Questers
20-05-2007, 14:27
So looking at RP in general here, I thought I'd do a guide on including characters and more personal/background information like that in your RPing. Its always more interesting to RP when there's something more substantial than "I launch ASM." "I launch SAM." "HAX U GODMOD". So here we go, hopefully I don't look too pretentious doing this.
INCLUDING 'CHARACTERS' IN YOUR RP - A "GUIDE"
First Off: What "is" a character, and why are they good to include?
Well, a character is someone that you can work on and develop in the scale of an RP. A submarine ensign saying "Aye sir" once or twice isn't a character because you have no development, but a submarine skipper who you can detail about having a strong dislike for pirates because of some historical reason is more interesting to read. Example:
A: "There's the bastard. Orders, sir? " The Ensign confirmed as the ping of the pirate submariner flashed up on his SONAR screen.
Captain Rogers smirked. After days of tracking the enemy boat, he finally had him in his sights. Nothing was better or more satisfactory to Rogers than a well earned kill, especially a pirate. Having been brought up by his uncle, Rogers was trained from birth with a respect to the law. His parents, employees of the Imperial Questarian Merchant Navy, where killed - the Captain preffered to think of it as murdered - by pirates when he was a young child and it was for this reason he joined the Coast Guard.
Rogers stubbed out his finely rolled Pwnagian cigarette into the paper carrying the orders to wipe out the pirate. It singed a neat hole through the typing paper and burnt out against the cold steel of the command desk. Rogers flicked it into the bin with an air of a well practiced throw.
"Take him out."
There's a character development - and whats good about this is that it adds more depth to the RP and makes it more interesting to read. After all, I like to techwank too, but having characters makes it so much more interesting to write and read. I sometimes find myself thinking "What can I name this guy, where's he from, and why's he doing this? How can I make this character happy/sad/mournful" etc. Alternatively, that block of writing could be shortened to this.
B: The Taranmyo class nuclear fleet submarine slowly accelerated its speed from its maximum crush depth of 500 metres and moved upwards, keeping the pirate boat in its SONAR scan. It was an old Russian model and to say it hadn't been well mantained was an understatement - the boat was blaring on SONAR and without further ado the Taranmyo launched two wire guided 533mm torpedoes. The enemy submarine had no time to dodge and the two warheads slammed into the enemy subs hull, shearing it from perpendicular to perpendicular and scattering its crew across the ocean as the explosions bubbles rose to the surface.
Thats not really that bad, but I'd say its definetly less interesting than A was. Sometimes you have to do it because you lack motivation or time or its part of a wider battle or campaign and it doesn't need any character attention. But paying attention to characters and being able to detail their thoughts or actions over a series of posts is satisfying, its good for the RP and therefore ultimately good for the forum and the rest of the members. So a character is something that can be developed over time and with which the writer pays special detail to informing the reader about.
How does this benefit me? Whats the point, its just a waste of time. They don't make my guns more accurate or my logistics easier to handle. This is retarded.
True, they don't. They don't actually help you to win a battle in any way, shape, or form. I'd like to make it clear that characters don't have to be super heroes or whatever. They can just be normal civilians or soldiers or people that you find interesting and what to detail, or that you can focus a story around. I would personally say its fun. You might not agree, but this is free form, I'm not going to ignore you for not developing characters but I do believe that it adds to RP.
What if I never use these characters again? Then it'll just be a big waste of time!
You can argue NS is just as big waste of time because its fiction. All that time you spent designing that ship and it just got blown up like that. Wouldn't that be a waste of time? No, because hopefulyl you enjoyed designing it. If you don't enjoy doing NS then well, don't. There's no point. After almost four years I've figured out that this game doesn't help you IRL, which was pretty obvious at the start but whatever. It doesn't help you get laid more often, it doesn't give you money or any other physical wealth - it doesn't complete your homework for you. But it is jolly good fun and you can make some fantastic friends from it. Character development can range from anything - the lowly foot soldier in the 32nd Infantry Division or the mighty head of state. If I said to you the words "Damien Dreadfire" you would most likely know who that is. He is probably a household name in NS - the equivalent of George Bush (lol). Everyone knows who he is. Why is this? Because he's infamous (Dreadfire that is, XD). Also, because AMF has spent alot of time developing him from his conception as a character. He didn't just magic him up and turn him into some world famous guy. It was done by a combination of extremely well RPed character development and by general IC belligerence and arrogance.
