Longform RP

Svard

Hi all. I'm an veteran of other IREs interested in Achaea -- the population, world, PVP and character classes really appeal to me -- but I'm really into RP with longer emotes and dramatic story lines, etc., of the sort that's more common in Aetolia (and previously also MKO). I by no means expect most people in Achaea to be into that stuff, but I was wondering how hard it actually is to find despite that. Also, are there any cities where it's more prevalent? Is there a clan or Discord I ought to join where these kinds of RPers gather? If not, do any of you who might be out there on the forums think you might be into that sort of thing?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Sothantos

Long-form roleplay and good roleplay are not synonymous in Achaea. I'd go as far as to say that the best characters and best stories in Achaea are created through short-form roleplay, whereas long-form roleplay is more reserved for mudsexers.

Svard

I never meant to imply that only longform roleplay was good or legitimate. I do personally enjoy it a great deal, though, so I was wondering how hard it would be to find here.

Thaisen

Your best bet is probably this discord server: https://discord.gg/yfKVWWs

Qimaileh

I see custom emotes used in Mhaldor fairly often. In other cities I've played I really only saw them during ceremonies and such, if at all. That's not to say it doesn't happen elsewhere, just that I've noticed more than during my time in 3/5 other orgs.

Kog

I like longform RP personally, but I think you need to match the situation a bit more in Achaea. If you toss out a few lines and get a nod and a say back a few times in a row, then switch to shortform yourself- if they don't want to also longform, it's going to get frustrating for you both.

Longform has its place I think, in smaller settings or performances, though in bigger groups especially the turns nature of longform gets painfully slow.

I had fun tossing out exclusively longform emotes when a Mhaldorian delegation showed up, but when more people arrived for the meeting it was impractical to keep going in that style so I let them do their meeting thing and only sent off a few lines when directly addressed, and that flow seemed to work well.

I suspect the best way to find other people interested in that kind of thing is to try to create stories and draw them in, get involved in your org- I can't think of any city that doesn't have at least some sort of story going on right now, and even though the culture of Achaea is different than Aetolia, I'm sure some nonzero subset of that storytelling group likes longform outside of the bedroom.

Svard

Yeah, I have no problem doing shortform with the majority of players. I would just like to have a core group of players that I can also do longform and get into all sorts of IC drama with while participating in that kind of RP. To be honest, a big reason I'm considering playing here rather than Aetolia, for instance, is for the PVP. The degree to which many of them seem to automate PVP there kind of puts me off.

Iaxus

Hoohoooh automated pvp? Get ready

Atalkez

It's very different there, since the curing (if I am remembering properly) is not random like it is here. So while you have some automation, there it is automated to heavier degree.

Long form RP is fine, to an extent. If you're wanting to drop a paragraph on people and have them respond that way, it's likely not going to work. A big reason for this (in my opinion) is that SAYS aren't  able to be exclusive in the emote, so you can't make them stand out. It's just some quotes in your emote here.

Svard

Atalkez said:

It's very different there, since the curing (if I am remembering properly) is not random like it is here. So while you have some automation, there it is automated to heavier degree.

Long form RP is fine, to an extent. If you're wanting to drop a paragraph on people and have them respond that way, it's likely not going to work. A big reason for this (in my opinion) is that SAYS aren't  able to be exclusive in the emote, so you can't make them stand out. It's just some quotes in your emote here.

That's my understanding, yeah. And I'm no stranger to coding -- I'm happy to make a system, write aliases that call functions that aggregate different parts of my offense and do things slightly differently based on class resource availability, etc. I just don't wanna sit back and watch my bot fight. I realize that's an exaggeration, but I want to be actively pressing buttons and making decisions, moment to moment.

Anyway, thanks for the info. Definitely doesn't help not to have saytext in emotes, I'd imagine.

Reyson

Legibility and pacing can also suffer in longform. Breaking things up into smaller chunks gives more dynamic feel to a scene and gives more opportunity for the little interplays and reactions that make communication more interesting. 

