Penultimate Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #51: Roleplaying in CoH

[SeraphimKensai]

Welcome back once again folks. This is the penultimate thread in this series.

 

One topic that I've never got around to has been Roleplaying, which is oddly surprising as I've played on Everlasting since Homecoming launched (although I'm not a roleplayer, I picked the server before it was designated the unofficial roleplaying server. I liked the name as I'm a Roald Dahl fan).

 

Do you roleplay in CoH? If so what's your experience been like? How's the community? How welcoming is the roleplay community to new players interested in giving it a try? Can you point to any good resources for them? What kind of roleplay stories are you currently involved with? If you had to change something about roleplay in the game what would you implement?

 

 

As always thanks again for playing.

[Yomo Kimyata]

14 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

This is the penultimate thread in this series.

 

I used the word "penultimate" in a speech this weekend.  Partly for the purpose of saying, "I've never actually ever heard anyone say that word out loud."

[SeraphimKensai]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

I used the word "penultimate" in a speech this weekend.  Partly for the purpose of saying, "I've never actually ever heard anyone say that word out loud."

I'm curious what the speech was on. I used it last Thursday during a public hearing while discussing a proposed industrial planned unit development.

[Snarky]

I have done decades of tabletop RP.  I could never get it to work in any mmorpg.

 

When I run a toon in any game I mostly try to stay "in voice" of the character. unless helping a newb, and sometimes even then.  But that is the extent.

[InvaderStych]

4 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you roleplay in CoH?

 

Closest I've ever gotten was while leading a team through the Dark Astoria arcs and started talking back to Mot's interstitial dialog in my character's "voice" in team chat uSiNG thE sAMe tEXT StYLe.

 

Does that count? 🤣

 

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by InvaderStych
arcs, plural

[Clave Dark 5]

My interest in RP wore off back when I did table top stuff; no idea why, I became a bit more self-conscious or something, started to feel a bit silly for me.  So no I really haven't much in CoH, especially by the time of HC.

[Vic Raiden]

I do roleplay in CoH quite a lot. Both with friends and with the SG I'm a member of, and sometimes even just by responding to NPC chatter.

If there's one thing I think would make the roleplaying experience better, it's the ability to make mock-attacks which play the given attack's animation and effects without actually harming or homing in on anyone. Also, a lot more temporary powers for the sake of greater variety in things one could do - like whips or singular pistols, for example.

[UltraAlt]

11 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you roleplay in CoH?

 

Always.

I guess it is best put ... I solo roleplay

 

11 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

If so what's your experience been like?

 

I roleplay all my characters.

I'm a character conception player. Most of the time I get an idea for a character and then make that character. Sometimes I pick some powers and make character conception around a character having those powers.

I try to play all my characters related to their conception. 

 

Sometimes that means trying to restrict the character to fighting certain villain groups or only doing certain types of scanner or newspaper missions.

Sometimes it is more about the character's outlook and how that character would work with a team.

The variation of playstyles to me is ... well .... how do they say "variety is the spice of life"

 

I don't go out of my way to chat in character with other players.

If someone starts it up with me, I'm fine to roll with it, but I'm not going out of my way to meet up with people at a set time to stand around and roleplay.

 

I play on all the servers, but I've been spending more and more time it seems on Everlasting. 

Sometimes you run into the players that use the RPG convention of indicating that they are talking OOC, but, then, that is all they are doing, so why bother?

 

11 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

How welcoming is the roleplay community to new players interested in giving it a try?

 

So welcoming that no one has bothered to invite me to roleplay.

I do my roleplay and, if someone interacts, that's fine with me.

I have no intent to join a RP supergroup, nor have I been asked, nor have I seen posts recruiting for one in /LFG during the hours that I play.

 

11 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Can you point to any good resources for them?

 

Not sure what you are asking for here.

I know that some of us here have played RPGs since they were called RPGs, played games with others while each taking on roles of characters before there were RPGs, and some of us have even worked for role-playing game companies.

 

There are clubs:

 

 

There is a RP section of the forums:

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/48-roleplaying/

Some people even roleplay posts there.

 

There is a slash command to turn on an in-game RPG flag:

/roleplaying

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Roleplaying_(Slash_Command) 

(I haven't bothered to see if anyone actually uses it.)

 

Some people apparently post their character(s) and supergroup(s) stuff on the wiki

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Main_Page

(not sure how you would find it unless you were specifically looking for it. No links for it if you search for roleplay)

 

There is an Events calendar and sometimes RP stuff is listed on there:

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/events/

 

I haven't gone to the CoH Discord (I like to keep my mask on), but I'm assuming that there is probably a RP channel or channels

And I know from various posts that some RPG groups have their own discord channels.

 

There have been bases setup for roleplaying on some of the servers.

