2010-02-07 08:15![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewatchmaker
thewatchmakerI have been RPing for a long time, a very long time. I started RPing with paper and dice before the WEB with REAL people. I was RPing before bulletin boards, PBEM, MMOs and LARPing. I've been writing stories for my characters - all original in Real RP btw - for longer than some of my friends have been able to read. Probably before some of them were born.
The reason I RP is I like getting under the skin of a character, exploring their strengths, weaknesses and everything else that makes them a person. It’s never been about their powers or skills for me. I will often RP a character that I’m going to use in one of my novels, or I will end up writing a novel using an RP character as the star.
On line RP is different. It’s easier to play make believe using characters other people have created. It’s just like being a kid and running around the neighborhood playing Star Trek, which I did when I was a kid. Boy did I play a lot of Star Trek. Getting together with a group of other kids to make believe was LARP (Live Action Role Play) at it’s birth.
RPing a canon character from a TV show or book still allows you to explore the character. That’s why I always go for the more fucked up characters to RP – Sylar, Malcolm Reynolds, Faith, Sawyer, Wesley Whyndam-Price and Krycek. Yeah I like to play with the broken people. I like to play the villains too, because being evil is fun. Also to tell a good cooperative story, someone has to be the bad guy. It’s not all puppies and unicorns in life and since RP is life taken 3 steps further into an alternate reality full of soap opera drama, you need a villain or 6.
I freely admit to being an RP snob, and one thing that pisses me off is being told how, when, why or who my character should be interacting with. In the past couple of months I’ve been asked to stop playing a character I like because it was upsetting another player. Not because I was RPing the character badly, but because I was infringing on another player’s ‘Verse. So I dropped the character. It was no big deal. He wasn’t a primary pup for me anyway.
But then I started having it dictated to me who Sylar could RP with. He was not to snark, punk or be rude to Parkman, Nathan Petrelli or any of the numerous Smurflars, Smutlars and just flat out SUCK ASS Sylars. I was told it was being mean, and I’d be hurting the player’s feelings.
Excuse me, but I’m RPing Sylar. HE IS A VILLAIN. HE HURTS PEOPLE. HE IS A SNARKY BASTARD. That’s playing him right. That’s RPing Sylar. I will not be forced into RPing him like the people he mocks.
I’ve been told I RP him too mean, too evil, too snarky…. Good. That means I’m doing it right. You’re not supposed to like him.
Sure in some ‘Verses he’s mellowing and heading towards redemption like he is on the show. You don’t RP a character for years without there being growth and development. That’s natural for a character just like it is for a human being. But primarily unless I’m involved in a long-standing RP, you’re going to get asshole Sylar.
I’ve also been told I RP Peter too smart. Once again that pissed me off, because I happen to like how I RP Peter. He’s not Sylar smart, because his heart comes first, but he’s not stupid. He’s a Petrelli. He had to survive being Nathan’s little brother in a house full of wolves.
No, Peter is not stupid. He is sweet, and he will die for a stranger. Which Sylar thinks is stupid, by the way, but it’s in character for Peter. Trust me; it is a bitch for me to RP the good guy.
What this boils down to with me is – don’t nag at me, don’t bitch at me, don’t try to force me into a little box with glitter and bows on it. I will claw my way out. My characters and I will not spend twelve years behind a wall of pretty wrapping paper because you like hearts and flowers. They’d much rather spend those twelve years wrapped in barbed wire being dangled over a tank full of sharks who are in a feeding frenzy from the blood that’s slowly dripping into the water.
When I was a kid I played Star Trek.
I did not have tea parties.
I’d rather watch a movie with explosions, death and blood, than a chick flick.
The reason I RP is I like getting under the skin of a character, exploring their strengths, weaknesses and everything else that makes them a person. It’s never been about their powers or skills for me. I will often RP a character that I’m going to use in one of my novels, or I will end up writing a novel using an RP character as the star.
On line RP is different. It’s easier to play make believe using characters other people have created. It’s just like being a kid and running around the neighborhood playing Star Trek, which I did when I was a kid. Boy did I play a lot of Star Trek. Getting together with a group of other kids to make believe was LARP (Live Action Role Play) at it’s birth.
RPing a canon character from a TV show or book still allows you to explore the character. That’s why I always go for the more fucked up characters to RP – Sylar, Malcolm Reynolds, Faith, Sawyer, Wesley Whyndam-Price and Krycek. Yeah I like to play with the broken people. I like to play the villains too, because being evil is fun. Also to tell a good cooperative story, someone has to be the bad guy. It’s not all puppies and unicorns in life and since RP is life taken 3 steps further into an alternate reality full of soap opera drama, you need a villain or 6.
I freely admit to being an RP snob, and one thing that pisses me off is being told how, when, why or who my character should be interacting with. In the past couple of months I’ve been asked to stop playing a character I like because it was upsetting another player. Not because I was RPing the character badly, but because I was infringing on another player’s ‘Verse. So I dropped the character. It was no big deal. He wasn’t a primary pup for me anyway.
But then I started having it dictated to me who Sylar could RP with. He was not to snark, punk or be rude to Parkman, Nathan Petrelli or any of the numerous Smurflars, Smutlars and just flat out SUCK ASS Sylars. I was told it was being mean, and I’d be hurting the player’s feelings.
Excuse me, but I’m RPing Sylar. HE IS A VILLAIN. HE HURTS PEOPLE. HE IS A SNARKY BASTARD. That’s playing him right. That’s RPing Sylar. I will not be forced into RPing him like the people he mocks.
I’ve been told I RP him too mean, too evil, too snarky…. Good. That means I’m doing it right. You’re not supposed to like him.
Sure in some ‘Verses he’s mellowing and heading towards redemption like he is on the show. You don’t RP a character for years without there being growth and development. That’s natural for a character just like it is for a human being. But primarily unless I’m involved in a long-standing RP, you’re going to get asshole Sylar.
I’ve also been told I RP Peter too smart. Once again that pissed me off, because I happen to like how I RP Peter. He’s not Sylar smart, because his heart comes first, but he’s not stupid. He’s a Petrelli. He had to survive being Nathan’s little brother in a house full of wolves.
No, Peter is not stupid. He is sweet, and he will die for a stranger. Which Sylar thinks is stupid, by the way, but it’s in character for Peter. Trust me; it is a bitch for me to RP the good guy.
What this boils down to with me is – don’t nag at me, don’t bitch at me, don’t try to force me into a little box with glitter and bows on it. I will claw my way out. My characters and I will not spend twelve years behind a wall of pretty wrapping paper because you like hearts and flowers. They’d much rather spend those twelve years wrapped in barbed wire being dangled over a tank full of sharks who are in a feeding frenzy from the blood that’s slowly dripping into the water.
When I was a kid I played Star Trek.
I did not have tea parties.
I’d rather watch a movie with explosions, death and blood, than a chick flick.
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