Honestly, I feel your question is really two separate ones. If you're asking if there are people who want to play involved, pathos-filled storylines: yes, absolutely. They can be found all over the place, though some avoid setting things up beforehand in an OOC way. But be sure to look, I can definitely think of a dozen or so off the top of my head who would absolutely be game. 

The second, if big, paragraph-style writing is popular, the answer is no, not really. If you go to a secluded location and have someone committed to a scene, sure. But even then, flow tends to supercede hyperspecificity or clumping of actions together such that every post comes 10+ minutes apart; writing that way can be great to read after the fact, but it can really be a drag to get through at times in the moment. 

Svard

Reyson said:

Legibility and pacing can also suffer in longform. Breaking things up into smaller chunks gives more dynamic feel to a scene and gives more opportunity for the little interplays and reactions that make communication more interesting. 

Honestly, I feel your question is really two separate ones. If you're asking if there are people who want to play involved, pathos-filled storylines: yes, absolutely. They can be found all over the place, though some avoid setting things up beforehand in an OOC way. But be sure to look, I can definitely think of a dozen or so off the top of my head who would absolutely be game. 

The second, if big, paragraph-style writing is popular, the answer is no, not really. If you go to a secluded location and have someone committed to a scene, sure. But even then, flow tends to supercede hyperspecificity or clumping of actions together such that every post comes 10+ minutes apart; writing that way can be great to read after the fact, but it can really be a drag to get through at times in the moment. 

That's a fair assessment of my question, and it's reassuring to know that there are people who are into that sort of storytelling in Achaea. Obviously, I have my own opinion of longform RP or I wouldn't have phrased things as I did, but I'm absolutely happy to write to my audience despite that. I guess I wanted to know less whether longform was prevalent (I already knew from past experience that it wasn't) and more how many people I'd be likely to find that would want to engage in it with me.

But that aside, when you say "smaller chunks," how small do you mean? I remember playing in Targossas and being lightly reproached for inserting like, two very short, like five word custom emotes into a longer conversation full of says. That kind of made me leery of playing here, but there's a lot about that game that still attracts me. I can do and enjoy shortform, but even then, I like to be able to do a little bit of characterization via body language, ticks and so on.

Eoka

It is going to vary person to person in regards to comfort levels with emotes and RP! I'm not sure you should have been reprimanded for simply emoting a short action, but without more context it's difficult to assess. In group settings, it's probably best to keep the super long emotes to a minimum as it can slow down the flow of action. In a more intimate setting (grabbing a drink in a bar, for instance!) it is much easier to take it slow and emote how you wish. When I interact with someone I know is willing to engage, I tend to follow a pattern of a 1-2 sentence emote followed by a few SAYs, rinse and repeat. Unique characterisation choices and tics can be super interesting and are encouraged in a lot of circles! You just have to test the waters and see who is willing to respond. 

Saonji

Kog said:

I like longform RP personally, but I think you need to match the situation a bit more in Achaea. If you toss out a few lines and get a nod and a say back a few times in a row, then switch to shortform yourself- if they don't want to also longform, it's going to get frustrating for you both.

This is what I've done basically since I started playing. I always tend to match whoever I'm RPing with. If they mix small emotes with says etc, then so do I. If they do longer emotes, so do I. I personally don't have much of a preference. So long as it's evident they're actually putting in an effort.

Longform definitely isn't as prevalent as it is in Aetolia, regardless of what city you play in. You can pretty much find people who do it, in every city though. Maybe not as commonly as one another, but I can name at least two or three in every city who'll do it for casual interactions (if it's reciprocated). Rather than reserving it for 'important' occasions like rituals, ceremonies etc.

Reyson

Svard said:

Reyson said:

Legibility and pacing can also suffer in longform. Breaking things up into smaller chunks gives more dynamic feel to a scene and gives more opportunity for the little interplays and reactions that make communication more interesting. 

Honestly, I feel your question is really two separate ones. If you're asking if there are people who want to play involved, pathos-filled storylines: yes, absolutely. They can be found all over the place, though some avoid setting things up beforehand in an OOC way. But be sure to look, I can definitely think of a dozen or so off the top of my head who would absolutely be game. 

