Jump to content

LotC Mages: What Draws the Line Between a Good Mage Roleplayer and a Bad Mage Roleplayer?


IsaaKc
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone!

 

I found myself pondering the other day about how controversial magic RP is on LotC and how it can be a very black and white situation. Everyone’s got an opinion on mages and a lot of them are pretty similar.

That being said, what do you think makes a bad mage RPer (if you’re going to answer with just “edgy” or “power-gaming,” please elaborate and go further into depth than just the generic answer), and what do you think makes a GOOD mage RPer that creates a fun atmosphere to be around?

 

The purpose of of this post is to receive constructive criticism from LotC’s playerbase regarding mage RP and then put it to use with the hopes of setting a taboo for DON’Ts of magic RP.

 

Please keep the conversation civil, as I would HATE for this post to devolve into a target thread and then get taken down by a mod!

Link to post
Share on other sites

NOTE: THESE ARE ALL MY PRIVATE THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS. AGREE OR DISAGREE, THIS IS HOW I WILL JUDGE SOMEONE IN MY EYES IF I SEE THEM CASTING MAGIC.

 

Alright. So I’ll start off heavy here; I have powergamed in the past. Heavily. Or – Not powergamed, but it is better described as min-maxing accepted lore to my advantage. I like to think I’ve had a clean record since I was 16-early 17(Almost 19 now), but those stains are hard to get rid of. In full truth, I wanted to be THE Lord of the Craft. And to any reading this that witnessed that hellish faze of my life coupled with main character syndrome and dark magic fantasies; I apologize. First thing’s first:

 

Reputation

This is split into three different categories. Metagaming, Powergaming, and just.. Edge. They are important in that order. If you gain a reputation as a metagamer, that kind of deal will stay with you for years. As will powergamer, but it’s a lot easier to make yourself known as better to people you never met before, who will grow to argue that on your behalf. Opinions sway easier in that regard. As for edge; just don’t give off new player vibes. Make sure you don’t meme around consistently OOCly, and your emotes shouldn’t be god-tier long every time. But they should never be flavorless or bland.

 

Self-Portrait

Don’t portray yourself as an individual who has big-**** magic all the time. Don’t make magic flavoring emotes consistently. They make you look like you’re seeking attention. Don’t try and make magic guilds; they make you look like you’re seeking attention. If a problem can be solved mundanely, do it mundanely. A prime example is needing a rope to be tied. Don’t emote “Jesus waves a hand, the rope beginning to lift on its own and whirl around with expert skill! Soon, the sail of the ship was tied down in a firm knot.” The better thing to do here is... Tie the rope. Don’t just emote those three words, make it at least a sentence – but don’t make it a ******* paragraph either, nobody wants to read that ****.

 

At the end of the day, only cast “flavor” magic rarely, and in small groups of 1-3 others beyond yourself. Not in public squares, and not to show off you casting magic for a simple task. An example of something to do? Say someone knocks a mug over – catch it before it hits the ground! It floats back up to the table. But outside of these rare-presenting cases, nobody should know you’re a spellcaster from your own actions unless you’re forced to fight.

 

Emotes(Average)

Don’t make all of your emotes massively long. If someone asks a simple yes or no question, JUST leave it at yes or no if nothing else requires your attention. Emotes that are just your words in response aren’t bad. We don’t need to know the way your character is breathing.

 

Likewise, don’t make your emotes too short either. If you’re performing a “simple” action, leave it at just a few words. A slightly larger action, such as maybe pouring a drink and passing it over? A sentence. Outside of combat, the action-parts of your emotes should only be 2 sentences long as MOST.

 

Emotes(Combat)

Don’t fill your emotes with flavor. Don’t do “flavor” outside of small things. “With a flick of his wrist, the spell(describe the spell of course) fires!” serves the same purpose as “Jesus takes in a slow, drawn out breath. He reaches a hand up, grasping at the sky before throwing his hand forth and sending the spell relentlessly charging forth!

 

All it does is serve to confuse some people who may not be as familiar with the english language as you. Or make people get tired of reading these continuous emotes and miss important details. Now, unless your average emotes, your emotes here should be a bit on the larger end. LOTC allows you to have 3 lines of chat tied together. I would say, in your average combat emote with no magic and no speech thrown in, you should take up a max of 2 lines of text, and average at 1. The same applies to magic, in RARE cases going into 3.

