Well, here it is, my "how to roleplay" handbook. First off, This is ofcourse only my perception of the case, and could differ from the immortals on DR, or in any other game. I do strife to give you objective information though, so no tips like "How to appeal to the imms" will be given.

roleplay is an art, and a magic. If you have ever watched a good movie which took you in for the time of the movies duration, and had you immersed in it's reality completely, it ws a successfull roleplay by the actors on the stage. Acting, which is about the same as roleplaying, becomes successfull only when you yourself crawl deep into the skin of the person you are trying to play. So if you are a troll for instance, you would certainly wouldn't go about giving smart remarks, would you now? As in the game of DR your character is completely yours to develop, let's start with the beginning, the creation of a character., after that I'll discuss writing a background story for your character, and later on things like interaction with other players will be described.


The creation of a character:
Before you simply go off with some hodgiepot character you thought had nice skills, think again. DR isn't a game based on H&S, so having good fighting skills isn't your primary objective. You should rather go about and read all the descriptions the races give you, and start to imagine them. Just make a picture of what the character looks like, feels like, and try to act him out for a bit. You know.. like kids do when they are playing asif they are robbing the bank. When one of the races you just brought to life appeals to you, because of the way it acts and behaves, write it down.

Then you go and read all the professions that are available to you, to that race. Now you crawl back into the skin of the race you chose, and you will try and play him/her with the profession you just imagined. This could be a bit harder, because you might not completely know how your character would behave, because you either never saw this profession before, or you just never really payed much attention to it. Either way, or even if you already know what you should act like, it would be a good idea to get into the game with a totally different character with a different character name, and get close to a character that you would like to become. Ask him about how he plays, and simply observe him. It gives you good ideas on how to act (although you shouldn't mimic) Delete your test character, and go about thinking up a name for your person. Mind you, this is a very important thing. The sound of the name you choose can have a devastating effect on your character. Names with mor are often considered evil, and names ending on a are mostly used for females. K's, R's and D's are usually things associated with strong warriors. Y's and ch's are found often in elfish races.


Writing your characters background, and overall red line:
Now that your character has come into virtual existance, it is time for you to think of what your character will do in it's life. why did it come to this town? and what is it going to do? and why? These are hard questions, best thought over for a long time. Why? Well, because it is the thing you will need to stick to after it is approved, and it is the red line though your characters story. Everything you do has it's origins in your background. Backgrounds consist of 2 pieces, a public and a private background. Now, in your public background you wouldn't go put that your character want's world rulership for itself, while going about this in a sneaky way, eh? ofcourse not! That should be put in your private background. In your public background however you will put a general story you would tell anyone your character will meet in the game. Something like I came from there and there, this and that happened, and it caused me to be here, while I'm wanting to do this and that in the near future. Mind you, *near future*, don't go and plot your characters future up to a few years from now, because what fun would that be? It's like you've read the book already that you are trying to write here. Just give a few hints and tips on what it's plans are for in the short future, and proceed to your private background. coming up with your public background can be something of a drag though. The imms won't allow any standard themes anymore, which was a good decision, and now encourage you to be original. Themes like "my family was killed by orcs and I fled to haven" are plain wrong. And so are things like hurricanes and magical portals you accidentally stepped though. It would be a good idea to go and read the background of other characters to get some ideas. It's very simple in dr, you just type "background " and you're off. I recommend reading not just backgrounds of the high level characters, but more of a wide range if things. Also don't concentrate on characters similar on yours. They tend to be slightly resemblant. Now that you've read some backgrounds, it's time to actually write yours. Go imagine your character again, an how it is at it's present age. Then slowly go back through time, imagining what events brought it into the position it is now. Think about what events formed your character. go back all the way to it's younger age, and find out why your char. left it's home.


These are the things a good background features:
Where did you come from? (use already existing areas as far as possible) Why did you leave there? (no more orfins and dead parents. no natural disasters) And why did you go to haven? Why not a different city? (..because you wanted to be an adventurer.. but model this one into a nice form, please?) What are you going to do as soon as you have graduated from the academy? and then for your private background, describe your behaviour, and what your char wants in the long run, and how it's going to plan to get that.

I think fp-spies can read private backgrounds, enabling to check whether you are playing your character like you should (like you stick to your bg).