The second, if big, paragraph-style writing is popular, the answer is no, not really. If you go to a secluded location and have someone committed to a scene, sure. But even then, flow tends to supercede hyperspecificity or clumping of actions together such that every post comes 10+ minutes apart; writing that way can be great to read after the fact, but it can really be a drag to get through at times in the moment. 

That's a fair assessment of my question, and it's reassuring to know that there are people who are into that sort of storytelling in Achaea. Obviously, I have my own opinion of longform RP or I wouldn't have phrased things as I did, but I'm absolutely happy to write to my audience despite that. I guess I wanted to know less whether longform was prevalent (I already knew from past experience that it wasn't) and more how many people I'd be likely to find that would want to engage in it with me.

But that aside, when you say "smaller chunks," how small do you mean? I remember playing in Targossas and being lightly reproached for inserting like, two very short, like five word custom emotes into a longer conversation full of says. That kind of made me leery of playing here, but there's a lot about that game that still attracts me. I can do and enjoy shortform, but even then, I like to be able to do a little bit of characterization via body language, ticks and so on.

It's not so much a word count or line count as it is the digestibility of what you're writing. Most people will keep pace if you stick to one or two specific actions in your emotes that they can react to, particularly if it's not buried in a ton of fluff. The idea is to keep it so that it's a one-two, one-two pace, where it's action and reaction and then switch of tempo, rather than action action action then reaction reaction reaction action action action. If you're sticking to leaving just one or two things to respond directly to, I suspect that pretty much anyone interested in roleplay will be more than happy to stick with you. 

Though, as some people said, there are certain players who will match your style, particularly if you're off the beaten path and have the time and space to dedicate to an extended scene.

Trey

I feel like Reyson put it pretty well here. It's definitely a situation where the ability to read the room is a godsend. I'd also recommend peppering the conversation with emotes of varying length. They don't all have to be half-page prose, sometimes less is more. That said, if you're not being an ass or attempting to control people other than yourself with your writing, whoever told you off for it sounds like kind of a douche.

Batista

Trey said:

I feel like Reyson put it pretty well here. It's definitely a situation where the ability to read the room is a godsend. I'd also recommend peppering the conversation with emotes of varying length. They don't all have to be half-page prose, sometimes less is more. That said, if you're not being an ass or attempting to control people other than yourself with your writing, whoever told you off for it sounds like kind of a douche.

All of this, honestly.

I have been making it a habit, also, of using RPWHO ON when I get online. It's a vastly underused system. It's the way that people can set RP flags in the same way the Mark system is a PK flag. I'm open to roleplaying *anytime* with *anyone*, even if it's an out of the blue thing. This is, after all, a roleplaying game.

As for longform-RP, in theory it is a fun idea, but it often comes across as wildly self-indulgent -- much like posting gigantic paragraphs of text. You really have to give people time to respond to things, so that the scene evolves organically. The hardest part about lengthy roleplaying emotes is that they become lengthy -- and quickly, so --- by adding unnecessary detail to the parts of the scene that do not merit it.

Mathonwy

@Batista said:

 I'm open to roleplaying *anytime* with *anyone*, even if it's an out of the blue thing. This is, after all, a roleplaying game.

Challenge accepted.

Mathonwy scrolled down the forums. He knew, deep inside, that as the clock struck 4:30am he should crawl into bed, and yet something in the thread called to him; there was something he had missed. As the soft, gentle click of the mouse loaded the webpage, he pored over every written word, every carefully placed punctuation mark, as he scrutinized every post for that one thing he had missed: the one thing that would allow blissful sleep to descend upon him. And yet, like a rat in a cage, there was a nagging feeling at the back of his mind... something telling him... that it was right there, in front of his face.

Batista

Batista woke up in a cold sweat, afflicted with that unmistakable ache of time long slip't by. He checked the clock, its crimson glow casting an impassive gaze back into him; it was 5:35am. 

He sighed, knowing his alarm wouldn't go off for another twenty minutes. "Just enough time to get back to sleep," he thought to himself, "but not nearly enough time to enjoy it." 

