Hints, Tips and Tricks for New Roleplayers!

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with things like budwiser, Miller, Rolling Rock etc, that they mostly drink larger,

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Lager is actually beer, it just a different name for the it.However they use the word beer for everything as opposed to saying lager, bitter etc

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with things like budwiser, Miller, Rolling Rock etc, that they mostly drink larger,

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Lager is actually beer, it just a different name for the it.However they use the word beer for everything as opposed to saying lager, bitter etc

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Actually lager isn't just another name for beer. It's an altogether different process that's used to make lager.

The name itself comes from the German "Lagern" or "to store"The name comes from the German lagern ("to store"). Lager yeast is a bottom-fermenting yeast, and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7-12 °C (45-55 °F) (the "fermentation phase"), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 0-4 °C (32-40 °F) (the "lagering phase"). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a "crisper" tasting beer.

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resulting in a "crisper" tasting beer.

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You kinda just contradicted yourself :P

Beer, if you look at the top of the webpage you got that in, includes: Bitters, Ales, Lagers, and a few others :P

The guide is handy, Ultra, but it is very generalised, not covering the huge disparity between states, or between small town USA vs Big City USA.

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UltraNova's Quick Guide to Being American!

1) Americans don't drink "Lager", as a rule. Most would not even know what lager is!

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Its more that America's bars are unfamiiar with bitter really, in the cities. However, America does have a real ale society too, it just is very very minor as sub-culture goes. It is bitter that most Americans will be unaware of.

Also, American beer is typically much weaker than European beers with Budweiser being about half the alcohol content measure for measure compared to strong bitters or stouts.

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2)Chavs do not exist outside of england/europe. We have hoodrats, but they have a different attitude to chavs.

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But Trailer Trash is an Americanism that has been exported. So if your English mind thinks Chav, the chances are your character would be thinking Trailer Trash. Similar concept.

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3) Americans would not use these words and might even find them offensive: Mate, [censored], Cocker, Flower, Pet

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However, the word 'f.a.n.n.y.' is a perfectly acceptable word for one's bottom, and what we used to call 'bum-bags' the Americans refer to as 'f.a.n.n.y.-packs'. Patting your wife or partner's [censored] in public is perfectly acceptable over there.

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4)I doubt any americans would say "lo", "heya!" or "Hiya". Its not something they typically say

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Before the internet put the brits in touch with the US via chat rooms, heya and hiya were virtually unused words here in my experience. I certainly first heard it from American chat rooms, so I'd take this as one of those things that differs by state.

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6)Pubs are not common site for america, nor does it have a pub culture, This one is a tought one to describe, but if you go to pocket d and act like your in a pub, you are breaking character to a degree. Especially if you are younger.

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Pubs in the cities do vary, but are almost always simply called Bars. The word 'pub' would be very unusual unless they were specifically referring to one of the english theme pubs that several cities have.

Boston and SF both have plenty of British style pub-bars, and even more Irish ones. Boston has quite a good bar scene that the English could feel at home in. However, in most places the minimum age is 21.

Additionally, being drunk is taken very seriously in some states, and a bar can lose its license if it regularly allows drunken people to just wander out into the streets. Many bars in some states will refuse to serve anyone looking innebriated, and some may even pressure customers to sober up before they leave.

In small-town USA in many states, the bar is a social center as much as a church is (though often to a different social crowd). Many of these are exactly like a fairly typical pub, with a pool table, smokey atmosphere, and crowd of local regulars.

Therefore an American experience of 'pub culture' will vary massively according to their upbringing and background.

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The guide is handy, Ultra, but it is very generalised, not covering the huge disparity between states, or between small town USA vs Big City USA.

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It is a quick guide and you will notice that I usually say most or almost all. I plan to make a larger guide if people liked this one, or found it slighty helpful

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However, the word 'f.a.n.n.y.' is a perfectly acceptable word for one's bottom, and what we used to call 'bum-bags' the Americans refer to as 'f.a.n.n.y.-packs'. Patting your wife or partner's [censored] in public is perfectly acceptable over there.


