Tips to help create smooth random RP encounters

1. Disable your ability to see another player characters name above thier heads and resist the urge to target on them. Most immerssion breaking starts with someone walking up and using your name as if they already know you.

2. Check thier bio page. Use it to even see if they might be the kind of RPer whom you want to mix with, its a long time commonality that people use COX to play characters based on various PnP RPG or even anime, if your not into WoD vamps just put those players on ignore and leave them be. Same goes for those drow,naruto ninja,and bleach fanbois. If that stuff is just to non COX for you cut them from your world, wont hurt you or them, and likely leave both happier.

3. Try to learn and use LORE: I cant stress this one enough, once you come to love this game, then part of that love should be the world your playing in, just as if you where playing in a D&D campaign setting and addapting whatever concept for a character you wanted to play in your head to that world's view of things like gods, magic, various mythical creatures and legends the same goes for any MMO world. Its the world we all are playing in, it has certain rules defined by its lore in how things work, they are not evil or wrong in doing this, and in fact like any good game setting, lets us create characters who can interact and avoid the constant one up manship.

4: Become part of the lore: Yes this is really just an expansion on3, which is the aspect I feel is most critical to good random RP and being part of the LRP movement since year one.

Its ofcourse commonly known that making characters even attempting to mimica dev/admin character is insta generic status, same with published cpyrighted names.

However Im sure some of you now and then see players like myself running around with names like Bentley Berkeley, Demetrios Vasilikos( the real one not the dude with the uppercase i for an L), or Alphonse Crey. Occasionally I get rude threatening tells from the ignorant and envious and so do others, saying " Im so going to report you and get you genericed" when there is nothing to report or generic.

You see in my long years here on the game, and constant use of the support feature to have lengthy discussions about the name topic after I did have a long time and beloved one genericed after more then 3 years of playing them, I have come to understand most of the fine lines.

COX devs actually love seeing players using lore based names and concepts in characters, they truly do take it as a compliment. As my own above names used in example display they are names drawn from and used with reverence for the story of the world they are drawn from, and played to portray the continued adventures of oft unsung heroes.

Bentley Berkeley especially loves to spend evenings in the D talking about old friends long gone like Dauntless and Galaxy Girl, or watching little Tommy grow up, teaching him magic, seeing him become a man,hero, and father, and living with the burden that in the end like with most tragic immortals, forced to watch his life long friend eventually pass from this world.

Here are the fine lines to keep in mind when making your own lore based characters.

1: Never even remotely convey you are more then just another player when asked about your character. think of it like dressing up like a doctor at halloween and going to a hospital lounges costume party. It could be easy to be mistaken for something your not and its on you to keep misperceptions from happening.

2: Never ever use a name directly tied to an admin/dev name. I once tried to make James Temblor SR. who was going to be the original faultline saved by a rogue mender at the last instant. however jim temblor aka faultline is ofcourse a dev character, so even being SR. and a clearly different character in appearance and bio wasnt enough. Just dont do it.

3:look for the name of a dead hero from COX history lore, I run Invisible falcon with multiple variants taking use of all those upper case lower case I L tricks with that name. one of my most beloved characters as I ran him pre Ghost Falcon DEV and was infact very worried he would be genericed after GF came to us. Up until I actually ran into GF once in game with IF and we chatted for abit in the RWZ before he went off and ran an apex tf with some lucky players who won some contest. Ill admit I always was abit sad IF couldnt get the master of ghost falcon task force badge, it would of been a great little personal trophy. Still randomly running into my praetorian self and discussing the coming battle with his home dimension was an in game experiance that will leave COX my most beloved MMO as far into the future as I can imagine.

I also know a player who has run Dauntless for a long time. He even claims he used the name before the history around a character with that name was added. Might be true he has been around since month one and possibly even beta.

4: Make the lore your own. What that means is, just because it might appear one way doesnt mean you cant take a concept and adapt it. For example I play count alphonse crey, I rp it was sister psyche who put me into a coma at statesmans orders for fear of me stopping his inevitable turn to something like tyrant. Countess crey is the descendents of the delphi oracles and used all her power to preserve and eventually reconnect my mind to my body. Since I play IF as well and RP it was statesman who tried to kill him and crey who saved him, this further adds to my total RP story around my characters. It is also really easy to just start chatting about those things that interest me with other players casual at the D for example, and they know what I am talking about and can respond and get into it. Ive been complmented and creeped others out with how ardent I can defend crey in RP and even using lore make crey seem very much the hero I want them to be seen as.

This set of tips was brought to you by Crey Global Enterprises. We make the Night Light that keeps the Darkness at bay and your child safe while they dream. Optional Psi Scrambler or mobile laser armed sentry upgrades available.

Crey. Because we care!

I am not going to disagree/agree with every point but I would like to state a few things..

