Need some Roleplaying cleared up.

I didn't notice there was an ability called Aura of Despair...I'll take that into consideration next time.

As for the rest of it...well...in my opinion its not just limited to Edward. I think a lot of players don't take evil characters seriously. I'm not going to point fingers because frankly I've done it myself. I think part of it is that knowledge that there is only so much an evil character can do in the confines of the game and the server. I think there is also the matter of hiding behind the crowd and such, the fact that if a fight starts odds are other players who are bored are going to jump in, usually against the evil guy.

Also I think its easy to rp a character until you come into a situation that requires really high emotions (like fear). For a person to simulate fear sometimes just doesn't work.

And then you have people who know they can't do anything else so they start talking trash to boost ego. Very few who do this I think. Could also be a side effect of paranoia.

My own experience is that trying to play an evil character isn't worth it (for me anyway). From level 1-20 you're spending the entire time hiding, pretending to be good, getting killed, or being a school yard bully. Though I had some success with my character Darius manipulating things from the background and never getting his own hands dirty there was still the thought in the back of my mind that I was what low level good guys dream of: an easy mark to whack and become a 'hero'. I don't think people do this sort of thing on purpose I think a lot of it is subconscious. I think the reality of PvP hangs in our heads no matter how hard we try not to make it do so. Does that mean I'll never play an evil character again? I might. I might bring Darius back. There is also the complication of being on two sides of the fence during server wide conflicts.

Anyway that was a long rant/explanation. Maybe it sheds some light.

I will have to agree with you john, alot of people don't take evil characters seriously. Mostly that comes with the out of character knowledge that the evil characters are severely outnumbered on this server and that most of the folks will likely back up the good trashtalking pc rather then the evil guy. I also think -some- players don't take PVP very seriously. They get killed and tortured and don't go anywhere beyond that. They don't see death as a serious issue and if tortured, never seem to be very scarred from the experience.

I'm sorry to hear this is happening. Unfortunatly I wish I could shed more light on the situation but I have not really been rp'ing with you lately.

I hope things turn out well.

Griz

Take what I say with a grain of salt, cause I'll say them as I seem them, and in truth I'm only trying to be fair and honest.


a) had no idea aura of despair existed, even still auras aren't they simulated by that circly thing some creatures have?..

b) just cause you play a big mean bully who hangs around isinhold pestering the new players. How exactly does that get you feared? albeit I dunno what your talking about the hullack elves, frankly thats ooc info that in my opinion should be left in game (though I still dunno who your talking about). the only character, I really fear, its rannan, seldom seen, seldom heard of, and when he comes, the hairs on everyones head stand up. Edward.. well 9/10 times I walk outside the inn in isinhold, hes sitting with dusk/elevwyn chatting it up. Or in the past, hes just been around. I find hate is a good substitute for fear. As arak said, its hard to simulate those emotions Especially new pcs that don't know you or have not rped with edward enough.


I was originally going to say as I see your character, but that may sway other peoples minds IC and oocly. I'll give you what I beleive my piece of advice, look at your character through the eyes of a new player on FRC.

What he does, how he acts. and how that would make him feared.

I really don't want to draw on IG experinces, and having an EVIL tag in your character sheet to me means nothing unless you Rp it. you want to be feared, find a way to be feared. Give us Reason. So far, my character has no reason to fear eddy, none of them do. their elves, your dead and gone in a century. dust...

like I said, be the little boy outside the fish tank, see what you see.

just a suggestion..

ent

Paladins of 3rd level or higher get an Aura of Courage, which in addition to making them immune to fear grants all allies within a certain radius a +4 circumstance bonus vs. fear. I haven't seen that RP'd either, and likely because most players aren't aware of it.

Even with an aura of despair, the character may not consciously be aware of the effect, the same with the aura of courage. In that case, it relies upon the character to roleplay their intimidation.

For what it's worth, Edward Lorkus does intimidate my character Lydia who never moved close enough to hear Mouse when Mouse was standing close to him because Lydia was unwilling to get any closer to him than she was. Lydia never addressed him at all, instead focusing on other things going on (such as Milly's green cockroach) because ignoring his proximity was the best way she saw to avoid conflict. If you'd rather see something other than that to "realisticly" portray the proximity of someone my character thinks the guards should kill-on-sight, short of leaving (because she has a right to be there and won't be bullied into leaving just because he's there), then I'd like to hear it.

