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ABCs of RP


The Lion
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Bismillah.

 

God willing you learn something from me that can translate to your benefit in the reality outside of this virtual reality as well.

 

I'll update this regularly as I find time in my schedule. FEEL free to post questions as replies to this topic and I'll try to answer them.

 

I am Gabriel, but many call me Lion because that's the name of my most known character on LotC. I've been an active member of this community for an embarrassingly long time. Over the years, I've observed and engaged in roleplay of many genres from fantastical to realistic and much between. My characters have spanned from basic adventurer all the way to nation leader, and I've interacted with all the main races, and been an active member of all main races at some point. I’ve had a hand in planning the storylines leading to the end of two previous maps, and occupied a place on the staff team at times as an Event/Story Team Member. Therefore, I feel confident that my reflections on roleplay can help guide those who wish to learn or improve their skills.

 

This guide will include topics over a variety of experiences from everyday interactions to long term direction.


 

Here’s something:

 

  1. Let the chatlog reflect that you're taking turns when roleplaying. 
  2. RP is ultimately a social interaction/exchange. Apply the same respect you would in real life to those you're roleplaying with for maximum satisfaction.
  3. Greeting people usually leads to more interesting roleplay. Don't be afraid to say hello.
  4. Try to avoid using too many adjectives. Adjectives should be used as icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
  5. Have patience with people who don't type as well as you do. Some people type slowly. Some people type sentences that don't make sense. 
  6. Half the fun is letting someone else be imaginative within the bounds of the exchange.
  7. Keep learning new words and how to use them.
  8. Combat roleplay requires a firm grasp on the laws of reality.
  9. Setup your final combat move by preparing for it with your first move.
  10. Minecraft mechanics used wisely can add dramatic power to roleplay.
  11. Don't focus on your backstory focus on the story you're trying to make.
  12. Refrain from engaging OOCly with LotC.
  13. Satisfaction can be found in silent exchanges.
  14. Don’t LOOK for roleplay. MAKE roleplay.
  15. Read lore related to the story/character/roleplay you're trying to tell/act/engage in

 

Essential Roleplay Concepts

 

1. Take Turns; Your Go, My Go

 

Roleplay is a social exchange, and on lotc it is most proper to take turns in that exchange. There is always an initiator of roleplay, the one who sends the first sentence, and there is always the responder who replies to that sentence or action. It's generally rude not to respond, but it can be just as rude to initiate an exchange at the wrong time. Assuming all things went well, and the person/player you've initiated an exchange with, or the person you're replying to hears you, the exchange is best taken in turns; meaning Player 1 says something and waits for Player 2 to say something back, or maybe Player 2 has said something and now they should wait for Player 1 to respond. Nevertheless, there are times when you don't necessarily need to wait for Player 2 to respond if additional people like Player 3 are involved. You may find yourself responding to Player 3 while you wait for Player 2 to respond, but when it comes to most interactions and ALL combat situations, I generally abide by the rule that after hitting the enter key, you should wait to hit the enter key again until AFTER ALL the players involved in the exchange have also done so. The chat log should usually reflect sequential turns taken in the exchange and if Player 1 has two entries on the chat log before Player 2 is able to take their turn then a mistake has most likely occurred, and mistakes like that can lead to bad roleplay exchanges.

 

2. Common Roleplay

 

When I first started playing LotC, I was a confused kid, and spent most of my time exploring the Aegis map and engaging in what I would call common roleplay. I define common RP as the most basic form, and yet most persistent form of RP. This type of RP is mainly concerned with the gathering of resources/greetings, and the role play that is created from common RP rarely requires you to interact with other players beyond simple exchanges of two sentences or less. This type of roleplay is the daily bread so to speak, and I found myself typing ‘nods’ and ‘hail' a lot as I passed other players on the road.

 

Beyond greetings, the common roleplay also made me engage a lot in asking for food and trading resources. Nevertheless, the common roleplay leads to more complex roleplay. Simply initiating a greeting has led me into all the best roleplay. Why? Because when you open yourself up, you open yourself up to others and suddenly the stories of the world sweep you in!

