Roleplaying

[Thandar]

Ok everyone. What is roleplaying? Why is this game called roleplaying game? It has superb graphic and very nice places.
It should replace the PnP game they said. Why are you playing this game?

To make it as a real PnP roleplaying game what do Turbine needs to do?
What do they need to make to get the right feeling?
Is it a roleplaying game?

Have you played a real PnP roleplaying game and what is the most fun with a such game?

I have some stuff I think they should fix:

1. Fix the Taverns first of all. Sitable chairs and benches, real plates and foods, no drawn weapons if there is no tavern brawl, tavern fights, interacting, more emotes, tavern guards, beer and able to get drunk, thiefs...
If you eating you could sit down on a bench grab you beer sing a tavern song and punch your neighbour in the head with a chair... real roleplaying...

2. Emotes. Fix all kind of emotes so you can interact better and roleplay.

3. Sheate your weapons and guards that check that. Able to fight against another player but taking the consequenses from the authority (if you are in a civilazed area. Thiefs.

4. More wilderness instead of all these dark dungeons.

5. Include more alignments. There should be evil players as well.

6. Characther Knownledge: You must tell other characthers your name and only the ones that hears your name will know it. You should be able to tell other characthers other players names so they will know them as well. Unknown alignments and classes. You should only know what the characther are when you know him. You should be able to bluff or hide your true class, gender, race for other players by using cloaks, bluffarmor etc.

There should be some level of PvP also. Sometimes when you roleplaying there will be fighting between players... Maybe you should be able to hit your friends in battle by misstake or even fumble and hit your companions by misstake...

THIS IS ROLEPLAYING! I think there is no way that DDO will fix this. If they do it... they will rock over whole world. Mystics of real roleplaying where your characther knows only what he sees and hears... Not what you as the player know....

[Ane Spellsinger]

I want more emotes! There isn't a /wink /smile /flirt except /laugh and what if I'm not /angry but want to express my negative attitude towards another player? How about a /flip where you do something offensive with your fist in the general direction of the person you don't feel for?

And please don't get me started on /dance - as a female human I look like a drunk trying to keep upright, not very nice for a charismatic bard is it?

So, I would like to see a whole lot of new emotes first. It would help my RP a lot.

[silencerius]

This is perhaps the BEST suggesstion I've read so far on these forums.

Every single one of your points is great.

I think DDO should base it's strength as a game primarily in Role Playing, and encourage it's players to do so.

Amazing thread. I really hope the programmers will take those suggestions seriously.

As far as the PvP, a smart thing would be to create "brawling" areas in the taverns etc.

[Thandar]

This is perhaps the BEST suggesstion I've read so far on these forums.

Every single one of your points is great.

I think DDO should base it's strength as a game primarily in Role Playing, and encourage it's players to do so.

Amazing thread. I really hope the programmers will take those suggestions seriously.

As far as the PvP, a smart thing would be to create "brawling" areas in the taverns etc.

Thank you!

Well I must say that when you`re on adventure in a dungeon I just love the feeling when the DM is telling you stuff! It`s the best thing I have seen in a MMORP so far. Fixing the taverns in the first place would be great and it seems that everyone else thinks that also.
I hope it will be done. The thing that is most important is that you should be able to sit and eat/drink... AND SHEATED WEAPONS!!!

Cheers!

[IsAB]

I'd be very happy if my character could walk properly.

[MoxArken]

Ok everyone. What is roleplaying? Why is this game called roleplaying game? It has superb graphic and very nice places.
It should replace the PnP game they said. Why are you playing this game?

To make it as a real PnP roleplaying game what do Turbine needs to do?
What do they need to make to get the right feeling?
Is it a roleplaying game?

Have you played a real PnP roleplaying game and what is the most fun with a such game?

I have some stuff I think they should fix:

1. Fix the Taverns first of all. Sitable chairs and benches, real plates and foods, no drawn weapons if there is no tavern brawl, tavern fights, interacting, more emotes, tavern guards, beer and able to get drunk, thiefs...
If you eating you could sit down on a bench grab you beer sing a tavern song and punch your neighbour in the head with a chair... real roleplaying...

