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RP in Neverwinter...
jaxxxorix
Member Posts: 125 Arc User
Okay...I'm serious! This time I'm going to make a real effort at RP in a MMORPG!
I wonder if anyone could give me links, advice, whatever to help make this an easier effort. :rolleyes: I've always wanted to RP in different MMOs...and tried it a couple of times....but have never got down and serious with it.
I'm a table top player (admittedly more for Call of Cthulhu than D&D right now) and would like to bring that experience--of imagination, speaking with funny voices, "getting into character"--to this game. Oh yeah and it would be cool to be able to laugh about the silliness of it too.
Thanks!
PS: sorry, couldn't seem to get a good result when I searched the forums for "rp" or "role-playing"...
I wonder if anyone could give me links, advice, whatever to help make this an easier effort. :rolleyes: I've always wanted to RP in different MMOs...and tried it a couple of times....but have never got down and serious with it.
I'm a table top player (admittedly more for Call of Cthulhu than D&D right now) and would like to bring that experience--of imagination, speaking with funny voices, "getting into character"--to this game. Oh yeah and it would be cool to be able to laugh about the silliness of it too.
Thanks!
PS: sorry, couldn't seem to get a good result when I searched the forums for "rp" or "role-playing"...
Post edited by jaxxxorix on
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http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/07/18
I have no problem acting IC and talking about character and game related events, but don't get all shakespearean on me.... One reason I dislike SCA events so much.
I am glad to say I have never gamed with people who felt that was the only way to RP. Didplay with some whose Paladins scatter in a few thees and thous being all formal. I am hoping to run into enough people from NWN 1 to be able recreate that feeling a little bit.
Haha! Yeah, that's awesome, but not me! I wouldn't mind throwing in words or turns of phrase that are common in the FR books. Stuff like "Well met!" or "I haven't seen him in tendays..." would be fine by me.
Gotta love that Calvin, don't you?
It will be possible. Though, based on my experience in CO (which uses the same chat system and single server technology NWO will use) the quality of the RP and degree of immersion will not be as great as private RP servers in old NWN used to be. I wish we at least had RP-specific instances, but alas... as I understand it, it isn't possible.
Also, one thing that irks me about RP in CO is the insistence of the RP crowd in using old RP conventions like marking OOC text and using unmarked text as IC. The issue with that is that in a game that uses single sever for the entire community where the majority of the player population (by FAAAAARRR) will be non-RPers marking OOC text is pointless when the extensive majority of the population is using unmarked text for OOC chat and the only ones using that convention are the RPers. IMO, in a single server game it should be the other way around, since all chat is OOC by default.
Silence speaks louder than words...
Neverwinter 1 had a very good RP environment, meaning it was policed by many of the server operators/DMs to keep up quality, and usually not so restrictive as to be draconian. For my own tastes, I preferred the tight-knit communities of roleplayers in NWN1 to any of the MMO RP I've encountered. It was just so much easier to RP in an environment where it was not only encouraged, but also manditory, and griefers were given a swift boot and told to find their own servers. My favourite RP style is adventure RP. I can't stand sitting in a pub and chatting for hours, except under certain conditions which might make it entertaining. I don't even do that in real life. A meaningful discussion about a relevant topic is fun, but I often thought of charging for the soap opera therapy sessions I've ended up giving IC (in character) and RL (real life) as people drowned their sorrows in fake ale (and I don't just mean the kind with no alcohol).
The main thing that could make RP more viable in Neverwinter compared to any other MMO out there, is the ability to make custom content in the Foundry, much as NWN1 had its own creation tools and DM client. The thing that makes MMO RP stagnate into taverns and 'tea parties' as you put it, is that new content in the average MMO comes months, if not whole years apart. While NWN1 was able to use DMs to make dynamic events, which is the ideal for a roleplaying situation, the foundry offers a close second, because even if you don't have a DM, you and roleplaying friends can still experience new things and become involved in them, and then if you desire, hit the taverns and talk about old times. The ability to have new in-game experiences that are not just artificial constructions in someone's overly cliched mind, or excessive attempts to create drama for its own sake, will provide the dynamics needed to make RP work better than in most MMOs.
To address the original poster's desire to enter the RP community, my suggestions would include a few different avenues. Options 1 - 3 are the learn to swim by jumping in approach.
