Character types and combat versus non combat.
I think a lot of people tend to forget that not everyone fights. Many role play in different ways, different settings, and some stories involve absolutely no combat whatsoever. While worrying over losing a character due to some threat, such as an assassination, or kingdom war, you have to realise, that it is up to the typist, if they so chose to partake in the story. If a warrior trudges into a tavern for example, and decides to go on a murderous spree or start a bar fight, there are those that will hop in and fight to make for a great scene, and others that will flee into the night.
Question : Are players who have non-combat charas considered any less credible or less of a role player than those that take part in combat?
Quite simply, No. You can have a character that refuses to fight, since there is nothing wrong with playing characters that are not battle trained or knowledgeable in the arts of combat. Most characters that do fight, should learn to master their weapons abilities in character any ways. And this does take time to play out. Keeping a record in your bio history of events of mastering skills or acquiring spells, shows other readers that your character is properly developed in their story line. All to often, you come across those with a tonne of abilities, and weapons skills, and you sometimes blink and wonder where they came up with it all.
Why do some role players prefer to do combat roles?
Simply put when coming into the role playing scene, I found it challenging to learn how to do T-1 as it was an exciting new way for me to role play, and so I came up with my first spider character, which I thought at the time, unique to go to battle against. To me it was a game of chess, but I had to remember, to keep in the confines of her abilities and weapons she used, not straying out and learning that you can’t win all the time. Not everyone wants to fight, and I guess the big question you have to ask is, Why?
I read over and over of how some folk spend a great deal to set up their role play, their character avatar, their name token to match the one character that they play, and how hurt they would be if they lost that character. Now, you can draw conclusions as to why there is such an attatchment to a single character. Some use the character as a self expression virtual version of themselves in a fantasy setting, however not everyone does this. If money is the reason for upset about name changes, a good way to ensure that you only have to ever buy the one name, is to get a name that means nothing in particular, and then on your tagline, write the name of the character you are playing. You can even use your interest panel for this as well, and so if you do lose a character, you are not having to go and buy a token, thus saving your pocket. Also, under a no name handle you can play as many character as you wish, thus opening up a whole new world of stories and adventures. I personally have over twenty characters under this account name, and as crazy as that sound, many I know are considered “multi character” accounts.
Yesterday I heard that there is still some rumour that when your chara dies, you have to unfriend everyone and leave all groups your in cause your character died?
“DAFUQ?!” Just…no. No no no. You’re not dead, the character is. All you need to do is write up a new chara sheet, change your look and off you go, new chara. Sure, this new one may not know the other characters your former character did, but that doesn’t mean you the typist have to unfriend all on your friends list. Pulse is a great way to announce a character change, and thus keeping people up to date. Then just do your new intro into the old rp setting and off you go. <3
