RP for Newbies: Staying in Character

[Cordir]

RP For Newbies: Staying In Character

Staying in character can be a very big battle. I am, by no means, the poster child - we all have our moments of warbling like a meadowlark about personal news, or ranting and seeking the comfort and support of friends at bad. This is definitely a 'do as I say, not as I did' post. That said.. here's some tips to help.

* Make yourself type "OOC:" at the beginning of anything said out of character. It creates extra work for you, and if you're especially lazy (as I sometimes am) ... maybe it will compel you not to say it in the first place.

* Keep anything OOC on the appropriate channel - in a TELL to the person you're speaking with, etc. Whatever will expose the least number of people to the OOC chat. Some Immortals disallow OOC chatter on public channels at all. As an FLI, I preferred that followers use FTELL for anything OOC, if they HAD to talk about it.. rather than public channels which could be overheard. [I don't pretend this happened all the time, not by a long shot. But that was the goal.]

* If you're getting upset enough at a situation that occurred in game that you're going to break character - go to a safe room, then stand up and walk away. This is a guideline I wish I'd personally followed more, to be honest. Sometimes folks are going to be deliberately provocative, to get under your skin. They may say nasty things about your appearance, your RL partner, your intelligence, etc. It's very, VERY hard to tell when they're attacking your character, speaking from an in character perspective, or whether they're attacking YOU. Some folks like to slip in little jabs, just to throw you off guard and make you more vulnerable - to PK, emotionally, whatever. Feeling personally attacked is probably the number one reason folks break character, other than boredom. [Another method is the one my partner followed; simply don't respond to anyone negative, other than with actions, not words. I wasn't so good at that part. I had, however, prac'ed my 'rise to being baited' and 'fail to see when they're just yanking your chain' skills to 'perfect'..;P]

* Use messenger programs (yahoo, MSN, etc) to chat with your friends out of character. (Be aware, however, that such programs can broadcast your IP address. In the past, there have been major problems of people being attacked simultaneously on the mud, and their internet connection attacked via a denial of service or other attempt, to try and force them to go link dead and thus be more easily killed.)

If you're not chatting about the latest Mel Gibson scandal, and instead, are asking about that mysterious elven lady in Cilladellia that you want to court... believe me - The more you can stay in character, the more folks will notice.

[Lycron]

* Use messenger programs (yahoo, MSN, etc) to chat with your friends out of character. (Be aware, however, that such programs can broadcast your IP address. In the past, there have been major problems of people being attacked simultaneously on the mud, and their internet connection attacked via a denial of service or other attempt, to try and force them to go link dead and thus be more easily killed.)


I was just talking about that a few months ago and how that used to happen. No one else seemed to remember!

[Cordir]

yep, it was a big problem at the time.

I strongly encouraged everyone in Fate to install ZoneAlarm or something along those lines, to protect and alert them from attacks on their mud connection, but it still happened from time to time.

[Cordir]

... in fact, that's why Noctus lost link so many times during his wedding ceremony to Tranquility.

(Can ya'll tell I'm on an 'encouraging RP' kick right now?)