Roleplayers? Community?

[spghat]

Im sad to hear about The Undead disbanding.. running an RP guild takes such a huuuuge amount of commitment and patience. As well as true RP. That is the URKS namesake, and becausr they never break character everyone respects them as an actual RP guild. That didnt happen over night though. I first joined them in 2008, and here they are three years later still asking for shineez and clomping umies.

I also did not think I'd make a good ork, but the alternative of trying to make a new guild requires mroe time than I could give so joingin them was the best choice I made!

[Ronk]

I also did not think I'd make a good ork, but the alternative of trying to make a new guild requires mroe time than I could give so joingin them was the best choice I made!

NOOOGRAAH

[Segellion]

Unfortunately I even believe the ORC's put very little effort into establishing a community. I had four members in my RP guild and put all the effort, patience into establishing a union with the ORC's, and got no success.

To roleplay successfully you don't need a guild, you just need players willing to participate, and that's something that UOSA lacks. And it's truly discouraging to receive no support from the rest of the community.

[Adunaphel]

Yeah, the big problem is that unless you can get that critical mass of people going, rp isn't really even worth the effort. Cant really get a good, engaging storyline going with only two or three people. Its definitely a tough thing to get going, especially here.

IL was going strong for a while, and I had a nice multi-paged piece of fiction written up that was going to be the first of a three part Shadowmire reconstruction arc. Now the guild is practically 100% inactive. No point in even finishing the thing.

[spghat]

Unfortunately I even believe the ORC's put very little effort into establishing a community. I had four members in my RP guild and put all the effort, patience into establishing a union with the ORC's, and got no success.

To roleplay successfully you don't need a guild, you just need players willing to participate, and that's something that UOSA lacks. And it's truly discouraging to receive no support from the rest of the community.

I call that statement...

Each time I've been on raids with the orcs the leaders ALWAYS reminds us to stay in character, ESPECIALLY whenever a guild comes along that has been known to RP with us. The reason the orcs have lived is because they adapt. They don't just RP all day long, they hunt, they pk, they craft....they play Ultima Online!

But to the core the orcs are an RP guild. They roleplay evil/neutral characters that lust for blood and shineez. If there was any failure of establishing a union with the orcs, it had to have been on your part because orcs are not hard to understand. Carry gold or gems in your pocket and you could have roleplayed as an Undead force that governs an army of orcs to do your bidding... instead you probably tried to engage in intelligent conversation and got clomped.

[Segellion]

I call that statement...

Each time I've been on raids with the orcs the leaders ALWAYS reminds us to stay in character, ESPECIALLY whenever a guild comes along that has been known to RP with us. The reason the orcs have lived is because they adapt. They don't just RP all day long, they hunt, they pk, they craft....they play Ultima Online!

But to the core the orcs are an RP guild. They roleplay evil/neutral characters that lust for blood and shineez. If there was any failure of establishing a union with the orcs, it had to have been on your part because orcs are not hard to understand. Carry gold or gems in your pocket and you could have roleplayed as an Undead force that governs an army of orcs to do your bidding... instead you probably tried to engage in intelligent conversation and got clomped.

I had thought it was that easy too, don't be mistaken to think it's quite as clear-cut as that. Understand that at the time of my offerings there was (and possibly still is) a lot of politics behind it. The orcs don't want to form a union with just anyone. Our discussions never even made it in game, I approached it with an open mind--I assure you, the fault was not on my part.

And in reality whoever's fault it is, is irrelevant. If I were them I would probably act the same way, I imagine a lot of guilds approach them trying to establish some roleplay storyline, but since all guilds are paper-thin compared to them, it's hard to take seriously. It's water under the bridge now, but my point was simply that the ORCS aren't the silver bullet of the roleplaying problem.

[Pied Piper]

I call that statement...

Each time I've been on raids with the orcs the leaders ALWAYS reminds us to stay in character, ESPECIALLY whenever a guild comes along that has been known to RP with us. The reason the orcs have lived is because they adapt. They don't just RP all day long, they hunt, they pk, they craft....they play Ultima Online!

But to the core the orcs are an RP guild. They roleplay evil/neutral characters that lust for blood and shineez. If there was any failure of establishing a union with the orcs, it had to have been on your part because orcs are not hard to understand. Carry gold or gems in your pocket and you could have roleplayed as an Undead force that governs an army of orcs to do your bidding... instead you probably tried to engage in intelligent conversation and got clomped.

I had thought it was that easy too, don't be mistaken to think it's quite as clear-cut as that. Understand that at the time of my offerings there was (and possibly still is) a lot of politics behind it. The orcs don't want to form a union with just anyone. Our discussions never even made it in game, I approached it with an open mind--I assure you, the fault was not on my part.

And in reality whoever's fault it is, is irrelevant. If I were them I would probably act the same way, I imagine a lot of guilds approach them trying to establish some roleplay storyline, but since all guilds are paper-thin compared to them, it's hard to take seriously. It's water under the bridge now, but my point was simply that the ORCS aren't the silver bullet of the roleplaying problem.

The Orcs are awesome.

[Ronk]

The orcs don't want to form a union with just anyone. Our discussions never even made it in game...

Ah, well theres one issue. The orcs will probably never form any sort of long term union with anyone. And they certainly won't sit around their orc fort discussing politics.

The only time I can ever remember the orcs sitting about 'talking' is on AI when we formed some rules of war with the shadowclan orcs.

