Rping when a DM is around

[Arckeya]

My character talks to an angel who is in direct contact with Kelemvor, so when no one else is around, I RP with myself in Celestial between her and my PC for understanding (things I make up as a go along) of her purpose, etc. I love it.

Even if she wasn't in touch with an angel. Scarlet is prone to bouts of self-conversation which theoritically make her insane. Couple with the fact she continuously tries the same thing over and over with the same result while hoping to get another confirms the fact.

... Um... *smiles?*

[VoodooTi]

Don't worry yourself, we DM's notice these things as well Which is generally why some people end up dea--- *Coughs* ...sacrificing themselves as leaders should in times of trouble. *Nods sagely*

Ithildur has a point, the point of events is RP, not winning. I don't have planned executions on any of my events and many other DM's don't either. The point of the event is player reaction to them, not OMG I WON! As cheesy as this might sound, we're all winners if we stay in character and deal with the situation how our character would.

I'd love a DM event where I spawn a monster and a scared character just turns and runs XD I'd laugh so hard I'd probably accidentally give him a level

*Laughs* All my characters are timide, i don't like playing those Hero's who get all the lady's, i like playing those characters which army's and women don't seem to like as they're are to pussy.

[Autumn]

In response to the question or RPing by yourself: I always do this. I talk to my wolf companion or nod to the NPC's. Sometimes I ask myself questions like "Hmmm. I wonder what's in here?" As a new player, I am still in the process of learning my way around, so there are often no PC's in the same area as I am. It keeps things from being to boring.

-Autumn-

[GodBeastX]

In response to the question or RPing by yourself: I always do this. I talk to my wolf companion or nod to the NPC's. Sometimes I ask myself questions like "Hmmm. I wonder what's in here?" As a new player, I am still in the process of learning my way around, so there are often no PC's in the same area as I am. It keeps things from being to boring.

-Autumn-

Sometimes I'm watching

[VoodooTi]

Yeah, i like to talk to myself, and NPC's, atleast they dont run off and go Powerlevel, they atleast listen... though don't reply.

[Chiangtao]

They do watch.
I was pleasantly surprised to see about 200 xp suddenly appear in my chat log one day as I attempted to sell my world famous "monster repellant."

On the subject of changing behaviors for DMs... there are limited opportunities, and we all want to interact, but the best thing you can often do in a DM quest to show you are in character is to walk away. How often would most of you really risk your neck for someone you don't know? Anyone neutral or evil should be hard to convince to help out, in most cases.

[GodBeastX]

I want to give a shout out to a player since we're on the subject of DM's and RP when they are there and when they aren't.

There was a group of three people who were in the goblins. I felt like doing something out of the ordinary, so I had an Umberhulk tunnelling about for his own reasons.

First player stopped and was like "What is that?" and did a X-Files moment trying to figure out the "Giant Insect-Like Critter". Wasn't the reaction I was hoping for with the sight of something 3 times his mass, so I figured "Round 2". And Tunnelled in front of the group so that the other 2 could have a look and suddenly before I could even emote anything I saw:

"RUUUUUUUN!!!!!"

And this character turned and ran off, basically dragging the other two with her. I laughed so hard. I started following in the Umberhulk, tunnelling through walls to cut them off and having fun with them Jurrassic Raptor underground style, and eventually they escaped with this player basically running for her life.

I stick around to hear the follow up RP. She would not go back in the cave no matter how the other two prodded her about "We have to kill it". She was like "It's a giant bug, that's it's home, I'm going this way!".

I thought that was the most realistic response to sudden danger I've gotten out of anyone yet "It's big, it's nasty, I gotta go!" She got 1000 exp from me. Had they somehow managed to kill it, admittedly, I'd have probably given 200 to 300 to each of them, but they all got extra for high tailing it.

Moral of the story, this isn't a game about win or lose, kill the baddy or let him live, it's about "I'm my character, what do I do?" And believe me, you're not all super men running around fearlessly at level 6

[Zoberraz]

*wince* problem is that we never really know when a DM actually wants us to keep fighting despite the incredibly bad odds - take, for example, DM Saulus' crazy Large and Huge Earth Elementals.

