What is Roleplay? By Sunny Simmons While I suppose everyone would give his or her own definition, there are perhaps several defining characteristics of this rather addictive form of entertainment. When asked, as I often am, just what the heck it is I'm /doing/ glued to my computer, where no bells and whistles, spaceships and weapon inventories, or even battles and bosses dance across the screen in accelerated color, my answer is usually to smile, and say, "A cross between improvisational theater and creative writing in the first person." This generally garners a quizzical look, at least, and if the querent is still interested, I'll continue. Roleplaying in the setting of the World of Darkness entails, first, redefining your sense of what is normal, and how the world operates. For mortals, you walk the thin line between ignorance and the primal knowledge that everything is just /wrong/, in some undefinable way. For supers, be they be vampires or shifters, or, god forbid, something worse, it means living in a world where reality has shifted, the rules have changed, and continued existence depends on ruthless and uncompromising attention to survival and power. The first step to roleplay is to adapt the mindset; the second, to develop a character. The heart of roleplay, to me, is knowing your character. In various forms of rpg's, you form the basic 'stats,' or list of defined abilities and attributes of the 'person' you will inhabit, in different ways. Some games require the stats to be rolled, producing randomized levels of ability. Others, such as the system used on Dark Gift, allow you to create a character and define these attributes in accordance with your character's background. This can be as simple or complex as the player sees fit to describe, but the deeper and more fully a character's background is developed, the more real the PC will be to others, even without knowing those specifics. Fleshing out a character with background gives you insight into how he or she will react to different situations that arise in the course of interacting with other players' characters. Some of the best rp ever occurs when a player has so fully come to understand his or her PC that it seems to almost take on a life of its own... I know some of my longer-lived characters sometimes 'surprise' me... my fingers have typed out a response or action before I even knew, consciously, what I wanted to make her do. There are lots of things I could get into here, specifically about interractions between mortals and supers, the killing of PC's, and even lesser issues such as 'tinysex' and IC harrassment. However, those being controversial and having many differing views, I choose just to give this little commentary on how 'getting into character' makes this game so fun. One thing I have noticed, though, especially on an online RPG such as this MUSH: It's a great revealer of persons. You can be good at an RPG such as Diablo, and not have much in the way of creativity, quick-mindedness, literacy, or wit. There's no way, however, to disguise a lack of writing ability, or the skill of expression, or even your failure to pay attention in class when grammar and spelling were hammered into your heads! There are players on DG that might be terrific rp'ers in a tabletop game, but just make you want to groan, while engaging in the rather demanding form of purely text-based expression here on the MUSH. Most of the time, those of us who can type over 40 wpm and managed to score over 500 on their verbals are patient, especially with new players, but you have a definite advantage if you don't have to struggle with the technicalities of the English language in order to make yourself understood. I'm sure there are many more things I could say; and many more viewpoints that could be offered as well. If anyone would like to submit their own essay (mind what I said about grammar here!:) feel free to email them to me at [email protected] or [email protected] and I'll consider posting them as well. All in all.. the play's the thing! Get out there and see what happens! Written by Sunshine Simmons � 2001 �World of Darkness� is copyrighted by White Wolf Game Studios. The views and expressions of the author are no in way associated With the writers and creators of Vampire or Werewolf and are not a challenge to their Copyrights. Merely it is a personal expression and interpretation of said works |