How did you 'improve' as a roleplayer?

[Varyegar]

Roleplaying is one of those crafts you can get better at in so many different ways. For me, it may be watching how my fellow roleplayers do it, and see if any of those things are something I want to carry over to my own roleplay style.

 

On 7/16/2021 at 6:27 AM, Свето said:

Not getting attached to characters.

 

I want to add onto this, because while you should be open to let other players or actions effect your character, you should care about them to such an extent that they develop naturally, and so that they are fleshed out. It is okay to get sad if you character dies, but the good roleplayer will have hopefully created a great scene which all present parties get to enjoy.

[bbyK]

By not driving like a mong on gta:o, by not committing crime after crime after crime, by not living my alt... the list is long a big and there's things I've yet to improve upon

[Chuckles]

On 7/16/2021 at 2:54 AM, books said:

 

 

i feel like reading helps my ability to write, but it doesn't help my ability to actually roleplay (i dont get 10 minutes to think over the next sentence, it needs to be near immediate) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My takeaway from this is and always has been the same. The more you overthink, the more it complicates a situation. If you overanalyse every little detail of your roleplay, chances are you'll erase more than you write. Dissection is what troubles a lot of roleplayers, they'll have a scene than think in hindsight "I should have done this, said that." But the truth is and while many might digress, the less you care about how you are perceived by others, or what other people think of your roleplay, then the more you will actually enjoy roleplay. You learn through trial and error, the biggest pointer I can give to anyone wanting to improve is to join a faction where people aren't generic, robotic or phlegmatic. Improvisation or "improv" is probably a roleplayer's most valuable asset. Create monologues using other roleplayer's actions or comments as a foundation. Your ability to improv and tell a story will benefit you and those around you greatly. 

Roleplay around good roleplayers. Don't overthink and don't worry about perception too much, especially your public image. What makes improv so valuable in acting is that it's on the spot acting and it's where some of the greatest scenes in history came from. Simplicity over complexity and show over tell.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Chuckles

[MeowTheEpic]

7 minutes ago, Chuckles said:

 

My takeaway from this is and always has been the same. The more you overthink, the more it complicates a situation. If you overanalyse every little detail of your roleplay, chances are you'll erase more than you write. Dissection is what troubles a lot of roleplayers, they'll have a scene than think in hindsight "I should have done this, said that." But the truth is and while many might digress, the less you care about how you are perceived by others, or what other people think of your roleplay, then the more you will actually enjoy roleplay. You learn through trial and error, the biggest pointer I can give to anyone wanting to improve is to join a faction where people aren't generic, robotic or phlegmatic. Improvisation or "improv" is probably a roleplayer's most valuable asset. Create monologues using other roleplayer's actions or comments as a foundation. Your ability to improv and tell a story will benefit you and those around you greatly. 

Roleplay around good roleplayers. Don't overthink and don't worry about perception too much, especially your public image. What makes improv so valuable in acting is that it's on the spot acting and it's where some of the greatest scenes in history came from. Simplicity over complexity and show over tell.

 

 

I agree about overthinking, sometimes I overthink the living crap out of what I'm currently roleplaying that I might just freeze or get turned off and simply not want to RP that anymore, the more you rp/live in the moment and just improvise on the go the better, it feels more natural and fun rather than try to play 4D chess in your brain all the time, the more we try to complicate the less fun roleplay becomes. Thinking about how others will perceive you or your actions, your public image and all that will just halt any meaningful development and will keep things tedious rather than smooth and fun.

[Gallagher]

i didnt. i got progressively worse.

[Anubis]

i guess, more connection to the character? roleplay things you know how to do irl, or learnt how to? 

For example, I will not roleplay an autopsy as Medical Examiner for the Coroners faction as I just learnt the general idea from youtube and wikipedia, but I can easily roleplay being drunk as hell and security guard related stuff, and whoola - both of my characters is either drunk drug user and the other is a security guard for ULSA, I just finished a three hour roleplay of being drunk.

 

Keep a story for your character, understand why will he act like it, for example, my female character will hate it when people asks for her name or stuff like that after being arrested, she used drugs once with some friends and became addict.

