Posted by RP God on April 3, 2000 at 18:06:01:
In Reply to: Since we are on the role playing subject..... posted by Bygkazce on April 3, 2000 at 17:46:13:
Number one, know your character. BE your character. This is harder than it sounds, and almost nobody *really* does it. Istendil did. A few other people do. Immerse yourself, forget real life, and make your thinking run in the line of your char's thinking, your talking, your actions, emotes, responses, just as your character would do.
To do this, you have to KNOW your character, know everything about him. Not just the bullshit humanistic psychology stuff that's touted so much here (mages killed my parents, I'm a rager. ragers killed my village, I'm a master. nature killed my people, I'm a necro. blah blah BLAH)... living and life goes beyond this. Your char can be fucked up in ways that go beyond rationalization... but be sure you know exactly HOW he's fucked up. And know how this affects him.
The basic rule is the same as for writer's trying to achieve character depth: go through a day in your char's life. Think of how he'd wake up, what he'd think as he woke up, what he'd think as he went about his day, why he'd do what he does (maybe the reason is simply that he enjoys it).. what food does he prefer, what are his moral and societal limits (does he eat body parts? like them? hate them, but will if he's starving? not think of it, because it's sacrilege?)... ponder his lusts and desires, dreams... your char *could* be apathetic, but people rarely choose to pour themselves into a char with nothing driving him. Figure out his dreams. They may have nothing to do with his life, ie, a rager may be a mage-killing machine but dream of a quieter life, or dream of achieving a truly heroic battle, slaying a dragon or a lich alone, or something. His dreams go beyond 'killing all mages, grunt grunt'.
Most of all, remember two things: You are not a stereotype, and You are not a one dimensional mob. CF encourages both, but work against that. Build flaws into your character, and humility, and you'll already be beyond 99% of the playerbase. If you're an Arbiter, break some of the rules when your character would. A rager, use your brain and let a mage live once in a while, choosing to talk instead. A master, break away from the old kill-kill-kill mindset.. go out and study all the herbs in Thera sometime, or develop the theory that you could make a spell that does (whatever), and go about the logical way of making that spell, like your char would. Looking for a magical cure to magical poison? Go around studying snakes and poisons and curatives and stuff, cataloguing your findings, and maybe sending a note to the cabal with your new knowledge once in a while.
And of course there's the basics: don't talk ever, ever ooc (even if you put (ooc) in there), make your conversation banally realistic (Gah, bit by a bloody wolf the other day. I hate those bastards. Gonna make me a wolfskin outfit and just WALK PAST the smelly bitches, har har. Traumatise their buggerred little minds.) instead of CF-norm (Haste. Slow. Haste. People here. Ranked. I need to perfect parrying. I need to train. Training. Died yesterday. In a memory hole. Can we take a feared? Can two conjurers group together? Ha ha, I got my minor form. Die, magic user. Die, nature lover. Die, blackheart. Die, weak lightwalker. Die, blind one. I will strip your blindness. I will make you give up magic.)
To learn the most about roleplaying, join Troupe. Avoid being boreing in your attempts. Avoid being pedantic... be creative, figure out what oddities your char has and exploit them. Don't be obvious (Gar! I smell the blood of an arial! I hate arials! They're ugly! My parents were arials and they abused me! Where are you all going?), or cryptic (why's that guy acting like that? weird freak.).. just be realistic. Extremes aren't good roleplaying... quietly being in-character is better. Don't try to be Istendil... you might end up a Neria. Don't try to be Thror... you might end up, uh.. well, a battlerager :P