He waited there, in the dark, for a long moment. Somewhere, in the distance, the steady drip-drip-dripping of water lulled him into a moment of reflective thinking. 

Drip, drip, drip. 

He idly wondered how much water he'd waste every year... how much time slipped through his clenched fingers, grains of sand scattering before the winds like so many drops from his faucet. He sighed, forlorn, and threw his cover back... 

He knew that sleep had been banished this night.

Mathonwy

How long Mathonwy stared at his computer screen, he knew not; it took the bzzzzzzt of his old, obsolete, and more-than-a-little busted iPhone SE to snap him out of his reverie. Old, obsolete, a little busted. He smiled deprecatingly to himself; almost all of those terms, he felt, could be applied to him at this point. He'd been playing Achaea long enough to have seen some things, but like all who have played it, he knew the moments he looked back on, the times when he felt truly alive playing the game, were distant memories, an echo of an echo of a moment in time. His phone buzzed spitefully in his hand once more, and his idle musings were gone, banished forever. He glanced down and saw a new notification. "@Batista," he muttered to himself. "I wonder what he's doing nowadays." He pressed his finger gently to the sensor's fingerprint scanner, frowning at the phone; it didn't want to acknowledge the scan. YOU MUST ENTER YOUR PASSCODE AFTER IPHONE HAS RESTARTED, the phone informed him insistently. Sighing, he entered in his phone's passcode, 042069, waiting for what felt like an eternity as the old phone booted up the Skype of 2020.

"Hey man, are you up?" the message read. Short. Succinct. Something he would never be.

"Yeah man, just having some trouble sleeping. You?" was his casual reply.

"Yeah same tbh," came the response. "I tried reading the forums, but there was just... nothing there."

Mathonwy leaned back in his chair then. "Nothing there?" he responded after a moment.

"Yeah," came the reply. "There's only like five new posts a day."

He frowned, then, at a loss for words. He knew, deep in his heart, that Batista was right... even though he wished he could be wrong.

Batista

"The forums have been pretty dead lately," came the response.

Batista sighed his agreement. In his day, he recalled (god, so many years ago, now) even this thread would have been 50 pages long by now.

Years. Wow. Those years had passed, in forgotten silence, lost tears in the pouring rain, just like the hundreds... nay thousands? that even now bare their moist, translucent corpses against the window of his Central Florida home this humid night.

"Man do you know what I remember?" he sent to @Mathonwy. "I remember that time we got banned for participating in a 40-page derail of the war thread."

"Hahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahaha," Mathonwy responded. "Lmaooooo."

Batista smiled, taking in Mathonwy's evident amusement, which gave way in short order to his own. Memories are like that, he thought. You open one door and you think you know what's behind it, but it turns out it's a closet, and soon there's a whole cascading mess of moments, lost in time, tumbling each over the last, vying for your attention.

"We tried to get that going again so many times ugh," Batista replied, a touch of sadness evident in the text. "But it just never really worked out a second time."

"Yeah man," Mathonwy said, melancholy suffusing the sad-face emoji that accompanied the message. "Nobody has seen @Tagg in so long, and I'm not sure what @Rynn is doing these days. And @Darroth and @Danith both retired ages ago. It'd be such a hard sell."

Batista sighed, nodding at his aged Samsung phone. It would be a hard sell. Could it even really be the same derail if the whole crew couldn't come back together? He brooded on the thought for a moment, letting the still, early-morning Florida silence overtake him for a moment. Suddenly, he snatched his phone, angrily poking his fingers at the on-screen keyboard as an idea suddenly flooded his mind... an idea he could not shake.

"You know what?" he said. "Maybe it wouldn't be the same thing, but maybe it doesn't have to be the same thing. Maybe it could be... better." He smiled then, sending one final message to Mathonwy before deliberately standing up, turning off his computer monitor, and heading to the shower, those idle moments giving way to preparation for the hustle and bustle of the day ahead.

Sothantos

Wow, writing responses for each other? Powerplaying.