Frankly, next time I'm seeing those, I'm running - even if it looks bad. I'm tired of seeing near party wipes due to challenges such as those and - forgive my metagamish line of thinking - a mere 200 xp and the inability to have any loot whatsoever is sort of underwhelming... considering the gnolls, ogres, trolls and ogre mage that softened us up before the elemental chain battles.

[GodBeastX]

*wince* problem is that we never really know when a DM actually wants us to keep fighting despite the incredibly bad odds - take, for example, DM Saulus' crazy Large and Huge Earth Elementals.

Frankly, next time I'm seeing those, I'm running - even if it looks bad. I'm tired of seeing near party wipes due to challenges such as those and - forgive my metagamish line of thinking - a mere 200 xp and the inability to have any loot whatsoever is sort of underwhelming... considering the gnolls, ogres, trolls and ogre mage that softened us up before the elemental chain battles.

Don't look at it from the exp point of view. Analyze it from the RP point of view and you'll get way more exp than you planned

"Let me see, I'm fighting gnolls, suddenly a bunch of huge elementals that probably will wipe my party appears..."

Hmmmm... I'm not a psychologist, but if you were black, you'd reply to said Elemental "I played this video game, the black man dies" and turn for the hills.

[Anauroch]

I really, really like how you think, GBX. Maybe I'll manage to be on on the weekend at some point when most of the other DMs are on, too, for once.

Honestly, if I were to DM, I would get exasperated with everyone just trying to 'win' the quests. Solve a puzzle, kill all enemies and all that...

The DM has to give the players enough time to react - but in the end it's too often the players who are just up and about to do what they think 'needs' doing...

[Zoberraz]

Don't look at it from the exp point of view. Analyze it from the RP point of view and you'll get way more exp than you planned

"Let me see, I'm fighting gnolls, suddenly a bunch of huge elementals that probably will wipe my party appears..."

Hmmmm... I'm not a psychologist, but if you were black, you'd reply to said Elemental "I played this video game, the black man dies" and turn for the hills.

Heheh.

The exp I don't really mind. I'm not really a miser on that level - after all, we died repeatedly and we're raised without any major experience point loss so for me it could also be interpreted like "You kept valiantly fighting so I gave you 2000 xp" (because yes, two deaths would have cost a LOT of xp).

But going after the carrot and only getting beaten down by the stick sort of sucks, especially for the second time... Not to mention those elementals just pop up and attack without warning, without explanation or cause - even when we start looking for a hidden caster of something ~_~;

Anyhow, I think the point is that, personally, I'm scared of disappointing the DM and running instead of doing "what needs doing", like the previous poster mentioned. If I was a DM, that I placed a stiff challenge and that the players would scurry away like mice, I might get a tad irritated at them for being scaredy wussies.

Another thing I don't see much are DM giving out monetary rewards. So far, as far as I've seen, it doesn't happen. This makes the only realistic income apparently possible to be, well, grinding for those gold necklaces and green magical items.

Don't be afraid to give us monetary rewards. Typically, we're fairly happy when we see a gold necklace or a magical item because that translates into about 500gp of spending money that we can hoard for that sought after item or to buy some potions. Getting something in a DM event that would give around 1000 to 1500 gold would make the day of the money grubbing player in us.

Say, for example, that the huge elemental we took down would have broken up and contained enough semi-precious gems to be worth around 6000 gold. The party acknowledges to pay for the resurrection of one of their fallen members and then split the remaining 4500 gold. Everyone ends up happy, one player keeps his xp and we get our "Wow, loot!" moment.

But seriously... I'm earnest about the 'more gold reward' thing. It doesn't have to turn into a monthy haul to make people happy.

[GodBeastX]

Heheh.

The exp I don't really mind. I'm not really a miser on that level - after all, we died repeatedly and we're raised without any major experience point loss so for me it could also be interpreted like "You kept valiantly fighting so I gave you 2000 xp" (because yes, two deaths would have cost a LOT of xp).

