So I actually went on a adventure last night....

[sharringtonm]

As it says, I took my PC out with some other last night and killed stuff.

This post is to perhaps enlighten folks as to the nature of RPing while "hunting".

I took a chat log of all this so that I could make sure of my findings.

Firstly, I need to say that all of the people with me are excellent RPers around the campfire and this is not a slam against those people (who shall remain nameless unless they post here which will give them away). This group of people just had the unforunate honor of being my example.

• Now I went on adventure with a few other people, a warrior type, a magic type, and a hybrid type.
• As soon as we got to the hostile areas, the chat screen went eerily silent. I kept trying to ask questions through the entire adventure, make comments and such, but got nothing. Once in a great while I think I annoyed them enough that they would respond to me.
• At one point I thought we were gonna see a change. We stumbled across a secret door, and the hybrid says "A door? here?", but then the warrior opens the door without a word and charges in slaughtering everything in his path.
• I remember hearing the magic type saying "Were doing great guys, keep it up" and in response half the group rushed off to kill more goblins without a response.
• Finally we get to the boss, and I saw one of the players rush in.. and then stand in the perfect spot to draw the boss and none of his cronies to the party. And the player did it without a word.
• After all is said and done, and all the enemies lie dead at our feet. One person logs out with a "I must leave now" (which is perfectly ok) and the rest go thru the exit transition without a word.

Help me! What can I do to encourage my fellow player to RP while out and about? I know it might be another month before I go out with another group, but I'm feeling I didn't do enough to encourage them to RP and I won't throw the DEV weight around and demand they RP. Thats not my style.

[Peridan]

You could piss them off. I find that the angrier you make someone by insulting several generations of their family, the more of a response you get. =P

[Verrath]

Heh.... the funniest RP happens while hunting in party... if people let it

[Maevan2]

*sratches his chin* well...welcome to reality!

I always wondered why RP has to suffer once you enter a dungeon. And the bigger the group the worse it gets. I suppose people can already smell the XP and loot and so their minds start to work differently. Maybe it is a part of the human nature. I don't know... *sighs*

[Chiangtao]

You can't change everyone. Play with people who's style you enjoy.

Additionally, there are times when you're in danger while fighting--you won't get a chat response then. It drives me up a wall when people stop to have Carmella-length conversations while halfway up the bandit mountain. Can't type and move very easily--it's not safe.

If all else fails, then react ICly. Think, why am I adventuring with someone I don't know and won't communicate? Am I at risk because of their silence? Duck out if so.

The list will go on and on, but you know that leading by example is really the only way to go. This isn't a hardcore server, and you will find players who don't RP in a way you find acceptable. Give them some effort, I'd say, but if you find they don't change, move on and find people you enjoy RPing with.

[Dark presence]

You could throw your dev weight around and increase the rewards for fighting those things! It does get boring the hundredth time going through. Its hard to RP through things like that over and over again, as I imagine the group has. It doesn't excuse them from being a quiet and dull group, but its a longstanding gripe of mine that xp here is really really meager.

I can't really offer advice on how to get people to RP more in dungeons. If you're providing some hooks, its up to them to take the bait. If they are willing to, they will. If not they won't.

Personally, I find it really hard to both manage the real time combat and start figuring things to type out at the same time. There are other serious concerns as well in other dungeons like the fast respawn rate of difficult mobs. Thats not really an issue in the Spittlefist caves, but still, I have ICly reprimanded people for chatting up a storm in a dungeon, when ICly its definitely not some place to do that.

[BattlePixie]

Help me! What can I do to encourage my fellow player to RP while out and about? I know it might be another month before I go out with another group, but I'm feeling I didn't do enough to encourage them to RP and I won't throw the DEV weight around and demand they RP. Thats not my style.

heh, stop hanging out in the spittlefist caves :P

But seriously though, I find that the RP in those caves have been far and few between so to speak. I have had great RP sessions in there, don't get me wrong, but generally i find the spittlefist caves to be the place where the higher(ish) levels run in quickly to grab some high priced loot or where the lower levels are more concerned with grinding out xp. I on many occasions have entered the hills and pretty much wandered up to the goblin chief without encountering anything because i just happened to be the guy that arrived in between groups grinding the place out.

I think the RP really starts after spittlefist.

