The hardest thing to roleplay?

Gairus · Post by **Gairus** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:14 pm

Playing an evil bastard is easier if you stop worrying about making things fun for other people. Keep it symbolic (like the good old example of looting some potions, or just TELLing people before doing anything dastardly) and you don't need to worry about it

Sydney Losstarot · Post by **Sydney Losstarot** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:21 pm

Well hardest thing for me to RP is any Good or Neutral char.
No matter what I do I always slip into Evil. Itried to play a Good char. once on another RP server and was so fastly booted to Evil it would make your head spin

As for the it being hard to play a bastard that be not true. It's hardest NOT being a bastard if you ask me. My char. is NE and everytime I try to have him have a normal conversation with anyone that ain't Evil (and utterly disturbed) I tend to fail misserably

Deider · Post by **Deider** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 1:07 pm

It's interesting how a lot of people are divided down the good/evil axis...

I'm one of them. I've yet to play an evil character, ever. As a DM I've seen how in PnP an evil character can totally ruin a party when everybody else is good or neutral. I suppose if everybody else in the party were evil, then I'd also play evil. The ironic part is that I'm pretty evil in RL; maybe that's why I stick to goody-two-shoes types...

Of course, as a DM I've played lots of villains, and some have been downright vile. In Avlis I scale it back a bit - heck, The Gentleman is a pussycat...

On a side note, I think it'd also be tough to play untalkative PCs in Avlis. Since you can't see the people you're playing with, it's hard for me to tell if someone is being silent because their character is a serious, brooding type or because the player is being rude and simple ignoring me. I guess liberal use of emotes would help there.

Abdul_Caffeine · Post by **Abdul_Caffeine** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 11:39 pm

I find it difficult to play a non-human.

I can bring myself to believe in elves, but I can't bring myself to believe that their thought processes are similar enough to ours that they can be played by a human. Same with dwarves: they're not just me with an accent and big boots, they're a wholly different people. For me, trying to play one means just depicting a *human understanding* of them, and that spoils it for me. Real elves could only exist in fiction and if played by actual elves or total psychopaths.

CuRoi · Post by **CuRoi** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 12:25 am

I?ll weigh in on the ?evil? thing with this.

As the old saying goes: The greatest deception of Satan was convincing the world that he does not exist.

Just because you are evil, doesn?t mean you have to let everyone know that you are evil.

Those folks who run around slaughtering commoners and performing overtly evil public acts? They aren?t evil, they?re more sociopathic... and there is a big difference.

Post by **Sarmanos** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 12:42 am

Well Xaros is one of the not-talkative brooding types and it isn't easy at all. Its also hard to get noticed since your character isn't very well....noticable most of the time. Another downside is that you aren't like to make many IC friends, good or evil but a crapload of acquaintences instead. It has benefits though if you can pull it off.

MorphlingROR · Post by **MorphlingROR** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 2:13 am

CuRoi wrote:I?ll weigh in on the ?evil? thing with this.

As the old saying goes: The greatest deception of Satan was convincing the world that he does not exist.

Just because you are evil, doesn?t mean you have to let everyone know that you are evil.

Those folks who run around slaughtering commoners and performing overtly evil public acts? They aren?t evil, they?re more sociopathic... and there is a big difference.

Finally someone with a similar to mine opinion of evil characters. I always been thinking that a true villain would not go around commiting evil acts unless there is a reasonable personal gain out of it. I mean.. what's the point of attracting unneeded attention? There is a huge differense between a villain and a maniac...

Dralix · Post by **Dralix** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 3:25 am

I find it hard to RP low charisma with feeling like an OOC prick afterwards for offending someone IC. Hopefully I'm just worrying about it too much.

Jhevon · Post by **Jhevon** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 3:42 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 funny, I find the opposite is true for me. I find it difficult to give much of myself to character development if I have more than one character, and find that I get too focused on the meta-gaming aspects to differentiate between them when I do.

Sticking with the one character "through thick and thin" is the easier RP way out for me, because then I don't really have to try to get in character each session; after a while it just "comes naturally".

Second on the list would have to be crafting. How many ways can you expalin IC that all you're doing is making weapon handles, and that only for the XP to be able to eventually make something better (small shield! Woohoo!).

I almost find the crafting system to be so meta-focused that I don't even bother to chat to other PCs much when I log in for a session of say woodcrafting. The solution for me is to alternate between "RP sessions" and "crafting sessions", so that my character both progesses socially and meta-wise.

Jhevon

Actually · Post by **Actually** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 6:30 pm

Wow. In my character vault is:

One bard, in less-than-mint condition.
One UTTER bastard who can barely stand to hang out with himself.

Does that mean I win?

Bye Now,
Jerry Cornelius - Master RP'er.

Tahni · Post by **Tahni** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 6:58 pm

Most differcult thing to RP??? RPing a female PC whore (when you're male), who is flirting with a dwarf, who in RL is your best mate (male also). It was very weird and we decided not to do it again...............

WrathOG777 · Post by **WrathOG777** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:04 pm

Try playing a male PC and flirting with your dwarf friend.

Post by **Nighthawk4** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:15 pm

One of the comments made above reminded me of another thing which is very difficult to play - a character unable to communicate for some reason.

As the main reason we are all here is to Roleplay (that is why we are here - right?), every character has to be able to understand the Common language.

It is hard to Roleplay that you cannot understand anything which is said to you. It is also hard to Roleplay without speaking. Shrugging your shoulders and saying 'Ug' or speaking in a foreign language is very hard to do for any length of time.

It would also be a real pain for the other people present. Pretty soon, they would get fed up and move on.

Some of us try to play a character which does not speak correct English. However, that character must be able to understand most that is said.

I try to keep what my kobold says reasonably understandable. Also, I hope it is fun for others who interact with her. I have great fun playing the character, so I hope others enjoy the experience as well.

