A Question on RP

Hello, everyone. I am an RPer, have been for several years, but after finding another thread, I realized a big weakness I have, especially in CoX, that I want to get advice on fixing.

So, I am asking the other Roleplayers here in City of Heroes/Villains, how do I go about integrating my character into the game? I don't mean 'how do I build a backstory that fits CoX lore'. I mean, how do I get involved with other roleplayers to get together for stories, adventures and opposition? What I am used to, having grown up on Yahoo Chat Room Roleplay, when they were more active and allowed custom rooms, was to act as an adventurer, a worker or some other person that would be in a certain area, at a certain time when events and other people came along. In City of Heroes, it is harder to get roleplay outside of SGs or the D and this is a problem for me.

In SGs, I can't really join any unless I focus my efforts OOC, especially now-days when I see a group of people in the same SG that was noted as being an RP SG, if they are in teams, they remain OOC while picking up others from the outside or are in the D, where most people don't take note if someone wants to join that particular group. (Or in the case of some characters, ones that WOULD be interested ina group, but never sets foot inside the D.)

In the D itself, that is there for casual events. People arn't supposed to be fighting there, there isn't meant to be as much tension as it is supposed to be a place to unwind. Sure there are some more serious events there, as it can be a good meeting place for others, however, when groups are doing such an event, they tend to ignore others there questioning what is happening. (As some times I would try to get involved, but most people would push back OOC, mostly, or ICly, occasionally, to keep my outsider from getting involved.)

So, people. I have to ask, HOW do I get my character involved with these adventures and storied in CoX? Am I doomed to have to join OOCly, first, and have my character be a part of a group they 'heard about passingly'? Is there a way to get more involved ICly, especially without the requirement of setting foot in the D? I am genuinely looking for help in improving this aspect of myself, so any advice is welcome and any discussion outside of myself and the others directly answering my question is helpful as well, as it can help with getting an idea of how others feel similarly or differently on this subject.

With love,
Me! <3

It is actually an interesting question (Or series of questions) and I understand what you're saying.

If you are talking about already existing characters only, your best bet may be in searching OOC and creating IC reasons for the hook up.

Although, using the forums, SG websites/forums and any out of game element may help (possibly more so) than hunting OOCly in game.
You might be able to talk with people, learn a bit about what they're about, interested in and such... and (Maybe most importantly) be able to devise a plan for instigating an IC meeting/hook-up.

Role-players can definitely be a rather seclusive and divided lot (I say "can" in that not all are and that it doesn't have to be that way). Virtue does seem rather fractured to me (Not saying it's entirely bad nor good).

If you are interested in forming such things for characters you've not yet made...
Making some posts and/or looking around the forums and/or other SG websites and such may lead to collaborating with others to create and start something from scratch that could entail plenty of what you're looking for and allow you to all do it in game and IC from the start (Of the creation of the characters).


So, yeah... I am suggesting all OOC methods, mostly because deep, collaborative endeavors between multiple people can benefit greatly from communication and understanding.
People, as you well know, get invested in their mmorpg characters (And not just RPers). So, some planning, communicating and understanding can lead to trust and that can lead to some terrific partnerships and collaborations between players/writers/creators/ (And most importantly, in this case) role-players.


All that being said...
If it is more important to you to make such journeys entirely in-character... I suggest just doing what you do and stick to it (ICly) all the way.
And do not look for what you want in places that you are highly unlikely to find what you want. It's like someone looking for a meaningful relationship and continuously searching in shallow places. You are more likely to find the person/people you wish to find in doing the things that make you happy. Not in the places you'd rather not be.
That, however, isn't very encouraging, because it can be a long long time before you just happen to encounter what you wish for.

For myself...
I have lucked out in the past by happening upon some great players that I slowly developed a solid trust and friendship with. it started out from posts on the server forum and developed into a nice upstart SG.
Over some time and some casual play and feeling out periods... I managed to have some very fun and compelling interactions in ongoing stories involving several people's characters. From highly personal to widely shared role-playing and ongoing big time fun events and stories.

Also, I have a few real life friends that have joined me in this game and we have shared some of the most fun and interesting role-playing and story progressions I have ever had the pleasure to experience.

I suppose I tend to rely on friendships for these things... and I tend to take some time and use some patience to develop such relationships.

I, too, would enjoy encountering more people interested in greater collaborative role-playing, but so many people have differing styles and interests (As you surely well know), it can be rather difficult to find the right combination of people/players that lead to fun for everyone.

Honestly, I think an RPers Character Classifieds is the way to go.
Posting our playing interests and our characters and what we may or may not be interested in getting up to.

Again, mostly OOC stuff...

One other suggestion may rely a bit on writing skills (Doesn't have to be major writing though... the smaller the better, perhaps)... Some ongoing journals or accounts of your character. These could lead to others seeing and reading them and like-minded players (Or characters) reaching out to you OOCly or ICly with their characters.

I hope maybe something I babbled about in here may help somehow!

Best of luck!

And, perhaps, see you around!

