Taboo to RP less or Not RP During Quests?
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I am one of those people where the quality of my RP is either non-existent or dismal when I'm questing. The main reason for this is because whenever I completely immerse myself in RP while in combat, I almost always get my characters killed or near death. Obviously no one wants to die, hence the reason for the above.
I'm curious though, is it frowned upon by DMs to see this behaviour?
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When we say "RP" on quests, we mean something else; If you're in a dangerous place, act like you're in a dangerous place. Send scouts, maybe plan after an encounter, etc. Not just talking about the weather because it's expected (Who the hell makes small talk in the dungeons of doom?)
Essentially, just stay IC, /try/ not to metagame what's next ( I know this is hard, because we've all done these quests a 1000 times), but yeah, essentially, just stay IC wherever you are, quests included.
That said, this is not really as prevalent as it sounds. I have seen this happening, of course, but for the most part, people do stay IC in quests, so it's all good.
I don't police this (because if people are tired and just want to kill some rats in silence, that's fine with me); However, if I see a group making an effort to really roleplay in a quest, I usually end up spicing it a bit.
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I don't think these requests are expecting immersive roleplay scenes mid-combat. This is more a comment to ensure players are still maintaining character integrity, having some semblance of their PC as they progress through the quest.
Sprinting through a quest with two other people and not saying a word while knowingly casting every buff every one needs, etc. is an example of what not to do.
If you are going through your quests, occasionally praying to Bane and roleplaying whatever various things you may find (This doesn't always have to be the same, make something up relevant to the quest's theme), occasionally calling out to others suggestions in combat to improve position or safeguard, etc.
These themes don't have to be intricate, but at the end of the day CoA is a roleplay server and we hold ourselves to at least some degree of commitment to that when interacting with other PCs on quests.
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I don't think you have to worry about any taboos. One of my main complaints recently has been that it feels like this doesn't happen to the degree it used to. I see this as being caused by a few different problems - stuff like buffs being emphasized much more, so taking things seriously IC is monstrously inefficient, that kinda thing.
The other part, is that as integral as questing is to CoA it's never really made much sense? You're already partially out-of-character when doing these quests because you've done them before, ten or a hundred or a thousand times, so the quest's "story" is a hindrance to RP rather than any sort of benefit.
Basically... It can require a certain suspension of disbelief! Just be aware of that and you should be fine.
Every time doing a quest is the first time - that meaningful interaction you (hopefully) had in the Crypts last week where you learned to cooperate with your team? That happened, but somewhere nonspecific. Didn't happen here, doing this same quest!
I also find it can help to file the serial numbers off whenever necessary. You're not looking for those two same priests, there's just been some disappearances. You don't have to really care about the quest giver either, just what you're doing in that moment.
And as Dobby says, try to do your communication in-game, in-character. Not through tells or voice chat.
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i find that allow time for people to speak is good. letting everyone have the say that in real life you would expect them to.
Not waiting for scouts is the main issue i see usually either to actually scout or listen when they try to give a description of what they have seen.so "you go do your thing with the traps. GO!" is fine but then actually wait for the report that they have been cleared and what the scout has seen?
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And as Dobby says, try to do your communication in-game, in-character. Not through tells or voice chat.
This is the only one that matters to me really.
Actual role play during quests is awesome. Probably one of the worst quest experiences I had (short of bad deaths) was a section of the party running off wordlessly to steamroll after asking us to collect loot. The quest was a maze so the rest of us ended up just twiddling our thumbs for ten minutes not knowing where to find the rest of the party.
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It’s part of maintaining certain standards of rp. No one is saying write paragraph emotes, just try and make it fun. :)
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I have literally Roleplayed Buff timings
"So just so you know, we have about 6 more minutes before all those spells we bought end, we should make haste!"
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@sanctuary said in Taboo to RP less or Not RP During Quests?:
I'm curious though, is it frowned upon by DMs to see this behavior?
This should be encouraged now and it the future ...
