Consistency in roleplay?

[Raemonn]

enforcing consistent roleplay seems a bit harsh, but on the other hand, it seems stupid for an rp server not to enforce it. i wouldn't jail chars/players based on inconsistent rp, but maybe stats/skills could be dropped?your char is clearly out of his mind and has a mental problem, so he'll lose some lore and knowledge skills and stuff

That's still very harsh in my opinion. When is someone being inconsistent enough to slam down the nerfhammer? When they forget their own character's eye colour? When they slip up their character's accent (i.e. accidentally using "your" instead of "yer")?

Of course not. Any sensible person would say that kind of "inconsistency" is really minor. But this just illustrates the problem: how to find an objective measurement for something so arbitrary and normative? And is it really, really, really much of a problem?

I doubt it.

I think it's much better if players take their responsibility by engaging the non-RP'ing nublings. You know, the little guys who openly talk of ICQ in-game and who don't roleplay at all. In my opinion, most experienced members of Pangaea know the drill, while the nublings should be encouraged. They mess up their character? So what, at least they're making an effort to roleplay in the first place. Encourage, don't punish.

[Charha]

Hear, hear.

And if a druid doesn't hug enough trees, he's going to be losing some of his animal lore? A baker who's not jolly and fat enough is going to have hard time remembering his recipes? I once briefly tried playing on a UO server that literally enforced the shit out of people's RP. I'm not saying that taking some steps to enforce RP would necessary result in this kind of nonsense... But it could. Who knows.

When it comes to stat loss and skill drops, I can imagine people getting seriously butthurt whenever they felt that the GMs didn't understand their characters' motives or that their RP was being unfairly judged. I would get butthurt myself, for sure. I like to play characters who deal with inner conflicts. For instance, I've got this one backstabbing character and sometimes I refrain from writing IC stories describing the character's actions in game, because I might have been playing nasty tricks even to my own guild members (I just did the other day, kinda! Sorry guys).

When I want to keep meta gaming to the minimum I keep my characters' motives out of sight. When they eventually run to the hills and join an opposing faction, it might come as a complete surprise to everyone but that character.

[Elsabet]

About the whole consistency thing I can only agree with it in part and here's why. Dynamic characters in both literature and role-play are what make a good story. Remember Frodo and the other hobbits from Lord of the Rings? They start out as timid, simple people who love bacon and other creature comforts but through their experiences in the story they are transformed. Sam for example, goes from being a lowly gardener into being Frodo's valiant right-hand man who is able to keep going despite all the hardship Mordor can throw at him, even overcoming the temptations of his heart to claim the one ring for himself.

If we enforce strict consistency how will our characters ever react to the community, role play experiences and develop over time? Clearly some dynamic change is good and healthy, our characters and people do change. However there is some change that is distracting and harmful to role play which should be avoided...If you are a role-played orc, don't turn into an elf. But if you are a murdering brigand who repents of evil, well I could tolerate that one if you play it out and write a good story about it.

The most important issue in all role-play communities is how we treat each other. If you tolerate little problems and have strong friendships you will grow. If you are critical, concerned with rules and becoming rivals you will die out...or pretty soon the mean-girl types and big ego players will be the only ones left. It all comes down to friendship and respect where you find that, you will find a good role-play community.

[Glarundis]

i don't think that's the problem with the consistency or lack of it. the inconsistency would be when you suddenly change for no reason at all and you just did it because you cba and that's it (religion hopping in many cases). i'm not saying there would have to be skill drop, but how can we enforce it then?
also, about what charha said, i'm very happy if she can play a char that backstabs other ppl's chars and they're still friends. for some stupid ass reason most ppl don't seem to allow this. and no, i'm not talking about robbing your friend's alts, i understand why that pisses off some ppl. i'm just talking about your chars not agreeing with other ppl's alts and then shit hits the fan ooc. imperial is a major example of this.

heck, why couldn't even ppl agree ooc and create something interesting ig?

[Mike]

heck, why couldn't even ppl agree ooc and create something interesting ig?

Because that's not how it works, bro. If everyone had a world editor and could do whatever they felt like, maybe we would get that RP sandbox mentality. In this game we have all kinds of resources that we must invest time to get and sometimes compete for and at that point there will be rivalry and competition, where most people will not sacrifice that to create a story detrimental to what they spend time to get. Even if nothing ever broke and nothing could be looted, which is the case in another long time RP environment of mine, there would still be OOC rivalry. The personality clashes and conflicts as well as the will to win is always there to overshadow RP that will leave someone the loser or the victim.

