How much of your time is spent?

[TwistedVision]

I'm also one who has a lot of playtime (13 hours a day roughly) and I can apprieciate that people who play less can often feel left out. Still though, I see people who play a lot less than I do leveling just as fast and in some cases more so.

How fast I level tends to depend on the amount of RP that I get through during a day. When Clarise was lower in levels, RP often demanded she stick with one of two or three people and there was a lot of exploration to be done and places to see... and on top of that exp gained is a bigger % of your level back then. So she ended up going fairly fast but still some people rocketed past in levels.

As events have unfolded and circumstances changed she is now more able to travel with a wider group of people and as she knows more of the characters there are generally more reasons to stop and talk with someone.

As far as exp and leveling is concerned, to be quite blunt I think that if I'd actually tried to level more over the days that I spent RPing then I'd quite easily be 21st or higher by now. However, rushing way ahead of everyone is just is no fun at all and I'd usually rather be spending the time actually developing the character itself rather than her exp status.

Another thing that springs to mind is that most players have a 'comfort zone'... a level that once they reach they feel more comfortable in their abilities and feel they have more time to focus on other things. People tend to go faster in my experience until they reach this point.

The main reason that people tend to level fast is their focus is on doing just that, gaining exp and gold. If people have goals that are not along those lines then the character itself shines through more and is much more fun to play.

Just an idea... but one thing that might encourage this is if NPCs talked to people more. I'm sure most of us here have had creatures spawn at one time or another but short of events the environment feels quite static. I think (and have seen on other servers) that players keep IC, RP and respond better if the DMs sometimes use the NPCs talk to them. Not to give a quest or a warning or anything mission related but just to stop and talk with people, it encourages them to RP more also.

[racestark]

I probably play about 6-8 hours a day on my work days and 8-12 on the two days I get off each week, which has my neighborhood bartenders worried about their business prospects. Yeah, I know, that sounds like a lot, but ever since I was introduced to this game by my roommate I was hooked.
Most of that time is spent sitting around the fire in Isinhold listening for some scuttlebutt (or gossip) or just walking through a forest I found that contains no baddies (which just tickled me pink IC).
But is having more time to sit around and hear more a form of powergaming? Yeah, I know most people hear that term and think of someone who goes out and kills everything they see and strips it clean to the bones before returning to town just to use the fire and sell what they collected and get back at it, but what about a person who just happens to be sitting around, hoping to hear something or meet someone new. I know there would be a few people's character who would be jealous of some of the things I've heard just because I sit in Isinhold emoting various things IG while I wait for someone, reading IRL. (Currently reading 'Johnny Got His Gun.' Good book and you all should check it out, especially chapter 10). I mean, I normally share what I hear with those that I trust or if I learn that a stranger I just met is related to what I just heard, I'll tell them, too. But I'm on that much for a couple reasons. 1) Let's face it, only cigarettes have a greater hold on me than this game (mmm, cigarette. *drools*), 2) Cincinnati sucks and there is nothing to do here except argue with the conservative nutballs around here (not to start anything political, but in Cincinnati, everyone has a stick up their butt about something, mine being that everyone has a stick up their butt), 3) Finally, the things I hear are just so enthralling, I want to hear more.
So, unless told otherwise, I'm gonna continue to sit by the fire, waiting for people to talk to or help and keeping my ears perked up while I read a novel or a sourcebook.

[Kolfrosta]

Just an idea... but one thing that might encourage this is if NPCs talked to people more. I'm sure most of us here have had creatures spawn at one time or another but short of events the environment feels quite static. I think (and have seen on other servers) that players keep IC, RP and respond better if the DMs sometimes use the NPCs talk to them. Not to give a quest or a warning or anything mission related but just to stop and talk with people, it encourages them to RP more also.

This has been known to happen, Sharita has been out for a walk on a couple of occassions and has had Jestra, or another NPC just out of the blue stop for a chat. It is a nice change of pace.....

