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Welcome to the 11'th installment of the Review.
After much consideration, the staff of the Review and I have come to the conclusion that we need to do something about Roleplaying. We think we've taken too long criticizing and not enough time helping. That said, we’ve decided to issue the Ten Commandments of Roleplaying. We’re all authorities here, so enjoy the brainchild of our collective brilliance.
Commandment the First:
Thou shalt never assume thee art one of a kind.
Commandment the Second:
Despite Commandment the First, thou shalt attempt to make thy character as unique as possible via making him/her weak and powerless rather then omniscient and unnecessarily potent. Thou shalt give him/her flaws and fear, loves and hates, and make him/her a creature that reasons and thinks, and is more wrong then right, as all creatures in existence are.
Commandment the Third:
Thou shalt realize that thee are flawed, and that those around thee will perceive thee as flawed. Thou shalt not pretend to know it all. Thou shalt not bring ruin on others who know not as much as thee.
Commandment the Fourth:
Thou shalt strive to make thy character realistic, plausible, and gifted with integrity.
(The last portion of this is easily the most important, folks. Most people have no idea what integrity is, and would otherwise pass over this part with a goofy smile on their face saying ‘Yeah, I did that!” Just imagine that ignorant, goofy smile…
Integrity is defined by my dictionary as: “the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards”
So what does that mean for Gaian Roleplayers? It mean get off your high ******** horses, that’s what it means. People on Gaia all have False Identity Egotism disease. FIED is what makes good characters do things they shouldn’t because their writers are too cranked up on their own ego to let them fail, FIED is why no one gets into conflicts anymore ((To worried about their public image to risk losing)). FIED is why people can’t have fun competition without flaming and bickering like ten year olds. FIED is something we made up ten minutes ago. Still, it’s pretty much true.
Also, Integrity means this: Your character has a personality and a past. This past likely involves both celebration and tragedy, so do it justice. No person is ALWAYS angry, and no person is always happy. If they are, have a good, interesting and fun reason for it.
A good example of a character with integrity:
I wanted to make a anti-hero character, a character that could act mean, but still be good without having to be one of those depressed I-strike-out-at-those-I-love clichés. After a bit of thought, I recalled a character from another game I’ve played, and realized that this character had a lot of potential to be fun and meaningful.
Hisui Yuurei was a wicked, jealous, and hateful man. He mugged, beat, abused, and practiced evil witchcraft. Traveling with a group of otherwise good folk, Hisui’s true nature was found out and he was brought to a clerical mage who cast a powerful enchantment called the Mark of Justice on him. The Mark cursed him to have to obey a short command given to him by the caster or suffer a consequence also designated by the caster. The Cleric who inflicted this curse said this: “For now on, you must abide by the holy writ of Pelor ((for those of you who DON’T play Dnd, Pelor’s the goodliest of good gods.)) or turn into a soulless ghost fated to wither away in pain for eternity.”
Now Hisui has to go around doing good things for Pelor, like being charitable, and saving lives. All the while, however, he’s still a complete dickhead.
I got my cake, and I could eat it too. It’s original and fun!
Now to keep the integrity of this character, I only do good things, yet allow him to speak his mind and say evil things whenever. This character will not end up being one of those guys who comes around in the end, and his existence is tortured in that he must always do the opposite of what he desires. Nevertheless, he always strives to find a way out of the curse, and that motivates him, which leads us to our next Commandment)
Commandment the Fifth:
Thou shalt give thy character a purpose (or a porpoise).
(Every good character ever worth mentioning exists for a reason. A character shouldn’t exist to walk into bars and chat idly with random people. That’s boring.
Your character needs a quest, a purpose for being in Gaia, and toiling as he/she does. Be it to find a person, to kill a person, to remove a curse- It doesn’t matter. All good plot and side stories need a main story to branch off from. Give your character the gift of desire for something, and watch him/her bloom.)
Commandment the Sixth:
Thall shalt strive to make a character that not only thou loves, but that all can enjoy.
(Roleplaying is a team sport. People have to like and respect your character or they won’t want to roleplay with it. I’m looking at you, godmodders.)
Commandment the Seventh:
Thou shalt realize that neutrality is boring.
(Too many people hate choosing sides, and make idiotic characters who refuse to ever take a stand. This needs to stop ASAP. People, how can you ever have conflict without opposing sides? How can you have purpose without yearning to defeat something, whether it be a man who believes something that offends you, or an object you need to destroy, or just SOMETHING. Everyone needs an adversary. Just imagine someone in the real world who was happy with everything? He’d just sit around all day and drool on himself, because he’s have nothing to live for. Don’t be that man.)
Commandment the Eighth:
Thou shalt have more consideration.
(Billy loves his character, who his calls Willy. Billy wants Willy to become a dual sword wielding swordsman so he can live out his fantasies, since Billy’s a three hundred pound kid who can barely walk under the weight of his own gut.
One day, Willy is walking in the Half a Horse bar, and Ezekiel the dread necromancer who for some reason dresses like a teenage scene kid makes one of his skeletons chop off Willy’s right arm. OOC Billy protests, and the two get into a big fight as to who is right.
I’ll tell you: It’s Billy.
In the end of the day, a person’s character is his/her own, and ultimately what happens to that character should be the choice of the creator. Don’t be the sort of d**k who follows someone around telling them they have to retire their character because your killed it. If they don’t want to, they shouldn’t have to.
“But Vansin-sama, object of my affections and purveyor of all that is lovely and good in the world, I want my character to be known for being strong and beating lots of people IC, and I can’t do that if everyone I kill magically acts like it never happened!”
In understand that plight. The best way to do it is to ASK before you fight. Showing that you’ve put in the time to be a nice person shows that you’re not hostile OOC, and that you’re giving people the option. Billy might not let you kill Willy, but I bet he’d let you savagely beat Willy, then have Willy run off and tell other people about how powerful you are. Then everyone wins.
Try it sometime.)
Commandment the Ninth:
Be active in the community.
(This commandment is mainly for people in Gaia Commerce, since that’s where I mostly Roleplay.
Everyone always complains to me- “Vansin-sama, god of my desires and slayer of all that is foul and punishable in this sad reality of dreams, Roleplaying is boring these days! There’s nothing fun to do anymore.”
And I always respond with, “Go b***h to someone else, asshat.”
However, what I should say is that if there’s nothing interesting going on, then make something interesting. It’s like voting for the president. Lots of people stay home on election night thinking that even if they don’t vote someone else will.
But I think everyone knows what would happen if everyone thought like that.
Is that to say that if you were in a crowd surrounding someone undeserving getting beaten to a pulp you would just sit and hope someone else did something? That’s disgusting.
If you want a better Gaia, then get up and do something about it. Make an organization hell-bent on taking over Commerce, and encourage people to make groups to oppose you. Do you wonder why we’ve been stressing having characters with set views and deep loyalties to either good or evil so much? Such characters encourage conflict, and conflict is FUN. Create conflict or watch the n00bs take over our favorite site.)
Commandment the Tenth:
Thous shalt aknowledge that Vansin and the staff at the Big V’s Review are gods.
(Worship them.)
 The Vansin · Sun Oct 21, 2007 @ 08:19pm · 4 Comments |
