roleplaying 101

[Samuel_Lora]

Solo role-play



The trend of posting screenshots of solo role-play has accumulated something of a big following recently. It has some obvious benefits for the perpetrator that can explain its popularity:



1. They can be the lead actor in a scene, showcasing their roleplay.

2. They don't need to rely on the presence of other roleplayers.

3. They acknowledge that people in real-life aren't always crowded in company. They spend time alone.


I really think it's the first two benefits that are mostly responsible for the support. If you want to showcase your role-play, please allow other people some involvement. No one's roleplay is so jaw-droppingly awesome that to share its contents directly would be unhealthy; your role-play doesn't possess the face-melting properties of Ark of the Covenant. Share it around.



The enjoyment of browsing screenshots pales in comparison to the enjoyment of participating in a good roleplay scene. You should be showing your roleplay to other people in-game – so they can enjoy it – and not just in titbits you release in screenshots. If the only good roleplay you produce is in an isolated & scripted setting, you need to improve. That's the blunt truth.



The second draw, that concerning activity, is problematic. You can create roleplay with one of the hundreds of players outside the faction if you're so confident no one in the faction will be available. It's really odd to even imply activity is an excuse for not roleplaying with other people when the server packs at least a few dozen players at all times – and often many hundreds more. There are many, many rackets available to your character to participate in if you know how to break into it OOC.



The list is endless: robberies, counterfeit clothing, drug dealing (ask someone for a loan to begin: buy a half ounce from somebody, flip it, pay the person who gave you the loan off, buy a whole ounce - rinse and repeat), small scale arms dealing (should be self-explanatory) and car theft are the conventional ones that come to mind.



Finally, there's the argument from simulation. My reply to this is the same to those people who take a long and tedious shit in strenuous amounts of detail: No one cares. There are certain areas of role-play worth committing to – a drug deal, a conversation in a bar, towing a car, and others – and then there are those you don't bother with – taking a dump, getting breakfast before you leave the house, brushing your teeth – because they bring nothing to your character. Macbeth, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Nineteen Eighty-four: None of these works of literature would benefit from a scene where the protagonist takes a shit. It's not necessary.



So if your isolated role-play isn't supplementing your character, avoid it. If you take drugs & screenshot it, the drug-taking should be a precursor to justify your character's behaviour in a later scene. If you just want to show your character to be somebody who takes drugs, do so in a more subtle way. A scene where your character just indulges themselves in hard drugs is overt and boring. Only stick to the solo role-play that serves a proper, thoughtful purpose.



Screenshots



It's true that a picture paints a thousand words. It's also true that a lot of pictures are crudely drawn crap. In LS-RP, a few people standing on a street is a picture that paints very little – so compliment your picture with words. This game is mainly dialogue driven – dialogue should feature in the bulk of your screenshots. Blank screenshots do little more than demonstrate (some) activity. A faction of this calibre should have higher aspirations than showcasing some activity. We should principally demonstrate quality in our screenshots. Part of this demonstration involves a few necessities:



Don't use outlandish mods and Lady Gaga-inspired outfits for your characters and/or other characters. Why? It makes the screenshots look very silly and contradicts this faction's status as a gritty band of criminals – not the models at the Paris Fashion Week. Think carefully about your character's status and use mods that conform to it. Try to stick to low poly mods, they fit the environment better and quite frankly look much better than the HD modifications some use. You don't lose points for not using mods as the default skins serve their purpose well enough.



Avoid retexturing roads, buildings, trees, etcetera. It looks abhorrent. Your screenshots represent the faction you're part of, always keep that in the back of your head.



ENB should not be installed. We don't need ENB settings that make a dull Idlewood alleyway light up like it's stuck in Moulin Rogue. Similarly, not every Tahoma needs to be lit like the Starship Enterprise.



Try and make it interesting. Be it the dialogue or the event itself, people like screenshots and role-play that's actually on some level engaging. Again, blank screenshots typically aren't this.

from wgs forum