Goonhub
03-10-2017, 09:19 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-10-2017, 09:21 AM by Superlagg. Edited 2 times in total.)
From my time roleplaying in a first-person shooter, I've learned a few things on what promotes and hinders roleplay.
Some kind of goal or thing you're compelled to do gives purpose to the roleplayers. Conflict sparks things to do, creates goals, and compels roleplayers to roleplay. Troublemakers and/or troublesome events cause conflict.
However, death typically kills roleplay, since whatever plotline or story bits that guy had end with their life. After all, it's kinda hard to roleplay with a dead guy, especially if most of your friends also turned into corpses.
I'd extend that death thing to the escape shuttle, as it has the ability to end or abort any RP going on. Again, if the story's supposed to end there, that's great! It can also be abrupt, boring, and kind of an unsatisfying ending, partly since that ship you're supposed to care about, that smoking wreck or lifeless husk, just disappears forever and is replaced with an identical-yet-different Destiny.
My old FPS roleplaying took place in a city. We RPers would wander around dragonkicking interacting with each other, looking for something to do or some shit to stir up, like Extended, but cruder. Assault and murder were common RP elements, what with it being a first-person shooter. Our weaponry, especially the sw33t kung-fu moves we spawned with, could kill another player within seconds, but, other than a decrease in hitpoints, did no lasting damage.
And yet some of my favorite moments were with my (shitty) character flat on his ass, slowly bleeding out on the pavement after a shoot-out.
While assault and murder were common RP elements, using the "shooter" part of the first-person shooter was preferably down-played; some of us would intentionally use the weakest weapons, shoot to miss, or just mime shooty-fingers at each other and pretend we didn't just yell Bang, then flop down onto the sidewalk and spout profanities even though everyone knows that your hitpoints are full.
Then some nerd in a labcoat would somersault up the street, load all of us whining dorks into an invisible ambulance, use the honor system to let us all run behind him to the hospital, then dive into a bed for him to spout medical terminology he found on Altavista.
Heck, around the time I was an administrator for those RP communities (and before I ran it all right into the ground with my power [and vague furry erp {eugh}]), I would sometimes give people godmode so they could shoot at each other without fear of accidentally killing them and needing to call for a time-out while the dead guy respawns and runs his ass back to play a corpse. We used the honor system (and elitist peer-pressure) to get roleplayers to roleplay right things that the game didn't force them to do, and fairly often it actually sorta worked!
So, what the heck is the point I'm trying to make? Something about inflicting mortal wounds without hurting someone. Hm...
Maybe make death on Destiny only happen through succumbing? Beat them a million points into crit, then let the doctors monkey around putting your guts back in?
Maybe have a fifth intent, where your attacks do no damage but are logged for anyone interested to see?
Maybe a button to turn stuns and unconsciousness on and off, but still have the option to appear stunned or asleep, or at least hear the doctor's medi-babble or the villain's dastardly monologue while you're out like a light?
Maybe just turn everything into a MUCKy MUD because this whole "video" "game" and "mechanics" thing gets in the way of roleplay?
Something something don't call the shuttle unless you really need it and just fix the damn ship you lazy jerks?
Not sure what kind of point I'm trying to make, but I know one thing's for sure: Destiny needs plot drivers, and it could use some stuff to make violent antagging extend beyond a few moments of murder, followed by boring old death.
Some kind of goal or thing you're compelled to do gives purpose to the roleplayers. Conflict sparks things to do, creates goals, and compels roleplayers to roleplay. Troublemakers and/or troublesome events cause conflict.
However, death typically kills roleplay, since whatever plotline or story bits that guy had end with their life. After all, it's kinda hard to roleplay with a dead guy, especially if most of your friends also turned into corpses.
I'd extend that death thing to the escape shuttle, as it has the ability to end or abort any RP going on. Again, if the story's supposed to end there, that's great! It can also be abrupt, boring, and kind of an unsatisfying ending, partly since that ship you're supposed to care about, that smoking wreck or lifeless husk, just disappears forever and is replaced with an identical-yet-different Destiny.
My old FPS roleplaying took place in a city. We RPers would wander around dragonkicking interacting with each other, looking for something to do or some shit to stir up, like Extended, but cruder. Assault and murder were common RP elements, what with it being a first-person shooter. Our weaponry, especially the sw33t kung-fu moves we spawned with, could kill another player within seconds, but, other than a decrease in hitpoints, did no lasting damage.
And yet some of my favorite moments were with my (shitty) character flat on his ass, slowly bleeding out on the pavement after a shoot-out.
While assault and murder were common RP elements, using the "shooter" part of the first-person shooter was preferably down-played; some of us would intentionally use the weakest weapons, shoot to miss, or just mime shooty-fingers at each other and pretend we didn't just yell Bang, then flop down onto the sidewalk and spout profanities even though everyone knows that your hitpoints are full.
Then some nerd in a labcoat would somersault up the street, load all of us whining dorks into an invisible ambulance, use the honor system to let us all run behind him to the hospital, then dive into a bed for him to spout medical terminology he found on Altavista.
Heck, around the time I was an administrator for those RP communities (and before I ran it all right into the ground with my power [and vague furry erp {eugh}]), I would sometimes give people godmode so they could shoot at each other without fear of accidentally killing them and needing to call for a time-out while the dead guy respawns and runs his ass back to play a corpse. We used the honor system (and elitist peer-pressure) to get roleplayers to roleplay right things that the game didn't force them to do, and fairly often it actually sorta worked!
So, what the heck is the point I'm trying to make? Something about inflicting mortal wounds without hurting someone. Hm...
Maybe make death on Destiny only happen through succumbing? Beat them a million points into crit, then let the doctors monkey around putting your guts back in?
Maybe have a fifth intent, where your attacks do no damage but are logged for anyone interested to see?
Maybe a button to turn stuns and unconsciousness on and off, but still have the option to appear stunned or asleep, or at least hear the doctor's medi-babble or the villain's dastardly monologue while you're out like a light?
Maybe just turn everything into a MUCKy MUD because this whole "video" "game" and "mechanics" thing gets in the way of roleplay?
Something something don't call the shuttle unless you really need it and just fix the damn ship you lazy jerks?
Not sure what kind of point I'm trying to make, but I know one thing's for sure: Destiny needs plot drivers, and it could use some stuff to make violent antagging extend beyond a few moments of murder, followed by boring old death.