Chat Thread 20: The Good, The Chat, and The Ugly

Good morning everyone. So the topic I chose to present to you today is Roleplay. Now in more specific I will not be talking about, Tabletop Roleplay like D&D and Pathfinder although they are interesting or Live-action Roleplay which is a completly differant elephant. What I will be talking about today is Internet Roleplay. Now I'll be frank here, there's so much I would love to talk about this topic since it's one of my main hobbies....well was...kinda. Let's just say I used to Roleplay before a lot more. Anyway I'm digressing here, I could be talking about Roleplay for hours really, but since I only have a couple minutes. I've decided on talking about a specific side of Roleplay.

So, in Roleplay there are 2 types of individuals. There are the Game Masters. There are the people who construct a story, create the characters and then present it to the Roleplayers. Now what are Roleplayers you ask? Well, Roleplayers are the participants of the story, hmmmm, since I know some here will not understand this easily and I have limited time, I'll use an example. Imagine the Game Master is the creator of a puzzle and the Roleplayers are the people putting the pieces together to solve that puzzle. Now change the puzzle for a story and you kinda have Roleplay. Somewhat.

Now there are various types of Roleplay. From realistic, self-insert fanfictions, action, epic, too drama. Every single community will have their preferance in what specific type of Roleplay they prefer. My community in specific seems to be more inclined with Epic Storylines. Imagine the Trojan War or Beowulf, stories which are grand and epic in scale.

To give you an example, I'll talk about a particular Roleplay that I did 2-3 years ago? Yeah, that long. I couldn't even find it because of how old it is. Anyway, the concept is simple enough with the right words. Post-apocalyptic world, magic and fantasy exist, ok? Good. So in the chaotic world there is this ritual where 7 "random" individuals were chosen to participate in it. They would recieve a mark and their objective would be to eliminate everybody else with a mark. Whoever was last standing got to re-shape the world to what their ideal vision of the world was.

Now this was a challenge. It's one thing to make 1 or 2 characters who have this vision that nobody else has. But 7 or more characters?! And they all had to be unique from one another? That was one hell of a challenge even for our usual epic like storylines. But in the end we succeded. In the creation of these characters what was always put as a priority was the Goal. What world did they desire? From Utopia, Complete Chaos too Survival of the Fittest. The ideas kept on popping up.

In that Roleplay I was given one job. Make 2 characters for the Rp. One an antagonist, another that I could Roleplay. The one I created were actually in design. I love paradoxes and I love irony. So their design doesn't surprise me when I look back. One had the goal of a world without free world. For him free will was disease, something that was harmful, he wished for a world of order and obediance. Which fitted the line of a puppeter someone who controls the actions of another thing. The irony in his design was that although he wished to irradicate free will, he ultimatly saw himself as the mastermind behind everyone's actions, in a sense he saw himself as a god of his new world.

The other one was less radical, but still quite terrifying. So who here knows people who have gotten a position not because they are good at it, but because they knew people that got them there? In other words, socially resourceful people, the main objective of this other character was to eliminate that, to make it irrelevant. There was more to it, what she really wanted was a world where a person's world comes from their own as an individual and not from backstory or connections. But it had the problem of being a lonely world, a world of isolation where everyone was on their own. Interestingly enough both of them represent serious problems that were going on with my life at the time. The rebilious side that wanted to see the world reform and the desperate that wanted everybody else equal to him. Fascinating really.

As you can see my characters don't exactly have "good" traits, although they are interactable and social, their persunatly ultematly pushes them to become antagonists. Which follows nicely to what I love in characters.

Ah, antagonists, there's something about them to just clicks with me. Now that isn't to say I can't apreciate a well made knight in shining armor. I just find them in general boring, overused and quite frankly less human. That isn't to say that I adore characters who are evil for the sake of being evil. That's even worse unless done properly. But there's something about characters who have objectives in life and pursue them regardless of cost to get them. That isn't to say that they will backstab or kill anyone that insults them. But I love characterse who will dirty their hands to get the job done and then accept whatever consequence might come from those actions.

And this is where I want to leave this presentation. If you ask differant people about Roleplaying, each one will have a differant answer for you. Every single one simply has an unique reason to Roleplay. But for me in particular it's an escapism, a way to express and experience ideas and points of views that I'll never experience in real life. How does it feel to crush someone's dreams, what could push someone to kill a friend. I know it sounds horrible and disturbing, but they are trully interesting ideas to me, I love understanding human behavior and this is my reason to Roleplay.

That sounds great. :0

And that was Sortilege of Creation.

yeah pretty neat Jorg :0 Good work.

especially the parts where you stated as to why you roleplay

Let us know how it goes. :0

i'm tired -.-

*pours jorg a cup of coffee*

So, how did it go?

