Player Q&A

[strangelander]

After recent participation in several group plays, I find I need to ask some questions of the player base here, though dm/creator response is certainly appropriate.


* In the parties I've attended, the role of party leader seems to lack meaning. To me, the party leader role is a funnel through which party member intents and suggestions move and get translated into party direction, by the party leader. So far, I have seen chaos of party play ranging in self-destructive to sabotage-level actions... and the recklessness! O the recklessness...

Q: What is your view of the role of party leader?



* OOC actions and comments should clearly be kept away from IC responses and reactions. This can be a double-edged sword, however, in that an angry character does not necessarily reflect an angry player. 'This is just a game' seems like a very good mantra to practise, at this point.

Q: How do you handle getting riled OOC while playing?



* Another factor (that ought to be) key in character actions is the roleplaying of extreme attributes. Whether it's a super-genius planhatching or deeply foolish 'insight' into something, I understand that acting with such in mind can also be wasteful or even dangerous to party member(s).

Q: How do you roleplay your trickier stats (both high and low)?



Please feel free to expand on topics or present your own. Thanks

[Possibly Ten]

The official "crown" on the right of the screen means absolutely nothing to me when I am in a group. I look for IG actions to determine who is going to be the leader.

Like the group the other day that you, and myself were in, I honestly had no intention what so ever of becoming "party leader" in the slightest. I stepped up simply for the fact that at one point we were just standing there doing nothing. With that group in mind, I suppose there was a moment where something happened when we first entered the dungeon that pretty much ruined the rest of that quest. I honestly don't know what that was though. Feel free to pm me about it if you want.

The party leader to me is not defined by that crown on the party pictures, it is defined as to who actually rps that role out. Sometimes it's the person that has the highest charisma and rps it, sometimes it's the person with the most experience icly of said circumstance, sometimes it's just the person that can wrangle in everyone and get things moving.

If a group is unorganized and there seems to be no clear path of how to handle things, or the party is just rushing headlong into certain doom, then someone should step up.

Sometimes the party leader is so apparent that there is no need to for groups to worry about this.

I would say that a character's stats and background, development, etc, should be the deciding factor in who is the "party leader".

Like I said, that crown means nothing to me, but if others actually view that crown as the party leader to be listened to, I can roll with that.

In terms of getting riled up oocly, something rare to me these days but it does happen I suppose, generally I tend to still rp my character as I normally would. I do make sure to get out of the server if I know I am going to say something stupid or rash, and I take some time doing other things so I can calm down. We all have those moments IG that translate to ooc feelings, no matter how many people we have heard say they don't. Those moments happen, it's a fact due to the time we put into our characters and what not.

Edit: In the end, the role of the party leader, is to make sure that everyone works well off each other if possible, and make sure that the group survives, or functions as well as possible. Also guides the others into a plan of action, and best attack strategy.

[kalbaern]

I'll respond merely as a player here.

Q: What is your view of the role of party leader?
Define the role of "Leader".
- If by "Leader" you mean whoever in my party list wears the crown ... I ignore it.
- If my character possesses traits that would make him/her a decent leader then I usually will try and put them forward into that position.
- IC respect or a lack thereof between my characters and those others play is often what determines "who" is the leader to me.
- Sometimes I feel that many times a party simply lacks a leader. These are usually costly outings as well when things get confused and go to hell quickly during an encounter. Having no single leader and everyone doing their own thing is usually worse than following the most inept of leaders.
- Sometimes I get frustrated in a disjointed group OOCly. Usually because even though my PC may not be the best choice to lead ... folk have a tendency to defer to players that are also DMs/Admins/Builders. Saddly too many DMs on too many servers use their DM status to influence outcomes for their own characters and friends. Not here though. We'll succeed or respawn together based on our skills and luck. (Unless of course it's a semi OOC outing wherein as a group we are testing a new area and suffer a TPK due to my own misassessment of the areas challenge. In those cases I usually relog as a DM and restore everyone else. I also prefer to just watch as a DM when new areas are tested to simply avoid the situation.)

Q: How do you handle getting riled OOC while playing?
- That would depend on the exact circumstances. As a rule ... it's just a game in the end and I lose little sleep over anything that happens in it. It does often irk me though when folk in general can't let their OOC feelings about someone or a situation go and just play the game though.

