The role-players are easy to find.
We're the ones screaming about how nothing in the game works or makes sense 
A good way to find RPers is either the GG meetings on Union, or to periodicly scan through the team search menu seeing if anyone has RP or something similar in their search text..
DG>
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3. What's the basic or not so basic difference in gameplay?
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To me, the major difference is you don't get a Gamemaster to validate or not character stories, concepts, consequences of action, storylines etc...
Indeed, the hidden gamemaster is the roleplaying crowd, and it's not always easy to deal with that GM.
Like you would probably choose your gamemaster in tabletop games, you have to choose your roleplaying crowd.
And like you have to play by your tabletop gamemaster rules, you will have to play by that roleplaying crowd rules.
a simple thing like the tolerance to out of character chat is sometimes handled vastly differently from one community to the others.
Well... It depends what kind of roleplay you are looking for, By far the best known RP is what happens at the GG statue nightly from 9pm on the Union server, but this isn't everyone's cup of tea as it's generally the more social time, where heroes get together in their off-time.
There is other RP as well, mainly in SG's, but I can't tell you where to look.
Let's look at your questions then:
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1. Are there known roleplaying players?
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Yes, some have, alas, now moved on, or going to, but the most well known are:
Zortel
Aisla
Ravenswing
Wonka
Hikari-Hime
Doctor Temporis
_Max_
Ringmaster
ShadowGhost
CatKeeper
Oh, and me 
We are some of the older GGers. Of course, there are plenty of newer ones also:
Inago
Red Commissar
Red Saint
Faery Fire
The list goes on...
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2. If that's a yes, how do I join the crowd?
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Turn up at GG from 9pm any night, join the GGOOC global chat channel. Watch and listen for a bit, then introduce yourself to a likely looking candidate. Inago will talk to anyone... 
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3. What's the basic or not so basic difference in gameplay?
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For the GG meets, gameplay doesn't come in to it as we rarely will RP game based missions. Instead we run our own plots, with PC villains and suchlike. Generally, we find the game missions either too unwieldy, or too contradictory, for satisfactory roleplay, but YMMV.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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2. If that's a yes, how do I join the crowd?
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Personally I tend to find Red Commissar acting as the unofficial welcoming commitee. This might be a little confusing for some of the newer heroes due to his thick Russian accent, but highly entertaining regardless.
Huh? What? Someone mentioned my name? What? Roleplay?
Oh, yes. *Waves* Welcome.
As stated, there is GG, but, don't forget, there is such a thing as random rp missions/teams, and other, less obvious places. The thing with a place as GG, you must understand, though, is such a well-known place, that it also attracts a lot of people new to roleplay, and if you are not interested in that, then looking for a different venue might be prefered.
Still so tempting, but with the lack of a Union character I really 'feel' or want to raise, and the abject lack of fine roleplaying talent, its still a long way off
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After reading a few posts in this section I get the impression that there's a marked difference between people who play the game and people who roleplay the game. I'm an old pen and paper rpger(D&D, Champions, Traveller, Runequest etc)so I know what roleplaying is, my questions are as follows:
1. Are there known roleplaying players?
2. If that's a yes, how do I join the crowd?
3. What's the basic or not so basic difference in gameplay?
I love the idea of playing the game in role(my characters would mean a lot more to me) but have seen only limited opportunities so far,
Thanks
Doc
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Sometimes, a RP situation will sneak up on you, and catch you toally unawares - just be prepared to go with the flow
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
What I dont understand is the sitdown near galaxy girl and chat bit, that could be done on msn, however in mission roleplay is probably alot better, you go in, you have a job to do, oh wait thats normal gaming!
What would be nice imo is the combination of the two. You dont talk about real life, there is no xp, anyone that gets hurt enough to be laid out cold is upsetting and you adapt with eachother, come up with plans and all that because you all would rather get in and get out with the job done with no casualties.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
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What I dont understand is the sitdown near galaxy girl and chat bit
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Even Heroes have downtime
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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What I dont understand is the sitdown near galaxy girl and chat bit
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Even Heroes have downtime
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C'ept for /Regens ofc
@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
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What I dont understand is the sitdown near galaxy girl and chat bit
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Even Heroes have downtime
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C'ept for /Regens ofc
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I'm a Regen and I still like to chill
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
The problem with roleplaying in missions, is that it's NOT very easy... You will find that several times in the mission you'll just have no choice but to drop OOC because of various circumstances the game engine will throw at you, not to mention that the game story will likely conflict with your RPing.