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I don't know what you were trying to get at here, other than maybe add to the guide?

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But Trailer Trash is an Americanism that has been exported. So if your English mind thinks Chav, the chances are your character would be thinking Trailer Trash. Similar concept

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Actually, having know both many chavs, and many trailer trash (hey, you go to a small town..)

"Trailer trash" in my honest experiance are nothing like Chavs. 1) Nobody really strives to be a "White Trash" its something you kinda get called.2) A chavs is something that is a "choice", like your choice to be a "mosher" or a "Geek".
It's a "trend" in its self. I have seen middle class children be chavs because its the concept of cool in certian areas, it is also kinda made "popular" by the media.

A hoodrat, would be the closest I can think of being a chav, or a combo white trash/hoodrat.

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It is bitter that most Americans will be unaware of.

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Its really also lager. Most americans would just say beer. Even in a small town. I really doubt they would say lager, unless (th eonly one time I heard it over the pond) they are talking about an imported beer.

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partner's

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This is another I forgot to add, this means your "happy" as GG would call it. A partner, usually or generally refers to the same sex over the pond.

I hope this guide has been helpful and, not insulting :P

To be fair, the whole microbrewery explosion in the states made the marketing a little more informed. A lot of big beer companies in the states are calling their own product Lager, even if the older people are still calling it beer.

But yeah, it sounds like wherever your from is very different from my experience on the East coast. (New York, Florida)

Back on Topic:

My advice to roleplayers: Roleplay around strangers. I've pulled a lot of new players into roleplaying just by making a joke or pitch in-character. People don't know they can roleplay around you if you don't advertise it. And advertising it in-character is so much better than on the forum, because then you actually MEET them in-character...there's no out of character meta-game going on.
-jared
(Billy Horrorshow, Terra Liberation Force)

That's a good general hints/tips post UltraNova. For myself though I tend just to ignore the whole USA thing as to be quite honest it gets in the way.

However, if we try to imagine that Paragon City is real for a moment and that this is somehow the only city that suffers from alien invasions, massive amounts of crime and goodness knows what else then it would be logical to assume that heroes (and villains) from all over the world would flock to the place.

My own character is actually of European origin who came to the US to make more money in his line of "work" so maybe some of the heroes and villains who would prefer to continue to use terms which they are comfortable with (and others understand) should simply sort out their back story to make them a migrant hero/villain?

Just my 2 cents worth.

Heres a hint I have found to be good.

Don't try too much to make the game shape itself to you as a roleplayer. But allow your roleplay to the shape of the world. In other words don't get missions just for the sake of roleplaying you doing something entirely different from the mission objectives, but rather roleplay yourself doing the mission objectives.

One thing that bugs me is people who roleplay without having read the backstory. Sure.. the CoX world is based on our own, but with a lot of differences. The Rikti invasion is probably the one with the biggest impact since they attacked the world's biggest cities and destroyed over one third of the world's armies and killed off a whole bunch of heroes. Our crime syndicates, terrorist organisations and third world dictators are small fry compared to the ones in CoX.

People should keep that in mind when they are playing. It's annoying when my patriotic superheroine get's blamed for supporting the U.S. occupation of Iraq, keeping talibans in Guantanamo and other real world events when all she's doing is defending her homeland against Rikti invaders. This game is about heroes and villains. My two cents.

True. I read the backstory and such years before I actually bought the game but I re-read it all before I started. It is very different even from as early as world war two.

Russia actually managed to Nuke America in the Cold War... Major league stuff... Maybe someone should put together a list of Major Events from CoX History that characters should just KNOW.

*To-do List expanded...*

THere's also an official timeline here of events, with further detail for each section accessed from the dropdown menu.

Nice... The American CoX website seems to have nicer features but a poorer design than ours. Perculiar.

But, I was suggesting, a short list of events that new Role-Players could Skim-Read. Even I haven't read every snippet of the timeline and I doubt I'd remember all of it with so much information to process. This Historical Short-List would just contain the biggest events and biggest differences between our world and the CoX one. Simplified even further and made even clearer than 5 topics per decade as the above link shows.

