((The RP XP with MJ #22))

Ord Mantell was generally no place for a crazy Twi’lek girl, especially with all the territorial squabbling between the Republic and the unpredictably superior separatists, but that’s where Yulel ended up.

She waved to the Gand pilot and ducked out from under the hot vents of his ship’s repulsors just as the small vessel lifted off and banked up into the clouds.

“Hey! Idiot! You almost took my head off!” She called up to the receding dot of a ship as it vanished. She pulled the straps of her pack so that it rested snugly against her shoulder blades and muttered, “I know you were in a hurry to leave, but that’s no reason to–”

The blaster bolt whizzed by Yulel’s head and stung her tchun as she twisted and dove behind a large rock nestled in an overgrowth of brush. Bolts continued to thump into the ground around her, crack at her stone cover and blaze through the air as she rolled off her back and scrambled to dig the blaster out of her pack.

A surly voice called out, “She’s over this way!” just before another barrage of fire chopped the heavy brush of foliage around her hiding place. 

The shooting stopped just as she readied her blaster. Yulel lay on her back with the weapon pointed at the sky between her knees. She didn’t want to risk getting up or even moving for fear she’d become an instant target again. Instead, she waited for them to come to her.

Through gritted teeth she promised, “Just try it seppy scum… Just try it.”

_____

It feels like that sometimes, doesn’t it? You and some friends get together for a little RolePlay laced with GamePlay and you have a mob spawn right on top of you during one of your big soliloquies.

There are generally three main types of group RP: The Staged Play, The Dramatic Improv and The Productive RP.

The Staged Play is a predetermined scenario you invent between friends where certain outcomes need to be established before the RP begins. “I want to encounter your character on Planet X and have a duel with you, but the loser should get away with their life,” is a simple example of how a Staged Play RP might start. While your dialog and emotes during the duel will be ad lib, the end result of a draw is predetermined. The purpose of this particular kind of RP may simply be to entertain onlookers or to fulfill an action sequence that had been building in your group’s Forum RP, or even to settle a bet.

The only predeterminer of The Dramatic Improv is the location, and that location must be secure and PvP-free. The back corner of a cantina, a dark alley or — better yet — you or your RP partner’s ship interior. There’s no fighting, no necessity for predetermined anything. It’s just a Jedi instructing his Padawan, or a Bounty Hunter trading gear with her partner, or a small group of troopers shooting the bull about their last operation, or a Sith Warrior turning up the charm in an effort to capture the heart of a lovely Imperial Agent. Everything is natural, improvised and typically closed. Like real life conversations, anything can happen. An argument can break out, a deal can be struck, a date can be made.

This article is about the third form of group RP: The Productive RP. I call it “productive” because it’s essentially “playing the game” with some RolePlay and characterization thrown in and pretty much the only way you can actually gain XP while RPing.

BioWare has done such an awesome job with that “Fourth Pillar” thing of theirs that it would be a shame to ignore it and keep all the RP to yourselves. Why not get a group together and RP your way through some Heroic areas or share some class quests? Why not? Because it can be a pain in the lekku, that’s why. The question is: Is there a way to make it less painful?

I get together with my guildmates every Sunday evening and we take a foursome to do just that. We RP introductions between our characters and roll out stories for the trooper, Jedi, Consular and smuggler. It’s been interesting so far. The Jedi is something of a bigoted alien amongst her human companions and has trouble understanding the simple concept of humor. The smuggler, on the other hand, is a brash profiteer who cracks jokes and makes snide comments as the mood strikes him. The chemistry between them is ripe for lighthearted tension or conflict. Meanwhile, the trooper is the strong silent type often distracted by Twi’lek holodancers, though he’s usually all business and pro-Republic no matter the cost. And the Jedi Consular is a young and inexperienced Padawan under the protection of the humorless Jedi.

Sounds like an interesting group, doesn’t it? Lots of possibility for interaction and unique side stories to unfurl on their journey every week. Will the Jedi slip toward the Dark Side? Will sexual tension build between the smuggler and Jedi? Will the trooper break his stoney silence and come to the aide of the young female Consular who is often shaken by the uncharacteristic actions of the Jedi Sentinel assigned to protect her? Will there be jealousy? Corruption? Or will this band of misfits come together with a singular purpose to thwart evil in the galaxy?

Yeah, that’s all blue milk and cookies, but how can you clearly keep all that together when Imperials, Justicars or rakghouls are spawning all around you?

Here are some tips that will get you through the daily grind without it grinding on your RP quality. Understandably, everyone wants to gain XP (Yes, even us RPers), so my tips aren’t made to help you avoid gaining XP or loot. Consider these tips for avoiding world conflict or PVE distractions while you RP. You can always “switch to OOC” and chop through mobs just to get the loot and XP if you want to.

These tips are more for the hard core RolePlayer who likes to enforce realism in their world (it’s not likely a mob you just killed would spontaneously resurrect, in other words).

1. Stick to the middle of the road.

As you move through an area on your class quests you’ll notice that enemy mobs pretty much loiter in clusters off the beaten path. In some cases, you actually have to seek them out to get XP off them. You can avoid them by moving straight down the middle of the street or path. If your RP group is trying to backtrack through an area and don’t want to be bothered with re-fighting your way through, watch for telltale “secret paths” and seams. The docks on Coruscant, for example, are usually loaded with equipment. Did you know you could hug the rail and sneak around behind the crates to get to the mob boss without fighting through the mob?

2. Watch for smoke and bodies.

You may come across an open area with no mobs and think it would be a good time to stop and launch into some RP. Not so fast. If someone had already blazed through, they could have wiped the slate clean, in which case you’ll soon find yourself standing on a re-spawn point for enemies. If it’s a big boss, it could be several long minutes before the respawn, but — boom! — you’re in the middle of discussing the smuggler’s inability to read a map when a 40-ton rogue droid suddenly appears where your trooper is standing. Kind of immersion breaking, ain’t it? Just keep your eyes open. Watch for NPC bodies or heaps of broken smoking war droids or turret debris. Sometimes — especially in the case of bosses — the bodies will disappear several long seconds before the enemy respawns. Sometimes enemies respawn over their old corpses. You just have to keep your eyes open for the signs. And be suspicious of areas that make you think, “This would be a good place for an enemy encounter,” because it probably is.

3. Look for RP “safe areas.”

Get used to taking mental note of where enemies don’t typically appear. The thin gaps between crates and railings on Coruscant, like I mentioned in No. 1, are mob-safe and even break line-of-site. The mid-point of any ramp or incline is also typically enemy-free. Study your main map and look for small junctions or corridors that link two or more giant quest areas. These junctions hold neutral NPCs or even medical supply droids and are the best bet for “take a break to RP” moments.

4. Target everything… just to make sure.

The most perfect example of this sneaky trick by BioWare can be found in Justicar territory on Coruscant. If you left-click an enemy you typically get a red reticule and I.D. that lets you know they’re a bad guy and will shoot you if you get too close. However, there are a lot of NPCs occupying the same area who highlight as yellow or neutral. They won’t bother you unless you attack them first. The sneakiness comes into play when these NPCs dress or act a lot like the enemy mobs in the same area. They generally occupy areas that “bleed over” into the street and cause you to swing wide as you pass through. This invariably “pushes” you into a legitimate encounter. Had you stuck to the middle of the road, you would have gone by these “Informants,” “Loaders,” or “Militia Conscripts” without incident. (NOTE: This tip is useful if you’re playing with Nameplates turned OFF. If you’re a solid RPer I’m assuming that’s the case for you. Floaty names are so immersion-breaking )

5. Establish a plan of attack in OOC and designate a party leader.

If you don’t have a party leader, everyone will scatter at the first run-in with an enemy mob. Your healer will lose line-of-site or get separated, or your ranged DPS will get trounced when he wanders into a boss zone. Plan out your positions, roles and leadership Out Of Character before moving into an area and you’ll eliminate a lot of these problems. Remember: RPer though you may be, if you plan to do some Productive RP, you’ll have to wear your gamer shoes.

My group is still hammering out the kinks, but we’re starting to find our stride. Flashpoints are much easier to manage with Productive RP because they’re relatively linear and broken into “acts” like a play. Open world stuff can be a little more challenging. I hope these tips help you in your next Productive RP group session. Write to me and let me know how it goes!

Now log in and start writing that next adventure.

MJ’s column ((The RP XP with MJ)) publishes right here on swtor-life.com every Friday. You can follow him on Twitter (@MJswtor) or contact him directly at swtorliferp(at)gmail.com. He strives to answer every email and, if you have a good idea, suggestion or hot tip, he’ll add it to the column.

Tags: Roleplay, roleplaying, RP, RP XP with MJ

((The RP XP with MJ #21))

Aaaahh! What happened to my RP XP? Where’s the witty picture? Where’s the ongoing fiction about the smuggler who stole the rock? They’ll be back, my friends. But this week I thought I’d address an aspect of the game few RPers even consider.

This edition of the RP XP is all about in-game preferences for RolePlayers. Early last month, swtor-life’s own Mr. Warlock gave some great advice for preference settings to make your life easier in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The first of his two-part series can be found here. While those prefs were awesome suggestions for gaming, they don’t necessarily meet the oddball needs of those of us who fly the crazy RPer’s banner.

Keep in mind that these are my own choices. Yours may be different. I just thought I’d share what I found and maybe give you some ideas for tweaking your own SWTOR setup….

CONTROLS

All your settings under Controls should be centered around whatever will make the game easier for you. Naturally, you can set up the preferences to suit your own play style, or other MMOs you’ve grown used to, but I’ve found that the settings I use help me level quickly, to get to the point where I’m comfortable enough to RP freely. For some that’s right out of the box, for others it’s not until they’ve maxed out or hit Legacy. For me it’s once I’m mobile and my characters have their ships. However you level, these settings may give you some ideas on how to get through the grind. These are my preferences:

Enable Area Loot — I like this one because I’d rather not jog from corpse to corpse picking up junk. With this selected, all loot from a mob is gathered in one place, including mission pick-ups and special gear. It’s your one-stop-shop for looting.
Auto-loot on Right-click — OFF. I originally had this on because I thought it would be even easier when combined with Enable Area Loot — and it is — until you see how quickly your inventory fills with junk. Sometimes you don’t want to bother with having your companion sell off your useless items. Sometimes you just want to pick up the credits and commendations and leave the useless battery pack behind.
Deselect Target upon Clicking Terrain — From an RP standpoint, you might not want to have your character staring at potential targets or other characters as you walk past them. Clicking on the terrain de-selects them. For example, if you leave a quest-giver and go into RP with a friend, unless you actively click that friend, you’ll be staring at the quest giver while you’re RPing. I use the Click to Terrain to add an easy emote to my RP. Here’s how it works: Don’t face the character you’re talking to directly. Face about 45 degrees to their right or left. When you click on them, you’re looking at them. Your character physically turns their head to face them. When you click away (anywhere on the terrain), you slightly turn your head as if distracted or considering their thoughts. It’s subtle, but if used effectively can bring added life to your character without “/emoting.”
Auto Target Closest Enemy — This simply saves on clicking, and in most cases, works logically and extremely well. Kudos to BioWare for knowing which target I’d hit next if I’d done it manually. What if you want to vary your tactics and hit the “Sawbones” or “Technician” in the background so he can’t buff up his buddies? No problem. You can still manually click (or tab) to override the auto-target.

