RP is one of those interesting terms, because we all think we know what it means, but everyone has different ideas about it. Whenever I see a post in the Server & Recruitment forum that talks about an RP server, I’m always curious about what that server community considers to be RP.
So, instead of dying of unsatisfied curiosity, I thought I would open a topic and ask
What do Conan Exiles players look for in RP? What do private server admins expect from their players in terms of RP? How does RP apply to and affect interactions between players?
My first though ever was everyone assigned a role and they played only that way. But i now understand it can also be about setting rules on pvp, land claim, etc. without a hard set role for the players themselves. So it is not video game LARP’ing as i first thought many moon cycles ago.
RP to me… is mostly in my head. Its only dialed to like 10%.
I’ll equip a hood in rain, or wear certain gear or use certain weapons. Stuff I build and set up has to look normal. Stick to Crom yada yada.
I don’t kneel at side of river and drink water and go “ohh thats nice and cold”
Which was about only “RP” rule on my server. Was building had to look normal and fit the world. No lolypops or spider webs of buildings, no Character who were misshaped all weird. (like Ark…)
When I see RP for a Conan Exiles server, it usually means restricted (if any) PvP, only authorized raids (again, if any), and no purge. Its basically a builders paradise in a sandbox.
There are some exceptions, but that’s what I usually think of when I see “RP” for a server listing. If the server sounds interesting from the description, further investigation is warranted because not everyone has the same idea of RP that I do. So that means asking lots of questions.
The truth is a few years ago I tried my first MMO, a bunch of my friends joined me.
we played mostly after work and weekends. Then slowly everyone quit.
I was about to quit also when I met someone, this person was an RP player.
I was told think of yourself as the character. I tried.
Unfortunately I have a neuro-muscular disorder that had not presented until that time.
I suffered 3 strokes while in character they were minor strokes so I remained functional for the most part, the result was I lost myself, I was actually surprised by the mirror. Now I don’t mean I totally became someone else, only that while playing I would lose the real world and not snap out of it right away when I left the game. Also I lost almost all of the trivial parts of my memory as in I couldn’t remember minor things.
My work became overwhelming, things that were simple yesterday became impossible today.
I recovered partially over time, but I still have trouble remembering. My muscles have degenerated.
But I can still walk just not far, so I consider myself lucky.
So now RP to me is just a puppet-master I keep myself removed from whatever I do in game.
Sorry that is probably too much information. but you asked.
edit: it was a year and a half before the doctors figured out what was going on, my family noticed something was wrong straight away, but it was still a year and a half until the problem was diagnosed by a muscle biopsy.
To me is to act like a character, not as a machine systematically playing to get the most advantage from the game mechanics.
This means i will build my house in a way that a person could actually inhabit, ergonomically and psichologically speaking. That i’m going to fight only if it’s needed,not just to farm items, and that i will treat other people, incluiding thralls as that, not as targets or numbers.
I can summarise my own answer in 2 simple words: CROM Features. Now if only I could get some of them.
Sure I could belabour on and provide indepth justification and rationale. But RP is a subjective thing, and it is inevitable that our own perspectives wont always align with everyone elses.
To me, role-playing starts with one key element: who am I? The toon that walks around on my screen isn’t a mindless paper doll, he/she is a person.
So what kind of a people are these characters? How do they talk, how do they think? Do they have any peculiar personality traits that can be built upon to form a credible personality? What did they do in their past, before the game starts? Did they have a happy life, something they want to return to, or is it more likely that they want to build a new life for themselves?
I want to know the person I’m playing because I become that person while role-playing. It’s like good actors do when they get into their roles; they don’t simply read the lines someone else scripted for them, following the director’s instructions - they get a feeling of who the character is, so they can better express themselves as the character would.
Role-playing is also part of interacting with the world. I take my shoes off before wading into shallow water because I hate getting my shoes wet. I greet my town guards when entering, and imagine that they greet me back. I banter with my followers. When I train my followers in the jungle I imagine we’re culling the grey ape population so as to make the place safer for future colonization.
I’ve played tabletop RPGs since the early 1990s, and computer RPGs since forever. To me, the core of role-playing, whether it’s a pre-generated character written by someone else (such as Geralt of Rivia or Estelle Bright or Conan himself) or a character of my own creation, is getting into that character’s head and acting and thinking like that character would.