I wouldn't say any of my characters where famous - probably the most well known would be either the late King Richard VI for his blatant sexism and vice, or First Sea Lord Riew, since these are two I've Rped with probably the most. But making up characters on the spot and applying some personal-level RP is just as fun as moulding your character over time to be someone that you can fully understand. You don't have to do it, I find NS is just a little boring without characters, because otherwise there's no emotion in it. For example, in the attack on Arretium, just the post by Doomingsland about the volunteer who watched his house being blown to dust by a missile with his family still in in a moment after he left, this added some personal touch to the RP, rather than nameless "houses collapsed under the rigorous aerial bombardment of the city's suburbs." I have to say that I think Doom is easily one of the best RPers on this board, having RPed with him quite a fair bit. What makes his posts interesting to read is that he heavily character focuses them as well as including the neccessary strategic detail. This is something I don't think alot of RPers here can, or will do.
What are characters good for, then?
They're good for not only having fun writing about them, but for being able to portray either the justice of war or the horror of war or both. You can also get across a political or diplomatic message by noting what your characters think of situtations or countries. For example if I read somewhere that someone's president had said to his aide "Bloody Questarians" I would know that I had irritated their country or their president. This post (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12624467&postcount=16) by Praetonia outlines the typical Praetonian belief towards the left wing - "bolshy bastards" and "tax away all the company's profit" makes it clear these two security guards, you average Praetonian Joe, are hostile towards Spizania and the left in general.
Here's an excerpt by a post from me:
C: "Aw shit, shit shit shit"
Yamashita said over and over again as the missile launch ignitions popped up on his RADAR. Already the EW of the four attached specialist aircraft began attacking the missiles, dropping two, but some where bound to get through. Yamashita shuddered and broke out in a cold sweat as he heard his rear mounted autocannon opening fire.
"Prepare to bail, seriously, we're getting the fuck out of here." the captain said, a moment after the "Incoming missile" sound flashed up on the G4M's screen.
"Alright alright."
"Missile inbound" it flashed again getting quicker and quicker and redder and redder. The autocannon kept firing and kept missing.
"Fuck this, eject, eject!" Yamashita shouted, pulling back the ejection lever with all his weight. The cockpit flew open and two seconds later, just before he pulled the lever, the missile impacted. It blew off the tail and the subsequent fire raged around the rear of the bomber, then tearing off the rear fuselage. The scream pierced through Yamashita's ears as the plane began to drop out of the sky. He glanced around and another five bombers met the same fate, falling out the sky like giant weights, twirling and turning. Yamashita pulled his eject lever and the three second charge kicked in. He looked to this co pilot whos face was one of blank terror. His ejector was jammed. For three seconds Yamashita could see right inside the young man's head. His family, his unborn baby. Yamashita didn't have anything to say. All he could manage was a salute. His co pilot returned a shaky salute. Three seconds later the ejector kicked him and his chair shot him up in the sky, falling down and opening its parachute.
The face of that young co pilot would not leave Yamashita as long as he lived.
I think war is a terrible thing, but it is sometimes neccessary, and I admire anyone in war that makes a great sacrifice for what they believe to be a better cause (apart from the insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, they can rot in hell for all I fucking care, every dead Taliban/Insurgent is a blessing, but I don't want this to turn into a political piece so I'll leave it at that) and if anyone's read my RPs they might see that I implement these feelings heavily into my writing. I also greatly admire defiance in the face of a superior foe - the Battle of Britain, Japan's Pacific War, the Wehrmacht's defence of Germany against the Soviets in '44, etc etc. I feature these heavily in my RPs too and my characters often reflect this.
Characters are good for reflecting your nation in other ways. For example:
D: "Yes, its quite the pleasant neighbourhood." Keiran nodded and sipped his tea, stirring it slightly with the teaspoon. "Of course, there's a few too many blacks, but I dare say that thats a problem in any suburb of London."
Mary was shocked at the man's honest, yet casual prejudices. but she didn't show it. An awkward silence followed with a hasty reply of "I see."
I think this accurately represents the feelings of the Questarian upper middle classes - Questers is racist, and sexist, I admit it. While these things are morally wrong, I can accept that they're great for RPing purposes. Its unrealistic to claim noone in your nation will be sexist or racist, especially in this day and age where communication of beliefs and ideas is so much easier. Occasionally tossing in the racist or sexist character can make your rping better because it makes people think that, hey, Questarians aren't all that nice after all (Whoever said they where in the first place? =.="). I don't think its fair to say that an upper class of any country is without its racists or sexists or other types. This DOESN'T mean to say you can go around spamming racial insults and get away with it under the guise of "But its RP!" After all, its happened in the past and it usually gets out of control if not well managed.
I know that people from MassPwnage are often druggies, anarchists, sex obsessives or whatever. Well that may be a stereotype, but that is the culture of the nation. Doomanis on the other hand are totally opposite. I wouldn't know this if all I read about their nation was how many ships they had and how their RADARs worked, or where their armies where deployed, right? I could write more but I think you get the idea that characters can actively portray what a nations people, traditions, and language/dialect is like, as well as their attitudes to race, political views, etc. They can also be used to make RPs more interesting and fun to read and write and thats about it.
