Discussing roleplaying on Pacific..

[Velvathos]

As far as I can tell, it is dead.... I have not seen any of the SAGE, ElF, or any of members from other RP guilds for sometime now. I have seen a few SAGE on occasion, but they were not roleplayers, they didn't interact, they just walked away.. T.F. is still currently running the RP Alliance it seems, I see a few of them here and there, but I have no idea where the roleplaying hotspots currently are or if they even do tavern nights still, I really am not able to get the advice I need on such matters.. The PRC is very inactive, and so is the roleplayers ring, the only two known roleplaying forums for the Pacific community... Lately I have been wanting to start up RP Wars, I currently have an Orc guild, there is around 6 or 7 of us, and we have some orc forts here and there..

Should I just take all my characters and transfer to a different shard or what? This one is kinda anti-RP, it is hard to interact, let alone, talk to anyone at all, Pacific currently seems to have a very, very childish mindset.. I am not sure how this came into being, as it use to be very mature, and was great for roleplaying sometime ago, I myself blame these forums and I also blame EA....

Anyways, onto the point..... I am currently trying to start up RP-Warring, basically RP guilds would war one another, but that does not make the guilds enemies, I find it better to interact as enemies while in the RP Alliance, I was a bit confused, I did not know much about it, it was hard to become ones enemy, alliances I feel have too much administration, while we need to have basic rp rules and of course a rules of engagement, otherwise RP wars would get out of hand, big time, I have seen it happen... I rather like the idea of who I want to "highlight and who I don't" and with warring, I have that option, and as roleplayers we ignore all game mechanics, thus, that does not make a guild a enemy..

Warring seems to be better for conflicts rather than alliances, Europa, Catskills, Atlantic and Chespeake seem to have the largest RP Communities, and Atlantic and Europa seems to be expanding..

So I was thinking, well, how could we do something that would help revive roleplaying on Pacific? And here is what members in my Orc guild and I have been discussing.

So I have been thinking of a initiative to create a broad-reaching role-playing scenario in which all guilds could participate (even non-roleplaying guilds) Something that would officially recognize the towns of Britannia, and create a coherent and historically accurate political framework in which to create quests, scenarios, and day-to-day interaction. I would hope this could lead to the rise of several town-based guilds in Felucca or Trammel, these town-based guilds build player run RP towns located outside of the cities.. I was going to make a guild called the Dukes of Minoc, that was going to be a roleplaying guild outside of Minoc.. But I decided not to due to other plans..

These guilds could be anything from militia guilds, citizens who have joined a militia to safeguard their lands, they could be anything from rebels to loyalists, rebels who want their town to be a free city state, free from the kings rule, or a loyalist guild, that follows the king and both guilds would conflict on occasion, the greedy loyalists, trying to force treaties and taxes on others that refuse it.... These kind of conflicts I believe would people would be greatly interested in.... I currently have two very large homes outside of Britain, I was thinking of making a guild that roleplays as the kings guard and diplomats and roleplays within castle British, with there being a new king and all, this could be a great, fresh new start..

/Discuss

 

[ColterDC]

Role players scare me... especially L.A.R.P.s

Good luck though

 

[LordTesla]

So I have been thinking of a initiative to create a broad-reaching role-playing scenario in which all guilds could participate (even non-roleplaying guilds) Something that would officially recognize the towns of Britannia, and create a coherent and historically accurate political framework in which to create quests, scenarios, and day-to-day interaction. I would hope this could lead to the rise of several town-based guilds in Felucca or Trammel, these town-based guilds build player run RP towns located outside of the cities.. I was going to make a guild called the Dukes of Minoc, that was going to be a roleplaying guild outside of Minoc.. But I decided not to due to other plans..


/Discuss

If you let non RP guilds in then you might as well create a run of the mill everyday forum.

 

[Pink Floyd]

I'm down.

 

[kelmo]

Build your guild. Set your rules and stick to them. Plan events and follow through no matter how disappointing the results may seem. If only a few show up, play with those folks during the alloted time.

Rinse and repeat. It may sound trite to say, "Build it, and they will come." It will work if you are willing to go the course.

I will watch this thread and answer any questions that may come up.

What level of RP are you looking for?

 

[Kaleb]

Just loggin into UO is RP for me, Im not a Mage in RL. I see no point in talking weird. My point is UO is RP, UO is what you make of it no matter what shard its still UO.

