Armaxis' Guide to Roleplaying a Sorcerer
Since I've been restless lately, I've decided to write this small guide up. I've done alot of roleplaying during my time in Gemstone, and I've seen alot of very good examples of roleplaying and some very, very bad examples that people try to pass off as roleplay. Hopefully I'll be able to give you some insights and tips on roleplaying a Sorcerer.
A Sorcerer, as most of you should know, deals with things that aren't very pretty -- most of our spells are centered around outright destruction or torture of things. Destruction and torture is not very happy, or light-hearted thing. One of the largest things which annoy me as well as my character are people who are very bouncy, light-hearted, and act disgustingly 'cute'...yet they're Sorcerers, and they have no reasons for acting this way. If you think about it, if you really went out in real life and started tearing a person or creature limb from limb, would you be able to be a very outgoing and happy person? I don't think so, unless you were a little crazy. I -have- seen some very good examples of 'happy' Sorcerer's that are a little touched, and roleplay it that way, I'll go into this type of character a little later. I'm certainly not saying you should be all gloomy and depressed playing a Sorcerer, I'm saying that if you're going to play a character who is very happy and bouncy, yet deals with one of the most gruesome and harmful magic in the lands, you better have a real good reason for it.
Now, we come to the other end of the spectrum -- evil Sorcerers. At times, these 'evil' sorcerers annoy me more than the fluffy happy ones. They remind me of a comic book villain, they've no depth to them at all, all they've got is the "Ooo...look at me, I'm eeevil...fear me...I'm eeevil!" attitude.
First of all, if you want to play a believable evil character, your character should never admit they're evil. It makes you sound very corny and foolish. Why would someone believe themselves to be evil? There's no truly good reason for it, it's only an attention getter. To give you a real world example, did Hitler think he was evil? No, of course not, he was convinced he was on the side of good.
Now that I've shown you a few negative examples, let's get into the constructive and believable realm of thinking. I'm going to list a few examples of personalities which I think would fit a Sorcerer if anyone would want to roleplay it that way. These are very generic and only a few, however. The best way to create your character is by using your own imagination. These are just suggestions to give you ideas.
There are alot of things you can do as a Sorcerer, for example, many people would consider someone 'evil' if they were somewhat indifferent to normally horrible things. Wouldn't you think someone was horrible if a child was thrown off a cliff and they merely shrugged? I know I would. This sort of personality would only concern themselves with their needs and possibly the needs of a few others that they find useful. A haughty and indifferent Sorcerer can become very respected and also thought of as 'evil' if you wanted to take them down that path. A few pull this off very nicely, namely Silvean and Lylia.
Another type of personality is the neutral Sorcerer, this is one who respects the power he uses, and uses it only to protect what he finds good in this world. Mainly friends family, and philosophical ideals. The neutral Sorcerer, in my opinion, is about the closest you can get to a happy Sorcerer within the confines of believability. This Sorcerer would use his art to protect things he holds dear, this can include the ideals of justice and law, etc. This type of personality could very well be considered good, but I would expect a little more seriousness to the role, as you are dealing with some pretty serious magic. Alternatively, this personality type could be used as a model for an evil character, as well. Your ideals could be considered evil by many other people, but good to your character for any number of reasons.
There is also the zealot, the fanatic. I enjoy playing these, and Armaxis is an example of a zealous and fanatical character. Zealous characters are totally convinced they're right, and will do anything ( within Gemstone3 policy, of course ) to spread their views to others. Often time it's very hard to pull of a zealot without having something to follow, namely, an Arkati. Lornon Arkati seem best fitted to zealots, as the Liabo Arkati tend to be, in general, more kinder and gentler in their form of worship and don't require people to convince others they're right.
The last personality I'll list is that of the insane Sorcerer. Often these types of Sorcerer's are erratic in nature, as they are, of course, insane. Sylvine is the perfect example of truly erratic and insane character, even if he isn't a Sorcerer. He can serious one moment, then completely off the wall the next. This type of Sorcerer is simply the most random and oddest personality there is, and if you decide to play one, you should attempt to make it blatantly obvious that they -are- insane.