How can this be fixed? Unfortunately most of my suggestions create more work for devs, like adding (or revamping and older area) that will spread out the newbie population a bit or adding some newb quests as an alternative to area grinding (I believe this is in the works). I would also suggest toning down the loot (magic weapons and armour) that is found in the spittlefist caves and move it up to mossclaw meet or higher to prevent higher(ish) toons from hitting the easier area for cash. I find that the majority of items my toons have, they got in the spittlefist caves and their wasn't much need to upgrade until i could buy additional equipment from the various merchants (this isn't likely true for all classes though).

I also see the spittlefist caves as the place where people are getting a feel for the capabilities of their shiny new toon or sort of still figuring out how they want to play their toon so the RP is not always there.

Just my opinion, and i'm not the angel either. I'm sure I can find instances where I was guilty of the above also.

In short, I don't think its you.

[Kaeldorn]

Personally, I always still try to RP while on an 'adventure'. When there are tactics I'd like to use I suggest them IC, I comment on the enemies I track, I agree/disagree with plans of others and comment on their behaviour. It just comes naturally.. though if I'm in a group that just doesn't respond, I don't say a lot either. Because as you stated yourself, if you feel like you're attempting to say something to a pre-programmed character (read: I kill stuff and rush forward) without any pre-programmed dialogue to respond to you, it gets rather dull.

That said, lately it happens more often that I run into RP when I decided to go hunt as I had nothing to do, than that I have people ask me to come kill X while I'm RP'ing. Which is all good in my eyes

[sparkeh]

Sadly you can't force people to roleplay if they don't want to without coming over as a complete twunt, and I don't think this is the kind of server that you want to create.

The only thing that you can control is your reaction, in that kind of situation mine is just to leave the group and let them get on with it and find some RP for myself. However I rarely go out hunting as its not my chars style.

[Jaeram]

Hmm... the not talking a lot during dungeons to me seems relaistic and unrealistic at the same time. The way I see it, if I was in a sword fight (I have been in a few, although the blows were pulled so we didn't hurt each other), I would think it would be similar to the guys you can see LARPing.

I figure while in combat I may shout things to my team mates (which is difficult to do with a keyboard interface and real time combat) where as in real life it would be fairly easy to do without losing you concentration. On the other hand, in real life if I was in a cave full of angry goblins I also wouldn't sit around between fights talking to my team mates as we apparently sit and wait for the next group of goblins to walk up to us and attempt to take a giant chunk out of us.

Around the camp fire though the RP is always an easier task, in my opinion.

[nickbeat]

It definitely helps if you are all on board with the RP. I sometimes find myself in grinding groups and I can roll with that once in a while, but like you I prefer to have some purpose.

DMs are not the only ones that can create purpose. Players can do this all the time. Here are some example plots I have seen:

• In Spittlefist, a lone woman complains her family jewels were stolen by the goblins. The heroes help the poor woman recover her it.
• In Mossclaw, the gnolls are getting a shipment of arms from the ogres. lets get in there and steal it.

This kind of storytelling can also help to explain how the characters have gathered together. I remember one player lied through his teeth to a noble knight character about how he needed money for his wife and kids. The knight fell for it and the rogue reaped the rewards.

[Verrath]

Or you could just be trying to save your fat badger friend who had run off into the goblin cave *nod nod*

[Chiangtao]

One other suggestion I'll make.

Start off your adventure with a PURPOSE. Collect herbs, recover something, a bounty... this does a few of things:
1) Gives talking / emote points for the trip.
* rummages through the weeds, disappointed*
* slices off the goblin ear*
2) Gives a definite end-point, even if you have to make it up. Eliminates grinding.
3) Weeds out folks who don't dig on the RP. If you START your party by gathering folks interested, you can be more assured they are into RPing.

[Sammael]

I've had problems with this sort of thing before too. Can't really think of any way around it though.

[undeadsteak]

Didn't read all the posts here, but I don't know.. You've got to be selective and travel with people you know are good RPers in dungeons? I know that seems a bit screwed up, but hey, I sometimes want to have some RP in dungeons, and RPing on adventures has to be the most fun thing EVER. I've had some really great times where people talked, RPed, and actually took time to stop and think. All of that done without a DM, of course. And then you have the lame ones where nobody talks, we rush through to get l33t XP and Lewt.