By, 'out for a walk" I mean just that.....she does like to walk between towns and see what is there, rather than, "hop the caravan, run to the crypt/dungeon, kill things...run back to town, sell, repeat". (And thus we have the definition of "powergaming" )

[TwistedVision]

That reminds me.. something I forgot to say but is most needed of all things in my opinion.

WALK!!!!! I can't stress that enough. How many people in history (other than olympic runners) have been known to RUN vast distances with no fatigue at all... especially in heavy armour or carrying a backpack. It just dosen't happen, I know, I wear armour and carry shields for when I do re-enactment related things. Its not possible to run for more than a few minutes at a time, let alone hours upon hours.

Running totally kills RP and breaks the group up. I'm sick to death of one or two people either running and expecting everyone else to run also or going a whole map ahead and killing everything before we get there, it makes people feel rather pointless and the runners may as well just be soloing.

[DM Richard (Retired)]

"Running totally kills RP and breaks the group up. I'm sick to death of one or two people either running and expecting everyone else to run also or going a whole map ahead and killing everything before we get there, it makes people feel rather pointless and the runners may as well just be soloing."


You got that right!


"Still I am not the voice of truth here so I'll stay and await for further DM instructions and what they have to say about this."

I believe DM Gustyrill gave you some good advice. Having two characters can keep things from being habit forming or monotonous. With the experience earned split between two characters you will not level as fast.

"Right now I don't want to make another character in FRC because I have LOTS of RP things going on that need my attention or things will go bad quickly and I do use most of the RP time trying to fix them."

So play that character during the times your friends are on and play the new one when they aren't.

[MithrilBlade]

Not that easy to just swap characters whenever I want, but I have found solution for this problem, I play now halfly in another server, halfly here meaning that I won't travel that much anymore (even thought I have been afraid to go hunting alone for rather long time now as people instantly think I'm trying to powerlevel myself).

Anyway hopefully problem is solved now.

[Altrismal]

My confession,
I am also definately one who "on some occcasions" had an appetite for farming crypts.
It was about (1 month ago) when i had lost this "appetite" for good.

I roleplay a cleric/fighter, Nagaroth - He would have thought that his whole meaning of life was supposed to be cleansing crpyts in the name of Kelemvor.
It was not untill recently (1 month ago when he had fallen from grace. Nagaroth was supposed to be an "ordinator in the circle of life and death", doing caretaking for the dead and such.
At this time my PC kept saying "I am loosing my mind in the darkness of a crypt". At those times he had committed dishonorable acts: broken agreements, lost his honor,
been failing in carrying out his work as a cleric. Eventually he started avoiding anything that would include a crypt or undead.

It was then when i had discovered something very valuable. I started roleplaying a fallen cleric for one month there.
My PC had stopped casting divine for a while there - Making him very ill suited for a combat.
I started reaching for my characters emotional life (very essence of his RP:ing side), since he had been loosing a meaning for life, and been unable to recover.
In his search for piece of mind, he had been RP:ing more than before. I came to enjoy those times, since my PC had received help from numerous other characters sharing their own advice.
My character is developing in roleplaying. And I have received word from DM Justicar about the times when I did have a problem in "carrying out Kelemvors work too much".

I would like to bring up these wise words of DM Gustyrill once more
"I also wanted to give out a guideline that someone could measure themselves against for a responsible use of their playing time that contributes to the server
instead of just playing it like a Playstation version of Baldurs Gate or something (pure crap)... This is supposed to be interactive..."


These words make a perfect image in a nutshell about how dull "powergaming" in an interractive RP:ing world really can get. This is exactly something to avoid here.