The better approach is to treat the orcs like a wild animal. You wouldn't just wander out in the clearing and try to pet the bear. Bribe us with food and shineez (gold, gems, whatever) and drop them for the orcs. Sometimes you have to be quick at dropping them because in some cases we are on high alert and in bloodlust mode, so you'll quickly want to establish that you aren't trying to kill.

Don't get discouraged if the orcs tell you to go away. Just try again later. Eventually the orcs will see you as a shiney coin dispenser and not an 'enemy'. Once you get to this point, you may even be able to strike up some dialog or bribe us (with more shineez) into doing tasks for you.

Just realize, its very difficult for orcs to distinguish between friend and foe on normal conditions. All humans look the same to orcs (though I admit, pale bone deddies may be easier to spot). When you have some humans attacking and others trying to give tribute and talk...the orcs get confused really easily and revert back to a 'kill all and let Belok sort them out' mode.

[Pirul]

Orcs are cool, but Ronk's description is spot on. Gib shinnies, and walk away...or watch them kill each other. I have gone to their fort numerous times, and have for the most part been succesful in finding good fun. There always seems to be 10+ people on either side, and the fights are huge!!

Try not to loot, try to res, if you can, and they want, and generally have fun with them. I have never seen an Orc break character.

[Vishakt]

RIght. We RP truely. Don't metagame and think "orcs should be allied because they RP". Instead, think of how your evil guy could make a deal with orcs. Every orc is different too. Some want shineys, some food, some cydur, some the heads of enemies. Some might run with your humie for a day if it suited them.

The other thing is, whatever group you make needs to be viable for just a few people. If it is good it will grow. Then you adapt the guild. If you expect 20 people to show up it is doomed to fail. I love reading posts with new RP groups and tons of rules but they never make it because the structure can't handle a small number of players. As orcs we can play with 3 or 20 (20 is more fun) and that is important to our sustainability. We'll go active, then sleep, but we'll bounce back!

[spghat]

my favorite part about the undead though was seeing a dude at brittain... can't rememeber exact name but for argument sake we'll call him 'Jonathon Grasby'. And Jonathon Grasby was stumbling around bank puking, keeling over, and begging people to help him. Guild abreviation was UND, guild title was "Infected"..

I thought that was very clever. What Vishakt said though is spot on. Make a guild that is meant for a small group of 3-4, and, if you guys are active and do cool things it will survive. And when new people post "I want to RP" you will recruit your ass off and grow

SO to recap..
*do not metagame with orcs. gib shineez, fless, cyder, etc. Treat em like animals if you want to roleplay with their community.
*make guild for small group. don't make a guild called "Army of Merlin" when you have 4 members..
*don't fret about numbers. Just play with you guild and it will grow. Forum pictures of events are also another great way to advertise.

[Drunk Monk]

And they certainly won't sit around their orc fort discussing politics.

Politikz, hohoho

Ronk: "Ey Xuth, uu pro choiz ur pro lief?
Xuthakug: "Wut?"
Ronk: "Uu liek Prezidehnt Bawma?"
Xuthakug: "Ee nub knu wut uu blahin' bowt. Dat sum ummie?"
Ronk: "Yub. Hem dah klerg'goth ub ummies."

Xuthakug tuu Bahchock Bawma: "GIB SHINNIES JAT!!"

[Ronk]

And they certainly won't sit around their orc fort discussing politics.

Politikz, hohoho

Ronk: "Ey Xuth, uu pro choiz ur pro lief?
Xuthakug: "Wut?"
Ronk: "Uu liek Prezidehnt Bawma?"
Xuthakug: "Ee nub knu wut uu blahin' bowt. Dat sum ummie?"
Ronk: "Yub. Hem dah klerg'goth ub ummies."

Xuthakug tuu Bahchock Bawma: "GIB SHINNIES JAT!!"

Ne'rull ib pro choiz. Hiem ulweys hab feetus en pokut dat hiem clomp.

[Lagrath]

I just wanted to say that my ultimate goal on this server is to raise up Lagrath as my main character with the goal of having him as an evil RP character, and to have him in an evil RP guild in their guild town. I don't know if that will ever be possible, but it is still my goal.

On Lake Superior I had a small evil RP guild for some time that was a part of a coalition with 4 or so similar evil RP guilds (we called the alliance The League of Dark Nations and had out meetings in certain dungeon rooms). After that faded out, I played for some time on Atlantic as a part of the infamous The Order of the Ebon Skull, which was a really incredible experience.

Ignoring the fact that I'm currently the GM of small casual guild of people that came here together a few weeks ago, I swore to myself I wouldn't try to start and run something big as the leader on this server. Between being GM of my 2 UO guilds, my Ragnarok Online Guild, my top-level WoW horde pvp guild, its reincarnation in Warhammer Online, and being a graduate student, I have no time or energy anymore.

However, if someone else has the ideas and energy for an evil RP guild/town, I would definitely like to offer my services as a relatively experienced officer of some sort.

So there you have it...if nothing else, don't think people interested in this sort of thing never randomly join, one just did

[vlkFenris]

I'm here just for a day, still quite confused from some SA features (but i don't say, that i dislike them:)), but when i'll find some time, i would be glad to appear in some rp:) (and hope, i would catch up with you lads, i'm from czech republic and still not so used to english speaking). If it would not mind...