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The Guide to Lying & Emotions Lies. Even on the Lord of the Craft we need to confront them every day. The problem with this however, is that even a boy with the age of 12 can perfectly lie to you! The technique of lying, seeing through lies and being affected by them can cause so much immersion and roleplay.. That it makes both economical, political, social and violent roleplay more challenging and fun! While still remaining realistic about your emotions. The Basics of a lie. While every character has their own syndrome, weakness, fear, trauma , etc. Every single, living soul has their fair share in universal lying recognitions, with the same emotions. I see many people roleplay their emotions incorrectly, or their lying. Never forget that some basic things, are universal. Nervous behavior Even though the following may seem obvious, nearly nobody roleplays that when being actually nervous in character. When you are being interrogated, accused, or when you pretend to be something or simply need to tell a lie. Your character, unless being trained in lying, would have this. When they talk, they would touch their jewels, scratch their chin, tap their finger. So when you are about to tell a guard that, for example, that your charge of cannibalism isn't true while it is. There is no way that an untrained person would not do anything similiar to above! If a guard perhaps, recognizes such behavior, he could grow suspicion. Which adds realism and challenge to the whole roleplay. Fake smiles Diplomatic marriages, a joke from a friend you are about to stab. Whatever the occasion, fake smiles are often roleplayed as real smiles, or obviously as "Roleplayer puts up a fake smile". But that is not necessary at all! Give your friend or partner some roleplay thinking, doubt, or simply succeed in faking your happiness. Meet captain McLie, he is happy because he is just promoted to commander! But wait, is he? The obvious thing that monarchs from the dark ages used to see the honesty in their partners happiness is if there could be lines found at the outer sides of their eyes. If there are none, its definetly a fake smile. Botox isn't invented in Lord of the Craft, so there are no exceptions. This however, is a genuine smile. The lines show that it is true, something natural. Not thought out or planned by your deceiving mind of lies. How detailed you roleplay it is up to you, but the ones you interact with deserve a hint. If they have the knowledge to recognize it or not is up to their characters intelligence. Fake, or hidden fear. How much have we seen it? Fearless robots PvP defaulting you at the spot. But wait a moment, since when does your character have an immumity to fear? When you are being outnumbered, many people try to stay calm and even to intimidate them! But as for example the orc ready to kill some dark elves, you do want to feast on their fear right? Thus, people who fight often would recognize real fear. Afcourse, you may ask. "What does it matter, they are dead anyway,etc". But if you are a guard interrogating someone, you can see their real fear. That when you pick up a hammer and say that you will smash their skull in, you can see if that is the correct method to open up someone. For the one who fakes or is in fear, the picture above shows great guidelines how to express your face when you are frightened. But just like a fake smile darling, fake fear = no stripes. Sadness Yes, we all know the tricks of the mistrell in distress. The poor crying child pickpocketing you, and the people falling into such traps. But the truth is, sadness is far more complex than just tears or a frown. Depressive or traumatized characters can easily recognize fake sadness, and would be very stressed out when they see it ( How would you feel when you lost your dog and someone else fakes that they are sad about it?) But how does general sadness even look like? Crying is just your emotions overcoming you, but being actually sad about something a day or hour later looks normally like this. When someone can fully look into your eyes for more than a minute and say "I miss my friend", is most likely lying. Believe it or not, but to roleplay this into detail may be hard. Like always, to make this guide and roleplay useful is the responsibility of both roleplayers. But you can grow suspicious when someone cries for days, or when it doesn't cry at all. This is the most complex, and the only expression dependable per person. But for the Sherlock's under us, it is up to you to find out if its true. There are two more emotions that could be lied ( Like the ones above ), but seem to be wrongly roleplayed quite often. Which is importnant as the world of betrayal, or the medieval theme we are in generally, these emotions are quite common. One of them is: I sometimes even had PM's asking "Uhmm how do I rp being suprised again?". And you can be lazy by saying "Looks Suprised", but when someone gives you information in an interrogation or on the streets, and you need to pretend not to know it. You have to lie that you are suprised. And just roleplaying that you look suprise is minor powergaming, as the other has no way in recognizing that you lie or not. People who lie about being suprised often just raise their eyebrows, or only open their mouth slightly. Unless you have practiced the expression, or prepared it for an expected situation, you cannot fake it by doing both. Its the limit of life. So when a guard tells you that there was 20,000 Minas stolen from the Auction house in Abresi, you perhaps should've prepared your reaction before commiting the crime. The second one is, Disgust. I have seen times that when an Orc poops on someones face my companion opens his mouth wide open and pointing towards it, or that people open their eyes entirely. But that is incorrect behavior. You see, when you see a turd your brain , or yourself, would never even dare to think to make your mouth wide open, or your eyes to see it better. No, you wish you didn't see it when you are disgusted. There we go, narrowed eyes, slightly opened mouth. Thats disgust. You can also cover your eyes, or your mouth, or just fall unconsious. But once again, if you are in a situation that you need to look disgusted when someone eats a leg ( And you being charged with Cannibalism for the first time), the first expression people go for is to make their mouth wide open. If the guard, person, judge, would know that out of experience or study, he would know you are lying. And off with your head! But if you truly are disgusted in roleplay, use the advice from the picture above. Recognizing a lie through speech. There are several things that the people in medieval Venice discovered with their merchants. Everytime someone lied, they repeated their sentences. Abresi Guard:"Did you kill lady Amber?" Lying Civillian:"No I did not kill lady Amber!" We do it unconsiously, but sometimes when we are aware that we are going to lie OOCly, and need to roleplay it. You might do the same like your unconsious lying, and do the above! What I also often see, is that when people become nervous they speak monotone. No shouts, no yells, no raised or convincing voices. Just plain, one tone voice. But when you are lying about an answer. Everytime you deny it, your voice naturally raises to try to sound convincing. This often ends with a gulp. People who tell unecessary details, like how they enjoy the waters and hate the view in Abresi when you ask if they ever visited there. They are most likely lying, or overemotional attached to you. ------