2. Emotes. Fix all kind of emotes so you can interact better and roleplay.

3. Sheate your weapons and guards that check that. Able to fight against another player but taking the consequenses from the authority (if you are in a civilazed area. Thiefs.

4. More wilderness instead of all these dark dungeons.

5. Include more alignments. There should be evil players as well.

6. Characther Knownledge: You must tell other characthers your name and only the ones that hears your name will know it. You should be able to tell other characthers other players names so they will know them as well. Unknown alignments and classes. You should only know what the characther are when you know him. You should be able to bluff or hide your true class, gender, race for other players by using cloaks, bluffarmor etc.

There should be some level of PvP also. Sometimes when you roleplaying there will be fighting between players... Maybe you should be able to hit your friends in battle by misstake or even fumble and hit your companions by misstake...

THIS IS ROLEPLAYING! I think there is no way that DDO will fix this. If they do it... they will rock over whole world. Mystics of real roleplaying where your characther knows only what he sees and hears... Not what you as the player know....

Emotes dont cause roleplay and a lack of emotes isn't a lack of roleplay. Emotes are gimmicks, nothing more. You want roleplay, start roleplaying, its not about standing in a tavern typing /dance as a bard, this isn't real roleplaying. Its about getting into the mindset of your character, then interacting with other people as if you were that character, you dont need emotes to do this, just a good imagination.

1)Cant see anything which could be described as 'Real Roleplaying' in what your asking here. more emotes? interactive funiture, consumption animation. Gimicks, not necessary for gameplay but would be a nice added extra. These things wont make or break the game

2)Emotes, lots of people keep asking for emotes with the arguement for them that they will make roleplay better. NO THEY WONT, they just make it easier for Rpers to be lazy. hey look at me, i'm a RPer coz i can type /dance woo woo woo....sigh. try using the /em command, like many games /em allows you to have emotes, custom ones, pops up in the chat box telling everyone.Try interacting with people by making you avatar look at them and talk to them.

3) easily done by typing either /Sheath (please note that is how it is spelt) or just unequiping your weapons. Having them on your body is again a gimmick. Serious its not necessary, but would be nice.

4) Hey the game is Dungeons and Dragons, but there are a number of outdoors missionsmaybe more in the new content

5)Why?

6)No thanks, this is one section of realism i dont think would transfer very well. It would make it harder to find a group for a start, and there is enough people moaning about that as it is.

Hitting your friends in battle? again no thank you. it would be easily abused by griefers and be a big hit to the fun factor of the game. Its been made very clear that there are no plans for PVP in DDO, if you dont like this, there are other games...

To be honest, I dont see a single real Roleplaying suggestion in any of your post.

[Thandar]

Emotes dont cause roleplay and a lack of emotes isn't a lack of roleplay. Emotes are gimmicks, nothing more. You want roleplay, start roleplaying, its not about standing in a tavern typing /dance as a bard, this isn't real roleplaying. Its about getting into the mindset of your character, then interacting with other people as if you were that character, you dont need emotes to do this, just a good imagination.

Hey Mox. How much do you want to imagine when you have this super-great graphics as DDO has? /emote blah blah blah is MUD. DO you know what MUD are? Textbased roleplaying game. If you think Emotes as text is good in a game as DDO, enough fine, But Please play MUD. Don`t tell us that bought this game as a ROLEPLAYING GAME should imagine everything when the games graphics are awesome! Actually the best I have ever seen in a MMORPG so far! :)

1)Cant see anything which could be described as 'Real Roleplaying' in what your asking here. more emotes? interactive funiture, consumption animation. Gimicks, not necessary for gameplay but would be a nice added extra. These things wont make or break the game.

Exactly it will enhance the game to the ultimate. Right now the Taverns could be anything. It`s not a tavern. You can`t sit and drink as you do in a tavern and all characthers looks ready to fight off some trolls.

