Advice for New RPers.

[Llew Hy]

This is a spin-off thread off of "new players not RPing?". It's intended to be a tiny bit more constructive. (No offense Cade.) I think it would be really helpful if everyone posted advice on what they believe makes a good RolePlayer. Because I'm an evil person with a cold cold heart; Gabryal is going to be the first one to give advice.

If I was to give only one piece of advice to someone just starting out on Sundren, it would be this. Your class and race are nowhere near as important as who your character is, what motivates them, and how they react to the world. A character on Sundren can be anything at all that you want so be creative, I know of characters just off the top of my head that are former slaves, womanizing paladins, druids who don't speak common, incompetent rogues (which make me laugh alot more than the competent ones), Clerics who can barely spell their own names, and host of other unusual and highly believable characters. Try to be original, and try to keep it as "canon" light as you can get away with. A fighter who is a typical mercenary, willing to do anything for gold can get boring, one that is strangely pious to a particular diety is less likely too. An RP server isn't about who's the most powerful as much as it's about who's the most entertaining, so if your bard finds himself pitched out the window of a jealous husband's bedroom onto three "default" warriors just returning from ending a minor goblin menace, the character I'll remember and want to see again is that bard, you can always find more default warriors.

[Gabryal]

Does that mean I don't give more advice? Or do I let other people go before I give more advice? And thank you for picking me to go first

[Llew Hy]

If you've got more, let the wisdom flow.

[Elusa]

Yes, there's little point in talking about the incompetence of newbies negatively. So here's some of my suggestions on character creation.

It's good to be unique, but not a neon light. Doing outlandish things and making a big scene will get your character known quickly, but also hated. One outstanding personality trait is enough. On the other end of the spectrum, new players should not make loners or evil characters. They are hard to play and hard to roleplay. Accept the limitations of the game and the setting. You can play a deaf mute, but Faerun doesn't have sign language.

Background is extremely important. If someone asks your character, "Who are you?" and all you have is a name and a class, that's a problem. Making up things on the fly can work for a little while, but what you eventually end up with is a very disjointed character. On the other hand, if you have a detailed and colorful background, don't let it out all at once. Open books are not interesting, make your fellow players force a peek into your character's past. Always remember though that your character starts out at 3rd level, and it takes a long time to level up. If you want to make a dragon slayer, that's great, but his career will have to start after his arrival in Sundren. Unless he's a lying drunk, and then that's just awesome.

I didn't say this in the last thread, but always have an excuse to grind in case it's ever needed (and it will be). For many characters and classes, it can be as simple as practice, or thinning monster populations. Druids and rangers often have a duty to protect the forests and wilderness, while clerics have a drive to help others. Wizards seek out new knowledge and field experience. Evil characters can have hidden agendas and use one of the other excuses as a front. Don't make it too complicated if you're simply grinding, no one wants a 30 minute monologue.

If you're getting bored, grind with a purpose. There's nothing saying you have to wait for a DM to have an event. Take some initiative, give your fellow players a plot seed, and roll with it, literally. A spot check here, survival check there, shout into the goblin camp and give them a chance to surrender. Obviously there are limitations, and you may not get bonus exp or NPCs to mess with, but it'll be a hell of a lot more fun.

By the way, I came up with 3 great character concepts while writing this. No, I'm not sharing. Except the lying drunk one, but there's probably a few of those already.

[Verrath]

- Make your first character someone who is from some backwood place and would not know much about the world beyond it. That way, you can learn about the setting in character, and your toon doesn't make a fool of himself because his or her player doesn't know.

If I feel the setting is really strange or new to me, I actually make a a character who is generic (as in, I add some basic "where is he from, what does he do for a living", "what's his basic motivation in life", but not a lot beyond ), for that purpose, and who I never plan on continuing to play after I've learned what I need.

Of course, some of those characters have become my favorites on other servers (*cough* Mirko *cough*)


- watch others. Keep a low profile at first and get your bearings by watching what others do. Even if they don't do everything right, you can still get a very good picture of what goes on. This also helps you get right into the setting with as little friction as possible.

[Machiavelli]

Good advice from Verrath there! If you're not too sure on FR and D&D lore, make your first character so that gaps in knowledge can be explained by RP. My first character on Sundren was a brain-damaged Hin fighter who thought he was a dwarf (I hadn't played d&d for close to a decade at that point, so this was ideal as I could RP him without needing any knowledge while I got up to speed through reading and what I learned from other players and the DMs) Have some fun and consider it an info gathering and RP practice exercise!

