Occultist Cliches and Pitfalls, version 2.0

Lilley

Haha... I died laughing when I saw this. Lilley is a Serpentlord and, until recently, was ALWAYS stuck teaching fresh newbs. I say stuck for the lack of a better word. Lilley loved it but me on the other hand... I could do without the whole starting to qq and BAM! "So-and-so has just left the trial of rebirth and joined your House!" And, of course, I would HAVE to teach them because -I- don't like to half-ass things. Most of the time a Serpentlord novice doesn't have some....extensive background/description/roleplay setup, like some newbs. Actually, most of the time they don't have one AT ALL, but when they do... it is TERRIBLE. I mean terrible. Haha.... they pretty much ALL follow this mold.

Amunet

I totally made up that excuse for Ork. A name like that needs one.

Orklanishkal

My newbie history had that explanation but without my bloodlined parents!

Amunet

At least it was accurate!

Boosteya

*sigh* Well, I'm glad I read this thread. TLTL, but read.

Xinglu

@Amunet - Carefully read through the thread to make sure no one else would ask, but what have some of your favorite novice roleplays been like? Have any novices actually come up with something functional and unique?

Amunet

Honestly, not from the get-go. Most actual newbies join up pretty clueless about Achaea in general, and most alts tend to go over the top because they think they know everything about the Occultists, and really haven't any idea. My favourite novices have tended to be those rare, true newbies with relatively normal backgrounds, who kept their heads down and learned a bit about the House and Achaea before trying to jump into anything that might violate the game's canon. 

There have been some exceptions. @Colivar's background, for instance, and the way it led to both challenges developing my character's RP around its events, and the ritual endeavours he pursued to fully unearth the scope of what had happened to his character pre-trial. @Sybilla has also been great fun, being among the first to take seriously the post-novitiate "grand tour". Prior to that, there was a novice named Antillar, who was bright, but otherwise quite ordinary. He was one of the odd seventeen-year-olds to come out of the intro, and managed to pass novicehood before he got to his eighteenth birthday, which made him "the youngest Occultist in modern history." It was enjoyable to make a big deal out of him. I wish he'd stuck around!

EDIT: It merits mention that most novices fall into the "normal" category - the cliches and pitfalls are a minority, but are not so rare as to qualify as anomalies.