Finding the elusive RP.

Lyosha

There should be some sort of website like eHarmony for Achaean players seeking roleplay. How do/did you find it, that lovely group of people/that place to roleplay in/with? And what advice might you give newcomers who'd like to find it for themselves? 'Cause personally, I'm just itching for a balance between roleplaying and gaming. 

I mean, Achaea is obviously the perfect place for roleplaying. The descriptions are absolutely [i]gorgeous[/i]––it set the stage for my own writing style in my early days of playing. The culture is intricate; the memberbase is plentiful; and it's so effing complex, it's a whole 'nother world in itself.  Is there a thread – or would anyone be [i]interested[/i] in a thread? – where players can inquire about finding someone to play [insert role here] to their character? I.e. the rival to their martyr? 

Kuy

Poke people.

Don't wait for things to happen.  Make them happen.  Trip over someone, say excuse me, then either be greeted with the grace of elegance or have your organs violently prodded while you're pinned to the ground.

Kei

Exactly. I've had some very fun interactions by basically nudging someone after they showed up on deathsight, for example, or taking a public post and just sending them a tell about it.

If you have a house or a city, figure out where they meet and just go there and talk to people in your org sitting around (e.g. Occultists in Fire and Spice, Ashtan at Battlememts, I think Targossas at their Farrier's yard?)

I'm general, what I've found is that people won't poke you unless you make a name for yourself somehow, and one way to do that is to poke people and just interact with them first, word will get around.

Jacen

Custom emotes at the city's main gathering spot is also a way of broadcasting that you want some deeper RP.

Jurixe

General tips:

1. While young, be proactive in meeting people and talking to them. People can't interact with you if they don't know you exist.

2. Make yourself someone worth interacting with. Work at your tasks, show that you intend to stick around and that you're not just a throwaway alt that people will waste time building relationships with that go nowhere. Be proactive.

3. Join group events like defense, arena spars, hunting, cultural events etc. It's a great conversational topic and to meet new people.

4. Don't be afraid to use emotes to give your character flavour, but keep it plausible, relatively simple, and don't try to tell the other players how they should feel/react. Go with the flow, and keep an open mind - don't try to strive too hard to achieve a certain goal if that's not how the scene is panning out. Sometimes RP takes on a life of its own!

5. Stay away from 'selfish' RP - if it doesn't add anything to anyone else's story and is all 'me me me', people are less likely to be interested. Pregnancy RP, for example.

6. Have fun!

Coeur

I run into similar problems because of not being able to be around as much as I used to; I think letting others know that you (1) are around and (2) are active is important (as Jurixe says).

I like doing simple things to 'add' to general conversations and occasions! It could be smiling a little differently, or showing off your quirkiness by how you're shy and retiring, or whatever. Meeting new people (like in the thing we call real life) opens up lots of possibilities (although of course not everyone is going to be your friend). It could be a spontaneous thing ('let's go have some food' or 'your cat's pretty, let's talk about that') or a planned event ('let's go to this lecture/party/gathering'). Some people will no doubt be more willing than others to interact with you, so if it doesn't work out the first few (or many) times, don't give up hope! 

Hopefully you find some new and fun RP experiences!

Quisse

I am new to the community as well, and I've just gone up to pretty much everyone I've met in-game and started talking. I've been amazed at how awesome and receptive almost everyone has been to roleplaying with me. There's no trick to it that I can see, just get out there and start talking to everyone! There's tons to talk about!

Bishan

I'd say most things that apply to actual relationships apply to IG ones as well, find something in common and let it develop from there.  You can be just like anyone else in life, and I think that's the point.  Want the attention? Go fish for it, some sap delightful person out there will reward you with it.  Want to be normal more restrained? Leave it on a person by person basis and if it takes off right away great, if not, let it simmer.

Xith

Kuy said:

Poke people.

Don't wait for things to happen.  Make them happen.  Trip over someone, say excuse me, then either be greeted with the grace of elegance or have your organs violently prodded while you're pinned to the ground.

Tell me more, baby.

Caoimhaen

Back stories are nice as well are character flaws. As people have mentioned. Just mingle. Be around. And yes...emotes help. A lot. Find things i. Common with people. Like any friendship. Rp takes a life of its own many times as other players add on top of your rp. Which waaaaaay more fun than just doing it all on your own. And when the other player's rp intermingles with yoour own is pretty awesome too. As @jurixe said. Selfish rp is no fun for others. So yeah. What they said.

Edit:Cant collect my thoughts...bleh

Ellodin

somewhere between "making yourself someone worth interacting with" and "being proactive in talking to people," it helps to know something that can serve as a relevant topic of conversation.  i can speak with people in real life about the way their days are going or counsel people on domestic problems, so that sort of talk is less likely to hold my interest.

Mithridates

@Strata is an RP master. Talk to him. 

Strata

Mithridates said:

@Strata is an RP master. Talk to him. 

Aepas

I'd say make yourself into a living, breathing character.

First thing I did as Aepas was make a set of rules and guidelines for him. Now mind you, much of what Aepas did at a young age quickly died out, as a lot of it didn't really fit into cannon RP or was just completely wrong (for instance, I thought when a druid morphed they actually took on the form of the animal. They do not.) But making mistakes is fine just as well.