Also, here's a nice and easy to consume web resource about the Forgotten Realms. It has info on deities, factions, geography, alignments, creatures, magic, etc...

Forgotten Realms Wiki

Additionally, I'd encourage people to make characters with quirks... prefereably a few quirks. It makes it easier to decide what to do in RP situtations, and is also entertaining for other people!

[Llew Hy]

~ Researching your characters background cannot be stressed enough. My two favorite resources for this are:

A map of Faerun: http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/faerunmap/

And the Forgotten Realms Wiki: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

It also doesn't hurt to know a little bit about the surrounding areas of your characters homeland.

~ Dynamic characters are the most interesting.
All of our characters have some basis in reality, but what is realistic about a character that never changes? We all know what it is like to live in the real world: Every day we grow, and learn, and develop. So shouldn't our characters?
Even if you make a character that is completely generic you have the opportunity to develop them in your own way. Maybe your once self-righteous cleric develops a drinking problem. Or your drunken dwarf develops a sobriety problem. These are changes that add some humanity to your character.
Say you have a character that is the nicest Elf this side of the Anauroch, you play him for a couple months and make all sorts of friends but then he develops some flaw or quirk of some sort. Something as simple as that becomes another storyline for your friends to enjoy because they're going to want to help your character out and determine what is wrong with him. The best part of all is that you don't need a DM for this and can do it on your own.

Also, I should add that if you're going to make a character that has some sort of flaw right from the get-go don't make it something that's terribly off putting. No one is going to want to make friends with the drunk that follows them around and throws rocks at them for attention.

~Ask.
A lot of people develop an extensive background for their characters, even if you don't see it when you right-click them and click examine it's still there. But how will you know about it if you don't ask? I can guarantee that it's one of the quickest ways to make friends with someone. And if they don't offer it all up right away it makes for something to work at.

~The Basics.
Some of the tiniest things can make a world of difference:

Emoting what your character is thinking doesn't really have any place in proper RolePlaying. How are we supposed to know what you're thinking?

Even if your grammar is terrible and you only type 10 wpm it doesn't hurt to start your sentence with a capital letter and end it with a punctuation mark.
Honestly which looks better? "run for your lives its a dragon" or, "Run for your lives, It's a Dragon!"

Remember, if no one has spoken a character's name then you don't know it. Forget that it's floating above their heads, your character doesn't see that.

Oh, and don't piss-off and/or argue with a DM. I have been playing NWN online for close to six years and have never EVER seen this work out for anyone. Trust me.




Edit: *Kills Mach for ninja-posting his forgotten-realms wiki link.*

[Gabryal]

My first character on Sundren was a brain-damaged Hin fighter who thought he was a dwarf

this explains sooo much

[Sammael]

A map of Faerun: http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/faerunmap/

So where the heck is Sundren on that map? We're somewhere south of Icewind Dale, right?

[Machiavelli]

So where the heck is Sundren on that map? We're somewhere south of Icewind Dale, right?

Immediately South of Icewind Dale, enclosed by mountains next to the coast.

[Lanemeyer]

My first character on Sundren was a brain-damaged Hin fighter who thought he was a dwarf

Yeah, I remember, I kinda miss this char of yours hehe, he was damn funny to get along

[ThePaganKing]

I find that the characters I have that are the funnest and more fully developed are the ones like Hano's, I have a germ of an idea and then run with it. Elric Gallow was supposed to be a flippant bard that had a serious side; however, he developed into an egotistical womanizer and a Banite. He is so much fun to play, because where he is now, he just doesn't give a damn about much anymore, except for gambling and fornicating, oh yea, and the occasional evil thing or making fun of Hano.

Now, there were RP events and RP things that happened to turn Elric the way he went, so I just didn't decide one second to go the way he did, but the journey was fun and well worth it.

As to the discussion about language, well, Elric uses crude language sometimes to punctuate his words or just to get a rise out of people, that is just the way he is and always has been. If you have a female character that has dealt with him, well, he is a womanizer also and says things a womanizer would say. I don't take him too far down that path, for obvious reasons, but he will go down it a bit.

I say just come up with an idea and go with it. Flow with the RP and have a great time. Grind sometimes, then RP like hell, or RP like hell while you are grinding. It can be done.

[Kangleton]

Some of this could go in the Tips/Advice section of the Sundren Wiki.

[Llew Hy]

There are some of the best RPers I've ever seen on this server and this is all you can come up with? Come on, dig deep.

[Dune]

Watch me and you it will al become clear.
That is all.