GreySteel

I would help out if the time was right. It is going to be really tough getting enough people for an IC raid though.

I could join the Katie Hannon TF on the Monday if there is room. It would be with Mystic Savant level 33 illusion/storm controller.

I'd definitely be interested. I rarely do TFs any more because of the way people race through them as fast as possible and I miss all the story. IC missions or TFs would be welcome.

I thought it went ok for a first meet. A lot of people didn't seem sure of what to say or do but I think partly that was just because it was a new situation, and people were meeting outside of usual groups. It actually fit the atmosphere of a meeting of villains, who are likely less inclined to trust.

I agree it was too centralised, one character had to do most of the work but if there are more meetings I think as people get more comfortable with the situation that would change.

I actually think having it as a meeting place for jobs and acquiring things people want might still be a good idea, it is a way in for characters who are strangers to one another. A new character has a reason to show up and meet other villains that way.

I also think we should be open to using it as a place for people to request help with missions, perhaps someone could pick up a mayhem mission for example and arrange a bank job. Those are good ways for characters to work together and begin to trust. It could be a useful tool and enforce the reason to keep the meetings going. (The mission itself wouldn't have to take place on the same day but a date could be arranged) Or alternatively a job could be set up and played out on the forum which would have a similar effect but take longer. In time as characters get to know one another the chat will be easier but I do think it helps with villains for them to have a purpose.

I didn't mind Arachnos being there made my character wary but if Arachnos characters want to turn up we should try to accommodate it. Again the work thing is a good way in for them, Arachnos hires outside people for some jobs, maybe they might want to do the same, or are there to ask where something they are looking for can be found.

Does anyone think a sort of rumours, heresay thread would be a good idea? A thread where people can post what other villains might have heard about their character, any rumours or what their reputation is. Or alternatively where someone could post that no one would have heard anything about their character, that they are entirely secretive and hide their involvement in any job. I just thought it might help people feel more at ease and more certain of how to treat or address other characters.

While obviously I am not an SGleader or anything, I can give you a couple of guidelines learned from running pws and games on NWN and various other Irc based things.

Avoid cliques: Encourage members of your supergroup to mix with other people not in the group, make friends, chat, adventure with them whatever they like this is the best way of finding like-minded people and recruiting them. And when people join help them feel part of the group not a lesser member.

Rules: Don't go overboard. Setting out rules is fine but try to stress common sense and respect for others over, hard line do this or that rules. Instead offer friendly advice where you can, help people don't boss them around. Try to avoid straying into areas where you just sound condescending, or like you are trying to tell experienced rpers how to roleplay. (I know this differs a bit for mmos because of the nature of the player base and lack of admin control.)

Another idea might be to be seen as an active group. Perhaps have the group show up together in populated rp areas and talk of adventures, tell other characters about past adventures to help them get a feel. Perhaps using the war is a good idea, fight alongside others when an air raid comes along.

I think it does help if you can get people interested not just oocly but actually ic. If they are interested there it counts for a lot more.

I am curious as to what people think about the role of a tanker being so strictly defined, so I thought I'd post something to guage reactions.

I'm not sure when they made the game anyone would design the tanker to be that boring that all they do is stand about with the sole purpose of being beaten upon. You have to be allowed to do something other than stand there. Basically I think you should be given some leeway as a tank to fight a bit and have fun. If all everyone expects you to just stand there herding everything then something is wrong.

On a good team people help everyone, they attack the person a tanker is hitting for example not just random bad guys at the edge of the mob,who then might break off. Or they single people out and as a group take them down quickly, pulling people off your tank one by one. Healers heal, everyone does a job as a team. Sometimes I get the impression that tanks get the short end of the stick, everyone expects them to do one job, get hit and keep every mob hitting them but they don't seem to expect other classes to have such tightly defined roles.

The game is not all that hard, everyone can have a bit of leeway and have some fun, and still be successful. It actually annoys me that so many of your skill selections are dictated to you by other people and that if you pick stuff just for fun as a blaster can, then people complain.

The game is about fun too and if someone wants to make a character based off superman, and so make what might be called a scranker it is not going to stop me from grouping with them and still enjoying my game. In fact I might enjoy a game more where it is not run by the numbers and where ever toon is exactly the same in terms of choices.

By referring to filling in the blanks was metagaming, what I mean is the assumption ooc that things are happening ic that aren't... uh if that makes sense.

