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branchandrootConcentrated opinionatedness ahead, just in case anyone who hangs out here was in any doubt.
What makes a good online role player:
Thoughtful and rounded character construction. When you're working with derivative characters, this means taking whatever background the source text plus your setting provides and trying to fill in the blanks in a consistent manner. With logs and character journals you have to find the voice of the character, and this works best once you've decided in your own mind how your character thinks and feels about a bunch of things. Does he like his family? How does she do in her classes, and how does she relate with her teachers and classmates? Is he thinking of changing jobs, and what will that mean to his children? Just what secrets does she keep from which people?
Patience. So, here's this great idea, and you really want to see how it works out, and it will be so cool. Great. It will be even cooler if time is taken to let the idea develop at actual, human speed. If you want to take a character from zero to undying love in a week, you should be writing a story arc, not role playing. Role playing works best when you don't try to compress events, and when it's happening in real-time, as much online RP does, that means letting plotlines work out over weeks and months. A bit of relaxation, and enjoyment of filling in the details helps.
Variety. Nothing is so deadly boring, to everyone other than your obsessive self, as one-track play. If your character never experiences anything other than ANGSTANGSTANGST, or, for that matter, SMUTSMUTSMUT, then he or she becomes a) flat and cardboard, and b) a closed circut that is difficult to play with or against. When there's some angst and some fun and some silliness and some smut and some everyday just-doing-them things, there are a whole lot more opportunities for your character to interact with other characters in a way that actually lets them progress instead of freezing into one reaction loop.
Respect. That is, don't buffalo people into the plotline you want when they don't want to go there. That's annoying as hell whether it's done by the GM or by another player. Also, it isn't good to use other people as part of your personal psychotherapy without their knowledge or consent; it's just asking for trouble. So if RP is your way of working out your issues, make sure you're playing with people who accept that agenda.
Discrimination. That is, be a little choosy. Don't pick just any old character, because that so often leads to really careless characterization. Coming at this from the other direction, if you know what kind of character you want to play, pick a character who has those aspects, or, at least, does not have a background that would contradict those characteristics. For example, if you want to play a weepy, wimpy Damsel In Distress (tm), for crying in silence don't pick a proud, determined, self-confident character to do it with.
This concludes today's installment of "essaying instead of clawing my eyes out".
What makes a good online role player:
Thoughtful and rounded character construction. When you're working with derivative characters, this means taking whatever background the source text plus your setting provides and trying to fill in the blanks in a consistent manner. With logs and character journals you have to find the voice of the character, and this works best once you've decided in your own mind how your character thinks and feels about a bunch of things. Does he like his family? How does she do in her classes, and how does she relate with her teachers and classmates? Is he thinking of changing jobs, and what will that mean to his children? Just what secrets does she keep from which people?
Patience. So, here's this great idea, and you really want to see how it works out, and it will be so cool. Great. It will be even cooler if time is taken to let the idea develop at actual, human speed. If you want to take a character from zero to undying love in a week, you should be writing a story arc, not role playing. Role playing works best when you don't try to compress events, and when it's happening in real-time, as much online RP does, that means letting plotlines work out over weeks and months. A bit of relaxation, and enjoyment of filling in the details helps.
Variety. Nothing is so deadly boring, to everyone other than your obsessive self, as one-track play. If your character never experiences anything other than ANGSTANGSTANGST, or, for that matter, SMUTSMUTSMUT, then he or she becomes a) flat and cardboard, and b) a closed circut that is difficult to play with or against. When there's some angst and some fun and some silliness and some smut and some everyday just-doing-them things, there are a whole lot more opportunities for your character to interact with other characters in a way that actually lets them progress instead of freezing into one reaction loop.
Respect. That is, don't buffalo people into the plotline you want when they don't want to go there. That's annoying as hell whether it's done by the GM or by another player. Also, it isn't good to use other people as part of your personal psychotherapy without their knowledge or consent; it's just asking for trouble. So if RP is your way of working out your issues, make sure you're playing with people who accept that agenda.
Discrimination. That is, be a little choosy. Don't pick just any old character, because that so often leads to really careless characterization. Coming at this from the other direction, if you know what kind of character you want to play, pick a character who has those aspects, or, at least, does not have a background that would contradict those characteristics. For example, if you want to play a weepy, wimpy Damsel In Distress (tm), for crying in silence don't pick a proud, determined, self-confident character to do it with.
This concludes today's installment of "essaying instead of clawing my eyes out".
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 02:44 pm (UTC)Yet, on the patience bit, I keep reminding myself that in PoT RPGs I play teenagers. Teenagers don't move at normal human speed; they are fully capable of going from zero to undying love in less than a week. It usually only lasts until the an more undying love charges in from stage left, but there you go.
Still, my knee-jerk reaction to plotlines it to "hurry up slowly", and even the teenage factor fights a very uphill battle there. Maybe I'm just gettin' old. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 08:22 pm (UTC)*ponders* Maybe my high school pack was just too cynical; I remember a lot of omginstantlust, and a fair bit of the blushing, stammering, repining silliness, but none of the Soulmates At One For Ever And Ever (at least until next week) thing. Or maybe I've just supressed the memory from embarrassment--this is also possible.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 04:08 am (UTC)I saw all versions in junior high and high school. The new SO each week, the mighty passion(tm), the long-lasting (as in several years) soul mate affair (who 15 years later are happily married w/children), the off-and-on rollercoaster, the ivory towers, the suddenly got together at this party Big Romance wake up four days later to go What Were We THINKING?! Ew!, and so on. (Yeah, my schools were kinda small.)
Ah, variety. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 09:19 am (UTC)Very ow. *winces*
no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 03:47 pm (UTC)... *tries very, very hard not to think about two pairs in OoB who are incidentally played by two same players*
What about SMUTANGSTSMUT? *runs away giggling*
no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 08:24 pm (UTC)*wicked grin*
no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 09:05 pm (UTC)Total agreement on online RPing. I would love to get involved in RP, unfortuantely, I do know my limit, I'll be one of those people who rarely ever update. So, I don't. The variety paragraph is so very true, I have seen truly great only RPs failing because of this.
And I'd add one more point. Finish a plot-line. Don't just decide that you're bored with a certain thread so you drop it half-way through. Or at least give a plausible reason, and please, for the sake of characterisation, don't drop the plot-line and suddenly do a 180 turn in the other direction. This is the worst possible thing to do. I have stopped reading RPs based on this reason alone.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-17 09:40 pm (UTC)*is entirely cool with this fate*
no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 04:00 pm (UTC)This comment of
....on second thought, believe I shall write you an email instead.