2)Emotes, lots of people keep asking for emotes with the arguement for them that they will make roleplay better. NO THEY WONT, they just make it easier for Rpers to be lazy. hey look at me, i'm a RPer coz i can type /dance woo woo woo....sigh. try using the /em command, like many games /em allows you to have emotes, custom ones, pops up in the chat box telling everyone.Try interacting with people by making you avatar look at them and talk to them.

THEY WILL! Ok I will write it again: How much do you want to imagine when you have this super-great graphics as DDO has? /emote blah blah blah is MUD. DO you know what MUD are? Textbased roleplaying game. If you think Emotes as text is good in a game as DDO, enough fine, But Please play MUD. Don`t tell us that bought this game as a ROLEPLAYING GAME should imagine everything when the games graphics are awesome! Actually the best I have ever seen in a MMORPG so far! ;)


3) easily done by typing either /Sheath (please note that is how it is spelt) or just unequiping your weapons. Having them on your body is again a gimmick. Serious its not necessary, but would be nice.

You can do it? It should be fixed with a button to make it easier and the guards should tell you to SHEATH your weapon or get arrested. Think how people will look at you if you running around with an drawn axe in a village!

4) Hey the game is Dungeons and Dragons, but there are a number of outdoors missionsmaybe more in the new content.

Because indoor tend to be boring after awhile.... There should be Dungeons and alot of them but more outdoor would be great! Like Baldurs Gate.

5)Why?

If you are familiar with D&D rules you should not ask. But for you that isn`t I give a short explaination. All characthers are not good or neutral and the flavour of roleplaying a selfish player could be fun to some. They would be hard to play because some groups would be angry at the characthers... hehe. Some alignments are really fun to Roleplay.


6)No thanks, this is one section of realism i dont think would transfer very well. It would make it harder to find a group for a start, and there is enough people moaning about that as it is.

This is the part I don`t think Turbine can make happen. It will succeed some real PnP games but make it very hard for players to get grouped and find the right characthers to travel with. If they make it there will be real roleplaying because all characthers needs to interact before a quest. AND the adventures will mostly be with the group that know each others... ((FANTASTIC IDEA. (You don`t know it bf you try it.) Give me some MONEY!)) ;)


Hitting your friends in battle? again no thank you. it would be easily abused by griefers and be a big hit to the fun factor of the game. Its been made very clear that there are no plans for PVP in DDO, if you dont like this, there are other games...

Well I meant FUMBLE. When you fight you should be able to do stupid moves that could hurt yourself or a comrade. It`s one of the funniest thing in a PnP roleplaying game. You try to defend yourself with and shield and trip over a stone and falling backwards... etc... PvP would make it harder in DDO but if there was two sides and good rules...

To be honest, I dont see a single real Roleplaying suggestion in any of your post.

To be honest you have no clue at all what I am talking about. I think you have some good points but you don`t understand anything about real Roleplaying. You should play Hack N Slash games like Diabolo. You spell good because you are from UK but seriously try some PnP with a good DM before you write about roleplaying again!

[MoxArken]

Thandar, I am a role-player, not only have I played PnP D&D, but I also was an Op in several online RP channels based on IRC networks. I have spent copious amounts of time not only role-playing various characters from Vampires in VTM to a pixie in a fantasy game but also studying the subject. Believe me when I say, I do know what role-play is, and standing around emoting at each other isn't it.

Don’t get me wrong here, if you want more emotes because you like emotes and you think that it might improve the game come out and say that, but don’t for a minute try and claim it as a role-play feature, its not.

As to alignments, I don’t think you quite comprehend the nature of alignments. Being Selfish doesn't necessarily make you evil. Being evil or Good is something else, its about your general attitude to other people, an evil person will walk down a street and kill someone for just being there, no remorse, no regret, they just don’t care. A good person will try to help them. What you’re referring to is the chaotic/lawful part of the alignment. For example a chaotic neutral character can be a thief, they could be Robin Hood for example, a neutral chaotic could be a selfish thief, as long as they don’t callously murder and pillage to get what they want and also don’t help people without a clear benefit to themselves.

the quests and the way the game is set up, just isn't appropriate for evil alignments, maybe there will be a expansion pack at a later date with some of the evil races to play, with evil missions.

