Join Bloodlines Vampire RP in Second Life

/me sighs contentedly. Thank you for starting my Monday off with that

I never know how to feel about Bloodlines. I agree it's a general pain in the ass, and I've had to deal with newbies' misconceptions about it too. But on the other hand, there's this overriding feeling that, well, surely HAVING a role does mean that you can sometimes do in-role things that other people don't like.

Because we do like vampires.

If someone said they had a line of leather clothes to sell and had the idea of buying a lot of 16sqm plots to put spinning ads for their store we would naturally advise them against it. It has nothing at all to do with the fact that they sell leather garments. It's the fact that they would be associating themselves with ad farms which is a quick way to a bad reputation.


Bloodlines is the same. Vampires are cool. No problem at all. They have several clothing and play styles and are sexy to boot. Any Buffy fan will tell you, vampire Willow was HAWT!! If you want to be a vampire, why would you want to tie yourself to a system that not only is designed to be a constant cash draw but also yields a bad reputation just by putting it on? Seriously, we have been over this again and again. The first post being nothing more than a sales pitch made us drop the gloevs sooner but even if Zen had asked nicer the consensus would be the same: find a vampire RP group and leave Bloodlines alone.

Hey Zen, that sounds cool. Could I invite you round to my place inworld for a meal sometime?

Pep (I do a real mean stake and chips)

Yumi, you can find much better role-playing games in SL than Bloodlines. I can name at least one off the top of my head that is better (not that it takes much, mind you) and that's World of Darkness, both old and new forms. I'm sure others will gladly chip in suggestions for various role play systems that might suit your fancy.

While I might not be fond of playing a vampire myself, I love vampires when they are done well. I just refuse to have anything to do with a game system that doesn't have the rules of "Don't drag non-RPers or non-system RPers into your roleplay." This rule is rather like the warning that is on hairdryers about using it while in the bath or shower... it's common sense, but needs to be STATED IN BOLD LETTERS for the common sense impaired.

But that's exactly my point. It's common sense, and I understand that's necessary.. but it's also destructive. In the vampire example, it transforms the idea of biting somebody into a huge drama fest revolving around making sure the other person won't stop RPing because you bit them - and they won't necessarily admit it, nor even know it at right that moment, so you wind up practically needing a signed permission slip. It also means that, no matter what the current plot is, "regular life" (for vampires or whoever) has to go on just the same or people would quit.

(And yes, I know that the problem of "if vampires bite too many people, all the blood leaves the city" is a genuine in-character problem that's an important part of classical vampire RP, but just having people walk out of the RP doesn't have the same effect and doesn't create plot the same way. In fact the core paradox of that form of vampire RP - "we have to do evil/antisocial stuff to live, but if we die, there is no-one to fight the REALLY evil/antisocial people" is so close to the actual problem of online RP itself, "Everyone wants their dream and not mine", that I wonder if that's something to do with its popularity)

Other RP games solve this by making the bite victims, and/or the "regular joes", into NPCs. Now I personally feel that adding "Prim Type: Avatar" (which could thus be scripted) would be a great advancement for SL so that it can do this.

Which is why I have the two-sided feeling about Bloodlines - it's not acceptable, but I kinda wish it could be.

all Ive seen of hte bloodlines is pushy vampire think they ares pestering me for a bite....

no thanks.

A shame the virtual sun doesn't make them virtually explode.

Depending on the GM or system, "feeding" is sometimes handled off screen to keep things moving. If you look at a table top game, you'll find that more often than not, you have a dice roll and be done with it, unless it's important to the plot. I can see using a combination of NPC avatars (for the plot important) and prim sculptures of avis (I'll call 'em blood dolls) for the "dice roll" feedings. This would work with almost any system, except Bloodlines, apparently.

I'd rather Bloodlines wasn't acceptable. It's not acceptable to drag others into your role-play whether it makes the "game" more realistic or not. Many of us go by other RP systems, so.. it'd be like playing a game of tag in the middle of of an ice hockey match. As I've said, if it's acceptable for them to send me bite invites, it's acceptable for me to set them on fire, as any proper pyrokinetic would do.

Hmm.. we're turning the thread into something instructive. We should probably stop doing that and do a proper thread-jack.

OMG I LOL'D

Sure, but in a tabletop game you have a closed group of people who are all always involved with the plot. In an open online game, you have to have something in-role that people can just "go off and do" independently at the times when their friends aren't around and they're not the center of plot attention. Otherwise, you get dragged into the "person arrives -> alone -> nothing to do -> person leaves -> next person is alone" catch-22, which I have witnessed kill entire RP sims. Furthermore, the larger your online role-play gets, the more people in that category there will be, so ultimately you need to have almost the entire role-play defined by the "independent" behaviour.



Exactly, that latter condition (with both acceptable) would be the most ideal one.

BLOODLINE VAMP




VAMP VAMP

I'll consider it once you reach the level of Duke as my subject in Tiny Empires

Sometimes I feel like the patron saint of forum misposts...

Just want to point out that a lot of classy people do play the Bloodlines game, and before we let slip the dogs of forum etiquette, this is exactly where drama comes from:

A, B and C are members of a group.

A, B, and C do action X which irks some people.

D, E, and F are now broadly painted with the same brush.

Two or three distrustful cliques instantly created! Whee. How fun.

Or, we can just sorta let it slide and be cool. Alright, someone posted in the wrong area. Not exactly ruining my morning! If it really got my knickers in a twist, I'd report it quietly: "please move to correct area." Well, nothing really gets me going; I've never reported any forum posts.

Not that I'm really holier than any of thou, I must confess. I am generally attracted to these threads because of the goofy lolcat pictures that inevitably arise.

Just sayin...

I have a few friends in world that were/are part of bloodlines. They never asked to bite me yet. Should I be offended?

Damn he's cashing in on the Twilight craze...

So you mean...





...an that's a prize winning comment!

I don't want to be a vampire. I just want the sexy clothes...

Imnotgoing Sideways: Oh my god. They got Brittainy from 'Daria'. Why did they do that?

/me pays Love 500L...here, go buy yourself something sexy and just skip the vamp part

Nani? (O.o)

Thanks! Anybody else want to help save me??

I'm collecting for a "Home For Fallen Women".

Pep (Do you come into that category?)

if there's great people in the RP, fine but posting a thinly veiled classified in RA will earn it disrespect... Im glad NCI is posted as a no bite zone.... it happens there they earn a ban. no matter who.