First, names/bios mean more to me then others, I suppose. Yes, this will sound condescending but I never pretended not to be slightly pretenious but the fact is if your name sounds like the handle from the diseased mind of some random idiot, troll or an inner city English teacher, then chances are, they are probably not worth speaking to, let alone Roleplaying with. However, just because their character doesn't mention Lore/canon context does NOT mean anything. What matters is the impression of the bio itself. Of course, everyone has their own opinion on this matter but, I do think that the whole "ignore non-Lore characters" is going a bit far. Granted, I did play WoD for a time, not within COH and possibly RP'ing with a WoD character may not be the end of the world.

Typically, in RPG settings, one creates a character based on the world they are playing in through their own viewpoint, perception and idealized conception via a set of certain rules usually made by a storyteller within a certain canon and lore. However, seeing how most MMO's run as open as possible while having their own subjective canon, within COH, there are still no real "storytellers/dungeonmasters/ect." outside closed RP groups. Because of this, you have a variety of characters that are either so far off the lore that it would be veritably impossible to include them within the canon or those individuals that not only use the lore but, in some cases, abuse it by making their characters as important as possible, at least in their own eyes. Then you have everything in between but it doesn't matter because there are no real rules, only other players, their perceptions and their own characters in an open setting where almost anything goes. Like it or not, that's how it is and how it always will be.

Now this is my viewpoint and nothing more. You can disagree but, perception is as perception sees and when it comes to RP, within an MMO like City of Heroes, you are going to get all types, both facetious and serious, from slightly insane introverts whose only socialized outlet is trolling through their characters to shy yet oddly extroverted individuals who you see skirting the edges of RP but rarely speaking aloud. So it doesn't matter what anyone really says as far as right and wrong. And because of this, when you list a set of "standards" or tips in regards to RP, I think far too many here wish to play the "dungeonmaster" roll far too often instead of a fellow character.. but again, that's just my viewpoint.

I do have a tip or two though, not just for Lore/non-lore/ect. characters but for anyone. When it comes to COH and how their world is setup, my characters, while tending to be darker, are also a bit more realistic or grittier then your typical stars and spandex masked hero. Because of this and because I tend to write actual dialogue rather then just randomly conversate with characters, I have always viewed Roleplaying as an on-going book. Each character interaction a chapter. To keep my perspective, I don't make my own character or theirs the protaganist/antagonist but more of sidenoted characters. This way, it keeps a certain balance and prevents the dialogue from being "dummed" down, so to speak.

Another tip I have has nothing to do with the Lore itself but a way to view not only Paragon City but also players and their characters and how to keep perspective in a world where Angels, Demons and Things Unnamed walk next to a Descendant of King Arthur, a Dr. Who Knockoff and Super-Generic Man. There is a series of books written by Simon Green who, while his writing is a bit simplistic, actually does a fairly decent job in plot devices. The setting is called the Nightside and when I first stepped into Paragon, I couldn't help but notice certain similarities..

I've never found another character knowing my name (particularly my public superhero name) to be that immersion-breaking, and certainly not worthy of number one on a list like this.

What I find much worse is for someone's first act towards me to be to tell me off for this, either in character or out of character.

I can understand if I've just walked up to a stranger in Atlas Park and adressed them by name that something's a bit out. I don't do that (unless it says in their bio that they endorse a range of breakfast cereal on TV, or are a famous pop-star, or whatever).

But, I've had this happen to me over supergroup comm-link, or when meeting turning up with someone to meet a friend of theirs, and other situations where it's quite reasonable and innocuous to say "Hello, Dan" or whatever their name is. When this happens I've moved on and its often been all good afterwards, but inside it makes me wish I hadn't bothered.

So, if this is a pet peeve of yours, count to ten and do a mental check on how you're talking to this other character before smacking someone down for it if they've made the effort to engage you.

Well in the whole release time of the game, no ones ever asked me to change my name. Not even when it was just Jack Wolfe, and every tell or accidental macro aimed at Jack Wolfe, he of respecs, ended up in my private channel, Course I was Jack before there was a Jack NPC, and to stop the tells I did add the Dr. to my global since it was already part of his back story. But in general I think the the Devs at ok with same names. Ghost Widow seemed to like Jack.

Keeping the names on and targeting for info is the one way I decide whether on not I want to strike up casual, unsolicited roleplay like a "first meeting". It's RP common sense, in my opinion, to not automatically make that part of your own character's knowledge unless the other person states or infers that it's alright to do so. If you have questions or doubts, ask OOC in a tell first. If I'm browsing concepts for the heck of it, I might throw a "nice name get" or "interesting idea you have" out there.

(Then there's the issue of striking up a conversation when the other party isn't in for it. I had that happen at least once, though we ended up having a good OOC exchange where I gave the player some encouragement in terms of getting into RP again.)

