Role Play in SL?

So i was randomly tping into places yesterday and i stumbled across a few of role play Sim's. It kinda got me thinking that most of them seem too be Gor based or at least violent with lots of guns and fighting and not much else going on.

Now i come from a background of playing RPG games like Final Fantasy and Star Ocean etc. So i have a little question for all you role players out there.

If i decided too join a role-play sim I'd like something that is not just forever fighting, I'd like something with a little interaction but not like in Gor where I'm limited too two roles. I like the idea of the choice between human, neko, vampire etc.

Is there any Sim's out there that are like this? where role play is actual role play and not just a sim masquerading as a fighting simulation?

yes and too many to be listed, since the list outdates faster than it is written.

"Final Fantasy" falls into the video-game genre wich has many regions that are a mix of many video games, so just search for other popular video games, too.
These video-game, regions then usually mix with catoon regions.

Also search for Popular novels every now and then, because there is usually some nice StarWars or MiddleEarth places here or there and they are not swords all the time, i barely ever saw fighting action in these though there are gun-selling venderr, because fighting is focussed in sandboxes that allow guns.
Theres also some historical sims, sometimes up to educational value, like ancient european or eastasian states that display a lot of their old style.

You gotta give the goreans that, they usually build the best medieval scenerys.

The Crack Den is a popular urban role play. I didn't observe a lot of shooting, just a lot of disfunction - I mean role played disfunction. It's kind of interesting, but then I have to restore my spirits in some elven woods for a while.

Karamoon~

Ollj - I'm not really looking for anything like Final Fantasy, i'm a huge fan of Final Fantasy series and have all the games i would not want too dissapoint myself by visiting a FF sim and finding it not really at all like the games so im trying too keep away from those. Plus they would generally revolve around fighting i'd imagine.

I'm not a big book reader or any type of starwars fan so they'd be outta the question aswell.

What i'm looking for i guess is a place where i can choose from a diverse list of roles and i don't have too stick too a human avi if i don't wish too. I like spending time as a neko for example so i'd love too roleplay along those lines. I don't mind the sim too have violence or fighting as long as i don't have too participate if i do not wish and i don't want to be in a place either where everyone is a fighter and those who are not are left on the outside.

I've found a couple of sims where you are felt left out if your not part of the fighting group.

Weston - I'm still under 14 days so i can't enter crack den yet i'm afraid lol.

Kira, what's Karamoon?

http://www.bnjrps.com/regiondetail.php?name=Karamoon
That along with Ravenscraig, are very good fantasy roleplay areas that use B&J RPS. Best RPS I know, and more roleplay character based than just combat.

The usual reason for the focus on combat is that, because there are no NPCs in SL role-plays, and there aren't even usually GMPCs (sadly, the owners of the sim are far more likely to want to play all-powerful PCs ), you can't just create conflicts that PCs win by definition. Conflicts have to be either a) nonexistant (in which case you role-play a series of social chats, which can be quite enjoyable, but it's more limited) or b) fairly resolved (which is what combat systems do).

Of course combat is not the only kind of conflict, you can have social conflict too, but between people who don't know each other OOC that has a terribly tendancy to boil over into drama between the real people.

If you're looking for something different...you might want to check out October Country.....they do RP of Ray Bradberry type stories. It's a great sim, worth checking out. Here's the owners site...... It's a PG area......and there's some really great folks that run it and hang out there.

http://octobercountry.wordpress.com/

This is very true. It sucks that combat systems are needed, but in a practical sense they are, in order to keep things fair. I observed, for a while, a sim where combat systems were not used at all - all combat was literally RP'd out. In a perfect world such a method of combat would be ideal, because the action is easier for spectators and other characters to get into when it's described by words rather than numbers. But the world is not perfect, and there are many problems.

The first, and most noticable problem, is that a five-minute fight will take an hour of RP as everybody has to describe every slight action and reaction that is relevant to the fight. Even assuming the actors do not mind spending the time, you always end up with a situation where the aforementioned five-minute back alley fight between two people has attracted a crowd of 30 onlookers who've suddenly converged on the position, having walked from the other side of the sim, and some of whom will want to RP "reacting" to seeing the fight and jumping in. That's dumb. But the more serious problem is the fact that nobody wants to lose. Many people will be generous and "take hits", from time to time, but they expect some reciprocation from their opponents, who themselves may not be so generous. This leads to situations where people develop Matrix-like powers/strengths/abilities and will make the situation simply not fun for someone who wants to RP a normal person in such a setting. For example:



I mean, fights in such sims actually look like that. When people don't fight "fair", it leads to out-of-character problems between people, which will unavoidably filter into the roleplay thingy.