1) If you have access to the original NWN games, you might try to find a decent RP server and jump right into a safe RP environment. Since gamespy no longer hosts the proxy, you'll have to either use google or the NWVault to find them and direct connect. A few very good servers for RP in NWN1 were Three Kingdoms (3Kds - long offline but mentioned for being top notch for many years), Arelith (still online, requires no extra downloads, and offers levels 1-30, and with a healthy community last I was there, also FR setting), and Ravenloft: Prisoners of the Mist (low magic, low levels, but very immersive RP, unforgiving due to setting). I don't suggest NWN2, as the community still playing it was less than half of the remaining population in NWN1, due party to Obsidian's horrible manner of handling module sizes, and difficulty to develop NWN2 worlds.
2) Find another MMO that is generally RP friendly, and test the waters in an established RP guild. You are more likely to hit the taverns and tea parties in this way, but surrounding yourself with RPers will give you an idea of what you like, don't like, and what you should expect. Star Trek Online is hosted by Cryptic/PW, and is F2P, as well as having a limited (very limited, by comparison to Neverwinter) foundry, and there's a somewhat active RP community, as well as a push to increase RP involvement lately. I've also had good RP experiences in LotRO and GW2.
3) Get into an RP guild, or at least find people that enjoy to RP, and play with them, no matter what MMO you're playing.
Some pointers for the novice roleplayer:
- Avoid excessive and outrageous drama. People will avoid you, and the ones you do attract will probably be bigger drama queens than you. (note the drama queen lable is not directed at anyone in particular, unless it fits them)
- When you emote, don't do what's called "god modding" or "god mode." This means don't type, "I kill you by stabbing you in the heart." It's considered RP courtesy to emote "I try to stab you in the heart, with the intent to kill you." Essentially, don't force the outcome of an event on another person by your emote.
- Avoid metagaming, which is to say, act as if your character does not know what is happening, or who someone is, if they have no reasonable means to know. Consider it like your first playthrough of KotOR, before the big twist in the game. Not your second playthrough, when you already knew the whole story. If you've never learned my name, you have no reason to say "Hello, InsertNameHere." Likewise, it's helpful to avoid giving spoilers in a quest if you're with others.
- Make sure you have an idea of your character's personality and background, and preferably for the majority of RPers I know, don't just use the game's defaut "I'm the chosen one" background. RP is about creativity, so be creative within some semblance of reason. Set up character quirks and mannerisms. Get into who he or she is, and enjoy acting.
- Like the last suggestion, always consider your stats. I like to think about who my character is based on their stats as much as their made up personality. If they have a constitution of 6 or 8 (depending on elf or human) they are probably frail, possibly/likely even sickly. If they have a strength of 24, they aren't going to be petite, more like the incredible hulk. Are they intelligent, wise, flexible, or charismatic? Many like to think charisma determines their character's physical beauty, but as many consider it to just be personality, and physical appearance is what you make it. If you play your stats, you'll find it helps to keep you from developing into a Mary-Sue. The only good Mary-Sue I know of is Conan the Barbarian.
- Lastly, just be pleasant out of character, and don't be afraid to ask questions. If you see people RPing in public, it's usually considered safe to try to get involved as well. If they seem to ignore you, take it in character (I doubt you speak to everyone in the street, or acknowledge everyone who stands next to you in real life, and RP is no different). Get familiar with the community's RP conventions and how they emote ( *Asterisks*, /emote, or standard prose are generally accepted). In the end, you should be able to find someone you mesh with, and you'll find you're able to enjoy RP like anyone else.
Yeah, I'm thinking that the Foundry will be the way to go to get decent RP...
I agree with all of this^
Excellent write up and very useful suggestions and guides for RPing!
You might also try Champions Online, which is another Cryptic MMO, if you're more into superheroes (plus CO also has a more extensive selection of costume pieces for character creation if you want to make your character more medieval fantasy themed). Though, I understand that STO has a larger community, but I'm not very familiar with them since I haven't played the game very much.
I only tried RP in CO briefly a long time ago, but I understand that CORP is still active. You can find their website here.
I should check out RP in STO. And thanks for the referrence to KoTOR that was a perfect example of how to go forward with the appropriate degree of ignorance!
We also have to learn from our mistakes as players, and not hate on people that are new to RP, but work to help develop community. Players can form guilds, form friendships, and get into a foundry created instance. In Fact, sitting around in the moonstone mask RP'ing will get as tiresome as an endless grind. A healthy balance of action and RP will make for a game that keeps players enthralled.
Also if anyone is forming an RP group I'd love to join up. I just hope there will be plenty of Initial Anti-Drow racism because when you see a random Drow walk in and trying to be your friend you best be skeptical lol (Drow have a bad rep for a reason) and mainly i like having to work to earn Friends and trust from people especially other Drow (Yes i Play a lot of Drow but not Drizzt clones
The pointers that valkyriechosen gives are invaluable so take heed to them. (Especially the 'god modding' and off the wall drama/backgrounds.)
