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[Whitelist] Guide to RP from Opti

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Opti
 Opti
(@elmomick)
Reputable Member Customer

Community guide to RolePlay

For the community, by the community

This is written from my past experiences within other communities and games, some things might not be here by rule, but this is how I and some others Roleplay and experience way more fun out of it this way.

There will be a PDF at the bottom if you wish to read it that way.

- Character

   - Background

   - Structure and writing

   - Creativity and inspiration

   - Realism and research

   - Flaws

- RP

   - The start

   - Think before you act

   - Other survivors

   - Death

- Weapons, gear and loot

- Banditry

Whenever I use examples or mention the name Michael, most of it can be found in the Application I have written. This can be found here:

https://www.unturnedroleplay.com/community/apply-for-whitelist/michael-opti-ramirezs-application/

Also I have written a story for the application of Desire

https://www.unturnedroleplay.com/community/apply-for-whitelist/desires-application-revised-by-opti/

So if you wish open it in a different tab or window and read along!

 


Character

This is the key to your Roleplaying, everything you do translates to and and comes from this. If you want to Roleplay correctly, half the work is having a proper character, if your character has holes, some people might find out what plot holes it has, and will either point this out in character or mention this out of character. 

For instance: Michael is Ex-Military, once he met a character named John Adams. After a few exchanged lines and a decent RP conversation, he got to know his name. This name was John Adams. And Michael being Michael he wanted to know some details about him, preoccupations, perhaps some skills that are of use in this post-apocalyptic environment. John Adams replied “I’m a sniper in the Military”, after which Michael replied “So what is your rank within the military?” Adams replied:”This is classified” Michael continues “I am an ex Military Warrant Officer, show respect for your veteran and most likely higher ranking officer”. He replied with “A private”. After this Michael confronted him in game about the things he did wrong, said he “was trying to look tough with just throwing around roles within the army, the non-proper terms etc”. After this Adams got the nickname of “Private Sniper”. I myself as a player have no prior experience within the army, however reading up on some articles about the army, doing some quick research got a general idea of how the structures and roles work, and I’ll use that in my RP.

Once again, a solid character makes Roleplaying a lot easier, stick to your back ground, stick to his or her personality. Burn this “character” into your mind, so you cannot mess it up.


 

Background

A lot of people have asked me, Opti personally to either help, fix or review their background before or after them posting it. So now I am writing this so people can read this instead.

 

Structure and writing

Some of the most common mistakes when it comes to writing your application/background seems to be that people forget to add structure, think about how they write it, etc. Whenever I, myself apply for a game or anything else role play related I try to bring structure to my story.

 I’ll always start to tell people about what he was before the “situation” he is currently in. Tell something about his personal life, what shapes him. For instance: Michael is an Ex-Military of the USA Army, after which he moved to Colombia to join the FARC. If you look at the person record you can also find out that this person had a wife and a few kids, yes I did not 100% keep to what I am writing right now, but this is something I personally find that makes something interesting, having something different. 

After this I always like to see what happened during the “event”. What this person did during all of this, how he reacted, a bit of story that would make a portion of his personality. Was he cowardice, heroic, ignorant etc.

In the end I like to mention something that happened after all of this, how this character handles certain situations. Perhaps something about how he came to gain resources, contacts, perhaps how he dealt with some bandits, maybe even a whole horde. But do keep in mind to keep this as realistic as possible.

To see this more in practice, Desire’s application might be a better example and yes, I have written this story as well. https://www.unturnedroleplay.com/community/apply-for-whitelist/desires-application-revised-by-opti/

Something I witness a lot is that people forget to use punctuation, capital letters where it should be, and leave out capitals where it does not matter. Use your commas, stops and everything like that.

All of this would already make for a better reading experience.

 

Creativity and inspiration

Creativity is something that can be somewhat learned, however most of it is dictated from person to person, but even if you have a smidgeon of creativity, it should be more then enough to write a background. And if you cannot do it on your own, just look at a relative and use that as his background, a ground for your story. Take my father for instance. “John is a 54 year old Captain for a dredging company, making quite some money.” I wont go into further detail, but this should already be a good start. So if you can’t make something up, just get yourself as your background, a relative or a friend.

If you need some inspiration, just watch movies, series, perhaps read a book or two. And the interesting part of this is, as long as it seems realistic, use it! It doesn’t even have to be post-apocalyptic. We’re speaking here about a person, not a scene out of a zombie movie, just who, what, and what has he/she has become. Maybe with a few extra’s here and there.

 

Realism and Research

One of the key points of a character is to keep it realistic. Don’t go overboard, a teacher might make a more interesting character than an ex-military. A 50 year old construction worker with minimal military experience, who cannot fly helicopters or planes, who has no idea how to farm nor fish, is way more interesting to interact with than a 24 year old, special forces general who is trained in all the weaponry you can imagine, can fly both planes and helicopters, has the torso and arm strength to handle the highest of the high caliber weapons. Keep it realistic.

