Ripperjack_au

I have to say that the Whitmoore Apartments open thread rocks. The imagination and passion you all have shown to tell a good story, has compelled me to start something similar over at the "Kittens on the prowl" group page.

My kittens character Turbo Kitten, over on Virtue, kicked off the thread and it's becoming a really engrossing read. Want to check it out? Click below:

http://kitties.tg16.net/boards/viewtopic.php?t=293

Please be warned however. This thread is rated:

Australian TV & Film classification: MA(ans)
- Adult Themes
- Sexual References
- Nudity

Done and done.

All my characters on Virtue have [Roleplayer] as the first line of their bio, followed by my characters description on the next and subsequent lines.

So, until Cryptic puts in either an RP dedicated server, or some type of RP flag that's attached to your characters name title, this I find is the best way to identify yourself from the l334 pow3r gam3r fanboyz out there, who do nothing more than XP grind away, day in, day out.

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Furthermore, in respects to your "WHAT IS SAID IN GAME, WHAT IS EXPRESSED IN GAME… STAYS IN GAME!" statement, not everyone treats online rpg's as another reality... I RP myself, and when I do roleplay, i do it as if i'm walking into a real life bar pretending to be someone else. I don't treat it as another world. Just think of it as walking into a place in real life and you'll understand it from another point of view.

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Thanks for you understanding, it's reassuring to hear. However isn't what you propose a little dangerous?

I've been role-playing in both Pen and Paper and computer games for over 20 years now, and I found you HAVE to compartmentalise you're different characters. You have to be careful that things in the fantasy world do not leak into the real one.

It's a pity, but I have seen real life partnerships/friendships break up over something that happened between fictional characters in a fantasy setting.

Sure. I all for having fond feelings and making friendships with other characters in game, but you have to have your boundaries in place and realise that this is indeed another world. I mean, as much as I want it, I, myself cannot fire bolts of energy or fly like a bird.

Bottom line... I just want the freedom and pleasure of role-playing my lady characters to the best of my ability, without hurting other peoples feelings if they misunderstand who I really am.

Well I'm as a hardcore role-player as they come. Over 20 years of PnP role playing games and Game Mastering Champions/Marvel Superheros games for 15 of those years will do that to you.

I like to talk in character ALL the time, so much so that I have even worked out my own terminology. For instance my leading lady on Virtue, Lady Fairlight, who is a magical origin, has her own names for game objects.

Enhancements -> She calls them Rune Disks.
Inspirations -> Magic glyphs, or just Glyphs.
Elevators -> Portal rooms.
The Tram System -> Sky carriages.
Information Terminals -> Scry pillars.
Superhero Trainers like Ms. Liberty -> Wise Ones or The Elders.
Superhero Vendors that sell enhancements -> Merchants.
Vahz -> Undead.
Skulls or Hellions -> Rouges, ruffians, barbarians.

... and my personal favourite thing, which I have to admit I find quite endearing with her, is that if I mention anything from my screen interface ( like mission, contact or map information ) I say that she is looking at her "Scry Stone", with an emote following that she is looking at her "Paragon City Issued Personal Data Assistant".

Finally if someone wants to check her bio, she will call her ID card her "badge", with the emote that she is showing you her ID card.

So far people have been very understanding on my terminology, and I'm surprised that others even know what I'm referring too, without me doing an OOC explanation.

As an escapee from Justice, the unofficial XP grinding and general pubescent noobie server, I can say things on virtue are a tad better, but if only just.

I try to RP at all times, so I do find the occasional RP'er here and there. My only problem is that I hail from Australia, so I play the American graveyard shift. For me it's 7pm to 11pm Australian east cost time, which for the US, say west coast, that's 2am to 5am of the previous day.

As you can see I don't get the chance to see many people online, my only hope is to RP with some locals, which despite growing in numbers day by day, are still few and far between.

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Firstly, people are probably going to yell at you and be generally trolly...

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Heh, heh. Have you seen my signature...

I don't fear the Trolls, I AM the Troll, mister.

Thanks for your support, and I will keep playing my female characters regardless. It's all part of the fun of role-playing. Besides, as I live in Australia, I doubt any American players will fly out here specially, just to meet me.

As a hard core role-player I have really gotten into the swing of CoH, as a role-playing medium. However I have a possible issue, which I feel must be clarified so that other players do not get hurt by misrepresentations of the character they see in game, with the person behind the keyboard.

First off, my main character is female. I have received a number of compliments of how well I role play with this character, of which I appreciate. On person in particular I have been role-playing with for a number of weeks now. We have built an excellent repour, and I enjoy the challenge of role-playing, which this situation presents.

The last few days however, I noticed that some of the dialogue posed to my character is getting a little heavy. I have said nothing sexual, smutty of erotic, and the dialogue returned to me also does not contain the same, it’s all clean. However I can sense a certain emotional undertone, which makes me think that this player might want to take this character interaction into some type of virtual relationship.

