Roleplay and Wurm - special RP themed stream tomorrow with Faerran & KatsPurr

[BoarHead 26]

Have never rp before but I would be open to it!!  

[Wersin 6]

 

Nothing prevents you from playing RP. When you play just think what's real, what are the consequences of what you do and how it worked in real life or how the character you play should behave

 

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Wersin

[Sidereal 951]

For the record - I love good RP in MMOs, but it has always felt a little clunky no matter the game: people type at different speeds, real time chat RP becomes hard to follow with more than 3-4 players, etc.  My RP moments in WO have been few and far between, but they've always been enormously memorable.  For example, the very first time I hired a Mag priest to help rework my mine layout by collapsing the entrance, we managed to turn the event into a small horror story.  In this scene, Anacrusis (my alt) is deep in the mine, I'm welcoming the priest Argustin to the deed and showing him to the mine entrance (logs lightly edited for brevity, color added to keep the characters straight).  Poor Argustin was concerned enough that we had to confirm via PM that this was all for show.

 

Spoiler

 <Sidereal> Ut!  You're very close now!
 <Argustin> I am passing Mason's Warehouse?
 <Sidereal> Now that is a fine looking ship!
 <Argustin> Ah I see you! hehe
 <Argustin> Thanks :))
 <Sidereal> Welcome to Meerhaven
 <Argustin> Hehe thank you!
 <Sidereal> And it is a very short walk from here to the target
 <Argustin> I'm in the cave entrance
 <Argustin> So where / what is the target tile, specifically?
 <Sidereal> Precisely the one you are standing on
 <Argustin> Okay, so I won't be trapping anyone inside? hehe
 <Anacrusis> Wait, what?  Trapping whom inside what??
 <Sidereal> Don't worry, Ana.  Everything will be fine
 <Sidereal> She's my sister and she's lazy
 <Argustin> Lol
 <Anacrusis> Sid!  You've had me working in this mine all day!
 <Argustin> Okay! Well, I'll cast on the cave opening then!
 <Sidereal> Remember your favorite Edgar Allen Poe story, sis?  'The Cask of Amontillado'?
 <Anacrusis> Ooooh, yeah, that's a super spooky story
 <Argustin> Lol
 <Anacrusis> Did you get me a copy for my birthday?
 <Sidereal> I got you something even better!  
 <Argustin> Okay, so, just to confirm, because I haven't closed a cave entrance before, so I just cast on the floor tile?
 <Sidereal> Correct - cast on the floor tile
 <Argustin> Thought so hehe, thanks for confirming!
 <Argustin> Success!
 <Sidereal> Glorious!  if Magnaron is with us, who can be against us!?
 <Anacrusis> Sid?   Sid???  did you just seriously seal me in the dark bowels of the earth??
 <Argustin> O.o
 <Sidereal> Happy birthday, sis!
 <Argustin> You guys are kidding, right?
 <Sidereal> Happy birthday to you....
 <Anacrusis> SID?!
 <Sidereal> Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuu
 <Anacrusis> SID I'M SCARED OF THE DARK
 <Argustin> Okay, you guys are seriously pretty great
 <Sidereal> Happy birthday dear Ana!
 <Sidereal> Happy birthday to youuuuuu!
 Anacrusis weeps and wails beneath the cold dark ground
 <Sidereal> Thanks so much, Argustin.   When the time comes to collapse more tiles, I'll check with you first to see if you're available
 <Argustin> Hehe, sounds good! I am happy to be of assistance
 <Argustin> Enjoy your pretty special birthday present, Ana!
 <Argustin> I know I would! /nods
 <Anacrusis> Sister?  It is dark. Why am i so cold?
 <Sidereal> This year's harvest will be named after you, sister!  A cask of Anacrusis!
 <Argustin> What an honor!
 <Anacrusis> For the love of god, Sidereal!!
 <Argustin> Well, my work here is done! I am away!