FLYTEXT

I didn’t show the screen on the FlyText panel because it’s this easy: ALL OFF. Why? Because the little floaty numbers that show damage may be helpful when you’re micromanaging your heals, but to an RPer it takes you out of the combat and plops you into a video game. Preferences for RolePlayers should be all about immersion and what’s going to pull you into the Star Wars experience. Now if you’re more comfortable with some FlyTexts on, please do so. This is all about what works best for you.

CHAT

Chat Panel Fade — I prefer to have all my panels fade when they’re not live. Chat is no different. Even though it’s the mainstay of RP, a wall of text in the corner can really screw up a beautiful vista. If and where possible, I set my panels to go completely translucent when not in use and pop up to 100 percent opacity when they are. That’s just me. As for the map opacity while moving, the default works fine for me. Oh, and speaking of the map, did you know that if you activate the magnifying glass in the lower left corner of the map panel the magnified area will show you everything from the map key (even areas you don’t have selected). It’s a great way to scout out a populated area or road to see if there’s a medical droid stationed nearby without having to click through the categories on the map key.
Filter Profanity — I turned this off not because swearing doesn’t bother me. I turned it off because in-game profanity filters can make funny choices sometimes when it comes to what is and is not profanity. I’ve seen cases (not in SWTOR) where contractions like “can’t” will throw out a “&#$^%” instead. If you’re not bothered by the odd swear here or there, I suggest turning the filter off. Otherwise, you’ll never hear Darth T’anus introduce himself.
General Chat — OFF. Why? Because who wants their RP chat mixed in with general chatter about “How duz I gets litesabre?” and “Which Shan chick is hotter, Bastila or Satele?” or “Anyone recommend a good graphics card?” If you’re worried about someone not being able to get your attention for RP, local “Say” commands should suffice. And, as I always say, a polite “/whisper” for an RP invite is the most proper way to do it, not a shout out in General.

SOCIAL

Hide Head Slot — You went to all the trouble to match Head #5 with Body #2 and you want your character’s rugged good looks to stand out. No worries. You can still keep all the effects associated with that headband, hat or helmet without showing it. Simply turn off the head slot and your helmet is invisible. As an RPer, I like turning this on and off to fit the logical moments when my trooper or agent would wear their gear and when they wouldn’t (off when in their ship or a cantina, for example). A cool note: I recently equipped my Imperial Agent with a headset that altered her voice to sound like it was coming through a speaker. Hide the head slot and I get her normal voice. It’s a cool detail that the audio mods match the visual ones. Kudos again, BioWare.
Show Sith Corruption — THE BITCHING STOPS HERE! It astounds me how many complaints have been going around about how non-Force users are subjected to “Sith Corruption” when they’re not Sith. Gripes about agent and bounty hunters showing signs like pale skin and red eyes have been vibrating around since beta. Listen… it’s an OPTIONAL game mechanic. You can turn it OFF. And, here’s the good part that some of the complainers may not realize: you can turn it off… PER CHARACTER. That’s right. In my case, only my Sith Warrior has the corruption turned on because I want to SEE them fall fully to the corruption of the Dark Side. With everyone else: OFF. It’s that simple, folks, and really just a painless one-time click away; not like having to re-tell Corso Riggs repeatedly to stop harpooning enemies every time you change zones.
Allow Access to Same Class Story Areas — This is vital if you have a group of troopers all RPing together as a “squad,” or a pair of Imperial Agents working together on a Heroic in-character. If everyone in your group has this clicked ON you can share your experiences in class story areas. Having the option OFF will put up an invisible wall to anyone but you with the notice that warns off everyone of the same class. Don’t make your friends wait outside. Turn on the access and have some fun together.
Show Legacy Bar — This will be a preference for the higher level RPers to seriously consider. Do all your characters share the same last name or just the same legacy? If you’re like me and have characters spanning multiple alignments, backgrounds and species, you’ll probably want to reserve your Legacy as a simple sub-head or just leave it invisible. It’s just nice to know there are options to keep those of us with Twi’lek Sith and human troopers happy.

NAMEPLATES

Like FlyText, I opt to have them all off. How many times have you run into a situation where a character approaches yours in a cantina and addresses your character by name? Obviously, it a faux pas on the part of the player. They saw the name floating above you and said it. If all RPers turned off their nameplates, in-game life would be more like real life where people ask you what your name is before engaging you in lengthy conversation about the best way to remove Minocs from a landing strut. I think it’s a good practice to keep the nameplates off if for nothing more than to add a deeper immersion and to keep you from being distracted by names like “Lord Poopiepants.”

If you have any tips or tricks relating to preferences, keybinds or in-game controls that make RolePlaying better, please share them in the comments below or write to me at swtorliferp(at)gmail.com. And, don’t forget, you can also follow me on Twitter @MJswtor! ((The RP XP with MJ)) publishes every Friday right here on swtor-life.com.

Tags: Preferences, Roleplay, RP, RP XP with MJ, Settings

((The RP XP with MJ #20))

The ruddy-skinned Twi’lek looked up at the Jedi temple and squinted against the bright sunlight. When she looked back down she noticed she was the center of attention.

The young Jedi Zabrak with her said, “There’s a Twi’lek village near here, but we don’t get many your color, Yulel.”

Yulel ignored him and started down the steps toward the taxi launch.

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“I’m not staying here, Tarik. I hate you guys.”

Tarik stopped momentarily and glanced around. Some Padawans were practicing against droid dummies nearby, building their skills with practice blades before commencing the trials that would give them their lightsabers. Beyond that, no one else was nearby. When he saw Yulel was getting ahead of him, he jogged to catch up. “Who do you hate?”

Yulel held her pace, chin up, eyes straight ahead. “You. All of you. You kreffing Jedi.”

Tarik gasped and glanced around again. A passing consular frowned in Yulel’s direction. “Yulie, stop talking like that. I’m a Jedi.”

She stopped and turned to face him. “Exactly. You’re a Jedi. Then why didn’t you stop them when they took the rock away from me?”

“Because it’s dangerous, Yulel. The Jen’Hutis can be a powerful weapon in the wrong hands.”

She pointed back at the temple. “Eehhhhh!”

“The Jedi are not the wrong hands in this case.”

“How do you know? You can’t even trust yourself!” She turned and continued toward the taxi stand.

Tarik raised his arms and let them fall. “Now what does that mean?”

She stopped and faced him again. She stepped close until they were almost nose to nose. In a low voice she said, “Do you love me?”

“You know I do,” he whispered, glancing around sheepishly to make sure they were out of earshot.

Yulel pointed at him. “Eehhhhh!”

“What!?”

“You’re breaking your own stupid Jedi Code!”

Then she turned and ran the rest of the way to the taxi stand, her lekku swinging behind her.

_______

It’s that time again! It’s time for another Q&A about R&P!

As promised, every 10^th ((The RP XP with MJ)) will feature your questions about RolePlaying and RP in SWTOR. If you’d like to send in some questions for number 30, feel free. My address is at the bottom of every post.

Let’s get to it, shall we? I promised to not be so long-winded in 2012.

Pfft. Like that’s going to happen.

IF I RP WITH A FEMALE CHARACTER AREN’T GUYS GOING TO HIT ON ME?

Let me answer that question with a question. Are you afraid they’re going to hit on YOU or your CHARACTER? If you’re afraid it’s you, I’d advise you to stick with a gender you’re more comfortable with. Bottom line, if RPing off-gender makes you uncomfortable, don’t do it. Some people are like that playing Sith. RP or not, it’s just not within their comfort zone to torture prisoners into confession, virtually or otherwise.

If you’re talking about your character, the answer to that question is (hopefully) yes. Why hopefully? Well, if we’re talking about RolePlay here wouldn’t you want to face the challenge of having someone approach your character and start flirting with her? If she’s the headstrong type, independent, or if you create her with a background that includes marriage, you’ll have an opportunity to rebuff his advances. That could make for some interesting dialog exchange or “/e throws her drink in his face” emoting. Granted, that’s not nearly as much of a challenge as it would be to have her appreciate and accept those advances if you’re playing her that way.

Just remember that a smartass female smuggler is no different than a smartass male smuggler. You’re in it for the money. Play your female character the same way you’d play your male character to their class and it won’t be an issue. Changing gender doesn’t change how your class should operate unless you want it to.

WHAT’S THE RULE ABOUT ENDING AN RP SESSION IN-PROGRESS IF I HAVE TO RUN?

Good question. There are a couple of approaches based on the level of emergency if you have to break an RP and log out of the game quickly:

1) EXTREME EMERGENCY – Your house is on fire. Log out without a word. Explain later if you can and work out a resolution to the RP via email or on the forums if, that is, you didn’t lose your computer in the fire.

2) LIGHT EMERGENCY – You’re going to be late for work if you don’t move NOW. Throw out a quick OOC (Out Of Character) heads up: “((Shoot! Gotta run! Didn’t notice the time!))” Don’t forget the double parentheses to indicate you’re speaking as yourself and not the character.

3) IRRITATED RUSH – Your husband/wife is yelling at you to “get off the damn computer.” If it’s me, I throw out an extended #2 with an added OOC about the scene we were RPing: “((Can we pick this up tomorrow, or can I quickly RP out now?))” If you were just finishing up anyway, go ahead. If not, you can opt to continue where you left off or have your character make a quick in-character exit.

2) RELATIVE HURRY – You just “really gotta go.” Make an in-character exit as you would in real life. Emote it with “/e glances at the time” or “/e starts edging toward the door.” The easiest way out of an RP in a hurry while in-character is to use your class as an excuse. “If I don’t get back to the Academy, Baras is going to kill me,” or “The squad is forming up to attack the separatists on the far side of the island. Sorry. I gotta hoof it now!”

MY FRP IS WAY BEHIND MY GAME RP. WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO BRING THEM BOTH UP TO SPEED WITHOUT STOPPING THE GAME?

Oh, if I had a credit for every time I had this problem I’d buy VIP bracelets for everyone. This is probably true of a lot of RPers who were excitedly starting their Star Wars stories prior to game launch and now that they’re in-game, the FRP (Forum RolePlay) has been forgotten. There are really only a couple solutions to this problem that don’t involve simply ignoring the FRP and letting it die.

First, if the time difference isn’t too bad, you can agree that you’re RPing “slightly in the future” in-game and you and your partner(s) in the story can agree to step up the FRP to catch up. Don’t be shy about establishing a schedule. Have an OOC chat in-game and encourage everyone to meet a certain deadline or expectation of completion. The same holds true if you and your partner(s) agree that the FRP is extremely important to your story and needs to be resolved. If it’s that important, you all have to agree to spend more time on it to bring it up to speed. You can still spend time in-game. Just do it leveling, grinding or crafting. Save the RP for when the story in-forum catches up.

