How should I play this game?

[JAM]

I've been playing for a little while now and I've always been a min-maxer with game mechanics so I always try to keep my charries busy. Recently I've been involved with RP thats kinda been affected by MC managing projects while the other charrie was asleep. Is this a nono? Should I put RP before everything else? Should I RP every little thing MC's do? How should I play? How do you all play?

Cheers,

JAM

I wanted to put a poll but couldn't figure out how:

Always RP everything
Don't do interruptive things during RP and wait until the right time
It doesn't matter much

[HFrance]

Each linguistic community is in a situation. Each locality of this community is in a situation. Each character of these places is in a situation. Sometimes the situation is so comfortable that you can do roleplay at all times, leaving the mechanical activities in the background. But sometimes the situation is so desperate that the best thing to do is work like crazy to put things in order, hence the roleplay goes into the background.

[Marian]

This thread should really go in General Discussion. (Support is more for technical issues or mechanics questions.)

How much or how little you RP is entirely up to you, how much time you have, which situations you find interesting and so on. Most people do a mix of RP and simming. Sometimes keeping it balanced across the board, sometimes making characters that only work while just a few get more of a an RP focus.

If your question is specifically whether you need to RP about the projects your chars are working on, again, that's a personal choice. I think most of the time people will just work on them silently in the background of whatever RP is taking place, but if it's otherwise slow or a job that's of particular interest to the character (for instance if they're an expert weaponsmith or tailor, or hilariously bad at cooking, they might want to RP about whatever they're making in detail) I've seen a lot of good RP centered around projects and usually appreciate the attention to detail. Not everything has to be relationship drama.

Though the mechanics side of things is what separates Cantr from a forum or chat RP and just as a personal thing I prefer when it's not completely ignored, even when it's just an accepted thing that Cantrians can repair battle axes while sleeping, driving, screwing...

[SekoETC]

You can play how you feel like playing. Some people don't rp at all. They're called simmers. Some people work on projects even while having sex, but it's generally frowned upon to do something visible like add materials to a project while in the middle of intensive rp. That's why repairs are good because they don't cause an event.

[JAM]

Thanks everyone. I think the majority of MC's RP has centered around projects and actions so far and I tried to RP everything (if I had the time). I started doing that anyway but I guess I have adapted to certain places and players/simmers. I have one guy that just can't wait to do everything, and it's probably the excited newbiness that messed up the RP! Sorry other anonymous person.

I must have avoided most of that relationship drama so far! But the silence tip is great, I'll do that, cheers.

Any more tips are welcome!

JAM

[hyrle]

You can generally avoid relationship stuff in Cantr if you choose to do so. Most relationship RPers won't bother someone who roleplays that they clearly aren't interested. Of course, it can be fun to participate in them, but I guarantee that relationship roleplay is a really quick way to mess up your min-maxing/efficiency play.

[Moonflame]

What a neat discussion topic.

Enthusiasm is nice to see. When I RP'd working on a project I tried to do it in a specific way that might progress or express my character, or in a way that might encourage others to interact, give them something to respond to. Also, during a 2 day project you're realistically going to take breaks and have conversations that last 15 minutes or whatever, but a 15 minute conversation can be dragged out over a whole 2 days in a game like this so don't worry too much.

[psychowico]

IMHO.
RP is the reason for the existence of this game. You can find thousand of games with more fun mechanic, gameplay, better looking etc.
Everybody have different skills and talents for role-playing, so I understand that level of playing is varied.

If you want to get max that you can from Cantr do something amazing with people.

* create unique, amazing form of society that nobody before created.
* make a revolution in some society that will shake the people and the surroundings
* be very bad guy, in such a way that they will write legends about you and remember you for ages
* be amazing guy that others want to follow and be like him

Things like that can takes years to achieve (in real worlds time), and you never can be sure about success.

Of course you can do many others, much simpler and still cool things. Like create strong relation with some another character. Play disabled character in unimposing and interesting way. Join some other more charismatic characters organizations and follow them. Or whatever you can imagine that can be interesting.

All of this have something common. Make world around you more interesting.
And remember - nothing explains breaking the Capital Rule.

[Marian]

IMHO.
RP is the reason for the existence of this game. You can find thousand of games with more fun mechanic, gameplay, better looking etc.
Everybody have different skills and talents for role-playing, so I understand that level of playing is varied.

If you want to get max that you can from Cantr do something amazing with people.

* create unique, amazing form of society that nobody before created.
* make a revolution in some society that will shake the people and the surroundings
* be very bad guy, in such a way that they will write legends about you and remember you for ages
* be amazing guy that others want to follow and be like him

As others have said, you really should approach the game in a way that feels right for you and your characters. For me, the mechanics are a big part of the main reason I'm playing. The internet is full of chatrooms and forums if all I cared about was pure RP with no hard rules governing anything. Freeform RP has always been more of a creative writing exercise and has never come close to giving me the sense of accomplishment achieving goals after weeks or months of work and planning in Cantr does.