This is why we tend to run our own plots, and use NPC's and on occaision, the arena.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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not to mention that the game story will likely conflict with your RPing.
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You can also ignore mission briefings and tailor a story of yours.
I'm a bit puzzled as to how this works in gameplay. Can you actually configure the mechanics of the game as a modder would to create a custom mission?
If not, would you for example just put a different story to the Frostie mission and call him something else etc?
Doc
actually, as a homebrew solution to the whole frostfire thing, i usually refer to him as 'a' frostfire rather then 'the' frostfire.
After all, not every 'block' is actually called that, right? makes sense that there might be more then one frostfire out there... rare, but...
also, i dont see my name on that list, ffm...
Is reb going to have to... Smash?
There's a clear distinction between RP'ing the game i.e. doing door missions etc in character and milling about under GG having a chat with your mates.
The only player I've met who actually grouped and did missions in character was Red Commissar and very good at it he was too.
Personally, I'm glad of that distinction. I play the game in missions, sometimes RPed, throughout the day, so a clean break from that in the evenings is welcome.
And of course, if I do desire RP-ed missions in the evnings, there's always the non-GG groups to turn to.
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I'm a bit puzzled as to how this works in gameplay. Can you actually configure the mechanics of the game as a modder would to create a custom mission?
If not, would you for example just put a different story to the Frostie mission and call him something else etc?
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You can't generate a mission at will, deciding the opponents etc...
Even if, it can be somewhat achieved using the journal missions in CoV (you get a slection of generic missions you can pick from).
If the journal mission generator is ported into CoH, you could use it to get maybe more genre oriented mission to support a story, a plot.
You won't have a total control over what is in the mission but it may be a workaround.
Yet, it's still a CoV only feature currently, maybe forever. So there is nothing to discuss about that and CoH.
I believe the main issue with roleplaying in missions is it slows the pace, sometimes a lot. Not everyone agrees on that.
And you don't always get a lot of things to do or say during missions (save bashing). There are not so many ways to say "Are you ok ?" or "Blasted <opponents> !".
It can be easier, however, during some specific, special, missions, because they go out of the normal frame.
I'm glad to see that there are other roleplayers out there. I know this sounds daft but I've been playing the game more or less in character for around eight months and have only just found out that there are other roleplayers out there. Guess I should have checked out these forums sooner rather than later.
I shall make it a personal mission for one of my characters to rock up to GG one evening and say hello. Roleplaying just adds so much more to the game imho.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
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I love the idea of playing the game in role
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Sounds like you want a roleplaying group of gamers, rather than a group of roleplayers?
The best thing to do in this case is find a supergroup that plays the game in-character. I dont know any, still looking.
I mean, my cousin and I used to roleplay two blasters, we'd do an in-depth pre-mission session that'd be linked in with whatever we're about to do. Heres an example scenario..
----------------
Meanwhile, back at Alpha Base, Lt. Joshua Reeves is sound asleep. Enter Cpt. Davorus Hunter.
D: Wakie wakie, rise and shine Joshua.
J: Yes sir.
D: You still thinking about leaving the squad?
J: Yes sir, I miss the army life. The freaks of this city scare me.
D: We are stranded Joshua, the best plan is to stay together, you know that!
J: Is it true you made a deal with Marcus Cole?
D: The man's name is Statesman. What is it with you? You got a problem with capes?
J: Spandex Davorus, spandex. I'm afraid one day you'll walk in tailored in brightly coloured tights, acting like a mutant.
D: Whatever man. I'm the commander of this team, not you. And for your information, Statesman has promised to shuttle the squad back to the US.
J: So what are we waiting for?
D: I promised him we'd help his city out, use our extensive devices, advanced weaponry and military tactics to uphold the law here.. for 50 days.
J: Davorus, we are not cops.
D: First mission briefing Jay, we are to patrol. Atlas Park, largely populated. Criminals groups: Hellions and Clockwork. Get the boys, we move out in ten.
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Then we enter the mission and blow everything up while chatting in-character. Awesome fun.
