Has your character ever been involved in a purposeful, compelling story?

Yes.

I talked to other people.

In our case, I think there were several reasons it worked out. The 5 of us when we began were all Tabletop PnPer people. We all knew each other in real life. Chose to pick up the game together and always ran with each other (whether in sports, clubs, shenanigannery, or playing CoH).

We constructed a SG together based off a concept I had written out. When it seemed to match up with CoH so well, I fleshed it out.

To do that I drew up numerous "events" that occur based on char's actions/events in-game/time/etc as triggers and after having gotten the basic plot points for the SG mates Story lines; I included those as well.

It helped that all of our friends were very conscientious of each other and dedicated. Over the next couple of years we picked up very few people as we were very leery of other RPers (Thanks a carrot-weight-poop-ton Pocket D for ruining our impressions of RPers on Virtue). But the people we picked up got involved in our RP even when they weren't part of the SG (and eventually joined).

It was a blast, so much so, we carried it out of the game and I created a game system just for it.

That said, it was a TON of work (by everyone involved).

Not sure if I just added anything worth mentioning but there you go, my 2 cents.

Oh and the reason I thought that these "Events with Triggers" was really nice and helpful, it helped me stay excited even though I technically knew all the plot. I never /really/ knew /when/ something was going to occur. And it was hilarious seeing how some things turned out.

Also, always always encourage each other. Do /not/ get lazy and for instance not respond to someone's typed up RP (straight fiction/open ended RP/whatever). It's tiring to do and write and even a single line, "That was nice" or even constructive criticism will keep them coming back. Instead of, "Oh I read it, just didn't comment." which will kill their desire.

They're doing it for interaction purposes. Interact with them or watch them leave.

There used to be a lot of massive server-wide crossover stories back in the first few years of the game. I miss those days.

I totally don't miss 40 people trying to have a conversation and a plot :7 I think a lot of us realized that if you want a story to go anywhere, you have to limit the number of people involved, and the first people you pick are your RL friends and SG mates so the visibility just got smaller.

True, the server-wide events were logistic nightmares. I would say "that was part of the fun!" but I wasn't one of the poor sods trying to organise everything.

I never really got into RP heavily untill i switched from US to the EU servers a few years ago, so i missed out on a lot of virtue's plots when i was here origionaly. I plan to change that now im back.
Meaningfull RP is allways around, but the best way of finding it is finding an SG or even a group of friends who specificaly write their own plotlines. With a good group, you should have a regualer pick of small and moderate plots to stick your nose in, and perhaps the occasional "OMG The WORLD IS ENDING!" plot to make you want to tear your hair out.

From finding good groups of friends, i've had 3 versions of my main char in different universes, a huge ammount of character growth, and some of the following plots.

on union version
Fall into villainy (Former hero forceably removed from jail, and left to fend for self, working as a merc on the isles.)
Bloodless coup (after rising through the ranks of a mercenary guild (vg), the branch administrator is confonted by a small group, forced to relinquish command, and the branch split from head office.)
Demonic outbreak (a demonic guild member is possesed by a greater demon, causing excessive DRAMAH, becomes a catalyst for multiple demon problems in other members, and nearly tears the guild appart before being trapped)
African merc Work (during a break from the game, i kept in contact with the remnants of the now shattering guild, with IC information interaction from a revolution in africa. Plotline culminates in a double cross by the employer, spuring a raid on the national reserve, and a faked death in order to smuggle a large number of stolen conflict diamonds)
Laundering(a purely non-action plotline, laundering money from the isles to a legitimate construction company in Kings row. Eventual outcome of owning an arms factory in the isles, bought as a front, and the Hero who owned the construction company being investigated by the IRS, who find no legal grounds to prosecute.)
Kidnap of a hero (a hero portal jump is hijacked, in order to perform a bit of high tech highway robbery. Upon hearing that the jump team is possibly infected with a virus, realising ransom is likely out of the question, the team is let free, but their squad leader kept as collaterol. When the virus warning is cleared, the leader, who had been kept in solitary, is air dropped into the middle of a crowded civilian area without knowledge that he not infected, resulting in local hysteria.)
Council of war (a collective effort between heroes and villains to help fight off the rikti war)
Reformation (after his girlfriend, a fugitive from a framed crime, recieves a pardon, he is put under pressure to go straight. A psychological analysis, character referances from heroes, a report into his previous work as a hero before conviction, and a provisional hero license later, and He's moved back to paragon city.)
Industrial espionage (a mini plot partly to create a back story for a friend, and partly to thumb my nose at someone who had attempted something similar. An android unit is stolen from an asociate in order to repurpose it as a heavy combat droid. Concept was dropped by my friend, and the combat droid has now ended up as my second favourite char)

while waiting on champions
The blob (a tongue in cheek forum RP involving aggressive amorphos blob creatures being scattered around the globe)
Death stone (forum rp. a group of fanatic christians steal a highly unstable meteorite to turn it into an orbital death ray. plot abandoned half way by GM)

Since returning to Virtue
Company expansion (On-going minor. A foriegn company trying to make foothold in paragon, laying groundwork for future plotage)
and other things planned for the future, including research outbreaks, activism and riots, dimensional incursions, etc.