Hopefully this guide helped and I will probably expand it in the future when I can think of a way to do so. Thanks for reading + please post comments/questions/disagreements/insults/free money.
INCLUDING 'CHARACTERS' IN YOUR RP - A "GUIDE"
First Off: What "is" a character, and why are they good to include?
Well, a character is someone that you can work on and develop in the scale of an RP. A submarine ensign saying "Aye sir" once or twice isn't a character because you have no development, but a submarine skipper who you can detail about having a strong dislike for pirates because of some historical reason is more interesting to read. Example:
A: "There's the bastard. Orders, sir? " The Ensign confirmed as the ping of the pirate submariner flashed up on his SONAR screen.
Captain Rogers smirked. After days of tracking the enemy boat, he finally had him in his sights. Nothing was better or more satisfactory to Rogers than a well earned kill, especially a pirate. Having been brought up by his uncle, Rogers was trained from birth with a respect to the law. His parents, employees of the Imperial Questarian Merchant Navy, where killed - the Captain preffered to think of it as murdered - by pirates when he was a young child and it was for this reason he joined the Coast Guard.
Rogers stubbed out his finely rolled Pwnagian cigarette into the paper carrying the orders to wipe out the pirate. It singed a neat hole through the typing paper and burnt out against the cold steel of the command desk. Rogers flicked it into the bin with an air of a well practiced throw.
"Take him out."
There's a character development - and whats good about this is that it adds more depth to the RP and makes it more interesting to read. After all, I like to techwank too, but having characters makes it so much more interesting to write and read. I sometimes find myself thinking "What can I name this guy, where's he from, and why's he doing this? How can I make this character happy/sad/mournful" etc. Alternatively, that block of writing could be shortened to this.
B: The Taranmyo class nuclear fleet submarine slowly accelerated its speed from its maximum crush depth of 500 metres and moved upwards, keeping the pirate boat in its SONAR scan. It was an old Russian model and to say it hadn't been well mantained was an understatement - the boat was blaring on SONAR and without further ado the Taranmyo launched two wire guided 533mm torpedoes. The enemy submarine had no time to dodge and the two warheads slammed into the enemy subs hull, shearing it from perpendicular to perpendicular and scattering its crew across the ocean as the explosions bubbles rose to the surface.
Thats not really that bad, but I'd say its definetly less interesting than A was. Sometimes you have to do it because you lack motivation or time or its part of a wider battle or campaign and it doesn't need any character attention. But paying attention to characters and being able to detail their thoughts or actions over a series of posts is satisfying, its good for the RP and therefore ultimately good for the forum and the rest of the members. So a character is something that can be developed over time and with which the writer pays special detail to informing the reader about.
How does this benefit me? Whats the point, its just a waste of time. They don't make my guns more accurate or my logistics easier to handle. This is retarded.
True, they don't. They don't actually help you to win a battle in any way, shape, or form. I'd like to make it clear that characters don't have to be super heroes or whatever. They can just be normal civilians or soldiers or people that you find interesting and what to detail, or that you can focus a story around. I would personally say its fun. You might not agree, but this is free form, I'm not going to ignore you for not developing characters but I do believe that it adds to RP.
What if I never use these characters again? Then it'll just be a big waste of time!
You can argue NS is just as big waste of time because its fiction. All that time you spent designing that ship and it just got blown up like that. Wouldn't that be a waste of time? No, because hopefulyl you enjoyed designing it. If you don't enjoy doing NS then well, don't. There's no point. After almost four years I've figured out that this game doesn't help you IRL, which was pretty obvious at the start but whatever. It doesn't help you get laid more often, it doesn't give you money or any other physical wealth - it doesn't complete your homework for you. But it is jolly good fun and you can make some fantastic friends from it. Character development can range from anything - the lowly foot soldier in the 32nd Infantry Division or the mighty head of state. If I said to you the words "Damien Dreadfire" you would most likely know who that is. He is probably a household name in NS - the equivalent of George Bush (lol). Everyone knows who he is. Why is this? Because he's infamous (Dreadfire that is, XD). Also, because AMF has spent alot of time developing him from his conception as a character. He didn't just magic him up and turn him into some world famous guy. It was done by a combination of extremely well RPed character development and by general IC belligerence and arrogance.
I wouldn't say any of my characters where famous - probably the most well known would be either the late King Richard VI for his blatant sexism and vice, or First Sea Lord Riew, since these are two I've Rped with probably the most. But making up characters on the spot and applying some personal-level RP is just as fun as moulding your character over time to be someone that you can fully understand. You don't have to do it, I find NS is just a little boring without characters, because otherwise there's no emotion in it. For example, in the attack on Arretium, just the post by Doomingsland about the volunteer who watched his house being blown to dust by a missile with his family still in in a moment after he left, this added some personal touch to the RP, rather than nameless "houses collapsed under the rigorous aerial bombardment of the city's suburbs." I have to say that I think Doom is easily one of the best RPers on this board, having RPed with him quite a fair bit. What makes his posts interesting to read is that he heavily character focuses them as well as including the neccessary strategic detail. This is something I don't think alot of RPers here can, or will do.