You can also agree to simply let the FRP fade out, especially if the intention was to build background up to an in-game event. If that in-game event is happening, you no longer need the FRP. If a disparity of time is the issue, simply talk out with your RP partners an agreed-upon resolution to your forum story and move on without actually having to write it all out.

I WANT TO RP WITH MY BOYFRIEND WHO JUST GOT THE GAME, BUT HE THINKS IT’S GAY. HOW DO I CONVINCE HIM IT’S COOL?

RP is like any other hobby or pastime. It’s not everyone’s cup of caf. If your boyfriend is really into hockey, for example, but you’re not, what would be the best way for him to get you on the ice? Not gonna happen? If he feels the same way about RP in the game, don’t push it, especially if you have other online friends who like to RP with you and you’ve already established a community.

Typically, if he sees you doing it, he might become interested. If you’re both in the game and on the same server and planet, he might take an interest if he eavesdrops and sees how it works. Some people tend to shy away from RP because they just don’t “get it” or know how it works. They’re probably more grind-minded and not creative enough for RolePlay. Those are the people who typically throw slurs at it and call it “gay.” Just sayin’.

I RP WITH A FRIEND FROM ANOTHER GUILD WHO IS ALSO FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY. WE RARELY GET TO BE IN-GAME AT THE SAME TIME. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

I suggest MRP. Back in the day — back before computers when people actually saw the sun and played things like “Frisbee” and “baseball” — pen pals (people who wrote letters back and forth and actually sent them through the mail. Yes, the “snail mail”) used to play games across great distances by setting up game boards in their own homes and mailing their moves to each other. This was typically done with chess. Player A would make his move, then write out “Pawn to Rook 7″ and mail it (maybe along with a letter or picture) to their friend half-way around the world. Player B with an identical set-up would make that move, then mail back a counter-move. It made for some looooooong matches, but it was one way to ensure contact and gave you something to do with your long-distance friend.

You can do the same thing with RolePlay. In the case of SWTOR, you each have the same game, so you can establish your locations, character appearance and activities with screenshots and description. The great thing about MRP (Mail RP) is that you can expand the universe outside the game just like you can with Forum RP. No longer relegated to the same emotes and actions, you and your long-distance partner can generate a story about discovering a rancor cave on Korriban, an old rusted speeder half buried in a swamp on Tython, or duel each other on the neon-lit balconies of Nar Shadaa.

YOU MENTIONED “SRP” BEFORE (ROLEPLAYING BY YOURSELF). COULD YOU TALK MORE ABOUT THAT? I’M NOT REALLY A “GROUP PERSON.”

Well, if you’re a creative-minded person, a writer, storyteller or long to create your own Star Wars legacy, but you’d rather go solo, there are ways you can get the RP feel without a partner.

One of the things I do is have my characters interact with each other through the in-game mail system. It’s a great way to build characterization as well as prep for The Legacy once you reach that coveted 30. For example, my smuggler has been crafting stims which they sell to my trooper at an exorbitant rate. My trooper has a “drug problem.” It’s an integral part of the trooper character’s background and affects how they interact with PCs as well as NPCs. As the smuggler gets richer, the trooper gets poorer and more “dependent.” It’s an interesting dynamic playing both parts.

If you’re like the person several questions back who’s concerned about playing an “available female,” you can have your female character married to your male character. They can send gifts back and forth through the in-game mail system (a great cover story for establishing a personal crafting network or reimbursing yourself). In this case, your sad married couple never get to see each other because of their ties to work or duty. That doesn’t mean you can’t explore their characters by using in-game mail.

Thank you, Swotorians, for another great set of questions! Remember, you can email me directly at swtorliferp(at)gmail.com. I answer every email I get. You can also follow me on Twitter at @MJswtor. I usually save up a batch of questions for every 10th edition of the RP XP, but if you’ve got a good question, I may just dedicate an entire column to it.
Until then, log in and create a story!

By the way, if you happen to see a trooper continually injecting themselves while hanging out in a cantina… it’s probably me. Just back away slowly unless you want a Deathstick shoved up your nose.

Q&A INDEX

Issue #1 RPXP #10

Tags: roleplayers, roleplaying, RP, RP XP with MJ

((The RP XP with MJ #19))

Sergeant Wex folded his arms over his armored chest as he squinted against the bright Tythonian sky toward the Jedi temple.

“Well, be careful what you wish for.” Wex shouldered his rifle and moved toward the steps of the temple. “I have the feeling it’s going to be a busy year.”
_______

I thought I’d take some time this week to talk about New Year’s resolutions for RP in SWTOR for 2012.

Typically, resolutions are made to break bad habits or to change behavior, to swear to yourself and those closest to you that you’ll stop smoking, lose weight, ride a bull, whatever. But, since SWTOR is literally only days old, it’s kind of hard to pin down bad RolePlaying habits to break.

But what if we resolve not to make those mistakes before they happen?

Here are some random RP “don’ts” that will keep you on the straight and narrow as you RP your way through 2012 in SWTOR. May the Force be with you.

1. DON’T GODMOD – Never take control of another person’s character by telling them what they’re doing, and don’t put your own character above others with some kind of special “invisible” ability such as, “I was surgically modified in a laboratory. Lightsabers bounce off my skin.” Um… no they don’t.

2. MIND YOUR LANGUAGE – Keep in mind as you RP in open areas that other people can read what you’re typing unless you’re conducting your RP in whispers or in a closed Party channel. Remember, swearing in Star Wars never went beyond the odd “hell” here and there. If you must use colorful language, use the K-word. Popularized in SW fiction, “kreff,” “kreffing” or “kreffed” is a perfectly acceptable canon replacement for the F-dash-dash-dash word. Like “Frack” in BSG, it can be over used, but if you really need to react to that blaster dropped on your toe….

3. BEWARE THE CLICHE – I’m sure one of the first things you’re aching to do in SWTOR RP is whip out one of the famous Star Wars lines. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” and “This is where the fun begins” are fun, and if properly timed can really add to the Star Wars feel of the game; a reminder of where we are and what we’re doing. Just don’t overdo it and don’t say it just to say it. Once per episode is plenty.

4. DON’T BREAK THE FANTASY – Coke, TV and baseball don’t exist in the Star Wars universe. If you make pop culture references in your RP make sure they’re from the right pop culture. Substitute fizzy drink, holocron and Huttball for the above and you’ll continue to fit in with the fantasy.

5. CANON, CANON, CANON – Please don’t say you’re the brother of Darth Malgus, or that you have personally led the project to fully irrigate Tatooine and turn it into “New Manaan.” Canon refers to a set standard, a predetermined set logic to a person, place or thing that should not be undone. That said, changing canon is like changing the markings on a ruler. You can’t off-set the established norm. It all began in 1977 with George Lucas, and — while it has changed several times since then — it’s still an unshakable property now expanded by BioWare. In short, adapt and connect to the worlds around you. Don’t alter them to suit your personal view. Remember: RP is a “social” experience. Changing canon alienates you from the rest of the universe.

6. WALK, DON’T RUN – Learn to use your walk toggle! If you’re an RPer, you have to play by the first rule of mobile common sense: People do not run everywhere. Sure, game-wise there’s a LOT of ground to cover and you’re not going to spend it moving at a leisurely stroll from one end of Coruscant to the other. I’m talking about moving from one end of a room to another (say within a cantina), or walking up to an RP in progress to introduce yourself. The default walk toggle and lock can be found on your number pad: “Num Lock” and “/” will get you started. In an upcoming ((The RP XP with MJ)) I’ll show you recommended preference settings for RPers for these and other cool stuffs. Stay tuned.

7. EMOTE SPARINGLY – A good rule of thumb for physical emotes is to think of them as punctuation rather than “sign language,” if you use them at all. You don’t have to emote “/laugh” when you can simply type “/e laughs” or “I laugh.” Using emotes after typed sentences carries more weight. For example, “I looked everywhere. I have no idea where he is.” Next line: /shrug. Always remember: good, short exposition goes farther than a mechanized avatar motion.

8. DON’T ASK – I’m on a designated RP server. Still, I find obvious non-RPers polluting the matrix with their PvP grinding. How do I know? No RolePlayer worth their story would name a character “Bootylicious” or “LordBoomBoom.” If you see these people, or see characters bouncing like Tigger across the frozen wastes of Hoth or jumping to their deaths from the scaffoldings of Korriban, chances are they’re not going to respond well if you ask them if they RP.

9. GO FISH – Looking for RP? Don’t run around the game world yelling in General chat, “Yo! Who wanna RP!?” RolePlayers are a subtle bunch. The best way to snag an RP is to go “fishing.” Just WALK into a cantina and identify yourself as an RPer through your actions. Typing things like: “/e orders a drink,” or “/e looks around the room,” or “/e nervously checks the time” will eventually draw the attention of other RPers who may approach and start up a conversation in character. Don’t forget to use the common Out Of Character (OOC) indicator of “(( ))” when speaking “as yourself.”

10. LOOK, DON’T TOUCH – If you see someone RPing in an open setting such as a cantina, don’t jump in without knowing what’s going on. “Listen” to their story by following the chat window and see if it makes sense for your character to interrupt. Is there something you can add to the story? Remember, even if you think so, these RPers may have a destiny in mind for their characters. Send one of them a tell (“/whisper [their name]“) and ask if you can join in. If you don’t have something to add, compliment them and ask if you could join them next time. Maybe they’re from an RP guild. Maybe you can join them. It never hurts to ask.

Got any tips or tricks? How about a cool RP story? 2012 is going to be a great year for swtor! Let me know what you’d like to see in this column and be sure to share your own epic adventures.  YOUR Q&A COMING NEXT WEEK! Remember, every 10th RP column is dedicated to YOU. Send me your questions and comments!

((The RP XP with MJ)) publishes every Friday right here on swtor-life.com. You can contact MJ directly at swtorliferp(at)gmail.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @MJswtor (with lots of Twitter-related RP stuff coming in 2012).  He’ll tell you what server he’s on, “When it stops being full.” Have a great new year, everyone! May the Force be with you!

Tags: roleplaying, RP, RP XP with MJ

((The RP XP with MJ #18))

We here at the staff of ((The RP XP with MJ)), in recognition of the holiday weekend, would like to take a moment to thank you all for your continued comments, questions and support.

The RP community, even in a massive game like SWTOR, is a relatively small group. But we are family. We are the ones who embrace the “Fourth Pillar” and create a fifth: Our Own Epic Stories. So, it is with great honor and humility that I thank you all for keeping the art of RolePlay alive and well, for fostering it in others, and for being the greatest, closest most dedicated community in gaming.

May your holidays be filled with joy and swtor this weekend! Happy Life Day!

And now, some words from the staff….

