Thoughts and Behaviours

[Istavan]

Hello,

As a new player myself, i tend to explore around first with the classes/race that i like alot when i enters the world of Forgotten Kingdoms. Which lead me to ponder over this issue: New players may select a class or race they have little familiarity and might need a little more insights on the best roleplay models other then the helpfiles or the resources on the websites - Other players.

Perhaps i can ask if any of you like to share how you roleplay your characters? No need for names or specifics, but perhaps an indication of race and class, as well as what goes on behind the mindset of such a person.

If he/she is talking to someone, how does the character behaves?

If faced with something that disagrees with the character, how does he/she respond?

In regards to communicating with other races, does your characters behaves differently? example, elves to half-elves, or elves to dwarves.

Just some suggestions, as i am curious what are other players thinking when they play, as most of the time, the thoughts are unseen in the game. One could be sitting at a tavern hardly talking, yet many things are going through his/her mind.

Perhaps with a little insight, new players like me, could benefit and learn from more established players.

Thanks and regards
Istavan

[Glim]

Hehe, you asked for it Ill give my two favorites.

I have a gnomish wizards of Garl Glittergold who is...erm...I beleive Andreas called him "quite the colorful character". He is pretty much a goofball most of the time, though he can be serious or even a little child when he wants to be. Ussually tries to be silly most of the time and has alot of fun with it. Responds with things different as just playing around and being friendly.

Got a human priest of Malar. Probably cares more about the forest than most, just goes about it in a different way. Has a very...strange...but very true outlook on nature. Protects it in his own way. Ussually makes decisions based upon what goes in the way of the hunt and what would be best for nature and the balance. Responds with things different than his as either trying to teach them different or killing them. Has a very set was that the world should be done and always tries to move it more to his way of thinking. Hates elves but other than that really doesnt matter about the race, though he despises most other nature followers because they are close-minded and do not help nature, but merely make it worse.

[Gratey]

I have a halfling fighter Thats weird right there well to differnt people he talks differnt I doesnt say he talks like a human but a little like a gnome he has many feelings on killing if it wont help him any as you might see he is kinda GREEDY? well to gnomes he acts a little childish.
while with elves scarred he doesnt really like elves as much he can stand them my only advice is only play races you have some insight on and if you dont type help races and they might give you some info or just look on this board and find the race and read what other more experience players are writing

[Zilvryn]

I have a Drow fighter which needless to say is a sadistic, devious generally psycopathic (spelling?) character... Its never that challenging to roleplay a Drow tho as they generally dont deviate that much from the norm (with the obvious exceptions of Drizzt and Liriel Baenre)...

I also have an Elf ranger who is very aloof and stand-offish towards people that he doesnt know. I suppose I play him quite stereotypically again, but there are a few little twists within his character that havent been revealed yet (I have only played about 20hrs with him so far).

There are a couple of other chars I play with, but these are the main two.

On a side note, if anyone has any Drow characters please come down to Menzoberranzan! Its getting awfully quiet down there atm!

E

[Sparlow]

It's easy to get in a habit of thinking in a normal manner, eg. as you would IRL, and forget that your character quite often has a much different way of approaching things. Sometimes, you may find it necessary to be deliberately antagonistic in order to keep to RP, or to forgive when personally, you'd like to kick some butt.

I have a wizard who's not only blunt, he's frequently rude in his directness. He's also dense as a rock when it comes to talking to people, and sometimes even obvious allusions or social references are lost on him, even if _I_ know what they mean. But, I have to play through it and let him be the ignorant, irritating annoyance he is, simply because that's how I RP him.

While I've got other examples of other characters, the point I think is well made. Sometimes, you have to do things you KNOW are a bad idea, like insulting a high priest, simply because it's the kind of thing your character would do.

Hope that helps.

-Sparlow

[Elwin]

I agree with Sparlow...my ranger has actually changed a lot since I first started playing him...I chalk it up to experience...before he was quick to start a fight with someone who he did not like, but now he tries and understands them...and if there is no other way...then he will draw his blade.

[Tandria]

My priestess of Tymora is, simply put, denser than a brick wall. Not to say that all Tymoran priests should be, just that she is . . . and she IS rather stupido.

