RPOTM Open for March!

[Leaving Hope]

I'm very happy to announce that the Role Player of the Month poll is now open for the month of March. You can find the link to the RPOTM page in the header next to "statistics" or by visiting http://www.sundren.org/index.php?page=rpotm.

You will be asked to vote for two characters. Note, you are not voting for players! I think Dune is awesome, but I'm not voting for Dune, I'm voting for the characters he plays.

Every month we will hold a vote for the best roleplayer during the previous month. When May 1st rolls around, we will open the polls for the month of April. So do your part, vote, and get your ballots in before the end of this month. As this is our first month, I fully expect there to be bugs, bumps, and bruises, but we'll get through it; please be patient with us as we work through them.

So what makes a good roleplayer, you might ask? Why can't I just vote for my friends, you ask?

The whole point of RPOTM is to encourage roleplaying, and to reward those that do a phenomenal job. Unfortunately, not everyone can win, but I believe it sets a high bar for us and encourages our players to really think about how they and their fellows are playing. When the winners are announced, you may not agree, and you may think you did a better job--but remember sometimes things go on behind the scenes that you don't know about!

A good roleplayer, to me, is someone who plays a unique, interesting, and engaging character consistently. They bring something fresh to the world. Or, it could be that they've worked hard to gain reputation in-game, and use that to their advantage. A good roleplayer does not use any OOC chat in the default channel, and they emote descriptively. Good roleplayers give their characters flaws, and quirks--and may not even be liked as people by the general population. Just because you play a good PC doesn't mean you can't vote for an evil one. Good roleplayers don't cheat, and they don't grind.

Both winners will receive the right to play a closed race, and:

• First place will receive 500 XP per level OR 1 custom appearance for an existing item.
• Second place will receive 250XP per level OR 1 custom appearance for an existing item.

Finally, let me say that any users who have received an infraction in the month of voting will be ineligible to win.

Good luck with your voting, and have fun! We're here if you have questions. Please report any bugs you may find.

[Maevan2]

Have you considered something like a life time reward for those that don't win but are always among the best? So that every 6 months one or two additional players get the chance?

[Kaeldorn]

Don't know who I'll vote for yet.. lots of people with different qualities.

One important factor in my vote will be something you didn't mention: I enjoy playing with those who give others ample opportunity to shine as well, rather than flood the screen with descriptive emotes and spoken text. Particularly when multiple people are together who do just that (*cough* DM events *cough*), it truly detracts from the enjoyment of the experience. Of course it's all good when it's clear to all that one particular person is telling a story or providing an explanation about something or other.

An OOC comment from time to time to lighten up the atmosphere doesn't hurt either in my eyes (happens with real D&D too), as long as it doesn't turn into whole conversations. But to each his own

[Jaeram]

I enjoy playing with those who give others ample opportunity to shine as well, rather than flood the screen with descriptive emotes and spoken text. Particularly when multiple people are together who do just that (*cough* DM events *cough*), it truly detracts from the enjoyment of the experience.

I've been planning a character like this lately.

An OOC comment from time to time to lighten up the atmosphere doesn't hurt either in my eyes (happens with real D&D too), as long as it doesn't turn into whole conversations. But to each his own

Do people play 'real D&D' in character? The only times I've played, it was all ooc except for when we were actually voicing something our character says, so instead of a ((ooc)) kind of thing it was more like ((ic)) lol.

On topic though, I have made my votes already, and I haven't seen any problems with the system. Great job everyone who helped design it (I'm assuming LH had something to do with it, but I don't want to leave others out).

[Kaeldorn]

Do people play 'real D&D' in character? The only times I've played, it was all ooc except for when we were actually voicing something our character says, so instead of a ((ooc)) kind of thing it was more like ((ic)) lol

That's not really how it should be
In our group we are almost always IC, although sometimes questions to the DM, or 'OOC think tanks' are used to determine our next actions. Sure, we don't go about doing LARP, but we do put our characters actions to words as if we are doing it ourselves, and speak as if we were in their situation. Otherwise, it wouldn't be much of a roleplaying game.

[nickbeat]

Yeah, I gotta say that my live D&D group tends to focus on the strategy stuff with minimal IC talk. These are my old college friends and they do like to chat about, D&D is more like an excuse to hang out with old friends than true RP.

I actually find that NWN is far more immersive than PnP D&D. Certain people really encourage interesting situations and conversations, and I commend them. I have yet to find another server so completely involving.

[Leaving Hope]

Great job everyone who helped design it (I'm assuming LH had something to do with it, but I don't want to leave others out).

Everything we do here, we do as a team.

[Leaving Hope]

I think one improvement might be to use pull downs so you can select names rather than having to type them in.

[Kelmoth Xanthor]

That would be alot of names considering the amount of characters on the server at any given time.

[Leaving Hope]

I would use AJAX. You pick the first letter of their name, say A, and it populates the names of characters that start with A in a drop down. It would only list those active during the month of voting, so figure 53 names per letter loaded on demand.

[Jaeram]

That would be a great addition, I was going to make a suggestion like that, but I had the same idea as Kelmoth. I figured it would be way too many names. If you have a system like that though, that would be an awesome addition, especially if you forgot how to spell someone's name.

[nickbeat]

Doesn't the Private Message box use that feature, which appears to be AJAX? It knows the names of logins for players. I wonder if there is a way get the character name data too and do the same thing?

[Kangleton]

Are we supposed to be voting based on the examples and definitions outlined by the DM's, or can we base it off our own understanding of what makes a great RP'er? Are we following a set standard, or personal instinct and impressions?

I mean, for me, the person I'd like to vote for would be someone that doesn't simply emote discriptively, or with believable emotion, but the person who helps bring out the best in others; the person that you can play off of, having fun. However, if this person engages in some OOC banter from time to time, smashes some monsters without emoting for a while, and makes some small character-concept flaws, does that mean he isn't allowed to be voted for because he doesn't fit Leaving Hope's initial description?

...That isn't intended to knock the description. It's just so that I know who I should be voting for.

And second question:

How does the custom item reward work? If I wanted a sword with a custom appearance, would it be completely mundane and have no enchantments, thereby making is useless for anything other than show-and-tell?

[Jaeram]

I believe in a previous thread they said that they would take a current piece of gear you have and customize it to look the way you want it to.

[Leaving Hope]

Are we supposed to be voting based on the examples and definitions outlined by the DM's, or can we base it off our own understanding of what makes a great RP'er? Are we following a set standard, or personal instinct and impressions?

Your vote, your impressions. My comments were meant to illustrate what *I* think makes a good roleplayer, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They were suggestions.

I'm not going to tell you how to vote, other than to not vote for your friends just because they're your friends.

How does the custom item reward work? If I wanted a sword with a custom appearance, would it be completely mundane and have no enchantments, thereby making is useless for anything other than show-and-tell?

It replaces an item you already have. You keep the same specs, but we'll give it a custom appearance that fits with the item. However, don't expect glowy lightning if it isn't a lightning sword. It has to make sense.

Chances are, most of the requests will be for custom armor.

The custom item will need to be made from the haks we already use. We're not going to add a new hak for you and make 500 people download another thing just so you can have a cool sword model.