#merely roleplayers

[merelyroleplayers]

On New Year's Eve, we begin our journey across a decaying kingdom

Her Many Masks

A Merely Roleplayers Studio production

A perilous and emotional journey in 3 acts, told using For The Queen (2nd edition), by Alex Roberts, published by Darrington Press

Starring @merelymatt, @nanaluvren, Ellie Pitkin, Alexander Pankhurst, and Josh Yard

[merelymatt]

Audio Drama Sunday is for questioning who governs

🤖 Metropolis by @luxradium. "Every city is built on top of a sewer." What a great first episode. I love stories about cities, especially ones that aren't what they want you to think they are. I'm also a sucker for when a character encourages someone to live up to their potential and it gets them into trouble, maybe killed – but maybe they went out doing what they were really born to do!! Plus, just look at that cover art (by Michael Hirshon).

🐉 World Gone Wrong from Audacious Machine. They just keep nailing it with this show. I think because it's the feeling of being an ordinary person in strange times that they're trying to capture. This is an election episode, and the exaggeration of a literal dragon running for office is wryly funny, but what really works is the exhaustion of just not even having the capacity to be outraged or weirded out any more. Plus the idea of voting as choosing which final boss you'd rather fight is inspired.

And what's new from me and @foggyoutline this week?

Also an episode about how you get the people in power to do the right thing – I'm deliberately referencing stuff like 5calls.org but I didn't deliberately schedule it for US election season, that part just sort of happened.

We got to give Dédé Davi her audio drama debut – she'd done ad and corporate voiceover before but not acting. If you like her performance, she's looking for more parts in audio drama, so go cast her!

And Backstage on @merelyroleplayers, we're doing character creation, with the slight twist that it's a new character coming into an eatablished setting, played by an established player who retired her first character. It changes the maths a little bit – there's a lot of rules and lore there already that you're slotting into (not that Ellie doesn't add plenty more of her own in this episode! 🧛‍♀️)

[foggyoutline]

Ready: Watch Amira's awakening now

▶️ New animation: Amira investigates plastic tree guards, promoting Friends of the Dales' Living Woods campaign

🎧 Scary tales for Hallowe'en in new episodes of I Need A Miracle ( @inyourbenevolence ) and @merelyroleplayers

🛄 Callum speed-runs airport security in a new chapter of A Net Too Wide To Break His Fall

The Ready edition of Ready & Waiting, our fortnightly email newsletter, is all about the things we've made that are out there for you to enjoy right now.

[merelyroleplayers]

We played Gertrude's surprise birthday party on What Am I Rolling?!

Have you played YAZEBA'S BED AND BREAKFAST ?

By Mercedes Acosta, Jay Dragon, M Veselak, and Lillie Harris

A slice-of-life legacy tabletop role-playing game about a found family and their magical home.

[prokopetz]

The thing about the idea that "rules don't matter" in tabletop RPGs is that, while it's obviously wrong, there's only one relatively narrow sense in which it's actually a problem.

There are basically three major strands of "rules don't matter":

Groups for whom the rules don't matter because they aren't playing a game as we'd conventionally think of it – they're having a freeform RP jam, and occasionally letting a coin-flip decide what happens next for spice. The particulars of rules-based procedures aren't relevant to these groups because they're not following any particular procedures. This is perfectly fine; sure, some players who favour this approach like to go online and write bloviating thinkpieces about how all tabletop roleplayers secretly want to be doing freeform RP, and anyone who claims otherwise is simply too stupid or brainwashed to understand that they're not truly having fun, but that's not doing any harm – it's merely annoying.

Groups who have a narrow idea of what it's possible to do with tabletop RPGs. They'll look at the fact that it's possible to run – for example – a sword and sorcery dungeon crawl and a cyberpunk heist caper using the exact same set of rules, and conclude from this that it must not really matter what rules you use; of course, the real reason this works is because in terms of their formal and narrative structures, a sword and sorcery dungeon crawl and a cyberpunk heist caper are nearly identical. Again, this isn't hurting anyone – if they want to run endless reskinned dungeon crawls in a variety of milieux, that's their business, and the worst that can be said for it is that some people are a little annoying about it.

Groups who do want to play a game with a formal structure, and who recognise that rules have opinions about how the game ought to be played, but think it doesn't matter because if there's ever a disagreement between the game the rules want to produce and the game the group wants to play, the GM can fix it on the fly. This is always going to happen to some extent, because the rules and the group will never perfectly agree about how the game ought to be played, but positioning the ability to repair that disagreement regardless of its magnitude as a basic expectation of any GM is one of the reasons we have so many folks who GM for a year or two, the burn out and never touch a tabletop RPG again.

Basically, "rules don't matter because we don't use them" and "rules don't matter because tabletop RPGs are only one thing" are largely harmless, but "rules don't matter because something something Rule Zero" is demonstrably harmful, and we need to cut that shit out.