 

Also remember, REACT to attacks on you before emoting your own actions. It goes Reaction->Your turn for your emote. Essentially, if you are casting a spell, we’ll say...

 

Firebolt. 1 connection – 2 cast. That 2 cast consists of “Form the firebolt->Throw the firebolt”

 

If someone attacks you after you’ve emoted forming the firebolt, or throwing something at you etc. Don’t emote your reaction being sending the firebolt. Otherwise, you’re essentially forcing their emote to take place after your emote. That is double-emoting, even if you’re physically typing your emote second. This is a HUGE PROBLEM with magic-casters. If I ever see anybody doing this, I will personally be the one to report them if they don’t accept their need to change.

 

Skins

Don’t have a shitty skin honestly. Lips belong at the bottom pixel of your face, eyes are 2x1. Make sure you have eyebrows. Appearance is a lot of people’s first reaction to you. In turn with this, meme-usernames are fine but don’t have something cringe like “xX_shadowdragon_Xx”. Like, I get having that in the past as most of us got our accounts at a young age, but don’t have that **** here its kinda.. Small child vibes bro.

 

Misc

Whole bunch of other stuff I could talk about as well. Make sure the magic fits the character, make sure you aren’t making it the purpose of your existence, so on so forth. That’d make this comment way too long to get into. But those above things are the things people ACTUALLY SEE when they roleplay with you in brief bits of time.

Edited by Fury_Fire
Link to post
Share on other sites

Magic shouldn’t be something people simply have to be all powerful and crush their foes. No, it should be something that a player uses as an extension of their story rather than the center. If you have a character completely surrounded around magics it becomes very dull and there isn’t much to do. You want magic to add onto your character’s story, not be the entire base of said character. 

Personally, I enjoy magic roleplay a lot. There is so much potential for it when people know what they're doing and do it right and well. Magic should also create roleplay outside of combat and conflict as there is a plethora of directions you can go with your character and how they use the magic to benefit the stories of their characters and others’ in astonishing ways. 

 

((And you know what's even better than magic? PvP default.))

 

((maybe more later))

Link to post
Share on other sites

         I most enjoy the magic RP’ers who let their character define their magic rather than magic define their character. Sadly, most people can’t find anything to do on the server other than magic and so their character’s only personality trait becomes “Yeah, I do magic.” It should feel like a good amount of flavor or spice added to your char, not an entire ******* tomato sauce. I’m also a fan of big emotes, though I know many people do not enjoy seeing massive chatwalls on their screen. However, as long as the information in the emote isn’t completely extraneous, I think a bulky dose of imagery is enjoyable to read and interact with.

          I also am bothered by people that constantly roleplay their magic to its maximum potential. And I don’t mean using t5 spells the majority of the time, that’s fine. The problem is when the person has their character know and fully understand every nook and cranny of their magic after just a few irl months of learning, even sometimes knowing spells that they haven’t actually been taught IRP. Not only is the void supposed to be a mysterious thing (This might not apply to holy/dark magic), but it’s also not a bad thing if you’re char RPly doesn’t know a few spells that they potentially have at their disposal. If anything, it makes you respectable for not being a complete minmaxer.

Also, do fun things with it that don’t apply to combat scenarios.

 

 

Edit: As I’m rereading this I’m thinking of so many other things that bother me but I don’t feel like elaborating on all of them so I’ll give a little bit of attention to each.

 

  1. When in combat, please for the love of God don’t try to be the emain protagonist because your character knows magic. If you are a t5 mage, you should have no more value than a skilled knight.
  2. Mages that minmax and don’t purposely give their characters much needed drawbacks that can not only contribute to their character’s, well, character, as a whole, but also make them more realistic. For example, my mage char is pretty good at mojo, but he’s also a complete wimp and I often purposely emote his spells backfiring because it makes him seem like a more real person, rather than a Minecraft-Combat-Robot that performs to the best of his potential in every single scenario ever.
  3. Regarding magic as a typical, mundane thing bothers me. It’s supposed to be cool and mystical
Edited by Anthony303
Link to post
Share on other sites

a mentality to win over a mentality to have fun and further a characters story, and to keep things the same with how they want to play always over anyone elses

