role playing in ryzom

[neuze]

Hi,
When i read the forums, i stumble here and there on a treat about role playing.
I hear that SoR has great rp elements, and that there are guilds who have high rp values, while other's have less.

But what is the big difference between the two play-styles.
I played some mmorpg before, and the only thing i cared about was the friendship in the game, gaining levels, teaming.
All that without wondering if i was rp-ing or not.

Now my question :
What does make you (or a guild) a good role player.
/discuss

[grimjim]

Hi,
When i read the forums, i stumble here and there on a treat about role playing.
I hear that SoR has great rp elements, and that there are guilds who have high rp values, while other's have less.

But what is the big difference between the two play-styles.
I played some mmorpg before, and the only thing i cared about was the friendship in the game, gaining levels, teaming.
All that without wondering if i was rp-ing or not.

Now my question :
What does make you (or a guild) a good role player.
/discuss

RPing is about portraying a persona in the game and playing 'within' the game.

Say you decide to play a Tryker prospector.
OK, good, go further, what's his background, where does he come from?
Maybe he's young, still affiliated with the Corsairs, a bit brash and overconfident.

Then those RP elements should begin to influence how you play, faction choice, interpretation of events and lore, how you speak in-character, how you spend your time.

What makes a good roleplayer however is not just being able to play that role and get 'lost' in the character - acting as they would, but also consideration for fellow RPers, differentiating between IC and OOC and other factors.

Its too much to go into with a forum post really.

[kalchas]

Roleplaying is about roleplaying a personality, as if that personlity was your real personality. Make up a personality fitting of the race, your preferences, culture, background and so on. Then go with that, letting your person grow and experience things. For all intents and purposes you ARE that homin, and thus that homin can not begin talking about soccer, star wars or whatever, because he doesn't know about it, it does not exist in his world.

The above is the meaning of being IC - In Character, as opposed to OOC, Out-of-Character. Act like Atys was the real world, and have your char do things like it is a real world. I.e. don't do crazy things just for the heck of it, unless it fits with that char's personality and is believable within the terms of the world/lore. That's RP. Playing a char as if that char was real, in a real world. And yes, there's a lot more to it. A lot. But that's the beginning.

The other playstyle, playing SoR as if it was a game, and acting as such ingame, having friends, talking about this and that related to our own world, relaxing, having fun, etc. is the way most gamers play MMORPGS. That doesn't really have anything to do with RP'ing though.
RP'ing is more like being an actor and actually making things hard for yourself (or you'd think so, if you belonged to the majority of gamers ).

Whatever suits your playing style is what you should pick. Many also parttime-RP, get into their character when other RP'ers are near, but otherwise acting like it's a game, also while ingame. Whatever suits you.

- Edit:

Eh, and to answer the actual question What makes a person or a guild good roleplayers?

- The ability to immerse themselves in the persons and the world, playing their roles.
- The ability to clearly differentiate between IC and OOC.
- The ability to understand that there is no depth without consequences
- The ability to make interesting chars and interactions.

The first is about how well you can disappear in your role, live it and be it. The more, the better. And the more, the more emotionally affecting too, which can have its own dangers, but also rewards. Your RP will feel much more real that way.

The second is where, really, most RP'ers fail at some point or another. Either they act on OOC knowledge IC. I.e. they hear something as the player, and suddenly their character knows it too and acts on it. Or, they carry bad feelings between eachother. Either the chars hate each other and suddenly the players playing the chars also begin to dislike each other. Or the other way around, the players dislike each other, and magically, so does their ingame chars, though these worlds are not connected. This happens for all RP'ers at some point. Good RP'ers are those who have learned from this, and can keep the worlds apart.

Many RP'ers, or semi-RP'ers shirk away from playing their char realistically when they can see doing so will have consequences they as a player do not like. For example, having your ingame char lose a dear friend whom you've spent hours playing with each day. The temptation to do something artificial to get around it gets rather big then. But, you don't get the immersion or emotional depth there can be in RP, if you don't follow through on these consequences and take the good with the bad. If you don't do this, your RP level will be around the feel-good, tea-party stage, where everybody are friends and nothing of note happens.

The last is a bit more advanced. After a while, RP'ing and staying IC is not too hard, but maybe you don't experiment enough with character concepts, instead chosing to play the default, a somewhat friendly and likable person who tries to get on with everyone. Maybe surprisingly, not that many RP'ers like playing edged, multifaceted people who do not get along with everyone. Maybe because there are so few RP'ers, it feels tough having to be opposed to some of them due to the way your char is. However, that cuts many RP'ers off from really getting into unusual or strange characters, which is a shame too. This is not for the beginning RP'er to worry about though.