In terms of canon and whatnot, it's a framework that the developers happen to have in place for the people who want to use it for their characters, piecemeal or otherwise, but I don't see the need to make it an end-all that people must adhere to in order to be considered as credible roleplayers. It all ends up being personal perspective when it comes to drawing the lines, anyhow.

I'll counter these "tips" with some of my own.

1. Always keep names on and target the player you're going to talk to. Whilst your at it, absolutely DO check their bio as there's likely to be important info in there. It's quite possible that the character you're about to interact with is well known enough to be recognizable on sight and that's info you'd need to know. It's important, though, to remember the line between OOC knowledge, and IC knowledge.

2. Never, ever, EVER try to be one of the game NPC's, or anyone related to a game NPC, or even a close friend of an game NPC; not even dead ones. This is godmodding of the worst kind. Just don't do it. Many RPers will just walk away from you at best, or vilify you at worst.

3. DO use the lore, but do not make it your own. Never EVER make yourself the centre of canon storylines. Instead, use the lore to help your character grow and develop and make your OWN story. You can be the centre of things when it's your own story and though you might get people calling you a grandstander if you go ITT, you won't be called a godmodder.

4. Don't disrespect other RPers by forcing yourself on their conversation. Assess the RP around you and only jump in if it seems appropriate to do so. Nothing annoys people more than random strangers just butting in on them. Consider this, would you walk up to complete strangers and force yourself on their conversation in RL? No? Then it's probably not good to do it in RP either.

5. Counter to point 4 aboove, when involved in RP, don't just walk away from them as if they don't matter, it's incredibly rude! Would you do that to someone you were talking to in RL? No, I didn't think so. Sure things can happen in RL that mean you have to afk, but it only takes a second to type "AFK" or "BRB". Try to remember that on the other side of that character you're talking to is a real person, just like you, who is hopefully enjoying the RP.

There are two very good reasons why you really shouldn't do it.

1. The devs can and do change canon at any time, which could easily totally invalidate your character.
2. You'll be known as a "super special snowflake", because you're placing your character into canon, a level higher than ANY player characters can attain. This is not a good rep for a roleplayer.

I agree with FFM for the most part.

I've encountered roleplayers who've created close friendships between their characters and significant NPCs, and it's never sat right with me. I have never met one who did not use that as a bludgeon in discourse with others to dictate their own interpretation of that NPC's canon to strengthen their own character's position in the roleplay at the expense of others. "Mother Mayhem is a good friend of mine and she said ..." and so forth.

Sure, creating these close NPC relationships could be good connections for an otherwise unique character to the existing canon, but I've seen it end up in godmodding so often that I couldn't recommend it to anyone, and would avoid characters who do so. I would recommend keeping those relationships minor and fleeting -- a character wasn't Statesman's friend, maybe he only met Statesman a few times, and fought along side him with several other heroes once. They had discussions, but mainly hero-business, and not on a first name basis.

This is an exciting thread, given DV's post history.

I'd actually like to add another tip here: to find places where you're comfortable roleplaying your characters, be it Atlas Park or the Pocket or somewhere else. Choose some place that actually works for the hero/villian/Praetorian that you're playing: if you're not in a zone that you want to be in, chances are you might not enjoy the RP as much as if you were in the "right place".

I can't say there's one specific way to establish a comfort zone, though. I personally park some characters in specific zones that relate to them in some way, even logging out in them at times.

Also, while Pocket D definitely serves its purpose as a hub zone for cross-alignment interaction (even after GR)... one person's cup of tea can be another hero's kryptonite. You'll know which one you are if you go. I don't mean to say that meaningful RP can't happen in the D (I've experienced it once or twice), there's still that certian stigma that looms around the place. It's one of those "mileage varies" things.

Definitely agree on the locale. I was a long time member of the Galaxy Girl crew on Union, untill the devs blew it up (man, were we steamed about that one! 6 years history down the tubes! ).

We tried relocating to Founders, but since Christmas, have ended up in Pocket D with everyone else. You get used to it, but I miss our old spot.

If there's one rule that always works for finding good RP, it's simply this:

"Take more interest in the characters you meet than the ones you play."

So, wait.

The TLDR version of the OP is

'Use anyone's ideas but your own for your characters.'

Gotta say, that sounds pretty damn poor.

My advice? Be true to the character, whatever the concept may be.

Got another important one to share today.

Try not to have any outside distractions during a roleplay session. By this, I'm not meaning within the game, but doing anything else off computer at the same time. If you absolutely need to attend to something important, mention that you're going AFK for a bit, you can easily pick up where you left off.

This is especially true if you're doing a roleplay interview to get into a supergroup: I assure you that it's hard to bring your best attitude and form, and have critical conversations that matter, if you're fiddling around doing something else. It's this particular sub-point where I learned what it's like to break the distraction rule, once, so I'm hoping to help others avoid making that same choice.