Nemaisare

A hypothetical question

Wankery... Good word, that.

Honestly, I doubt there's any firm and solid answer to this hypothetical question without turning it into an actual experiment and IC with other players. I can only say that for myself, I think people can be capable of playing a separate species they didn't come up with. After all, there are plenty of rpers who write as wolves, or warrior cats, or horses, or dragons.

Whether or not they'd be able to rp the mindset of these aliens to your satisfaction would be a secondary, but also important, question. If, in making this alien race you want to allow the rpers to play around a bit and help them grow, they've got a slightly easier time of pleasing you, but there's also a chance things won't go in the direction you might have thought they would. If you start with a very firm grasp of the mind and mannerisms and methods of communication and social structures, etc. that's great for you, and there might be some willing to still give it a try, but they're far more likely to disappoint simply by missing the crucial details that can't necessarily be set into written words without oodles of explanation. There's a good chance they'd be just as frustrated trying to figure it out as you might be in having to read them not managing it quite the way you envisionned. (I keep saying you, it's a hypothetical you, yep)

Multiple people could agree to play a certain mindset, though I'm sure they'd all like the chance to individualise it at least a little, unless they're playing the same overall mind in different bodies and it's basically the same character. That might get iffy... Or crazy fun, I dunno.

Eusocial is probably the easiest to understand and the simplest to explain. It's a group structure, so it would also make it easy to have plenty of characters in one spot and plenty of NPC examples for them to follow. People know about ants and wasps and molerats, and about their caste system, and it's not hard to look up if they want to.

I don't think it's necessary to make aliens like humans to be playable, they just have to be understandable for humans. This does limit the options alittle, but there's still a huge range of variables that can make a mindset alien to most humans' way of thinking without making it impossible for a human to understand the thought process that reaches that point.

A hypothetical question

Hmmm, anything humanoid... Shape can beget at least some outward familiarity. But it doesn't necessarily need to look the same.

But the basics would be to think about connection and story. If you can use these aliens to create a story that the players can understand, and if their basic emotions function in a manner similar to the players' experiences, even if it might be expressed differently, then they have something they can connect with.

It's probably best to avoid giant tentacle beasts or strange globs of jelly or anything too unfamiliar, but if you look at the more exotic animals on Earth and mix and match or tweak them a little, like, for instance, apes that can talk... Giant crabs... I've read about something like manta rays swimming through the gases of Jupiter...

A hypothetical question

The problem I see with this, while making it appealing could be one, is that if you're designing the full species yourself, there's either going to be a lot of information to read, or freedom for the players to get confused. Or both....

Personally, I'd probably find more information more interesting, but not everyone likes to have to read lots before they can play. And info isn't always easy to keep straight.

So you'd probably have to find the right balance between cementing points that should stay the same throughout, and letting players have some input of their own. If you're allowing them to answer such questions about the culture of an egglaying species, then you're certainly not stifling creativity. But if you're answering all those questions by yourself, then you might be...

Such Haukes, Such Hounds

Our collaboration is taking a little longer than planned. Sorry about the wait.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

Thanks for the clarification. Also... touchscreen keyboards = argh.

Where the Sky Meets the Mountain

Nils laughed as they explained themselves. Mostly, enjoying the crooked-nosed man’s indignation at his name calling. Won him no favours, but it worked every time, didn’t it just?

He screwed up his face as they finished up though, snorting. “Can’t think of anyone as would want to be a hero smashing into mountains. Wouldn’t be a hero for long.” He didn’t think there would be many survivors, if any, of such a crash. Since it was unlikely to happen purposefully, however, it no longer interested him unduly, so he left it alone for the moment. “No captain? What? You lost him in the hold? Find out he’s afraid of heights?”

The youth scoffed, putting on superior airs that were easily seen through, even if still rather annoying. “What’s keeping the launch, anyhow? Never seen more disappointed folks all together like ‘at since the Festival got shut down years back. Nor ever heard a less likely tale than an airship staying grounded a day like today. Wind’s right for getting along, en’t no faffles t’worry about and no gale neither. What’re you waiting for? The tide?”

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

This is probably a stupid question, but what is the difference between character-driven and story-driven?