ill add more on later

Link to post
Share on other sites

any mage who only uses their magic in CRP
any mage who tries to get magic to be stronger in CRP (OOCly that is, in Rp its fine ig, as long as it’s RP’d right and has an actual reason for it or w/e)
any mage who uses magic as their only personality trait
any mage who tries to get literally every ******* magic possible (probably an unpopular opinion but it bugs me sm when ppl have ******* 8 magics) 

imo good mage RP is being able to use your magic outside of CRP and generate interesting RP. so much can be done with voidal magic outside of CRP. integrate it w ur character and make it something that actually has a greater effect on them that isnt “buh I’m all skinny now because of voidal poisoning!” 

something i was also a fan of was domestic or household magic or w/e it was called. i personally think it does a lot to add to the flavor of voidal magic and something magic RPers should be able to do with their own magic



 

Link to post
Share on other sites

One of the things I see, and despise in mages is selfishness and sloth. 

 

What I mean by this is that those who practice magic, be it Voidal, Deific or Dark, usually lack any sense of character. Their characters are lame, bland with the only thing that separates them from the rest their supernatural abilities. They essentially play a character that is a reflexion of themselves, void of any differing beliefs, and following a logic much like their own.

 

Not to mention, players often take little responsibility to their character’s powers, often carrying their sorceries, be they blasphemous in their eyes or not, with little care, using it as a tool that does not create role-play, but destroys it, thwarts it, simply by-passing obstacles with ease and take it all for granted.  

 

Thus do many magics, be they well written or not, come to be perverted. Simply exchanged not for the spiritual power they hold, or the glee that may come when the secrets and wonders that slumber within them are shared but for the satisfaction of the wielder. Examples such as blood magic; especially the one linked to druidism, which was once owned to a serious player base, who held their role-play to great standards, only to be betrayed and have their work, culture and lore plundered asunder, taken for granted by those characters not differing from anime characters. Go back to your basements, dwellers : ) 

 

I remember now quite clearly, the disgust I felt as I watched a number of holy mages discuss their newfound powers, and quite clearly talking of exchanging them. What damnation is this? Your character pulls forth a so called ‘deity’ into its heart, only to be cast away for the promise of a more powerful one? Vile is the world.

 

If you’re going to roleplay a mage, think, construct something new. You don’t need to be that active, but you need to make sure that what you give the audience is worthwhile. I have spent the greater portion of my time playing magic-oriented characters on LOTC, and I still do. My beginnings were nothing close to disgusting, and I cringe at the thoughts. But what I now offer is grand, an experience as dark as it is beautiful, challenging the very way people think. 

 

Ps. I genuinely think magic rp would be more enjoyable if people would actually let go of their shiny little high fantasy beliefs. Drinking your mocha in the sutican tavern does not represent satisfying role-play for anybody          :  ) 

Link to post
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Anthony303 said:

even sometimes knowing spells that they haven’t actually been taught IRP.

?

Link to post
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, SquakHawk said:

a mentality to win over a mentality to have fun

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Jentos said:

Drinking your mocha in the sutican tavern does not represent satisfying role-play for anybody. 

?

Link to post
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Jentos said:

Ps. I genuinely think magic rp would be more enjoyable if people would actually let go of their shiny little high fantasy beliefs. Drinking your mocha in the sutican tavern does not represent satisfying role-play for anybody. 


I wholeheartedly agree.

Link to post
Share on other sites

To me, a BAD mage rper is someone who uses magic towards every slight inconvenience he/she can find…. “Oh....you said something that I don’t approve upon, EAT FLAMES!” for example. magic is  something very nuanced and therefor not only meant for combat. Of course there are mages that use their magics for bad ends which is just fine, its rp after all and without evil there is no good but its slightly demoralising if you see every mage around you turn into terminators that kill for fun. 

 

The misconception of many rpers is that magic can be used for constructive things as well. I have seen excellent mages that enjoy working together to create wonderful items or even moments of awe.

 

THIS is what i see as a good mage rper, someone that uses his magics for combat but tries to be creative both in and outside of combat. someone who tends to test new tricks to bring the people around them something new then just the regular fireballs and iceshards flying around their ears.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I once fought a mage that emoted blowing me and my crew 40 meters away with the power of wind or something; after that I became afraid.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Loregames. Remove them.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...