BonesOfTheEarth 11 Year AMA

[BonesOfTheEarth 2252]

I'm a week or two early, but I know I will forget if I don't do it while the thought is there! Ask me anything! Currently I play Malkael the demon, and Tam'naeuth Terin, a religious wood elf!

 

Been here 11 years 😔 I don't do an AMA every year, but I figure I've been meeting a lot of new people/getting involved in new types of RP lately for the first time in a long time, so pop off!

[Laeonathan 5889]

Favorite Amethil memory?

[JudgeTrudy 610]

Across 11 years, how often would you say you've decided to let a character go (be it through a PK or a permanent shelving)? Then, how often do you think a character can last while still remaining interesting to roleplay with and fulfilling for the player?

 

What are some challenges you've faced playing a demon?

 

If you got thrust into this world as your real self, where do you think you would want to live?

[Crevel 7557]

why are you still here?

[BonesOfTheEarth 2252]

1 hour ago, Laeonathan said:

Favorite Amethil memory?

I think the first time Lefkos partook in an actual family meeting was sort of the point where it became "oh man, some semblance of legacy will carry on" - I'd say its the first mark I ever left on the server on a personal level. Lore nonsense aside.

 

59 minutes ago, JudgeTrudy said:

Across 11 years, how often would you say you've decided to let a character go (be it through a PK or a permanent shelving)? Then, how often do you think a character can last while still remaining interesting to roleplay with and fulfilling for the player?

 

What are some challenges you've faced playing a demon?

 

If you got thrust into this world as your real self, where do you think you would want to live?

I've had 4 characters die throughout my time on lotc. The longest I've had a character was Lefkos Amethil, who PK'd on many different occasions, only to be brought back to life as worse and worse things each time he died. At a certain point I should have drawn the line but I never did until the PK was event-based(I do think he can be brought back as a draugur etc again, and some people have voiced intent to do such in the past, but I've put my foot down and firmly revoked any sort of ooc consent for that - his story is done). More simply, fulfilling to the player in my mind continues as long as there is a route for growth. Once you peak it's generally a plateau from there, and keeping to the same character passed their end is rough unless its a sudden twist you were never expecting.

 

My demon is a very, very old character. He's around 750 years old, and existed well before demons were ever conceptualized as lore or even Moz'strimoza existing(I do not know the deeplore but my understanding is that it came into existence and was not an always-present realm that we only 'discovered' later). He's done a TON of stuff and has a lot of deep history many he's around dont know about. He became a demon after being hopelessly outnumbered by them and charging head-on into a group of like 20 player characters while the others with him fled. His punishment for defeat by demons, which he had taken to slaying, was to then become one. Understanding this, my greatest challenge with him at first was developing any roleplay at all with non-demons. It was a nightmare. Demons get no disguise mechanic but are sort of pseudo-written in to be able to have deals made with them etc, and I wanted to play a dealmaker. With enough grind I got to that point, and now my new greatest challenge is repeatedly reaffirming to other people around him that he isn't just some run of the mill basic demon. He may hold the mechanics of a basic Evolved Zar'ei, but given his history and past, he constantly reaffirms his higher existence in the way demons do best - infighting. It's a nightmare but very par for the course for demon roleplay. It's a difficult thing to put across to non-demons though as to them he's nothing but a basic grunt intended to die for their heroism larp - and I intend for that to potentially be one of his 3~ possible endings, sure, but the general auto assumption leads people to passively powergame against him constantly. Micro stuff.

 

God, uh..... Probably Petra. Easygoing place with nice people and not a huge amount of constant threat of dying. I'm just like, a dude, so it's probably my best chance of being somewhere without a world event wiping me out along with another 600 NPCs

 

48 minutes ago, Crevel said:

why are you still here?

Because I refuse to allow myself to become tied to any one thing to the point that burnout is a difficult thing for me to come across. Simply because if I don't feel like doing something, I don't do it. If I do not want to roleplay anymore but I'm in the middle of an interaction? "Hey guys, I gotta go!" in LOOC channel, and then I log off. If I said I would show up to an event but I'm not really feeling it the day of? I don't go. Sometimes I will be in a discord and someone will go "ugh I want to log off but this guys roleplaying with me" and they'll treat it like they are obligated to stay - I think that is weird. LotC is a video game and should be treated like one.

 

I never force myself to do anything. Sometimes it leads to me barely logging in for weeks at a time - I believe only this past week I got back around after having only logged 2 hours in the prior 2 weeks, for example. Not because I was busy, just because I didn't feel up to doing much on lotc. On top of that, I have a fun friend group IRL, a wonderful wife, and an entirely unrelated friend group to lotc online to play other games with. Putting IRL obligations to the side, LotC is probably my 4th most important hobby-sink. I simply do other things and don't take this server that seriously and it leads to me not being burnt out or getting heated enough to want to go "raaahh im done!"

[KeiaTypeBeat 3277]

How has what you've enjoyed about LOTC change over the years? Is what keept you on the server 5 years ago the same as what keeps you interested today? 

 

Do you think there would be any significant differences between you right now and a version of you who never played LOTC? 

 

Do you foresee a future where you truly stop playing LOTC and are done with it forever?

 

What is your character creation process? How has it changed throughout the years?

 

Your favorite OC? Least favorite?

 

How are you doing today?

 

Do you ever find roleplay to be overwhelming? What do you when it becomes that way?

 

What is a bit of advice you wish you gave younger you before they started lotc?

 

All teasing aside, you're one of my favorite people I've gotten to meet thru lotc, and you're one of the first people I ever roleplayed with when I first started Vas. It made me really happy to see you're still around, and I hope we get to actually do stuff irply more often this year.