Lists of base that are open-access on the servers:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Everlasting_Base_List

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Excelsior_Base_List

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Torchbearer_Base_List

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Reunion_Base_List

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Indomitable_Base_List

Some of them might not even be listed as RPG bases, but you can tell by the title if they might have RP potential or not.

 

There is always standing around in the Pocket D talking in local to see if anyone chimes in or asked you to join something.

Not like the dance floor is hopping in there like it used to be on Virtue some nights with the area around the DJ crowded with dancing PCs.

 

And, of course, there is the writing of bios on characters. Some more in depth than others. Some people will take time to read them. Some even my bother with sending a tell after reading a bio. 

 

Most of the time, that's pretty much what you are going to get. Reading someone's bio and commenting on it.

There just isn't that much in character interaction going on, especially once the missions start rolling.

 

12 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

What kind of roleplay stories are you currently involved with?

 

What ever interactions I find in game content since I don't play the end-game.

Made 3 or 4 new characters over the last month or so. Working to play within their character conceptions.

Continuing on with my Origin arc project slowly but surely. I figure that is role-playing the Origins.

 

12 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

If you had to change something about roleplay in the game what would you implement?

 

I'm always against drama in MMORPG role-playing.

It just isn't enjoyable to me.

In my experience, many people that lead online roleplaying like instigating drama, so I don't go out my way to track it down.

 

Throw the RP conventions out the window. Chat how you want to chat.

if you are recruiting for a team, of course, that's going to be out of character if you are going to relay the information in a way that someone this is new to the game is going to be able to figure out what you are talking about.

If you want to talk like your character in text, go for it.

If someone has RP bait in their bio, see what happens if you mention something about it.

 

RP interaction for me will almost always be limited to the time standing around while teams are being recruited, so I can only really find time for it when I'm not the recruiter. 

 

[Crystal Dragon]

Thank you for the mention, Ultra! Yes we provide resources to help guide newer players unfamiliar with roleplaying in the mmorpg environments. @McSpazz just got back from an extended break and is working on restructuring our teaching material bullet points and discussion content to help hit on the important points that have been missed in passed sessions we've hosted. Both he and I have been around a good long while and roleplayed in other settings and spaces over the years and we try to share some of our earlier experiences to help folks know what are the bad examples of roleplaying, and what to do to find the good stuff as well as pointers on how to improve on basic written characters interactions and a host of other content we share tips on. We even host a workshop following the "class weekends" we host lesson nights on. Just keep an eye open on the LFG channel for Welcome Wagons, we tend to announce time and location on the day of, to avoid disruptions in the open world maps, and keep things laid back for all that attend. We welcome new and old gamers that are interested and wishing to share their own experiences to help guide the newbloods along.

[Crystal Dragon]

17 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

My interest in RP wore off back when I did table top stuff; no idea why, I became a bit more self-conscious or something, started to feel a bit silly for me.  So no I really haven't much in CoH, especially by the time of HC.

I JUST noticed your post when I hit enter on my reply to Ultra and the OP. xD

I'd like to recommend something to help you out with breaking out of the self conscious worries. There's a series of writing prompts up on the roleplaying section that you could try using for inspiration to write more about your characters mindset and decision making. It may help you find your characters-voice again and help you break out of the ice a bit. ^^

  

19 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

Closest I've ever gotten was while leading a team through the Dark Astoria arcs and started talking back to Mot's interstitial dialog in my character's "voice" in team chat uSiNG thE sAMe tEXT StYLe.

 

Does that count? 🤣

 

 

I *LOVE* that, seriously, don't stop doing that! It's a great way to channel that character creatively, and adds some fun life to the game world as you play with others. 😄

 

  

On 10/24/2023 at 6:38 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

Welcome back once again folks. This is the penultimate thread in this series.

 

One topic that I've never got around to has been Roleplaying, which is oddly surprising as I've played on Everlasting since Homecoming launched (although I'm not a roleplayer, I picked the server before it was designated the unofficial roleplaying server. I liked the name as I'm a Roald Dahl fan).

 

Do you roleplay in CoH? If so what's your experience been like? How's the community? How welcoming is the roleplay community to new players interested in giving it a try? Can you point to any good resources for them? What kind of roleplay stories are you currently involved with? If you had to change something about roleplay in the game what would you implement?

 

 

As always thanks again for playing.

Yes, I consider Everlasting something of a home-away-from-home for my headcase basket full of characters. I've been able to find quite a bit of fun roleplaying groups, a few small cliques here and there, lots of great players that are helpful and friendly, and the community itself is very welcoming to new players interested in diving into their character stories and freewheeling a new experience for themselves.

 

Hi, I'm the organizer and creator of the Welcome Wagons project, a homebrew group for helping teach and guide newer roleplayers and the different forms of roleplaying that can be found in the game community.

