Topic: Roleplaying and the D2 community

[FPF-Wanderer]

I got to thinking the other night about RP and the role it has had (or hasn't had) in campaigns in the past.  This got me wondering; what role does/can RP play in our campaigns?

PART 1

In the past, RP has consisted of storylines that certain members of the community have written about a particular campaign.  Some were written by the admins themselves as background history for their campaign, others by players for their own amusement.  Many were written purely for fun, sort of a side-line to the campaign, with no real relevance to the campaign itself, other than for color (and boy have some been colorful, lol).

Whether relevant or not, I think most of our community would agree that all of the RP stories over the years have contributed greatly to our enjoyment of the game and the campaigns we have played.  Unfortunately, the amount of RP writing has waxed and waned as time has passed, and many campaigns never got the full RP treatment that they deserved, if any RP at all.

What can be done to add more RP stories to our campaigns?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  I would like to start an RP writing group for D2 campaigns.  Sort of like a group of movie or TV series writers (only better )  Admins, if they wish, can come to the group with the outline for their campaign, and we would write a full backstory for it, perhaps even in chapters to be posted as the campaign progresses, depending on the intricacy and direction of the campaign.  I already know a number of people who I want for this (and you know who you are, heheh).

So,

Who wants to see more RP in our campaigns?

Who wants to join the D2 RolePlay Writing Group?

PART 2

I'd like to see more direct player involvement when it comes to the RP background of a campaign.  What does this mean, exactly?  Well, imagine a campaign where players take on "roles", that is, they assume the identity of a pre-determined character that fits into the overall RP of the campaign.

For example, Hexx and I have been discussing using this idea for the Lyran Civil War.  For those of you who don't know a lot of SFB history, the Lyrans have various Dukes, Counts, etc, that make up the personages of the Lyran Empire.  For the duration of the campaign, players from the community would shed their normal personas and assume the roles of the various Lyran characters.

I think this could add a lot of fun and depth to a campaign (imagine, for example, having a contest on the side, where folks would try to keep their "real" identity a secret, and the other side tries to figure out who they really are).

What does the community think of this idea?

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

You know you don't have to ask me Wandy, I knew I was on your list.

On thing I might suggest in order to support great roleplay for a specif campaign is to have a planned break in the server.  Say keep it up a week, then down a week.  This would give alot of opportunity for roleplay as the server went on.

[Dizzy]

Nice post, Wanderer. I remember a lot of RP back from the good ole days... I miss that. Really added to the experience.

Hey! I found some D2 roelplay here: http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163360484.msg1122627331.html#msg1122627331

Edit: + Karma Wanderer. Nice to see some drive and enthusiasm on the home front in respects to this stuff.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

Here is another idea perhaps Wandy.  Imagine a writers forum on SFC2.net with 2 subgroups in it.  One for each side in a campaign.  The overall group could work on most projects and the seperated groups could write the roleplay for any hidden VCs and such.  The admin would make the VCs and if he wanted to he would have the writer's group flesh them out for him based on the campaigns progress.

[Capt_Bearslayer_XC]

Hell, I just want to see the RP of the two races that seem to hate each other the worst being on the same side...

Pussy Galore!!! *snicker*

[Mutilator]

Yeah all the side stories from traditional enemy's teaming up.

We could follow the love stores after all the years of hatred you know these races would start crossing the gene pools...

DH and Jinn team up to attack the Romulans after a successful deep strike they find a distance planet to celebrate the mission



 or

Kroma's love child with the Kzinti, who's your Daddy?




TT and Duck winging together again, stories O'plenty from that tandem!



And Lyrans and Federation offspring oh the stories we would have



Count me in 

[Grim]

It has been fun in the past reading some of the RP stories associated with a campaign in order to get some background knowledge and set the overall scene of the campaign. I personally doubt i would be taking part as I don’t know if I will ever fly d2 again, but i may enjoy reading some of the stories and comments providing they have some RP in them. If there are people who are willing to do your ideas then it seems it could be a good idea.

I would like to stress that there is a difference between smack talk and arrogance than RP, as seen in supposed "Kill threads" which some people think are RP but are no more than arrogant, chest thumping rants.

[Hexx]

I actually enjoyed some of the old RP stories- but for a while (imo) they veered in the wrong direction.
The stories changed from being about a number of people (I mean-look at the cast lists of some of the old stories)
to centering around one person.
Stories went from being (again imho) funny and dealing with some of the oddities of the D2verse to dealing with stories
like J'inn hitting another asteroid, Kroma & the cabin boys, or (and yes, Ill use myself here) jokes about me being short

The first time you read about J'inn hitting an asteroid might be funny, by the time the 20th person has decided
"Hey I bet it would be funny if I said something about J'inn & an asteroid " it's not.
It's just someone else trying to write something else down. It's boring, and to be entirely honest I'd rather
have no roleplay to read than have another one where 10 people in a row seem to think that using the same joke every post
is actually humorous.

