Hi, and thank you for a wonderful guide to RP on Virtue. First, if anyone can tell me how to type in Italics in the chat window, bless you! -- Second, and far more important to me right now... I'm new to Virtue, and last night encounted a huge and vitriolic discussion in Atlas Park between "RL'ers" ("Real-Lifers", non RP'ers) and RP'ers about whether RP'ing was ruining the game for everyone else. Emotions ran high, and the people involved in the discussion clearly felt it was an extremely divisive issue... which I found baffling, as I'd thought that anyone who designed a costume and made up a superhero name to play CoH or CoV were (a) all role-players of one sort or another, and (b) that there was room enough for everyone here on the Server. I understand that some people are sometimes a little less socially adept than others, but the idea that other gamers here in CoH felt RP'ers were arrogant or weird or 'living in a fantasy world' was new to me. After all, isn't CoH itself a huge fantasy world, which would mean that all of us are... well, you see what I mean, lol? I admittedly felt I had just created a new Hero here in search of good RP, and then walked into the final battle of "Camelot", sigh... Is there really so much animosity between non RP'ers and RP'ers on Virtue, or did I just encounter an isolated incident?
Its Atlas Park 
spend any amount of time under the statue and your mind will melt .
Welcome to Virtue , A good place to find RP is in Pocket D its also a good idea to start a thread stating your intent to look for an RP super group 
And to type in italics, use the /emote command.
All you do is, type /e (what ever you want here).
Most people seem to use to diplay that their character is doing something that the game would display... for example, if Fixer wanted to let people know that yawned widely, having just gotten out of bed, he might use something like,
/e yawns widely. He looks like he just woke up.
And it would come out,
Fixer yawns widely. He looks like he just woke up.
Welcome to Virtue, by the way... Don't worry to much about people bickering, there are better ways to spend your time. Have fun!
Here you come with a stupid name like Fixer - brutalkillz_
*LOL* sorry... but i just HAD to respond to your picture... maxx!!! my hero of allllll time... i love maxx with all my heart... there is NO other for me... (sigh) LOL.. sorry i got excited... but heck... it is rare when i see another maxx fan... *smiles* rock on! love the picture..
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*LOL* sorry... but i just HAD to respond to your picture... maxx!!! my hero of allllll time... i love maxx with all my heart... there is NO other for me... (sigh) LOL.. sorry i got excited... but heck... it is rare when i see another maxx fan... *smiles* rock on! love the picture..
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Yes indeedy... I want to be the Maxx when I grow up. Well. Kinda.
And there seem to be more then a few fans of Sam Kieth's work lurking around Virtue...*coughsangryangelcoughs*
Here you come with a stupid name like Fixer - brutalkillz_
*smiles* hehe... my most treasured things in life are my number one issues of maxx and my glow in the dark issue.. you ll never part me from them...
the second hero i have .. is bill the cat... *laughs* yes.. i m a weirdo never went for the good looking guys,... hehe..
i m behind way too many characters to name... LOL
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During Chris Claremont's run on X-Men/Excaliber, it sort of became a tradition that whenever a character was introduced to the team, there would be a cover that said something to that effect on it.
The one I always remember is when Kitty Pride first joined Excaliber.
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ahhh i loved those comics... you made me look through them today for the first time i ve touched them in years ,,,,LOL i was into the clasic xmen... bought any of the old ones i could bet my hands on... and excaliber i was into too... i loved jean grey's daughter phoenix more than i liked jean grey in xen herself... i hated cyclops... ugh... i always wanted jean with wolfy... but oh well... never saw what she saw in cyclops ..*shutter* rouge, shadow cat, phoenix, megan, gambit, wolverine ...i actually like sabertooth... LOL... were all my heros... loved em... read everything i could get on those guys.. was into a lil of whatever caught my eye... was into wildcats too,,, anyone remember them? lol... my one lil box of comics (didnt collect for long... got more into the action figures...) is a hodge bodge of odds and ends... batman, ghostrider, superman, catwoman, wolverine spinn off series, like the rouge series..just for the collecting of it...
This isn't a specific reply, more of a question that I have been wondering over, something that I can't help but want to ask.
Does anyone else find that a lot of people they meet that claim to be "roleplaying" seem more like they are looking for an audience, or for you to be all impressed or something, rather than just talking and acting as if they were a real person (as defined by their background/concept)?
