SWG Tales

This has quite a bit to do with different styles of RP. There are two styles showing here: Story Driven and Free Form.

Story Driven RP has a tendency to need to stick to a script. With it, ya can get some good stories told. Most folks see this as too rigid and sometimes conflicting with their personal story, and would just rather not take part.

Free Form RP needs no planning, but rarely do epic stories come from this style. Most folks see this as aimless and possably pointless, and prefer Story Driven style.

I personally have enjoyed Free Form in SWG much better than Story Driven. It allows ya to play within the rules of the combat system, and make yer own story as ya go. I also like a good story event, as long it's well done.

Typical mistakes with Story Driven RP is lack of flexability, imagination, and knowlege of how to use the system to yer favor. So you lost the all important climatic duel with yer Top Baddie (which really shouldn't have happened if ya planned ahead with the other person). Victory doesn't always have to have you standing over yer Top Baddie, weapon bloodied. With yer last ounce of strength, whip out that thermal detonator, or have security arive to catch the Top Baddie off guard gloating, or tracking device ya planted durring the fight to unveil Top Baddie's hideout and strike back with better prepaired.

It's impossable to expect everyone and everything to go as planned to yer story. Plan out some secondary, even tertiary plans if yer origionals go outta whack, but more importantly, keep on yer toes.

Viceroy Odantis wrote:i have to disagree, sorry but i can't rp "oh i died...well...uhm...i guess i'm....magically not dead now..."

sorry but cloning is the game's excuse for rezzing, its not legal in this time period, its not doable in the sense it happens in game, i'm not acting like death is only an inconvienience.


So that's why i kinda get at ends with bounty hunters...

but i tell ya right now...

i'll do a deathmatch anytime....

and by that i mean loser really dies...delete char, reroll...i've had alonzo since launch and i'd do this.

Don't think many would though, and they shouldn't ahve to....

but you tell me how to resolve this without being cheesy to a level i'm not gonna do. I mean...forget it i'm not RPing a miracle ressurection every other day.

This is why i have a problem with the Bh's...i can beat them 50 times...but they wanna keep trying and if they finally get me "haha i won" its like...yeah...i CAN"T KILL YOU...so i'm not gonna die myself.


Anyway this is my major problem with BH storylines....

nevermind i give them a chance every time for the sake of fun by NOT making them fight my 10 guards i usually have...nevermind that i'll fight unarmored if they catch me unarmored when they get there...even if they have armor...

sure that's because i know i'm pretty good at pvp...but its fighting a BH in godmode..they have infinite lives...and only have to get me once to rp "winning" that's why i think its BS and i am to the point like i told dwilah and ekade that i just won't RP anymore.

But remember also Alonzo that i'm sure you died skill building more then once. What about those deaths? Do they count in this? If so then we all never made it past novice whatever.

Novall wrote:

Viceroy Odantis wrote:i have to disagree, sorry but i can't rp "oh i died...well...uhm...i guess i'm....magically not dead now..."

sorry but cloning is the game's excuse for rezzing, its not legal in this time period, its not doable in the sense it happens in game, i'm not acting like death is only an inconvienience.

But remember also Alonzo that i'm sure you died skill building more then once. What about those deaths? Do they count in this? If so then we all never made it past novice whatever.

Exactly. If we all "lived" our toons to this extent, we'd all technically have "died" in the dusty sands outside Bestine, half-eaten by gorgs and covered in our own puke from a pixie downer -- still clutching our useless n00bie weapons in our cold, dead hands.

A certain amount of suspension of disbelief is required in anything. This isn't real life. It's a story. Within a video game no less. You can't get any more imagination driven than this (save PnP). "Imagination" being the key word.

When I come to in the cloning center, I wasn't "killed." My antagonist simply left me for dead and I --

A) dragged myself to,
B) was found and brought to,
C) other imaginary life-saving plot point,

-- help and a warm bacta tank. Where I lived to fight another day.

But then that's just me. I'm one of the "free form" types I guess. I don't make "stories" for my character. I just go about my business and react to things in character. I let my imagination fill in the gaps and find explanations for things...and that turns it all into a story along the way.

Very good points made here as this is a big issue and I've gotten a lot from this thread.

In the end we are slaves to the game mechanics so we just have to accept all that we have to work with no matter how much it falls into disbelif. We abide cloning, rezzing, and even combat bonuses (how does a little piece of scotch tape make me a better swordsman? Good Grip?)