[Orkid]

First off, i havent read everyone's reply as i'm pretty busy these past few days (moving ), and if i am being redundant im sorry, but i dont think anyone should feel like need justify how they spend their time on this game that they paid for.
That being said , I would say i am probably 50/50 , there are entire days where i dont gain a point of xp and there are days when i only have an hour or so of quality RP , but most of my days are spent grouping with others which allows me to develop my character WHILE gaining xp , in what little i did read it seemed like people thought the two are mutually exclusive , which the exact opposite is true. Also , like i read of others, it does depend on how close i am to leveling. But there are days when for whatever reason i hang out around town for IRL hours and dont see a single other PC soul. And i that point i dont hesitate to go and solo where i can.
As long as people arent going around saying "wanna go kill sumptin?" and chalking that up as their RP i dont think it should be anyone else's concern , at that point it can detract from others RP and that's where the line must be drawn.

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

Everyone should try and remember that they are guests on our server. I should also remind everyone that we spend countless hours improving on the environment so that everyone has an awesome playing experience, but we don't get paid to do it. I consider it a labor of love.

I have personally (as have all of our DM's) worked very hard to establish an environment that is friendly to role-playing. Our little piece of the NWN experience is geared toward that. I have to say I am becoming less and less friendly to the "I'll do what I want" aurgument. NOT ON MY SERVER!!!

We have successfully created an open ended platform that is getting more open ended, and I think better every day. This does not mean it is a free for all. Powergamers, builders, griefers.... get off my server, and I mean it... NOW.

Other than that, yes, you are free to do what you want... but certain behavior certainly isn't welcome here.

Rant over.

[DJalin]

Amen Brother.

You put in the work for us. We are the guests, including a DM like me. Thanks for the Work.

D'Jalin

[Orkid]

i didnt even say anything about "i'll do what i want" in fact what i said is as long as it doesnt infringe on other peoples RP , i.e. Powergaming , griefing , etc. , that's where the line should be drawn , don't take offense so readily it's very ... unappealing

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

Orkid said:

i didnt even say anything about "i'll do what i want" in fact what i said is as long as it doesnt infringe on other peoples RP , i.e. Powergaming , griefing , etc. , that's where the line should be drawn , don't take offense so readily it's very ... unappealing

Interesting that you "saw" it as YOU.

I am "OK" with that.

What is "unappealing" ...?

Powergaming, building, griefing...

Orkid, I will address you in this because I feel you have fallen into the "mix", but I implore you don't "fall into the mix" ...

Don't.

[DM Richard (Retired)]

"i didnt even say anything about "i'll do what i want" in fact what i said is as long as it doesnt infringe on other peoples RP , i.e. Powergaming , griefing , etc. , that's where the line should be drawn , don't take offense so readily it's very ... unappealing"


You also said and I quote "...i dont think anyone should feel like need justify how they spend their time on this game that they paid for." Since this thread is about the amount of time spent roleplaying and was started by a DM it sounds very much like an attack on the staff. As a matter of fact how can it be anything but one?

DM Gustyrill posed this as a question not an attack. No one is required to answer this thread. There is no justification being asked for here.

What is unappealing is how little respect your post shows to the staff that volunteers their time and/or money to make this place what it is. The fact that someone bought the game has nothing to do with the fact they are playing on FRC. We just ask that everyone try to roleplay as best as they can.

Can you agree that this is a worthy goal?

[Orkid]

i "saw" it as me, as the post was immediately after mine and contained language directly related to what i was speaking of, just the same way you "saw" it as an attack on you , which it wasnt even close to being, it was just a statement that if people are gonna be persecuted for their style of gameplay i think that's wrong (im not saying anyone IS going to be persecuted, but if that was an outcome of the post i was objecting ahead of time) , in the future i will more fully elaborate my thoughts so as to avoid invoking any appearance of disrespect when i have done nothing but praise you guys and your work in the past ( i hope you dont see suggestions as disrespect when all im doing is seeing if issues have been addressed and fully concidered) it was just a disclaimer that's all

plus my phrasing was hastily thrown together as i only had about 15 minutes to catch up on 4 days , so im sorry that's all i can say, and i can only hope its enough for you to stop hating on me

[DM Richard (Retired)]

No hatred involved.

