Roleplaying seminar

[Ephinie]

Inkling and I plan to do one of these roleplay seminar thingies in the chat section. We are trying for Thursday evening, September 17, at 7pm CDT. We would like to have a good turn out to discuss various roleplaying topics. If enough people are not able to come, we will be continuing to try to have this thing every week until it is successful. So please come!

[Frodosgurl]

I'll be there. :)

[Simetra]

I work then :(

[~Lava~]

I will be in class. It is non-negotiable (attendace is worth 60% percent of my class grade), I am skipping a soccer game because of it too.

[Copperfox]

Could not the substance of it be transcribed onto a thread afterwards?

[Inkling]

Absolutely. We plan to log what is said in the chat. However, you may be more amused than informed if the only two there are myself and the lovely Ephinie :P. It'll be MUCH better the more we have to bounce ideas off of.

So...come if you can ;).

[Copperfox]

I asked that because I expect to be in transit to Illinois then. But what if I submit an advance question to be discussed then?

If I am one of the players controlling some characters who escaped from Narnia in "Let It Snow" (which of course actually is the case), and if we come to Anvard, and no action is forthcoming from the Mods to provide Mod-ular Anvardian NPC's, are we players required to freeze everything and not take one step in the streets of Anvard until whatever time Anvard is allowed to be populated?

[Mozart the Meerkitten]

I'll try to be there.;)

[Petraverd]

As that will be 2 AM for me, as I'm still in Rome until Saturday, I think you'll have to count me out this time around.

[Frodosgurl]

What Times would that be est?

[~Lava~]

It would be 8pm EDT (which is what Eastern time is right now)

[Frodosgurl]

It would be 8pm EDT (which is what Eastern time is right now)

thanks Lava!

[Sir Godfrey]

I would glady sit in on this.. especially since I have strong opinons about this subject. :)

[Mrs Gil-Galad Took]

Nope timezones so I can't be there. It will be in the middle of the night where I live

[Admiral Halsey]

Well it happened! With luck perhaps we can have a few more come around next time. Does everyone have any sort of idea what time might attract the most number of forum viewers in the near future?

[Copperfox]

One thing from the seminar already held should be easy to post here, and it's what I need to know:

If characters of mine find themselves on the main street of Tashbaan at rush hour, am I required to assume the street to be empty until a Mod-created NPC walks up to us?

[Admiral Halsey]

No, your required to assume whatever you like about the city, and the street, providing it is an acceptable and realistic part of the world. The mods, would and should, only intervene if you do something stupid, (Such as a killer robot that looks like the Bride from Kill Bill appearing in the middle of the woods chanting communist party slogans, which is inconsistant with the narnian world) or if they want to add something to your existing story.

You, and everyone else, as the roleplayers, set the stage for yourselves. All the mods are doing is providing the boundaries of that world, (In Narnia, at these times, in these places) everything else is up to you, and the other roleplayers, in equal measure to inevent between yourselves.

It's freedom, enjoy it.

[Copperfox]

Thank you. I asked because there appeared to be some qualms about our making up NPC's for PC's to interact with.

[Petraverd]

There is rather a difference between an NPC who enters, gives directions, and leaves, and one who ends up being a plot line all their own eventually. There's a reason I hardly ever give names to the NPCs I bring up - they remain the flat characters that they should be. Full-fledged fleshed-out characters are CHARACTERS, after all, not NPCs.

[Copperfox]

If you're talking about the Chickadee, I only kept her onstage as long as I did in order for PLAYER characters to HAVE someone to talk to at a time when things were slow. I considered this to be far less damaging to the roleplay than if nothing happened for days and weeks and players began giving up on the whole game.

[Inkling]

Halsey is right. Part of the reason we don't intervene in every single decision you make is because that truly would be crushing all of your creativity. Also because we trust our players, as much as possible, to make good RP choices and to follow the rules we've established.

We save that for when it becomes completely necessary.

And Petraverd, why am I not surprised that you took the words out of my mouth...or was it straight out of my head, in our case ;). Let's be careful with NPCs and use them when and how they should be appropriately used. If you become attached to a character idea that is more detailed than simply a brief appearance, I for one would suggest just going ahead and requesting that character.

[Admiral Halsey]

There is rather a difference between an NPC who enters, gives directions, and leaves, and one who ends up being a plot line all their own eventually. There's a reason I hardly ever give names to the NPCs I bring up - they remain the flat characters that they should be. Full-fledged fleshed-out characters are CHARACTERS, after all, not NPCs.


Actually, if we're going to be technical here, I'll put on my roleplaying hat.

NPC's, are 'Non Player Characters' meaning they are characters controlled by someone who is not an active player in the current game/storyline/or plot.

The closest we would get to an true NPC on the forum would be if one of the mods took over a thread and began managing background characters and events for the benifit of the general forum members.

What we have hanging around by and large are supporting characters, begin lesser skilled and relevent player characters designed to bring some substance and expendibility to a party of player characters. If good, you normally refear to them as 'followers' and if evil, one would nominally call them 'Henchmen.'

Of course, if you do overplay, over detail, and over charactertise supporting characters, they do in their own right become fully fledged characters.


On an entirely related, and unrelated note, the problem with the Narniafans forum roleplaying section is vaguely as follows.

In a traditional roleplay, you have a group of people, (the players) and another dude (the gamesmaster) the players make their characters, and join the roleplay, and the gamemaster sets the stage.

Now so far on the forum we have all that, everyone has nicely created and organised their characters, and Inkling kindly started all the threads of with a round of discription.

However, in a traditional roleplay, the GM (gamesmaster) normally continues to detail the surrounding world, provide NPCs for the players to interact with, and guide the story through some sort of established plot, or drama, and provide conflict for the players.

Narniafans doesn't have that, because it doesn't have gamemasters (or indeed, individuals with enough time to oversee every roleplaying thread)

So we end up with a whole bunch of players trying to play with nothing, and everyone is hestiant to overtly define the world, for fear of seeming power crazed and controlling, and taking more responcibility than the other players in the thread.

I hope that makes sense.

The trick is for everyone to mutally realise a method of fairly and openly progressing the plotline, having an idea of where the story is progressing, and heading down that path.

I've been terribly low on creativity and insperation lately, but when that comes back, I'll try to demonstrate what I mean in the story arc (the terribly undevopled one I'll admit) with Katerina in the Great Woods thread.


Peace all,

Admiral Halsey

[Copperfox]

Halsey, when I try to do exactly what you have just recommended for players to do, I get told that I'm pushy or arrogant or hotdogging or whatever.

[Simetra]

There are some RP groups who handle NPCs the way Petraverd defined them. I know Inkling comes from that RP background as do I. I think the issue is not trying to provide RP for people (which is of course a thoughtful gesture), but rather that when a player takes control of an NPC and makes it both dynamic and essential to plot, it becomes a regular character. If players are given full control of an NPC, this is very likely to happen, and if this happens, then the "Request a Character" system is undermined. That is, I believe, where the problem really lies.

[Copperfox]

Perhaps it would help if more than two Mods contributed NPC action to these roleplays, so that players wouldn't be waiting as long for someone to interact with.

[Inkling]

Simetra's right about that reasoning. As far as mod involvement goes, keep in mind this little quote:

"RPG characters are immune from such mundane hazards as intense heat, freezing cold, or poison gas... except when they're suddenly not. Surprise!"


Be careful what you wish for; things are going to get a whole lot more interesting ;). I'm not saying I object to player-controlled NPCs on the face of it. I don't. I just want to make sure this doesn't get out of hand. I'll let you know when and if I see problems.