how to rock my own socks off

[madaket]

Hi.
I got my ass handed to me today. I was not pleased.
Everything about the event was stellar, spot on, aesthetically perfect, and memorable - except my ass on a platter, and that somehow made me blind to all those other things.
Then somebody asked me: "Why didn't you enjoy yourself today? Didn't you like the challenge?"

And lo, the missing piece of my puzzle. That single inquiry had completed my coming to terms with EfU.

There are many dimensions of this PW, but I proclaim that in order to enjoy playing EfU you must decide what is important to you. For me it is the development of a character, the furthering of a story, and now, finally, the challenge. Quests, loot, supplies, exps, builds, concepts, events, and deaths are nothing but scaffolds for those three pillars.

What I didn't realize before today was that I had not actually thought about why I like playing this game. What is the roster of reasons for which I play? And the above list does not belong on that roster. What does is the following:

- Roleplaying my PC as one may write a character for a book, not devising devastating character flaws or attempting to break conceptual molds just to receive attention, but to create a person who I admire and am interested by. To stay on that extra hour to converse or simply emote with another player or two, filling in all those gaps.

- Partaking in a story that is being written in real time as players, dungeon masters, and myself work with each other for no reason other than the sake of the story and the aesthetics. To do more than further a plot or initiate conflict.

- Draining every last resource to stay alive in the most badass battle or fight I can possibly get into, not for the rewards at the end, but for the challenge of exploiting everything your character has, and meeting ends for all those things that your character does not. This is even better when you are rocking the shit out of overwhelming DM events with your posse of ultra rad fellow-players.

Make the best of what happens to your character. Pretend like it is a book. Visualize how they react in defeat as well as victory; hell, think it out ahead if you're that much of a nerd. Search always for that perfect marriage between challenge, story, and character. People always tell you, "This is a game, have fun." That phrase is empty unless you discover what it is exactly that is fun to you, and why, and it sure as hell doesn't have to be my three reasons.

You are playing this game for yourself, but with other people. Always be considerate, but don't worry about how to rock their socks off, instead do justice to your own socks.

[Random_White_Guy]

Something I like to do to rock my socks, is immerse myself in the story.

I've received a fair bit of grief from folks over it, but I honestly believe if you approach death as a fairly semi-permanent thing, It will make your entire experience remarkably better. I'm not saying you should die every time you get killed on a quest, but I'm a firm believer in the notion that every great story has an ending, and not all endings are great.

If you play every day like its your character's last, that's a powerful motivator in moving plots along, enjoying the character while you can, and trying to get the most RP out of it. After all, RP is about a story, and most story is about the journey not the result. If Luke would have been killed when he fell off at the end of Empire, many would have been angry, but it still would have been a damn good story. If Butch Cassidy and Sundance would have lived, the entire climax of that story would have been ruined.

It is Okay to end a character on a scripted quest. Typically so long as it is with friends you are with, and know its your time, but I always found it ironic that people somehow scoffed at perma-ing over scripted quest deaths, even if you did something you considered remarkably heroic and worthy of a death.

Never understood why, but people acted like it was a cardinal sin to die on a scripted quest with no DM around or something. Scripted quests are still a part of the server, and you can still have -great- RP on them.

How I rock my socks off: I treat all deaths with respect, but a death I am comfortable with, enjoy, and can conclude is a respectable end to a character, is far better than a Death that I feel cheated, griefed, or robbed of. I'd much rather close that door and move on to another great story, than drag along a story to the point in which it grows stagnant, Or be forced to end a character after a debacle in which I feel is somehow unworthy to the amount of work I put into the character and story.