I made an effort to roleplay last night. All I did was suggest that we get to the next mission quick before the Clockwork had time to complete their plans. I was told this wasn't a timed mission. I then replied that I was trying to rp. This was greeted with: Union's that way!
Maybe I should have just stayed in character and ignored the criticism, I don't know. To be honest I felt a bit of an idiot. I haven't given up on the idea but rp players seem to be in the minority. All things considered, it's pretty strange that anyone who really likes the superhero thing and playing a character isn't prepared to give rp a go.
Doc
Such is a tiny example of what we RPers have to put up with, even on Union...
Yet, we keep doing it, we just have REALLY big ignore lists!
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Our supergroup The Silent Tempest is very new, just two weeks old, and it's quite small too. We tend to treat as much of the game IC as possible and look past some bits that don't fit.
We do, as a principle, all our missions IC. There's some briefing and banter before, some tactical advice during it... If someone has to afk or just catch a rest we can shoot the breeze. And of course afterwards we can go over the mission debriefing before hitting the next. A few emotes or battlecries in the thick middle of being scrapped by a bunch of purple conning bosses adds to the feeling too.
We treat our channels IC. /tells are text messages or phone calls. This is yet to be agreed on but /sg and /team could be some sort of wireless mic/speaker system allowing for multicasting between the members.
I come from SWG where I just have to walk blindfolded or feel my brain exploding. Scores of Jedi having a [censored] contest in cantina while NPC troopers hang around, having cloning as a method of revival after a mob whacks your hiney, and so on. Now here's a world that so far seems to *work* - piles of kudos to devs on that.
The small things we do goes a long way in keeping the world an immersive place. When we log on we can greet people IC, having returned from a mission or just waking up after a nap. Then we can ask around what people are doing, is anyone needing help with stuff and so on. On a mission we mostly blast because that's efficient but every situation holds a seed of an IC important aspect. Someone says "Die already!" to which someone can exclaim "We do NOT kill!". After the mission, or at GG, we can discuss WHY we don't go for the kill. The tension can be built during a mission.
Might be we're a minority but we try to make even things like mission exit buttons IC. We have a small teleportation device that is planted by the front door. After the mission is done we can activate small mission specific teleportation devices that take us out of the place to the door. No need to hike back, as moving and talking is hard to do at the same time in a group, and no immersion breaks occur as people just vanish into thin air. We have teleportation as a power IG anyway, why not create an application and explain a game mechanic thing with it?
I realize our style fits only some and will, in the end, require some blindfolds as to why something isn't working in a heavy plot-centric situation.
If this sort of gameplay and roleplaying is of interest it might be an idea to look up The Silent Tempest on Union. Right now, at this moment, we probably will not take new members into the supergroup, but nice folks to run IC missions with are always good to have around, and maybe in a week or two we will broaden our ranks again. The reason for growing slow is to keep up the "family feeling" and we recently took two new members, growing by 50%. When the time comes the people who have made a good IC and OOC impression will be seriously considered.
I will not without asking appoint anyone else for a contact so for now I'll just name myself. I'll edit the list if/when other people volunteer their names as public contacts. I'm Coile, globally @Coile. Holler if you feel like it. Coile is the other co-leader of Tempest, and probably registered as such somewhere, so you can make the contact IC.
The Silent Tempest drifts on you unawares, and then...
You will be - THUNDERSTRUCK!
Floating
thanks for sharing the suffering, it makes me feel better. By the way, is Union more RP than Defiant?
Coile
I think your team and it's approach sounds excellent. I especially think the slow growth idea is important, as is limiting the numbers. Your efforts can only improve the game in my opinion.
I would love the opportunity to play alongside your team but my two main characters are on Defiant and I'd have to start again(not that either is past lev 10). I have no problem with that and if Union is more of an rp experience I'm sure I will.
In the meantime, the very best of luck! It's good to know there are like minds out there.
Doc
After reading a few posts in this section I get the impression that there's a marked difference between people who play the game and people who roleplay the game. I'm an old pen and paper rpger(D&D, Champions, Traveller, Runequest etc)so I know what roleplaying is, my questions are as follows:
1. Are there known roleplaying players?
2. If that's a yes, how do I join the crowd?
3. What's the basic or not so basic difference in gameplay?
I love the idea of playing the game in role(my characters would mean a lot more to me) but have seen only limited opportunities so far,
Thanks
Doc