Penn Rants...

        I'm assuming, if you made it this far into my strange little world, that you have actually enjoyed your trip or found my RPG life interesting.  In this space, I hope to devote time the the things that bug me about either role-playing or real life.  I may have given you the impression that very little gets to me, but don't get me wrong, lots of things do bug me.  I just don't tend to let them show very often.  This little spot is my remedy for that.  You can read the rants or you can go back to the main page, either way, I can say I had my say.

        Right now my rants are a rant, but in time there will be more, trust me on this.....  Penn

        You ever noticed (I’m in Andy Rooney mode, skip the whining) that the people who are always telling you to grow up and get a life are those who don’t seem to have one?  For example, (I love examples, especially online ones) when I am online in the Role Playing Game chatrooms, there is inevitably someone who comes into the room in mid-plot and tells us all to grow up and get a life.  Now I’m not saying that we’re all angels (angels are in short supply in RPG) but damnit! we don’t run around telling you all to grow up and stop whining about your love life (or lack of) or come into your rooms and disrupt your cyber-affairs with Hot_Lonely_Married_40.  We have our nice little chatrooms where we practise our craft and we don’t get in your face, so why do you feel compelled to enter our worlds and then presume to tell us what to do?
        In RPG, we live our lives as vampires, human beings of all descriptions, Garou (werewolves to the non-RPer), wolves, elves, shapeshifters of all sorts, and even (heaven forbid) Animorphs.  We get to live out our fantasies, harmlessly tucked away behind the keyboard in our rooms but connected to other like minded souls by a unseen cyber umbilical cord.  If you have a few spare minutes, I’d like to invite you to to come in and just watch an RPG room (you tourist you), you might be surprised by what you see.  You will find that it is a world of untold complexities.  We have our own rules and laws and those who break the laws are punished accordingly.  Our characters live out their lives in a sort of 3/4 time, suspended between reality and fantasy by the emotions of their controllers for the other characters. The humanity behind the characters has made many of us families of choice.  We actually give a damn about each other, worry, rejoice and grieve for one another.  I have been known to tell them things I would never tell my mother.  Our characters on the screen are more than just the faces we present to the world, in some cases - they are us, in the most pure and unadulterated way possible.
        When things go wrong in my real life (RL), it helps to know that I have an escape hatch in the form of my RP activities.  There, in that RPG chat room, is a supportive group of friends who like me for more than just the balance of my bank account, or the way I look, dress, etc...  I can throw myself into the game and forget (for a while) the pressing realities of the real world.  Then, when I am ready, I can talk the problem out with them and return to the daily grind refreshed.  I still work out, go for walks, cuddle with my significant other, and all those other RL perks, but the computer (bless it’s beige heart - why are they beige anyway?) is my therapist and those people scattered around the world my confessors.  They tend to be smarter than most psychologists anyway.
        So, you now know where I stand.  I have a life thanks.  And if you can’t see the point I am trying to make, go back to Hot_Lonely, or better yet go tell that face in your bathroom mirror to get a life - that’s the person who needs the advice most of all.

Penn_Grey_Wolf

The state of role-playing in Ayenee? Easy.
It's awful.
It's horrible.
It sucks.

And no isn't because of the newcomers (newbies to those with a RP education), most of its due to the old time regulars. These so-called good role players sat back and sneer OOCly at any attempt by a new role player to play. They mock, they ridicule, and they harass people to the point where role play isn't any fun for anyone. And worse than that - they seem to delight in killing and only seem into online role-playing to kill another persons characters. If they can't kill something they sit back and whine about how there's no one good to role play with, without seeing most of it is their own damn fault.

It seems to me that sitting back with your clique of friends and complaining there's no one to RP with is counterproductive. So I offer to anyone cares to listen, a few insights gleaned over my nearly three years of role-playing in Ayenee.

1. Role-playing is about storytelling not killing, so sit up, brush off your idle brain cells, and create a good story line. Then start playing it.
2. Take a newbie or two under your wing and teach them about RP. Show them the ropes and encourage them, they might just surprise you.
3. Stay in character in the role-playing rooms. Nothing is quite so antagonizing as trying to role-play around a bunch of out of character jackasses, whether or not they keep it to the thought bubbles. Have some courtesy for fellow players and keep your out of character opinions to yourself.
4. Don't just role play with your friends or clique all the time. Think about it, if your clique of friends is so damn great how come you're all out of character bitching about how there's no one to role play with?
5. Role play isn't about power characters or kill stats, nor is it about sex and mates. Simply put, role-playing is about making a character live and breathe by telling a story, the story of the character's life. There are too damn many people playing chaos characters - c'mon already, be more original.
6. Closely related to the above, if you want an interesting role play, make an interesting character. There are too many cookie cutter vampires, werewolves, dragons, and whatever's roaming around. Do something different - dare to try something new, but make sure you at least have a good background story as to why this character is this way.
7. Interesting characters have complex motivations. Even if you have a new character, have a background story for him/her. Know their childhood, their history, know what he/she had for breakfast if you have to, but know his/her likes and dislikes ... and be consistent!
8. Description, description, description! The more detailed (without going to ridiculous extremes [too much description is almost as bad as not enough!] a three line intro is sufficient thank you) your post, the more likely you are to attract someone's attention.
9. Closely related to description is this next one - scroll. If you make a bunch of short (three or four word posts) in a row, you disrupt the flow of role-playing around you. Take your time and think. I'd rather wait for a good long post than read six or seven bad short ones.
10. Lastly, take into consideration that not everyone plays by the same rules as you do. Your roles are not the only set, so make sure you know what rules the other person is following. Everyone did this, there would be no out of character bitching about it in the middle of fights and far fewer misunderstandings in general.

There is, a few suggestions for keeping it fun from someone who's been around the role-playing block more than once. Not that anyone will read this, the least I had my say.

Until next time, have fun coz that's the reason we are all role-playing in the first place.

Love, Penn.

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