We also have to accept the fact that we are in a large community of Rpers each with their own agenda. Everyone custom plays their character as well as their SW experience. We can't expect everythig we do to fly. Just ask Zannon, while a good amount of his events have been very successful he's also had his fair share of failed attempts. We all have at this point.

So don't get discouraged when something you plan doesn't get picked up on by other players or is your actions go unnoticed. Press on and try again until things start moving in the direction you want them to. For my own events I found these tips really helped....

(keep in mind I am not telling you how to RP or how to run your events. I'm just offering some friendly tips that may help you if you chose to use them)

- Get some people you trust to help "moderate" your event. Get one person to motivate one group while another motivates other groups.

- Don't be afraid to step OOC as a GM and nudge people in the right direction. It may lose some of the suprise you had planned but it will get people to stand up and notice. For example, I might send Ekade a /tell at the Roba saying "Watch what Zannon is saying closely and then react."

-If game mechanics hinder your event then work around them. If you can't make things happen the way the game is played then just make something up. For example, if you want people to get sick from a disease found in bad Won-Won then tell them they've eaten bad stuff and should act sick. Just because you can give people disease from bad food you also can't let that stop you.

-Use devices outside the game to get people's attention. Give them some reason to expect something to happen. Once again you lose some suprise and mystery but you also elimate most chances of your event getting ignored. Use things like this forum, its calendar, e-mail, Private message, and Messanger Chat programs to let people know whats up. It will go along way.

I hope this tips help in some way. The way I see it we're adapting to a large RP community now and we're still getting the ropes of RPing events within it. Give us time and we'll have it down to a science.

the difference novall, is that i can write those off as "oh i was just wounded" yadda yadda...

but when a BH has to KILL ME to collect...

and isn't stupid enought o leave me laying there...like walks over once i'm incapped and emotes shooting me in the head...i'm gone, i'm dead...no rp twist is gonna save that outside just being stupidly cheesy.


Saying "oh yeah i hunted rancors and i barely escaped" is one thing saying "after he shot me in the head, what he didn't know was that due to a phenomena with blaster type weapons, people who were born on talus in the nashal regions have a natural immunity to their brain being vaporized"

Viceroy Odantis wrote:saying "after he shot me in the head, what he didn't know was that due to a phenomena with blaster type weapons, people who were born on talus in the nashal regions have a natural immunity to their brain being vaporized"

I really have nothing to add to this thread you all have covered the points I would have made very well, especially Raevas.

But Alonzo, that qoute made me laugh!

Viceroy Odantis wrote:the difference novall, is that i can write those off as "oh i was just wounded" yadda yadda...

but when a BH has to KILL ME to collect...

and isn't stupid enought o leave me laying there...like walks over once i'm incapped and emotes shooting me in the head...i'm gone, i'm dead...no rp twist is gonna save that outside just being stupidly cheesy.


Saying "oh yeah i hunted rancors and i barely escaped" is one thing saying "after he shot me in the head, what he didn't know was that due to a phenomena with blaster type weapons, people who were born on talus in the nashal regions have a natural immunity to their brain being vaporized"

At this point you have to pull out the ole "if ya can't beat 'em join 'em" song and dance. We all agree Cloning doesn't make a whole lot of sense, should be outlawed and used only by high profile characters (like the Emperor) but we can't do away with it. We need it, because permadeath just creates grief, grief and more grief. Maybe you and I could live with it but other's can't.

So we end up having to accept that cloning is common and accessible. By doing that we have to add some flavor to it. Find ways to explain why you have clone data stored in a particular place, make sure you come back without any clothes or weapons, explain that clones don't come cheap and work in the hazards of cloning (memory loss, fatigue, physical differences).

Basically make it work, don't ignore it. If we're stuck with it then we HAVE to use it.

I loved Gaaralow's summary on Free Form versus Story Driven. I would also add Outcome Driven Story Lines, but that is another topic.

I think we all can agree that everyone should defer to the GM in a Story Driven event.

In a Free Form event, there is no designated GM. This is a huge problem, especially when people have such varying ideas on how RP action scenes should be handled. This is the source of Alonzo's angst. To a degree, I think the character of the Viceroy has been painted into a corner as he spelled out in a previous post.

I see his point. It is not fair that a Hunter expects him to die, when they don't have the same pressure. Would so many Hunter's pursue the Viceroy if they actually risked death themselves?

The Death issue is a huge sticking point in RP. We must all adhere to a cardinal rule of RP... Only the player of a character can dictate what permanent physical changes occur to their character. If you want to do something to them, you must obtain their consent.