 

basically creative mind is the key

[hipsxn]

Don't get attached to characters. I've never been one to be overly attached to the characters I create, don't get me wrong there's a bundle of characters that I miss and will continue to miss but that's simply due to the amazing experiences I had on each single character. Another thing that I agree with what is being said, is the amount of overthinking that happens during roleplay. The joy of roleplay comes from the endless possibilities for your character to end up progressing towards and when players begin to overthink their roleplay, it tends to make scenarios complicated for them, the more fluid your roleplay is then the more fun you will have.

 

A lot of the time, I see players struggling with the concept of losing and cannot seem to break that ideology but once that ideology is broken and players begin to accept losing, I've seen players enjoy their roleplay and characters ten times more than how they was before. It's okay to lose, we can't win everything and that's completely okay. It adds further development for your character and opens up new doors for you to step through as a player. Your character is never the protagonist but they are apart of the jigsaw puzzle of the server.

 

At the end of the day, we are playing a video game and we should have fun when we log in and play. Stop getting attached to characters, start accepting the concept of losing and begin to be more fluid with your roleplay. You will gain a lot more enjoyment out of playing your characters and allow people to enjoy interacting with you. 

 

If you don't understand a concept that you're interested in, research. Even the tiniest amount of research will help you massively in improving yourself as a player and the concept of your character.

[books]

53 minutes ago, Chuckles said:

 

My takeaway from this is and always has been the same. The more you overthink, the more it complicates a situation. If you overanalyse every little detail of your roleplay, chances are you'll erase more than you write. Dissection is what troubles a lot of roleplayers, they'll have a scene than think in hindsight "I should have done this, said that." But the truth is and while many might digress, the less you care about how you are perceived by others, or what other people think of your roleplay, then the more you will actually enjoy roleplay. You learn through trial and error, the biggest pointer I can give to anyone wanting to improve is to join a faction where people aren't generic, robotic or phlegmatic. Improvisation or "improv" is probably a roleplayer's most valuable asset. Create monologues using other roleplayer's actions or comments...

 

there's been a lot of good feedback in this thread but it seems you really understand what I was getting at and you even correctly guessed the problem I had (and still do have, where I write a sentence and erase it five times) 

 

it is absolutely helpful to have a really good grasp of your character's personality and story. that comes with the ability to write well.

 

but the ability to come up with fluid; engaging dialogue on the fly is an entirely different skillset and it is basically just improvised acting over text, which requires a vastly different mindset as you have said

Edited September 15, 2021 by books

[Gallagher]

the main issue i spot with character development is that individuals go into a character with a few specific things that they want to emphasize or show off to the server. theyre then unable of allowing other players to fill in the gaps. a skill you can hone is recognizing that leaving things UNSAID or UNMENTIONED in your roleplay will do a lot more for you. allow players to connect the dots as when you meet somebody irl there isnt a detailed list of their every personality trait or chronology - which is often the case on rp servers.

 

NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER do a /me about something the other players can not see just by looking at you right now. i understand you want to describe your characters abusive childhood, but the way to do that isnt by cramming it into a /me. a /me THINKS should be bannable.

 

the best characters from literature, tv, movies are characters you can never completely understand. if i am able to understand your characters every emotion, motive, history and goal, just from roleplaying with you briefly, then there is a problem. real people have objectives and feelings which they never reveal which you are able to infer by analsying their actions. you are capable of doing that with your roleplay characters, too, if you approach it correctly. 

[Chuckles]

2 minutes ago, books said:

 

there's been a lot of good feedback in this thread but it seems you really understand what I was getting at and you even correctly guessed the problem I had (and still do have, where I write a sentence and erase it five times) 

 

it is absolutely helpful to have a really good grasp of your character's personality and story. that comes with the ability to write well.

 

but the ability to come up with fluid; engaging dialogue on the fly is an entirely different skillset and it is basically just improvised acting over text, which requires an entirely different mindset as you have said

 

My suggestion in regards to engagement and fluidity would be as opposed to reading and writing, watch programs, documentaries and realistic films where you can study actual idiosyncrasies. Every actor, character or otherwise will have specific habits, movements and patterns. It's more about being observant that it is being attentive. It's the little things that provide the most and the smallest of details like hand movement, facial expressions, delivery of speech will make your roleplaying arsenal that much more varietal. The term "less is more" should be a common practice. I find there is a lot more detail in engagement than there is in length. Articulacy is a small part of roleplaying, like Gallagher said, literacy and comprehension goes a long way. If a baby's being fed, if the food's shit they'll spit it out. If it's good, they'll swallow it and ask for more. Digest good roleplay, not bad roleplay.