 

[kelmo]

Just loggin into UO is RP for me, Im not a Mage in RL. I see no point in talking weird. My point is UO is RP, UO is what you make of it no matter what shard its still UO.

Define talking wierd... I don't use thee or thou. When I log into my pub keeper, that is what I play.

 

[kelmo]

I do not disdain those that do...

 

[Balian of Asgard]

I would need many happy cigs to even think about logging in to UO and typing in orc.

 

[Kaleb]

Yah like talkin in orc or thee, thou exc, exc. If people want to do it by all means do, its UO its what you make of it

 

[Emil Ispep]

Keep up the good work man. I have nothing but props for you and the Clan. (I was in for awhile, but RL takes priority.. full-time work, school and the fiancee doesnt leave me much time for UO anymore these days.. I play when I can)

Roleplaying on Pacific never really took off to begin with. Too many cultural barriers that doomed it from the start. (Before any Asian servers existed, the far Easterners would play on Pacific, and werent too keen to those who roleplayed.. lots of grief play resulted)

My advice to get things going is to throw some gas on the fire. "unformally" declare war on the humies. Your Orcs, you hate humans. Get the Orc herders going, and release lots of greater dragons around Luna until the 'tribute' has been paid.

Stake claim to an area of land, and murder those who trespass without paying the toll.

Raid some champ spawns.

Raid other guilds events with the Orc Troop.

Once your large enough, take it to |M| and the SUPR best friends rainbow club.

Foremost, do all of this while in character, and it would be truely a grand time. Once you have an impact on the gameplay of others, you'll get noticed, and fast. Soon, you'll have no problem what-so-ever finding guilds declaring war on you.

Planning a timeline, setting goals and hosting events is also a very good idea. Back in the day, the Seers and EMs would take note of this, and it could lead to the establishment being 'blessed.'

Forget about spamming 'recruiting' in Luna or the equivilant slum.. Just drop runes to somewhere, and those interested will appear.

ElF and SAGE are no-risk/no-reward guilds who hang out in Tram, and rarely venture into Fel to begin with. Their primary concern is making their pockets fatter, under the guise of 'roleplaying.' No? take it from an ex-member..

Im the last active member of the Gathered Spirits guild. Maybe we can get somthing going at the dusty tavern.. shoot me a PM .

 

[Kaleb]

See this is how I role play. I have played Ultima back in the early days and the avatar was a guy from modern times who gets sucked into another realm kinda like that movie Army of darkness. So here I am this guy from Seattle who walked into this light and find my self in Britannia and that is it I kill things for the pesents, and even some pesents.

 

[Velvathos]

Just loggin into UO is RP for me, Im not a Mage in RL. I see no point in talking weird. My point is UO is RP, UO is what you make of it no matter what shard its still UO.

Well, that is not really what roleplaying is... Ever done real life roleplaying? You have to know what the definition is..

Roleplaying is the art of taking on the personality of someone that is different from you. It is very similar to acting or writing. The biggest difference is that it involves interacting with other people without the benefit of a script or an outlined plot that you already know the ending of.

The most difficult thing to understand about roleplaying is that you only get out of it what you put into it. You can’t just come into a room and sit in a corner and expect the others there to pull you into their RPing just out of the blue. Many people accuse RPers of being snobbish or elitist because they don’t go out of their way to include everyone they run across. The simple fact of the matter is, most RPers get very involved in their characters and the existing plots that they are participating in, and they never think about trying to drag in people they don’t know. Look at it this way...if you and some friends are standing around talking you usually won't try to pull nearby strangers into the conversation. If you want to be involved with a group of RPers, you have to actively involve yourself. But do so with politeness and consideration.

The trick to being a successful RPer is to have interesting characters. If your character has nothing of interest to say, then people won’t interact with you. It’s important to work out a full history and personality for your character, and to stick to it when interacting with others. It’s also important to not have a perfect character, or a ridiculously powerful character. Such characters will rapidly wear on the nerves of the other RPers you try to interact with.

The most important thing about Rping is to remember that everyone involved is in it for fun. Be polite, be considerate of the players behind the characters you interact with, and enjoy yourself. If you aren’t having fun, then you need to change something, either your character or the group of people you interact with.

 

[Velvathos]

Here are basic tips when roleplaying.... UO is not a 100% realistic game, but the more realistic we make it when we're in character, the more it will enhance our roleplaying..