The ACT command, friend or foe?
The ACT command is the single most useful roleplay tool in the game. It's also the cause of alot of debate. First, let me go into a few basics of Gemstone...
Gemstone is a structured roleplay game with boundaries. That is the key word -- BOUNDARIES. This is not a free-form roleplay chatroom where you can be wherever you want to be, and have what you want to have. This is Gemstone, a place with limits on what you can and cannot do. You should not, for example, play a human who roleplays themselves as a dog. Why? You cannot be a dog in Gemstone, you will always have the description of a 'human' when someone looks at you, no matter how much dog-related alteration or items you cover yourself in.
Though, you can have a character who you play as obviously a little crazy and thinks they're a dog for some reason or another, and you could always get clothing items which fit this, but there is a big difference between the two. The latter is in the realm of believability, the prior is not very acceptable. An acceptable action for someone who thinks they're a dog would be this...
(Soandso wiggles his rear slightly, causing the tail attached to his back to wag wildly! He clenches his fist a little and stretches his fingers out in a flexing motion.)
Now...a bad example of an action would be...
(Soandso swishes his tail playfully, and flexes his claws.)
This is wrong because obviously, no one can have working claws in the game, and no one can have a fake tail that they can actually control without well...moving another part of themselves.
Now that we're past that whole animal issue, we can get to another which is a negative aspect of the act command...people who do roleplay within their own race, but use the act command in a very bad way. I'm using this one example from someone who actually did this. The name's are changed to protect the ignorant. This is what you should -not- do with the act command:
(Soandso suddenly lets his arm liquify, and it waves about wildly.)
(Soandso makes his tentacle-like arm reach toward you.)
(Soandso makes his liquified arm cover your mouth, preventing you from speaking.)
I really do hope anyone reading this think's this is wrong. If you don't, however, I'll explain why it is.
1. You can't make your arm liquify! You can't turn it into a tentacle-like appendage!
2. One of the biggest NoNo's in roleplay is forcing another character to do something. You ATTEMPT to do something to them, and let them react to what you're trying to do. An edited version of the previous act would look like this, this would what would be considered acceptable:
(Soandso seems to get a look of anger on his face.)
(Soandso reaches toward you with a free hand.)
(Soandso attempts to get close to you, his hand obviously trying to cover your mouth as he draws closer.)
This gives the other character a chance to react to what you're doing. That's what roleplay is all about, playing off each other's personalities. If you do want to do something rather extravagant and outlandish, I'd suggest using the whisper command to make an action inside the quotes, if the character wishes to play off that action, it's up to them. It doesn't hurt anyone else, because no one else sees it. If the other character wishes to ignore it, then no harm is done. I would suggest, however, that you make sure that the person you're whispering to is genuinely interested in roleplaying.
Another mistake people often make is conveying thoughts in an act command. This really isn't very tasteful, as another character cannot read someone elses thoughts. There are ways to show what might be on your character's mind, or what their general mood is. Listed below are a few bad examples and good, revised examples of them following.
Bad:
(Soandso doesn't like NewbieBoy.)
Good:
(Soandso stares angrily at NewbieBoy, the look on his face one of utter contempt and rage.)
Bad:
(Soandso thinks she's very pretty.)
Good:
(Soandso runs her fingers through her hair, adjusts the fit of her gown slightly, then looks over herself, looking very pleased with herself.)
You get the idea. It's mainly about being creative as you can while staying in the boundaries of the game. With a little imagination, you can easily convey what's on your characters mind through facial expressions and just little movements.
The reason I've gone into these somewhat small details is that roleplaying usually is just that -- adding details and depth to your character. I hope you've found this guide informative, and I hope it's given you some insights to roleplaying as a Sorcerer, not all of them have to be dark, evil, and about as flat as paper and even less interesting. You can breathe life into your character and keep them in the realm of believability, and hopefully this guide has given you some ideas.
-- Armaxis' player