[Cyrus Tegyr]

Apparently, I thought I was done. I just keep coming back for more.

Let's not dredge imperial or any other shard religion into this convo, we all know the shortcomings of being in a religion, its a fucking drama queens paradise, which if it weren't for a small few, I would have avoided being in one, I learned my lesson from being in Justice on Journey's End.

Back on topic I guess, when someone drastically changes their character's RP, who is to say that it stems from nothing at all? Surely you aren't playing that character, if the person behind the character chooses not to reveal why his character has changed over night or even made a gradual change, it's their preference. For any of us to sit here and say that can't be, should not be, will not be done or allowed kind of defeats the purpose of playing a game such as UO where one can RP fluidly, not having to reveal at every turn why their character thinks that way. If that's the way it is going to turn into, Pangaea might as well adopt a very, very strict history where people are locked into how their characters think, act and behave. Some aspects of Pangaea you are locked into certain behavioral dilemmas such as being in a religion or even a guild, but those were choices you made when you joined said guild/religion, however, if for some reason you choose that your character does not fit into a religion or guild any longer and wish not to reveal why publicly where everyone and their mother would find out, I don't feel you should have to, why does there have to be a complete transparency when it comes to this "consistency". If you find someone has drastically changed their character's views, RP about it in game, see if you can unravel the mystery, you might find there is one. Probably a novel concept for a lot of us who just expect someone to post the usual "dream sequence" RP story of why their character has just left a religion for instance, not everyone RPs like that nor should everyone RP like that. Think of it like a television show, if everything was revealed as to why something happened as it happened, than it would be fairly boring, think of any genre, doesn't have to be Game of Thrones or Harry Potteresque or Lord of the Rings, pick anything and imagine how boring it would be to just have a bland story where everything is explained up front.

If we are talking about a person who is returning after a few months or longer hiatus, than I can forgive them if they have not stayed consistent when it comes to their character's RP, not everyone can remember where they left off and understandably so.

Ultimately the nice thing about RP on Pangaea is that sometimes you can improvise, you aren't locked into a stringent storyline where A has to always be a straight shot to B, it doesn't always have to be predictable, if that were the case of RP on Pangaea, it'd be no better than a cheap Dime Novel set online.

As for filling out the in game character sheet, I disagree totally with that, sorry it's a quick edit here, have to run, but the whole point of RP is to get to know a characters background, if I just fill out the character sheet in game and Fred, some new character I have never met somehow knows where I come from, my name, my background...Well, kind of defeats the purpose of RP. Similarly, being forced to publicly post your characters background where magically everyone knows you in game, again, defeats the purpose of roleplaying to try to get to know characters.

Oh and I got what you meant in the first post, just didn't care for the attitude in which it seemed to be written and subsequent posts after that, but I will leave it at that.

[Meghana Arroway]

Callum just provided a mature response and good point of view on a very common dilemma. Also, who's to say a man of Law has to be a saint during his entire stay in the religion? Just as an example, I believe they uphold the law, and protect the weak, but i also believe a character can think outside the box, see opportunities, get greedy, sin, even go corrupt. Get caught, such RP has consequences. What I dont understand is how anyone can leave Law, join Tekstone, and leave Tekstone to join Law again. That's inconsistency, and plain ridiculous if it should occur.

[Charha]

Yeah, I agree with Callum as well.

As for these in game character description thingies, I've basically just written a description of how my character looks like and what's the first impression one gets from them. I also might write something that could be considered common knowledge, such as, say, "this character is often seen hanging around the dockside bars, drenched in his own vomit". Or something of that sort. There's no need to provide any kind of personal background information other characters would not naturally have access to. The Pangaea Forum is a much better place for actual biographies, etc.

[Cyrus Tegyr]

I would agree with the description portion but when/if we are talking about the background portion, I don't think information such as that which is not readily apparent to someone whom you are just meeting for the first time should be available.

Kongoan, I agree, I wouldn't be able to conceive someone doing that in real life and as such my characters would be just as dumbfounded. However, that should never happen as a good HP or whoever is doing the indoc back into a religion that the character has left let's just say twice for an enemy religion should question themselves whether it is a good idea from an RP standpoint. Whether this has happened or not I do not know but at some point the religion's head should step in and say this is enough and get some sort of backing from the GM's/Admins. While I dislike a lot of interaction from the powers that be, this is where that would be warranted.