YULEL, The Smuggler
“Weeee, I get to go first again!!! Hey! Merry Christmas. Also, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, Jolly Festivus, and happy Life Day!!! Also, happy gorging season! Happy nom-nom cookie time! Have a great new year too! Thanks for reading us in the RP XP thingy! Oh, we’re gonna have so much fun next year! Love ya!!!!”

KENDRIS, The Jedi Knight
“Tarik, cough it up. I bet you 100 credits that the Twi’lek would use more than 10 exclamation points. I counted 15. Pay up, kid. ….Oh. Happy Life Day, readers. Hope you’re enjoying the column as much as MJ is writing it. Tell your friends, and May the Force be With You.”

WEX, The Trooper
“The greatest thing about the holiday season is that I get to requisition new boots. My feet are killing me. “Climb that hill!” “Stomp that Separatist!” “Kick that Sith in the groin!” It really wears down a man’s feet. Mm! It’s also nice that the shooting stops for a moment at midnight and I get to take these damn boots off. You all take care. Many happy returns. See ya soon!”

TARIK, The Padawan
“Anyone know what to get a Twi’lek girl for Life Day? I wanted to get her these really cool braids that go around her lekku, but I don’t know if it’s too pricey. I just gave half my credits to Master Kendris. Can anyone spot me until the new year?”

MISHA VU-DON, The Consular
“It is my pleasure to greet you all as we celebrate the holiday season. May the Force be with you in your endeavors. May you always walk the path of the light and seek knowledge where others only wallow in ignorance.”

KENDRIS, The Jedi Knight (again)
“Tarik, you’ll never be a Jedi if you keep chasing those head tails. You should step away from the Twi’lek girl and concentrate on your Force meditations.”

JENLA RUF, The Imperial Agent
“Hey! What’s the big idea of the Jedi taking cuts and posting twice! That’s a kreffing load of crap! And what’s the “Life Day” BS? You guys DO realize it’s a Wookiee holiday, right? And it only comes once every three years? It doesn’t become more ‘Christmas-like’ for thousands of years. It’s a celebration of kreffing trees! Get off it!”

YULEL, The Smuggler (again)
“Jeez, agent, bitter much?”

TARIK, The Padawan (again)
“She’s just mad because she’s stuck on Hutta. Yulie, do you like sweaters? What’s your size?”

JENLA RUF, The Imperial Agent (again)
“Someone tell the trooper to put his boots back on. It smells like rotting Bantha meat in here. And as for you, Twi’lek, back off, or we’ll tie you to a chair and beat you bloody again!”

YULEL, The Smuggler (again, again)
“Um, hey, Jenny. This is all only fiction. That was stage blood. And does your Mandalorian boyfriend know you like tying Twi’lek girls to chairs? …Should I tell him?”

BOARSCH, The Bounty Hunter
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa. Mega LoLz and Rofls!”

YULEL, The Smuggler (again, again, again)
“*Snort* When the Chiss agent blushes she turns purple! Ha haaa!”

JENLA RUF, The Imperial Agent (for the final time)
“You should talk, Twi’lek whose skin is the colour of Hutt sewage!”

TARIK, The Padawan (again)
“Ohhhhhh, I get it. She spells color with a ‘u’ because she’s got an Imperial accent. Haaa! That’s clever.”

YULEL, The Smuggler (againx4)
“*Snort*”

BOARSCH, The Bounty Hunter (for real this time)
“Ha haa….. Anyway… Happy holidays, everyone. I hope your blaster fires true. I hope you get everything you want. And I hope the spirit of giving is alive and well with you and all your friends and family!”

VEETHA, The Sith Apprentice
“Should we be concerned that the Mandalorian is playing the ‘heart of gold’ card? Um… Anyway, happy Wookiee Day or whatever.”

DARTH TAGIOUS, The Sith Marauder
“Once again…. Do not look at me.”

YULEL, The Smuggler (yet again for the fifth time)
“You Sith guys need to lighten up around the holidays. Don’t you celebrate anything? Come on… Try wearing something besides black, red and purple. You look like a gay emo grunge band.”

VEETHA, The Sith Apprentice (again)
“Shall I kill the Twi’lek, master? Please? May I, please?”

DARTH TAGIOUS, The Sith Marauder (again)
“I. Am. Trying. To. Stay. In. Character!”

LORD SHUNDRAX, The Sith Inquisitor
“I actually celebrate the Freedon Nadd day. It’s the birthday of Exar Kun’s teacher and a time of celebration around our home.”

YULEL, The Smuggler (ok, I’m going to stop counting now)
“Cool! See, Darth. You guys can lighten up if you put your mind to it. What kinds of stuff do you do on Freedom Nad day?”

LORD SHUNDRAX, The Sith Inquisitor
“It’s ‘FreedoN NaDD,’ and we typically go down to the cells and randomly execute a prisoner using our combined Force Storm abilities. It’s amusing to watch the purple lightning dance around their writhing bodies as they blister.”

WEX, The Trooper (again)
“Ah… That did it. Yulel has left the building. Mmmmmmm, these new boots feel SO good.”

Whatever you celebrate, may your holiday be warm and joyous! And, if you don’t celebrate anything, my staff recommends “Freedon Nadd Day.”

See you in swtor! Now go log in and create a story! Then… write to me and tell me about it! I’d like to add more of YOUR great RP moments, questions and ideas to the column in 2012.

((The RP XP with MJ)) appears right here on swtor-life.com every Friday (EVEN ON HOLIDAYS!). MJ is swtor-life’s RP columnist and an editor for swtor-life.com and swtor-spy.com (“I not only work for swtor-life and swtor-spy, I use them as my sole source of all my swtor needs!”). You can contact him directly with questions, comments, RP invites or column ideas at swtorliferp@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter @MJswtor.

Tags: Holiday, Roleplay, RP, RP XP with MJ, RPers

((The RP XP with MJ #17))

“Hutta is wonderful this time of year if you don’t inhale too deeply,” the bounty hunter chuckled as he escorted the imperial agent past the palace of Nem’ro the Hutt.

Jenla smirked. “Why the hell did you bring me here, Boarsch? You know how much the Hutts nauseate me.”

Boarsch hid his amusement by pretending to look away from her, concentrating on some activity at the end of a side street. Since the attack against the Jedi and Sith two days ago, Jenla Ruf and Boarsch had been on the run, skirting the outer rim systems and playing hopscotch with the main merchant runs where the Empire and Republic often traded blows. They just arrived on Hutta to re-supply and get work done on the ship. Distant blaster fire marred an otherwise quiet day.

As they turned down a particularly putrid alley rank with the smell of waste, Jenla stopped and held up her hand. “I am not going down there.”

The bounty hunter kept walking as the agent unsteadily glanced back down the main road.

“Did you hear me, Boarsch? I’m not going down there.”

The bulky Mandalorian shrugged under his armored shoulders. “Suit yourself, darling. I’m sure a Chiss woman by herself wearing an Imperial uniform will be just fine standing on the corner all alone.”

Jenla scowled and glanced from side to side, then watched as Boarsch continued down the alley. In a few paces he’d have to turn at the end and vanish from her sight. Looking back toward the spaceport, she saw two Gamorreans with heavy weapons waddling toward them. “Wait. …Boarsch, wait!”

She ran to catch up to him and just touched his arm when a woman jumped out from a doorway and shoved a blaster under the Mandalorian’s jaw.

“Freeze, scum dump!” The woman wore rags that were held together with bandoliers and patchwork bits of armor. Her blond hair was matted where it wasn’t a thatch of tangles and her eyes flared like blue lasers.

Jenla dropped her hand to her sidearm, but that only made the woman push the blaster’s barrel deeper into Boarsch’s throat.

“Just try it, sweetie!” The woman rasped, “And I’ll blow his kreffin’ head off.”

That’s when Boarsch started to laugh.

As Jenla watched, her red eyes wide with amazement, Boarsch simply took the gun from the woman’s hand and embraced her in a big hug, squeezing her tightly around the waist and lifting her off the ground, both of them twirling and laughing like children.

Boarsch said, “Scum dump? Where’d you get that? I almost lost it right there!”

“Oh, Boar, you always were a lousy bluffer.”

Boarsch, his arm around their assailant, spun her toward Jenla, both of them grinning ear to ear. “Jenla Ruf, this is my sister, Margis.”

“Sister,” Jenla sneered. “Really.”

Margis offered her grimy hand. “You must be my brother’s lover. Nice to meet ya. Hope you’re makin’ an honest man of him.”

As an Imperial agent, there were many times Jenla Ruf hated the idea of pulling the trigger. Sometimes it just didn’t feel right, that the target didn’t deserve to die at her hand because she felt like she didn’t know enough about them. But oh, how she wished Margis was her next target. This one target would make up for years of regret.

____

Aww, ain’t that sweet. The bounty hunter took his girlfriend home to meet his sister.

Do you have a sister? Brother? Parent? Uncle?

And by ‘you’ I mean your character. When you reach the coveted “Legacy” level, are you going to RP your characters as siblings or half-siblings? Or, will you seek out the more adventurous route and forge family bonds with another player through RP?

There are some aspects of RolePlay that don’t readily reveal themselves as one of those palm-to-forehead “oh yeah” moments. Typically, you play your creation like a character in a movie or book, going about their daily Jedi or bounty hunter or trooper business without a thought to the current status of their back story. The back story is just filler, after all, something to round out their personality. But how do you give it life and keep it fresh?

I’ve talked before about establishing a background for your character that included things like occupations, lineage and relations, but have you ever thought about the kind of depths you can explore if you RP’d a relationship with another RolePlayer other than companion-at-arms or mate? After all, your background doesn’t just stop. It continues and changes until it catches up to you in the present.

There are a lot of variations of relationships you can easily RP with a friend. Master-Padawan, Lord-Slave and Husband-Wife are just a few of the more obvious ones. But, have you ever thought of RPing a relationship as, well, just a “relation?”

Here are some talking points you can throw out to a friend or RP partner to see if anything clicks.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Naturally, if you’re going to RP as a parent and child, you’ll need to establish the disparity between the ages. Brothers’ and sisters’ age ranges can vary greatly, as can more distant relationships such as cousins or aunts and uncles, but the age difference between parents and children should make sense. The offspring of a 40 year-old could easily be 20, but consider the math of a 20 year-old parent or a 50 year-old offspring. Find a range that suits both players as you set up your relative connection.

Other things to consider, depending on how closely you’re related, is family resemblance. Fortunately, with only so many options in the character creator, it won’t be hard to make brothers look like brothers. It’s also fortunate that Twi’leks don’t transfer color genetically. A blue-skinned Twi’lek mother could give birth to a red-skinned Twi’lek son. Zabrak and Mirialan facial tattoos are tribal or right-of-passage related and don’t have to match. Check out the lore of your family’s species of choice before rolling up that character.

While you’re weighing your considerations, here are some other possible pairings to get your creative juices flowing:

Father/Son – Dad is a retired trooper who now runs guns for his old Republic buddies. Junior is a chip off the old block and an up-and-coming shooter in Havoc Squad within the Republic Military Machine.