If you read the dev logs/faqs/etc you will realise that they originally considered having critical failures in combat, but ruled it out in favour of the all important fun factor in gaming. In PnP the DM can moderate the effects of losing your weapon in the middle of a fight. In DDo it could be more catastrophic. No, as someone who has studied games design, it is my opinion that the devs made the right decision in changing this rule.

Oh and my spelling is good because I took the time to run it through a spell checker before posting.

and just a side note, my name is Arken, mox is my guild.

[silencerius]

Arkene, you have a point, but all the features that Thandar speaks of will add a great amount of fun in the Roleplaying as it is. As said before, it's the details that matter, because they add up to a huge impact on the player. 10 emotes and taverns in the state that they are now are just not enough.

I agree on what you 're saying about evil alignments -as the game stands right now- but some PvP areas ARE needed. Perhaps not in battle, but in taverns or in special brawling areas.

[MoxArken]

my main point is that roleplaying has NOTHING to do with the tools in the game, but the atitude taken by the players when playing.

[silencerius]

And I agree 110% with that. I had the same debate in another forum concerning MMOs.

All I'm saying is that those features would make the Roleplaying more FUN, they won't help it or boost it or smt.

[Ammar]

I agree with the OP, we need more of the little stuff to appeal the roleplaying aspect of the game

[Book]

So we can agree that extra tools would be fun rather than a necessity?

I'm leaning to agree with Arken here. I always agree that I can be far more descriptive with the /e <<task>>

For example, Book meets a crude talking Halfling in game.
/grumble <selected target halfling = Book grumbles at <Name> <-- For one I wouln't know the name unless I had spoken to them and learnt it anyway... Another case that I'm not going to bring up here.

/e grumbles about the halfling's calous humour and finds it hard to stop himself from casting a spell to shut him up for just a minute.

Which demonstrates my character more? Perhaps you don't know that my character hates crude jokes about girls but the second one does give a much more detailed look into my character for others to RP out as well. Giving clues is much easier with a description passage that it is with a lovely looking animation.

[silencerius]

first of all, we are not talking for emotes only here.
this is a thread that could improve the entertainment factor of role playing in the game in general.

apart from that, instead of posting against ideas that in fact would have NO negative impact on you, you should write something constructive.

i don't think any of us need roleplaying tutoring around here, no offense meant.

[Vrashk]

I hate to say it..

But I don't really think DDO is suited for any serious, heavy roleplaying, at all. And it will not be unless there's a huuge makeover in the game. Putting about 500% more focus on community rather than instanced adventures.

DDO is pretty much split into two areas:

- Quest hubs
- Dungeons

To truly support roleplaying, the quest hubs needs to be turned into a living, breathing world, rather than a "lobby" where you pick what map to play with your buddies.
To truly support roleplaying, the shackles on the players need to be removed. At the moment, we are allowed to do two things. Run instances and chat. It's all fine if you want to roleplay hardcore adventuring parties who all get along (with some friendly rivalry at most), if you want more than that for your roleplaying experience though, you're in a bad spot.

The best roleplaying mmorpgs have all shared a few common traits which make them feel alive (in no particular order).

- Viable career alternatives to killing/questing (Crafting and trading).

- Ability to affect and interact with the world (player housing, gathering resources etc.. in UO you could "even" drop items on the ground and build small pallisades, market stalls etc with crates and furniture)

- Ability to affect and interact with the other players (PvP, the greatest Rp stories and experiences quite often do involve conflicts, Good vs Evil is still the most common "theme" in great stories)

- Customization. Ability to change the appearance and gear of your character in many ways, ability to decorate your house and the area around it (opening up another viable career choice, the interior decorator. There were players in both UO and SWG supporting themselves through that alone.).