Common roleplay is all about the mundane aspects of life summed up in quick single sentence interactions. If you're typing more than one sentence, you're starting to make your roleplay more complex which is totally annoying for me to see from another player when they make complicated the simple common roleplay; meaning don't make it a habit to greet someone with more than a sentence of content. Don't go out there making someone wait more than seconds when it comes to a basic social interaction or question, they'll get bored, or think you're an idiot. Obviously mercy should be given to those who are still learning to improve their language and reading skills like our younger players and players who speak English as a second language. It should be obvious when you're interacting with a player who is shy to type for whatever reason because they'll take a longer time to type a single sentence which distinguishes them from those who are simply annoyed that you're trying to RP with them. Those people will respond quickly and usually leave the interaction as quickly. Don't take it personally when someone runs around in circles during common roleplay. Nevertheless, save the complexity for the roleplay that takes place after you and another player get more interested in the roleplay interaction. You can usually tell if another player is interested in sustaining more than common RP if they've stopped playing the mechanical side of minecraft and gone still to focus on typing.

 

Additionally if someone has taken the exchange to somewhere more than replying to your greeting by asking a question or stopped long enough for you to ask a question that they're replying to, you can start to get more complex without interrupting the social flow. Flowing roleplay is what marks all the best roleplay. The enjoyment of nodding to someone and them nodding back to you in a seconds long exchange is just as satisfying as the roleplay exchanges that sucks you in for hours.

 

3. Complex Roleplay

 

Complex roleplay is not necessarily always caused by common roleplay, but for the most part it is. Complex roleplay usually goes beyond one sentence, but some players can maintain complexity/interesting roleplay without extending beyond two sentences, but rarely is interesting and satisfying complex roleplay sustained by a player who doesn't say more than one sentence when it's their turn. Nor is it rarely interesting or satisfying when a player is running around in circles during more complex roleplay situations. It seems only a nation leader or someone building is able to run around whilst roleplaying without having a negative impact on the players they're roleplaying with. If you're not building or leading, and you're running about (probably in some voice chat elsewhere), you're being rude because it's obvious when someone doesn't have their full attention on something. Therefore it's acceptable only in certain situations to not sit still while roleplaying. Yet, in combat, you shouldn't move outside of anything unrelated to the roleplay. Keep your full attention on those you're having a social exchange with or you'll be considered a rude idiot. Moving in minecraft while in combat is a quick way to ruin roleplay for me and is totally unacceptable. Humoursly I always found that GMs were most likely to commit the social crime of moving during complex roleplaying.

 

4. Don't Look for Roleplay

 

The amount of times I've heard a player lament that they ‘can't find roleplay’ astounds me. These type of people wander about looking to consume roleplay, and I firmly believe that LotC is about producing more roleplay than is consumed. The tactics of the lamenting player is to go looking for the ‘roleplay hub’ of the current map, and as annoying as ever they'll ask where the most popular city is currently. To them, I say jog on mate. In my experience the best way to find roleplay is to look at the list of players online, pick one, and make it your goal to find and roleplay with them. In my experience I never failed to run into the player I sought out. When you reach them initiate common roleplay, and if they bite, you should jump straight into complex roleplay to either involve them with your story or get involved with theirs.

 

5. Make a Story

 

The essence of roleplay is a story. The point of playing LotC is involving yourself in a story or making one for others to be involved in. Most players involve themselves in the story others tell, and this is basically how one consumes RP, but some players make stories for others to play in, be that is basically how one produces RP. The lamenting player is truly a player that is seeking a story to satisfy their interests.