 

I hope ur cringiest emotes get sent straight to #OOC 😁 

[BonesOfTheEarth 2252]

30 minutes ago, RezRatKeia said:

How has what you've enjoyed about LOTC change over the years? Is what keept you on the server 5 years ago the same as what keeps you interested today? 

 

Do you think there would be any significant differences between you right now and a version of you who never played LOTC? 

 

Do you foresee a future where you truly stop playing LOTC and are done with it forever?

 

What is your character creation process? How has it changed throughout the years?

 

Your favorite OC? Least favorite?

 

How are you doing today?

 

Do you ever find roleplay to be overwhelming? What do you when it becomes that way?

 

What is a bit of advice you wish you gave younger you before they started lotc?

 

All teasing aside, you're one of my favorite people I've gotten to meet thru lotc, and you're one of the first people I ever roleplayed with when I first started Vas. It made me really happy to see you're still around, and I hope we get to actually do stuff irply more often this year.

 

I hope ur cringiest emotes get sent straight to #OOC  

5 years ago I left for a period of 2 years, and more or less completely changed as a person. My desires and goals changed completely, shifting from wanting to become as big and important as I could be, to being satisfied with where I got to after those 2 years. LotC went from a chore to a hobby for me.

 

Absolutely to the second question, and I'll actually credit [redacted] for it. They and I had beef with each other back in the day. I consider it wholly squashed and put to bed as ancient history. But back then, when I approached them to try and put an end to our differences, they told me that they truly and wholeheartedly believed that nobody was capable of change. That once you've done something cringe or bad, you are forever at that level and can never ascend higher as a person. That's the one line anyone's ever spoken to me on LotC that's stuck to me. Not because I agreed, but rather that I disagreed so violently that I was willing to change myself as a person entirely and my outlook on life just to prove them wrong(Part of their plot, perhaps? Maybe they're the real winner...). There's a decent chance they see this - and if they do, I'd love to chat more and see if their own view has changed over time.

 

I haven't thought about it. I mean, probably? If I stop having fun I'll stop logging on.

 

My favorite OC of mine is a dnd character by the name of Lukas Willow. An Aasimar Giant-Barbarian with an incredibly cool angelic vibe when he transformed. The actual writing of the character was mid-tier, but the campaign playing and vibe of him was S+ to me.

 

I am doing okay! My dog is being super sad that her mother isn't here and is making me depressed with how depressed SHE is about it.

 

Roleplay is never overwhelming in the anxiety sense to me anymore. It was before my extended haitus, but it's simply not possible for it to be to me anymore. The only overwhelming I receive from roleplay is in the literal sense, such as an overwhelming amount of emotes I can't read fast enough in combat. But I can still handle it easily, such as a fight in Koyo-Kuni a few months ago. So many emotes that chat couldnt hold even 1 round of combat. I simply told people to /msg me what their offensive action was if aimed at me, or I would not react to it, and it was fine.

 

We can do stuff IRP if your depressed emo teenager elf is NICER >:c

 

I've done this before.

[Ramon 5186]

thoughts on dante's inferno? 

[BonesOfTheEarth 2252]

7 minutes ago, Ramon said:

thoughts on dante's inferno? 

I have the book but I've not gotten around to reading it yet! I got it but then started re-reading the gentleman bastards sequence in prep for the new book from it. Alas, I am a fool.

 

My preliminary thoughts are that it's an insanely influential piece of literature and I somewhat expect it to read more like a bible story in writing style than an actual non-fiction book

[PrinceTheDM 275]

Spoiler

What's the difference between a good roleplayer and a great roleplayer?

 

[BonesOfTheEarth 2252]

7 hours ago, PrinceTheDM said:

What's the difference between a good roleplayer and a great roleplayer?

I often hear that the baseline of being even a "good" roleplayer over "bad" is in the separation of player and character. Notably I tend to see something else play out. If someone is soft spoken, maybe they make a character who is loud. Or otherwise far removed from themselves on a superficial level but not on a deeper one.

 

This often leads to characters that can be quite different in terms of ideals, bonds, and flaws. But end up sort of falling into a trap where the many characters played by the one person end up with a similar personality on all of them. Even if one is a good guy and the other is evil, it feels like the same guy playing two characters, as opposed to two wholly separated entities. This isn't perfect, but is my baseline for "good" - as its good intent, just without perfect execution. It's also where I sit - I think I am a good roleplayer, I don't think I'm great. But that's alright and I'm always seeking to grow.

 

Great comes with the full and complete separation of player and character. Where each character truly feels unique, and you can barely recognize the player as they swap between them. I think a prime example of a "great" roleplayer to me right now is actually @Rig, as he's capable of attaining something similar with just one character masking, and then on top of different characters.

[Amuletic 926]

Is that my BESTIE Bones?!??!

[BonesOfTheEarth 2252]

9 hours ago, Amuletic said:

Is that my BESTIE Bones?!??!

Oh my god is that my BESTIE Amuletic??????

You didn't even rep all my comments on this thread so idk if ur fr about being besties....

[Spellblades 749]

Hello, Bones! It's been great roleplaying with you.

1. What is your favorite magic, and what would you want to see added to said magic?

2. Which nation did you enjoy roleplaying in the most?

3. Pancakes or Waffles

[BonesOfTheEarth 2252]

8 hours ago, ShadowSlashYT said:

Hello, Bones! It's been great roleplaying with you.

1. What is your favorite magic, and what would you want to see added to said magic?

2. Which nation did you enjoy roleplaying in the most?

3. Pancakes or Waffles

Im a big fan of not naztherak magic, but rather the demon CA. Very cool and can do a lot more than people give it credit for. All time favorite magic was shade though - looking past the sex-pest riddled community, the lore itself was very cool!

 

Idunia and Caroust are where I go to currently!

 

I'm a wafflehouse patron