To reiterate: Get friends who plot, and start scheming plots yourself.

Interesting topic.

Here's my 2 cents, probibly posted already by others but what the hey...

1. Find like minded RPers. Although you can have a hell of a good time RPing in a PUG generally its not going to go anywhere

2. Don't be the center of attention all the time. Some of the best RP experiences I've ever had was being a support character. Not every x-man is Wolverine, and not every member of Justice league is Superman. Sometimes just being there for an event, being one of a crowd will make another player feel special. Its ok. It'll be your turn someday.

3. Take missions personally. If you are a leader of a group, even a PUG, take the missions personally. Make them your own. Tell the other players what's going on. Make them feel like they are helping you with your mission. Repeat the written dialogue in your own voice and give them a reason to pay attention. You'd be amazed how many great PUG's I had when I did this. People do really get into it.

4. Don't try to do everything at once. You don't need to do an entire story arc all at once. Think of this game as a comic book. Some people will read every issue, some will just read one. Either way, you can make each moment special by achieving small steps in your character arc. then...move on to number 5.

5. Keep a blog of some type, so if people do get into your arc, you can point to a source where they can learn more about what your character is about. They can keep up with you, and pick up your story at a later time. ((YES this is very Marry Sue and not everyone wants to read your sappy stuff, but some will, and it might spark them to be creative soon you will have 5 or 6 people doing the same thing then bing! Its a supergroup with a deep history and stories to share)

Here are a few examples of Chat Logs that were edited into stories, showing how we took existing missions and turned them into our own compelling stories. ((Yes they are very Marry Sue again, but interesting in example))

Check out the chapters, Judgmental Eyes,through Hell's Highway. They are edited chat logs broken down into short chapters.

Also check out this great take on one of COH's famous Villains that our supergroup took down in RP style. Of Vengeance and Martyrdom Again it is edited chat logs, so you can see how the chat worked out in RP

To the OP: My advice is to decide on a development theme for your characters, and have their personalities develop and evolve along that theme. Have them internalize their experiences through that prism as they grow and interact with others. For example, your character could have theme of 'power and responsibility' - like Spider-Man.

Or to use a personal example, for almost four years now, I've played a character in COH whose primary theme was 'violence hurting the user' - extended high-level superhero combat has been a major driving force to push her through several changes of outlook and personality: from a teenager out to do good for the world, to an increasingly despairing veteran war-fighter, through a bout of PTSD and out the other side as a young woman trying to teach a new generation of heroes not to repeat her mistakes and have to go through what she did. And, failing at it more than she'd like to admit. .

You don't have to limit yourself to just one theme, and you don't even really have to keep the same theme for character's whole life. But in COH RP, you can't change the world, you can't do much to other peoples' characters without their consent, and you can't even be sure the same people will be around to RP with from one day or week to the next. But if you just take what comes and make it part of your character - good, bad, or ugly - none of that matters.

People bag on Pocket D alot as a place to find roleplay, and they make some good points - it is a bar, and you should expect to find people doing bar things there. But what they leave out is that just like in reality, you make contacts and acquaintances in a bar. And then if you follow up with them, you start forming deeper levels of contact, friendships and partnerships, and then you start getting appropriately deeper levels of interaction, trust, and involvement with said people.

So I say go to the D. And make friends, and then "call them up" the next day in tells and say you've got a hot tip that the Circle of Thorns are about to pee in the Well of Eyes, and do they want to help you go kick them in the shins. And that itself might be the start of your 'compelling story.'

I just want to know how declaring that your character freezes the entire Earth and everyone on it, no saving throw, fits into a massively multi-player role-playing event.

(Other than as an example of the sort of thing you shouldn't do, and ignored by the other participants as bad RP and blatant godmoding.)

Actually....MJ's got a good point (I assume that was about Xanatos, but I don't really know), meaningful story has to be cooperative storytelling so everyone's gotta start on roughly the same page to make it work....if anyone is looking at the others and going "godmodder", "too dumb/comical/4th wall breaking", or "lame concept", even if its the best story in the world it will never fly.