I seem to run into these bozos everytime I go looking for RP. People that want you to stand/sit around and listen to them talk, or who seem to get angry when you don't "pick up the bait" and ask them all about their characters (even if doing so is out of character for YOUR character), or people who get mad when you can't ignore that they chose a name that a real hero would find strange or downright embarrassing/humiliating (and I'm not saying I pick on them or make fun of them, but you call your self something ridiculously stupid, you can't blame me for asking you about it).
I just wonder about this, as I seem to find a lot more of this behaviour here in CoH/V than I did in EQ2. Granted EQ2 lends itself more directly to serious, realistic RP, or at least, I saw it there a whole lot more than I have here.
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I just wonder about this, as I seem to find a lot more of this behaviour here in CoH/V than I did in EQ2. Granted EQ2 lends itself more directly to serious, realistic RP, or at least, I saw it there a whole lot more than I have here.
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As a returning newb coming over from EQ2, I can say I agree a bit, and it's tough to find my bearings.
A lot of it is the normal RP kinda [censored] -- the community has been around a while, and CoH makes it even easier to identify when your friends are on alts with the global account, so you get a fair amount of cliqueishness. There's also the usual kinds of conventions to get used to: what is Team chat, how does everyone know where your missions are, etc. Plus there's the longtime crowd having been through every mission three times that just doesn't get a thrill out of lowbie adventure anymore ("Holy crap, what's that giant zombie thing attacking us?" "*yawn* been killing him for three years now." ).
Apart from that, CoH has a very low threshhold for RP, since it's in modern times. You can come up with a character that's literally you sitting at the computer controlling your in-game hero by remote (holy mother of meta, batman). A character bio and theme is almost expected from a superhero genre. So it's less of an "elitist" enterprise.
Additionally, the action is so frenetic and everything is fast-paced enough that people don't want to really stand around chatting a lot of times. I notice a lot of people sneaking in their entire life story while waiting at a mission door and then basically one-liners the rest of the time. Which is fine, actually, as I barely have enough time to type up something coherent, I almost need to apologize to the teams I'm on for the lack of RP because I'm so engaged in the mechanics hehe.
One final thing that makes it tough for me in particular is Pocket D being the hangout spot. Don't get me wrong, it's cool as hell, but I can't imagine most of my characters going there more than once in a blue moon.
To be fair, I ran into enough annoying RP in EQ2 that it helped to motivate my switch over. There was a lot more "serious" RP, true, but a lot of that "more" part came from the relationship-hopping cyber crew that I could do without. I guess there might be a similar thread in CoH, but it'd seem sorta ludicrous with the engine.
The only thing missing in your guide is the fact roleplayers don't tend to talk to people who speak in txt and smilies and end every sentence with lol or rofl (infact that just makes most cringe).
Otherwise quite a good guide its a shame we don't have an official rp server but heck Virtue is the next best thing to it and was the reason why I actually switched from the European Servers *laughs*.
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The only thing missing in your guide is the fact roleplayers don't tend to talk to people who speak in txt and smilies and end every sentence with lol or rofl (infact that just makes most cringe).
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Only if they choose to be uptight about it. Honestly, if I roll up to someone and say "Hi! " and this puts them off because I used a smiley... well, I suppose if they ignore me for that I'd consider it a favor. That's a person I don't need to become acquainted with.
Maybe this belongs in a "Roleplayer's Guide to 'Idiots'" The advice being: Yes, you can choose to shun someone who doesn't take the time to tap out '/e greets you with a smile and a hearty hello'"... but why?
You may look down your nose at someone who types "How r u?" but you're a liar if you don't admit that you understood them perfectly well to say "How are you?" which, in most circles, is known as a "successful communication". It's no harder to read (and in some cases a lot easier) than someone affecting an accent while typing, yet the latter is often applauded by the roleplayers.
Go figure.
Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer
Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!
Not sure if this is the right venue, but I'll post here anyway. By way of background, I have played PnP RPG (yes including V&V), so RPing intrigues me, but just havent gotten into it yet.
So a noob question about RPing in COH:
1. Do you spend a lot of time just typing text? I would like a balance. Not just running from mish to mish to gain xp, but acting in character through those mish, during downtimes and 'hanging out'. I would like some impact on the story of my toon e.g. my tech blaster (robot) 'unknowingly' had a connection with Citadel. After completing that TF, and defeating Vandal, that 'secret' was revealed (before he was hauled to the Zig).