Don't use OOC information!
There are things in game which you can do, but which your character can't. Resist the temptation to use game mechanics to give your character information he or she shouldn't have, this spoils the fun for the other players. This issue comes in many variants. Here are some of the most common examples.

Recognising characters.
Characters DO NOT have names and titles floating over their head, nor do they wear guild badges or nametags. You do not know their names until they are introduced to you, or you overhear their name. Also, if they give you a name other than what is hovering over his head, then it's the name they gave you you will know them by. You will also not know which guild they belong to, unless they wear a uniform your character would recognise. Lastly, if a character is disguised, you should not be able to see through the disguise unless you know the character very well IC.

Respect Line of Sight.
You cannot see through walls, or around corners, nor can you see what's going on behind you. If an Orc is sneaking up on your character, do not just turn round and challenge him. Instead, you might *sniff* - orcs are notorious for their lack of personal hygiene - and then turn around. You might hear voices from inside a building if you are standing right in front of the door, but you will not hear silent people, or see people in an upstairs room. If you want to know what's going on around the corner, then walk round it. If you stand behind someone and emote things like *waits patiently*, you are likely to get no reaction. But if you *coughs impatiently* or *clears throat* you probably will.

Using information from IC posts on the boards.
Information posted on message boards like the Fireside Table should be treated as OOC information, unless you have an IC reason for knowing it (ie you were there, or it's an IC letter addressed to you). You can of course use OOC information from the boards to let you ask the right questions, so that you do find out about what happened in game.

Do not poweremote.
Poweremotes are emotes that presume a certain effect on someone else's character. For example *kicks legs from under Greg*. Instead, *kicks at Greg's legs*, and leave it up to Greg to decide how it affects him.

Do not expect a reaction to emoted thoughts.
Characters cannot read minds. If someone emotes *thinks the Duke should be hanged for stupidity* the duke won't take any notice. Instead, try emoting *looks at the Duke scornfully*

Don't abuse the Leave House option.
Be careful when using the option, if you do use it make sure it's realistic and that you don't over-use it. How many people do you know who can jump instantly from the roof of a building to the ground unharmed? This would also apply to escaping from somewhere when you know you've been locked in, eg Trinsic's secure jail.

Try not to walk though people.
It's easily done, but it's polite to try not to push through people. Particularly if they're armoured guards trying to block your way

Get permission before causing permanent damage.
You should not permanently damage somebody else's character without asking permission OOC. This means causing permanent scars, cutting off limbs, and even cutting off their clothes in some cases.

Respect fellow players.
We play for fun. If you take the RP in a direction that could make the other player feel uncomfortable, it is better to ask OOC first.

Lastly,
Realism.
Making UO 100% realistic is not possible. But we should always strive to make it as realistic as we can. For example, don't expect to shadow a target in full metal armour without being heard. Let's face it, it would rattle. Ask yourself: ‘If this was real would I notice whatever’s going on?’ Become your character, focus on realism.

This is an example of the do nots in roleplaying in a game such as UO, when roleplaying is realistic, the better it is, it is very much like stage acting as said in another post..

by following this, it should also help you develop your character greatly, and develop his/her personality.. Then all you need to do is find some RP guilds to war, and have some fun..

 

[Velvathos]

See this is how I role play. I have played Ultima back in the early days and the avatar was a guy from modern times who gets sucked into another realm kinda like that movie Army of darkness. So here I am this guy from Seattle who walked into this light and find my self in Britannia and that is it I kill things for the pesents, and even some pesents.

This reminds me of the cartoon.. "King Athur and the Knights of Justice" Where they were a football team brought back through time to take the place of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, because they were kidnapped..

 

[Velvathos]

ElF and SAGE are no-risk/no-reward guilds who hang out in Tram, and rarely venture into Fel to begin with. Their primary concern is making their pockets fatter, under the guise of 'roleplaying.' No? take it from an ex-member..

Im the last active member of the Gathered Spirits guild. Maybe we can get somthing going at the dusty tavern.. shoot me a PM .

I had my orc guild in the RP Alliance for a short time, I left it when I found that out for myself..... I did it mostly so I could interact with the Skara Brae Rangers, but I felt that there should be some RP guilds outside of it, no RP guild should have to join a huge alliance just to interact better when roleplaying.. The reason it was formed was so that all the RP guilds could use "Alliance Chat." But the thing is, I am not roleplaying to use alliance chat or speak out of character..