But Role-Playing in the game simply requires you to speak and act as if you were your character. Some people do this on the fly, others spend a lot of time during, before and/or even after character creation to breath life into their characters. I have not Role-Played in an MMO for a long, long time. I have, however, kept up the strong habit of giving my characters a background and personality.
Finding other people who Role-Play will make it easier to stay in-character (especially if you choose to play a rather shady or crude personality). How you go about finding these people is up to you however. You can join an open community or a role-play specific guild. So long as the people you are with role-play in the style you enjoy then you will find it easy and enjoyable to role-play in an MMO.
(I suddenly want to read Rotten Apples; http://rottenapples.talisancreations.com/mainrotten.html...)
City of Arabel was the best RP server ever.
Bob, what did I say about leaving the realms...back you go...
In the game, a LOT of role-playing will be done in subscribed chat channels and even group/guild chat channels (due to the single sever architecture.) Also, people using chat servers and/or Skype may RP on it (confirmed since I do it.)
If you look for role playing guilds here and elsewhere you'll find it for Neverwinter.
Hope this also helps. And thank you too Bob...I think.
However, if you want to RP by your own rules (like do not do this, do that etc.) you will need to form a guild or group or something.
Gamestop was selling the ultimate NWN bundle for only $7.49 but the discount ended a week ago, so GoG probably has the cheapest version.
Ironically, Baldur's Gate is more of an MMORPG than Dungeons & Dragons Online. In DDO you can travel together only in 6-12 player groups, whereas in Baldur's Gate there have been some major events on the surface and in the Underdark in which people have travelled in huge 18-30 player groups. Last year I personally travelled in a group of 17-19 players consisting of drow, tanarukk, duergars and human allies from the Zhentarim to wage war for a drow city of Sshamath against vast armies of a powerful alhoon below the Sword Coast. This was one of the most amazing D&D/Forgotten Realms multiplayer computer game role-playing experiences for me because everyone was role-playing very well in accordance with the Underdark setting and half of the group was using real D&D drow language sometimes just like they do it almost every day. Around the same time players who were living very far way up on the surface were experiencing their own big war between Baldur's Gate and Amn. All in all, I wouldn't be joking by saying that this Baldur's Gate world rivals even modern commercial MMORPG games in terms of quality and especially role-playing experience.
Storage space and computers have developed so much that getting 2-6 GB of files to play on an NWN 2 world is just like it was getting those CEP packs for NWN 1 eight years ago. NWN 2 is actually more user friendly than NWN 1 for a completely new player. You install NWN 2 and expansions, patch it to the final version released in 2009-2010, then connect to the server in the game and all necessary files are downloaded automatically. In NWN 1 you had to find PW forum first and download all the necessary files manually from their site. In NWN 2 worlds are still smaller than in NWN 1 but many of them are hand-painted due to greater freedom and options in the toolset. Baldur's Gate has probably 150-200 maps but the world feels big and parts of it are actually very nice recreations of maps from the old Baldur's Gate game. The world doesn't feel crowded even when there are 70 players online.
I should also mention that people who have a very modern high-end computer and nVIDIA 3D Vision 2 will find a very nice surprise in NWN 2 in terms of graphics. :cool:
If the chat system in Neverwinter is anything like Star Trek online and Champions Online, MOST ALL rp goes on in local. Within "earshot" as it were. Private channels are more for group discussions.
My advice to the OP is to hop in those other two games and just observe/listen. Formulate your own opinions on "how to" and "how not to", for the simple reason that nobody does it the same way.
Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean.
First, the pace of the action. I wholeheartedly agree that one doesn't have to just stand around (or sit in the tavern) to RP. Adventure RP is a great thing. But I certainly find that when I'm clicking around as fast as it looks like will be the case in NWO, all that adrenaline is not conducive to letting out my subtle, creative side. In order to RP even someone who types as fast as I do needs a chance to think.
Second, no true DM. The Foundry will allow some story opportunities, sure. But I have serious doubts about whether true RP is possible without a DM. The best, most interesting characters I've RP'ed have had definite weaknesses which made them more interesting. Without someone around to really encourage that, it's hard to see that most people (even RP'ers) will bother.
Third, the one-server approach. In order for RP to be remotely feasible, it must be possible to totally screen out any server-wide chat. If I'm reading local conversation and constantly having my immersion broken with stuff that I can't help but see, I cannot stay in my character's headspace. When I'm RP'ing well, I'm not so much thinking about what my characters would do as actually channeling them (this is what roleplay means, after all). No immersion, no RP.
I hope I'm wrong on all these counts and NWO pleasantly surprises me!