If you write a story which contains quite some things you have no knowledge about, do research! For instance I had some basic idea about what military entails and some basic knowledge about rank-structure, so what I did is I read up on it quickly, spent about 15-20 minutes to get a better idea of all of this. Also looked up some wars he had been in. Same goes for the FARC, read up on it a little, did some quick research and used that as well. Now, I can use most of this in RP. So do your research before you mention anything in your application of which you have no knowledge.

Also, no character is able to do everything, perhaps yours can farm like Ol’ McDonalds, but cannot fish, perhaps yours can fire snipers, but cannot handle explosives, this makes for a more realistic approach.

 

Flaws

What makes an interesting character is not the things the character can do, no. It’s about the things that he cannot do, the things that trigger his emotions. For instance Michael gets really angry whenever anyone speaks bad about his family, you can see it in the application. 

But also the small things, for instance Michael has been looking for someone who can fly a helicopter, and now he has found is pilot, Jeff. Nothing is more bland than having a character be able to do everything, take everything etc. This both applies to the story and RP in game.


 

RP

RP, Roleplay is the act of acting something out, acting like your are something you’re actually not, acting out a scenario which mostly relies on improvisation. Where people are known, where realism is key, where stories intertwine, where stories are made, started or ended.

 

The start

Now we have everything sorted, your character has a solid story, he may have some flaws, some goals etc. It’s time to begin. Since this is about unturned, I’ll speak about it as if it is unturned. So what you want to do, when you just enter the server, is get your basics; get some food, water, a matter of long range communication, something to defend yourself, perhaps even a proper fire arm. After this it might be good to look for some materials to fortify and barricade a home and claim it as your own.

During all of this you might encounter a few other survivors, and you being a lonesome wolf it might not be in your best interest to start just robbing people, you do not know the local rules, perhaps there is a local rules, some mysteries. It might be best to ask about this first, before becoming a store owner, a bandit or whatever else. See what might be needed and if so, if it fits your character. And aside from all of this, there are more undead then there are living, you might want to lower the stock of undead first before you start lowering the amount of the living around you, but be wary, not everyone is honest, trustworthy.

 

Think before you act

Like it’s said in the title, think before you act. With every action that might have an unstable reaction or any RP situation in general, think about this:”Would my character do this?”. “Would my character rob this person and anger him? Perhaps even leading to an act of revenge later down the line, perhaps even ending up with my character dead?”. Just think about your character, his personality and his past before making big decisions.

 

Other survivors

There are other people that you should interact with, don’t stick to your group mates, go out, explore, find people, interact. Now if you meet someone the thing is, in unturned you can see the persons name. Now an important thing to do is not use that name, yet. Ask for the persons name, perhaps they give a fake one, perhaps they merely give you a nickname, their first name or just everything. To keep remembering these and not to get confused, I tend to write them down together with some details, for instance I have written here “Cpt McMillen - Head of NCR, -Robbed me, -Saved me”. So I can use this in the future.

There are cases where you hear about a person, his name and perhaps his wrong doings. Now imagine this, someone in real life tells you about someone, do you know what they look like? NO! So, if you meet someone, and you can see the persons name and you recognise it, do not mention it. Do everything again, ask their name and if it links up, act on it. If you do not keep to this, it is considered FailRP and Metagaming

 

Death

Death is an iffy subject. There are no clear rules about it, however what I tend to use on most Hardcore-RP servers and games is the new life rule. You basically forget the 10-15 minutes before you have died, most Hardcore-RP servers on different games use this rule. This is mainly to prevent any kind of FailRP revenge scenarios, however if you have people around, and they survive, they will remember and can help you catch up about what happened. And yes, then you can go on your revenge campaign. How you survived this “death” is either up to you, perhaps you nearly bled out but was able to tear up your shirt to patch yourself up temporarily, perhaps you didn’t die from dehydration but merely passed out, perhaps the bat didn’t crack your skull but merely knocked you out.

Now if you want, your character can actually die, perhaps you think of this scene to be the perfect moment for your character to die.. So don’t come back with that name or character. 


 

Weapons, gear and loot

Some of the mistakes I see whenever I play on Nylex’s whitelisted servers is that a lot of people just hoard everything they find. And for me, that is kind of killing the emersion.

What me and a few others do is mostly keep to your character when it comes to weapons. My character Michael is Ex-Military and was fighting for FARC. What is mainly used in the rebel forces of Colombia is Russian made weapons, RPKs, AKs, RPG-7’s, PKMs and weapons a like. Ofcourse he has the experience to handle other assault rifles and a decent skill. But Michael has no experience when it comes to demolition, long range rifles, he wont even take a chopper, since he has no experience flying choppers.

Lets me show you another example;

https://www.unturnedroleplay.com/community/apply-for-whitelist/the-application-of-noah-mcslide/

Noah McSlide is a history teacher with barely any experience with shooting side arms, from what I know from playing with him is that he only has a Pistol and a Melee weapon, yes this will limit himself when it comes to combat, however this makes for a way more interesting character, and to be honest, more interesting than Michael. This creates the ability for Noah to seek out someone who can teach him how to shoot SMGs, LMGs, Assault rifles and anything aside from that.