I currently have a tavern in Felucca, and a event planned, right across from it, I am going to build a arena... Where I am going to host tournaments, these tournaments will consist of both roleplayers and non-roleplayers, guilds that wish to get involved will just war eachother.. There will be a entry fee, and the winner of the tournament would receive the cash + more.. Say.. 1 million for the winner 500k for second, 250k for third.

It would basically be crafted equipment only, non-runic, no magic items whatsoever, etc... This will help me get roleplaying off the ground for balance reasons....

But I started thinking about, well, what if we did this but with skirmishes? Instead of 1 on 1 tournaments, it could be like, 3 vs 3 or w/e..

This could probably help get people interested in roleplaying..

 

[LordTesla]

I always RP... even in ICQ... but lately it has gotten a bit ... alone...

 

[Velvathos]

I always RP... even in ICQ... but lately it has gotten a bit ... alone...

Speaking of ICQ, what is yours? Been meaning to message you..

 

[Kaleb]

Most here dont realize the RP involved that created Guilds like FL, oob/ESF its kinda sad in a way. From the start of UO up into UO:Renaissance there was a huge amount of roleplay in most guilds, almost every guild had a story that explained them and what their about, Us older people understand the importance of RP before UO we had D&D and it cant get any more RP than that, most who started playing UO played D&D, most the younger Gen(s) always had Video games and has lost that ability to RP hence why they see UO as another counterstrike. At onetime UO was about going out with your guild to kill liches or something and have friends watchin your back or vice versa for pk's and you had Pk's that rped to a point some would want a tribute or your life was real fun stuff back then.

 

[Balian of Asgard]

Keep up the good work man. I have nothing but props for you and the Clan. (I was in for awhile, but RL takes priority.. full-time work, school and the fiancee doesnt leave me much time for UO anymore these days.. I play when I can)

Roleplaying on Pacific never really took off to begin with. Too many cultural barriers that doomed it from the start. (Before any Asian servers existed, the far Easterners would play on Pacific, and werent too keen to those who roleplayed.. lots of grief play resulted)

My advice to get things going is to throw some gas on the fire. "unformally" declare war on the humies. Your Orcs, you hate humans. Get the Orc herders going, and release lots of greater dragons around Luna until the 'tribute' has been paid.

Stake claim to an area of land, and murder those who trespass without paying the toll.

Raid some champ spawns.

Raid other guilds events with the Orc Troop.

Once your large enough, take it to |M| and the SUPR best friends rainbow club.

Foremost, do all of this while in character, and it would be truely a grand time. Once you have an impact on the gameplay of others, you'll get noticed, and fast. Soon, you'll have no problem what-so-ever finding guilds declaring war on you.

Planning a timeline, setting goals and hosting events is also a very good idea. Back in the day, the Seers and EMs would take note of this, and it could lead to the establishment being 'blessed.'

Forget about spamming 'recruiting' in Luna or the equivilant slum.. Just drop runes to somewhere, and those interested will appear.

ElF and SAGE are no-risk/no-reward guilds who hang out in Tram, and rarely venture into Fel to begin with. Their primary concern is making their pockets fatter, under the guise of 'roleplaying.' No? take it from an ex-member..

Im the last active member of the Gathered Spirits guild. Maybe we can get somthing going at the dusty tavern.. shoot me a PM .

I think this is a really cool suggestion and makes alotta sense to me.
If there was a place in fel that you put your ORC mark on, I am very sure the people of fel would add that location to their rune book of places to scout for PK action.

S#it, if you guys did such a good job to get the likes of M and SUPR to put you on their radar, id consider becoming a stealth orc archer lol

i wouldnt talk orc tho

 

[Pink Floyd]

I already said I was in. I still have my RP char if you guys want an enemy.

 

[Velvathos]

I already said I was in. I still have my RP char if you guys want an enemy.

We really don't need a enemy, we just need more roleplaying guilds to pop up.. A lot more.

 

[Carith]

One of the key things, at least as I remember it, is having a lot of people concentrated in one area. Back when I played, Skara Brae, with the whole player government and the RSB and other groups in the area, up through the area south of Yew with the Orcs and the Gathered Spirits Tavern and others, were great because there were always people out and about and playing in-character. Events and whatnot are one thing, but everyday random interaction with other characters was a big part of what made my experience so great.