Father/Daughter – Dad is a proud imperial agent whose Force-sensitive daughter is making her way through the trials on Korriban.

Cousins – Both bounty hunters and rivals to the end, both up for the Great Hunt. (And, once you both reach the end of your Great Hunt story line, duke it out with a series of duels between the two of you to claim bragging rights over the other).

Long Lost Siblings – The Jedi woman who bears a striking resemblance to the smuggler at the bar. He knows everything about their family, including the day the Jedi came and took his Force sensitive baby sister.

Half-Brothers – They work together with their own family “junk business” (picking up or crafting bits of this or that to sell on the market).

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

There are two basic ways to play your family relationship if you just want to look at opposite ends of the spectrum. You and your RP partner can agree from the beginning that you’re bitter rivals, hated each other growing up; or you can be the best of friends, brothers or sisters who stick by each other no matter what, etc.

Those are both good, but what about these “gray” options:

Friendly Rivalry – Not bitter or hurtful at all, but you compete with each other like angry Gundarks fighting over a bone.

Clean Slate – You’ve been separated for so long and now you have a lot of catching up to do. Let the chips fall where they may.

Jealousy & Suspicion – “Mom always liked you better” vs. “Dad is the one who got you admitted to the Academy.” Played with subtle jabs between the two but never angrily or vindictively.

Caustic Love Triangle – Two brothers in love with the same woman. It would be even more interesting if a third player took the role of the woman played between the two formerly-close sibs.

ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES

The great thing about having an RP’d family is that you can feed off of each other’s epic stories. Not only can you help each other in game with quests and Heroics, you can also work together on each other’s RolePlay adventures.

You can still have the “relationship RP” that leads to an in-game marriage, but imagine how much more fun a simple in-game ceremony would be with a parent who doesn’t agree with the relationship, or the untrusting sister who wants to steal the groom, or the uncle with the credentials as a ship captain (like a Smuggler, for instance) who can actually perform the ceremony for you.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

As you get deeper into your role in Star Wars: The Old Republic and your character starts to take on a mind and voice of their own, consider the possibilities and dimensions you can explore with friends willing to make familial connections between your characters. Your own character’s life will suddenly be more rich and more alive with the entire existence of another person attached to them by virtual blood.

And, if you both happen to play out the Legacy system with the “surname” option on, imagine how extensive your in-game family would be if you joined together as half-siblings or through marriage.

TEST IT FIRST… ON CAPTAIN SOLO

Are you an SRPer? Do you “Solo” your RP? Are you a “Creative PVEer?” Maybe you haven’t met anyone in the game yet who will RP with you regularly. Maybe you’re too shy to go “Fishing” (See RP XP with MJ #16 for tips on how to snag an RP). Maybe you have a bunch of friends in the game, but they all want to PvP or speed level to get that all-important invisible checkered flag so they can start complaining that there’s nothing left to do.

You can create multiple characters who are related to each other and play out the ideas in your own mind to add depth to your SRP or PVE. How each character reacts to the in-game environment might have an effect on your inter-character relationships, or vice versa.

For example, I have a bounty hunter who is looking for his daughter. She ran off with an Imperial officer ten years ago and he hasn’t seen her since. Since then, he has become embittered against the Empire and every in-game decision I make with him furthers or feeds off that attitude. His daughter, meanwhile, is an Imperial agent. She’s stubborn, self-centered, cocky, bullheaded and wants absolutely nothing to do with her father. Consequently, she keeps clear of older men who remind her of him and that’s reflected in my in-game decisions as well.

See. Even if you don’t have an RP partner, you can have fun with RPing your own legacy.

Now go log in and tell a story!

((The RP XP with MJ)) is published every Friday right here on swtor-life.com. MJ is a long-time RPer and GM with a history that dates back to tabletops and dice. If you have any ideas, comments or questions, or if you want to run an RP scenario by him, feel free to contact him directly at swtorliferp@gmail.com. Oh, and follow him on Twitter: @MJswtor. Don’t forget, the next Q&A column is #20. Get your Qs in now if you want some As.

Tags: Legacy, Roleplay, roleplayers. rp xp with mj, roleplaying, RP

((The RP XP With MJ #16))

Yulel sat on the floor of the cabin aboard the Regail and nervously stroked her lekku. She brought her head tails over the front of each shoulder so she could hold them as she sat on the floor and rocked like a pouting child.

“This ain’t fair, ya know.”

The armored trooper stood in the open doorway of the cabin. He stood alert, his rifle held at port-arms. He wore his helmet so Yulel didn’t know if he was looking at her, at the wall, at the floor….

“You got a name, flatfoot?”

The helmet moved slightly. The electronically-augmented voice came out. “The name’s Wex. Not that it’s any of your business, thief.”

“I ain’t no thief, Wex. I simply acquire things I need without trading credits.”

“And I’m not a flatfoot. I merely arrest individuals who acquire things without paying for them.”

Yulel glanced at his scuffed white armored boots. “Yeah. Guess not. So, tell me, Trooper Wex, how do you feel about being used by the Jedi?”

Wex didn’t answer. His helmet rotated front.

“Oh,” the Twi’lek smuggler winked. “I get it. You know. You just don’t wanna talk about the fact Kendris and Tarik pulled you along to hunt down a Twi’lek girl who supposedly stole a little piece of glass.”

Wex turned to her. “I wouldn’t call the Jen’Hutis a piece of glass.”

Yulel shrugged. “That’s all it is–unless you use it.”

“Yeah, well… it’s dangerous.”

The thin-framed Twi’lek stood and pushed her lekku back over her shoulders, tossing her head like a woman with a long mane of hair. She folded her arms and stood with her weight on one hip. “You really don’t have a clue as to why you’re here, do you, Wexy?”

The trooper didn’t answer, but Corporal Wex was starting to have his doubts about this assignment. He’d already lost some men trying to track down this smuggler and all for what? What did he truly know about the Jen’Hutis? Behind his helmet’s faceplate, he closed his eyes and cringed. He thought about the Consular, Misha Vu-don’s veiled warning about Master Kendris. If this “Force stone” was really as powerful as he’d heard, was Kendris really the one who should be escorting it back to Tython? And what if they’re not going to Tython?

Wex leaned into the hall to look toward the cockpit. He could see Kendris at the controls, but there was no sign of the Zabrak kid, Tarik. The milky wash of space proved they were roaring through hyperspace, but where would they end up?

***

Where will you end up when the game launches in just a few days?

I thought this would be the perfect time to give you a primer for RolePlaying, including tips and tricks for finding other RPers as well as giving you a brief guide on the ins and outs of RP etiquette.

Let’s get started right away with the “how.”

YOUR FRIEND THE CHAT BOX

The biggest part of your RP will come through the actions you describe and the words you speak on behalf of your character in “Chat.” Everything you communicate will come through typewritten words in the chat box on the upper left part of your screen. The mechanics of the chat box are simple and fairly universal. Tap ENTER to pop into the text input line, then type. That’s all there is to it. The default location where your words will appear is “Local.” You’ll need to switch that to “Party” if you’re with a group. You can also begin with “/whisper” and the name of a character to speak only to them. If you reply to a whisper with “/r” you can then simply hit ENTER to reply without having to re-type the command for whisper each successive time. This is a great mechanic for one-on-one RP. The “Party” channel is not only good for communication in raids, PvP or doing Flashpoints with friends, it’s great for RP grouping as well.

When it comes to typing and RP, there are two types of input: Dialog and Exposition.

DIALOG vs EXPOSITION

I’ve seen two kinds of etiquette when it comes to RP chatter. The common school of thought is that anything you type in the chat box comes from the first person voice of your character unless otherwise noted. You don’t have to put it in quotes or mark it in any way. It’s your character actually “speaking” in the world. Here’s an example:

Wex (Party): I think you should sit down now.
Yulel (Party): Why? You think I’m dangerous?

The other school of thought, and the one I personally use (though I am in the minority on this), is to use quotation marks around anything spoken by your character:

Wex (Party): “I think you should sit down now.”
Yulel (Party): “Why? You think I’m dangerous?”

Either way is technically fine, but if you’re not a fast typist, you may want to save yourself the keystrokes by not using quotes. I only use them because I write a lot of fiction and switch between dialog and exposition on the fly. It’s just how my mind works and it’s more natural for me to do it that way. Unless marked as Out Of Character (OOC) or exposition, anything you type is considered dialog coming out of your character’s mouth, so you can forgo the quotes if you want.

Here are the same examples with exposition added:

Wex (Party): *Glares at Yulel* I think you should sit down now.
Yulel (Party): Why? You think I’m dangerous? *Crosses arms*

Typically, exposition is set off from dialog with asterisks (*). Essentially, any emote you can’t act out can be put between asterisks to emphasize your action. You can type “/shrug” to use the shrug emote, or you can simply type *shrug* to show that your character is shrugging via exposition. It’s really your choice. Some people find navigating emotes into RP cumbersome while others expertly weave it into their RP effortlessly. It’s really up to preference. I personally feel active emotes can break the RP immersion because of how mechanical they are. Using shrug as an example, there are different ways to shrug: both shoulders, both shoulders with hands held palm up, one shoulder, with an eyebrow raise, etc. A perfect example of this is the emote “/cry”. Check that one out next time you’re in the game. Crying isn’t universal and it’s not always that dramatic. Leave the emotes for dance parties and just type out your actions.

Wex (Party): Glares at you, “I think you should sit down now.”
Yulel (Party): “Why? You think I’m dangerous?” Crosses arms.

If you’re using quote marks for dialog, you don’t need to us asterisks to offset exposition. Again, it’s really only preference. If you’re concerned about your number of keystrokes, keep this in mind: you’ll probably be “speaking” more than you’ll be describing actions in RP, so using the commonly-accepted asterisk method is probably the best way to go.

WHEN TO USE EXPOSITION

Imagine the scene you’re RPing as a scene from a movie. In my example, Yulel crosses her arms. If she didn’t, it could change the meaning. “Why? You think I’m dangerous?” could be a nervous question. What if Wex’s apparent paranoia conveyed danger to the Yulel character? What if he’s asking her to sit down because a sniper has a bead on her? By saying she folds her arms, I’m expressing defiance or attitude. Yulel is cocky and she shows it in her actions. Use exposition to emphasize your character’s quirks and emotions.

Wex (Party): *Points at your nose* You have issues.
Yulel (Party): No I don’t.

In the above example you can see the Wex character’s attitude. “Points at your nose” is specific and immediately gives you the picture of the trooper getting in Yulel’s face. You can almost see his facial expression, sense his gritted teeth, the flare in his eyes. He’s pissed and you can tell. Imagine the same thing without the exposition. If he simply says, “You have issues,” it’s conversational. There’s no emotion added to it other than what the reader (the Yulel character’s player) perceives.

Don’t use exposition like you’re writing a novel. If it’s not necessary, don’t do it.

