Portalarium vs. Role-Play

I also support Bowen's basic concerns, while agreeing with Sir Frank that 1 character per account makes more sense than 3 if all 3 are considered the same person. As with Bowen I support the idea of consistency of character, i.e. accountability for actions, and find the 3 characters with the same soul explanation rather awkward. I've three main points (maybe all share the same soul ) of consideration/concern regarding r/p and the "you from Earth" bit:

1) You are "You from Earth" does seem rather a straightjacket to r/p, but I'm not sure it is really meant to be. Hearing Richard in the post-mortems, I felt the idea was more than we are expected to play as one character - he did say "you are you from Earth" but the thrust of intention seemed to be more "you will have consequences for your actions and cannot escape this by making multiple characters with different behaviours to suit convenience." Must we really r/p as ourself from earth? That is not really roleplay; I would rather take it that we play one role (per account), rather than strictly playing as "ourselves from earth." I recall Bowen having mentioned he would r/p as (edit: not from Earth). If his character/Avatar is accepting consequences for the actions of all 3 of his "souls" (assuming he has 3 character slots), is it really necessary that he must "roleplay" himself from Earth? It just seems an unnecessary limit to r/p (and actually not r/p at all, arguably). It's a shame to have r/p limited so strictly in a world that seems otherwise well built to support r/p.

2) As for the 3 souls, I like Sir Frank's limit of 1 character slot idea better, but that ship has sailed. I would rather suggest that we assume any extra character slots impact our one reputation, without further explanation. In effect the extra slots appear to be in place to allow us to try out other tactical options or such, so we can have a swordsman, a mage, and an archer if we like, we can have other builds to try out, but have only one "reputation." Like Bowan, I'm fine with the reputation being linked to anything we do on our account, but if I use my other character slots I'd rather be using them for r/p /storyline purposes - playing say some side character to fit out a story my town or group is working out, rather than that extra slot being another "ME from earth." I think a looser explanation of our 3 reputation-linked character slots would be appreciated by roleplayers -What any of the 3 slots do affects your main character reputation (or all character reputations) rather than "You from Earth" mantra?

3) Relatedly, in terms of POT, it seems a waste of r/p opportunity to *have* to play the town as a sort of refugee camp for US from Earth. Sure, it's a fine storyline for a given town, "Hey I'd like to play my town as a gathering place for all us outlanders from earth" but to have that as the only option, hmmmm... Just is not appetizing for r/p, if I am to be honest. Similar for titles (although I'm not fond of feudal titles being attached to pledges in the first place), but if you have titles of "Knight" and "Baron" and such, an r/p'er would naturally use those to fit the role. "I am a Knight of Novia" rather than "I am ME from EARTH" who somehow has the title "Baron" floating over my head. It kind of kills the r/p feel. Even accepting that the world of Novia has many Avatars in it (with more story details to come of course), if I play a governor of a city, or a Lord with a castle of some sort, I'd like to put some history into it, hopefully fitting to the world I'm rp'ing in. I leave room for future story reveals to open this up some ("Yes, you have an ancestor Avatar in Brittany graveyard, maybe he founded a town way back when and maybe he was Knighted or given a title that explains your status" -so that you are not Johnny come lately from Earth suddenly given a castle and feudal title).

In short, I'd like the "You are You from Earth" to be toned down a bit for r/p's sake, even if we play a character who shares reputation through our accounts. Still, I'll need to see more of the story to come which may resolve the awkward-feeling posture of r/p in Novia.

 

In regards to #1 above.. technically what I've been saying is Bowen is "not from Earth".. he's still an outlander (my preferred term and one used most often in-game). New Britannia after all being connected to many worlds (for those of us allowing ourselves to think of it as still Britannia). Being from any other world should be perfectly acceptable based on old world lore. I have met those however who are playing as natives and that should be fine too.

One of my biggest problems with the 'you are you' mantra is.. if it really were us from Earth.. we wouldn't be just charging into battle without a second thought. We would be freaking out going "get me the hell out of here I want to go home!" And so right away we are expected in that regard to not behave as we ourselves normally would. The first time I heard Richard explain it I didn't take it literally but as the intent for honest play.. your decisions should matter to your character and there will be consequences. But with repeating this over and over it feels more and more like the intent is lost in the message.

