Ryzom

I am just curious as to how many roleplaying guilds there may be? I come from DAOC where I played on Roleplaying servers & I've been playing Ryzom for several weeks now and have advanced very well. I only find myself looking for a roleplaying guild. If you know of any that accept Fyros please post the urls for me. Thanks.

keirna wrote:I am just curious as to how many roleplaying guilds there may be? I come from DAOC where I played on Roleplaying servers & I've been playing Ryzom for several weeks now and have advanced very well. I only find myself looking for a roleplaying guild. If you know of any that accept Fyros please post the urls for me. Thanks.

Unfortunately you won't find many RP guilds, even few... Why? My opinion is that RP we used to play is always about dragons, goblins, fairies, warriors, wizards and so on and so forth. Ryzom is very unique in it's stile and it will take a while before people will start to roleplay in it. Plus there is not enough information to use to give a source to our RP in the world of Ryzom. I think it would be a little bit inappropriate to RP in Ryzom as a Gandalf or something . I know there is many ways we can RP in but Ryzom is very unique... Too many things are mixed up to feel like a wizard or wandering warrior... Wizard with a launcher.. LOL... that's why...

tetsius wrote:Unfortunately you won't find many RP guilds, even few... Why? My opinion is that RP we used to play is always about dragons, goblins, fairies, warriors, wizards and so on and so forth. Ryzom is very unique in it's stile and it will take a while before people will start to roleplay in it. Plus there is not enough information to use to give a source to our RP in the world of Ryzom. I think it would be a little bit inappropriate to RP in Ryzom as a Gandalf or something . I know there is many ways we can RP in but Ryzom is very unique... Too many things are mixed up to feel like a wizard or wandering warrior... Wizard with a launcher.. LOL... that's why...

I'm not sure the game storyline has a lot to do with this, but I will agree that there don't appear to be any 100% roleplaying-based guilds (that I've noticed). I think it's more likely attributed to the fact that roleplayers typically represent less than 1% of a MMO's total playerbase, and Ryzom has a very small playerbase at the moment. I'm sure if/when the distribution issues are resolved and new players begin to trickle in, a few small Roleplaying groups will form. The problem then will be keeping them active. Belonging to a guild with fifteen roleplayers who are on for an hour or two at different times a day has the tendency to feel like you're not in a guild at all when you're the only one on. Guild storage boxes won't roleplay with you, after all, and roleplay is the reason most people will join such organizations.

Someone mentioned in another thread that it would it would be a good idea to form a multiracial roleplaying guild to help consolidate members. I agree with the premise. It might be a bit tricky to get everyone together, but the more the merrier. Each additional member in a roleplaying guild increases the potential amount of roleplaying available, and that's a Good Thing(tm).

With regard to actual roleplaying ideas, I think there's enough lore to build a baseline. My main character is Zorai. What do I know about Zorai?

• Zorai culture is based on worship of the Kami
• Zorai believe strongly in protection of the environment
• Zorai genetically sew masks to their faces at birth as a gesture of worship to the Kami
• Zorai are less than fond of the Matis due to that race's manipulation of plant life

Now, based on this information, I asked myself why the masks worn by the Zorai would represent a gesture of worship. To me, the idea behind the masks was the removal of individual identity, the removal of vanity; there is no longer traditional physical beauty, instead there is a mask which is shared by the community at large. I decided that my character would be an extremely devout follower of the Kami, and as such I designed her with no hair, no tattoos on her mask, and no horns on her mask. All traces of individuality or personal expression were removed to demonstrate her piety.

Said character typically speaks with the royal "we," as she outwardly believes herself to be a vessel for Kami will. Inwardly, however, she has some doubts. These doubts lead her to investigate the origin of the Kami even as she does their bidding. Based on the advancement of the story in the game, this character can advance in several ways. Until that time, the contradiction between outwardly devout follower and inwardly uncertain young woman will offer a fairly rich roleplaying possibility.

And that's just one possibility for one race. There's a lot to draw from in Ryzom, and the fact that we don't have all the information yet is actually a benefit because it allows us room for growth as more information becomes known. I just hope we can eventually build up a large enough community for any of this to matter.

All of that said, there's still a major obstacle to roleplaying in Ryzom, and that's the lack of emotes. I'm not talking about the right-click kind that's currently in the game. I'm talking about the very standard kind that exists in every MMO and MUD I've ever played- the kind that allows you to type "/emote nods, the corners of her mouth turning upward in a subtle smile" and "/emote scowls darkly at the mention of her brother." The inability to make our own emotes in Ryzom literally takes away 50% of our roleplaying possibilities. It's a rather crippling blow.