RP (=Roleplay) means for me that I behave a bit in character.
I do not speak as my character would, but I build my buildings with defense in mind, although it is a PVE-server with the purge turned off.
In my rooms I put placables (thanks are due to Emberlight and Shadows of Skelos) that are purely decorative and without any real function (most of them, some do have nice functions).
If I were to make an RP server, it would mean to me that I would add additional in game content using the assets (like big castles with dungeons and stuff) and then give my players a story and goals to fulfill.
Hard to say, it means several different things to me, I did lots of RP in Age of Conan for several years so those are my main points that create (good) RP:
Authentical and dynamic characters: Some people seem to create their characters and the underlying story with only one certain aspect (mostly moraly good ones) in mind that defines the whole character and makes it seem artificial, almost like an NPC, because it never changes or gets challanged. Being good in every single situation, always playing the super hero that can’t fail anything is making stories boring. I loved playing as arrogant and somewhat pretentious characters (stygian noble woman for example), I also loved it when other people played as the “evil” one who all of the sudden left their team to die in a dungeon and trying to get away with the treasure and became the main villain to the whole story.
Of course you can have a certain feature that your character will only “lose” in the most dire situation and that’s totally fine, even very good! But characters should be dynamic and be able to change over time, especially if they are together with other players characters a lot and have relationships to them (whether those are good or bad).
Fitting vanity gear: Yeah, might sound weird but some people don’t care about their vanity gear and it can kill roleplay a lot in my opinion. If you are in your own villa, having guests and organized a feast, then why are you still running around in that pure PvE raid armor set that has no relation to your RP character? For example: there was someone who played as an aquilonian soldier and used khitai armor even though his story stated he never was in khitai or knew anything about the country.
Same goes for no clothing at all: I know nudity is a very common thing in Conan’s world but it starts to get immersion breaking if every single female character runs around bare chested in the city. There are lots of clothing items (in CE as well as AoC) that are revealing but not completely nude, use them, that makes it a lot more authentic.
Interesting stories to play: Sitting in a tavern every now and then, to meet new players, as an introduction or something like that is nice - but constantly? Nah, that’s really boring. Hyboria (in CE and especially AoC) has so much to offer so you should try to go out there and create an interesting story with an arc that might lead from a rather normal trip to an adventure. Use the world around you and all its features!
"Power-RP": It’s totally fine to lead the story with your descriptions, especially if you had the idea to lead the other players onto an adventure to explore together. But some people start to completely control the actions (and even worse, emotions) of other players characters. This is really bad and can lead to problems (some people get really angry if that is done). Leaving lots of room for the actions of other players in the plot of your adventure is not only important to keep it fun for the others (because they don’t know what is going to happen, they are exploring the story like they would when reading a book!) but can also lead to interesting outcomes that you yourself might not have thought of in the first place, this pretty much leads to the very first point I stated, dynamics are super important!
That was a lot more than I wanted to write but yeah, that’s basically what I think about good roleplay.
I am who I am in real life;
A elder man seeking respite from the real world and its troubles.
A nobody of importance to anybody.
When I am in the game,
I become someone else.
I am something more than I could have ever dreamed of.
I am healthy, vital, powerful, skillful and creative.
I can be brutal or merciful.
I can be selfish or generous.
I can be somber and humorous.
I can be wise and foolish.
I can do things that would otherwise be impossible.
I take on the persona of one who has been warped out of time, taken far from home and placed somewhere unknown and unfamiliar to me. I am a stranger in a strange land trying to survive and at times wonder whether I want to leave this place or stay.
You must be kidding. In the Conan world. Crom wouldent care what your carracter do. He would be anoyed and kill anyone that tries to pray to him since he sees them as weak
Hey, @Gimpeline, please don’t take this the wrong way, but let’s keep this thread focused on giving people the space to talk about their own interpretation of RP. @Croms_Faithful already has an excellent thread for discussing what Crom should be like in Conan Exiles. It’s been there since December of 2018 and it’s still going strong
Now if only I could get some of them.
competitive PvP habits are hard to drop.