But going after the carrot and only getting beaten down by the stick sort of sucks, especially for the second time... Not to mention those elementals just pop up and attack without warning, without explanation or cause - even when we start looking for a hidden caster of something ~_~;

Anyhow, I think the point is that, personally, I'm scared of disappointing the DM and running instead of doing "what needs doing", like the previous poster mentioned. If I was a DM, that I placed a stiff challenge and that the players would scurry away like mice, I might get a tad irritated at them for being scaredy wussies.

Another thing I don't see much are DM giving out monetary rewards. So far, as far as I've seen, it doesn't happen. This makes the only realistic income apparently possible to be, well, grinding for those gold necklaces and green magical items.

Don't be afraid to give us monetary rewards. Typically, we're fairly happy when we see a gold necklace or a magical item because that translates into about 500gp of spending money that we can hoard for that sought after item or to buy some potions. Getting something in a DM event that would give around 1000 to 1500 gold would make the day of the money grubbing player in us.

Say, for example, that the huge elemental we took down would have broken up and contained enough semi-precious gems to be worth around 6000 gold. The party acknowledges to pay for the resurrection of one of their fallen members and then split the remaining 4500 gold. Everyone ends up happy, one player keeps his xp and we get our "Wow, loot!" moment.

But seriously... I'm earnest about the 'more gold reward' thing. It doesn't have to turn into a monthy haul to make people happy.

I totally warn people before I'm about to beat the tar out of them unless they had it coming. Surprisingly people ignore the warnings and just keep on truckin.

[OzmaDarkheart]

They do give money, at least to me....

Don't be afraid to give us monetary rewards. Typically, we're fairly happy when we see a gold necklace or a magical item because that translates into about 500gp of spending money that we can hoard for that sought after item or to buy some potions. Getting something in a DM event that would give around 1000 to 1500 gold would make the day of the money grubbing player in us.

I've seen Saulus(at least I think it was Saulus <.<, >.>) give money to people for good RP, heck I've even recieved gold for playing pranks on people with one of my characters. It's there, it just seems like it's easier for them to give xp unless they're controlling a char at the time.

(<.<, >.> copyright of GodBeastX)

[Ithildur]

Regarding the greater elemental.... my PC must've said 'this foe is beyond us' 'get out' 'run' etc several times over; the one time I told Maia to distract it was so I could try and run to tavain and heal him... 'distract' didn't mean 'take it on and fire arrows at it point blank range with light armor on' btw

In retrospect maybe I should've yelled for Maia to go get Tavain while I distracted it, but in the rush of the moment, I was just thinking of trying to get to Tavain as quick as possible.

After chatting with Tavain's player about this, it sounds like a case of Saulus decided to go on a rampage with the DMclient just testing out how much we could handle before getting beaten to a pulp (although that last elemental, we did kill it, or would have, except all of a sudden with a handful of HP it became immune to all dmg at the end 'mysteriously').

Unfortunately, I am often in a bind; my PC would be one of the last ones to run if others were in danger; at the same time he's not stupid, plus I'm playing with a personal rule of 5 respawns max before he's permadead, which makes you RP a lot more realisticly. The problem is people around him tend to not care if their PCs die since the death penality is so light; they stick around and try to take on near impossible odds constantly, forcing me to send my PC into the face of certain death over and over again as he would not willingly abandon others. Fortunately I've only had one respawn so far I think, but this does get aggravating.

As far as gold/items for reward - that's great, as atm killing stuff is the only option atm for earning coin for the most part, but please let it make some sense. No 10000 gp being found for killing a handful of goblins or coins falling out of the sky; players are expected to RP sensibly, I'd request DMs do things sensibly as well.

[Zoberraz]

Regarding the greater elemental.... my PC must've said 'this foe is beyond us' 'get out' 'run' etc several times over; the one time I told Maia to distract it was so I could try and run to tavain and heal him... 'distract' didn't mean 'take it on and fire arrows at it point blank range with light armor on' btw

That was an accident T_T I was running away from it, the thing disappeared from behind me and appeared in front of me. I turned my camera around and clicked farther away to get, well, away... but somehow the game assumed that I was clicking on the big lug and there I went plinking arrows ineffectually at him.

By the time I was using my WASD keys to the "Get fuck away", He already had inflicted one time and a half my maximum number of hit points in term of raw damage.

...I'm not generally in the practice of running first either. So, next time "you first!" XD