How Are We Defining Role Play, Anyways? [DEBATE]

[Azrayel]

This has been discussed in inumerable places and ever since PW became the defacto "Role Playing" mod somewhere around late v2/early v3. A question for the ages, which some might argue has no right answer. Well, this is a forum, and a forum is for debate. So let's bloody well debate!

Also, bear in mind that I am very well aware that this question has been raised before. However, I feel that a clean break from any such topics and a beginning anew here with the current forum-goers is more prudent than grave digging or thread hi-jacking tomfoolery. So with this said, please don't linkDrop some other thread or say "this has been decided." Because it hasn't, or everyone wouldn't be going on about how the other wasn't role playing properly or at all et ketra, not in any real way at least.

WHAT IS ROLE PLAY? (various definitions, their +pros and -cons)

Currently Winning

Playing a Role:
+Is most basic definition.
+Is most obvious definition.
+Has most clear built-in support from the game mode.
-Is very broad and easily mis-constrewed (see below).
-Roles can be anything from ferryman to crossbowman- if your role is shooting people in the head, then you shooting people in the head is your Role Play.

Alternatives

Spoiler

Creating a Story Together
+Creates rich environments to serve as backdrops for play.
+Puts more real meaning and drama behind the struggles of the realm, which is otherwise just so much green-and-red text.
+Everyone having a character creates a sort of removed relationship, thus achieving escapism for some (and eRP for others).
-Some people easily lose sight of the game they're playing and become absorbed in the "chatroom-sphere," where they're invincible and everyone has to hear their speeches out and then lose.
-The Protagainst Affect (see end of the above), where you few PW as a book in which your character is playing a central role and therefore you losing must be blamed on something- anything- other than yourself, including but not limited to: admins, randomers, people who do not speak your primary language as well as you do, etc.
-Most people are going to be the "Protaganist," some sort of highborn lord or king or emporer and beautiful lady. Rarely do you find common folk or even knights who are "role playing" (the very term we are attempting to define).

A Code of Conduct
+There is some form of communication before you die which makes you feel better about it.
+Everyone doesn't need to have a title and give long-winded speeches
+More people content to fill the common ranks with less people concerned with being a part of the story in a verbal way, thus creating less "protaganists."
+Reduces "rule breaking" because everyone conducts themselves within a certain bounds of not "randoming" or being a general ass.
-Lots of people take offensive at the general form that communication takes (1k or die!) regardless.
-This code of conduct is often difficult to impose and "to what extent?" is ever at issue; RP names, yes or no? Clan tags, yes or no? (Non-consensual) eRP, yes or no? Using OOC chat (disallowed on AU LoungeChairCarnage), yes or no?
-Squabbles over who was "role playing" or, more accurately here, "rule playing" are common place.

If you have any suggestions for other definitions of Role Play and their +pros/-cons, feel free to post them and after some discussion we will add them to the OP- admendments to current definitions +pros/-cons welcome as well.

If you just want to come to the support of one or defimate the name of one in particular, please feel free. I encourage the term "rule play" as a form of slander, personally, but do be creative where you can!

 

[Dark_Hamlet]

For me, it's when you gather the people around you to play some simple roles. You don't need to be someone with a name containing 20 words or more to play and see others playing a role, you can see roleplay in the simple act of 2 soldiers guarding a  gate, while chatting to pass the time.

I see roleplay when I fight against bandits that are oppressing some farmers (I usually die and the farmers too, but it's still roleplay for me)

 

[Troubles]

To "roleplay" is to imagine a character (his background, personality, desires, ..etc.) and play through the character's eyes.

This is quite different from how most PW players I've seen roleplay. I've written a long post about this issue sometime ago, so if you or anyone is interested, just find the post or tell me and I'll post it here.

 

[Maxikus]

Spoiler

This has been discussed in inumerable places and ever since PW became the defacto "Role Playing" mod somewhere around late v2/early v3. A question for the ages, which some might argue has no right answer. Well, this is a forum, and a forum is for debate. So let's bloody well debate!

Also, bear in mind that I am very well aware that this question has been raised before. However, I feel that a clean break from any such topics and a beginning anew here with the current forum-goers is more prudent than grave digging or thread hi-jacking tomfoolery. So with this said, please don't linkDrop some other thread or say "this has been decided." Because it hasn't, or everyone wouldn't be going on about how the other wasn't role playing properly or at all et ketra, not in any real way at least.

WHAT IS ROLE PLAY? (various definitions, their +pros and -cons)

Playing a Role:
+Is most basic definition.
+Is most obvious definition.
+Has most clear built-in support from the game mode.
-Is very broad and easily mis-constrewed (see below).
-Roles can be anything from ferryman to crossbowman- if your role is shooting people in the head, then you shooting people in the head is your Role Play.