 

[Duke X. Winter]

I think at the moment there are a couple of problems with "RP"ing. Let me first state that I use this information from a background of being a roleplayer on Pacific. Although I was not one of the "best" RPers (not sure what that means, I've just heard the term tossed around) I did RP a lot.

1) Players trying to instigate too many rules, and then not roleplaying with others who don't agree with those rules.
- Things like telling "me" (general term) that a Drow (dark elf, for you non-Tolkien/D&D people) can't be "good". Race should not designate alignment, since like in the real world, upbringing is most often times what defines our characters.

2) Too much space.
- Talk pre-AOS, and pre-REN RPing all you like. But the fact is back then there was less places to play. We didn't have Malas and Ilsh. We didn't have peerless. We didn't have champs. What we really had to do was enjoy roleplaying and fighting monsters. Mind you, this was still when a dragon could be considered hard to fight, and an ancient wrym was near impossible. And it's because of all the things that people can do now (by themselves) that they don't generally do things together)

3) Attitudes.
- I'm sorry, but the attitudes of the other people on the shards DO make an impact on potential RPers. People who say "I see not point in talking weird" or "roleplayers scare me" (no offense meant guys). These types of things indicate that you don't have much of an imagination, and you don't want one! Open your mind a little. Think back to when you were a kid. How many guys here tied a towel around their necks, and ran around the house going "WHOSH! I'm flying!" I know I did, and it was great fun! I won't be doing that now, but I will log into UO as Duke Winter, and I will play as an elf, because this IS a roleplaying game, and half the fun is NOT being me!

This topic has been beaten to death on so many different levels because people don't want to accept that there can't be rules to roleplaying. When you limit an interaction, or yourself, with rules, then you limit those who are going to play with you. I don't think RP is anywhere near where it should be at the moment, but I also don't think that posting the same pictures over and over again (like the ones in minoc, or the ones of the Orcs) is really needed. We've seen them already! We know it sucks! We're sorry!

People will RP when they feel comfortable doing it. It can't be about gain, (which is an issue, since UO runs on a high level of currency) it has to be about fun. Just pure fun.

 

[Velvathos]

I hear what your saying duke.. I have rules within my guild, but they are rules within my guild however, but I don't want anyone to break from character.. A Orc should wear an Orc Mask and not a Samurai Helmet, is a example.. I have character creation rules, a dress code (Orc Masks or Orc Helmets)

Depending on what the theme of my guild is, it will have different rules, I have a militia guild made of citizens from Britain, we practice Avatarian faith, Necromancy is evil to us.. Therefore, Necromancy/Ninjitsu/Bushido and even Speallweaving is not in the guild..

I also believe in a rules of engagement, since I am doing RP Wars.... The rules are there as guidelines, I doubt some roleplayer is gonna kill me AFK at the Luna bank and loot all my items.. But the rule will be there as a guideline, since I am trying to start up RP-Warring.. And the more realistic we can make roleplaying, the more it will enhance it, and the more immersive it can be when people know the basics to roleplaying "No Float Name-Tags." the rules of engagement works great on other shards, the heaviest RP shards in UO that do warring have a rules of engagement of some type, most of them are the same, they are there to enhance roleplaying, not restrict anyone from doing anything.. Europa restricts a lot, but they are a very low-fantasy type of RP, more revolved around in medieval times and the battles basically remind me of Age of Empires..

I remember I had a battle once in the RP Alliance.. I got killed A LOT... I was out-numbered, they wouldn't leave or RP alternatives to take my captive or anything, it kinda sucked.. They came to my place we roleplayed a little, then they attacked, I died, but it just kept happening, I knew I could not win, but really, something better should have happened.. If that can happen in a alliance, imagine a RP War....

By the way, Duke, is there any specific forum that Pacific Roleplayers are using? Nobody seems to be using the PRC, and I cannot find anything else..

 

[Duke X. Winter]

Rules within your own guild are your prerogative. However, a word of advice, people don't like to be limited. Period.

As far as sites where RPers go...I don't know of any at all. I don't actively participate in any RP community at the moment. I log into game. I RP if I have the time or will, and I log out. I have to many other things going on in my life at the moment, and finding RP isn't important enough to devote my time.

That being said, days like this when I have nothing to do for a day off (which is rare) I don't mind posting my thoughts a little. Getting killed in the alliance was a given. People are going to play how they like, and in the end, like minded people will always play together. If the people in your guild feel better about limiting the style of play, then that's something you're going to have to deal with on a numbers basis. I can't say whether it's right or wrong, or whether it's a good idea or a bad idea, but I wouldn't do it myself. I tried it once, and it didn't work for me. I would much rather have flexablity in my guild, and have people in it, rather then be strict, and never see a guild mate.