What are characters good for, then?
They're good for not only having fun writing about them, but for being able to portray either the justice of war or the horror of war or both. You can also get across a political or diplomatic message by noting what your characters think of situtations or countries. For example if I read somewhere that someone's president had said to his aide "Bloody Questarians" I would know that I had irritated their country or their president. This post (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12624467&postcount=16) by Praetonia outlines the typical Praetonian belief towards the left wing - "bolshy bastards" and "tax away all the company's profit" makes it clear these two security guards, you average Praetonian Joe, are hostile towards Spizania and the left in general.
Here's an excerpt by a post from me:
C: "Aw shit, shit shit shit"
Yamashita said over and over again as the missile launch ignitions popped up on his RADAR. Already the EW of the four attached specialist aircraft began attacking the missiles, dropping two, but some where bound to get through. Yamashita shuddered and broke out in a cold sweat as he heard his rear mounted autocannon opening fire.
"Prepare to bail, seriously, we're getting the fuck out of here." the captain said, a moment after the "Incoming missile" sound flashed up on the G4M's screen.
"Alright alright."
"Missile inbound" it flashed again getting quicker and quicker and redder and redder. The autocannon kept firing and kept missing.
"Fuck this, eject, eject!" Yamashita shouted, pulling back the ejection lever with all his weight. The cockpit flew open and two seconds later, just before he pulled the lever, the missile impacted. It blew off the tail and the subsequent fire raged around the rear of the bomber, then tearing off the rear fuselage. The scream pierced through Yamashita's ears as the plane began to drop out of the sky. He glanced around and another five bombers met the same fate, falling out the sky like giant weights, twirling and turning. Yamashita pulled his eject lever and the three second charge kicked in. He looked to this co pilot whos face was one of blank terror. His ejector was jammed. For three seconds Yamashita could see right inside the young man's head. His family, his unborn baby. Yamashita didn't have anything to say. All he could manage was a salute. His co pilot returned a shaky salute. Three seconds later the ejector kicked him and his chair shot him up in the sky, falling down and opening its parachute.
The face of that young co pilot would not leave Yamashita as long as he lived.
I think war is a terrible thing, but it is sometimes neccessary, and I admire anyone in war that makes a great sacrifice for what they believe to be a better cause (apart from the insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, they can rot in hell for all I fucking care, every dead Taliban/Insurgent is a blessing, but I don't want this to turn into a political piece so I'll leave it at that) and if anyone's read my RPs they might see that I implement these feelings heavily into my writing. I also greatly admire defiance in the face of a superior foe - the Battle of Britain, Japan's Pacific War, the Wehrmacht's defence of Germany against the Soviets in '44, etc etc. I feature these heavily in my RPs too and my characters often reflect this.
Characters are good for reflecting your nation in other ways. For example:
D: "Yes, its quite the pleasant neighbourhood." Keiran nodded and sipped his tea, stirring it slightly with the teaspoon. "Of course, there's a few too many blacks, but I dare say that thats a problem in any suburb of London."
Mary was shocked at the man's honest, yet casual prejudices. but she didn't show it. An awkward silence followed with a hasty reply of "I see."
I think this accurately represents the feelings of the Questarian upper middle classes - Questers is racist, and sexist, I admit it. While these things are morally wrong, I can accept that they're great for RPing purposes. Its unrealistic to claim noone in your nation will be sexist or racist, especially in this day and age where communication of beliefs and ideas is so much easier. Occasionally tossing in the racist or sexist character can make your rping better because it makes people think that, hey, Questarians aren't all that nice after all (Whoever said they where in the first place? =.="). I don't think its fair to say that an upper class of any country is without its racists or sexists or other types. This DOESN'T mean to say you can go around spamming racial insults and get away with it under the guise of "But its RP!" After all, its happened in the past and it usually gets out of control if not well managed.
I know that people from MassPwnage are often druggies, anarchists, sex obsessives or whatever. Well that may be a stereotype, but that is the culture of the nation. Doomanis on the other hand are totally opposite. I wouldn't know this if all I read about their nation was how many ships they had and how their RADARs worked, or where their armies where deployed, right? I could write more but I think you get the idea that characters can actively portray what a nations people, traditions, and language/dialect is like, as well as their attitudes to race, political views, etc. They can also be used to make RPs more interesting and fun to read and write and thats about it.
Hopefully this guide helped and I will probably expand it in the future when I can think of a way to do so. Thanks for reading + please post comments/questions/disagreements/insults/free money.