Q: How do you roleplay your trickier stats (both high and low)?
I'm inherently lazy so I now make PCs with all stats between 12 and 14 to avoid the extra RP effort

[slothfulcat]

Q1: The party leader is only as important as the other Players in the party are willing to let that PC be. When I first started playing roleplay servers 5 years ago, I fell in with a few other players and the party leader was more or less "god", and we played together to the point we could walk in formations etc. Since then.. well, most players seem to get bored quickly with long detailed instructions or unwilling to play a role in a party except what they feel they should. For example on another server I play on... my str based PC was forced into playing archer because all the damn rogues were too busy getting in my way to let me swing so they could work their 2 daggers for 8pts of damage a pop. Overall though, I try to handle it based on my character... my paladin takes charge, tries to get people to work with her if that fails.. CHARGE and let them all be damned. My mage never takes charge, just mocks and chooses to be very difficult, and my rogue would just walk off it it got to be that much of an issue.

So over-all... I think having a party leader is important, but in my experiece players cant handle the level of attention to detail and multitasking it takes to follow one. Point in case, most PCs mine have griped at about not listening all say "I didnt hear you" gammerse for "I dont play with my chat box wide open and missed it". And I do mean the people behind the screen when I say players... ICly... I think every PC would be pretty concerned about preseving their own hides or long since dead... you dont go rock climbing then ignore the one that understands the difference between a cam and a anchor. Its all about push and pull with player-player or PC-PC interactions though.. the best party leader means nothing if they're in a group of people that close the chat box, dont emote and just do whatever strikes their fancy.

Q2 - I keep it bottled up inside until something makes it pop and I disappear for a while. I've only ever once gotten abusive IG with another player OOCly... and I do my very best to try to keep IC and OOC seperate ((to the point its hurt me in the past because of some people's over-senitivity)). I have actually lost sleep over this game, the same as I get pissed off when people I dont know insult me at work or when some jackass ruins my leisurely drive home to wind down from work by nearly killing me for no reason. I also know I have control of how much of things I put up with IG though, but on the flip if I log off because someone is making it unenjoyable for me... I'm giving them control over me for making me log off. So my preference is to ostracize people who regularly piss me off. If they cant play with me and be fun, they dont need to play with me but I dont need to not play to deny them my presence. Why? Because I enjoy playing! In the end though as I said.. when I'm really worked up for a steady enough period over enough days.. to where I cant log in without immediately being irritated... I just do something else. Play a different server, play a different game, play my instuments etc etc.

Like with Kalbraen, my exact response depends on the situation. And that player I ripped into OOCly still needs to let me know where he lives so I can beat his ass down, and I say this 4 years later.

Q3: I just do my best, charisma is the biggest pain in the ass end of all of them to play though because its so depending on other players respecting the stat of the PC and giving leeway when the player falls short. For example... not taking everything said in the worse possible way it could be taken, or by over-loading a slower typing player and such things. Its also the hardest because its a bit vague.. and while you can think of charismatic people.. its not always easy to pinpoint what makes them charismatic then relay that IG... also, if you try half the tiem you come off like a pompus jackass. *shrug* So yeah... I just do my best and hope.... usually padding my chances by exagerating when those trickier stats have lower numbers IE: my 10 wisdom PC wil lact alot more foolishly so the 18 wisdom PC seems that much wiser in comparison.

[shimmerxxx]

Q: What is your view of the role of party leader?

Some parties have a structure, some don't. The "crown" icon doesn't mean anything to me, I don't even notice it most of the time. Often the party leader is looked upon as the person whose idea it was to go to "Dungeon X".

Amongst clerics and mages it's sometimes the highest level PC, as OOC lvl translates directly into visible power or godly favour. It's natural for a bishop to lead a party of priests.

If needs be, and I am playing a suitable PC, I will attempt to take charge of a party to stop everyone dying horribly.


Q: How do you handle getting riled OOC while playing?

I play with players who aren't arsehats. That's why I'm here.


Q: How do you roleplay your trickier stats (both high and low)?

Gotta admit I do have trouble RPing my stats, I tend to let the character develop naturally rather than using the stats as a base.