Sometimes I think I don't fit into the world around me when I hear stories like Justine Sacco's. I was listening to a TED talk about the abuse of social media to bully others. And this isn't the first story I've heard like this. Apparently she sent out a tweet saying "Oh, I'm going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS! Just kidding, I'm white."

Offensive? Maybe mildly. Mostly just kind of dumb in the "what were you thinking?" vein.

She got about a million responses, mostly along the vein of, "You horrible b*tch, I hope you get raped and get AIDS and die."

Wait..... what? How is that a justifiable response? Has anyone ever heard of disproportionate retribution? It's like when people get this mob mentality, they miss such ridiculously obvious things like, "Hey, I'm responding to something I think offensive with something TEN TIMES more offensive."

And this happens so often, and I'm literally baffled and sickened and a little scared at just how far removed my mentality is from the majority's. Especially when you have people like the guy on TED talks who points out these obvious hypocrisies and then gets responses like, "Well, you must be racist then too. Go dig a hole and die in it."

*facedesks into unconsciousness*

welcome to our reality, Kitty.
isn't RP so much more tame sometimes?

Groupthink is the death of reason, and social media is groupthink's greatest enabler.

Yeah, it really is.

Prisma*Illya wrote:

So, how did it go?

too much work, but good.

So I have question for you and payne. Can I also make a Master for the rp?

Yeah, sure. :0

So right now I have this. It's a magus that uses blood magecraft. And I'm creating him through a series of Logs.

Research Log #1

Quote :

As much as I try to convince my colleages that this was the answer to finding the path that all should seek, blinded by fear and the hipocracy of their beliefs, they reject my idea and refuse to provide me with the resources I require. As such I am lead to first focus on longevity rather than results. For if I find it difficult to survive in this community terrified by the church, would my heir not find it unbearable to not simply surrender all my hard work to those wreched bastards?

Research Log #2

Quote :

I have grown used to hiding, they hunt me down as if I was a monster of the moon, but I persevered, those who I once called colleages have long past and been substituted by their heirs while I stand as though not a single day had passed.

Research Log #3

Quote :

Most intriguing, while in the process of filtering the blood of a common whore that I had found, I discovered peculiar traits in that blood both possitive and negative that could be most useful if I found a way to use said traits to my advantage. While I certainly see no practical use towards reading the beginning, I can certainly see it's use in protecting me research.

A hemomage... Interesting.

hemomage?

Hemo means blood. Like hemophilia.

He might do well for Assassin's Master.

Prisma*Illya wrote:

Hemo means blood. Like hemophilia.

He might do well for Assassin's Master.

it's not over. You'll be very surprise from what will result from this. Anyway if Assassin is who he is than you will not want them in the same team

Oh? Well, keep going then. I'm intrigued.

Research Log #6

Quote :

It seems that there are methods to use blood in an destructive way. By taking advantage of the iron in one's blood, it becomes possible to harden a body or weaken it by both concentrating and dispersing them. Further tests must be conducted, I have taken a couple of whores to use for my experiments. But I must be carefull, it seems people have taken notice of me and are trying to track me. I must use these women most sparringly.

Research Log #9

Quote :

Strange, as time progress I feel more and more behind, it seems that there are limits to how much one can sustain oneself through filtering blood. Isolation seems to take it's toll and my mind is not what it used to be. I can no longer remember why I research this magecraft and the only way I seem capable of remembering is by looking back at these notes... Why do I even write these?

Research Log #30

Quote :

Crap, only one whore is left, last died while I tested how much blood I could take out before it became lethal. The search has become more active against me, I can't even show my face anymore, which means I'm stuck with a that lone whore to further my experiments... Ah, perharps it's about time I retire. Looking back, it seems my actions have become most chaotic andI can no longer think right.

Research Log #Last

Quote :

I have decided, I will use the whore as a vessel for my heir. I will brainwash her to believe it to some random costumer's child but she will be compeled to take care of it. She will have my fortune as means to survive, while I do not care what she does with her body, I must be certain that my heir gets every chance to continue my research. Finally, I will transfer my blood to my heir, killing me in the process but making sure that my research continues.

next Log will come from the new person

Hmm, very interesting. So by the time of the War, has he already forgotten everything?

If I'm interpreting this right... I can see what you might mean about Assassin. That opens up some intriguing possibilities.

Ah, nvm. So, the Master is the researcher's heir.

So, Kitty, have you thought about what might be in the last room yet? : P

Lol, not at all. I was blindsided by the first two.

Well, if it plays out how I'm expecting, Sofie will get an explanation at the end.