RP for Newbies: Alignment
(I'm not feeling really well today, so this post is going to be a bit 'stream of conciousness'-ish. Apologies in advance.)
Alignment is a battleground for RP, in more ways that one. A lot of folks who RP a Good or Neutral character react to Evil characters who are "mean" by saying that they aren't roleplaying. Sometimes that's true.. and sometimes it isn't. It can be hard to tell.
I've seen some excellent role play out of evil characters who played up their alignment to the hilt and seen Good characters who were as one-dimensional as a stereotype can get. So alignment definately isn't a factor in rp ability. It's the character that's fully fleshed out, that brings the RP to life - no matter their alignment.
I've played every alignment on the mud - and honestly, I think evil is the harder choice. We have many societal examples of goodness, but not as many of evil that doesn't involve tearing down another person in a way that's easily construed as being an OOC attack.
I witnessed an interaction between a Good and an Evil years back. The Evil had attacked the Good, because the Good was smack talking on public channels. The evil character informed the Good character that "your blood will be spilled for your words" or something along those lines - and then proceeded to lay a serious smack down on them. The good barely managed to escape (quaffing a recall as her HP plummetted towards 0, way back when you could do so in combat) and began giving the evil tells filled with obscenities. She accused him of trying to "ruin the mud" for everyone else. He responded in character, informing her that it was her grievous blasphemy that had prompted his actions. He asked her to atone and to publicly disavow her earlier statements. She informed him that his mother did illegal and physically improbable acts, and that he couldn't roleplay one bit, he was just a stupid PK'er. . . yet he hadn't broken character once, and she had from the moment she reached the Recall Room.
The act of PK itself has been used for some very fun roleplay moments in my experience - both personal and witnessed. [Ritual suicide or murder both come to mind.] I know of one Evil fellow who was pursuing an Unaligned woman. He informed her that he was going to "have" her, willing or not ... alive or not. His serial-killer-obesssed-fan "courtship" of her lasted for over two years... and she got REALLY good at avoiding PK.
Roleplaying your alignment can be done - like any RP - with varying degrees of subtlety. Even if it's a (gasp! Yes, I'm going to say it!) "Hail Nash" on shout, or someone scrubbing the floor of their temple using their own hair as a mop -- it's still RP. Alignment can be expressed with simple additions of emotes to what you're saying. (Example: emote says cruelly, 'Your tears only amuse me,' and glares at you contemptuously.)
Reverence and devotion for your faith is an awesome RP tool - whether it's humming as you polish the altar of your deity, or seeking out flowers and incense to give as an offering, or pouring the blood of your enemies out of a jar.
The battle of alignment is a rich environment for RP. I can think of many conflicts over the years - many battle lines drawn - a lot of great RP.
Have fun with your alignment RP - and just because someone else does it differently than you do, doesn't mean they aren't doing valid RP.
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