 

Mentally, I'm almost always in character - even if most of my communication in game is OOC.  I'll toss out a hook here and there to see if anyone picks up, and I'll dial it up if someone bites. For me, the tricky thing with WO is that it can be challenging to find good RP 'hooks' to create a scene - it must be something more than: "What ho, the crops need tending.  I shall rake them." - one hour passes - "Ah the crops look better now!"  Impalongs have a long and celebrated history - has anyone ever attempted an RP-along?  Coordinating across time zones might be difficult, but I'd happily sail to another server to participate in a Harvest Festival when the leaves are turning in the fall or a proper Merchant Fair where merchants bring and display their wares.  Players have always love to build marketplaces, but they're just so inefficient compared to forum posting and mailboxes.  With a little forum planning, it could be fun to work out who will bring what to the Fair and we could haggle or barter at the site.  I'd be willing to bet any number of folks would love to build a fairground or similar RP-focused deed.

 

Of all the leading suggestions - I like best the option of having an RP chat tab with the same range a Local that can be turned on and off.  Sometimes, I want to put my head down and focus on completing a task, and other times I'm open to RP.  I'm not sure we need additional emotes/animations - /em does a lot of heavy lifting in RP and it's darn near impossible to have enough preprogrammed emotes to do everything.

These are all great questions, Malena - thank you for getting this discussion started!

Edited January 31, 2021 by Sidereal

[Wersin 6]

I don't see the need to make any major changes to WURM to make it easier for those who want to play RPGs. A few of the cosmetic changes I wrote about earlier can make role play a lot easier. I think the bigger problem is the attitude of players who can't or don't want to play this way. A little effort is enough to ask about everything in such a way that others do not feel that it is talking about game mechanics.

 

 

The second important thing is creating characters and their actions in such a way that they have their own story. A story that can be told later without using the values of the levels converted on the calculator.

 

[Nomadikhan 2156]

No, to RP in wurm.  I tried RPing a Hero Knight when I started but kept dying to a spider.  It wasn't worth it.  Plus, Wurm doesn't have cartoon graphics like the example pic.

 

No cartoon graphics no RP.

[Wersin 6]

RPG is not about graphics, but a way to play and guide our character.

Forgive me, but I was amused by your statement. I get the impression that you don't know what an RPG is all about.

 

Here is a small example of an RPG.

 

<Humbite> I will thanks again!
[22:18:27] <Wersin> My hunts may do something good.
[22:19:01] <Wersin> I just saved this man's life.
[22:19:07] <Salvador> How?
[22:20:17] <Wersin> A boar attacked him. I noticed that he was barely standing and Im killed the beast.
[22:20:33] <Salvador> oh, nice!
[22:27:11] <Wersin> ufff.
[22:27:43] <Salvador> u alright?
[22:28:12] Wersin He sat down on a bench and began to repair the weapons.
[22:29:50] <Wersin> Sit down my friend. I'm having a hard day today. but  useful as no other.
[22:30:16] <Salvador> I'm also a bit exhausted. i went on a big hunting trip
[22:30:58] <Wersin> And what did you kill there?
[22:31:39] <Salvador> 2 scorpions, 2 lava spiders, 2 goblins, a hell horse and a few other things
[22:32:12] <Wersin> he laughed aloud.
[22:33:07] <Wersin> A few more of our trips, and all the monsters will be avoiding Linton.
[22:33:34] <Salvador> yes!
[22:33:52] Salvador laughs
[22:34:11] <Salvador> I need to go pick up my friend now
[22:34:29] <Wersin> I feel proud to have saved this wanderer.
[22:35:08] <Wersin> You have to introduce him to me sometime.
[22:35:43] <Salvador> well done!
[22:35:45] <Salvador> I will!
[22:37:12] Wersin He spat hard on the helmet and tries to wipe away the long scratch. Probably a monster's claw.
[22:42:30] Wersin He put on his crumpled hat, got on the cart, and started toward Copperhill.
[22:34:11] <Salvador> I need to go pick up my friend now
[22:34:29] <Wersin> I feel proud to have saved this wanderer.
[22:35:08] <Wersin> You have to introduce him to me sometime.
[22:35:43] <Salvador> well done!
[22:35:45] <Salvador> I will!
[22:37:12] Wersin He spat hard on the helmet and tries to wipe away the long scratch. Probably a monster's claw.
[22:42:30] Wersin He put on his crumpled hat, got on the cart, and started toward Copperhill.
 