Creating a Story Together
+Creates rich environments to serve as backdrops for play.
+Puts more real meaning and drama behind the struggles of the realm, which is otherwise just so much green-and-red text.
+Everyone having a character creates a sort of removed relationship, thus achieving escapism for some (and eRP for others).
-Some people easily lose sight of the game they're playing and become absorbed in the "chatroom-sphere," where they're invincible and everyone has to hear their speeches out and then lose.
-The Protagainst Affect (see end of the above), where you few PW as a book in which your character is playing a central role and therefore you losing must be blamed on something- anything- other than yourself, including but not limited to: admins, randomers, people who do not speak your primary language as well as you do, etc.
-Most people are going to be the "Protaganist," some sort of highborn lord or king or emporer and beautiful lady. Rarely do you find common folk or even knights who are "role playing" (the very term we are attempting to define).

A Code of Conduct
+There is some form of communication before you die which makes you feel better about it.
+Everyone doesn't need to have a title and give long-winded speeches
+More people content to fill the common ranks with less people concerned with being a part of the story in a verbal way, thus creating less "protaganists."
+Reduces "rule breaking" because everyone conducts themselves within a certain bounds of not "randoming" or being a general ass.
-Lots of people take offensive at the general form that communication takes (1k or die!) regardless.
-This code of conduct is often difficult to impose and "to what extent?" is ever at issue; RP names, yes or no? Clan tags, yes or no? (Non-consensual) eRP, yes or no? Using OOC chat (disallowed on AU LoungeChairCarnage), yes or no?
-Squabbles over who was "role playing" or, more accurately here, "rule playing" are common place.



If you have any suggestions for other definitions of Role Play and their +pros/-cons, feel free to post them and after some discussion we will add them to the OP- admendments to current definitions +pros/-cons welcome as well.

If you just want to come to the support of one or defimate the name of one in particular, please feel free. I encourage the term "rule play" as a form of slander, personally, but do be creative where you can!

Heres some thoughts:

My definition of roleplaying in this game: Roleplaying: Similar to acting in which you take a role, and experience the world through the characters eyes together with a group of people doing the same.

Playing a role:
A role could as you say be anything and is in PW not exactly limited. If you wanted you could probably be a scientist from the future exploring the medieval world. The real problem is if your role is in someway destroying for another role. For instance if I'm a serial killer going around killing everyone then I'm not giving anyone a chance to roleplay. Then you have to remember that roleplaying is a team effort. You need CO-OPERATION. It basically means to work together to achieve as good roleplay together as possible. Which means as a serial killer you would want to work with your victim to find a more fun solution than "I kill you because IM CRAZY!".

Your thoughts on creating a story are interesting but all the cons are the effect of bad roleplaying and non-teamplaying or general immaturity (Younger people believe that they are the centre of the world. Thats why they always use the "but I want that" argument to get their way through). If a person could just step back and calm down they would be able to stop hogging the spotlight. Again I believe that roleplaying is co-operation. You can't really roleplay alone.

Code of conduct:
Well.. If your only goal is to find new excuses to kill people then you can forget to roleplay. Just calm down and try to talk a bit before you stab that crazy guy in his ugly face. Maybe you will enjoy the talking more than the stabbing? WHO KNOWS!

 

[Phoenix234]

I define roleplay as playing a character role using realistic actions for that role

A bandit wouldnt run around killing everyone if they weren't crazy and if there crazy they wouldnt be robbing for gold etc since a mass murderer would attract authorities.

I also think you have to imagine characters as believing in death over respawning, if a player does something stupid because they know they will respawn its not great for the atmosphere.

killing is roleplay in most cases, but unless you are insane you would have a real reason to kill and if you are doing it outside of war you wouldnt do it often to avoid knights coming for you etc

 

[MC Communist]

For me, it's when you gather the people around you to play some simple roles. You don't need to be someone with a name containing 20 words or more to play and see others playing a role, you can see roleplay in the simple act of 2 soldiers guarding a  gate, while chatting to pass the time.

Reminds of the time I was chatting with a guard I was guarding a gate with, so I start talking about the adventures of MeatHeadTheSlow my alternate character, the guard says "ah yes, my cousin Opileand kept telling me about him" to which my OOC response was a mixture of    and  . So it turns our two characters were talking about both of our alternate characters talking to each other from some time ago. After which we had a lengthy dialogue essentially reminiscing over our adventures from before. Keeping in mind I didn't have any clue this random other guard was Opileand (and I don't think he knew I was MeatHead), It was awesome 

 

[Raging Womble]

I define roleplay as playing a character role using realistic actions for that role

A bandit wouldnt run around killing everyone if they weren't crazy and if there crazy they wouldnt be robbing for gold etc since a mass murderer would attract authorities.