Wex (Party): *Paces the floor a few steps, looking down at his war-scuffed boots as he thinks about the home he left behind, pondering his own life and how he got stuck on such a pathetic mission as this. He looks at Yulel and hates her because of his own situation, hates himself for hating her* I think you should sit down now.

Wow. How long did that take to type? Keep in mind you’re not writing something to “publish” later. You’re LIVE as-it-happens and people are following along. Keep it short and sweet so the RP flows freely.

Even if you’re a fast typist and can make your RP exposition flow like song, don’t overdo it. In the example above, Wex’s player is giving a lot of information that’s inside his mind. How would Yulel know all this? She wouldn’t. ONLY show what the other would see. There is nothing in all that the Yulel player can use. Try this instead:

Wex (Party): *Looks down and cringes* I think you should sit down now.

Covered. Now Yulel can work from that. She can ask why he made that face. She can put a hand on his shoulder. She can even choose to “huff” and ignore his obvious issue or discomfort. RP is all about give and take. You set up something to allow others to react, and you react to the situations they create.

MIND READING

Force-using characters will have the ability to “sense” certain things. They’ll get clearer views of emotions and even be able to determine the empathy of thoughts. “Your thoughts betray you,” is a good Star Wars line that emphasizes that point. Vader could even read Luke’s mind when he discovered the truth about **SPOILER** Leia being Luke’s sister and therefore **SPOILER** his daughter.

In order to read minds or sense emotions, you really have to be serious about the “give and take” thing. It’s not up to the Jedi character’s player to read your character’s mind. That’s impossible unless you cooperate and offer up something he can use.

For example:

Yulel (Party): No, I’m serious. I like being here <<You sense she’s lying. She’s scared of Kendris.>>
Tarik (Party): *Smiles* You’re not being serious, Yulie. I think you’re afraid of Kendris
Yulel (Party): *Gasps* How did you know that?
Tarik (Party): *Taps his temple and winks* Jedi, remember?

I used the double “<<>>” to differentiate between exposition, OOC chat and something else. You can use any allowable character as long as it isn’t parentheses or asterisks. As long as your notions are clear, you’re fine. Using “=” to separate “emotional input” is another way to do it. “Mind reading” is not a common RP medium, so be sure you have an OOC discussion with your fellow RPers before using it so they know what you’re doing. You should also lay the groundwork as to what you expect or what you will and will not allow. If you’re playing a Sith Inquisitor with a special concentration on using the Force defensively to shield your mind, talk that out with your Sith Marauder friend and make sure it’s cool that you don’t throw out anything he can’t “sense.”

DO NOT come off as demanding or forceful to other players. You can ask if your character can sense anything from theirs, but if they say no, then make the best of it. It doesn’t make your character less of a Jedi or less of a Sith. It just means you’ll have to work harder at dialog and playing out the scene. Palpatine didn’t sense **SPOILER** that Anakin’s good side would come out and he would be hurled down one of the DS2′s many **SPOILER** chasm-like shafts.

You can also use exposition to show actions you can’t show in the game, or to interact with made up or invisible objects. In the example below, Yulel tosses a ball in the air. There is no “ball” you can play with in SWTOR (outside of Huttball), but you get the idea. This also works with tools, pets, holocoms, artifacts, etc.

Yulel (Party): *Reaches into a pocket inside her jacket and pulls out a small glittering ball*
Tarik (Party): *Notices the ball* What’s that?
Yulel (Party): *Shrugs* Just a toy. I got it from a friend. *Tosses it in the air a couple times*
Tarik (Party): What is it?
Yulel (Party): *Rolls her eyes* It’s a ball, dummy. Don’t they teach you Jedi anything?

STEPPING OUT OF CHARACTER

The generally accepted indicator for chat outside of character is the double parentheses.

Yulel (Party): Yeah, I think I’ll sit down for awhile ((BRB. Phone.))
Tarik (Party): Maybe you should. ((OK))

In this example, the player playing Yulel had to step away from the game to answer the phone. The common “BRB” (Be Right Back) in the double parentheses lets the other RPers know your character didn’t just suddenly “die” or refuse to talk any more.

You can also use OOC indicators to clarify a scene, or as I mentioned earlier, ask for more input.

Yulel (Party): No, I’m serious. I like being here.
Tarik (Party): ((Can I tell if she’s lying?))
Yulel (Party): ((You can tell she’s uncomfortable, but that’s it))
Tarik (Party): ((Cool)) *Leans closer* Yulie, I sense something’s bothering you. What is it?

USING WHAT YOU KNOW TO GET INVOLVED IN RP

Ok, now that you’re armed with the basics, let’s take a stroll down the streets of Coruscant and get into some RP.

HOW TO IDENTIFY AN RPER

If you’re not already involved in an RP guild, if you’re completely new to RolePlay (or MMOs, RPGs or Star Wars), if you haven’t already made arrangements to meet a friend for RP, or if you don’t actually know any RPers, there are a few signs that can look for that will tip you off that the character you’re looking at is controlled by someone open to RP.

They’re walking. If you see a character walking down a corridor while everyone else is running, chances are they realize people don’t “run everywhere” in real life and they’re playing the game “realistically.” They may not be a RolePlayer, but every serious (even casual) RPer I know uses the walk toggle (default “/” on the keypad of your keyboard. NUM LOCK will toggle lock your walk/run on or off). One of the first questions an RPer will ask about an MMO is “Is there a walk toggle?” If they’re not an RPer they could just be locking their walk toggle while sifting through their inventory. But, more often than not, they’re open to RP.

They’re emoting or talking to their in-game NPC companion. If you see someone “Pondering Vette” or “Laughing at Mako,” they’re either just goofing around with the emotes or they’re engaged in SRP (Singlular RolePlay as I like to call it). This isn’t the greatest tell because everyone takes the time to test out their emotes once in awhile, but if you actually see local chat that looks like: “Take this bag of junk and go sell it off. I’ll meet you back at the ship” just before they dismiss their companion to sell off their “grayed out” items, they may very well be into RP. You may not even realize it, but “chatting up” your NPC companion is a form of RP.

They’re openly using exposition in public. One of the easiest-to-spot RPer tells is the “ordering a drink” at an inn, bar or cantina. If you see local chat with lines like: “Orders a tall glass of blue milk,” or “Motions the bartender over and whispers a question,” or “Looks around nervously,” take note of the character’s name, because this person is fishing for RP. If they aren’t already RPing with someone, they’re expositioning openly to see if anyone will take the bait and join them. If you see something like that and want to get into some RP, approach them in-character with a realistic response. If they order a drink, step up next to them and type, “I’ll have what he’s having.” See what happens. If they’re not too shy about jumping into an unsolicited RP, they’ll react. I’ve seen scenarios where everyone seems to be using exposition but no one is biting. That’s because there are two kinds of spontaneous RPers: Fishers and Hunters. Fishers will cast out lines (solo exposition) to see if someone will join them. Hunters simply go from social area to social area until they see the signs of RP, then they’ll jump in and join the fun. Until a Fisher decides to change tactics, a crowded cantina of people ordering drinks and looking around nervously could be pretty monotonous… though entertaining.

They’re asking for it. It’s rare, but desperate RPers might throw out a “((Anyone want to RP?))” in General. I had the idea of joining the stream of “LFG: Esseless” and “LFG: Hammer” with something like “LFGRP.” You never know. Could get a bite. If not, it’s at least worth a chuckle.

They’re already RPing with someone. If you see two characters chatting in-character using the dialog and exposition examples I’ve shown you, they’re engaged in RolePlay. DO NOT JUMP IN. Just as with Forum RP, you have to be accepted and invited.

Which leads me to…

HOW TO GET INVOLVED OR STARTED WITH RP

It’s rude to simply situate yourself into someone else’s story. If you’d like to get involved, there are two ways you can do it without being rude. First, if you see people RPing, listen to them for awhile. Get an idea what they’re talking about. Be an eavesdropper. Then, after you’ve soaked up enough, send a quick “/whisper” to one of the characters and ask, “((Excuse me. I’m enjoying your RP. Would you mind if I joined you?)).” If you’re polite about it and not pushy, you’ll get a response. They may tell you, “((Sorry, this is closed)).” If that’s the case, thank them and move on. They might remember you and look for you later because you showed interest and weren’t rude about it. RPers are performers at heart and will react well to an interested audience. If you get “shunned” from joining an RP it’s typically because those already involved have a story they’re working on. They can’t simply “add a new character” at this point. It could also be a closed guild event or it could be something personal that doesn’t need a “third wheel.”

On the other hand, they may ask you how you want to join or what you could bring to the discussion. Here’s where you test your creativity. “((You mentioned looking for a missing droid. My character used to be a droid salesman.))” or “((I’m good at fixing ships and you were talking about your hyperdrive being down)).” Keep in mind, again, that it could be part of their plot that they DON’T actually find the droid or DON’T get their ship fixed. Don’t be a pest about it. If they were open enough to ask you how you’d like to join, they’re open enough to bring you in. Ask THEM what would work. “((My character is a Jedi with a treasure hunting hobby. Whatever works. I’m open.))”

The other way to try to get invited into an RP scenario is to “RP in Parallel.” What this means is basically to use the Fishing techniques I described above, but tailor them realistically to what you’re overhearing. Let’s use Wex as an example:

Yulel: I’ve never been to Ord Mantell. Is it nice?
Tarik: *Laughs* If you consider a war zone nice.
Yulel: I’m just saying I’d never been there. How would I know?
Tarik: *Smirks* Gee, I don’t know. Watch the holo-news once in awhile. Sheesh, Yulie.
Yulel: *Crosses her arms* Hey, I’ve been busy on Alderaan. I don’t have time to watch the news.
Wex: *Overhears the conversation about Ord Mantell and chuckles into his drink*

That’s called a “drop.” There are different kinds of drops and you can use them anywhere — even if you’re already involved in an RP scene. But, for now, let’s see if Wex has any success:

Wex: *Overhears the conversation about Ord Mantell and chuckles into his drink*
Tarik: *Orders another round for him and Yulie* Why would you even want to go to Ord Mantell?
Yulel: *Looks past Tarik and notices the trooper chuckling into his drink* *To Tarik:* I don’t know. I just asked.
Tarik: *Looks over his shoulder at the trooper Yulie noticed. To the trooper:* You got a problem, Pal?
Wex: Who, me? No. I just heard you mention Ord Manny.
Yulel: Ord Manny? *Giggles at the funny name*
Wex: I just came from there. It’s what my squad called it.
Tarik: *Taps Yulie’s shoulder* There, see. Why would there be troops on Ord Mantell if there wasn’t a war going on?
Yulel: *Raises her voice* I didn’t say I wanted to go to Ord Mantell!
Wex: *Chuckles* Good thing, miss, because your Jedi-looking friend there is right.
Tarik: See, Yulie? *To Trooper* What’s your name? Can I buy you a drink?

Boom. In.