Hmm, I have a hopeful of Umberlee who is horribly, scathingly and annoyingly sarcastic all the time, and who is very contradictory and will argue just about anything, so long as it has nothing to do with how cool she is and how spiffy Umberlee is .

[Nysan]

Make the mind of the character, then make the character. In other words, have a general idea of your character's basic personality before you start down the path of alignment choosing or class picking. Nothing overly involved in the beginning, but simple things that would at least suggest how your character would react to some things. Examples.... Was this character raised in a village/town/city made up of only his/her race, or is he/she used to other races being around? Is he/she very social, likes to talk and make friends? Simple little questions that give a character something to work from.
If I can't keep a little mental image of my characters and how they might act, I delete them. No point in trying to roleplay someone I can't relate to. But thats just me.
A few of my more active characters include an old reclusive elven wizard who spends much of his time reflecting on his life and giving advice to anyone who asks. Not overly friendly in nature, but not antisocial either. Also, one of my more well known characters is a male human priest that wanders the realms, enjoying himself at the expense of others when possible. Friendly when theres something to gain, but not overly annoying.
Best advice for first timers to roleplaying and/or FK, make a character that reflects your personality, at least in part, that way you can use your own reactions to situations to guide you along. After getting comfortable with it, making characters with totally opposite personalities is not that hard.
(If nothing else......guess, its your character anyways. )

N.R.

[Aegin]

Well, I am bass ackwards sometimes. Here's how Aegin came to be.

Bought the Complete Handbook of Bards.

Read the books with Danilo Thann in them (forget the series or titles)

Hmm..I wanna make a bard.

OK, made a bard. Who would a bard like to follow? Sune? OK, kewl.

Hmm. Ok, got that worked out. Now, how is he gonna act?

Went out driking with a gay friend of mine one night, and saw two sissys fussing about their clothes, and thought..hmm...

So Aegin was born.

He has developed abit since then, though, as in my litle interlude away from FK he has been played in PBeMs, and PnP as well. So he's changed abit into approximately half of my own personality. My witty, sarcastic, romantic, creative half of my personality.

I guess the point of my post is there is no one right way to come up with ideas. They can come from some of the oddest sources, and can come from quite a few sources as well.

[Andreas]

I always try to have a good concept of the character I want to play before I even THINK about rolling up the character. I'll usually even write a background story so I'll have a better idea of what influenced the character.

I try to keep my characters well rounded. They have their likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. A perfect character is a shallow character IMHO. In literature, the best heroes and villains all have multi-faceted personalities. "Unbreakable" is a good example of this. The hero, David, is a strong man with the unique gift of being impervious to physical harm... but his marriage has gone sour and he's vulnerable to drowning. Meanwhile, the villain, Elijah, is very frail, but trying to help David discover his unusual gifts. Elijah is also a very thoughtful and educated man with a love of art... who committed ruthless acts of terrorism. Every Superman has his personal kryptonite

I've RP'd Andreas for over two years on here. In that time, he has grown from an awkward teen to a confident man. His most unique characteristic would probably be the way he speaks. My concept behind the character was my ideal of the knight in shining armour. I'm a HUGE fan of Arthurian legends and I suppose Andreas is a conglomeration of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table at they best. As for the rest of the details, you'll just have to RP with him to find out

[Hannarr]

This is one of the more difficult aspects of RP for me. So much of human communication is nonverbal, especially with a character who intentionally does *not* verbalize a lot of what he is thinking. (What he is thinking is very much IC, so I'll leave that aside.)

So, a lot of what is being thought has to be acted though emotes. But to be constantly emoting changes of expression, stance, etc. seems to me to run the risk of spamming, especially in a crowded area like the Market Square. I try to use physical placement (pose) as an indicator there, but honestly need to emote a bit more. I also try to keep that physical placement in mind so that if my back is to someone and they emote, I RP as much as possible that my character can't see it.

As far as how a character interacts with different races/classes, that is very individual and very much based, as others have said, in the character's backstory. I don't think there is any substitute for writing that story; I actually keep a text file of short notes on that open as I play. Disagreement, again, depends very much on character and situation, and is again emoted often as not. Not that I am very expert at doing that, but I'm working to get better. The one thing I try never to emote is OOC disagreement (or any other OOC reaction) - that goes in otell or osay.