I know of several others who do the same sort of thing. Grot-Shack is the first one who comes to mind.

Tahni · Post by **Tahni** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:21 pm

WrathOG777 wrote:Try playing a male PC and flirting with your dwarf friend.

Aaahhh Wrath........ you're sick, I expect nothing less

Malathyre · Post by **Malathyre** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 8:28 pm

Nighthawk's comments on communication got me thinking. Recently, my character ran into another who barely spoke any common at all. I think that would be incredibly challenging to play, and I've been kicking around the idea of creating an alt who was mute. I think that would be extremely challenging to do, but would probably make me better at typing up emotes.

As for the good/evil thing, I think it is much harder to play an evil character well than it is to play a good character well. There IS a big difference between evil and sociopathic. However, I think more people struggle with playing neutral characters than anything else, because it is really hard to define a neutral character for a lot of people.

Oh, I tested out as LN, btw, so I guess I should be playing one of those SoT fellows. Oh well, not gonna happen.

@MorphlingROR: I've interacted with you on multiple occasions in game, and read many of your posts. I would never have guessed that you are struggling with English! I am duly impressed!

Strangg · Post by **Strangg** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 12:00 am

The hardest thing to play is a truly evil character. Many try but most are over the top or as cheesy as Green Bay during the playoffs.
I've only seen it done well a half dozen times.

~S

Vergilius · Post by **Vergilius** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 12:15 am

Strangg wrote:The hardest thing to play is a truly evil character. Many try but most are over the top or as cheesy as Green Bay during the playoffs.
I've only seen it done well a half dozen times.

I'll agree with this. Most people who RP evil can only think of the big gross acts that everyone in society shudders at when they hear about them. However, there are a wide range of acts that are "Evil" without committing any number of heinous crimes. If you're evil, you are generally looking out for your best interests and self-promotion over against the best interests of others. Unless your INT and WIS were below 8, you obvisiouly wouldn't go and do something that earn the emnity of all in society thereby forestalling ALL hopes of your personal advancement.

There are some like STrangg says about a half dozen or so characters like this that RP evil VERY well.

ashzz · Post by **ashzz** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 2:03 am

how many people in reallife do you know that are evil? or are they just evil in your opinion?

no one in reallife would survive behaving the way some of the evil characters on avlis do.

ashzz

Emprod · Post by **Emprod** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 2:07 am

ashzz wrote:how many people in reallife do you know that are evil? or are they just evil in your opinion?

no one in reallife would survive behaving the way some of the evil characters on avlis do.

ashzz

Ever been to New York?

keikobad · Post by **keikobad** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 3:49 am

Evil, the NYPD style.

Brick · Post by **Brick** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 5:50 am

ashzz wrote:how many people in reallife do you know that are evil? or are they just evil in your opinion?

no one in reallife would survive behaving the way some of the evil characters on avlis do.

ashzz

Very few characters in Avlis would, considering every other PC out there will kill somebody over an insult, and vigilantes are rampant.

Titanium Dragon · Post by **Titanium Dragon** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:34 am

Sh'lieulias could survive as long as the cops didn't have true seeing

More seriously, though, I'd say the hardest thing to RP is someone who is idealistic but cannot meet up with their ideal. Most people will either ALWAYS fail or NEVER fail when meeting with temptation, there is very little middle ground. Flaws are hard to RP out if the character is trying to resist them.

Likewise, I'd say it'd be hard to play a truly good character; most characters on Avlis are really neutral in my eyes, with slight good or evil tendencies. Truly evil characters are easy to play; psychopaths are easy. Non-psychopathic evil characters are also possible; Vence is not psychopathic, nor are most of the bandits. They DO kill people, but that is for personal gain. Then again, one must consider that by that standard, everyone who farmed the lizardmen would be very evil indeed (yes, I'm looking at YOU). A character who NEVER looted bodies probably wouldn't get too far on Avlis.

myzmar · Post by **myzmar** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:26 am

Nice observations on evil/goodness, thanks to everyone involved. My further thoughts concern the language. I had the idea to start a monk character, who would speak only in rhymes - a bit similar to the Master of the Way, but more comprehensive. I even started making the most common responses/chats he would use, damn, its not easy with your native language being polish

, similar problem to showing off emotions (*nods*, *shakes*, *sniffs* but what else? perhaps someone willing could make a list of fun emotes, with explanations what do they mean? just an idea)

Second thought: I find it really hard to RP a character who does -NOT- change in some things. It simply bores me. Like playing a char who is always afraid of something, and never manages to beat this fear... that's one of my big problems with Val'Hardir, I've made him quite a personality due to ingame events, and now... well.... he came to a point where he should not really change, and it is tiring. Tiring to always repeat the same scheme with people he meets.

kagouro2003 · Post by **kagouro2003** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 9:18 am

I don't think it's an alignment issue. I find it impossible to roleplay an evil character for more than a week, without altering my mindset, but I find it completely unthinkable to roleplay a female mind. The rest can only add to confusion like a female orc. Add a neutral female orc with pms and you have a real roleplaying nightmare in my book...

Abdul_Caffeine · Post by **Abdul_Caffeine** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 5:31 pm

how many people in reallife do you know that are evil? or are they just evil in your opinion?

You don't know my housemates, do you?

Then again, one must consider that by that standard, everyone who farmed the lizardmen would be very evil indeed (yes, I'm looking at YOU). A character who NEVER looted bodies probably wouldn't get too far on Avlis.

Amen to that. A truly Good character wouldn't kill any of the miscellaneous 'monsters', they'd try to prevent them from harming others, and convert them if they could.

Thinking about it, a chaotic character probably wouldn't run FedEx quests.

AD&D is tough on some alignments.