[reallifegerbil]

Hello! My name's Tate, their name is Zaany, and I've wandered back over here to Exist in one way or another. Look forward to me posting art and babbling about my character!

About Me:

I have been serious about art since around 13, when I first started designing my own characters and focusing on getting better, and am closing in on 25 years of experience, soon enough. My main media is digital, typically drawing in textured lines and lots of detail, or experimenting, though I am capable of traditional medias and have worked with charcoal, colored pencils, pens, markers, and more.

I'm a life-long free-form roleplayer, and it is my main motivation to make art. 13 was when I started, after all.

I would LOVE IT if you asked me about Zaany, or had any requests for me to sketch or otherwise art at for them!! My asks are open!

Where you can find me:

Bluesky, Toyhouse, Artstation, Cara, and FurAffinity

About Zaany:

Zaany is my main character, and my baby!

Recently revived into a new timeline, Zaany is an elf who was mutated into a parody of theirself when the hidden demon presence inside of them awakened. The elf now is merely a skin for the dog demon inside to wear - but Zaany has gone nowhere. Refusing to accept what they are, resentful of the cruelty of their true self who stole away their kindness, Zaany actively denies theirself what the monster demands: magic, but especially life force.

You want emo elf? Emo .. something like an elf? I gotcha. Follow me for sad elves! And the people who make them sad! And cute, strange puppies who eat souls!!

Where you can find Zaany:

RoleplayRepository, Toyhouse - RPR has their profile, TH has their images

[sophieinwonderland]

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I feel like roleplayers, depending on how much they get into their roles and how naturally the responses come, are a little bit plural. Not totally plural exactly, cause I’m assuming here that they don’t actually have the people chillin in their brains when they aren’t roleplaying, but if it gets to the extent where you talk as them so often they feel like their own person…

I agree, at least to an extent. I don't think that this applies to all roleplayers. I mean, we have roleplayed as characters that are very distinct from headmates. But I think that there are some role-playing techniques that are actually dissociative.

There's a bit of a spectrum here that I don't think is talked about enough.

On the completely singlet end, you have the non-dissociative roleplay character.

This is pure pretend. The roleplayer is simply pretending to be somebody else. In this case, I think the roleplaying is entirely external. Non-dissociative roleplay is just acting.

Then towards the middle, you have dissociative roleplaying. The dissociative roleplaying character will be embodied internally. They are not merely acting as the character but they begin thinking the thoughts that the character would think.

The difference between these is that when something happens that would make the roleplaying character angry, the non-dissociative roleplayer will try to act angry because that is how the character is supposed to act. But the dissociative roleplayer is going to actually feel that anger as the character. They are not pretending to be angry. Their brain is actually triggering the same reactions as it would if the person was actually upset.

Then at the far end is where you have the roleplaying tulpa. At this point, they are fully plural. The roleplaying character has gained self-awareness and autonomy, and they are able to communicate with other headmates in the system. They can offer advice completely separate from the game. They will also probably be aware of the game they were playing, and have meta-awareness of the outside reality.

[merelyroleplayers]

Jinny becomes a god of vengeance

Cameron, a god of war (vengeance is his whole thing but Jinny's much more the eye-for-an-eye type, Cameron's revenge has more of the character of a crusade)

Renko is a god of secrets and mysteries

Mick would be a forge god, a god of smiths and crafters

Kincaid is a god of roads, the straighter the road, the more devout the prayer

Percy could be a god of time, or another of the forge (she and Mick hammer in the divine forge while watching Ice Road Truckers), or a goddess of gates and walls

Jess is a kindly god of the dead, or of death itself, a bridge between death and life, with maybe a psychopomp role, a redeemer

Harper could be a god of twilight, or of knowledge, maybe both, seeking secrets in shadows (what do you reckon, @nanaluvren?)

Calistarius is a god of wisdom and stories

Melody is a god of music and coming-together places, cafes and town squares and markets

Then the actually-supernatural characters, who aren't far off being gods already:

Brier is obviously a trickster god, and a god of the forest

Graham's a god of lies, leaning strongly towards self-deception

And Gwyn actually is a god these days so she doesn't count for this game

We've got a cleric and a wizard of Kalakta in our campaign... but what would the PCs be gods of? ⚡️

(I think Morgan would be god of waistcoats) 👿

[merelyroleplayers]

Take your seat and defend your queen

Act 3 of 3: The Queen is under attack. After all she’s done, who of her retinue will defend her?

Coming next on 4 February – Her end (Many Masks Backstage)

Programme notes

This production contains fantasy violence, murder, and eye damage.