OTOH, I dont want to just hang out at a zone and just chat. Some chatting is ok (and necessary to set the context for the mish). Just not for hours on end. I would rather do that in person (the pnp rpging).
2. How do you integrate storyarcs into the RP xp? Do you say (in character), "My contact has tipped me off on a lead. I need to get to a warehouse, etc." If so, how do you integrate other ppl's mish?
The closest I've come to my ideal is when my bro and I duo'd most of the time. We stayed in character, and controlled the mish we selected, as part of a growing 'storyline'.
I'm a newb here too, but:
1. Main problem I've found so far is the action is a bit fast-paced and the downtime a little... non-existent... to really RP during missions unless you have a team that's going to wait up for the RP. You can use macros to emote out stuff during battle, but that takes a lot of planning. It has the potential to be a lot of fun, but I think you gotta mostly be with people you know beforehand that like that sorta playstyle. It helps a lot if you're not running missions on crazy extreme +20 difficulty all the time so you have breathing room and the ability to bowl over minions like, say, a superhero would.
I see a lot of posts talking about "running missions" and "participating in RP plots" as if they're two different things, optimally they happen simultaneously. Best RP I've had in other games centered around actually playing the game; sitting around and shooting the bull can be fun, but it's much more interesting when you find out someone's character through them actually reacting to something in the game environment.
2. Story arcs and missions are tough -- it is superheroes, but how many times is Dr. Vahz going to go down before the RP begins to stretch the fabric of even comic book believability? My guy has certain feelings towards different villain groups that change as he finds out more about them and he picks missions based on that, but even then... it's not terribly often that I get a decent RP group, and in a group setting I can't really control what missions we do without being overbearing in OOC or simply quitting.
Thanks for the response. It seems like the way to go is a SG or such. Like I mentioned, i did have a good xp RPing with my bro (to a degree). We even shaped our story so we wouldnt take duplicating mish, avoiding the "Dr. Vahz again?" conundrum.
well last night was my first night rp'n. and after readin this guide for a couple of days beforehand i had alot of fun and was able to jump right in! Thanks for puttin this together. But i am havin trouble decidin on a good SG to join, my toon Poke Poke Stab Stab is a young boy who lost his parents to CoT, he dreams of being a knight; well i cant deside if i should join a knight themed sg or a kids/school sg. Hard to decide cause i err he... wants to become a knight and hangin out with knights might be FUN for him, but would he be considered a knight alrdy if he was in a knight's sg? And a kids sg seems like a good alt. And i have looked thru the SG listing but am unsure which one would be "worth" joinin.. i was thinkin that i could RP goin to kid's sg then one day my toon is invited to be a kngiht... but i dont know if that would be a good RP story or work with ours being i would leave the SG... any ideas? sorry if thats a ramble but i am confused too lol
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You may look down your nose at someone who types "How r u?" but you're a liar if you don't admit that you understood them perfectly well to say "How are you?" which, in most circles, is known as a "successful communication". It's no harder to read (and in some cases a lot easier) than someone affecting an accent while typing, yet the latter is often applauded by the roleplayers.
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I definitely shun people who type like that, because I do find it hard to read. It's no good for me (or for the team) if I have to take a few seconds to figure out what the crap they're trying to say. I've got not problems with abbreviations when called for (like you're getting beat-down and you'd really like a heal 
), but I'm not going to waste my time with someone who isn't even trying to communicate clearly.
That said, I think emotes can be useful to give inflection to what's being said. I certainly don't have problems with smileys and the like (well, except those weird asian ones, which I can't decipher, like: ^_~ or whatever).
At the same time, I don't think CoX lends itself to the "stand around all day RPing", due to its focus on action. There's more leeway for errors in gameplay than in some other games, and someone like a Tanker can almost monologue while getting attacked. I've grown to like the light/moderate RP, more of the "RP during missions" mixed with bios & stories for your characters. If done correctly, I think it's the pinnacle of gaming, and really takes things to a new level of fun.
