OOC Events, translated into IC, part two

Back by unpopular demand, here are more terms that I'm helping translate for your convenience.

OOC: Contests?

IC: Nay! Not at all. It specifically says that contests are an IC event that is sent OOC (or something to that effect.) However, there are some things you might want to know about them. I'm not professing to be an expert, but here is my take.

Every few seasons, the council of Loures ((i.e. Nexon or Candle or whoever actually reviews them, but those people who have the tedious task of weeding through them)) hold a contest to determine great Aisling works from across the land. It does not reach them immediately though. First a small area (a clave, basically a neighborhood) talks about what they get. A few of those they think good enough and send it out for the whole of the village to see. Some of those end here (and thus receive no higher than a Clave award) but if the village really starts talking about the great work, some other merchants and travellers and such bring the works with them and show it to people on their travels. If the people don't think it interesting enough to bring back to their own villages, then it stops right there (they earn a Village Award). But some do continue throughout the whole kingdom.

As the whole kingdom talks about it, a herald from Loures may hear of these works and immediately run to Loures to present them to the council itself. This is a very prestigious point. The council chooses the best one (those that don't make it receive the Folk or Kingdom award) and that best one is proclaimed throughout the land (earning an Aisling award to its name). Some even are proclaimed as some of the best the council has ever seen and widely published. Any you see with awards on their legends are prestigious authors, poets, musicians, artists, historians, lorekeepers, wise ones (which I've no idea what exactly this constitutes, I know a certain someone can help...<looks pointedly around the group), philosophers, or biographers in some way.

At least that's my take...

OOC: Server maintenance/reset

IC: Chaos is affecting the land and rising up! In a land of magick, things are bound to get out of hand from time to time.

OOC: Insights for repeatedly doing the same thing.

IC: WHY has your character had an insight? If it is simply because they fought the same tried and true goblins, kobolds, wolves or whatever, they "insighted" or, in this case, you could even say "leveled." That is if you can't explain it. Sure, maybe they're killing the same kobolds over and over again, but why? To learn kobold fighting style and perfect a counter to it? Maybe to learn of the kobolds social structure, or to study their hostility towards Aislings? There could be any number of reasons if you're creative (there's that evil word again).

But if you can come up with a reasoning behind some repetitious actions or even differing actions sometimes, your reason for having an insight should soon follow. They finally noticed that slight shift of weight to the left that kobolds do before they strike out, the one with the necklace of teeth around his neck seems to be the leader of the flock, they're hostile towards Aislings because they pose a direct threat to their territory and young (how many kobolds do we honestly see on the streets?). If you can find a motivation, a reason for insights always becomes apparent.

OOC: IC

IC: I hear people saying "What the heck is he talking about? but it's true. If people are truly "in character," the "character" would never notice it. They're simply acting like themselves! The most ironic statement is people who say "What? I was acting IC" (note the lack of double paretheses). Now unless your character is a thespian, they're not acting period (with the exceptions "acting crazy", "acting odd" etc.) Your person just IS.

OOC: Being "in character" is an excuse.

IC: Have you ever played a pen-paper roleplaying game? Yes? Have you ever tried to beat up the town sheriff because it was in your character? If so, did you quickly find yourself jailed faster than you could open your mouth to complain? Just because something is "in character" does not automatically make it acceptable in society. Most people argue laws because they prevent some "in character" behavior and they think people should be allowed to do whatever they want "in character."

But personally, think on it. If a person isn't punished for being "in character," they're still the same goody-two-shoes that he despises in everyone else. He's still following the letter of the law if it's acceptable. I'm always conducting myself as an official and I always wish once, just ONCE, that there'd be someone out there who would roleplay a true outlaw. Someone who sees the laws there and says "Why should those apply to me?" and works there best to outwit all the guards and officials there.

Personally, I think the law is a GREAT roleplaying device. It defines you as an obediant citizen or a branded criminal. And if someone actually roleplayed it (hiding outside the gates and persuading people to aid them, jumping behind a citizen and clamping their hand over their mouth, trying to get them to let them in), I think that would just be ideal. Or even better, a criminal at large. One who everyone knows is committing crimes but are just too clever to get caught. Now I'm not encouraging people to do this (standard disclaimer here), but I do think that this would be far better than simply saying "((You can't make that illegal! I was roleplaying the whole time!))"

OOC: Net speech.

