Engaging RP

[DylPickle]

Hello forum people, young and old.

I'm curious to hear what today's thoughts are on the kinds of RP people find interesting, engaging, fun, challenging etc.

This can be either narrow, character-centric, or broadened to a societal level (severely missing in modern Cantr, in my humble opinion).

Personally, I've found that RP is at it's best when it extends into setting, story telling, and even minor conflict, getting past the emotive curtesies and pleasantries we are accustomed to. In my opinion establishing interesting settings and exploring them through a character's eyes, and creating complicated relationships/challenges is one of the best ways to enjoy the game.

Curious to hear everyone's thoughts! (Even if they may come in very, very slowly)

[Unqualified_Nobody]

I personally prefer when characters feel real. I don’t think Cantr would be very interesting if each character was simply designed to fit a certain role. That would just be lifeless and boring, even with societal and personal-to-person conflicts. Good RP is a playing a complex unique person with their own wants and beliefs, which itself will lead to interring conflicts.You can never fully understand a super well RPed character because, like a real person, they have layers and layers of complexity that makes Cantr feel like you’re interacting with real people through your own complex characters.

[Bran-Muffin]

Better Rp comes from the good vs evil dramas that can happen in game , cantr doesnt really have any baddies anymore though. One on going storyline I have a char involved with is/will be interesting, just hard to get things done though with how little people interact anymore, and how small "big" towns are now.

Think I should have put this in the rant thread instead!

[Unqualified_Nobody]

I personally don't make “evil” characters. I have made two characters designed to have bad intentions, one being power-hungry and another being bloodthirsty, but the interactions both those characters had with other characters ended with them being not as bad people as I originally wanted them to be, because I designed them first and foremost to be complex people. The problem is it’s hard to have complex and dangerous characters with how overwhelming the kindness is with the majority of characters. And I personally don't think characters that are just evil all the way through would be interesting because that’s not realistic to how people are.

[Dust Puppy]

I think there are so few "evil" characters because they tend to be boring and one-dimensional, and don't feel like real people. I'm 100% with 155551 on this one, a character that feels like a real person is always interesting and will make for interesting scenes and storylines even when there is no conflict or drama.

What makes a character feel real for me is a lot of detailed and descriptive emoting. Okay, you just clicked the button to enter a building, but how does your character enter the building? In a hurry? Quietly trying to sneak in unnoticed? With a smile? With a frown? With a confused look because they forgot why they entered the room?

There's also plenty of potential for conflict that doesn't depend on someone deliberately playing the "evil" part. Good "evil" characters are the ones that simply have a different point of view from the other character, and think of themselves as the good guy (much like in real life). The downside with conflict is, to be satisfying it needs to be resolved one way or another, and then it's over.

What keeps me engaged most long-term is interesting characters, and achievable long-term goals (either personal or big group projects).

[DylPickle]

Do you think that after a certain level of complexity is surpassed, it can make it more difficult to prevent your own personal traits as a player from seeping through into the character's mindset and personality?

If your wilder characters tend to all be "killed with kindness" so to speak, does that gravitation towards the common vanilla experience add to the game?

[Bran-Muffin]

I don't mean like, pure evil, just... not good.

Game 100% needs conflict in my opinion, I am not alone on that.

Evil evil in the game was a thing to though and it definitely created some great times, good v bad. I'm remembering early days, 300s, spawn in certain region and it was an instant death for that new character, by the order of an emporer. People manged to escape and get word out, which obviously led to war and the rp involved in dealing with or being a part of the "problem" was fun.

Currently... nothing has been engaging to me in Cantr, 80% of my characters are solo or two have their spouse and just their spouse and not always easy to just come up with something to RP when they sail alone everywhere or I want something engaging and then when it is I suddenly dont have the time to play. Big dilemma

[Dust Puppy]

Do you think that after a certain level of complexity is surpassed, it can make it more difficult to prevent your own personal traits as a player from seeping through into the character's mindset and personality?

For me I have to focus to stay in character at the beginning, but after playing a char for a while they start to play themselves.

If your wilder characters tend to all be "killed with kindness" so to speak, does that gravitation towards the common vanilla experience add to the game?

Character growth can be interesting to play. Love me a good redemption arc.

Game 100% needs conflict in my opinion, I am not alone on that.

Absolutely, but conflict doesn't always need to be "this person wants to kill me".

[Bran-Muffin]

Do you think that after a certain level of complexity is surpassed, it can make it more difficult to prevent your own personal traits as a player from seeping through into the character's mindset and personality?

If your wilder characters tend to all be "killed with kindness" so to speak, does that gravitation towards the common vanilla experience add to the game?

I feel like if my character is going to be complex, I can generally stick to that without my OWN traits bleeding through, however feel like I have given one or two some of my traits.

And back to my previous replies, I am a part of the problem too, I havent created any "bad" guys. Not easy anymore to have baddies with a low player base.

[DylPickle]

Game 100% needs conflict in my opinion, I am not alone on that.

Absolutely, but conflict doesn't always need to be "this person wants to kill me".

For sure, conflict doesn't need to need to be violent. But conflict could present itself in so many interesting ways that don't include violence.

Good vs evil is probably the easiest to fall back on. But if characters made their beliefs, values, fears, biases more prominent, perhaps it would allow for other forms of conflict to emerge. Without some core form of identity, I've found these points of interest and struggle can be really hard to realize.

[Unqualified_Nobody]

Characters don't need to be entirely evil to be dangerous or have malicious intent. Characters should be flawed and complex, not 1 dimensional monsters. Or even 1 dimensional in any way