I also think you have to imagine characters as believing in death over respawning, if a player does something stupid because they know they will respawn its not great for the atmosphere.

killing is roleplay in most cases, but unless you are insane you would have a real reason to kill and if you are doing it outside of war you wouldnt do it often to avoid knights coming for you etc

Most accurate description I  have seen

 

[Splintert]

'Role play' is anything done outside of the game's features or systems. Plain and simple.

 

[Serann]

'Role play' is anything done outside of the game's features or systems. Plain and simple.

I thought you always said the exact opposite was the case, like how castle wars are RP too?


Either way, in my opinion RP is simply acting a role, yes.

Good RP is RP with people you get along with and is done on a common basis

 

[Splintert]

Fighting war isn't roleplay, creating a story around the war is. But that story has no bearing on gameplay.

It's hard to explain xD

 

[gaham1]

Isnt the definition of role playing is playing a role? Being someone you are not, such as a knight in feudal times?

 

[Knüppel]

'Role play' is anything done outside of the game's features or systems. Plain and simple.

Totally disagree on that. My Character is to be a mighty Lady, so I more or less have to claim a castle and rule a faction to make my guards able to bear my banner, access the doors in said castle, have no peasants running in my bedroom and so on.
To keep that castle from being claimed, I have to keep my weapon fabrication running (specially on Lowlands where there isn't just another castle from which I could continue my war after I lost my main castle) and my doors and walls guarded.
Preferably by crossbowmen as nothing is as good as to drive buggers of a castle gate then a well aimed bolt in the belly.

Faction costs money also, so I need to force people to mine gold or iron for me and deliver the ressource to the castle to process for me instead of working in their own pocket. Preferably of course a gold-and-silver-treck, bringing in around half a million for the faction's chest, Iron and smithing does also, is a harder task but fills the armory.

So, before I can sit in the Oasis bath and take care of roleplay outside of the classic game mechanis over the chat, I have to take care of a lot of mechanic-related stuff  (And my guards have to leftclick on buggers sometimes, people just LOVE to provoce authorities)

 

[(TWD)Tom]

role-play
v. role-played, role-play·ing, role-plays
v.tr.
To assume or represent in a drama; act out: "Participants are encouraged to pass on leads about jobs ... and to role-play interview situations with each other" (Hatfield MA Valley Advocate).
v.intr.
To assume or act out a particular role: "When I hire people I role-play with them ... to see how they take pressure" (Peter Schrag).
n.
Role-playing.

 

[CalenLoki]

Simply playing a role, acting like the imagined person would act if it were alive.

'Role play' is anything done outside of the game's features or systems. Plain and simple.

Remember about important feature/system we have in PW: IC talking. By your definition it's NOT role playing

 

[Suspicous Pilgrim]

Roleplay is building up artificial constructs around ingame mechanics and events.

 

[Splintert]

Well, my definition sounded better in my mind I guess.

 

[The Cleric]

I roleplay by healing the wounded, being a voice of reason, bringing my friends together, having weaknesses (IC anger, IC defeatism, IC isolationism/loneliness)  having strenghts (wisdom, influce, kindness, love for others that brings people together).  I roleplay by doint what I must (bayard), by having a fmaily *married to hilda*, loving my IC wife *erp, spending time, etc etc etc*.  I RP by letting bayard lose, he's often on the receiving end of the sword and I make sure that his wounds, near deaths, are rpd out instead of a few stabs in the chest with a magic knife and I"m ok.  I rp by enduring.  Bayard has endured loss, pain, near death experiences, rape, abandonment, torture *there is a list*  and he uses them to grow and endures this pain by growing. 

I rp by letting bayard be dynamic.  He has changed drastically over the time I've played him *one year* and because of this he has had his dark days, and he has had his moments of glory.  But by making him dynamic, and not a static character, he lives, and grows with the world around him.  When he first came to the land of pw, he was bright eyed, naive, and soft spoken.  Now he is kind, gentle, and wise, but still retains his ability to do what is right, even if viewed as a darker action.  He has had a list of dramas and pains and has even himself been the cause of great and terrible things. 

By making bayard a sinner and a saint I believe I have created a character who fits the role of a human being, not a croxxbow drone, not a table dweller, or even a no rp "get sum n00bzors" native monger.  I rp by taking a real world mindset into another form of media to quote my lovely wife Kim.  Thus, when bayard gets nailed by a sword to the chest, he does not shrug it off and run around like its a sliver, he acts and interacts as though he has a critical injury.  If he loses a friend, it changes him, he does not forget that person and go off to smack a rock for a few hours so he can get moneh.  When he has a child he will stay at home, raise the child, take patients in home and not run around in a world that prays on the weak and defenseless with a baby at home.  And when his wife hilda is assaulted he retaliates. 