 

There is a story that the server staff should be looking to direct for each map, but rarely have they done anything to make one until the last days of each map when they're forced to just to get the players to the next map. In fact I can't say there's been a satisfying main story told by the staff since Aegis when the main story concerned a war against Iblis. This is a shame, and something I have always striven to make up for where the staff lacked. Any story should be one that relies on the lore as a foundation, but is able to expand beyond it to maintain activity and interest of the players. The successful story should restrict itself by allowing only a few to lead and direct it with a definitive end point, but it should actively seek player involvement to lead to that end in a flexible way. This has to be balanced very carefully or else the story will become boring and unfair as it's directors try and force players towards their intended end point without letting the players be imaginative within the story along the way.

 

For example, in Anthos the map story failed to actualise satisfaction or sustain daily interest because the events to progress the story were sporadic and without a unified vision of an exact ending as the lead director kept changing and thus the story was unable to maintain coherency. Yet, in Aegis, the map story was carefully directed towards an intended end point and that direction never changed and was able to have enough flexibility to achieve its goal even as players shaped events related to the story along the way. The ability to have flexibility in a story can only be accomplished when definitive goals are established, and bounds are created around a story so that coherency can be maintained.

 

A story can be as large or as small as it needs to be to meet the end goal or idea. Stories will vary depending on its goals, but all good stories come to an end. Sometimes these ends can be made into sequels, but rarely are sequels any good compared to the first one.

 


Types of Roleplay

 

Having covered some basic concepts of roleplaying, I'd like to apply these concepts when discussing more advanced topics of roleplay. Starting with a reflection about types of roleplay you may engage in, and the basics of these more advanced concepts. Firstly, I define types of roleplay being related to the genres of roleplay I encountered and engaged in while playing LotC, and I will offer my reflections on how to successfully engage in these different types of roleplay I enjoyed to find maximum satisfaction if you also intend to engage with these types of roleplay. I will expand upon each in this list in a further update, but expect to learn about;

 

Types:

  1. Military
  2. Political
  3. Mercantile
  4. Mystic
  5. Cultural
  6. Horror
  7. Technological
  8. Environmental
  9. Judiciary
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Military Roleplay


 

Salute!

 

Satisfaction when engaging in military roleplay can essentially be obtained by recognition, success, and development. Understanding the hierarchy will amount to achieving these ends. Players will find themselves somewhere in the hierarchy as either above, below, or between others. Not every military organisation has the same hierarchy, but there will always be a leader at the top. Whether that's the Nation Leader themselves, or someone appointed by the nation, or someone independent of the nation is irrelevant to the the fact that there's always someone that leads and those who follow in every military organisation. It should be noted that I define a military organisation on lotc as any group that exercises the enforcement of a system, or supports the system with violent force. That would mean I consider the guard force of a settlement as engaging in military roleplay as much as an army, knight order, mercenary company, or personal guard is.

 

Recognition can come from a superior in the hierarchy, and saluting your superiors, following their orders, and successfully carrying out tasks/missions is a quick way to achieve recognition. Recognition is the pathway to promotion, and thus understanding where you want to end up in the hierarchy is very important to finding satisfaction in military roleplay. It should be noted that with growing status in a group comes with responsibility, and if you wish to remain free from the stress of leading, you shouldn't aim to advance to the top. Personally, I enjoy taking and following orders more than coming up with orders for other to take and follow. The burden of leading others is that you must constantly remain active and have your finger on the pulse of current events to be able to act accordingly to the demands around your group. If you fail to react accordingly to the dynamically changing demands and events around your group, you may come to loss, and loses can quickly demoralise your group and cripple its membership. However, without any conflict your group will become stagnant without anything to do. Balancing the world around you is the burden of leadership, and a time intensive burden at that.

 

Success revolves around accomplishment. Accomplishing strategic aims, missions, and battles. Success can be measured by how far these goals are achieved. To maintain success, there is a need for constant development for as long as there's more success desired.

