<- Help out a shit player

[The Beggar]

I heart you Jasede. And many of your characters. It can be tough at times when I don't "feel" a characters personality coming out well, and why I ditch characters for others.

Keep at it dude, I like RPing alongside you.

[Avdima]

Well, if you know that you are a terrible player, than maybe you just found a key to your problem?
 I am a terrible player too, and I don't really know what to do when  being alone, and I don't know much about places to go and quests to  take, so I am not a good leader for the questing.
 
 BUT, yesterday I had a kick in my butt, had really fun time playing,  doing "mercenary stuff", and later having a really pleasant time, thanks  to my friend, that shown me this server.
 I died, I lost my long awaited level (it was a bit smashing), I was  robbed by some from almost all  my possession (I do hope you will choke on these potions), but I had  fun, so I don't mind so much (besides loosing my money).

So, to top it up, if you really don't know what to do, keep an watchful  eye on the messages people send, don't waste occasions for partying,  even if you will be sticking back, not to get killed (get yourself some  ranged weapon if you are some king of warrior), people don't mind this,  and perfectly understand that you may be more squishy than others (but  they may still tease you IC).

A) The question you are rising is very accurate, Your character shouldn't do something he don't know anything about.
My question arises, what do your character know? You should have some,  even small, concept about your character and his knowledge.
And remember, that not everyone on the server have to be all-knowing  magicians (magicians tend to know a lot more than others), I am for  example, an simple mercenary, that don't know shit about magic, and had  to bug some mage to help him with this stuff.

B) Not much I could say, besides that I don't play much NWN, and I  missed whole lifespan of my friends character this way, doing nothing. I  envy people, that plays the game a lot more, than I, as I would like to  do all this fun stuff and such.
I just don't have the heart to play it for too long (and I hate NWN and DnD, really).

C) Well, I avoid the problem by not playing the leader types, this is just not for me.
If you want to do something big for your character, have some storyline,  than you should start shaping it outside of the game. Making a points,  that would lead you to something is a very good way to flesh up your  character, as he will be doing something in game.
I made a VERY simple mercenary, that only got name and short description  (which by the way shouldn't be too long, as I, for example, don't  bother reading it all, if it's wall of text) that I plan to expand while  playing (you can do that in game, thanks to some nifty scripts).

D) Try with something simple. For example, character that grinds his teeth from time to time, and irritates people with it, no doubt. A character that have  broken leg and can't run for too long, having to support himself with stick. Person that speaks with some stupid accent, that he made out.
This is that simple, nothing deep and developed, just a thing or two, that makes your character stand out a bit.
The problem is, that I can make hundred of characters now, but when doing my own, that I am going to play, I am blank and it takes some time before I am happy with my decisions.

Have you ever tried to join any faction, DM or not? This way you will almost instantly gather people around you, and in good leaded factions, I am sure you will learn a lot of good stuff.
Maybe you could try contacting someone in game or out of it (by forum post or something), to be his/her apprentice? No shame in that, and may be really fun to play, especially if you both have similar playing time.
I am a warrior, and if you would make one, that would need some training in the art of war, I could take you under my wing. Never tried such thing before, so it may be fun.

There are players, that make posts about concepts they are willing to make, and that they are looking for players to join. Look that up too, as it may lead you to making character you would never thought you would make.

[UnholyWon]

I agree with Howland you're doing just fine. I can empathize and maybe even sympathize with what you are or were feeling when you wrote this post. Here's my two cents.

A) Leaders and tyrants, good and evil PCs live short lives. They have certain goals, and write tons of applications. Applications for faction, application for forums, applications for PrCs, applications for special quests, applications for rituals, applications for NPC interaction. Damn near applications for anything you can think of regarding seeing a goal completed. The likelihood of the ritual you saw was probably a product of an application or goal listed in an application, and a DM noticed it in their PCs journal and decided to help out. When all else fails, talk to a DM, and write and application. If it fails then its probably not the direction the server is heading in, or not closely related to the current plots. Try not to get dicouraged, and develop another scheme.

B) Breaks are good. After a 6 month or more break back in orginal EFU I came back and noticed all hell had broke loose and the server was changed. Epic characters had come and went and I was pissed I wasn't apart of it. I also noticed I had a new playground with more equipment and fun stuff to play with.  

C) Everyone is usually battling for leadership roles. There are just some players that are going to win them. But for me leadership is picking an area with no leader and declaring myself Mister BAMF and rocking that out.

Also some players just -know- what the server needs. I've always seen Caddies, RwG, Wern, and honestly the whole DM team as players knew intuitively what the server needed. Granted this was long before they ever were selected as DMs.

As I see it now the server needs:
A PC searching for the Crown of the Isles,
A PC searching for Netherese Artifacts to fix the Conclave,
A PC searching for ways to kill or trap H'bala,
A PC searching for ways to increase food supply,
A PC searching for people to protect Mistlocke,
A PC searching for votes to be the next Mayor,
A PC searching for whatever!

Take your start from one of the main plot points and go from there.

D) I know my limitations, and I know I can't play like other people. I can play like myself and have fun doing that. Its what gives me my joy. I know I can't type dwarf speech. Its impossible for me. I can type thieves cant on the fly decently. I can't type fast. So my emotes or speechs are going to be simple. I get lost in all the action that happens in events, dungeons, or politics of the server because of this I tend to miss key points. I am kind hearted and I don't like to see other people's PCs die so I will sacrifice my own heal to try and heal them by playing the hero. That's me not the character, and because of this the character dies a lot. I have a hard time playing an evil and mean character towards other characters. Again, that me in real life and not letting the character be the character in the game. I guess for me its important that I know my limitations, but its also good that I try to get outside them occasionally to challenge myself.

I know not all my character's are going to be top shelf quality, but damn it I'm playing a game and I'm having fun. Try to let yourself do the same.

[TheRaven]

I've always enjoyed playing with you and your characters man.

For instance, Ko was probably one of my favorite palemasters. So clearly you are perfectly capable of pulling something cool out of your hat, but how you go about it, I think only you can tell.

Try to remember those characters in the past you've considered more or less a success. Think about what you did to achieve it and learn from that.