Breaking Bad

[Gavin]

Ah, but why should I go for the unpleasant feels of really going out of my way to create conflict, paired with the high possibility of losing the character, which to me is inevitably pretty devastating emotionally on top of representing all this lost effort/time?

Just pursuing conflict when it comes gives me character development still, and very dramatic and enjoyable character development, with a much much lower chance of death.

I don't know. Just today I created some conflict by adhering close to thematic goals. It was terribly unfun, and reminded me of everything I hate about playing a noble, which is basically everything. The conflict you create by being a thematic noble (insisting on proper address and respect in public as the BARE MINIMUM) forces you to be the bad guy and it feels terrible.

I'm a little down because of that, but right now my mindset is 'Who in their right mind would choose to do this all the time? How do we end up with any villains at all?'

As a note, I'll piggyback off what Dice said and add this comment: I remember on old TI-- long, long ago-- the court system was fully developed; there were PC dukes and duchesses and entire retinues. Or at least, that's how I remember. The reason this is important is because we had several noble and ranking PCs who are absolute jerks to the rabble; however, critically, they still had a ton of other people to RP with, including entire retinues, servants, and so forth.

If most of your RP time consists of, for lack of better words, killing others' RP by insisting that everyone bow to you, scenes sometimes feel like a junior high school dance, with girls on one side and boys on the other - it's just awkward all around, and people start itching to leave. Now, this is thematic too: barons don't interact with regular folks, much. If they were able to engage in politicking or have a stable of peers or near-peers with whom to play, they might have more incentives to be strictly thematic. No one wants to drive away one's only source of RP, after all.

tldr: It's hard playing a noble when (sometimes) your only option for RP are random folks, and if your only option is to strut around and make people bow at you, that gets old and you just want to log off instead.

[Onyxsoulle]

Personally, I have no problem with making a bad guy over and over and over again, but that's me. This particular mindset used to drive GM's on various tabletop games mad, because i'd get to a point on a character, he'd do something, and die, they'd ask if I would want to have them resurrected/saved/rebuilt, and i'd look up from the new character I was already rolling up and shake my head. But some are saying there aren't enough bad guys in the game, and I say B*******(i mean this in a friendly way btw). I have run into several characters that have done some VERY bad things and no they weren't always mages/thieves. I played the game again for months thinking it was pretty cool and normal, THEN I found the truth behind that quit quote about the dark facade of Lithmore. The bad guys are out there, they do things, the ones that are good at it, they just don't reveal much, which in itself reveals a ton. I've had 4 characters since re-joining the game, the first being a good character, devout, struggling, BORING(imo), something happened, he died, I rolled my first baddie, he died, i rolled my second baddie, he turned out to be good at the end, but he died. XP wise, yeah it sucks if you make a character that you love and they die, my current character IS going to die, all of my characters WILL die, I understand/expect this, and I'm okay with it. Yes, sometimes it sucks because you lose all of that xp, but hey when you make a baddie, you know it's going to happen. Hell, when you make a NORMAL person it's going to happen, you may be having dinner with a noble and suddenly you decide to grow a blade to a sword out of your chest and did nothing that you know of to deserve it. I, personally, have lured people to their doom, set people up, leaked info to have some people taken in for a crime. Baddies are fun, sometimes at a loss of xp, I know if I lose my ...sorry WHEN I lose my current character, I'm going to be sad, they are awesome, I've loved the way other players have helped shape them, BUT I knew when I was thinking him up, he was going to die, maybe soon, maybe later, but I knew he was going to die. Don't let xp costs turn you away from making a fun character, sometimes it may surprise you how long they live(my current character, I thought he was going to die very soon after creation). YES, it sucks to lose that xp, but it's just xp, you gain it back, not like there's a cap on xp gain, just have fun.


Yeah, I may have drifted from where this originally started, but I'll stand by it.

[Annalesa]

But some are saying there aren't enough bad guys in the game, and I say B*******(i mean this in a friendly way btw). I have run into several characters that have done some VERY bad things and no they weren't always mages/thieves. I played the game again for months thinking it was pretty cool and normal, THEN I found the truth behind that quit quote about the dark facade of Lithmore. The bad guys are out there, they do things, the ones that are good at it, they just don't reveal much, which in itself reveals a ton.

That's the entire original point of this thread. I'm glad that somebody else sees this as the reality of the situation.

[Applesauce]

Baddies are fun, sometimes at a loss of xp, I know if I lose my ...sorry WHEN I lose my current character, I'm going to be sad, they are awesome, I've loved the way other players have helped shape them, BUT I knew when I was thinking him up, he was going to die, maybe soon, maybe later, but I knew he was going to die. Don't let xp costs turn you away from making a fun character, sometimes it may surprise you how long they live(my current character, I thought he was going to die very soon after creation). YES, it sucks to lose that xp, but it's just xp, you gain it back, not like there's a cap on xp gain, just have fun.

Agreed. I think it's just a matter of different people playing for different reasons. The above is pretty much how I feel. I don't think I'm "winning" if my character's death means I get a certain percent of XP back, or weigh my characters based on their XP value. Over the past few months I've dumped more XP into a "goodie" character than a "baddie" character, and the baddie is much more fun.

To some, fun is measured in literal experiences. To others, it's measured in experience points. Neither side is wrong, people play games for different reasons and if both sides can get what they want, then the game itself is successful.

It's been suggested that all we need for more baddies is more players, and if it truly is a matter of player goals then I agree, more players means that some of those players will want to play baddies even if it means not getting a bunch of XP back when they die.

[Kinaed]

On that note, I recently heard my baddie alt is on the chopping block, and I can't wait to log in and see how it plays out. Darn my irl working life that prevents me from constant RP. It occurs to me that my fascination with RPing what can conservatively be called an asshole is the adrenaline rush. I still can't believe the crap I've gotten away with without getting ganked...