I mean, I assume it's the focus, but everytime I try to think further than that my mind says well, a story without characters is a setting, and a character without a story is really going nowhere. And, to me at least, most rps unless they're nation rps, would seem to be more focused on the characters the players came up with, I mean, yes, you should generally give them an end goal or at least an idea of what they're supposed to be doing, but without developing the character motivation, it just becomes railroading. Or am I looking at this wrong?

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

Azel said
Something that has been confusing me ever since I joined sites completely devoted to roleplaying is just how insanely popular pairings are as the main theme of an rp.When viewing the 1 on 1 interest check you'l notice that almost all the request posted there are either plots based on certain pairings or in more extreme cases just a list of pairings. Am I the only one who thinks that is an rather flawed way to build a plot? Call me old fashioned but I always believed the plot should be the main focus of any story.

Was not going to quote allllll of your post. :P

I have to agree with a lot of what you said. And you're definitely not the only one who finds pairing characters up for romance before even having a plot to be getting ahead of the story. Of course, if the person who's posted the interest check wants the romance to be the main part of the story, then it would be important to know what character roles/species/genders that they like and want, so you know what you're working with and can then tailor a plot that will fit those character types rather than coming up with a plot and then suddenly having to wedge those character types in even if it seems to make no logical sense.

Granted, if it's just for romance, and a lot of the posted pairings will be, then it can be bloody annoying to have to deal with making a character to those exact specifications. Then again, it does make it easy to know if you'd be interested or not, right from the get go, without having to read more than two or three words. I think quite a few interest check writers now use pairings as a shorthand to avoid having to type too much. Or maybe not wanting to share an idea with the public before they have someone willing to listen to it and write it with them. (no idea if that's what anyone's actually thinking, though)

For myself, I don't mind pairings in interest checks so long as I see that romance is not the end goal and that they've put some thought and effort into having plot ideas handy as well. I think it's perfectly fair to say "Hey, I'd like to write a story that has as the main characters a.... vampire and a human(or mermaid/human, god/mortal, etc.)" And see if anyone else is interested in writing about humans and vampires. There's still a lot of flexibility there to make up a story, all you need to include are humans and vampires. The rest, whether they're friendly to each other, what time period you're playing in, if they're from earth or another world completely, is still up in the air and free to be discussed. After all, Beauty and the Beast can be summarised as a story about a pairing. human/beast (and a lot of psychology mumbojumbo about sexuality and father figures and something or other fairytales)

With all that said, however, I do still find it a much more exciting moment when I open an interest check to find actual plots rather than the immediate bare bones of one.

Where the Sky Meets the Mountain

As he neared the ship, Nils helped the old man chase off some gulls, the big birds were always good for a round of cussing. They always sounded so shrill, like old biddies after their son-in-laws, Da said. He grinned now as he sent one winging off screaming, and figured maybe his da was right. “Ah garn, y’old coot, en’t nothing but wrapper there anyways.”

Then he idled his way down the dock as though he hadn’t a care in the world to offer the celebrity not half a stone’s throw away. Never mind that she was far too big to miss, and he looked exactly the sort to be causing trouble if he could manage. And never mind that there wasn’t much else of interest nearby, and you couldn’t go far wrong blaming him ahead of time for whatever plans he was brewing. He was only really thinking to get as close as he could before he got run off and see just how close that was. Maybe he’d get to see her caulking and all if he was lucky. But he happened to overhear the last of the conversation between the two sailors and scoffed as he turned to look them over.

Beanpole and Baldie. They looked like they might well be able to handle themselves in a blow. And him with the crooked-nose might’ve been in one, or a fight. Or maybe he’d just walked into a door… “Cor blimey, you daft clunkers, what’s so fussed great about a mountain as’ll have it make you heroes for ramming right into it?”

The question, while couched in rudeness as he couldn’t very well let them know he was actually curious, was quite sincere. He’d love to know if they actually meant that, or if they just didn’t have the best opinion of their captain. Had he called it right then? Was the trouble nothing more than a bad crew hired to ship out? Or was there something else about the ship making the captain hesitate?

The Third Law

I'm curious. I've never done sci-fi before, so I'm not sure how easily I'll grasp the details, but so far it is a concept that has my attention. :)