Really is not the idea that we explore the actions and consequences of our character through the eyes of the Oracle? What does it matter where the character is from?

How should I explain this.. as I haven't quite expressed this feeling I have yet. You can always say "well then just ignore it and do what you want"(and I certainly will) but pressing the "you are you from Earth" and "shared souls" on the community influences the overall atmosphere. Like a cloud overhead or something and it'll always be there.

I will always.. always promote the intention and hold to it myself.

On #3.. the way I handle wealth and title is to consider that not all outlanders arrived at once. We've been showing up in Novia for some time now and while our numbers were still low it would've been much easier to pass ourselves off as normal citizens giving us time to accumulate wealth. Keeping in mind that 1 Earth year mechanically in New Britannia is 24 years.. but a more lore friendly number is closer to the 30-40 year range (did the math ).. so for those from Earth having left 6 months apart means arriving at least 12-20 years apart.

In my backstory, Bowen is already a ranger type with those skills on arrival. Showing up with nothing as any outlander but plying his trade and eventually establishing a small town as a base of operations for his own goals.. this probably would've taken 10-20 years.

I know I'm repeating this but I can't stress it enough. There is no lore explanation needed for game mechanics and I think we'd be far better off in this case without one.

 

Oops! Did not mean to spread misinformation there about your Bowen character! On the outlander characters, I also like the idea of outlanders "not from Earth" and was thinking something along those lines myself, but then the "You are You from Earth" mantra hit and knocked me offstride. Thanks for sharing the backstory by the way, and good info in general

 

I'm just happy that they encourage NOT separating RP from the game. I've always been annoyed by role playing communities in other games that basically treat RP as a completely separate activity from the game.

Example: someone's character is just a simple farmer etc. for role playing purposes but yet they will go fight dragons and master the dark arts of necromancy and just say "that's all OOC".

It's called a role playing game. Why separate the two?

 

The whole idea of the character being me from earth never made any sense to me. I know way too many things that would propel the world pasts mere swords and arrows in short order if I told anyone about them.

 

You're playing as an Avatar. That's the physical manifestation of a soul. Your soul was brought to this world, from Earth, and inhabits a physical form separate from the body you had back on earth. Those of you with multiple character slots are supposedly people who have the ability to manifest their soul into multiple different avatars, though since you have only one soul, you can only manifest one at a time.

I don't see how that's hard to grasp. But it sounds to me like you want to be able to use your multiple character slots to play multiple distinct characters. I can see where your complaint is, but I disagree when you say they're trying to use immersion-breaking explanations for game mechanics. I feel like the system makes sense the way it is now.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Something tells me that's what's going on and why we got Steampunk/electrical gadgets.

I mean, the radio is literally a community invention.

Also, if you look at our history and how the society views people ahead of their times, I'd be super paranoid going into a medieval world showing off new tech or even talk about science.

Making a video game is a iterative process. I'm convinced that story-writing is very similar in that regard... just look at the SotA's novel.

Regardless of the origin of how this back-story came to be, if the game gets released and that's how it's explained; it's basically canon.

Because you basically said to Lum:
"Well the way I read it, it makes it sound like you're the only avatar but if that's changed to describe that you're one of many, then it's okay"

So, with that logic, changing a few words makes it all okay. Hence the "typo" comment.

 

Avatar.. originally was a title earned by attaining enlightenment in all 8 virtues. Being from another world was not the defining factor in the title and presently.. Arabella does identify you as THAT avatar. Furthermore, the game itself does NOT explain you're only a manifestation.. and that explanation is in direct conflict with old lore. So far no where in-game, in BotA or any other text does it claim you're a manifestation. That is Richard's out of game explanation. In the past, you have always travelled physically to Britannia.. not just your soul. As I pointed out if there's any confusion.. in U9 you arrive.. travel back to Earth and come back again without any physical change. To accept you're a manifestation that somehow disappears and reappears in a different form at your convenience is to deny everything else.

 

That tech is supposed to have come from the kobolds.. not outlanders.