 

Development means that military roleplay is constantly working to advance forward and find new avenues for roleplay before staganation occurs as a result of winning or losing a strategic goal. It is easier to develop from a loss than a win because a loss usually means that there's still something to win, but after success of winning arrives, the ability to develop further can be difficult because a new strategic goal must be made. Anyone with the mind of developing roleplay should be looking at how goals can lead to more ultimate goals, and most importantly, how to deal with achieving that ultimate goal. Knowing that it's either time to quit after that goal has been achieved, or finding a way to evolve and develop roleplay towards a new ultimate goal. Rarely do people choose to quit and usually get taken out by the ultimate goals of another group.

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Political Roleplay


 

Politics is a psychological form of rhetorical warfare to achieve an ideological end. It can be as virtuous or vile as the ideology allows it to be. Politics can be split into two broad categories; short term and long term politics. Short term political roleplay concerns itself mostly with everyday interactions and is comparable to common roleplay. Long term political roleplay is therefore comparable to complex roleplay and concerns itself with the ultimate goal of the political roleplayer.

 

Short term politics builds into the long term political goal by incrementally moving towards it. Sociological and psychological understanding along with historical knowledge will aid in political success. For example, your aim is to overthrow a nation; you would want to work everyday to assess who would support you and work to get them to join your cause by appealing to common social agenda. Knowing relevant history will help you locate supporters for social common ground. Understanding the psychology of your supporters will help you better target and appeal to them. Some supporters can even attract others as you can't get everyone to support you, but if you convince the right people, the rest will follow them.

 

=O=

I’ve come to understand that politics plays out in everyday life, and that there is benefit to understanding that. What I mean by that is related to the short term political roleplay I talked about before. For example, your father asks you to do the dishes. There is actually a politics playing out in how you respond to your father. Depending on which way you respond, you stand to gain or lose ground with your father. You could do what he asks and that would please him and positively effect his disposition towards you, or you can deny what he asks and this would potentially negatively effect his disposition towards you. If your goal is to have a good relationship with your father, you should do what he asks, but if what he's asking is going to conflict with your health or deen, you can respectfully deny your father with your good reason. For example, he asks you to do the dishes but you have an open wound on your hand and fear infection. The good father will most likely compromise by providing you with gloves to keep you safe, or accept your position and not ask you to do the dishes. It should be noted that even if your position is accepted there will be a degree of negative disposition towards you, but that degree is far more easy to positively recover/rebalance from than the heavier degree of rudely denying your father with no good reason. This example is true in almost every interaction you'll have. Therefore it is up to you to decide what you stand for, who you stand for, and how you want those round you to see you in relation to their disposition towards you. You can gain huge leaps of positive disposition by going above and beyond what is asked of you. For example by doing the dishes without being asked, the good father will be well pleased and rewards follow those whom the good father is well pleased with.

 

Gabriel, what about the bad father? In this example I'm giving, you may be wondering what to do when your father doesn't recognise your deeds, or it seems as if their disposition is not positively changing. The answer could be that either your father has gained such a large negative disposition towards you that your intiative of positive actions have barely begun to counter the negative actions you've accrued with father, so that you will need to go above and beyond at every instance until you've balanced their disposition of you to a place where you no longer to need to strive to go above and beyond... or the other case for the bad father is that they have their own unconscious problems that will block a positive effect no matter what you do. This case is much harder to break through, and you're stuck with either trying to help them unblock their mind which can be very dangerous for the untrained, or you simply have to abandon trying to please them. If you're stuck with the bad father, you would be better off trying to change their mind than simply abandoning them to their mind because both cases can lead to war, but at least the former case is a war with a victory in-sight rather than a war with no victory that comes with ignoring the problem leading to the blocking of positive change. If you're not stuck in the bad father’s house, you may be better leaving them to help them at a distance, or hope that they can come to change their mind on their own. Either way, the bad father is not a good ally, and you shouldn't be afraid to lose them if you know that they will compromise your health and deen.

 

(Deen is an Arabic term which roughly means ‘your beliefs, deeds, character, and religion.’ I use it to refer to spiritual health/way. Look it up on Wikipedia if you want a better understanding of the word because I will begin to use terms without English origins like deen.)

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