So essentially what I'm saying is- yeah let's do it-
but try and work on some new material.

[FPF-DieHard]

The short-jokes are still funny

[FPF-Wanderer]

100+ views, not many replies.  Comments, please, especially about Part 2.

[FPF-DieHard]

If I fly a lyran named "Chokula" can I be a count?

[Dizzy]

I'd like to see more direct player involvement when it comes to the RP background of a campaign.  What does this mean, exactly?  Well, imagine a campaign where players take on "roles", that is, they assume the identity of a pre-determined character that fits into the overall RP of the campaign.

Well, I think it's a great idea. I say Tracey G takes the role of Jadis, the girl in the pic on the left here. Then we can see how many human males she can seduce. Thank goodness I'm flying fed!

For example, Hexx and I have been discussing using this idea for the Lyran Civil War.  For those of you who don't know a lot of SFB history, the Lyrans have various Dukes, Counts, etc, that make up the personages of the Lyran Empire.  For the duration of the campaign, players from the community would shed their normal personas and assume the roles of the various Lyran characters.

I think this could add a lot of fun and depth to a campaign (imagine, for example, having a contest on the side, where folks would try to keep their "real" identity a secret, and the other side tries to figure out who they really are).

Well, you have a good idea, Wanderer. I tried to do that on SG4, but the community wasnt much into the whole contest fight at the end. The bounties, well, there wasnt much interest in that either. I think it's all up to the players and how involved they want to be. For an admin, all we can do is throw it out and hope they bite.

Speaking of bounties... gonna make another post.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

If I fly a lyran named "Chokula" can I be a count?

I think you should fly using the initial "E", if you do I bet everyone could see you as a Duke 

[Lepton]

Never got into Role Playing.  Don't really get the idea of it.  I'm me.  Who else am I gonna be?  I refuse to buy an MMORPG as I see it as a cash cow for those companies.  All also refuse to wrok on my character for hours a day training skills and leveling, etc.  That is why I will be buying Star Wars BattleFront 2 and not Star Wars Galaxies.

My assumption is that most people's RPG desires are subsumed by other games they play and with the advent of Star Trek Online there will also be a Trek outlet there as well, for all your sweaty Orion fantasies.

Be that as it may, RPG away.  I hope people have fun with it.

Part II sounds great.  The more, the merrier.  Have at it.

[Lepton]

Come to think of it, this whole community is pretty much an RPG.  We all are playing roles here, larger than our normal selves I assume.  It might be nice to have some of the community tensions shoved into an RPG expression to take the edge off of things.

[Commander Maxillius]

I miss the old RP's of yore....  AOTK....  Socky's Adventures.....  I haven't seen any good ones in a couple years, except for Gooks's repost of Socky's Adventures.

I was hoping there would be more RP for AOTK2, but there wasn't.  Kinda dissappointed about it.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

I miss the old RP's of yore....  AOTK....  Socky's Adventures.....  I haven't seen any good ones in a couple years, except for Gooks's repost of Socky's Adventures.

I was hoping there would be more RP for AOTK2, but there wasn't.  Kinda dissappointed about it.

With servers churned out shortly after announcements there is little time for roleplay as players scramble to get real life stuff taken care of before start.  Also some servers announced early have never happened despite roleplay threads having already begun.  The best roleplay thread I remember was for Klingon civil war,

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163346379.0.html

but then that fell apart.   

[FPF-Wanderer]

<sigh>...200+ views, still not many comments from the community at large.  C'mon, folks, I really want some input, particularly on Part 2.  I don't want to do a bunch of work on a campaign and in the end have most peeps say, "naw, not really interested".  I'd rather get that now, if that is how it is.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

I like #2 in general Wandy, but I think we need to make sure it doesn't become too restrictive.  Not everyone wants to play a Duke, Count, or Captain Kirk I think.  However, I think everyone could find a niche to fit in if the idea is slightly broadened.  Like roleplaying a junior captain under Count A's command, or A retired Starfleet officer drug back to the front in times of war, or say even a Gorn holy crusader out to enforce the gospel of the Defenders of the Egg. (I think this is what you origionally intended anyhow, but just didn't express clearly). 

Main thing would be to have a form of coordination so that the storylines would fit together (at least loosely).  A cast of characters such as the Lyran nobility would go a long way and provide ideas for some characters, while some would prefer to go with their own ideas.

[GDA-S'Cipio]

If a storyline thread gets started, I'm sure I'll jump in.

-S'Cipio