I thank you for your input and I figured as much in the ways of requiring myself to do more searching OOCly, but I have to admit that I didn't do so much as plan IC meeting, rather than them 'hearing' about someone and searchign the person or group out 'eventually' finding them and joining them, despite myself, OOCly, not knowing a great amount of thier IC antics. I think your method may be better, as I can be unaffiliated with a group (Mainly speaking of SGs) while still being involved to see if this group is REALLY for me, because I know, sometimes, I would join a group, be with them for a month or several and find out 'this isn't really working out', but feel guilty with the idea of leaving.

In what you say of journal and updated accounts of what my characters do, I have kept up a virtueverse for a while and even posted a few of my characters on the 'Looking for Contact', but I don't really think people look at that. I have been trying to find a group of people, or even a single person, for example, to make an alien creature of mind, that is only really interested in advancing thier species and preparing for an invasion change face, see Earth as SO VASTLY DIFFERENT than his origin and rather protect it than see it destroyed. (I had this character before GR for a few months, figuing 'I'll find a few people for such a story line'.) However, I have not found anyone to take the offer of this character development despite using VirtueVerse's looking for contact, Posting in the forums a few months ago and making not of it every-so-often in the RP-Global channels. This is just an xample of a story, for one of my characters, i really wanted, but never got off the ground.

Don't take the example of me wanting to develop one of my characters, though, as me wanting it to ONLY be about my characters. I have seen some interesting story lines done by other people and was involved in it, for a bit, back in the day. (A couple years ago, that is.) But lately, it has been harder and harder for me to penetrate the protective layer a lot of RPers and RP-groups have and it has gotten me a bit frustrated. Even when I was in a group and tried to be an active member/organizer for IC missions and such, it was often ignored, even if it had no huge story-line attached to things and it just confuses me.

Thank you for your wishes of luck and I welcome any response to what I said here, from you or any others as well, to help give me a better understanding of the community and trying to intigrate myself into it.

With Love,
Me! <3

I agree with Electric-Knight; stick at it. I'm a roleplayer over on Virtue, but I've also had twenty years of tabletop gaming to give me enough experience and judgement to know what to look for and where to look for it.

Honestly, I think it comes down to just being out there and making enquiries through the contacts you do have. For example, there's a thriving community of Silver Age/Golden Age hero and villain groups that operate on Virtue and it took me roleplaying with some folk and having a fondness for that era to get in with a really excellent group of folk who are fully into it and have numbers, not like some smaller secluded groups.

My whole approach and always will take that of enquiring both ICly and OOCly when I'm in the world about what groups are out there and making sure I have a decent character that's open to change and adaptive when it needs to be.

As for integrating into the story of the game, I think you'll find everybody has different interpretations of what that means. I'm in two SG's, and whilst one accepts the canon of the game as the only one to pay attention to, the other has made up its own seperate continuity where they've changed events and defeated canon villains.

My advice is to not think about trying to join a group and let a group find you, really. Play your character the way you're most comfortable with and people will compliment you on your style of play, your character design and so on. And make it known you are looking for an SG and ask if they know of any. But don't stress out over it, either. If you've got other characters, play them too...but don't make this one character your roleplaying focus if your roleplaying focus is broad enough.


S.

I thank you two for giving your input. And I can see where you're coming from. I am a bit surprised, though, there arn't many replies to this. I figured it'd be a good topic for discussion, but seems I may be wrong. I will try to integrate what you two said into my RP-finding strategies, despite, in honesty, it's not that different than when I started.

One question, though. I have severe alt-itis, and am wondering how I should handle that for RP? I try to have 3-6 active RP characters with 20+ that are on reserve, but I occasionally bring out. Should I try limiting it to JUST one for RP purposes or is it possible to bring that many in the activity of several other groups ?(As I am not a fan of having alts in SGs with another character of mine.)

I find I can only limit it to a select number (in this case about six) that I alternate between as needed. Each one I've tried to make different from the others, especially in AT's and powersets so I know I'm having a different experience each time.

When I make a new character, I devote a lot of time to them because I'm really enjoying them and my others become my number two or three or whatever. But I think personally the more characters you have, the less quality time you get overall. It depends on how much you can play and how much you want to play.

As for the number of responses, you probably would've gotten more responses on the Virtue forum, most likely.


S.

FWIW, there is a very active RP community on Pinnacle, as well as a somewhat "stealth" one on Triumph. I can heartily recommend either (or both). Most of us in those RP communities have characters on Virtue, but seldom play them, actually.

If I'm in-game, I'm in-character, period. Sure, I'll do OOC stuff if I have to, but I prefer to keep it to the minimum possible amount necessary to coordinate things. If Team chat gets too OOCly, I can be a bit of a nag about it! =P

RP is what's keeping me subbed (pretty bored with the gameplay...6+ years will do that). With all this new content, the context for RP has only gotten deeper. I don't play CoH as much as I used to (two words: Fallen Earth...), but I still find the game to be a superb canvas upon which to paint my characters' lives and personalities.