Aura of Despair isnt in NWN unfortunately along with several things a Blackguard is suppose to be able to do but cant. Ive had the same things happen to Vad but I just try to shrug it off. I also get it with Alino at times but not nearly as often being that Im sure alot of people know what will happen to them. I dont have any suggestions really other than just try to find a way to deal with each case individually. Not sure what to say other than I feel your pain man.

So - by that you're saying many victims means its less worrying than one? Interesting.

As for walking about places in Cormyr and Isenhold, perhaps if the DMs made it more difficult, possessed purple dragons and did something about it, it would make it more realistic (Not just the ol' hey, theres Edward, lets tourment him some but he can't do anything with all the good guys around ha ha ha lets humilate him kinda stuff a good man hunt or guards trying to capture him would be interesting.) - I'm not having a dig at DMs, the team are cool - just think it'd be more constructive to maybe drop less spawns to wipe parties and think about making the world a little more 3 dimentional. I mean, I have tried the disguises I have done all that kinda thing - whats the point if no investigations (apart from the recent one in Isenhold) are never followed up which I found slightly disapointing. As far as I saw Edward was just a name on the forums that was that. Maybe then he'd be more fearful eh? Edwards actually -done- things. Evil acts which I stopped doing simply to end this nonesence PvP and horrible metagaming I've suffered on numerous counts.

And as until recently, Edward has had no reason to be worried about Sharita, she was all talk. Like people seem to be claiming Edward is now? Because he can't do -anything- else.

Maybe I could do something more epic and scary, but, I never get any support from anywhere when I try to start some sort of player driven type thing and believe me, I've tried. I am all but out of steam. So - you justify it how you will. I just think things have become extremely one sided. I don't mind the good guy winning in the end, its how it should be. But when its like this, whats the point in playing evil at all?

John.

I will say that one of my characters, I will not name him to keep it IC as much as possible, for one is very fearful of Edward.

Both of their brackgrounds fit together very well to make it so...

We have had a few small intereactions, but nothing much ever came of it, and unfortunatly I am not playing him much at the moment.

He still avoids Redmist, will go nowhere near the enclave, an anytime he sees Edward, I hides as best as he can if alone, or hopes that there is a group near by.

I try and RP his fear as best as I can when the situation calls for it.

I will continue to play him as having a great fear of Edward, and depending on the amount of time I am playing him, perhaps something more will come of it.

Anyways.
I as a player I try to ignore everything I hear about characters, and as a character, only believe what the character has heard, seen, experienced...or worked out in advance with the other character. It does not always work that way, and can be very hard to do, but I try.

I direct you to this thread:
frc.proboards37.com/index.cgi?board=roleplaydiscussion&action=display&thread=1147756662&page=1

For not being feared, perhaps you are not doing enough. Actions speak louder than words. And I don't mean PvP. "Did you hear that supposedly Edward slew a battalion of purple dragons by himself?"

All I can say, and take this as constructive criticism, Edward's dialog is fairly aloof and tends to focus on having witty/entertaining commentary. This is all I have noticed from the two times I travelled with you, but you got no respect points from Hroth with your background commentary with Ev when Ranan and Hroth faced off last time. But don't change your play style if you enjoy it, I'm just saying you may need to adjust if you aren't getting the reaction you wanted.

I missed that rule but thats just me...

Commenting on the talk about players having to step up to the plate...I agree. I'm always trying to think of ways to make things interesting with the limited capabilities I have as a player. Its tough. The only time I breath a word of anything I think of to anyone is after it has passed through my harsh, perfectionist outlook. Certainly once I get back on FRC (been busy this week) I'll do my best to make things interesting but it can't be a unilateral thing. Takes creativity and sometimes a little courage.