Mathonwy

Nothing but silence, Mathonwy sighed to himself. He stood up then, knowing that if he did not get sleep now, he'd be forced to work the whole day on fumes and white Monster energy drinks. His phone bzzzzted one more time.

Curious, he thought. I thought Bati stopped responding. He picked up his phone, gasping sharply. He dropped his energy drink, the citrusy liquid burning a hole straight through his carpet to the floorboards below. That's coming out of the security deposit, he mused sourly to himself.

"I didn't know what I expected," he said softly to himself. "But I didn't expect this."

The words Batista had sent him were short -- two in total. But by God, did they have impact.

Forget coffee. Forget energy drinks. This was like a chair to the face... or maybe, just maybe, like stumbling into a pit...

...a pit of snakes.

"RASSLEFEST 2020. *"




(* tickets on sale now at supertickets.com!)

Batista

[start video]

TEN.

YEARS.

AGO.

A legend was born, of furious CARNAGE and ACTION...

-- A series of old scenes edited into harsh jumpcuts --

*fireworks, pyro, lots of stuff on fire actually*

"RASSLEFEST 2010 OFF TO A GREAT START!" 

"Mathownar in excellent form tonight!"

"BATMONTER HAS ARRIVED!"

Crowd chant: "TAGGMAN!TAGGMAN!TAGGMAN!"

-- end cuts --

And with time, the legend only grew....

-- Triumphant "RASSLEFEST 2012" banner, more cuts --

"MATHOWNAR, HOW ABOUT YOU, AND I, GO FOR THE GOLD TONIGHT BROTHER!!"

"... YOU'RE ON, BATMONTER! OHHHHHHHHHHHYEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH"

*two burly, sweaty hands collide in a wet clap of meaty, rippling flesh*

-- end cuts --

But time, the cruel mistress that it is, has proven that all good things must come to an end...

-- RASSLEFEST 2012 MAIN EVENT --

"MATHOWNAR IS IN THE RING! But... where's Batmonter?"

"I tell you, his music has been playing for thirty minutes, and he's just not here."

Bassy voice over guy: "Sometimes, a tragic end..."

"Wait! Wh- where is he going? Mathownar is walking away!"

"His head's hanging awful low..."

-- end cut -- 

But TONIGHT, a spark has been lit.

[begin scene]

BATMONTER strides in, looking more aged, but with all the misplaced intensity of a thousand cats hissing inside an easy-bake oven.

MATHOWNAR stands, noticing BATMONTER's presence, and the two meet nose-to-nose. They're sweating. 

God, so much sweat.

"So... still got them taquitos... Mathonwar?" BATMONTER growls.

"... sure do, Batmonter. Still got that pit...

of...

... snakes?"

A long, intense moment, where both men are shaking for no apparent reason.

BATMONTER extends his hand.

"... one more time?"

[end scene]

FIND OUT AT IRREGULARLY SCHEDULED INTERVALS AT....

RASSLEFEST 2020 (TM)

(which is on sale now at SUPERTICKETS.COM!!!!)

[video ends in white noise]

Mathonwy

[start video]

LEGENDS RISE.

"...flaming barbed-wire match..."

"You know, they say it really takes it out of you..."

(A sound plays, rhythmic, and as it loops, it gets clearer and clearer. It is a crowd, and they are screaming out one name, over and over again.)

Crowd: RYNN-10-10! RYNN-10-10!

Announcer: It sounds like he's got the crowd --

Other announcer: Yeah but what does the crowd know! Buncha idiots!

(There, in bright blue spandex, is the figure of a man: lithe, but muscular, and, of course, dripping with an OSHA violation's worth of sweat. He's dazed, as is his opponent; neither have much wind left in their sails. It's a race to see who can get their wind back, and it's a dead heat, when suddenly...)

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT! DARDURDUR'S CRAWLED OUT FROM UNDER THE RING, AND HE'S GOT... WHAT'S THIS! TRIPLE D, IS THAT A  RUBBER MALLET IN HIS HAND?"