Edited February 1, 2021 by Wersin

[Zahnweh 36]

I adore RPing, it's something I've done ever since I was a Forum RPer as a little boy.  RPing is all about being able to get into a character, and enjoying the game through a level of depth you can't normally get otherwise.  I've never seen anyone RP in Wurm, but I would love to.  At the same time, it does take people to truly make an RP community.  In most MMOs, I've seen RPs tend to happen in taverns which makes sense because they're hotspots for people to discuss and drink their woes away.  We could even build a community or a village that can have RP being its focus.  Locals that regularly go to the bar after a long day of work, travelers that visit for random reasons, traders selling their goods, guards helping to defend the village from monsters, and even more nefarious sorts of people like thieves, bandits, and black market peddlers.  There's a lot that we can do.  I would also like more clothing options for cloth tailoring, we can definitely have more outfits to go through.

[Wurmhole 3560]

I love RP.  But I gave up on it in MMOs.  Every time I get involved it in, it ends up getting disrupted and fades out.  You have to have an environment dedicated to it and trusted friends to participate.  A WU server is probably the best way to achieve it in Wurm.

 

Edit:  I actually spent 2 hours writing a couple pages on this topic and decided the only relevant piece was what I posted above^

Edited February 10, 2021 by Wurmhole

[dada 3]

Wurm could be great for and with RP. But i think the emphasis lies too much on grinding than provide adventures, emergent stories and immersion.
Sometimes i greet people in the local chat (if there actualy is one) asking in a somewhat in-char manner what they are on about, to get a conversation starting. Most often they tell me they're "grind up this stat" or "farming that" just rushing on, or don't respond beyond a few lines and then afk grind something without paying attention to the ..wurm. Respond times on those grinders are often anything but timely anyway.
The world, where it is or was played, is often cluttered with random items left after meaningless crafting (grinding) frenzies - so that's the story a world tells me.
Or if an area haven't seen a player for a while, there's a big old monster on every 2nd tile, just standing an waiting to be farmed (for grind ofc) - there's another story.

With this grinding, wurm might mostly attract or rather retain certain types of people, who are willing to numbly min max grind something to see a number rise mockingly marginal. You first need the right people to RP with but then you also don't need the wrong people in your local chat. But if it's all about the people, you could stay in any textchat or forum. No, it's about an immersive world encouraging stories. I can see the possibility in wurm more as in many other games (that's why i'm still writing here), but the mentioned emphasis doesn't support that imo.
I don't see RP thriving much in wurm, if there is no change in emphasis.

Edited December 8, 2022 by dada

[kordethbludscythe 564]

Since steam launch i have tried hard to maontain a RP flavour to my deeds and actions with my charactors, most of the time i am in charactor in local chat although at times it is difficult due to irl personal issues. i was the original owner of Apple Hill Overlook on Cadence which i maintained as a role playing community before i handed it off to one of my citizens and moved to Melody. I now have a community alliance on Melody with my friends that we maintain in charactor if we are playing. I maintain nearly 20 toons between NFI and SFI and each has their own rp personality and if people show up in local i try to at least acknowledge them and will engage them in conversation based on the personality of my charactor i am playing. Being in charactor doesnt have to be a chore as long as you assume the stance of the charactor while playing on them. if people engage me while role playing with them so much the better, and i have had many memorable encounters with people during the course of playing this game. That said i have also had some bad memories from encounters in the game a few nearly made me quit becuase it hurt my heart bad so i am usually cautious about letting people get close until i get to know them a bit better these days.

I do welcome role play so i am for many of these ideas, although a dedicated chat tab would not be something i want because there are already too many chats to keep track of not to mention the people that constantly PM without asking if it is okay with me(rude).

 

My primary toons on north and south

Kordeth Bludscythe, Master Architect of the Shackport Alliance, Shackport E-13 Melody Server

Traipse, Lodge Owner of Fir Retreat, O-18 Independence Server