I rp by taking strength, weakness, pain, happiness, growth, and endurance to a world seen through the eyes of my alternate self.  By thinking of how a man should act given the hand given him, or the portrait before his eyes, I can better equate realism through logic.  We must remember that a man will pick up a sword, to defend his home, or to destroy his enemies.  But we must always remember a man who draws a sword, will only paint in red.  Thus realism is even portrayed by how I choose to react quickly.  WOuld I today, in the world we live in governed by law, shoot a man for picking up my bag, even if by mistake?  Would I wait a day, find him, then run an axe over his head for bumping into me in the supermarket?  What would a sane logical person do if these things happen.  it is by applying reason to action that I rp in a world that demands a dynamic being to survive.

 

[Llama With A Hat]

Literally, role play is taking how a character predifined by us (their personality, their history, what they do to earn money, any odd little quirks they have) would act and live in real life in the media of our choosing.  The media that we choose can enhance or inhibit our characters ability to role play to the fullest of what real life would be.  In this instance, we are specifically speaking about the media of the Persistent World mod on Mount and Blade.  This media has it's benefits, such as: our characters are able to mine, cut wood, farm, make bread, brew beer, prune vineyards, press wine, fish, show hostility with weaponry and fight, some basic arm movements, be imprisoned, sail a boat, and run around or ride a horse, buy clothing and armor, buy weapons, buy tools, engineer weapons and tools, heal people by stabbing them with a scalpel, and we are given the buildings and out door landscape around us.  This media also comes with limitations: a character cannot physically express emotions or show small actions or gestures or talk without us typing it in local chat, your character can take many injuries that in real life would be debilitating or life threatening and still perform at 100% for fighting and traveling purposes, you can go on without any food, drink or rest, part of the injuring limitation is if somebody would have cut your hand off irl that it doesn't come off, I know this one doesn't pertain to everyone but there is no way to reproduce or show pregnancy or birth with the character themselves, you can't actually show healing that you do to another character, and there may be more that I miss, but you get the point.  These limitations all need to be overcome by you the roleplayer, and you can choose whether to circumvent them and ignore them entirely or to try and find a way around it by typing actions or emotions or how the person has been brought to their knees by a wound or what have you.  Basically, if you don't understand how PW limits you from roleplaying a real life scenerio, you won't be able to make your character completely to a real life standard.

 

[Azrayel]

To "roleplay" is to imagine a character (his background, personality, desires, ..etc.) and play through the character's eyes.

This is quite different from how most PW players I've seen roleplay. I've written a long post about this issue sometime ago, so if you or anyone is interested, just find the post or tell me and I'll post it here.

I'd be most interested to see what you have to say on the matter; I feel a re-post here would not go amiss.

I define roleplay as playing a character role using realistic actions for that role

A bandit wouldnt run around killing everyone if they weren't crazy and if there crazy they wouldnt be robbing for gold etc since a mass murderer would attract authorities.

I also think you have to imagine characters as believing in death over respawning, if a player does something stupid because they know they will respawn its not great for the atmosphere.

killing is roleplay in most cases, but unless you are insane you would have a real reason to kill and if you are doing it outside of war you wouldnt do it often to avoid knights coming for you etc

I'd say that's most like the "Code of Conduct" definition, although the most literal/straight forward prevails amongst les autres.

I pose you now, good people, a question- what type of role play is best suited for PW? For a chatroom? For the likes of "Warband Roleplay," which has a different emphasis entirely but which RPers have said is more "RP" oriented for them. Is true role play not to be found in the free-form nature of a mod like PW, where your role is limited only by your imagination?

 

[Llama With A Hat]

To "roleplay" is to imagine a character (his background, personality, desires, ..etc.) and play through the character's eyes.

This is quite different from how most PW players I've seen roleplay. I've written a long post about this issue sometime ago, so if you or anyone is interested, just find the post or tell me and I'll post it here.

I'd be most interested to see what you have to say on the matter; I feel a re-post here would not go amiss.

I define roleplay as playing a character role using realistic actions for that role

A bandit wouldnt run around killing everyone if they weren't crazy and if there crazy they wouldnt be robbing for gold etc since a mass murderer would attract authorities.

I also think you have to imagine characters as believing in death over respawning, if a player does something stupid because they know they will respawn its not great for the atmosphere.

killing is roleplay in most cases, but unless you are insane you would have a real reason to kill and if you are doing it outside of war you wouldnt do it often to avoid knights coming for you etc

I'd say that's most like the "Code of Conduct" definition, although the most literal/straight forward prevails amongst les autres.

I pose you now, good people, a question- what type of role play is best suited for PW? For a chatroom? For the likes of "Warband Roleplay," which has a different emphasis entirely but which RPers have said is more "RP" oriented for them. Is true role play not to be found in the free-form nature of a mod like PW, where your role is limited only by your imagination?

I feel like you ignored my post entirely