What I used to do and still am, is look for a set of gear that fits my character, that people can recognise my character by. I think this is something to add to this list as well. You want to recognise people, or the opposite if they want to do some shady stuff. For instance wear a mask, muffle your voice when you take someone hostage, so this individual cannot recognise the people behind the robbery or hostage taking.

What seems to be a trend is that everyone seems to just take everything they find, it’s not about necessity, it’s about greed. I get it if some people are hoarders, but for some reason everyone seems to become one. I know of a few who actually collect the things they need. You can look in my storage if you want to see an example. If my character finds a gun he cannot use or does not like, he most of the time salvages it into it’s components which he uses for other things. In terms of Unturned this will be Metal, and a plank or two. I think this is something that is greatly overseen, however I do think people should think more about their character instead of being the greedy PvPer.


 

Banditry

Personally I do not like the subject but it’s something that I think is needed. Personally from what I experienced in the past is that a great roleplaying bad guy makes for good stories and roleplay. However I am afraid that people are too far up PvP server’s asses that they do not know how to do it differently.

I do not expect a baddie to make someone strip down naked just to get everything they can, now if this bad guy is a pervert, this might make sense. But most people around these parts do banditry to gain loot, they tell you to drop everything, strip down within a few seconds or get shot. The timer is not necessary, if you have a proper role play situation, the people will value their lives most likely more than risking dying. Second, you know how long it takes to take off combat gear, helmets, backpacks, vests etc? You should ask the person to drop their rifle and their backpack, after which you could write this in area chat: “*Pats down to find anything related to long range communication and anything that could be considered lethal*” If people do not comply to this, that would be considered FailRP, since you acted out through chat, checking the person on having anything pointy or shooty, and disabling their chance of communicating with friends or allies.

Bandits are still people too, they would want to interact with others, so it might be best to use codenames, disguises, muffle your voice so no-one can recognise you. If you have a victim like me, I do write down any kind of detail and might act upon it whenever I meet that person again, and yes, that might end in a death, torture or a reverse robbery. Once again, think before you act.


Quote
Topic starter Posted : 07/07/2017 8:29 pm
danalby2, Winup, Nylex and 1 people reacted
Opti
 Opti
(@elmomick)
Reputable Member Customer

Guide to RP-Building will be made, but this will most likely be made after the Steve's RP Modpack issue has been sorted so I can do it "mods" specific.

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : 07/07/2017 8:32 pm
Nylex reacted
MrRawr
(@mrrawr)
Noble Member

e f f o r t

ReplyQuote
Posted : 07/07/2017 8:52 pm
Timothy
(@fleikez)
Estimable Member Customer

Damn daniel.

ReplyQuote
Posted : 07/07/2017 9:08 pm
gsop
 gsop
(@gsop)
Trusted Member

Great guide!

ReplyQuote
Posted : 07/07/2017 9:42 pm
MrRawr
(@mrrawr)
Noble Member

There should be a tl;Dr most people (like me) are too lazy to read this entire lotr franchise.

ReplyQuote
Posted : 07/07/2017 11:44 pm
Opti
 Opti
(@elmomick)
Reputable Member Customer

Thanks everyone, took me long enough

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : 08/07/2017 12:56 pm
Jelly
(@jelly)
Trusted Member Customer

Very useful guide for alot of players! Well written! 

ReplyQuote
Posted : 08/07/2017 9:23 pm
Nylex
(@admin)
Illustrious Member Admin

What a brilliant write up that captures the image for these servers perfectly. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, I really appreciate your efforts within this community.

ReplyQuote
Posted : 09/07/2017 6:55 am
Opti
 Opti
(@elmomick)
Reputable Member Customer

Thank a lot folks, I will post an update soon, I have received questions about taking people hostage and raiding in a proper, less RP-Damaging way.

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : 09/07/2017 1:55 pm
PFQ
 PFQ
(@potionflingaqueen)
Honorable Member

 Waiting on that building thing, good guide, Noah McSlide the example.

ReplyQuote
Posted : 09/07/2017 3:42 pm
Timothy
(@fleikez)
Estimable Member Customer

Try and keep the upcoming guides more compact I mean there are many TL;DR people out there... but so far for people who are new to RP it's good.

ReplyQuote
Posted : 10/07/2017 2:25 am
Opti
 Opti
(@elmomick)
Reputable Member Customer

With the return of whitelist, I thought it was a good idea to give this a naughty lil' bump

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : 28/12/2017 9:34 pm
PFQ
 PFQ
(@potionflingaqueen)
Honorable Member

Not even a naughty bump, this needs more recolonization for it could help bucket-loads of people whenever they're trying to join Whitelisted but do not know what to write about or how to write.

ReplyQuote
Posted : 28/12/2017 9:44 pm
Şçøŕpïøņ
(@scorpion)

Yes i remember in the 1600's I found a whitelist my eyes teared up then I saw this and my eyes exploded then couple years later everyone was dead

ReplyQuote
Posted : 29/12/2017 1:30 am
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