Posted by Uli on November 16, 2000 at 07:06:24:

Not like I am really interested in the subject, just didn't
find anything better to do at the moment.

I have discussed it with Calessin to certain extent, so some
of the thoughts here are not actually mine... but he seems to
be busy with some other no less productive things and will
not post anything about it.

So, the main question is: how would you define roleplaying?
I think no one shall argue that roleplaying is something that
makes your character more individual, that separates you from
others. Let's see what most people do to make their characters
unique.

1. Accent. "Me need defenda!" (not all that good example...)
2. Style of interaction, wording.
"You will not live long, darling"
3. Various gandicaps you set for your char.
"I don't use any wands, scrolls, staves, potions and pills.
It is a very long story and I will tell it to you some other
time because right now I am extremely busy".

Now what I want to ask: how much does all of the above have to do
with roleplaying? Say, if it is not supported by anything else?

All this just shows the ability to interact with other characters
within very tight standards. Having a story behind you and *not* doing
something because of this story is a sort of "passive" roleplaying
which is arguably roleplaying at all. What can be called an example
of "active" roleplaying?

I have read freuently that "to join the cabal you must show the
ability to roleplay within the rules of this cabal" (or something
like that), and most people did agree. But hey! how does it make your
character individual, unique? If you act just like typical master, or
typical sylvan, it does not require more efforts than any of the
examples of duergar warriors which I will not speak about. This is
my usual level of roleplaying, heh.

Why call it roleplaying when it merely is an ability to interact within
certain rules? BTW, this applies to Troupe as well.

The same applies to widely-spread criticism of "ooc" tells and actions in
game. Calling tics hours (hey, they are not even fucking equal to each other!),
and other staff is only very remotely related to roelplaying. I don't sepak about
exp tnl, but not because I understand that it is bad (I don't understand why it
is bad), but solely because other people don't like when I speak about it, and I
don't want to make them sad. There still is a lot of ooc info that you HAVE to pass
into the game, but you have to do it in some masked form. It is reasonable to
warn your groupmates that you are laggy (wise groupmates will act accordingly in
this case), but the word "lag" itself is taboo... Maybe, calling it "unstable portal"
adds some charm to the game, but I am uncertain about it.

For me, roleplaying is a way of achievers (*sigh*). I mean, you character
should have some great goal in his life, and his actions should be driven
by this goal. I can, out of my head, name just two recent examples:

1. Tathlyn. I am not sure whether he had any goals or not, but bringing theatre
to Thera was a great achievement. (I assume he was the author of "Ktytha", and,
therefore, the director of the play).

2. Hifflio. His story is well-known. What I would like to point out is,
that if he didn't know Thera as well as he did, and if he wasn't so smart as
he was, he would not be able to play this role this well.

What is the point of this post? I don't really know...
First, some good roles are impossible to play without exceling in pk and
knowledge of Thera and, second, can anybody help me to define what roleplaying
is? CF is a mud with roleplaying required, after all...

Follow Ups:

• Small note to one of your points.. Soren(VIP) 07:49:55 11/16/2000 (0)

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