Quite simply. The more restricted a game is, the less viable it is for roleplaying. That's why I don't think DDO will ever be more than a "Dungeon romp"-game, albeit the best on the market. I think I'll be playing DDO at least for a few months more, but it does not appeal to the roleplayer within me at all (And there's a big one.. I've been into mmorpg roleplaying for 5 years, and PnP for 15 ^^).

[Ammar]

I hate to say it..

But I don't really think DDO is suited for any serious, heavy roleplaying, at all. And it will not be unless there's a huuge makeover in the game. Putting about 500% more focus on community rather than instanced adventures.

DDO is pretty much split into two areas:

- Quest hubs
- Dungeons

To truly support roleplaying, the quest hubs needs to be turned into a living, breathing world, rather than a "lobby" where you pick what map to play with your buddies.
To truly support roleplaying, the shackles on the players need to be removed. At the moment, we are allowed to do two things. Run instances and chat. It's all fine if you want to roleplay hardcore adventuring parties who all get along (with some friendly rivalry at most), if you want more than that for your roleplaying experience though, you're in a bad spot.

The best roleplaying mmorpgs have all shared a few common traits which make them feel alive (in no particular order).

- Viable career alternatives to killing/questing (Crafting and trading).

- Ability to affect and interact with the world (player housing, gathering resources etc.. in UO you could "even" drop items on the ground and build small pallisades, market stalls etc with crates and furniture)

- Ability to affect and interact with the other players (PvP, the greatest Rp stories and experiences quite often do involve conflicts, Good vs Evil is still the most common "theme" in great stories)

- Customization. Ability to change the appearance and gear of your character in many ways, ability to decorate your house and the area around it (opening up another viable career choice, the interior decorator. There were players in both UO and SWG supporting themselves through that alone.).

Quite simply. The more restricted a game is, the less viable it is for roleplaying. That's why I don't think DDO will ever be more than a "Dungeon romp"-game, albeit the best on the market. I think I'll be playing DDO at least for a few months more, but it does not appeal to the roleplayer within me at all (And there's a big one.. I've been into mmorpg roleplaying for 5 years, and PnP for 15 ^^).

Oh I agree on everything. My firend plays WOW in this PvP RPG server, so he lets me play for him when he goes showering or goes to eat or stuf like that, and I can honestly say that that server was the best damn roleplaying server I've ever seen in any game I've played. People were looking for groups so that they could play hide and seek.....I'm not kidding you! They were playing hide and seek! In the taverns people got drunk and dueled each others, there were women who were dancing on the tables for money....and dig this:
They were WALKING in friggin Stormwind and Ironforge.
Yes, they were WALKING, it took them like 20 minutes to get from point A to B but they did it anyway because they were roleplaying....

DDO really needs MORE than just a city and some dungeons, it feels to cramped for an MMORPG,

[KoboldSorcerer]

I cant wait for the ability to like... explore the world, frankly. I know this original game/expansion is set in Stormreach, but you can only put so much in one city before it gets unrealistic and silly.

YES! i know this is a world where you fling around fireballs and go invisible, but i mean realistic in the sense that only so many things can be in one city before it gets silly. Again, i know theres missions where you go elsewhere, i know, ive been on one myself, but i would like the ability to explore the world. Instance or no instance. (preferably no). The thought of walking around in the wilderness and siscoving things ala Baldurs gate would be awesome! Who else would LOVE the ability to buy a horse, saddle it up and ride into the setting sun?

(and no, dont make Horses cost 63783654225385191525143126964 Plats, like EQ and its crazy stupid economy, these are common everyday horses and they have a price in the DMG/PHB)

PvP NO, please no.. i hate PvP. Its possible to add it and it be fine, i guess.. but after being chased around for 2 HOURS in WoW by some 8 year old fart who spammed the chicken emote at me over and over and over while yelling ACCEPTS DUELZ was a nightmare (thankfully, i contacted a GM and they kicked the little idiot and i never heard form him again) Still, i dont want immaturity ruining my game.