Now I have no problem with role-playing my characters reactions to this type of thing, but I have to be careful that anything said in game, STAYS IN GAME.

Also the fact that I am a heterosexual, white male makes be concerned, that if this player found out who is at the keyboard, he might think that I’m some type of weirdo who gets off on fooling men.

I like to play this character for the challenge. I don’t get any sexual/kinky gratification in doing this. What I do get is a sense of satisfaction that I can play a character that is so different to me so well, that I am be complimented on my acting abilities. This sort of thing is not uncommon. The Japanese samurai of ancient Japan, for example, played both male AND female roles in their theatrical productions.

So the bottom line is this. If you want to have a fling with another character, and they agree to do it, then please be all means go ahead and have fun. However AT ALL TIMES remember…

WHAT IS SAID IN GAME, WHAT IS EXPRESSED IN GAME… STAYS IN GAME!

Just because you have fallen for a virtual babe in game, DOES NOT mean there is that same babe on the keyboard, in real life. Please maintain your perspective, and understand that it’s a game.

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Virtue is widly considered the "unofficial roleplaying server," and it's got a considerable amount of roleplayers scattered throughout the population.

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Crap! I’m on Justice, and that can be considered the “unofficial XP grinding” server.

Which is a pity for me as I’m a hardcore roleplayer, and I can’t get my main characters name on Virtue, as it’s already taken.

It’s been a month now, patrolling the streets of Paragon City, and I’m seeing a lot of experience grinding of late. Now I’m not dumping one the XP grinders out there, you paid good money for your client software. If you want to do that, then more power to you. I’m not going to tell you to do otherwise.

However, I want to hear the stories from the TRUE heroes of Paragon city. The players who will give inspirations to the “younger” characters, to help them out, or players who will put their characters life on the line, to step in and assist another hero about to be mashed to a pulp by a overpowered group of skulls.

For example, I was patrolling around Kings Row with my leading character. Being a defender I like to stay at range add attack from the roof tops, where it’s relatively safe. Anyway while I was checking out a potential group of thugs, I spied another hero madly dashing along the road, with a group of outcasts hot on his tail.

Now normally I wouldn’t worry about such a site, since I see hero’s all the time running around the city, but his health bar was but a sliver from defeat, and the group was in hot pursuit. At that point a few thoughts flashed through my head…

“Should I assist?”
“If I help, will this be considered kill stealing?”

Bugger it! This player was in trouble, I’m in a position to help, and even if I got next to no experience for the thugs (who were grey to me) I can’t just sit by. If anything, I can always apologise later, and offer a few inspirations to smooth things over.

With that, I kicked in my hover (I know, I’m working on getting fly ) and headed down to street level. I was lucky enough to get to the pavement and quickly catch up to the hero, by using a few back ally short cuts.

Stepping out behind the building I immediately threw a desperation bubble over the hero then stood between him and the thugs. With seconds to spare I fired an energy torrent to throw the thugs off the chase, giving myself and other hero time to better prepare for the counter attack.

With volleys of Power Bolts, Power Bursts and a few more Energy Torrents the thugs were quickly defeated.

As the dust settled, I asked the hero if he was OK. He said that he was, and that he was heading back to the trainer. With that I bid him good bye and good luck.

I didn’t get much experience, I didn’t get any “loot”, but hey. I felt good that I made prospective new friend and possible ally, and that I was living up to the core sprit of the game.

That of being a hero!

So if you’ve got a heroic player story where either you help or were helped by another player. Please, post it here. I’d be happy to read your exploits and perhapse meet you in game, where we can share the sprit of the game together.

Please note: Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the NPC hero’s of the game, such at Statesman, Backstreet Brawler and the others aren’t heroic, as I don’t see them in game saving players when they are in trouble. I am sure, these characters are very heroic, upholding the lofty ideals of law, order and justice.

Just that for me, actions speak louder than words. So if I see another character selflessly helping out a new player, to me they are the real heroes of the game.

Curveball this guide ROCKS!!!

Where where you, when I needed help with my macros last night?

Good job, I'll keep a hardcopy of your guide with my other game notes for future reference.

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Probably too late to implement this - but we could have all put RP at the end of our character's names. Oh well - the best ideas are always in hindsight.

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Not so. You could always put something in your Bio, so when you right click on a toon ( I guess that's what you call characters around here, eh? ) and read their Bio you can see if they will RP or not. As the Bio is editable AFTER character gen, this is a viable option.

Even though my character doesn't have it explicitly in her Bio, one read of it, and you can tell that I'm always happy to RP dialogue with a player. So if you want a break from bashing Hellions and want to parlay for a while, keep a look out for my character, Jemini, on the Justice server.