Notice how the characters didn’t call each other by their names? Notice how Tarik asks, “What’s your name?” even when the player can clearly see WEX floating over the trooper’s head. Keep subtleties like that in mind. It’s also not obvious by the equipment or clothes of a character who or what they are. There’s a guy in our guild who is playing a Jedi who left the order. If you mouse-over him it’ll identify him as a Jedi Knight though he’s dressed as a smuggler. Don’t assume. When you RP, pretend there is no HUD (except, of course, for your friend the Chat Box).

Rule of thumb: Go by what you see and hear, not by what the game tells you.

Stick to these rules and guides and you’ll be RPing in no time.

Now… go tell a story.

Next week we’ll talk about SWTOR post-launch! Send me your stories! Are you already RPing? Who is your character? What does he/she do?

((The RP XP with MJ)) publishes right here on swtor-life.com every Friday. You can contact MJ directly with tips or comments, questions or to advertise your RP guild. Write to him directly at swtorliferp@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter @MJswtor. MJ is the RP columnist for swtor-life as well as the editor for swtor-life and swtor-spy. Looking for answers? www.swtor-spy.com. Problem solved.

Tags: Roleplay, roleplaying, RP, RP with MJ, RP XP with MJ

((The RP XP with MJ #15))

This is what some RPers do in beta before trying out a Flashpoint.

 
Veetha stood as she was commanded, in the rain and darkness of Dromund Kaas while her master went inside to report to a representative of the Dark Council.

The platform on which she waited was a circular speeder taxi pad a few hundred feet in the air above the rain washed streets of the Imperial Capitol. There were no guard rails, only the speeder taxi she and Lord Tagious brought here. Veetha stood soaked, in the middle of the pad, her shoulders hunched and her fists clenched. A squat maintenance droid and its human handler stood nearby, the droid buzzing and squawking as it worked over some inane droid task. The human leaned against a short stack of crates he had yet to move inside where it was dry. He stared at her from under the dripping bill of his cap.

Veetha felt his eyes upon her, felt his hatred of her alien presence, but also felt his lust at her female form made prominent by the rain pressing her robe down against her body. She didn’t look in his direction, didn’t acknowledge him. She only waited, still, her eyes locked on the distant door.

“Whatsa matter, Rattataki?” The human shouted to her through the downpour. Distant thunder echoed his question. “Afraid of a little rain?”

She fought against the shiver that rippled through her pale frame and tried calling upon the Force to build her rage against this bully, to still her quaking limbs and give her the strength to obey her master’s wishes.

The human stood and ran an oily rag over the hydrospanner he was holding. “Huh? What, you can’t address a superior species when I’m talking to you? You afraid the rain is going to wash out even more pigment from that dead leather you call flesh?”

His laugh rattled her, but she could feel her anger begin to build… slowly.

Lord Tagious emerged from the distant door and strode toward her, pulling his hood up over his gaunt features. At his approach, she stood tall. The human stopped his laughing and pretended to work.

“Lord Shundrax has allowed us one more week to locate the Jen’Hutis,” Tagious grumbled.

“Yes, my lord.”

“Come. We have work to do.”

“Yes, master.”

Veetha turned and started to follow her master to the waiting taxi speeder. Then she stopped and turned her cowl toward the human. When he looked up at her, she smiled, her thin black lips curling into a sneer as she pointed an arm toward him. The lightning that rippled from her fingertips seared the rain and filled the dank air with the pungent odor of ozone and burnt flesh as she sent the screaming human cartwheeling back over the edge of the platform.

Tagious rolled his eyes. “Amused?”

“Very.”

“Get in the cab.”

“Yes, my master.” Veetha did as she was instructed.

_____

So, that begs the questions, RolePlayers: What do you do while you’re waiting? How do you RP when you’re grinding or playing a Flashpoint?

 
During the recent successful Beta Weekend Stress Test, I had the pleasure of meeting up with some guildmates to try our hand at a run on the Esseless Flashpoint. We had talked about it for weeks leading up to this moment, exchanged Skype information so we could quickly vocalize our strategies, made our reservations for healer, tank and DPS….

 
Wait a minute. I thought this column was about RP. What’s this Healer, Tank and DPS stuff?

Hang on. I’m getting there.

 
As I said, we’ve been in the planning stages for the Esseless for some time. It was going to be our dry run at RPing through a Flashpoint or in-game operation.

We all wanted to try our hand at different classes and races, genders and alignments, but we all elected to reserve at least one character a piece for grouping on Heroics, Flashpoints and Ops. When we all recently received our SUPERBETA weekend passes, we decided to take a stab at the Esseless and see if our tactics meshed.

 
There were a few differences. For starters, my chosen Republic class kick-off character is going to be a Jedi Consular (aka. “The Healer” to all you non-RP gamers out there. And, yes, I know you know that. I’m just making sure you know I know that). We tackled beta a bit differently because some of us wanted to try out character classes that were different from what we intended to play at launch. We didn’t want to “spoil” anything story-wise, so some of us elected to test drive and bug report from different perspectives. For me that character was a Jedi Sentinel.

 
Yes, I know it’s not the “opposite” of the Consular, but I’ had already played up my Bounty Hunter to Level 17 and wanted to try something closer to “home.”

In a previous weekend beta, we all failed miserably at Esseless. For starters, our levels were mixed from 9 to 11, we didn’t have any healers in the group and we failed to stock up on buffs and medpacks before diving in blindly.

 
This time, however, we were closer to our intentions post-launch. Though our party consisted entirely of Force users, we at least thought to bring along a healer this time and an ample strategy for tackling the Flashpoint.

And before you say anything, yeah, I know there are those of you out there bragging that you ran through Esseless or other Flashpoints without a fill-in-the-blank, but that’s not relevant to what I’m talking about, so let me get to the point…

 
We won.

 
It was fun. It was relatively easy, but a blast nonetheless. It was an exciting time and we ran like a well-oiled machine that will only require slight tuning before launch. We joked, we laughed, we emoted like a bunch of noobs trying to RP to players of other languages. It was a silly good time.

 
We took a pass on RP because we were actually testing the game and some of us were playing “mannequins” (soulless characters just used for mechanics and not RolePlay). It was beta, after all, and we were busily working at ironing out our own bugs as well as those we might find in the game. We encountered a couple of hiccups during the Esseless run, but many of those could be chalked up to our own exuberance and lack of attention. “Oops. I… didn’t see that pit there. Guess I fell in.” That kinda thing.

 
After the episode, we took some time to hash things out via a shared email “After Action Report.” Among the things we agreed to include next time is the necessity to RP into the in-game episodic content so that we could keep the RPG part of MMORPG alive and well. And, as you know by now, I’m not going to play TOR unless I can play in-character. Flashpoint or not. This brought with it some logistical questions because we could all also see the necessity for Teamspeak/Vent/Skype, etc. while running through game content as a team. It was much easier to respond to a vocalized, “Our healer is drawing aggro!” than to take our eyes off the action to read the same thing typed in the chat box.

The RP strategy we came up with is a common sense line drawn between RP and OOC tactical planning. I want to share it with you in the hopes it’ll help your game play in- or out-of RP.

 
When the time comes to group up for a Flashpoint, we’ll form up in character. A Jedi may take his Padawan along as part of her training. A Trooper may call upon a Smuggler to give him transportation to X coordinates. One way or another, we’ll all end up at the entrance to the Flashpoint, and we’ll all be fully stocked on whatever we’ll need: Medpacks, Stims, all our hotkeys programmed and ready, etc. We’ll work our way into the event in-character, possibly throwing out some ideas in OOC chat if someone hasn’t already pre-scouted the event and fed the rest of us some intel.

For example, transportation aboard the Esseless to a Republic war zone would be enough of an excuse to bring a party together.

 
What about during the event? When does voice come in?

 
The rule is this: Strategy is RolePlayed IC (In Character). Tactics are spoken OOC (Out Of Character). For example, a strategy might be written as, “Excuse me, Master Kendris. I’m sensing a great deal of Imperial activity beyond this door. May I suggest our heavily armed Corporal Wex lead the way?” A tactic might be spoken as, “I’ll get the guy on the right, you get the guy on the left. Watch the boss for ranged attacks.”

 
As a rule, we won’t speak during cut scenes and dialog choices, nor during RP. Any veteran RPer worth his or her salt will tell you that RolePlayers don’t use voice chat during games because it breaks immersion, particularly when you have male players with female characters and vice-versa. It’s also rare to find someone who can pull off a good Jennifer Hale impression better than Jennifer Hale herself, so RP is best left to type.

While we messed around in beta and laughed our way through some of the conversation choices some of our guildmates used, we know we’ll stick to IC post-launch and approach the conversation choices appropriate to our own character’s background.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the Esseless by now. But, for those of you hiding under a rock until launch day (Just a hair over two weeks as I write this!), I’ll present the following spoiler-free. If you don’t trust me, skip down to the last part of this article.

At one point during the Flashpoint we hit a live-or-die Dark vs. Light decision. The end result favored the Light Side though we did see one of our members sporting the little red inverted angry triangle, an indication his response favored the selfish, easy, dastardly, or otherwise evil path. In our emailed A.A.R., he suggested that such a situation “live” could require an in-character “sit down” where we hash out his misguided foolishness in-character—or succumb to his debating skills and “turn” his way for next time. The cool thing about the Flashpoints (at least where the Esseless and some other early-level events are concerned) is that we had opportunities while “on the stage” to RP between conflicts or before or after cut scenes.

 
THE LAST PART OF THIS ARTICLE

So, the point of this trip down memorybeta lane is to point out that you can have it both ways. Those of you wondering how you can RP through in-game content or play the in-game content through your RP can rest assured that the scripting and staging in Star Wars: The Old Republic is very RP friendly.

The only advice I could give at this point is to be wary of potential enemy spawn points. Once you clear a room, move to a distant corner near the entrance to the next room to avoid having enemies appear in the midst of your RP. Trust me. It’s embarrassing.

Going forward we have a plan to split our foursome into two duos, covering Ord Mantell and Tython until we reach the Republic fleet and the Mad Skillz of our Advanced Classes. That’s not a bad way to go about it. You can build an RP rapport with a friend or guildmate one-on-one as you handle starter world Heroics, quests and XP grinds, all in-character while you get used to your character’s voice and the game mechanics.

What if you’re a loner? What if you want to play the game and enjoy the story BioWare has carved out for you? What if you want to RP, but don’t have anyone to RP with at launch?

Tune in next Friday. I think I can help.

MJ is an editor with swtor-spy.com and swtor-life.com. He writes a regular column about RolePlay in Star Wars: The Old Republic for swtor-life. You can contact him directly at swtorliferp@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter @Mjswtor.

Tags: roleplayers, roleplayers. rp xp with mj, RP

((The RP XP with MJ #14))

I hope those of you relative to my time zone here in the U.S. had a spectacular Thanksgiving, and I hope those of you about to try Star Wars: The Old Republic for the first time ever during today’s launch of the Beta Stress Test Weekend have as much fun testing the game as I have.