I'll admit a lot of the examples listed for 'things to do' are not my preferred approach to RP, either. I think everyone goes through this phase of having all these grandiose plans before their characters before they even spawn them, but more and more now I enjoy seeing characters that are realistically developed based on their surroundings and experiences, rather than coming into the world saddled with a bunch of OOC expectations and plans.

All of the above really does illustrate the way everyone can approach the same game completely differently, you just have to find a playstyle that feels right for you and run with it.

[Alutka]

If you want to get max that you can from Cantr do something amazing with people.

* create unique, amazing form of society that nobody before created.
* make a revolution in some society that will shake the people and the surroundings
* be very bad guy, in such a way that they will write legends about you and remember you for ages
* be amazing guy that others want to follow and be like him

Well, you've managed to create at least one legend, and it was a good guy, not a bad guy. I started playing days after Erdan had died, and still I heard a ton of stories about him. Hats off!

All of this have something common. Make world around you more interesting.
And remember - nothing explains breaking the Capital Rule.

Yeah, I think it sums it up.

[Marian]

I wish someone would move this to General. It's an interesting topic and the first new one we've had with this much discussion in awhile, but it's hidden away here in Support.

[JAM]

It's nice to see this started something! And it's interesting to hear all the different approaches.

I have to admit that the forums did unexpectedly influenced my play. I had a newspawn that preferred to stay in his spawn town, and I realised that this was because players moaned about the take and run newspawns. I guess new players want to feel accepted and play the roles that people feel are needed.

I wasn't really aware of sex in this game, and definitely not at the level inferred here. I've seen the long lashes and harmonious voices but haven't been involved in anything (other than a cuddle!) but yes it still effected my min-maxing heh.

I've been on other open play forums where anything can happen and I love the dynamic that the game mechanics bring here, plus the fact that every other character is played by someone completely different. Organizing that anywhere else is almost impossible.

What I am realizing is that my characters are quickly influenced by their surroundings:
- One got involved in something and realized he/she could do better solo, but (influenced by the forums again, maybe) he/she didn't and now has a deal beneficial for both.
- One started as a self-centered dick but quickly learned the importance of other people.
- One realized that he/she couldn't keep up with or care for anything around him/her, and just left.

I also realized that I don't really like OOC interruptions at all and I don't really want to know who plays who. It kinda messes up the escapism for me. So as much as my nerdi/noobiness wants me to read everything to do with this game, something else tells me to stay away from the forum.

But I have to say thank you to Moonflame. A lot of what you wrote made sense.

JAM

[Passcall]

I recognize what you mean by characters being influenced by their surroundings very quickly, but that does not always have to mean a bad thing!

This game (unwittingly) simulates a real society. In our real-life society, people also tend to copy their surroundings and act according to the social norms and laws. This urge to be accepted also influences your choices in game. Good RP'ing is not always about being completely unique. It's about bringing a character to life. And of course, you will always put a little bit of yourself into your character, but it's the art to accentuate certain traits in a way that your character is different than yourself.

For example, in real life i'm somewhat impulsive and impatient (ADHD). So in Cantr, I've created this self-centered, socially akward, slightly retarted character that acts like the world revolves around him. I try to find a balance between this self-centrism (with a little bit of my real-life flaws which I exaggerate in character) and retard-ism, that people actually would accept his lack of manners and think "Oh, it's ok, he can not help it, he is just not smart".

In my opinion. by thinking of such a 'goal' for your character, you'll find the roleplay come more natural.

[JAM]

I recognize what you mean by characters being influenced by their surroundings very quickly, but that does not always have to mean a bad thing!

It is definitely a good thing! I didn't mean to make it sound bad. It was just that they start without big goals like psychowico, but developed some quickly thanks to their environment.

In my opinion. by thinking of such a 'goal' for your character, you'll find the roleplay come more natural.

This is true.

[Marian]

[color=#800040
What I am realizing is that my characters are quickly influenced by their surroundings

Glad to hear it! Cantr was created as an attempt at a society sim and still is at its heart, in some ways I'd say even more so now than in the old days. As Pascall said, being influenced by the people around you makes a lot of sense for someone new to the world, and a society can't function without cooperation, compromise...and conflict is unavoidable too. (not necessarily meaning the violent kind there, though you may see a fair bit of that depending on where you're chars are...)

Interaction with others and yes, being influenced by them in one way or another (for better or worse) is a huge part of the game as far as the RP/society side of things go, and the actual mechanics side of things is balanced to discourage lone wolf behavior probably because of this.