Ok I am going to throw a few arguments out there in the spirit of good debate. So bear with me I am playing devils advocate.

A good roleplayer finds a way to adapt to a situation. I am sure once the thing arrives people will find a way to adapt. Roleplaying is all about playing the environment and setting and reacting to it, not enforcing your own ideals onto the game and wanting the setting to bend to your will.

People metagame things all the time, they assume things are going on behind the scenes that are not being played out. They assume npcs are doing something not just running the same routes everyday, that the longbow and police don't just stand about but do something, can hear us talking. This situation wont be any different. The supposed pain and suffering of citizens will be present but metagamed to a large degree. Besides people who live in a warzone suffer but they carry on, through all the hardships people continue to live. And lets face it people in Paragon and the Rogue Isles are tough, they get mugged two or three times a day.

Besides I think there might be a lot of assumptions made here. From what I read the Ritki will be confined to a few zones for the most part, held back by the efforts of heroes and the vanguard. The whole city might suffer the occasional attack but wont be under constant threat.

As for the idea the roleplayers get no love. Well surely the story progression is primarily a concern of roleplayers. We don't get to control the story or dictate how it runs but anyone playing an mmo should not expect that. For the most part as a player you have little say over where a story goes in PnP either, except to whine at your DM/GM. I would argue that people who are strongly opposed to this invasion thing are primarily people who want to sit about and chat about what character is dating who, or similar frivolous things, which is fine but it does not encompass all roleplayers, nor should it be suggestest that it does. Some people will look forward to the challenge of a change in story, new events to tackle and see how their character deals with it. They will metagame the smaller things, just as the ones opposed to this would usually metagame the act of their character being a hero.

As for the idea that your character will become a pessimist and give up because they cannot solo, well the idea of a war is that you don't. People will be expected to bond together and fight, regardless of differences or concerns and face a common enemy. This to me seems a positive thing.

Basically I think people should just wait and see. Putting so much weight on a lack of supposed gritty realities of war in a game like CoH is silly. If you want gritty, you are playing the wrong game, that is obvious from five minutes of playing the game, or trying to type any number of words that get squished and turned into a string of symbols. Once the thing starts it wont be as bad as some people think, the rp will go on, you will just have to adapt like a good roleplayer should.

I'm really looking at it as a comic book war. I am hoping it will be a lot of fun and a chance for heroes and villains to share a common goal.

CoH is a comic book world I think a lot of the details can be skipped if people want, people should not force grim realities of war on people if they don't want it. I'm really not sure this setting lends itself to realism all that well anyway, there are other rpgs that do that much better. And well to be honest (thankfully) I don't have the first clue what it would really be like to live in a warzone the real reality is not something that could be recreated in a game, even if we wanted to.

For me personally my characters will treat it as a time to fight I expect, they fight every day to get things done in the face of war they will want to be all the more active I expect, for various reasons depending on the character.

My tank is now lvl21 and I am starting to realise the value of taunt. Bigger mobs, more dangerous guys, you are needed to hold them to you.

My problem is my tank was my first character so I picked all the cool looking stuff. Big hammer punches and the like I wanted my guy to be like Iron Man incredibly durable but flying about smacking stuff.

So since then I have been catching up on defence. Now at the 20+ I have a problem invincibility gives no damage aura so I want to take taunt to help out team mates but I feel I need unyeilding first. So many things that sleep, stun and daze me I need a defence before I can hold a mob.

Getting dazed and all your buffs dropping in the middle of a massacre is no fun at all, so I don't think I can take taunt until level 24.

What do you think, can I survive without unyeilding? Would I be better risking it and just hoping I don't get bashed?

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So just as even villains themselves define villain as a very much personal specific things, so to do heroes. One cannot force a specific way of thinking upon another individual. To blankly say ALL heroes shouldn't go into PD's because it contains villains is a fallacy and a blanket statement.


Obviously your character objects to the idea of milling about with villains on a personal level, that's fair enough but don't suggest that every other hero should act the same.

In that case the ideal place for you would be GG or SG RP as Echo suggested.

But i did see grey steel in PD's the other night :P.

