Roleplaying Ironically

[SkyNet]

Laura Carsten
Geoff Enfield
Wolfram Kruppstahl
Goro Yoshida

[Thunderer]

Judging by the number of names here, good role-play in Disco isn't rare at all.

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Bretonian Treaty Database Bretonian Armed Forces Recruitment Center
Bretonian Charter of Interstellar Law Bretonian Secrets Act

[Omi]

Eva McDowell

For a character/story that was an outrageous and shameless haphazard mishmash of imports, the whole McDowell thing was something I used to love reading.

Sam Underwood

I'm not even joking when I say that Captain Underwood (o7) is my favourite example of a straight-laced, no-nonsense Navy character defined almost wholly by in-game RP and actions.

Oh, yeah - since we're turning this into a half circlejerky, half decent thread about good characters, I'd be dying inside if I didn't see some mention of @Rodent's Ansel Xavier up there.

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[Thyrzul]

I'm already dying because nobody mentioned LaFlamme yet.

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[PRJKTLRD]

(SR~Naem.Surnaem - best rp xd

@Yber

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<"From Darkness, lead me to Light. From Ignorance, to Truth. From Death, to Immortality.">

Jared Nomak ||  The rise of the Overlord || The Commune

[Riess]

Breaking the combo, I also consider general lack of RP happening in a game saddening. What captivated me originally, back in 2008, were guys who RP'd their character, and by that I don't really mean RP'ing some person with story. There were guys who RP'd their character's routine.

I've tried to pull this out few nights back trying to RP perimeter check on guy entering my faction's home system and instead got "hi I'm ur ally )))" pm as guy cruised past me without putting things into RP.

// But then some other guy actually stopped to RP for a second, so I guess there's still hope.

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>(RHA + Recruitment + Comms)<

[Backo]

Felicia Drum was a really interesting character in all seriousness.

Oh hells yes.

Petko 8| Be missed.

I'll add... Locklear. 8| I know, sounds biased. But no other leader in a military faction went through so much effing shiz, ingame and forum wise, apart from Hale.

<3

Me, Petko and Bloodl1ke...those were the times. We still play Dota together, tho...

"Покупи варди! Я мид!"

See, I even learned to RP in Dota!

Also:
I'd second Driedrik Sterr and add Admiral Voelkel as well. Oh the fun times of 2010-2012...

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Republic of the Sword and Sun

[Petko Voivoda]

Felicia Drum was a really interesting character in all seriousness.

Oh hells yes.

Petko 8| Be missed.

I'll add... Locklear. 8| I know, sounds biased. But no other leader in a military faction went through so much effing shiz, ingame and forum wise, apart from Hale.

<3

Me, Petko and Bloodl1ke...those were the times. We still play Dota together, tho...

"Покупи варди! Я мид!"

See, I even learned to RP in Dota!

Also:
I'd second Driedrik Sterr and add Admiral Voelkel as well. Oh the fun times of 2010-2012...

This thread screams nostalgia more than the doom remakes. Que the music.

[Psyentific]

>Our community standards of roleplaying have noticably and significantly diminished

I've seen something like this in quite a few places. The heart of the matter is that, while good conduct can be codified in rules and good gameplay can be recorded in guides and tutorials, good roleplay is very much a soft, hard-to-pin-down topic. What's more, attempting to enforce roleplaying is a very dangerous slope to start down - for one, it lends itself very well to punishing minor infractions (see: slang/autism) and for two, it often fails to address the core of the issue. On top of this, roleplay, more than anything else, requires the player to want to participate. This is a bit of a problem when a server funnels all types of players into it like we see with Discovery - there isn't really anywhere else to play FLDisco which means that all playstyles are forced to adopt a veneer of roleplay, even if they might not necessarily want to.

You can not force a horse to drink. You can not force a player to roleplay. You can, however, make it very easy for him. You can (and should) provide brainstorming and chargen resources, sample character concepts, open-ended and accessible lore, character hooks (both to-universe and to-character), and generally make it very easy to pick-up-and-go. All this is a moot point, however, if a plurality of your playerbase just wants to log on and shoot spaceships.

Take a manipulative stance. Do not push people into roleplaying, rather, make it very easy for them to do and give them reasons to do it - it's very easy to layer RULE BRETONIA over top of shooting spaceships, given that they generally don't happen concurrently. Factions are also an excellent tool for this, official ones doubly so. If entire factions can be encouraged to roleplay, to have faction storylines, opposing factions, faction-wide goals and boons, (in roleplay, not just in space) not only does it bring players together, it also adds a communal pressure to actually stand up and roleplay (as opposed to nodding along).

[Langolier]

>Our community standards of roleplaying have noticably and significantly diminished

I've seen something like this in quite a few places. The heart of the matter is that, while good conduct can be codified in rules and good gameplay can be recorded in guides and tutorials, good roleplay is very much a soft, hard-to-pin-down topic. What's more, attempting to enforce roleplaying is a very dangerous slope to start down - for one, it lends itself very well to punishing minor infractions (see: slang/autism) and for two, it often fails to address the core of the issue. On top of this, roleplay, more than anything else, requires the player to want to participate. This is a bit of a problem when a server funnels all types of players into it like we see with Discovery - there isn't really anywhere else to play FLDisco which means that all playstyles are forced to adopt a veneer of roleplay, even if they might not necessarily want to.

You can not force a horse to drink. You can not force a player to roleplay. You can, however, make it very easy for him. You can (and should) provide brainstorming and chargen resources, sample character concepts, open-ended and accessible lore, character hooks (both to-universe and to-character), and generally make it very easy to pick-up-and-go. All this is a moot point, however, if a plurality of your playerbase just wants to log on and shoot spaceships.

Take a manipulative stance. Do not push people into roleplaying, rather, make it very easy for them to do and give them reasons to do it - it's very easy to layer RULE BRETONIA over top of shooting spaceships, given that they generally don't happen concurrently. Factions are also an excellent tool for this, official ones doubly so. If entire factions can be encouraged to roleplay, to have faction storylines, opposing factions, faction-wide goals and boons, (in roleplay, not just in space) not only does it bring players together, it also adds a communal pressure to actually stand up and roleplay (as opposed to nodding along).

+1