[MithrilBlade]

Merely to inform of the new path I have taken, lately (at least for week or two) I have roleplayed 9/10 of my time and done almost no adventuring at all, usually one trip/day that usually takes less than an hour.

I no longer solo almost at all and I have hardly gained any exp lately so I should not be bothering the balance anymore.

Oh and I also made a new character, so if I want action I can log in as him as alternative, althought lately I have been too busy to play with him much.

[Keetena]

This is just an interesting aspect on a roleplayer server. I can say for my example, when I came from work and had a stressed day I just love go into a dungeon and smash some monsters skulls to take my revenge *LOL*. But some people comit in my opinion some fatal mistakes even when roleplaying. I don't need be a genius to notice that some players use anothers as ladders to upper faster, I roleplay with players of many different character levels, but I prefer lower or same lvl players to party generally - ok, so I'm upping them? Depends... if you go with me be certain that we'll roleplay later and many times or our journeys will be very few, but I already partied with players lower than me that upped faster and when upped beyond my lvl simply ignored our previous roleplays and even our friendship doing an almost inoquous roleplay when this happens - if you're close to someone you need at least a reason to ignore or give a secondary aspect to that person. In my opinion the great mistake is simple, people write an history to their characters and after this they forgot the life of that borned baby and do their lifes... would a good person alone in the world ignore her trusted friend just because can do more things?

But back to the point

I myself can enter the server and slash 7 hours but I too can enter and roleplay these same 7 hours for a simple motivation, I can't do a mellee server, I was bored after about the second day playing in one, my place is roleplay so I need do this, we must be sincere about our feelings I think. I still kill Grush sometimes just for fun, when I do this with or without a DM I promptly put his head in a trash cause I know that do this many times has no point in roleplay, even if I repeated this some few times earlier and did two times the Waymoot quest (I confess) but I did this only when these aspects are hard to do cause I think the reward was deserved - common sense. Roleplay or slash involve many minor aspects to be considered, I think all talked about many important ones but as Gusty said, the people who really need learn a bit more aren't here to discuss these aspects... in my opinion they don't care that much for the life of their characters so they spent they time just doping the aspect about them that pleases... levels... Keetena was my first bard in NWN and I play since the release of the game, so I confess that I love discover her potencial, but she passed through many ways to reach her point, throw me rocks those who think I'm wrong, but I think she has a consistant and solidy life not made of levels.

[Booze Hound]

Roleplay. Walk more. Run less.

Explore more. Hunt less.

Talk to NPC's. Even if they don't talk back.

Create a goal IC. I am making a map.

Think of filling a nitch that others haven't filled. I like to be a guide through the wild lands. (Hence the Map).

Pick a town other than Isinhold, and let people know that is where you usually hang out, and they can leave messages for you there.
These are run ways to expand your character when noone is around, and when everyone is on. I spend plenty of time these days wandering the wilds alone. Does it get dull? sometimes, but hey...that's what a good ranger does. Immerse yourself into your character. Vind doesn't particularly like hanging around town, that's not a reason to go farm and "Hunt" (which is a term I freaking hate as well) but a reason to explore, wander slowly. It's amazing the people i run into on the roads, and the fun things the DMs have dropped on my head out there. Have fun and RP. A lot. by yourself and with others. Just because you are alone doesn't mean that noone is "watching".

[Gordy101st]

You're always roleplaying is the simple answer.

Whilstever you're on this server you're roleplaying. Those goblins you killed, you killed in character. Everything you pick up and sell is in character. Everything that happens to you that doesn't have an OOC: in front of it is an element of the role you're playing in FRC

If you get into the mentality of seperating your play time into 'grinding' and 'roleplaying' you can get bored easily and this leads to discontentment with the server and other players. You will eventually believe that theres not enough DM involvement or too many secret player plotlines or whatever because you're not as involved during your alotted 'rp time' and you see more people when you're out in your 'hunting time'.

I didn't mean to sound as condescending as I just have but thats happened to me in many servers before now, was just trying to give people the heads up on what they may be forcing themselves into thinking before it really bothers them

[henny]

gustyrill said:

Anyways there are two characters who did this before that I know of... They are not around anymore.