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Lets be absolutely clear I don't think I ever said all heroes or that every other hero even should act in a set way. I said my heroes or archetypal, classic, heroes are going to feel uncomfortable in there and asked what the other options were. I certainly did not think I ever imposed any specific rules as to how someone should play. In fact I tried really hard to avoid suggesting that when writing my posts. I don't want your post to start further argument because people read it and think I have said something I did not, so sorry for jumping on that, just didn't want to be misrepresented and people on forums tend to skip to the end of threads and not read the posts before.

I just wanted to clarify that. I think you are misrepresenting what I said.

Grey Steel has been in PD a few times, he doesn't like the place much though. If I am honest he goes there because I make an ooc compromise and make him go there. I had been to GG and either it was completely empty or I did not feel I could get involved there so after a couple of mins I went. As for a supergroup well my characters would have to form some bonds, find adventure with other like minded types before they can become involved in a supergroup.

If Grey Steel is in PD he will probably be acting differently to his normal self. Mostly quiet, mostly just listening carefully to what is said by whom and how, mostly cautious.

The point is that the hero knows there are villains there. They know some of them are villanous characters but they don't know who so they cannot trust anyone they do not already know and so cannot relax. You are trying to make a point about ic motivations about ooc reasoning, which is an incorrect assumption.

And yes it absolutely cuts both ways, villains certainly don't want to hear heroes talking about how they wiped out arachnos troops or something. (And yes I am aware not all villains are sided with arachnos.)

I would argue that criminals and villains amount to the same thing in the setting of these games. They are just terms used to refer to them. In your mind he is not a villain, which is perfectly fine but in the eyes of heroes he might be. Just as to him heroes might simply be self righteous vigilantes.

Non of this changes the point of my post that a typically heroic character or classic villain is limited by pocket D because of the nature of the place.

I find it a little disheartening the way my post has been received. Don't take this the wrong way but it gives me a slightly ego-centric view and I feel that a lot of people have only seen what is said from their own point of view when my idea was to point out a general issue that might be a factor for the rp community here to consider and one that could be accomodated better. After all we want everyone to be able to have fun, in an mmo roleplayers need to stick together!

I also get the sense perhaps wrongly, I certainly hope so, that because I am new to posting on these boards an assumption is being made that I am ignorant regarding roleplaying issues. I have been playing roleplaying games for some time now and would hope that is not the case. I hope the real point of my posts has come through anyway, perhaps I was not clear enough initially or accidentally touched upon an issue that has been a hot topic here and so got focused on, instead of the real issue. The issue of where do characters go to roleplay.

But the fact is they are villains! Super villains even. The deeds you do to progress in the rogue isles are quite evilly. I think the setting promotes (rightly or wrongly) black and white thinking in this regard.

Anyway I was generalising to make a point, that discussion aside, as it is off topic. The fact is there are some super villains who are evil and who talk about evil or sometimes suggestively sinnister things it seems natural my heroic type characters. (I do have an anti-hero type too.) would find it a little distasteful at times to be in a place where anyone can say anything and there be no recourse. So naturally they would tend to gravitate to like-minded people.

In PD everyone mixes and there is not a bunch of heroes on one side of the room and villains on the other, so it would not be possible for a character to feel totally "safe" and relaxed.

It seems to me people mostly rp in PD because there are more people there, as a result of the fact both heroes and villains can hang out there. It is fine in small bursts but my characters are heroes! They don't like villains and don't want to hear them standing about talking about their sinister history or activities much. So far I have found GG a difficult area to get involved in too. When I pass it is often empty or there are a couple of people involved in some dramatic conversation about personal issues. Talking about hero stuff and great victories would be easier to break into and you do get ignored if chars are having a personal conversation or being all angsty.

Not that I am saying what people should talk about just excusing my not being more forthright and involved in the rp community so far and to perhaps give a newbies view of the situation.

Fairly new to the game though not to rp. Thought I would post here and show my face so to speak so people know me in game.

Global: @Grey Steel

Server: Union

Game: CoH/CoV

Characters:

Grey Steel (Hero)
The Human Hawk (Hero)
Maddox (Hero- noir anti-hero expriment. )
Dark Numen (villain)

Type of rp:

I'll take part in any type. Standing and chatting, or adventuring. Looking to do more rp adventuring though, especially with hero chars Grey Steel and The Human Hawk. Both are the heroic get out there and do some good type and I think playing to the setting your chars are in is important. So this is a long way of saying depends on the situation and character I suppose...

Contact: Forum, in game tells.

Times: I work odd hours so could be any time but most often evenings.

Timezone: GMT