My highest charisma character, Barri, is also the least likely to lead a party because he doesn't like adventuring very much. Whereas my lowest charisma character, Axl is most likely to lead a party as he's an 80 year old dwarf who has been fighting goblins for half his life and knows a thing or two about how to do it. I realise that the stats don't match the personalities sometimes but I guess I just do my best with the PCs.

I do try to not have my low int fighter type come up with the cunning plan, but it is annoying when the high int wizard type is standing around contemplating his navel and I can OOC see what to do.

[DavrosMandrake]

Q: What is your view of the role of party leader?

So that’s what the little crown icon means!!!!

Well I actually believe that a good party may see a change in its leadership as it progresses through an adventure. The big warrior type may take the fore when a big fight is called for. The mages will advise when something magey needs doing and the rogues will take to the fore when someone needs robbing blind.

As for RP’ing the leader then that really does depend on the character involved as far as I am concerned. I play very few characters that would want to step up and be in charge, most of mine are happy to be lead or to be in a position to advise the leader as needed.

However I can see the concerns where parties do not gel, normally because a non-good alignment is involved. Personally I find this slightly galling as (in my eyes) everyone seems to assume that because you are playing a non-good alignment that you have to be ‘anti’ part or just out for yourself. Now I have a couple of non-good characters but I play them that if they are involved in a party then for that time they have to rely on them to help protect them, after all adventuring is a tricky business.

Q: How do you handle getting riled OOC while playing?

I am too old and long the tooth to get overly riled. The first thing I do is point out to the person that has done this what they have done and why it has me riled. If a mature resolution cannot be obtained and I am likely to bite someone’s head off (I have a foul temper) then I will log off and cool down.

In either case I will discuss it with a friend online just to bounce off of them to make sure that I was in the right (I invariably am) and if the situation demands I will also bring the matter to the attention of DM team, with full logs/screen shots and evidence of the situation.

Q: How do you roleplay your trickier stats (both high and low)?

What is this role-playing I keep hearing about and what does it have to do with the stats…..

I try and play all my characters off of a personality rather than there stats and I tend not to design chars with extremes. Should I have a character with an excessive stat then I will RP it appropriately: e.g. Jani Darkeyes a rogue char or mine has a very good dex and her background gives her an excuse to be ‘bendy’ and lithe. This means that when she is sitting down she may curl her legs up underneath herself in an infeasible position without actually thinking about it.

As to if I RP my chars consistently to my stats then I could not possible know. One of the draw backs of playing a ‘stable’ of characters like I do is that occasionally consistency falls by the way side, especially when it comes to remembering who has adventured with who.

[strangelander]

heya just a quick nod and thanks to all folks who replied to this!

I shall cull the best of your insights for myself to ponder...

props to Slothfulcat for his (unintendedly hilarious?) honesty and certainly the closest that I can relate to.

Your responses reinforce this site and its base of players and dms.

[kalbaern]

Q: How do you roleplay your trickier stats (both high and low)?

This is likely the hardest for most.

- Low Dexterity is usually self evident when you constantly slip in streams here or rarely avoid a trap or dodge a fireball though.

- Low Strength and Constitution is usually represented in your character being abit frail.

- Low Intelligence is usually poorly portrayed IMO and players should try and remember that any PC with an INT of 9 or less is illiterate and those with 8 or less can barely communicate verbally.

- Low Wisdom is another tough one at times, especially when it comes to players making "choices" IG. Sometimes it's painful to make the "unwise" choices ... especially if adventuring alone.

- Charisma ... while looks are one attribute of this stat, they are not the sum of it. Most high/low stats I see RP'd as looks alone. Your PC can be of average "looks", but if they are a cussing rude stout they can have a negative modifier. Same would go with a high CHA in that looks alone isn't the proper representation. Any PC with a 10-12 CHA could be considered attractive ... Higher CHA scores should reflect that PC's "force of will" and is seldom well done IMO. On the subject of appearances ... Elves as a rule, even with a below average CHA would be considered exotic and/or beautiful to most other races here regardless unless maimed or horribly scarred. Them being stuffy, rude, xenophobic would be the true mark of a low CHA.

[slothfulcat]

Intended my response to be a little humorous, but honest too!

As for elves... meh on them.. just meh.

