RP Rant -- Run, and be free!

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Date Posted: 01:21:49 01/22/02 Tue
Author: Gen
Subject: RP Rant

First off, this isn't a direct (or indirect... I think) attack at any one person. So anybody who feels they simply must take it as such and defend themselves will get referred to the great moron-o-meter.

Let us hope it doesn't overload.

Anyway, to the rant.

One of the key aspects to roleplaying is...

...all together now...

character development.

Let me make sure this is heard loud and clear

One of the key aspects to roleplaying is character develepment.

That being said, I am happy about Kit's decision to change the format of the Newbie Board, because, frankly, I've seen a lot of people want to jump in to the plot with stick figure, cookie cutter characters.

Anyone with moderate or more experience knows how frustrating this can be.

However, I don't think this change to the NB lessens the ability to roleplay. What this will in fact do (to those who want to learn) is start with the very basic building blocks of RPing and work up.

(In truth, I'd rather read about interesting characters lounging in a bar than a plot that's being drowned under 2D dhadows.)

It's sad to see that this change will cause people to leave, because it probably means 1: they don't feel they should have to learn, 2: they think (wrongly) that plot and action takes precedence over character, or 3: they're too lazy.

Nothing to be done about the latter.

About the two former... there's a sticky point.

From what I've observed, the best RPers know they always have room to learn. That's what makes them so good. Those who resist or shut themselves off... usually a lot of improvement could go there.

But of course, can't force anyone to learn, no matter how much hard evidence you have that they should.

Anyway, the original plot seemed to be suffering, because it's very difficult to try and teach all aspects of RPing at once. So perhaps now we can look at the boards like this:

NB -> Character development.
RB -> Plot development/interaction
EB -> Self explanatory, IMO.
(plus it's late and I can't think of wat it could help to improve upon... I'll try again later)

In any case, for those wanting to learn, this will work better (and maybe by chasing other people away, it'll weed ut serious students from those others [insert adjective] RPers).

As Kit once said, there are those who RP for fun, and those who take it a bit (a lot?) more seriously. Once a person realizes what these boards are for, I don't think it's appropriate to try and change the board to suit the individual.

There's a thousand and one boards 'for fun', anyway. These just happen to be more involved than that.

And there it is, the rant. With that said, I am going to sleep. ::curses parental unit for dumping homework on self::

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Replies:

Is this in any way related to the intro for my mousie, Tundra Juskator? I mean, did that, er, help set this post into motion? If it did, sorry 'bout that... (NT) -- Tara, 16:14:03 01/24/02 Thu