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It's annoying when my patriotic superheroine get's blamed for supporting the U.S. occupation of Iraq, keeping talibans in Guantanamo and other real world events when all she's doing is defending her homeland against Rikti invaders. This game is about heroes and villains. My two cents.

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As long as it's OK to criticize her for holding patriotic/nationalistic beliefs... =)

After reading this topic, I kinda have the sensation that I will never be able to roleplay an english or american character, being english not my mothertongue...

Hey guys,

I used to roleplay a lot on roleplaying sites, and did some D&D and V:tM a while back... I'm really eager to get into the CoH roleplaying scene... however... I've got a few questions.

What do you actually roleplay here? Cheesy comments while completing missions? Having a dance in the Pocket D club?

I don't quite get what you do as a roleplayer, and how to get started in this superhero universe? Would it be an idea to become a sidekick of a more seasoned CoH roleplayer? If yes, then how do I find someone who wouldn't mind having a "fangirl" tagging along?

While I was rping in other mmo-verses, I found that I would be so obsorbed in RP, I would hardly ever spend time levelling up or senselessly killing bears in the forest. Is it the same here in CoH? Or do people spend most of their time fighting baddies, and only a small portion rping?

Do superheroes also have normal lives? Do they ever take off their costumes and hang out as normal citizen? Is there hero vs villain RP as well? How common is it? Can villains and heroes be friends?

Are there any "storytellers" here? Or is it just everyone for themselves? Are there long-running epic storylines? Intrigue? Politics? Unwritten rules (eg. para-roleplay, or one-liners?)?

Thanks for your help, in advance. ^_^

FN47 Beta, out

All of the above, really!

People RP in missions, people RP in bases, people RP in social situations at Galaxy Girl or Pocket D, or other places. People do their own story lines, and we even have community wide story lines sometimes.

For the most part, a lot of people tend to split RPing and missioning. A lot of RPers will mission OOC, but then head to a social spot later in the evening for some social/immersive RP. That can include just hanging around chatting, or doing your own story lines, or doing anything else you want to do really.

The RP takes place all over the shop... Depends on what you fancy doing really! Some people play in character all the time (which probably freaks out non-RPers), others will RP in missions, there's RP supergroups too... And then there is Pocket D and Galaxy Girl (and there may be other spots, but I don't know) for so-called "public" RP...

For starting up? Um... Weel, it's however you want to do it, if you want to start off as a green fan-girl sidekick, do that!

As for becoming too caught up in the RP to level, I think I can say with authority that does happen... *cough* 2 and a half years to get my main to level 28 *cough*

If you want to have the superhero/secret identity thing, you can certainly do that... Although practically it's kinda hard without either waiting to level 20 or using 2 character slots...

Hero vs Villain RP, I'm not too sure about... The only place where both can be is pretty much Pocket D and that's not really a "versus" environment... Though I suppose you could use the Pocket D Arena for that... RPing in the PvP zones, not recommended.

It's everyone for themselves choosing what they want to do. People do run stories, but because of the diversity of the methods of play, there's no exact overwhelming cohesion.

Certainly my view is that no story should be compulsory (except those that the devs put into the game) and participation should always be voluntary.

Hope some of this helps, and welcome on board.



Oh, and hope you're not allergic to half-alien lesbian catgirls... Seriously, really hope you're not...


Edit: Beaten by FFM! Bah! *cries*

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Edit: Beaten by FFM! Bah! *cries*

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You enjoyed it last time!

This forum itself, the Roleplaying forum of the CoH boards, is filled with hundreds of threads detailing the ongoing stories and character developments of hundreds of characters.

The RP varies a lot. It all depends on what you yourself are looking for.

You'll see in the forum a list of Roleplay Super-groups, for example. These are groups where there's an ongoing collaborative story to the entire SG, all with detailed background, interactions, and most of all, continuity. Most maintain their own forum sites where many aspects of Roleplay can be played out, rather like old-school play-by-mail, etc.