[nura]

Q: What is your view of the role of party leader?

Party leader to me is the poor schmuck that gets stuck with herding the cats, if in an RP situation he's usually the guy doing the talking to npcs or if its an old well oiled group handing off to the party face, party leaders usually thankless bit of extra work for somebody.

Q: How do you handle getting riled OOC while playing?
well if I feel myself getting riled I I usually try to go grab coffee if you die twice or three times in a row getting riled is obviously not a surprising occurrence but its likely to simply result in more disasters so I usually log if I'm getting that sort of day, if its at another PC well thats different I try to distance myself and make certain that I don't take anything thats happening personally keep it to this is a character thing not a player thing.

Q: How do you roleplay your trickier stats (both high and low)?
tough this once had a half ogre fighter witchdoctor who incidentally was elected party leader cause he was the one with the proficiencies in bureaucracy and diplomacy. Being half ogre he wasn't charismatic nor was he particularly wise or clever being a witchdoctor he wasn't that strong or healthy in short he was a weedy half ogre that just happened to be a bit smarter and wiser than the other ogres.
I played him with a dumb voice and a tribal background to indicate his awkwardness with the strange ways of these civilized people and because he was supposed to be a tribal councilor gave him the bureaucracy and diplomacy proficiencies as he would have polished these manipulating and guiding the other ogres. he was an interesting character to play especially in the leader and face roles in that he had to work hard to be accepted or even listened to and the party treated him as little more than a flunky and the party leader title as nothing but a way to shove the unexciting chores like registering with town guards and making sure we all had our passes and trading licenses stamped etc etc, so I rped his low charisma in halting and broken speech and compensated by making sure that he visited the guards made sure bribes were paid and that any guard with sick relatives received his personal attention and cures or needed a small magical spell potion or the like got it. In short while the rest of the party were off doing the investigating drinking etc he was smoothing the way and ingratiating himself with the local powers just in case the crap hit the fan.
course in NWN its pretty hard to do any of that through simple tells or typing and emotes.
I figure 9 or 10 strength you can consider yourself average strength not weakly just not strong a townie not a farmer.
9 or 10 Dex your not that deft maybe clumsy at times.
9 or 10 constitution your no long distance runner or ditch digger but normal day to day activities don't have you wheezing
9 or 10 int your smart enough to count tie your shoelaces eat do a bit of figuring in modern terms your functional maybe semi literate but smart enough to get by.
9 or 10 Wis well you wont be too street smart a bit naive and easily persuaded but once bitten twice shy you can become street smart the hard way
9 or 10 cha well this depends on race with racially impaired types like dwarves and half orcs 9 or 10 cha is a fairly handsome or pretty type with a bit of force in their personality just wont seem that way to non members of their race for the majority of races 9 or 10 is just the common herd just nothing that forceful about them easily ignored and probably fairly unremarkable to look at.
lower or higher scores well thats harder to play you can have a charming witty character with 16 cha thats crap as a party leader OK as a face the snarling dwarf with 6 cha and 12 int might be a smarter and more conscientious leader, just hard to determine how it pans out.
I try to play my stats and few my chars other than wizards have high intelligence, few have high cha unless they clerics or paladins and if they don't have high int then they aren't likely to be pushy or forceful. the way nwn pretty much forces the builds is towards very narrow specialization of the stats therefore you tend either to get very average stats or very extreme specialized stats a wizard is typically either 16 con 18 int or 16 Dex 18 int the rest of the stats averaged with cha being a dump stat like as not, that type of thing holds true with every class except monks and paladins who tend more to an average and lower stat selection.
What I'm saying is you can get a group where nobody except the wizards got more than 10 int nobody but the clerics got more than 10 Wis nobody but the rogues got more than 12 Dex nobody but the fighters got more than 10 Star nobody but the paladins got more than 14 cha etc etc so playing the stats as being unable to come up with plans or make foolish decisions because they aren't wise etc etc would be a bit unrealistic, you have to be a bit more plastic with things in nwn than in conventional pnp.

[Possibly Ten]

I just want to applaud and also say Holy CRAP! To Nura's response. Never knew you had it in you man!!

[DM Arsescratcher]

Our Nura is a surprising chap don't ya know.