RP on quest is a great way to tell your story to others, especially on the low level quests to introduce your character to others. You soon find out if you like or dislike the other characters.
Then as you move along in level you would hope that you have a strong bond with other characters, who by then should be asking question how to help push your story along or plots you both are invested in. Of course you would hope you are asking questions about their stories.
At the higher end you will know what your friends and allies skills and assets are, so RPing along these lines can help build not only your story but others. You might not go into great details, this might be saved for the bar or camp fire if needed.
Of course this is not done in mid combat, maybe on the trip to the quest area or at a slow point on a quest or maybe something that has taken the interest of your character doing the quest .. something like that.
Also dont forget the you can interact with the Quest Giver, sure follow the convo but comments can be made toward the NPC or your group to engage them in some relevant RP. You might even get the NPC talking back to you, RP reward or a further quest on the back of the standard one ( and yes I know some of this has been lacking ).
In the end of course RP can be done at a bar, in the wilds or where ever you see fit. I love giving out RP reward, so keep it up and more of it.
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Its just boring to me. If, as a DM, log in and see players on a quest rushing through and not talking--I may drop a few monsters extra, some extra gold for the challenge, and wander off bored after awhile.
If I log in and the players are ADVENTURING and talking and what have you, I'll often do something more exciting myself because this is FUN now. The whole group may wind up with hundreds more xp and gold, maybe a plot hook, or a whole unique experience of it.
If I'm a new player on a RP server and see no one RPing on a quest, I will likely log out eventually too.
What can we do though to encourage more of this, positive suggestions are helpful.
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The quests are mostly boring for us too, the ones we do the most we've done hundreds of times. I wish we could do all the quests, to reduce the monotony, but some quests are just so unrewarding to do, that no one does them.
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@thune You owe patreon 25 cents for using negative language again.
Its not too hard is it to actually just say, "I'd like to see quest Y spiced up by adding X or Z which would make it cooler and more fun to do".
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I'd suggest that quest rewards be upped, A lot of charging through quests is because people rush through them to make sure the raznor buffs last so the quest is profitable.
For example in V4 things like Tyche shrine gave 150 gold per person on completion, Now it gives around 80.
With most quests requiring at least a shield and a barkskin to survive people rush through to try and recoup the costs of these potions and still make some money on the quest.
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Make it possible to rest in all quests.
Though this will only benefit parties with Buff casters and probably make most quests significantly easier.
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I've quested with you Sanctuary and you do rp during quests. I always try to get in a couple lines whenever I click on the red thing and I'm in that stable stabbing period where I have a few seconds (such as the infamous [Karl Steel drop kicks an orc])
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We need a .suspendtime command that will stop buffs from counting time. Any action except walking, barter window, and putting down/picking up items would resume normal timeflow for the whole party.
Not writing enough text would as well.I know. Impossible to code and there probably are a lot of possible abuses as reasons that should switch this option off in pvp -where it was the most useful to all parties anyway- so... trails off
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Rather basic buff spells were dramatically extended, this way, you can afford to take your time!
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@spiffymeister said in Taboo to RP less or Not RP During Quests?:
Rather basic buff spells were dramatically extended, this way, you can afford to take your time!
This is exactly what I was thinking while reading all of that.
The problem is you want your buffs to stay active, so feel like you may have to rush to get through without drinking too many.
Seems the solution is to make buffs last a LOT longer, at the least, during quests (Not sure it should just be there though honestly as you dont want to be rushing when wandering the wilds either, sometimes you buff for an encounter, then might want to RUN to find the next group of bad guys, so you get the most of your potions!)
Are there any serious problems, balance/mechanics wise, that extending (dramatically) the time buffs last for, would create?
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CLerics/wizards being buffed 100% of the time.
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As a buffbot who takes extend spell I will say that increasing the time that buffs last for would be insane - 100% uptime on keen edge would be crazy. And if it wouldn't extend to spells like that then the problem persists and people still rush.