A description:
When you look at people, you are will be shown a short text on what the other person looks like. You can write on for yourself too. Remember how you imagined your character what to look and feel like? Well, here is your chance to give the other players a look in your mind, on what your char looks like. It must be an objective view though, ruling out things like "Your mind is terrorised by the view of this man, hooded in a black cloak and hood, you can only just see the bare bone of his skull". this is absolute nonsence. There are no races called skeletons in the game, so how come your character would look like a stiff? There are ofcourse some excuses to come up with, but they are hardly realistic. there are a few standard thing sthat you should definately put in your description. things like eyecolor, height, hair color, build and clothes are very important. A slight touch of your char's attitude will do miricales (proud looking, with a sad face, etc). Descriptions are something that you need to have a little bit of feeling for. Just go about looking at people, and examining their descriptions. It's easy picking out the good and the bad ones. Bad ones are things that have the word "you" in them. It is because you can only be sued in conjunction with an action, and any action described in a person's description is a bad thing. there are very bad and only slight bad things though. Very bad would be "you are blasted back by the terror of this persons look", and slightly bad would be "as you take a step back to get a better view". Why is the second one bad? Because the playing looking at you might be a very tough person, not interested in others, so why would he take a step back? He doesn't even care about you!


interaction:
Now that you know who you are, it's time to behave that way. This is the real rpíng we are talking about. the thing that makes the game fun (if it isn't, leave, because you'll only bug the other players). Rp can be fun quite fast.. just a situation where you are not in control can take a lot from you, and give you a lot back on the otherhand. and that is immediately one of the big misteries of rp: Let your character ride the flow.. let things happen to it, don't try to have everything neat in order. But let us now return to the more basic knowledge of standard interaction. When you walk about in haven as one of the academy, you will find yourself surrounded by haveners killing a lot of animals. These are not your primary targets to interact with, because most of them are only interested in getting to the next level before they need to go to school. Gaining levels is a tedious job. Killing mobs as many times as you can without getting killed so you'll get xp to get to the next level and do more damage to kill more mobs in less time is hardly something to get excited about. Oh sure.. for a week of playing it's quite fun, but afterwards it'll get tedious and you'll find yourself asking you "what has actaully happened to my character". Why did you put all this trouble into creating a background and a good story line for your character when all you do is Hack & Slash? Instead, just go to the fountain square, and stand there, waiting for someone to pass (this can take a long time, especially when there are few players). If there is nobody there in a few minutes, ok, go and kill some things after which you return to check again.

So now someone enters the room, and hopefully it's a player who read this manual too, or just happened to figure it all out by it self. that means you are now going to interact, the other person not knowing you will probably ask you who you are, and take a look at you. Therefore, they will look at your description (you hope) and based on that deceide whether they like you or not. A good rpér would now do this:

x walks up to you after having taken a look in your direction.
x inclines his head, looking curious
x sais "I haven't seen you before, have I?"


now x is waiting for a reply.
you could ofcourse do this:
y sais "no you haven't"
but that would be a lousy attemt to interact. Keep your character in mind.. what would it do when confronted like this? perhaps this would be better:
y turns his head to x, looking at him.
y's face is a mixture of uncertanity and happiness
y sais I don't think so.. buti could be wrong.
y sais 'what is your name sir? Perhaps I will remember you then, if I have known you at all" etc.

Now this could only be used a few times on different players, because if you keep on doing this to the same person they will either think you are mad or have amnesia. Keep a record of who you have met!

now lets say person x has told you about himself, and what he's going to do today. Lets say that he returns a week later, and meets you again at the fountain.

x walks up to the fountain slowly, with a slight limp.
x cups his hands in the water, and drink from it.
x suddenly turns his head to look at yours, and smiles.
x sais Well hello there y. How are you?
y gazes at you, probably interested in what happened to you.
y sais *with a happy voice* I have been very well.. The academy has allowled me to go to the next grade.
y smiles at x
x sais That is very fortunate. I'm glad to hear you have been well.
y sais Yes.. But you yourself look just awfull.. what has happened?
y walks over to x with a worried look.


and there we go again. Mind you, rp is 75% emotes, and only 25% talking. if talking is all you do, you have only 25% chance to get an fp. You will need to show what you do continiously, giving the other player(s) a very good feeling of what you are like. You are creating a picture in their imaginations, and have control over it. Use it wisely.

there is a thing as a bad emote. Bad emotes are things in which you show things that other players can't really know about. for instance "x thinks he should shut up" is something that the other players can't really know by looking at his face. "x thinks y has gone mad" would be allowable, because this expression could easilly be seen by looking at the other person. I would suggest doing it this way though: "x look like he is thinking y has gone mad". It allows for y to interpret this in his own way, ignoring it, or interacting with it. two possible reactions could be:
- "y sais What is wrong? do you think I have gone mad?"
- "y didn't notice x's facial expression, and goes on ranting and raving"



Well, that's about it I guess.

L

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