On the other hand, combat systems also have problems. For one thing, they interrupt the narrative flow: people descriptively roleplay out an escalating conflict to the point where violence breaks out; at which point the "roleplay" effectively stops while the action happens. So you have thirty minutes of verbose roleplay, followed by two minutes of nothing, during which several events happen that must be properly responded to in order for the story to continue. Without narration, a lot of people will be clueless as to what exactly happened, the extent of injuries, etc. For another, indirect participants and observers cannot "roleplay" their reactions to the fight as it occurs because there isn't time. They can't type out a description of how they've ducked and crawled into an alley for safety; they have to physically move their avatar there, and everybody else has to assume the particulars. It destroys the cinematic atmosphere. And third, combat systems can easily make the game expensive for roleplayers. You cannot simply roleplay fairly acquiring and wearing a kevlar vest, for instance, because the combat system will not recognize it when combat happens. Likewise, if your character is a sniper, the combat system likely will not recognize the skill and accuracy versus your opponent, whose character is a street thug - especially if the combat system is collision-based, because the SL physics engine doesn't care how good your character's aim is supposed to be. You actually have to buy armor/weapons/things that are compatible with a system in order for the things your character does/is/wears to be reflected in your stats, and many people consider that unfair.

A small group of us started our own Roleplay - not sim specific. We are a band of aliens drawn together by a great humanitarian. His death brought us to 'SL' where we will travel together to find his killer. We also try to experience new things so we go places as a group. We don't have a set RP time - in fact one or more of us can have an 'adventure' that will be published on our blog. The only rule? You have to take the last name of Exonar - and we've all created alts to do this. If you'd like to know more IM me in world..or send me an email

[email]amaliabroome@gmail.com[/email]

We are not open to all just by invititation only - you must be willing to take an alt with the last name of Exonar though (and we can guide you through that). Many of us also will help setting up your alien look and backstory.

Also, not every Gorean sim participates in fighting. The two I was associated with did not nor use combat meters. A LOT of what is passed off as "Gorean" on SL is a mess. (Coming from 12 years of Gorean rp on IRC.)

Lots and lots of other rp areas though - Star Wars, Elven, Isle of Wyrms (dragons), the Old West sims (trying to recall their names - one is Tombstone I think), vampires, urban type of rp, apocalyptic, etc. Oh, and Steampunk Victorian!

ETA - I keep thinking of things: Japanese rp sims (my alt spent a brief period of time training to be a Geisha)...I know I'll think of others

Kira - Karamoon looks really good from the website, i'll have too go have a little visit

Amalia - thanks for the offer but i really wanted too do something in this avi.

Czari - I know Gor is not just all combat *giggle* i spent a little time looking around some of the places and they have very nice builds and the people are friendly in ooc but i don't really like the idea of being controlled by a man as a slave or a Free Woman. I just don't think that's for me.
That's the main reason really for me not jumping into Gor with both feet lol.

A Geisha might be interested, did you have too spend alot of money too do it. I'm on a bit of a tight budget and don't want too do too much spending.

I love Bare Rose for their fantastic clothing at very reasonable prices - they have some outstanding Geisha clothing. FallnAngel Creations also has a wide range of kimonos, Geisha skins, etc. If you're lucky, you might win a kimono from Falln's lucky chair - sorry, noose - or from their 'What's in the Box?' Both locations are very popular and take a while to rezz, but it's worth the wait.

Well I fully agree, which is why I purposely run my own RP sim without any system whatsoever. Primary reason for most RP systems is for the sim owners to make money I believe, or we wouldn't see that many of them.
On a sidenote however, there are countless of possibilities to play in my area that's completely open to anything you want, however still, most people chose to engage in nothing but combat. It's just what people want to do.
IF you want to see for yourself do a search for Necronom some time.

Daros and I were at a large tournament in SL a few days ago. There were between 40 and 50 avatars present at any one time, mainly watching (since only two people at a time could fight). That's enough people to put strain on a region anyway, even though this was a private estate.

The kicker was, shouted messages started going out for everyone not fighting to remove all scripted titlers and meters, especially the 'Arena' meters that prospective combatants were wearing. Fine, most people did that.

What might one suppose the next request to remove would be? Scripted weapons, perhaps? After all, on enabling View Transparent, more than half the avatars present were wearing scripted (but sheathed and thus invisible until you CTRL+ALT+T) weapons.

Nope.

A short while after that, everyone was requested to remove their HAIR, to help with the lag.

No. Way.

Tombstone is a Western RP area of 8 sims set in 1890. We welcome furries and nekos and humans! We also welcome character roleplay and backgrounds. We are relativeley strict in terms of dress code, wearing a hud, reading rules. The sims are desert and towns.