Opposition

[*Darkrob]

One thing I'd like to see more of is character/group opposition. I'm not talking take out your blade and cut someone down in the street opposition, I'm talking in the way of subterfuge and competition behind the scenes, even if not overly malevolent. It's a part of RP that used to be quite common in our mod but is rare these days.

Over the last week or two, my group had thought someone was actively moving against us for some reason and it actually generated a lot of RP and cross communicating. Outsiders were hired, plans were begun and ideas formed. It was unfortunate when we found out it was just a ruse. It added a bit of excitement and allowed us to look at/to others instead of ourselves. Trust me... none of you cutters were out of our suspicion spotlight for the first few days :)

I think we could gain if we permitted ourselves to have a few more rivalries. Nothing needs to be led towards PvP but forging agreements, communications and watching for the other side is always a great way to stir a bit of enthusiastic RP. Deals can be brokered and Information brokers can suddenly earn their keep.

Thoughts?

[*Artifice]

I like this. I've always done it with Kasha and I'll continue to do it with Eija. Hopefully more people will add more conflict to their RP.

[*[<3]]

I'm all for it and on it so to speak.

Also, keep in mind that faction RP can get intertwined with conflict RP quite easily.

All my characters that I regularly play and that fit an intriguing / scheming style of play are up for it and then some.

[*Darkrob]

Just so ppl are aware, I (and any group I'm actively a part of) will never decline this type of RP. Don't be afraid to proceed with ideas that you may have that might adversely affect me/us. We can roll with it.

And to add... we have Faction members as well. No knowing what direction things can go :)

[*Cenerae]

Conflict's good as long as all parties involved are on board with it. Can be a lot of fun.

[*Darkrob]

Conflict's good as long as all parties involved are on board with it. Can be a lot of fun.

Exactly. I doesn't have to be physical, doesn't even have to be nasty if the parties don't want to go that far, but having to protect your own interests while undermining someone else's (so long as everyone is on board) can be fun and generate a lot of RP.

[*juubo]

I love conflict with RP, I think we may even need more to this, adding in more layers. What Sigil has that a lot of other servers has is an evil element, an under belly, which can be used to exploit this. This can lead to more than just conflict and get into a villian-victim-hero dynamic that gets three dimensional. Even with just a villian-victim or a villian-hero dynamic we can get pretty deep.

Problems are this though:
1. New players often feel a need to white knight, to help the weak and down trodden, and sometimes keep butting in to help.
2. Heels (villians) are often viewed unfavorably and don't get support ICly or OOCly, so you often they are out on their own.
3. Some feel that conflict means you fight, not that you work through the background.
4. Resources are not limited in sigil, so we lack one common cause of conflict.
5. The gaurd might be a little too good at their job, do folks feel they could pull something naughty off and not get caught is an important question.


These are just my thoughts on the matter. If you can address them through either lore, story, or in a mod, we might see better conflict as a whole.

[*witchinghour]

Just my own personal opinion, because conflict can be a multitude of things, not just angry slap fighting. While one meaning is of course a disagreement or serious argument, another is an incompatibility. Anything can be a "conflict" in terms of compatibility. And often, thats the most fun because you have to figure out how to get around that, or if need be, face it head on. But with that said, one of the biggest keys to both sides of conflict, is when each side understands OOCly that consequences always happen. Ya can try shirking them ICly, but its not fun for anyone when things turn muddy OOCly. Okay, that sounds alot more dire when put into context with a normal situation, but I hope that gets the point across!

[*Red the Rogue]

RP conflict can be pretty good, and I certainly agree there. Having been part of a number i the past, I most enjoy the sort that come through RPing it than rolling combat. The latter, unless itÂ’s a major conflict with different sides and an understanding from every party, tends to always turn sour unfortunately. Hence my preference.

Though one issue may be the fact of what characters have to lose. If a character has little to lose, it might not cause any of the characters to care enough to respond to the threat. ThatÂ’s definitely something players should communicate about, or things may unfortunately turn one-sided.

[*lorgin_2003]

Though one issue may be the fact of what characters have to lose. If a character has little to lose, it might not cause any of the characters to care enough to respond to the threat. ThatÂ’s definitely something players should communicate about, or things may unfortunately turn one-sided.

That's something that usually leads to OOC drama, fortunately it's also something easily avoided by a bit of OOC coordination beforehand. Talk over the possibility of the conflict RP before it begins, because sometimes someone's already got their hands full, and adding more onto the pile out of the blue just comes across as piling on, and some people just.... aren't into conflict RP at all. However, if both sides are willing to give it a go, then I go back to my Professional Wrestling analogy from the thread about evil characters. In wrestling, the way it works is that the heel (bad guy) calls the match. He calls out moves for the good guy to do. "Hit me with a clothesline" for example. The same concept applies here. If both sides pretty much lay their cards on the table before hand, and both tell each other a few good ways to mess with them, that alleviates the pressure while still allowing for the element of surprise as well.

"I got a place in the Hive, you can raid the place looking for my stash."
"Ok, then you can jump me in an alley as payback and leave me bleeding out. Just wait for so and so to be online so I can drag my character to them afterwards."
"Ok, then the two of you can put some feelers out to track my down in one of my safe houses in Undersigil"
"Ok, but make sure you have some backup in there for when we come, because we'll probably end up bringing a few additional people with us."

It's left as a "something's going down, but you don't know exactly when" and also anyone else that gets involved isn't really given too much OOC info, so they're completely unaware of anything other than "we're coordinating things, so it's all good". And if any issues pop up between the additional people, the two rival characters can talk OOCly to sort it out.

This way, both sides are putting on the table what they can lose, and working from there. Rather than both sides just trying to crush each other, which very easily and very often leads to OOC problems.