But then again, what do I know? OwE has had only three players in it for the past 3 years. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Don't know. Don't care.

 

[Velvathos]

Well there is currently more than 10 people in my orc guild and we use a RoE + Combat Restrictions... So now ya got me kinda confused there.... So maybe I am doing something and right and you are doing something wrong? It is a possibility.. A lot of the guy who joined my orc guild made new characters for their orcs, and they loved the idea of crafted equipment only.. One of my members got on a orc smith and made entire sets of non-runic crafted armor....

 

[Duke X. Winter]

While it may be possible that you're doing something right, it is not at all possible that I'm doing something wrong.

The reason being is that I don't recruit. I haven't in almost four years, and I don't plan on starting. I don't campaign for my guild, because I don't want to. I can't be doing something wrong if I'm not trying to do something right. I'm simply not trying.

I've run a lot of guilds in my time, and I know the dedication and commitment it takes to keep them up and running. I know that the guildmistress and the council of ZKV (whom I am also with) work very hard to keep things together. And they manage to keep things together by imposing as little rules as humanly possible.

I hold no ill will against your Orc guild there pal, and I wish you the best of luck. However, that being said, I would simply caution you on the barrage of "RP with me on pacific" threads. If you thought getting killed by Alliance members was tough, wait til you **** off a PvP guild who doesn't think you should be talking so much. At least the alliance wouldn't loot you. People are either going to care, or they're not. At the moment, it seems like they're not.

 

[Velvathos]

It's something I am letting come naturally really, I made 4 RP guilds I plan on running, 3 accounts, 3 houses in a certain location..... And now I am letting things happen as they go... I have members from ZKV and even FL in my guild who are roleplaying as Orc, and we're going to do a lot more.... We've even set up some orc forts.... I did not recruit them though, most of the orcs wanted to join.. I advertised on stratics, and I basically just robbed people in Luna, and people joined, I didn't even try to recruit.. People just made orcs and joined.. I didn't really think it was tough to get killed by alliance members, I just thought it didn't make sense.... There has to be some kind of restraints to make PvP in RP more casual, and make it even better..

 

[Duke X. Winter]

"A Soviet Violist Hand".

That's all I have to say.

 

[Pink Floyd]

Duke will you marry me in game?

 

[Velvathos]

You know, I blame AoS as part of the reason why there is not as much roleplaying as today.. The older generation of UO gamers grew up on games like D&D and the newer generation treated it as like, Unreal or Counterstrike... I also blame the changing of game mechanics, UO was less item based, guilds back in the day were more unique oddly enough, some even wore uniforms to make their guilds look good and show off... This was a excellent roleplaying aspect... Elimination of guild stones destroyed the need for a player run town or guild territory.. I remember people would generally stick around their guild houses because it was where the stone was, if a house had a guild stone, it was the guild house, and players always stuck around it.. And this is also why the towns were more populated... So it was easier for roleplaying to take place and there was a incentive to do so..

 

[Carith]

1) Players trying to instigate too many rules, and then not roleplaying with others who don't agree with those rules.
- Things like telling "me" (general term) that a Drow (dark elf, for you non-Tolkien/D&D people) can't be "good". Race should not designate alignment, since like in the real world, upbringing is most often times what defines our characters.

I agree with this wholeheartedly, and it's one of the reasons why I enjoyed the Skara Brae scene so much. It was a collection of people who just roleplayed within their environment, rather than trying to create a perfect environment for their roleplaying scenarios.

When I was brought into the community, I knew nothing of RP and just happened to run into Kollrick and Raven one day near the Yew moongate. We talked a bit and Kollrick invited me to a meeting of the Skara Brae player-run city council. I went and was accepted even though I was far from a "good" roleplayer. People would just take me in stride and act as though I was speaking in slang when I'd "lol" at something or tell them I had to go answer the phone. Because of that, I ended up becoming a (very minor and insignificant) part of that community.

That community worked so well in large part because it didn't try to isolate its roleplay from the rest of the game's players, but rather interacted with everyone in their environment without breaking character, which brought in a lot of people who would normally have never had anything to do with the whole RP thing that was going on. The other reason it worked so well was because of a bunch of amazing people who wanted to make something great.