Seret Sajet wrote: So we end up having to accept that cloning is common and accessible. By doing that we have to add some flavor to it. Find ways to explain why you have clone data stored in a particular place, make sure you come back without any clothes or weapons, explain that clones don't come cheap and work in the hazards of cloning (memory loss, fatigue, physical differences).

Basically make it work, don't ignore it. If we're stuck with it then we HAVE to use it.

In my RPing stuff I generally go with cloning being something that is rarely done and very difficult to do. Cloning is high technology, expensive, difficult...etc etc etc. Not something that happens whenever people die in a duel.

I usually explain cloning as a trip to a very advanced hospital. I am no expert on the state of medical technology in this timeline.. but I imagine they can patch you up pretty good. Perhaps even bring you back if you have been clinically dead for a very short time. *shrugs*

Ekade wrote:I usually explain cloning as a trip to a very advanced hospital. I am no expert on the state of medical technology in this timeline.. but I imagine they can patch you up pretty good. Perhaps even bring you back if you have been clinically dead for a very short time. *shrugs*

Well, I have rescusitation kits. I would say that the same as IRL now--there's a small chance that if you've been dead for under a certain period of minutes, with the right chemicals/medicines and the right tools you can shocked back to life.

There ya go, we're on the right track. This is an technology advanced civilization we play in. The facts of medical science can go far beyond disbelief. Why not explain cloning as advanced medicine able to bring back life when there seemingly is none.

Take stories like the first of the Bounty Hunter Wars books, The Mandalorian Armor. This explains what happened to Boba Fett right after getting out of the Saarlac. He was messed up, on the brink of death, recieving medical attention that suspend belief. Maybe cloning is more like this, were we just recieve extreme medical treatment rather than a whole new body.

I'm thinking Seret summed it up well. He's addressed the two main points generated by Jabe and Alonzo.

1.) Spreading RP Event Awareness and,

2.) Death/Cloning Considerations

Not necessarily perfect, but the strongest diving board to jump into the pool from so far.

Y'know, I have to admit I was expecting at some point there to be an explosion over how RP should and should not be handled on the boards. I remember Zo's first post on the rules of RP and expected it to happen then.

With RP, I like things to be as open as possible. Personally, I enjoy the surprise factor and where it can lead. The problem is that things can start to get "too" open and then you're on that slipperly slope to abandoning all rules.

For example, one day Nyase and I went to kind of "shakedown" the Viceroy at the Crazy Roba. He didn't know we were coming, nor did he know why we were there. I didn't tell him due to the "surprise" factor. I had an idea in my mind of where it would all go, and because Alonzo is such a great free form roleplayer, things progressed very nicely (despite all of the outside things happening, when it was down to Alonzo, Nyase, and myself it was flawless in my opinion).

The suprise factor can also get you into trouble if something goes wrong (see Wedding, Ekade) because other people don't know exactly how they fit in or what exactly is going on.

Dwilah suggested using the /tell system and I think that's great. I rarely use /tells while RPing because I want the story to develop itself. However I will use them if something crutical has to be said that was missed or an attack needs to start or something else of that nature.

I think the problem with most RPers, myself included sometimes, is something which I've heard called the "main character" factor. In each person's RP, they are the main character so they believe they should have a large slice of the pie when it comes to action, or they should come out on top at the end of the situation. Like I said, I'm guilty of it in some situations too. We all need to remember to step back, because even though you want to personally be the super badass extrordinarie, the STORY is the main character.

(BTW, Alonzo, you can't stop RPing now. We still have unfinished business that we'll have to get to one day.)

Alonzo threatens to abandon RP every week. He is not going anywhere.

By and large we have all danced around the issue of having rules. Creating and enforcing rules creates a huge nightmare that not everyone wants to be a part of.

For example, take the Zo, Kirt incident. Let's say Kirt has been accused of violating the "Ignoring Exploding Droid" rule. What happens next? Do we tell him that he is banned from roleplaying with anyone in a defined group?

The one thing I always wanted to avoid was drawing a circle around a group of people and saying that those inside the circle are roleplayer, and everyone else is not. This is elitism, and it is very bad for community.

The problem is no one player or governing body can claim to have domain over all other roleplayers. In the end it comes down to individual choices.

At the same time, it would be nice if people would voluntarily adhere to a set of "common sense RP guidelines", especially in the realm of Free Form RP.

In my small daily RP group, there are no problems because everybody is more or less on the same page. We have no set rules, people just stick to good RP. This just occurs naturally. Maybe this is the answer. Maybe we all become RP coaches of sorts. Lead by example and bring people onto the same page as to what is "good RP".