IC: I think this is fairly obvious. I even hate this chatroom talk in CHATROOMS. I don't think it's too difficult or time consuming to put the extra letters "y" and "o" attached to that other vowel "u"...same with "are" and "thanks"...they're at most 3 letters! If you want to say a word, write the word (or better yet, use a dialect/accent <grins).

But the other things that are still seen and less common. Also easily corrected. "lol" for example. Why not just say "<laughs" I'm sorry if 5 extra key strokes is tedious...brb turns to (not again!) creativity. Make something that your character might busy themselves with but that they can still stand still. Monks can "sit and meditate for a while." Priests can "close their eyes and focus on the majesty of [diety]." Rogues could do a lot (and of course I use it a lot), but a good one (that can work for warriors too) is "sits down and concentrates on checking his blade for sharpness." Wizards can "focus their concentration on the elements around them." They're longer certainly, but add a nice flavor to your character.

Still other things are e-motes. They're cute and all, but it's much better in my opinion to just indicate the action. So "<smiles" for ":)", "<frowns" for ":(" "<looks crossly at you and then sticks his tongue out" for ":P" There are many possibilities.

Technical issues (read: pet peeve)

As far as I see it, anything you're saying OOC (i.e. in the (()) parentheses) is NOT actually heard by any of the characters in Temuair. This seems a simple enough concept but a lot run into these few problems. Even I'm guilty of them sometimes but I try not to. Because of that, I don't blame people for falling into the traps of it but it's something to at least try and recognize.

First of all, transition. Since they can't actually hear anything said OOC, there needs to be something IC mentioned about it before the topic actually drifts to it. This is very hard, and I fall prey to it many times, but it's something to try and recognize. It's much too easy to simply jump straight back to the IC and assume the character has been subconciously listening to the conversation all along. One thing that might help is trying to keep the whole conversation just OOC and never making mention of it IC. The other is to try and come up with a transition. The trap I usually fall into is "When's the next class going to be?" It's obvious that the character needs to know it, but the player will have trouble understanding the time if I gave it in Temuairan. I try to, if I remember, reply back "About a moon or so from now" and then immediately after, translate "((Monday at 6:00 pm PST))" It doesn't hurt to sometimes give approximations IC but I, personally, feel the response is warranted.

The other situation are what I like to call "broken sentences." If you put an OOC statement in the middle of an IC statement, it doesn't always work. An example where it does work is "I haven't seen him ((since last Friday))." Since the OOC statement is never vocalized by the character, they would be saying "I haven't seen him" which is perfectly acceptable.

But consider this "I've been in this realm for ((two months))" or "I have ((56700 experience)) to go until I gain an insight." The character, in essense, is saying "I've been in this realm for" or "I have to go until I gain an insight." The first one doesn't make sense at all. I don't think anyone would say "I've been alive for" and leave it at that. The second one, though it makes a complete sentence, completely loses what was intended to be meant. "Ye have t' go where exactly?" (I've never been in a pissy enough mood to actually say this :P).

So ways around it? Make the whole statement OOC if you have to...it's the easiest way. That or translate it so it can be all IC to the best of your ability.

Now that we have that out of the way, what's next? Ah, probably the most difficult issue: seperation. What do I mean by seperation? Well, keeping OOC comments out is all well and good, but what about OOC feelings? You as a player may feel strongly about an issue, but does your character as an Aisling feel strongly about it? Or would they be indifferent? The more you practice it, the more you'll be able to put yourself in the mindset of your character. For beginning roleplayers, I wouldn't recommend changing the personality at all. Refer to things in the world of course, but react how you would react to things normally, as if you were there. This technique is called 'displacement' (Well, called by me. I've no idea if there's an official name for it.)

But the inevitable comes, of course, and that's always the bad day. A lousy day at work, a rough day at school, your dog ripped the seat out of your favorite pair of pants, whatever. In that case, I would recommend a day off. The roleplaying world won't disappear because you failed to show up, but there just MIGHT be a lot of hurt or confused feelings later on if you can't control an outburst. A healthy vent would be good to have. If you do come on, (maybe, and I know this happens a lot, there's a really good confidant that plays that you really need to talk to) talk seldom. If you need to talk to a confidant, explain the situation first and that you'll probably be OOC while you vent. Any true friend would find that completely acceptable, but it is best to let them know first.

Like these little references? I hope so. I'll go over good general RP techniques next unless anyone has a specific question they want to ask me to cover how to translate into IC. And I'd like to hear comments on it too (I'm vain that way <grins)

-Dartanian Lestor in semi-OOC mode again.