On my old server, one of the last things I did before leaving for good was a player run plot where, as an evil character, I managed to incapacitate almost the entire leadership of the primary good guy faction through a purely player run plot. Everyone involved was more than happy to be involved. Only person who didn't like it wasn't actually involved but was the one part of the leadership I didn't hit (I believe it was also a DM's character but since you weren't suppose to know who the DM's were I was never sure...and they were throwing crap at me about how it was stupid and such...bad DMing given how many people enjoyed what I was doing)

Anyway the point is you would be surprised how many people will be willing to join in a plot. Ed and I almost had one going till we realized it would cause too much OOC inconvenience and would require a DM (and a complete relevel ). So hey they don't always work but that can't stop you from trying.

I've quietly been sitting back and keeping a keen eye on this topic for the past couple of hours now. Greenhouse, I believe, has spoken well on the matter.



Still, here are some rhetoric questions for you John. It's my hope you feel a bit LESS repressed, if that's an appropriate word to choose. The questions are:

Do you need to RP with these people who you dont have fun with?

Do you truly find your own character to be frightening?
---Being a Lovitarian that tortures people doesn't really make you scary, in my opinion. That's, well; common actually, for someone with that type of background to undergo such actions. A frost giant is more frightful, in my eyes.

If you wish your vile character to be scary, why then do you (the player) need to make your character lounge around in a starting area, for new players? Have you considered a more colorful place to lurk and plot?
---On another personal opinion; I think Isinhold should be left alone if you're 10 and up, and to only go there for a short time. The reasons to such visits are limited to: Your PC is a merchant, your PC needs to meet someone, and, your PC is just simply passing through (which doesnt entail standing around for 2+ IRL hours [which is more than that IG time]).

I'm not scrutinizing or making fun-of =) Only offering insightful questions (I hope), that can lead to a possible new poitn of view (and for other players out there who could be in a similar position). To consider different alternatives for ones character leads to good development, usually, if certain courses they're undergoing isn't doing too well for them. So they try something else.

Of course ultimately do not forget; make sure you have fun, and not at others expense of course.

One final note to everyone else that I believe should be considered (and I believe it was mentioned in a previous response by someone, but I shall be a bit more immersive here):

This isn't PnP, no matter how much one would like it to be.

This is a video game.

To expect players to know of certain feats (ones more PnP oriented..) is rather silly I think. In PnP, most players have more resources before them, as they play. I've never actually played a PnP game before, so that's just an educative guess. Online, many players can often be extremely limited on their resources (hence many of my threads I've begun =) ).

A long time ago when I first began playing here, I had asked the DMs about the use of spells that werent implimented in NwN. An example(s) - Imprisonment, Dimensional Anchor, Dimensional Plant, Disintigrate, Discern lies, etc etc.. I had asked if these non-implemented spells could be used. The answer was no, and to just stick to cantrips. I think that can be stretched out towards other things too, such as feats and certain abilities.

Work with what the system gives you, and what the DMs may grant. I understand many people have their own steps they take when it comes to RPing, but why try to impliment something that cannot logistically be worked with, given the huge limitations? Isn't that more stressful?

So those are some small thoughts =) I hope it helps you and any other players out and about here, that may be in a similar position.

I would agree to that if it was specific to PvP only, and not PvM Otherwise I think the builders might have to modify some things quite a bit?

To just say it now....If that's a joke to begin with, then...oh, lol Tired from all the travels I've been put through so far. Sorry!

I have heard this said a couple times.... I challenge anyone that beleives this to send me a PM listing all of the evil players currently active on the server and beat the number of current good players I can come up with. I will DOUBLE your numbers of good vs evil gaureenteed.

Just in guilds:

Evil aligned- 3.2
Good aligned- 4.8

One guild has a mix.. you know who you are!!!!....

And the good guild have more active players then the evil ones by far.

I guess I didnt read all the other posts... I pretty much restated what you had already said. You know we arent supposed to agree?



The reason Paladins do not get detect evil is because there are spells to counter it and detect evil is not straight forward and easily abused from a metagaming standpoint. This is not a similar comparison.

A BG is the epitomy of evil. So even if you dismiss the aura the natural uneasiness feeling around him should be felt at least to some extent. In the end no DM ruling has been made a BG's aura but no one is going to get the penalty I think the only thing John is referring to is the feeling around him, which I believe it completely justifiable.

could someone explain how intimidation works? I mean should i be scared of certain people? even if wynter is confident that if it came to blows she could hold her own or flee if need be?I remember ranan asking me once if i feared him and i said no but should i have said yes?