and his perform abilities to translate his powes of persuasion onto a larger stage. It is all about the pursuit of power and influence rather than writing poetry and rubbish. In fact the only time you will see him sing is when the Ferrell Server is completely empty and he wil sing on the stage at the Port Hole. And of course, actually, you won't see him, cos the server is empty.

A much harder thing to do would be to play someone with inner turmoil and serious psychological problems. It is too hard to portray this in an Avlis type world. I have a few ideas for book characters in the back of my mind and one of them is a dangerous psychopath who has been twisted into an insane killer by the events of his life. But how do you let people know about the history of a character like this when there is no way the actual character would ever reveal any of it? That is why I have never bothered introducing this idea to Avlis and will save it for a book where I can explore his life from age 5 to his eventual nadir and his later demise.

Roleplaying a real bastard could be a lot of fun too. The trick is to not feel the need to show off what you are doing. If you are constantly all "look at me" then nothing will work. There are probably a lot more real bastards out there than some of us realise.

MorphlingROR · Post by **MorphlingROR** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 11:36 am

The hardest characters for me to roleplay would be any that require a complex knowledge of English (hey! I am struggling with English as it is already!

). So, any characters with accents, like dwarves, or bards are out of the question for me at the moment. I don't think I would handle the RPing of a character with really high or really low scores in Intelligence as well (low is obviously easier though - at least you can fake it, hehe).

Speaking of alignments, I think I could handle NG and TN well, and CG, LE, and NE to some degree, maybe LN. LG is the hardest for me, since law and good not that often go hand-in-hand in my opinion.

3). True Neutral. How do you sit on the fence and not commit yourself to support or fight anything?

Don't think this is the only way for playing TN character. TN doesn't necessarily mean not caring about the events around. Character of this alignment may have their own fight - to keep the balance. In other words TN will be aiding the losing side, not caring about "good" or "evil" as they either see them as dangerous extremes or think it is relative. If the side they are aiding will start winning, it is quite possible they will decide to change sides. Actually this alignment is one my character sometimes slips into.

Opposite to many others here, I would find it quite difficult to RP a lot of characters at the same time. I don't think I would handle out filtering which information I have knowledge of with which char and which I do not, and not to base my actions on this OOC info. Besides, I never have enough time even for my one character

Fifty · Post by **Fifty** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:00 pm

Oddly, I find it easier to cope with 5 characters than when I had 2.

Although only 4 get much use.