 

I tend to point people new to the server to the class nights (We're kicking them off again soon, just doing some restructuring to get things to hit on the important points we missed in the last years sessions.) for the Welcome Wagons, and direct them to specific groups that I've been in contact with over the last 5 years on the server.

 

I vest myself into spin off story content, original character content, and focus a lot on development of a rather lengthy saga between a collective of about 36 characters on my roster, and my husbands ( @SolSoldier ) roster and we often bring in new people that stick around for a while, or end up connecting to friends of ours along the way that fit their preferences better. I'd say mature, OC universal, mashup between Dragonriders of Pern, and maybe The Wheel of Time would be a good fitting description brief for my kind of roleplay stories.

 

If I could change anything in the roleplay community within the game, it would be a stronger embrasure of informed consent, for both the players and the story lead, not everyone has a clear understanding of what they are diving into when they okay playing with a new circle of friends and keeping them informed is pretty important.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Crystal Dragon
I AM SORRY I SAW MORE TO REPLY TO! XD

[McSpazz]

HI! IT'S ME! SPAZZ! I have been summoned!!!

As @Crystal Dragon said, we're very invested in roleplaying. I have legitimately written an entire write-up lecture series here on the forums! It started out kind'a small and between the in game workshops and the on forum write-ups it's just kind of become its whole thing. If anyone needs advice on getting started with roleplaying, even outside of City of Heroes, we always try and make ourselves available.

 

Okay, enough waxing my own ego. The questions!

 

1. My experience has been overall positive! How positive depends on what time period we're talking about, but I certainly didn't go on break because of the people I encountered here.
2. Overall, as far as MMO roleplay communities goes, it's really solid. It's not perfect, of course. Cliche behavior isn't super uncommon and, while not nearly as bad as it was on SCoRE, there is a bit of a small town effect where rumors and gossip can spread unhindered. Still, it's definitely a community I'd encourage people new to MMO roleplay to try getting into.
3. How open people are to people new to roleplay kind of depends on the setting. More closed off SG groups tend to be more critical of flawed roleplay than less organized groups, but's kind of true for every setting. Most roleplayers in Everlasting seem to be more excited to see new ideas being played around with with fresh, new players. I'd say the bigger hole that exists within Everlasting's openness to new roleplayers is less an intentional dislike but more so an assumption of skill. As City of Heroes is an old game that was officially shut down over 10 years ago, most of the people coming here to roleplay are probably going to have at least some experience. The unwritten rules that people just assume everyone else knows can catch people off guard.
4. You can check out my write-up series linked waaaay back above for very detailed breakdowns of what goes into roleplay and what considerations there are. As I said, I'm also always open to helping new people get set-up, so just drop me a DM! 
5. One of the more interesting roleplay stories I recently got involved with was a full on trial of a super hero. I was one of the jury members and the event organizers actually went out of their way to make it really feel like a real court case. It even had a bit of an interesting twist where we had to find the defendant not guilty on something despite everyone knowing he was probably guilty. Because, you know. In criminal court, probably isn't good enough. I'm also running a long ongoing event involving an alien race that people can interact with which is just starting to really take off. That's one of the best things about storytelling in City of Heroes, honestly. Because it's so well based in comic books, the possible stories you can tell is almost endless.
6. It depends on what you mean by "something you'd change." If you're talking gameplay wise, I'd probably add some kind of mechanical boost to encourage people to roleplay. Though, that's only really useful for roleplayers and is kind of a pipe dream🤣. If you mean within the community, I'd probably want more people to disconnect their perception of how dangerous various aspects of the world can be from their character's mechanical advantage. I think I ranted about this somewhere in my write-up series, but City of Heroes is a patchwork of content and what was once end game was never adjusted to match what the new standards of end game are. If the game tells you something is top tier dangerous but you find no challenge fighting it with your 5 billion inf fully incarnated out build, maybe you should be more leaning towards the former than the latter to determine how seriously your character takes it. But that's a real...me thing. Obviously can't nor would I want to force that on everyone.

[Clave Dark 5]

15 hours ago, Crystal Dragon said:

I'd like to recommend something to help you out with breaking out of the self conscious worries. There's a series of writing prompts up on the roleplaying section that you could try using for inspiration to write more about your characters mindset and decision making. It may help you find your characters-voice again and help you break out of the ice a bit. ^^

It's not so much "i am a very shy bunny hiding under this bush," so much as that feeling a cultivated European vampire might feel riding down the street on a Big Wheel.  Not that that's fair or accurate for anyone else, just me.  I am also an incredibly sloppy typer when I'm rushing (just ask the people in my ToT leagues that I've been scouting for and running).  Maybe also just the pressure of trying to come up with anything worth writing on the fly ha ha

[High_Beam]

Career RPG player here but outside of developing good back stories/biographies for my characters and a few that make it into my larger literary activities, I do not RP in game.  People who RP in game, good on them.