Not sure if this has been covered, but I'd likt to add a word of advice about RPing missions:
One of things that seperates MMO's from table top RPG's is that no matter how good the dev's get at making a dynamic experience, there's always going to be similar quests. If you are askeed by someone to help with a mission, go into it from a RP standpoint of you've never done it before. Even if you've done it a hundred times. If you're roleplaying the Vahzilock plague, it just spoils it for everyone if every misison you're going "this same thing happened to me once" or "man, how many times is this guy going to try this same plot? I've stopped him half a dozen times now!"
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If you are askeed by someone to help with a mission, go into it from a RP standpoint of you've never done it before. Even if you've done it a hundred times. If you're roleplaying the Vahzilock plague, it just spoils it for everyone if every misison you're going "this same thing happened to me once" or "man, how many times is this guy going to try this same plot? I've stopped him half a dozen times now!"
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I disagree. I think it can actually add to the potential RP, especially as the "wise, sage" high-level character (or re-rolled character) can then pass along his knowledge of the mission IC instead of having to drop OOC to say "hey, the best way to beat this guy is..."
And personally, I think the revolving door in the Zig is a great running gag, especially since the first thing a new CoV villain does is break out.
If you'd like the people you're teamed with to RP as if this is the first time ever something has happened for the sake of your character's RP, by all means, take a moment OOC and ask them to do so ["Guys, I built this character to have the Clockwork King as his arch-nemesis. Can we play this like you've never seen him before?"], but don't expect others to discount their own experiences in favor of yours.
I'm sure this will be an easy question to answer for you experts!
I have a character (Uncharted Territory) who does not speak--alien, hasn't learned verbal communication yet, etc. I'm planning that she will learn a couple of words as she "grows up," but now her responses are limited to nonverbals.
While it's nice to team quietly (I tend to yack a lot!), I'm looking for a little more communication beyond "/e nods" and "/e waves to new team member."
You've probably covered this elsewhere in this guide but I'm asking anyway.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
Anything you type after /em or ; will be turned into an emote. You can actually get a lot of milage out of just body language, of you put some thought into it.
example:
/em hops up to pull on Lord Paladin's cape.
or
;hops up to pull on Lord Paladin's cape.
You will get
Uncharted Territory hops up to pull on Lord Paladin's cape.
((apologies to Lord Paladin. =) ))
Even when we CAN communicate verbally, we usually do a great deal of non-verbal stuff in real life. Start paying attention to your and other's actions when interacting with others and use those as inspiration. When i am in game and my character is listening to someone else's long story or explanation, she often ;nods or indicates that she is still tuned in to the story, or she will look at someone for their reaction to what they are learning, or have some other reaction to what she is hearing.
Shae Firewarder
Thanks! I'm familiar with the emote stuff (I use /e usually for that), but wondering how to go a little deeper. I like the reaction to what is said...I can work with that.
Great advice!
RP FTW
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RP FTW
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Dude. Wednesday is the trollday for Virtue. Get back to the PvP forums you!
Go on. Shoo!
Many apologies my freaking darlings, I must go educate a fellow in the Trollday rules.
Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!
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RP FTW
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Dude. Wednesday is the trollday for Virtue. Get back to the PvP forums you!
Go on. Shoo!
Many apologies my freaking darlings, I must go educate a fellow in the Trollday rules.
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Aww, sorry 
. Ill go back to the pvp section my master 
</quote>I was rather hoping that I could bring her to Virtue and get a little more accepting reception, but I don't know how to go about introducing her. Should I just show up under Atlas, and start talking in character? Should I post an introduction or an origin on the forum (and if so, where? In Roleplaying? In the Virtue forum? What should I title it?)?</quote>
personally i havent seen many outside of virtue doing any real roleplay... and on virtue... you it seems like when you read peoples info you will see [roleplayer] in their info. also there is alot of the roleplay in the pocket D. that is where i go when i m tired of just xping and want to try to see if i can rp... i m not the best of rpers myself... but i m trying to learn.. that is the best advice as a newbie i can give you. and like the other person said... there are rp sg out there too... if your interested in the rp... i would say.. that virtue so far is the biggest into it i have seen. and would be the place to START.. maybe the other servers will get more into it.. or maybe they do... i m on all the servers... so i dont know many as well as i do guardian and virtue because of skipping around so much. and i never saw any rp on guardian...i m @drake2207 if your ever interested in a friendly face feel free to add me.. and good luck