For most, the roleplay is about character development. The missions may let your character grow in powers, but how does that affect the character themselves? The roleplay lets you explore, express, and develop the personality and uniqueness of your creation.

The kind of character you've created has a lot to do with what that characters daily life is like. If you permanently spout forth flames, a radioactive aura, and look like a gient red demon, you probably don't have a secret identity.

However, I have met playboys, models, singers, journalists, businessmen, police officers, shopkeepers, and even insurance salesmen who also have a super-hero identity. I think most heroes have a 'secret identity' though for a great many it is not so secret. I also think there's just a teeny amount less villains with secret identities, at least, ones that properly remained 'secret'.

Once you have a second costume slot (level 20 gives another costume you can 'switch' to) its a lot easier to clearly mark out different identities, and there are certainly many 'plain clothes' options in the costume builder. At the thigher levels, it is possible to have 5 different costumes all set up, which you can switch between from the Menu options, so many RPers will have a few different looks. (And I know I raced my way to 20 to get that all important second costume).

There is a LOT of hero and villain interaction in Pocket D, which is part of the reason Pocket D became such a popular and useful roleplay spot in the first place. But hero-villain interaction is probably one of the most contentious issues in RP.

For starters you get a lot of characters who feel they could never mix, (and also some players who maybe don't allow others the depth of 'shades of grey' that many Roleplayers prefer).

But yes, heroes and villains can be friends, within limits and certain circumstances. There are villains who are law-breaking vigilantes, bounty-hunters, on the run because they kill other villains rather than arrest them. It can be easy to see a hero feeling friendship for such a villain without their disaproval at the lethal methods being a 'deal-breaker'. Its going to depend on the characters involved, the reasons for attraction, and the issues that could break that friendship.

As for storytellers and storylines, please do read the forum posts, and I'd say you could get a very good idea of a couple of different styles by looking at the story posts by Coile, and the story posts by Britanic. Both show excellent storytelling, but the styles are quite different.

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Edit: Beaten by FFM! Bah! *cries*

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You enjoyed it last time!

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I just said that to make you stop...




Just remembered something I was talking about last night... It's something I did a long time ago, probably floating on here somewhere but...

3 Simple Guidelines for RP in CoX:

1: It should be fun for you.

2: Don't godmode

3: Barring the two previous points, there is no "right way" to play.



EDIT: Oh, and Rule 0: Tools shall die a most painful death.

SECOND EDIT: Just realised, I don't think we've said that most of the RP stuff happens on Union...! Important point that!

Thanks guys! You have been a great help!

I have the feeling it's best to just jump in and see where the flow takes me! Generally, I prefer to "pre make" my characters, so they match the already existing stories, and develop the character from there. I'm sure I'll figure it out, you seem like a really friendly crowd!

I look forward to getting to know your characters!

FN47 Beta, out

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Thanks guys! You have been a great help!

I have the feeling it's best to just jump in and see where the flow takes me! Generally, I prefer to "pre make" my characters, so they match the already existing stories, and develop the character from there. I'm sure I'll figure it out, you seem like a really friendly crowd!

I look forward to getting to know your characters!

FN47 Beta, out

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In this game's RP side, I've found a good set of wings to be invaluable.
As there isn't a lot of back ground easily accessible, 'pre-making' a character to fit in will be hard.
There will be times during your interaction with the RP world that being able to improvise (wing it) will be a great ability.
If ever something puzzles you, don't be shy to send a /tell to the one who puzzled you.

Also, it helps to do some recon work... make a 'temp' character, see what's out there, whose RP style match and whose clash with yours... that'll give you a better idea of what sort of character you might want.

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I look forward to getting to know your characters!

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Here is a head-start mate; a Handbook of the Union Universe!

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2: Don't godmode


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I keep thinking I should know what this, but then I keep thinking I'm not so sure...anyone want to help me feel less of a nub and offer a definition any five year-old can understand? Please?