 

I like that the game allows for all sorts of variety including RP.  And, like all of the other play styles, as long as they do not negatively impact the game as a whole, or adopt a sense of entitlement, then all is good.

 

Activate Humor Mode

 

Except for the Super Cat Girls and Panda RPers.  The former gets annoying in like 8.78 seconds of conversation and the latter can simply die in a fire 🙂

 

Secure From Humor Mode

[Oklahoman]

On 10/24/2023 at 5:38 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you roleplay in CoH?

 

No, I'm a suburban soccer mom living in North Dakota.

 

Seriously, I roleplay in the sense that each of my characters have a "voice" in which they speak, and the powers I choose for them are based on their character and not necessarily what's optimal - including inspirations. Oklahoman carries mostly team reds and greens, Vayne Glorious carries only ones that helps himself.

 

Some people really get into roleplaying, such that you have to sort of join in on their little world to even interact with them. I don't enjoy that, and I try not to do that myself, but if that's fun for you and you have a group that enjoys it, good for you.

[Crystal Dragon]

7 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

It's not so much "i am a very shy bunny hiding under this bush," so much as that feeling a cultivated European vampire might feel riding down the street on a Big Wheel.  Not that that's fair or accurate for anyone else, just me.  I am also an incredibly sloppy typer when I'm rushing (just ask the people in my ToT leagues that I've been scouting for and running).  Maybe also just the pressure of trying to come up with anything worth writing on the fly ha ha

That's entirely valid! It's still a great way to break the ice and makes others feel more comfortable giving their character a voice that's all their own. 😄 Kudo's just the same.

[Luminara]

On 10/24/2023 at 6:38 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you roleplay in CoH?

 

Only with one character.  Said character is feral and only communicates via /e sniff, /e hiss or /e growl.

 

Of course, there's a distinct possibility that I'm just being myself when I'm playing this character (i do, after all, live in a squalid little cabin tucked away in a forest, commune with wild animals (i've almost befriended a black bear... a few more visits and we'll be besties) and tend to be generally uncommunicative with people)... in which case, all of my other characters are roleplayed as relatively well-adjusted individuals.

 

Boy, if I didn't have SweeTarts, I'd be up to my nipples in an existential crisis.

[Greycat]

On 10/24/2023 at 5:38 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you roleplay in CoH? If so what's your experience been like? How's the community? How welcoming is the roleplay community to new players interested in giving it a try? Can you point to any good resources for them? What kind of roleplay stories are you currently involved with? If you had to change something about roleplay in the game what would you implement?

 

I think Roleplay is what keeps me in COH. It's not doing X mission for the thousandth time - though we'll often use that as the basis *of* something and RP through it to use it for something vastly different.

 

Experience - Generally good. Like any community, there are a few asshats. *shrug* Some people have had worse experiences, with people trying to pull BS on them long term, be abusive and the like - but I've got to say, going since live, I've only run into a couple, heard about a couple of others (and kept in mind that was hearsay.) The majority of people I've found run the gamut from "eh, ok" to RL friends I'd open my door to (and apologize for the mess) in an instant.

 

Welcoming - I've been in it so long it's hard to say. I know we try to be. I've invited people along who were just standing on the fringes when we do, say, an  RP centric AE that doesn't really need a lot of backstory. I've had people tell me it's daunting trying to get started when everyone has these exceptionally long back histories, backstories, ongoing arcs, etc. - but, generally, there's no "required reading." Flip side is, there's a lot of friend-of-friend-oh-hi-come-along introductions, too, which makes it much easier.

 

Resources - I know @Crystal Dragon was running "Intro to RP" stuff for a while, along with some others. Other than that, I really don't know - really, though, it's mostly a matter of how you interact with others.

 

Stories - Oh lord. If I went into all of the various stories, both group and individual (as in "this is my character and why they do this,") I'd be typing for weeks.  Major ones involve someone running a shadow organization which, among other things such as arms dealing (his specialty) is involved in cloning - in part to be able to sell a disposable, deniable army to use those weapons on request, in part to use them for research, and some just to sell to whoever wants them for whatever (or to provide children/loved ones to use to gather information and/or for blackmail of people in power - the whole "You will make this into law, you wouldn't want something to *happen* would you" schtick.) Some of the clones have been freed, work on freeing others and (now) have allies, but there's a lot of digging to do to get to him.

 

Alternately, a different designer drug being on the streets which, depending on the "kicker," can have different effects, using the young, partygoing population as unwitting test subjects.

 

Quite a bit branches off from those, for starters.

 

Changing roleplay - Honestly, it'd be "more of more of more of." More emotes. Better interaction with the environment. Smaller hit boxes. Being able to sit and be sat down on something instead of hovering somewhere over a table, for instance. Just more for our characters to do. Play musical instruments, for instance. Synchronize some emotes.