As for evil alignments.. they have a good place in D&D, but if they add them, some idiots will use them as an excuse to grief others. Still, they're possability and i see no harm in them as long as they arent used an an excuse. You can grief someone just fine as a LG or CN even as is.

Emotes.. they're a tool, nothing more.. you can emote without the,. Still, they're a nice addition and not exactly pointless.

As for interactive taverns.. they would be great, however i can see them filling up very fast with idlers =)

[bRaXoNeR]

Well I hate empty taverns.

Take phoenix tavern for example, it's big but no one is there, empty tables, silence, the only reason to go in is a quest (well at the point were I am, dunno if after that I need to go in again) and dice/roulette games...

Why oh why ddo taverns are so empty? Ok I know that wavecrest,dinghy and lobster are full but what about the others?

[scytale2]

I'm mainly wwith you, Mox:

1. Fix the Taverns first of all. Sitable chairs and benches, real plates and foods, no drawn weapons if there is no tavern brawl, tavern fights, interacting, more emotes, tavern guards, beer and able to get drunk, thiefs...
If you eating you could sit down on a bench grab you beer sing a tavern song and punch your neighbour in the head with a chair... real roleplaying...

==this will do little more than give people a place to sit. They could roleplay without this. I think it's a bit of an excuse to blame the furniture, but if people blame the furniture, why not fix it and see what happens on the rp front. Low priority, though.

2. Emotes. Fix all kind of emotes so you can interact better and roleplay.

==I'm more with this idea. Some of the best roleplayers I know love to use emotes and it genuinely helps people who are new to rp or have a difficulty with english. Although not a big fan of emotes meself, we DEFINITELY need a few more than we have. They can't be too difficult to implement, even just in text with no movement in the short term.

3. Sheate your weapons and guards that check that. Able to fight against another player but taking the consequenses from the authority (if you are in a civilazed area. Thiefs.

==Can't you sheathe your weapons anyway? The visuals aren't everything - I can't see how sheathing weapons helps you roleplay.

4. More wilderness instead of all these dark dungeons.

==Again, why would a wilderness area have more roleplay? I'm with you for more wilderness, though.

5. Include more alignments. There should be evil players as well.

==I posted a suggestion on this forum to have some specialist scenarios built into Stormreach where you do not play your own characters. I think this suggestion could fit in this context. You need to think through the impact of having evil alignments - it will have a very serious one and I don't think we're ready for it yet, nor are there any vehicles for its implmentation as Mox says.

6. Characther Knownledge: You must tell other characthers your name and only the ones that hears your name will know it. You should be able to tell other characthers other players names so they will know them as well. Unknown alignments and classes. You should only know what the characther are when you know him. You should be able to bluff or hide your true class, gender, race for other players by using cloaks, bluffarmor etc.

==EQ2 has a roleplay flag, which allows you to mask your level and class. It does help RP, because it flags you as someone keen to rp. I think the way it would work would be that you would describe yourself in your text box that everyone gets to read. It would be a good way of getting all rpers to get together in one group. Decent idea, but we need to take on Mox's point about ensuring that groups are just as easy to get together.

There should be some level of PvP also. Sometimes when you roleplaying there will be fighting between players... Maybe you should be able to hit your friends in battle by misstake or even fumble and hit your companions by misstake...

==PvP - I think you're in the wrong game. Lots of people love PvP and that's just fine. The classes simply aren't made that way.

[/QUOTE]

Ok apologies I don't know how to quote properly - not done before. All my responses are above in the quoted text!

[Thandar]

You won Mox. I quit this game. Have fun all...

When you only have fun in the dungeons why play the game? I have canceled my account. It will take years for this game to be so good that you could call it a roleplaying game (if ever.)

I have found that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is my kind of game. Actually its just wonderful....

CYA betaplayers! ;)

[FKMaster]

agree with the tavern and emotion things........
but i like my dungeon !!!!!