General purpose RP guide for players old and new

General
#1

So I had a chat with our Head DM and we agreed that we will get some players coming to LOR with a wide range of rp experience, from none to hard core rp vet. So we are going to build a guide with tips to help those wishing to improve.

I should point out that these are not rules and are not binding requirements. They are just some ideas to help keep us all immersed in the setting. I am a player just like you and I am by no means a perfect role player. I just happen to have experience with a lot of rp servers.

Some basic things that new players often overlook. Running everywhere, logging off and on in plain sight, speaking out of character as themselves about OOC things.

Now you may ask what is the big deal about immersion? Basically the goal of immersion seekers is to have as few reminders as possible they are playing a game. They want to lose themselves in the setting and not be pulled out by anything seriously lacking realism or that blatantly invokes real life.

Running every where: Short of a few tribes that have not modernized no one runs every where. They typically walk, they run when they have to. Yes some people run for recreation and exercise and there is nothing to stop you from rping that but generally this is something that really stands out that is not realistic.

Random logging: So you logged off in the casino after a night of play right in front of everyone. Those wishing to stay in character now have to rp that you just vanished or disintegrated. You have just forced them to compromise their rp and you will do this again when you log back on and magically appear in front of other people. It’s generally best to log off, change outfits and other out of character things, out of the view of other players.

Staying in character: The purpose of rp is generally to pretend to be someone else. The rest of us want to believe you are someone else. The moment you break out of character that illusion starts to fade.

The best way to stay in character is to know what your character is like. Give a little thought to their history, background and personality and you will find their reactions begin to write themselves. If you were tortured by Ewoks for 5 years you probably don’t like Ewoks. If you grew up poor maybe financial security is important to you.

A few minutes considering these details will arm you for your first encounters. You will grow with time and probably change and this becomes even more impactful if your character is so defined that changes are obvious. Why is your charcter suddenly nervous around droids? He/She never used to be…and so on.

Now granted you need to build a profile you can pull off. If I am going to rp a galactic traveler who has seen a lot of space I am going to need to know some lore to pull that off convincingly. Conversely if you spent your life in a backwater you may know nothing about anything but moisture farming in a desert. Most anyone could pull that off.

RP like anything is something you get better at with practice. The more you do it and think about it the more complex and nuanced your performance will become. It is also something that takes time and confidence so I would encourage people to be supportive of those just getting started rather than dismissive.

Obviously there is a wide range of things one could add for tips. This was just meant to get us started and point out a few glaring things common to newer players. Feel free to add anything constructive you feel can help us all.

#2
#3

Reserved for future use.

#4

Reserved for future additions.

#5

Decent basic tips, but I’ll say this
While I used to be a big proponent for walking everywhere, the areas in SWLOR are HUGE, and points of interest are very spread out in those areas. If I walked everywhere…well, its like what President Scroob said.

That said, there are a few ways to go about walking instead of running. One way is to use search mode. Assign search mode to a quickslot and just toggle it on when you want to walk. Another way is to hold shift while you click to move. The third way, and my personal preference, is to remap walk to the “W” button. You’ll have to move running to something else, I usually put run on the spacebar. Its pretty easy to get used to.

#6

I was actually talking about the walking issue to Little Dragon (Trirst Serruss) a few weeks ago, so it’s interesting to read it here.

The walking fetish has always chapped my ass. I actually do get it when in a settled area like a town square, or when indoors in a room, and I try to slow it down when I encounter other groups of people, so it isn’t jarring.

But outdoors, when hunting and gathering resources, I think the objection is silly for a few reasons. First of all, it’s important to note that your character actually ISN’T running everywhere. The total area that your character travels on foot is much larger than the few areas of the environment that are represented onscreen. You may be running in those areas, but your character is certainly doing a lot of resting, in the long stretches in between, that are the miles/kilometers represented by the area transitions.

Running is a practical play mode to make the most of your time in a large game environment, and the inability to suspend disbelief about this necessary compromise seems ridiculous to me, in light of the fact that we suspend disbelief about so many other things that are much harder to explain. Do we complain about not having to eat or sleep periodically, even though that seems unrealistic? Do complain that our characters can fight at full efficiency when “Near Death”, without any penalty or loss of combat ability? Do we complain about never being permanently killed, no matter how many times we take a dive and respawn after combat? Do we complain when our characters (such as my own) have an encumbrance capacity that allows them to carry the equivalent of an Angus bull, or two grand pianos, or half of an Ford F-150 around on his back? Do we complain, in a game where roleplay is expressed in the context of the written word, when a significant portion of the server population can barely write a coherent sentence in english (true in every server I’ve ever played on, to one degree or another)?

While I agree with most everything you’ve written above, and I certainly do appreciate the tips- particularly for those that are new to roleplaying, it’s also important to remember that what constitutes good roleplay (or even what is disruptive to ones verisimilitude) is mostly a matter of subjective opinion.

I guess, like Crag Orion (someone who, coincidentally, I feel is a very talented RP’er) I just wanted to make my reply to keep things in perspective.