Since I’ve been tied up with all kinds of holiday fun this week, not to mention all the holiday fun we’ll be experiencing in open–err, I mean ‘weekend‘–beta, I thought I’d make this week’s RP XP with MJ much, much shorter. In fact, I’m going to make it so short I’m not even going to write it.
I’ll be back next week with a very special edition of ((The RP XP with MJ)). Until then, good hunting out there in Betaland! And, if you see someone throw up a “LFG-RP” in General chat, it’s probably me. Come say ‘hi’… In character, of course.
Now, I’ll head out and let these guys take it from here. You’ve probably heard that RolePlayers “hear voices.” Well, sometimes we like to let ‘em out. These guys, whom you might recognize, wanted to come out and say a few words about what they’re thankful for….

YULEL, The Smuggler
“Hi, guys! Hope you’re really likin’ the story so far. And, yeah, yeah, I know. I should keep the shard of what’s-is. I know. Workin’ on it. I just wanted to say ‘hi’ and thank all of you for following the RP XP with MJ. And, hey, do us all a favor. When you find him in-game, harass him in character. I love to watch him get all flustered. Haa!”
KENDRIS, The Jedi Knight
“Hello, readers of the RP XP with…. What does that even mean? I mean… What’s an XP? Is that a type of speeder? A disease? Why am I associated with a disease? *sigh* Well… May the Force be with your XPs, whatever they are.”
WEX, The Trooper
“Hoo-rah! It’s good to know ya. Glad you’re stickin’ with us. If you come across any tips or tricks on how to drive back the Imps, you got my address. I’d be plenty thankful. Until next friday, keep your recharge packs dry, your armor buffed, and your sights set on victory! For the Republic!”
TARIK, The Padawan
“Greetings, noble readers. Did, um… Did Yulel say anything about me? Oh,um… I’m thankful for the Jedi Code. It keeps me grounded. At least that’s what Master Kendris keeps telling me. …So… Did she?”
MISHA VU-DON, The Consular
“May the Force be with you all, may your days be filled with the light of knowledge and may you find your way in the darkest night.”
JENLA RUF, The Imperial Agent
“I don’t have time for you worms. I’m thankful that I’m a fictional character and don’t have to deal with your moronic presence. I– OUCH!”
BOARSCH, The Bounty Hunter
“I’m thankful that I’m standing next to a lovely Chiss Agent whose posterior always seems to be just a ‘pinch’ away. Oh… and I’m thankful for guns. Big guns. And fire.”
VEETHA, The Sith Apprentice
“I am thankful that my master has allowed me to live, and to learn from him. And I will be thankful when he allows me to unleash my full potential!”
DARTH TAGIOUS, The Sith Marauder
“Do not look at me.”
LORD SHUNDRAX, The Sith Inquisitor
“I have not yet appeared in the tale that unfolds with the beginning of each RP XP with MJ… but I assure you… It is YOU who shall be thankful when I do.”
…

((The RP XP with MJ)) appears right here on swtor-life.com every Friday. MJ is swtor-life’s RP columnist and an editor for swtor-life.com and swtor-spy.com (which, he says, is extremely cool. You should all check it out!)

You can contact him directly with questions, comments, RP invites or column ideas at swtorliferp@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter @MJswtor.
See ya next week!

Tags: MJ, Roleplay, RP, RP XP with MJ

((The RP XP with MJ – SPECIAL REPORT))

Behold, my very first RP in SWTOR. Thank you, Tyliana, whoever you were.

I’m a dedicated heavy RolePlayer. So, what do you think I wanted to test first upon setting foot in the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic?

Yup. Crafting.

Nah, just kidding. It’s RP! I was curious to check out the chat system, emotes, and the areas that could serve as backdrops for RP scenarios. I also wanted to see if it was possible to engage in RP-related PVP and how well RP adapted into the flash points or the scores of missions. Let’s take a look….

I have to say, as far as RP goes, Bioware loves us.

Sure, there might be some knits to pick, but that’s all relative to your type of RolePlay and your level of tolerance on some things. For the purpose of this article, I’m just going to talk about my own personal RP experience during beta testing and how each of the points I mentioned panned out under close inspection through an RolePlayer’s eyes.

The chat system is a lot better than I thought it would be heading toward launch, and I’m sure it will only get better. The major drawback is that general/open/local chat is area-wide, meaning a conversation between two people on Hutta will be heard by everyone on Hutta. The good news is that the ubiquitous MMO command “/whisper” works perfectly, you can respond with an easy “/r” then simply hit RETURN to reply from then on. The last person who /whispered you will be the one you automatically reply to just tapping into the chat window.

Guild channels also exist, but I didn’t get a chance to check them out in beta, and there’s also a Party channel; an easy solution if you’re going to RP with a small group and don’t want your dialog and exposition lost in the sea of general “How duz you make these works?” and “Wasn’t that a great episode of House last night?” chatter.

As of this writing, not all the emotes were complete. Keep in mind, it’s still beta, so I’m sure we’ll see improvement here. For example, “Bow” works just fine, but “Respectful Bow” results in the text: “Character bows respectfully to character” with the characters’ proper names in place of ‘character’ in this example. Bioware has a starfreighter-sized list of emotes for RPers to use, and they’re organized into categories in sub-menus: Emotion, General, Greeting, Social, Tactics and Action. It’s easy enough to locate them all by mouse. If you’re a speed typist and prefer to throw out a slash-emote, you can do that too. But, here it gets tricky. I had some difficulty with it. If I was in the Party channel, for example, and typed “/e sit,” I would simply ‘say’ “/e sit” in Party dialogue. You have to back out of the chat channel you’re in — or out of the auto response — to type out emotes. I couldn’t figure out how to do this, but as I said, it could just be me and not the system. If you figure it out, let me know.

Oh, and yes, RP fans, you can very easily keybind a “walk” toggle. One of the things I enjoyed doing was toggling on my “walk” and mouse-wheeling into first-person view while exploring. And talk about immersion! You can slide easily into first-person mode while chatting in-character, actually soaking up the first-person point of view of your character from your character’s eyes. Literally.

As far as locations for RP I only have this to say: THANK YOU, BIOWARE!

I only visited six locations (two were fleet hubs loaded with vendors and trainers — and the coveted VIP area for you lucky CEers out there), and I haven’t even scratched the surface of those maps.

Every planet is immense, with huge tracks of explorable land and just as many interior locations not closed to class or quest. Sure, there are mobs of enemies or beasts out in the wilds, and they all re-spawn rather quickly, but it’s not hard to find a remote area away from them that can substitute for any other similar location in the Star Wars universe. For example, I’m currently RPing a scenario with some guildmates in FRP that involves establishing a hidden Jedi enclave on the little-known world of Nazzri, a planet of rolling grasslands on the outskirts of the mid-rim, just up the Randon Run from Kashyyk. There are several secluded grassy areas on Tython that can pass for Nazzri in RP, so any of my Jedi guildmates (at any in-game level) and I can move our FRP in-game with no problem.

Coruscant and Drumond Kaas are both huge and sprawling. Coruscant, in particular, has a vast expanse of walkways and spacious areas that will inspire a lot of first-person view gawking at its sheer titanic magnificence. While on Coruscant, I found dozens of remote, secluded or out-of-the traffic lane areas that can serve as RP stages. I spent some time in a remote corner of the Republic Senate concourse just enjoying the view. There were scores of off-the-track areas here to explore that I could see as perfect RP zones where you’ll be free of “griefers” and the like. Need an interior location for your RP scenario? No problem. Every planet and station I visited has endless possibilities for hiding out and planning that back-stab, advanced operation, or friendly rendezvous.

Want to RP into a Flashpoint? Easy. While I worked out my Jedi character on Tython, two friends worked in tandem on Ord Mantel, bringing up their trooper and smuggler characters. A few levels later we all met on the Republic social hub, Carrick Station. It was easy to bump into each other in-character in one of the side corridors near a trainer. And, it was easy to weave the story of the Esseless into our narrative before jumping into the Flashpoint. While we played through the Flashpoint OOCly, we could easily see where you could actually pepper the scenario with RP if you wanted. There were places where you could choose not to advance, pause for a moment after the battle and RP a bit while re-buffing or healing. Failing against a boss kicked you out of the scenario, but after regrouping and re-supplying, you and your party could jump back and and pick up where you left off as long as you didn’t break group. This was both good for keeping the Party channel alive with OOC tactical chatter as well as IC strategic chit-chat.

How about blending PvP into your RP? Is it possible? I can’t say from personal experience, but I can tell you what I witnessed and it thrilled me with the RP possibilities. While on Carrick Station, someone sent me a request to “duel.” A click of my mouse and the invite was declined (I was too busy exploring and, as you know, I’m not a PvPer). At first I thought it was a random invite into the PvP queue. A few moments later, however, and I realized it truly was an invite for a one-on-one same-faction duel. On one end of a corridor I caught a glimpse of a lightsaber ignition and a grenade detonation. Two individuals had apparently gone into “duel mode” and were fighting right there in the station while a group looked on. Now, from what I could see, no one else could interfere, and the two combatants could NOT harm or bother the other player characters. The duel was over in moments and both characters went back to what they were doing — the victor treated to a smattering of emoted cheers by the others. Could this be visually distracting if it happens near your private RP? Only if you let it. Could it actually physically bother you–like damage your character through the collateral damage of a blaster shot or grenade explosion? Nope. Not unless you’re actually in the duel. I’m looking forward to trying this mechanic because I could see it playing into RP scenarios rather slickly. Two bounty hunters vying for the affection of the same attractive Twi’lek. A smuggler and trooper draw weapons on each other after one accuses the other of cheating at a game of chance. A Jedi Master trains her apprentice with a “spontaneous” joust. Yup, it’s all possible.

So, bottom line: Is Star Wars: The Old Republic a good vehicle for RolePlay for anyone seeking character immersion in the Star Wars universe? In a word: Ohhellyes!

I’m sure I hadn’t even come close to covering all the possible bases when it comes to RP in TOR, but for those of you wondering if you could do this or that or the other thing, I hope I got your blood pumping just a tad more as the long-anticipated official launch is just around the corner and the huge stress-testing beta weekend looms even closer.

I look forward to hearing your own RP stories and running into you in-character when the game launches. Until then, May the RP Force be with you!

Final word: Please keep in mind that everything I’ve told you is subject to change. I hope most of it won’t since it’s just about perfect where RP is concerned, but it is still BETA for another month, and it’s possible the technical points within my review will be moot by the new year. Also, keep in mind that MMOs are ever-changing, and the Star Wars universe is a huge toy box of goodies for Bioware to play with. I’m sure more epic awesomeness is just around the corner. In the meantime, be patient, be cool, keep in mind it’s still beta, and enjoy the game.

MJ is the editor of swtor-life.com and the RolePlay columnist. ((The RP XP with MJ)) can be found right here every Friday. Follow him on twitter @MJswtor, or contact him directly at swtorliferp@gmail.com.

Tags: Roleplay, roleplayers. rp xp with mj, RP