Cheers!

From what I hear there are no roleplay guilds in Fyros or Matis.

Yet every Zorai guild I've met roleplays to some extent. So far it seems that most of the Tryker guilds do as well.

Pilgrims of Atys are a Kami supporting guild and we're hard at work at getting into Fyros lands. When we do there will be a light roleplaying guild alternative for those looking for one.

I agree with Jenuviel. There simply aren't enough people on our server at the moment to support much RP'ing. But this will change. The background story provides just enough foundation to understand our cultures without putting serious restrictions on our creativity. With the patch 2 quests and encyclopedias we will have plenty of adventures where we can RP.

As I see it, the biggest threat to roleplaying in Ryzom is fragmentation. RP'ers are creative people and like to establish themed guilds (restricted to certain races, classes, and ideologies). This limits the number of people who can be in any RP guild and the result can be a loss of community. I briefly played on an "unofficial" RP server in City of Heroes. There seemed to be about a hundred true roleplayers divided between about thirty RP guilds. See the problem? Most of those RP guilds had really cool themes but there were never more than two or three people from each guild on at the same time. With no formal alliance chat channels, and no ability to create new chat channels there was too little communication within what could have been a lively RP community. We face the same potential problem in Ryzom.

How do we avoid it? (1) Beg the devs for two RP chat channels. One for in-zone chat and one which is global. (2) Ask the board moderators for server specific RP forums. (3) Resist the impulse to create RP guilds with overly restrictive membership requirements. (4) Form partnerships between the RP guilds which do exist.

Indobi
Zorai harvester
Faithful servant of the Kami (currently looking for an RP guild!)

I also come from a long line of RP servers in games such as DAoC, however, though I agree that though there is *some* content with which to roleplay (racial factions, historical lore [allbeit limited], etc), dialogue is tough because we don't know how these homins speak, nor anything about their social organization (how they address and interact with each other, show respect, etc); and the NPCs aren't very helpful -- they speak modern english, and are very egalitarian when referring to other NPCs (eg: your trainer is "just some guy" who hangs out in a tree all day, no different than the "just some guy" welcomer you're speaking with who tells you where to find him).

Anyway, certainly, typical pre-elizabethan colloquy is inappropriate (Aye, Thy, Thine, Nay) etc, so it's hard to speak in character, or at least know what the correct type of diction should and should not be.

So, not to discourage anyone from roleplaying your character, I just personally find it kind of awkward and inappropriate to do so effectively until I understand more about the cultures, which will come with time as the story emerges.

Pilgrims of Atys is a roleplaying friendly guild now in Fyros lands. We began recruiting among both civilizations of Kami followers last Thursday.

If any of you are interested, please check us out.

svayvti wrote:Pilgrims of Atys is a roleplaying friendly guild now in Fyros lands. We began recruiting among both civilizations of Kami followers last Thursday.

If any of you are interested, please check us out.

The Samsara are a roleplay/social oriented group with roleplay on our forum and a few RP events in the early planning stages.

We'd be happy to pick up players to fill out the guild.

/tell Jyudas or Kostika in Fyros lands for more info.

tetsius wrote:Unfortunately you won't find many RP guilds, even few... Why? My opinion is that RP we used to play is always about dragons, goblins, fairies, warriors, wizards and so on and so forth. Ryzom is very unique in it's stile and it will take a while before people will start to roleplay in it. Plus there is not enough information to use to give a source to our RP in the world of Ryzom. I think it would be a little bit inappropriate to RP in Ryzom as a Gandalf or something . I know there is many ways we can RP in but Ryzom is very unique... Too many things are mixed up to feel like a wizard or wandering warrior... Wizard with a launcher.. LOL... that's why...

This shows a rather large ignorance of the wider world of roleplaying, not meant to be offensive, just stating facts.

My RT work is a full time freelancer and self-producer of tabletop roleplaying games and they cover the gamut of genres from fantasy as you describe, to sci fi, horror, occult, conspiracy, all sorts.

Ryzom is FAR from the weirdest setting out there. I think TSR's old Planescape or Darksun would rival it, Over The Edge's Al Amarja is more surreal and there is a game very similar in character and feel to Ryzom called 'Mechanical Dream' by Steamlogic.

http://www.steamlogic.com

Roleplaying is a vast thing, albeit a niche, very rewarding and a lot of fun.

grimjim wrote:The Samsara are a roleplay/social oriented group with roleplay on our forum and a few RP events in the early planning stages.

Pilgrims are happy to work with other RP guilds to bring more events to Atys for all to enjoy.