 

And where'd the kobolds got it from, I wonder?

Are you suggesting that outlanders aren't capable or influencing technological progress? Now THAT's absurd!

 

Drawing far fetched conclusions based on implications never expressed is absurd. I suggested nothing.. of any sort. I merely stated a fact that has been repeated by the devs many times over the past 2 years. The tech is supposedly from the kobolds. That has absolute no bearing what so ever on outlander's ability to influence anything... technology or otherwise.

 

That's a funny argument considering only one person is playing three characters. I don't know how you missed that logic.

You = You.

You playing 1000 characters still equals you.

 

If you rigidly cling to that notion then you aren't really engaging in role-play. You're just playing a game. If you don't think of yourself and your character(s) as separate entities then what's the point of RP?

 

That's a fair question. But in the context of this game where you're supposed to be yourself and your actions are supposed to be meaningful, it avoids the reality of how this world works.

Let me explain. I don't particularly like the Oracle judging me or keeping score on my actions. But as a roleplayer, I understand that's how this world works. So you'll never hear me saying it "shouldn't work like that", I'll just make my own city where we all ignore the oracle and do what we want, within the context of how the world works.

I can't change the underlying mechanics, I can only roleplay around them. And that's reasonable. What I hear people saying though is they want the world to work differently, not for roleplaying reasons because I've just shown that you can successfully roleplay in this world based on how it works, but instead for convenience reasons.

Here's the bottom line, the world works where if you have related versions of your character, the Oracle keeps score on all of them collectively. So roleplay that, or don't and buy another account.

 

I'm throwing ideas in the hopes of encouraging people to look at things from different angles and avoid being fixated on a single viewpoint. You claim that these ideas are fat-fetched and absurd. Your posts are supposedly full of common sense. So be it.

There are no facts; all of it is a work in progress.
"It's supposed to and therefore there's no other way imaginable." You are being unreasonable and unreachable.

Role-play is about using your imagination and suspending your disbelief.

Do you know how the virtues shared throughout your account will be represented in the game? To which extent they'll affect each of your characters and, therefore, your role-play?

Who's coming to conclusions, I wonder?

Good day.

As far as I can tell, the world where Ultima takes place is in the same universe; but you're not IN Ultima.

Every actor in any play or movie brings a bit of themselves into whatever character they play. If you play super evil on one character and super angelic in another, then that's just a reflection of who you are.

 

All games aren't like that, just this one.

 

You might be missing one of my key issues.. how THIS world "works".. Portalarium has gone to great lengths to show that this is the same world as the old one without explicitly saying so. So anyone who's played through the Ultima series it couldn't be more obvious once you find the clues. It isn't just wishful thinking. And how this world has always worked up until now.. is contrary to their explanations which they only 'need' to accommodate features not present if the offline games.

Now if the same reasoning had been used for this world before I wouldn't have a case to make because that would be in-line with the world Richard had created and established.

Another issue I have with the shared soul argument is the implications it has on living in New Britannia. What happens to each body? Does it just.. disappear? Does that mean the character literally does not exist while you the player is not logged in? Then we are not.. and can not live in New Britannia if that is our take on it.. then why do we even have housing? What purpose does a town serve if after we're done adventuring for the day we just poof back to our bodies on Earth and crawl in our warm Earth beds?

 

You don't think the Cataclysm may have changed how the world works? We know it changed how magic works.

As for the go back and forth between Earth and New Britannia, I think that works just the same way it always did. Are you just having a problem with it now?

 

This isn't just throwing out ideas.. it's reaching for a conclusion with no basis trying to imply it's something I meant and then calling it absurd.

And you are trying to put words in my mouth..

So are you saying "just ignore the parts you don't like"? Cause that's what most people will ultimately do anyway. One of my major points earlier as you might recall.

As I've stated earlier.. none of this will effect MY RP at all. I don't play both good and evil characters. So yes I do know how it will effect MY RP. That is not the motivation behind this thread.

 

The cataclysm is a pretty big stretch going from physical travel through moongates to manifestations of souls.

As for how travel has always worked.. as again. how it's always worked before is you physically step through a gate. So if it works how it always did the whole soul manifestation business is less and less likely..