I've a character who is a maniac..Completely nuts, cuts on people, kidnaps, tortures, et cetera. She is, basicly, not a good person. She associates with phantoms and peeps with terrorist IDs, and, is, in fact, marrying one. Thats all fine and dandy, she's some stories posted on the forums that really delves into the crazy Sophie. I'm told that she is, on the forums, a crazy person, and generally disturbing. Lovely.
Then, I get onto the Whipping.Girl, Sophie's ship, and what do I end up with? A smartass. Thats all she is, is just sarcastic. I had, for a while, broadcast into open space the goings on aboard the ship, but then, I realized, that didn't make the most sense. She is, for all intents and purposes, lucid and a rather private person. If you don't scan her ship, or raid her home, she seems almost normal. In a fight, or if someone draws me into a conversation, her derangement will show up, but in general, I can spend days drifting along trade routes without any chance to really let her crazy show...to really, actually, play the character. This has led me to lose a lot of interest in playing her...
I've the same sort of problem on capitalships, that is, I don't think system chat, or even local chat, would know what's going on aboard, unless someone carelessly left the comms on, and I can only use that trick so many times...
How can I get into more situations where the character(s) are forced out of the privacy of their ships?
That's a though one I've faced myself, Unseelie. Precisely as you say, both while I'm flying the ghost and while inside Krieger's cruiser.
The way I reconcile it is that you have to behave a little as if you are in a movie or something like that. Sure, bridge and internal communications wouldn't "leak" to system comms, but if you measure it, it can add to the overall ambiance. Sometimes I feel awkward doing it because I'm mostly a simulationist myself, but I also understand that certain characters wouldn't be "visible" if you constrained inside what makes sense in that fashion.
I had one encounter with Sophie (I guess) a few months ago while she flew a dagger through Rheinland. I can tell you first hand that even though what she said could very well be confined inside the cockpit of her ship, I'm glad as a player that it didn't. Speaking from the other side, I don't really mind that it was broadcast, I simply enjoyed the character.
Perhaps it is a testament to my own personal derangement but most anything said by my chars in system, local or group are only things that my char would broadcast over comms for all to hear. I let the intricacies and moods of my chars play out in my head and my written stories.
Think of it this way, if you were an actual space fairing pilot would you completely be yourself over the radio or would you project a more professional or desired version of yourself?
The impression you give other people in space does not need to coincide with any story you write b/c everyone always tries to be a certain (possibly better or maybe more gregarious) person in public.
' Wrote:The impression you give other people in space does not need to coincide with any story you write b/c everyone always tries to be a certain (possibly better or maybe more gregarious) person in public.
My problem is such of that...Because, in public, Sophie is lucid enough to know better than torture people or whatever on open coms, I quickly get bored of her, because she ends up just another trader, silently ferrying slaves/cardi.
Because of what she is, she seems ingame like a normal person...which means I don't play her much ingame.
I don't want to give the impression that I'm a silent powertrader (though I am powertrading) I want to rp her.
I've long held that theres rather a lot of chaos aboard her ship, which I think I'll proabably let leak through some more.
When trading I often hail ships passing by as a matter of protocol on my corporate trader. It is part of the captain's anti-piracy and safety protocols. This usually opens RP opprotunities that don't seem forced. Those just powertrading will give a curt "oh hey" or something and move on...while others are more interesting.
Sophie associates with slavers and drug dealers....Generally, when she catches the eye of anti pirate organizations, she gets shot at...
Side kicks I have thought about. She does have a twin running around, getting knighted and such. /me pokes zapp....but, again, it removes me from the actual character.
Oh! And, the Whipping.Girl is worth 8 million credits (which I pay), if sophie's brought to justice. Its pinned, and nobody notices...
Only ever paid once, and I paid with an exchange of a prometheus, to escape, rather than actually getting her taken to the police.
Well, I remember a while back when I force-boarded the Whipping.Girl with a Consortium tactical unit to scan for 'biological anomalies'. Was kind of fun waiting to see what kind of response Sohpie would have to that.
Quote:How can I get into more situations where the character(s) are forced out of the privacy of their ships?
Well, I only have a few ships with more then 1 person aboard. In the case of the Athanauthe, I RP that the crew (usually Asha and Michael) both have system comms, and argue with one another over them.
On smaller ships, if and when I occasionally pick up other crew, I do have a tendancy to speak in system chat the whole time, with little explination as to why. Just for the sake of giving others a chance to listen in on the RP. Sometimes it backfires, but it works more often then not.
If I ever get a capital ship with large numbers of crew, I'll RP in a similar fasion. With the important personel speaking over system comms simply so others can know what is going on.
Personally, I think RPing more then 1 crewmember on a capital ship adds to the feeling that it is a big, populated warship. A little RP goes a long way in that case.
Have you thought about carrying some very unusual commodities like Terraforming gases or such which no-one carries. This is pretty far fetched, but worth thinking still.
Or equip something that no-one uses.
Another idea. Develop some compulsory behavior for her when she's in space. Like once in a while fly long stretches backwards with engine killed (she has to be a bit paranoid and is constantly checking her six) or fly around a planet/station to just check "something". Or fly circles.
Or make her count her nanobots and lord help if one is missing.... She could go on from system to system harassing, possibly pretty aggressively, people looking for her missing nanobot. This nanobot thing could very well extend into combat enraging her if she "has" to use them since they are her babies.
Heh, I know what you are talking about. While most of my characters aren't exactly sociopaths (Mireille might be slightly sociopathic, but she has enough opportunities to kill people and she usually restricts herself to known enemies of the Revolution, and my other char who has been RPed as someone with severe social problems...well, let's say the problem has been solved), I usually do something like adding a character who enjoys communicating with other people to the crew of my larger ships, like Itakura Ayane - the communications officer of the RV Victoria - who is quite chatty, because she knows that the ship will soon depart into Edge Worlds (or even beyond) and likes to have some social contacts before being alone with the rest of the crew again.
In your case, Sophie could have an assistant who is actively probing people around her to discover people who could be good victims to her mad schemes or something like that. The assistant could, for example, try to lure people who seem to be harmless enough to dock with your ship, under the guise of needing some help repairing that darn gravity pads near the engine rooms which work as if they were bought from some random Junker passing by. I guess Sophie would need a fresh supply of victims from time to time after all, and there might be people who would be more "fun" than just stupid slaves...
![[Image: singnature02.jpg]](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee197/tfmachad/singnature02.jpg)
