I have a suggestion that may or may not be implementable. Possibly included in the list or posted by Howland or Thrawn to improve our RP experience.
Had an interesting experience today, which I don't mean to whine about too much, but it was definately negative and it could possibly be avoided:
There is a distinct gap between player knowledge and character knowledge. A situation came up that never would have happened if that weren't true. As a player, I failed to recognize the uniform of a character, so my actions were predicated on that. My mistake clearly. Trouble is, my CHARACTER would never have made that mistake. Me sitting at my computer screen trying to identify a named NPC - namely a guard - is not the same as my character standing 3 feet away from this guy and seeing this uniform everyday of his life.
I tried to see if the character was interested in a quest, not knowing as a PLAYER that it was a Tigereye. My character certainly would have known that, and not even initiated a discussion.
The only named NPCs I've seen give quests, and he didn't so I assumed he was an adventurer.
Didn't help that he didn't respond, faded out which to me suggests a PC adventurer, then sent me a Tell saying he had computer problems and that he would talk to me if I came back. Feels like I was entrapped as a Player, not a character, and my character suffered for it.
So in trying to initiate a conversation with said character after the player logged back on, I was insulted and my character responded IC in a fairly reasonable manner. The player decided to have his character bust my balls, which is perfectly understandable IC, but really pissed me off as a player.
The comfortin' comment of, "that's OK, there's lots of plot lines that can develop off this" didn't help much.
If I'm playing a character, I don't really want to immerse myself in the lore or dogma of everything that character needs to know. That's unrealistic. It's not a necessary part of RPG anyway, or at least shouldn't be. And I don't think a character should be punished by something that that character would definately know even if the player doesn't.
Anyway, this sounds like bitching and it's not. Some of you might say, "tough shit, suck it up Newb" and I understand that POV.
But if we could give one warning to the other player if it seems that they are doing something odd, then they have the opportunity to RP it correctly, or at least the way they want to.
His character fading out would likely be perceived as magical, and should garner a penalty if we are going to truly RP this world, but I think you have to make reasonable allowances that there are players behind the characters. IOW, should every player whose 'puter crashes be fined or jailed for the use of magic when their character fades away in the middle of a fight?
Or do we make RP allowances because we know the player didn't intend that and wouldn't have realistically done that. Had a party member attack me by accident one time. Should I have slain her? My character would likely have. But as a player, I figured it was an accident and didn't try to RP a player foible. That's just me though...
Just a thought. Send a Tell, especially to relative Newbs, if their character is doing something fairly obviously unrealistic for that character.
I'll shut up now and suck it up, but it was an unpleasant RP experience for me to have to have my character suffer negative consequences due to a player knowledge mistake when the character would definately have known better....