-- Cue the sound of glass shattering and eagles screaming --

"OH MY GOD! IS THAT... IT'S TAGGMAN! AND HE'S GOT A CHAIR!"

"HE JUST BEAT TRIPLE D! HE'S GOT THE MALLET! HE'S GOT THE MALLET!"

"THE REF IS DOWN! THE REF IS DOWN!"

(CAMERA CUTS TO: Taggman, pulling Rynn-10-10 over Dardurdur before running out of the ring just as the ref comes to.)

"ONE! TWO! THREE! RYNN-10-10 HAS WON! WHAT A PERFORMANCE!"

(CAMERA: Fade to black.)

AND LEGENDS FALL.

"@Rynn has the Fabulous Flairbird ready for the DECAKIIIIIIIIIICK, and he's HIT FLAIR!... oh no, something's gone wrong here..."

"...ambulance... medical professionals... they say he'll never wrestle again..."

(CAMERA: Cut to: @Flair walking out of the ring, leaving his boots and outfit behind as the crowd chants THANK YOU FLAIR, over and over again.)

"There goes a legend, one of the very best to ever grace the ring."

"You know Rynn-10-10 has to feel just awful about what happened..."

BUT FOR THOSE THAT REMAIN...

(CAMERA: Overlaid with a flash of lightning, we see a high-contrast image of BATMONTER on the left side of the screen and the same of MATHOWNAR on the right.)

THERE IS...

(CAMERA: Cuts to a wrestlng ring that is, inexplicably, on fire, before fading out to reveal...)

RASSLEFEST 2020.

(Secure your RASSLEFEST 2020 merchandise today at supertickets.com! Order now while supplies last!)

Archaeon

Disgusting

Batista

Archaeon said:

Disgusting

Honestly, it IS absolutely disgusting...

That a LEGEND GOES OUT IN HIS PRIME LIKE THIS. 

Vengeance will be served at RASSLEFEST 2020 (TM).

(Commem... com... comem.. uh, share this moment with your somewhat official THANK YOU @Flair t-shirt, available now at SUPERTICKETS.COM!!!)

Batista

(Sorry @Reyson, I'll work on those reqs, I promise.)

Draekar

Achaea and the forums are much greater for the return of @Batista

Good to see you bud!

Caelan

Draekar said:

Achaea and the forums are much greater for the return of @Batista

Good to see you bud!

I just want to see if Silas does the Jaru-Slamma-Jamma off the top rope!

And the juvenile grammar-gymnastic antics that taught us Time Rolls On Lacking Lustre, Deleteriously Enjoying Little Excitement To Unanimous Scorn.

I will admit, this already makes me want to play Achaea more.

Rynn

A flurry of stars explode from the center of the screen and expand outward in a mediocre but dramatic transition to a post match interview occurring in a locker room somewhere in the bowels of the facility. A young woman holding a comically sized microphone stands next to a profusely sweating, incredibly buff man that's still breathing heavily from his previous match, his glazed-over eyes not seeming to register that there is a real person standing beside him.

"Wow, Rynn-10-10! That was an amazing match! Things looked really bad for a moment there but you managed to pull through and take the win! Did you know that Taggman was going to help you?"

The first few words of Rynn's response are too quiet to hear, but fortunately the woman has the presence of mind to shove the mic awkwardly close to Rynn's mouth as he rambles.

"--and things just happen the way they do and you have to be ready for it. You have to be ready for it, ya know? I mean when you step into the ring you know there's always the possibility and if you're not ready for it you're just gonna...you're just gonna...I mean it's not going to be good. So you gotta be ready."

The practiced smile on the woman's face falters as her face blanks and she stares at the wrestler like a deer caught in the headlights. She blinks her eyes rapidly, clears her throat, and puts the faux smile back on her face.

"Right. It seems that you might have put the Fabulous Flairbird out--"

She is cut off as the wrestler abruptly leans in and grabs the mic while she's still holding it. Practically kissing the mic, Rynn speaks in a deep, breathy voice.

"And you better be ready because if you got a problem I'll see you...

at RASSLEFEST 2020 (TM)."

"...tickets on sale at supertickets.com"