Never be scared to do something, but RP comes in many forms. Simple RP could be something as simple as hating a type of food. Aepas is mostly vegetarian due to his time as a druid, and hates giraffes. Why? I don't even know, but it has made some funny interesting pieces at times.

Know your place, and know who your character is. If you stick to your own personal RP at all times, even when nobody is looking, RP will blossom.

Jhaeli

Be open to adapting as you go. Let your character mature as they experience new ideals, people, training. Don't be afraid of doing things that no one else notices, but that nevertheless add to the character. (For example, Jhaeli hates chocolate but never refuses a gift, as that would be rude. Instead, she finds someone else to give it to later.)

ETA: And don't think that others aren't watching. I used to watch the Novitiates for people worth interacting with, but would save most of it for when they graduated to full member status. Allowing time to establish yourself is important too.

Mishgul

Relevant:

Khairt says, "Let us enjoy a tender moment of RP."

Khairt says, "That was a good RP guys, let's have another RP tomorrow."

Bishan

Aepas said:

I'd say make yourself into a living, breathing character.

First thing I did as Aepas was make a set of rules and guidelines for him. Now mind you, much of what Aepas did at a young age quickly died out, as a lot of it didn't really fit into cannon RP or was just completely wrong (for instance, I thought when a druid morphed they actually took on the form of the animal. They do not.) But making mistakes is fine just as well.

Never be scared to do something, but RP comes in many forms. Simple RP could be something as simple as hating a type of food. Aepas is mostly vegetarian due to his time as a druid, and hates giraffes. Why? I don't even know, but it has made some funny interesting pieces at times.

Know your place, and know who your character is. If you stick to your own personal RP at all times, even when nobody is looking, RP will blossom.

The bolded I find to be excellent advice.  I know it might seem kind of silly but emoting or muttering about something even with no one nearby makes it more fluid for me personally, meaning that I don't just act like Bishan when I'm around others, but do things that I might actually do in reality.  I certainly will clench my teeth or fume about something that legitimately pisses me off whether someone else is paying attention or not.

Scarlatti

And if Someone happens to be paying attention, role playing by yourself is a helpful cue that you're open to someone or something else jumping in.

Mithridates

Scarlatti said:

And if Someone happens to be paying attention, role playing by yourself is a helpful cue that you're open to someone or something else jumping in.

I try this all the time, with no luck.

Tharvis

@Mithridates I always found that sending a tell to key NPC's gets a relatively quick reply. For example, if I send a tell to Dusk, not too long later he starts replying to me. So give something like that a go?

Antonius

I grumble at Irisa (the blackjack dealer in Targossas) all the time when she cheats (deals me bad cards), and have had responses a few times. She did insult my jousting though, and I just didn't think that was necessary (goddamn RNG).

Scarlatti

Also keep in mind players vastly out number the Garden! It's not a guarantee. The point I wanted to illustrate is that it's not a silly thing to do.

Mithridates

Can I get an RP event centered around me plz

Scarlatti

If you have an idea for an event, you can send it to events@achaea.com. Events focused around your own character will be Lorielan'd though.

Lyosha

Mithridates said:

I try this all the time, with no luck

Come play with me!

Jacen

Mithridates said:

Scarlatti said:

And if Someone happens to be paying attention, role playing by yourself is a helpful cue that you're open to someone or something else jumping in.

I try this all the time, with no luck.

I've gotten no response far more often than I've responses, even when I was HL and I was desperately seeking advice from our tutor. Not that I blame Scarlatti, I'm sure if I had gone straight to him, he would have been very helpful. I just wanted it to come thru the tutor.

Anyways, don't lose hope: where I struggled as a HL to get spontaneous denizen interation, I had an awesome conversation with what's-her-face in Matsuhama's temple on immortality in my newb days. I've also, since becoming a nobody in Eleusis, had some epic interactions with Twilight. So don't lose hope; you may not get interaction when you want it, but when it comes, it will be worth the wait.

Lyosha

I'm adoring Cyrene as far as roleplaying goes @Scarlatti, plus the Bard class and Ty Bierdd house. Lyosha doesn't feel as excluded as he did previously o:

Kei

Scarlatti‌ has -awesome- spontaneous RP. I've been periodically trying to snag a little more of his attention IC, but I'm guessing so is half the game :P And someone who's successfully managed to annoy him, for all she knows, is likely low on that list!

@Lyosha Sorry you got kind of excluded in Occultists, but I'm glad you found something better in the bards. If I wasn't so married to Tarot, I'd so do that, too, because bard honestly looks pretty fun. Say hi sometime if you come across Kei loitering around Cyrene, she'll take some time to stop and chat almost any time

Siduri

@Kei is my elusive RP =3

Random prodding is awesome. Even cross-faction.

Lyosha

Well, not excluded. More like .. awkward, hah. Kind of like Alcaro felt in Mhaldor.

Kei

Siduri said:

@Kei is my elusive RP =3

Random prodding is awesome. Even cross-faction.

Hey now, you're the sneaky Serpent type! And you've also surprised me more than once by showing up out of nowhere and we have a two hour chat.

(Random prodding is more fun cross faction, when the other side plays along.)