LOL, just found this post. *Smiles* now that I look back at it, it was kinda (kinda... no a major) a waste of my so-called free time. I did spend every waking minute that I wasn't working here. Got to the point that my concept of time was advance of others. By this I mean I would log god knows how many hundreds of hours a month playing and others would have played maybe 20. Well of course to them I looked like a PGmer. But at the time I didn't consider the timetable aspect of it. Normally in PNP most players advance at the same or near same rate. If you found one of your compatriots at he table had been pulling some "extra" time with the DM running solos to beef up ther character, you might feel your being left behind or passed over. For my role in such doings, I was verilly censored. I even got into a public argument with a DM who before hand I had had a great dialog with for quite a few months. I grew so frustrated I wiped my old forum account to the point where even I can't log into it if I wanted to. Since then I have only visited the site once. It was nice to chat with a few old friends. But I quickly realized that I could never play those kind of hours unless I found a group that also played those hours. My recommendation to everyone (including myself) is to limit your hours per server. The alter character things seem like there headed toward a metagaming disaster. I mean were all guilty of the M word. So a couple hours here a couple at DC. I can sill get my fill of NWN but in this way I can do it without the complications of having to explain to my friends why I have double the xp they have in a short period of time. A few of the older ones will recognize who I am by this message. And Gusty, well what ca I say.... 6 months later.. I apologize, I was hot headed, and a little bit under the spell of the ol self-entitlement ideal. I still read the forums now, and maybe someday I'll try my hand at FRC, but probably not till I have made peace with the DM's I abused. Sean

[moulinous]

Just read the tale from Gusty, chickens huh? lucky guldar wasnt there...

[moulinous]

my main guy is all about soloing as he is a loner of sorts, though he has gone on some good party adventures to the swamp and such like. I think that if you truly roleplay your character, then everything you do should be accountable. My animal companion, when he gets diseased, i will "waste" a heal on him as he is my companion and i do not want to lose him. Yes, it is right but how many times do you see people do this? or ooc post do not bother me as long as they are in fun (ie tells) and not to the detriment of the game. For example, the use of the spell disjunction or whatever it was called and the mispronouncing of its name. I thought that was funny and liked it very much
but as for soloing, sometimes all that is on is either high leveled half gods or low level want to be gods. sometimes soloing is fun and my guy makes no secret that he is looking for items to sell...thats why he goes alone...and now that i reread what i wrote, i think i got of track...oops.

[thogrimur]

moulinous said:

For example, the use of the spell disjunction or whatever it was called and the mispronouncing of its name. I thought that was funny and liked it very much

Heh, and the spell you are thinking of is Molly's Kinda Disfunctionyll...erm...I think that was it. ;D

[Talus]

Hmm...that's not quite what I remember it being, but eh....I have a poor memory too.

[Munroe]

I remember the name of it as..uh... being something I'd blush to put on the forums.

[StabbingNirvana]

mordenhymen's dickshine! boy did that one give me a laugh

[heimdall]

It's been a couple of months and we have several new faces on the server these days, so I thought this would be a good thread to bump.

[lohki13]

Just started on this server but haven't rely had the chance to rp haven't acauly seen anybody around th firs town .

[Quadhund/Greenhouse]

Peak time i've seen is usually 7-9 pm central. And isinhold is the place to be.

[ShadowCatJen]

If we want to ignore the factor that you should RP 100% of the time regardless if you're in a dungeon or at the inn kicking back a few mugs....

I'd have to say that about a good 90% of my time is spent with RP. I tend to play characters that don't have much reason (or no reason at all like Marichelle) to head out to a dungeon or go out and hunt gobbies/kobolds/monster-of-the-week. I get my jollies more off of character development then I do with the hack-n-slash.

With Myn I'd have to say 85% is spent on RP with 5-10% dedicated to crafting and altering outfits for folks.