A Land Far Away

Excellent Roleplaying and rewards based on it should not have any regards to wether or not someone's character is speaking, out fighting, sitting in a corner, or putting on a play. Excellent Roleplay is excellent roleplay regardless of what events are occuring.

DMs should not be afraid to award proper XP Awards for excellent roleplay, and should most definately ask questions of players whos characters are quiet, alone, or out slaying goblins and orcs - as to the REASONS they are doing these things. These players who may be playing less talkative or less interactive PCs may be able to explain exactly why their character is doing something, and their motivations.

Do not assume people are not putting a lot of thought into their characters ,simply because of the character's actions or lack thereof. Also, rewarding XP for roleplay in general, should be the norm, not the exception. Especially in such a low-reward environment as ALFA.

Do:
Do have a justification for anything you do.
Do act in the mindset of your character, not in the mindset of yourself.
Do respect the instructions and actions of the administrators.
Do ignore out-of-character events.
Do learn about the game's background.
Do be nice, play fair, and treat other players with respect.
Do understand that bad things can happen.
Do accept the occasional conflict and misunderstanding.

Do Not:
Do not speak out-of-character!
Do not be unbelievable — do not invent powers or claim supernatural abilities that don't actually exist in the game.
Do not attempt to force other players to behave in a certain way.
Do not abuse multiple characters.
Do not use internet slang ("AOLspeak") such as "u", "r", "lol", "stfu", etc.
Do not attempt to administrate the game yourself!
Do not be rude, racist, libelous, offensive, vulgar, sexist, discriminatory, defamatory, derogatory, etc.
Do not ever emotionally assault another player.

Try:
Try to use proper spelling and grammar.
Try to respect the fact that some people might not be as good a roleplayer as you are.
Try to listen to others' advice.
Try to keep the atmosphere intact.

So DMs, what is your definition of Excellent Roleplay?

AmarSldstill wrote:Excellent Roleplaying and rewards based on it should not have any regards to wether or not someone's character is speaking, out fighting, sitting in a corner, or putting on a play. Excellent Roleplay is excellent roleplay regardless of what events are occuring.

DMs should not be afraid to award proper XP Awards for excellent roleplay, and should most definately ask questions of players whos characters are quiet, alone, or out slaying goblins and orcs - as to the REASONS they are doing these things. These players who may be playing less talkative or less interactive PCs may be able to explain exactly why their character is doing something, and their motivations.

Do not assume people are not putting a lot of thought into their characters ,simply because of the character's actions or lack thereof. Also, rewarding XP for roleplay in general, should be the norm, not the exception. Especially in such a low-reward environment as ALFA.

Excellent roleplaying is very opinionated, so there is going to be a mix of answers in this thread, if there are answers at all.

I would like to say that it is rather difficult to award someone for roleplaying a quiet individual or an individual who is out killing orcs even if they give a reason for it. For the former, you could sit there and remain quiet and not do anything whatsoever, even perhaps be AFK, and call it roleplaying -- simply because you are playing a quiet individual does not mean you cannot add to the RP. Emotes or just small additions to the conversation are rather welcome. I tell this from experience as a player, because I have been with a quiet PC who just stands, follows and doesn't say a word... and if that's his RP, it's not really inspiring to think it deserve an award at all, and I actually grow bored/bothered by it. For the latter, if you see someone out killing orcs the whole time and justifies it as RP, they are already gaining experience by doing just that -- killing. It's also seems rather bad to make a PC that solely kills, kills, and does more killing and then expects more experience because he is supposed to be.

In essence, I think exceptional roleplay is going that extra distance with your character and making it special, unique, and enjoyable to play with, against, and as. Anyone can play a quiet character that never talks, so you must do something to stand out and show why your character deserves an award for being roleplayed like that. Anyone can also make a PC that just kills orcs, so why should it be rewarded? Again, to me, roleplaying is that little extra that gives that spark and shine to your character.

Disclaimer: Anyone following my posts in previous threads may realize I have trouble actually getting out what I want to say. If this offends someone, or someone thinks I'm putting words in their mouth, say something so I can clarify. No need to take offense when I'm not intending to.

edit: When I say "you", please take it as a generalized "you". I am not naming names nor calling out individuals in any way, shape, or form. I would also like to point out that my very first sentence seems blatantly obvious and stupid. Haha

I'd just like to say that I am an excellent roleplayer so follow my example and play a banite.

I hate when the Banite cult leader guy is right.

I have seen some DMs and players who give the impression that "comedy characters" are more worthy of RP rewards than serious ones...

Mayhem wrote:I have seen some DMs and players who give the impression that "comedy characters" are more worthy of RP rewards than serious ones...

Well, anyone can do serious, it is far harder to do comedy and actually pull it off

I take comedy seriously.

Comedy is serious business.

I'll be the judge myself, thank you very much.

Thrasy informed me I was an excellent roleplayer one time.

Burt wrote:Thrasy informed me I was an excellent roleplayer one time.

As he did me, he was a swell guy that Thrasy.

Mordekai wrote:

Burt wrote:Thrasy informed me I was an excellent roleplayer one time.

As he did me, he was a swell guy that Thrasy.

Super, super bloke.

The list of rp recommendations are solid, but if you're going into the realm of "excellent" rp, well first off it's highly subjective. My two all-time favorite rp'ers were people that would be easy to overlook at first. They both had theater training, one in opera, and they were both about my age. They were essentially background character actors, responding perfectly to their environment and playing off the rp of others with very well thought out PC's that had rich lives and complex personalities, but who rarely if ever drove the plot or took the spotlight. Interestingly they both always played human PC's. Their IC responses were always exactly what they should have been, and rp'ing a scene with them would come out looking like it had been scripted it was so smooth. "Subtle but perfect" is how I would describe them, and perfection is a high standard. The more I played with them, the more I appreciated their rp, and the more I tried (unsuccessfully) to copy their style. I'm just too chatty of an rp'er to pull that off.

However, you can be an excellent rp'er without being perfect. Excellent rp happens when players rp interactively in such a way as to suspend disbelief and allow the game to really come alive. So, this is how I would describe excellent rp: Excellent roleplaying makes you forget you are playing a game.

I should add that I've encountered plenty of excellent roleplaying in ALFA. It's why I'm still here and still playing.

Do keep in mind that one way to accurately reflect a low charisma score is to have a "silent" character that doesn't say all that much, and tends to follow leaders with higher Charisma scores. This shouldn't quell emoting of coarse, but it is something to think upon. And I agree with Mulu, some of the best PC's I have known are background PC's...you just have to step out of the spotlight once in a while and really get to know them.