- M/H

[Rotha]

My first favourite character was one I made on another mud, and he seemed to take a lot from other existing characters from books and video games... Rotha was different for me, since I didn't picture him any certain way before creating his personality like I did with other characters. The personality came first, and the looks developed over time.

I initially intended him to be a lot different than he is, but a lot of my personality, or at least a certain part of my personality, seeped through, and that can be good and bad. It makes it easier to respond to certain things, but it's less like roleplaying, and can make me be a bit inconsistent in manner of speech, etc. Sometimes my character's reactions to things are so natural to me that I end up talking like myself, while Rotha usually talks a bit differently. I am glad that he turned out differnetly than I expected, though... it makes his character feel more real to me and less scripted.

[Nearraba]

Well I rp a hopful druid which is a half-elven female. So at the moment roleplaying a pull toward nature...but is friendly towards soo many people. I wrote a story for myself to help me get into the roleplay better. So mayhapes that could help. Many char. act different no matter there race or sex. I think that it depends alot on the Alignment and the race as well what YOU yourself feel the char. should do. Well I hoped that helped as much as everyone else.
*Neara*

[Hannarr]

This is one of the more difficult aspects of RP for me. So much of human communication is nonverbal, especially with a character who intentionally does *not* verbalize a lot of what he is thinking.

Expanding on that while waiting for the MUD to come back up (actually, I think this has been discussed before, though I'm not finding it at the moment)...

I try to use emote and smote strictly to show what can be perceived by others' senses, rather than treating it like a method for omniscient narrative ("emote H. thinks/realizes/guesses X and does Y"). IMO, the analogue is not really writing, but is instead IRC (and IRL ).

If I want others to know what I am thinking, or that I am doing something in direct response to what they have said or done, then I feel that I have to either a) say so using 'say' or 'smote', or b) hope that they make the connection when my PC's non-verbal response follows their words/action.

Kind of an aside, but I think it still fits one of the original questions ("If he/she is talking to someone, how does the character behave?").

- M/H

[Lerytha]

Well. I suppose, because I generally try to go against the grain in almost every way, I have (definitely with Oloril, perhaps not-so definitely with Daevanna) picked a path that might conflict with another chose path, if that makes sense. Certainly with Oloril, I set out wanted to be controversial, but unfortunately lost sight of that and became annoying, more than anything.

First, I created the fact that I wanted to be different. Then I made his appearance completely anathema to most in the MUD - ugly. And then, once I had a personality and person, I made a back story for him.

With Daevanna, it was slightly muddled, but I have ended up being pleased about the way she has changed. Perhaps not done -that- well, I have nonetheless, attempted to show her changing from savagery, to serving a God that -really- needs thought in roleplay.

Which leads me on to a major point for new players reading this thread. At the beginning, it is tempting to do any action, because YOU would do it. Partly like Rotha, I sometimes allow me own personality to "bleed" into my characters.

When following a God, such as Torm, Tyr, or Helm... even Ilmater, I think... I find it is -essential- to think about -everything- you do. Only I have only properly realised that now. Either I am just rubbish at RP, or I have a good point. So I would recommend that new players choose a God with a "flexible" morale compass, to make it easier to RP that character.

Perhaps Andreas found it difficult at first, to RP his character... then again, perhaps he didn't.

Hmm... what else (and sorry to go on).

Where attitudes towards other races come, I find that reading a lot of Forgotten Realms books helps (duh). I try to get my elf to react to unusual elves with wild elf wonder or savageness. For example, -if- she saw a drow, she would probably scream something vile. -If- she saw an avariel, she might just gape, completely stunned. A moon elf... well, she sees them all the time. Sun elves, perhaps she might feel reverant... but basically, I think that people should always remember the different sub races for elves.

One rule for RP with elves is not (IMHO) enough to cover the diversity of this race. A person who react badly to sun elves and drow might be completely awed by the "angels" (avariel).

Oh! And, because I haven't got enough room any more, I will just say one thing - in RP, being ignorant is great. It invites those who know to tell you more, those who think they know to disagree, and those who don't know to make stupid mistakes. Ignorance breeds brilliant roleplay, I think.