Credits

STARRING:

Alexander Pankhurst

Marta Da Silva

Josh Yard

Ellie Pitkin

Matt Boothman

ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: For The Queen, second edition, by Alex Roberts, published by Darrington Press

MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst

COVER ART INCLUDES:

Royal crown silhouette by Timplaru Emil on Vecteezy

Carnival mask silhouette by Muhammad Fathurrahman on Vecteezy

Skull silhouette by Carlos Avila on Vecteezy

EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman

Find us

On Instagram

On Tumblr

www.MerelyRoleplayers.com

[merelymatt]

The Audio Drama Sunday after spooky night

I finished The Mask of Inanna just in time for Alicia Goranson's new series to start. This week, Jenny goes round 2 with Hunger, the reality warping godling that will try every manipulative trick in the book to get you to walk willingly into its mouth.

I did not expect to get so fired up by a description of a handshake, but this is a handshake between the two most competitive jousters in Spèir. It's Liz Anderson describing her character guarding their food from all the flying debris kicked up by the handshake shockwave that really did it for me.

It's the Audio Drama Sunday after spooky night, so here's the spooky special I enjoyed the most this week – Beef and Dairy's first guest-written episode, which gets deep into the mythos of milk.

And here's what's out from me this week

More by luck than judgement, one of the darkest episodes of the season dropped on Hallowe'en. When everyone – everyone – has a direct line to the divine, the world is not going to be all sunshine and rainbows.

And in the midpoint episode of Tailor Made, Cal concentrates on getting the residents out of the house while Peggy delves deeper in.

[merelymatt]

Chris (who plays Kincaid in Merely Roleplayers: Vigil) is the determinist friend to the extent that he tried that line in a maths exam

Me: wow three nat 1s in a row the odds of that are like one in eight-thousand

My determinist friend: actually the probability of it happening was one-hundred percent because it happened

[foggyoutline]

Ready: Once-familiar houses

The Ready edition of our newsletter is all about stuff we've polished and published, read for you to experience right now. Including, in this issue:

☀️ Why isn't solar energy powering everything?, a new lecture series

🎧 New episodes of @inyourbenevolence and @merelyroleplayers

🤠 A tense showdown back where it all started, in the new chapter of A Net Too Wide To Break His Fall

[dark-rpfinderr]

hello! i'm 20+ looking for 20+ roleplayers!🕊 might include 👪 for one specific scenerio.

-intersted in mxf and mxm, i only ever play male characters.

-for mxf plots i would love something that's either: student(mc) x teacher(yc) or anything that involves your female character being in an unhappy marriage/my character becoming her step son, etc. the bigger the age gap the better, but it won't be 🍪.

-the rest of the plots i want are mxm.

1.a kidnapping plot, yandere stuff with a developing stockholm syndrome.

2. both of our characters are sadistic murderers. i've been wanting to write about this for so long.

3. a dom/sub au where people are born with dom/sub as their subgenders like abo aus. i love the power play in this.

4. my character is a wolf/dog hybrid with limited mental capacity. they're seen and treated as mere pets in this au. he has human features along with a tail and ears, the classic stuff. not sure if it counts as 🐾.

i'm okay with torture, noncon, violence etc. more than happy to include those. kinda smut-fishing but i'd love to continue on the plots and see where it goes. anything is mostly on the table for me and we can go into the specifics when we talk in dms!

EMOJI CODES HERE

like this post and anon will reach out!

[marbled-magician]

🥀OOC// Responding to @//an-honest-endeavor [LAST PART]

CONTEXT

—————

1. Alright, I’ll admit that I should’ve reached out in private first, I deeply apologize about that. Though, the admins that reached out to me have been hesitant to talk about this for a reason I won’t disclose. I decided to be their voice. I don’t see anything wrong about speaking up for my comrades.

2. Let me be frank, and I’m sure many others will agree with me- IC Endeavor wouldn’t flirt with a villain, or anyone unless there’s a bond, this is not the main concern though. @kaichisaki-rp informed to me that they never sent any anonymous questions to your inbox about making a move on them. It could’ve been literally anyone else that sent those messages, it’s anonymous for a reason. And the admin behind Overhaul was very genuine about what they told me. The reason why I’m high on my horses is because these are my friends you’re making uncomfortable with your interactions. I’m not doing this ‘just because’, I’m doing this because I get pissed when my comrades are uncomfortable. Here’s what I’m talking about:

3. The admin of Yumiko gave me permission to SS their explanation of their OC’s behalf:

Like I said before, Endeavor was half the fuel to Dabi’s character. I’ll not argue about the dabi-endeavor topic any longer, since both characters are in the wrong in their own ways anyway.

4. @dabis-blueflame’s admin told me you’ve been annoying them in the beginning of when the rp blogs started to appear. Speaking about Dabi IC, he wouldn’t want to talk to Endeavor.

5. I did not wake up and decide randomly to bully you, I’m merely just speaking out about my comrades’ feelings (that they were hesitant to speak about). It wasn’t my intention at all. How is this bullying you? Does speaking up for my friends count as bullying you? I’m doing this for my comrades, not you. You’re the one that’s freaking out and handling this immaturely. All I’m doing is looking out for my comrades. The SS’s are what’s backing me up on me and my friends’ statements, that is all.

Unfortunately, some people have a hard time turning down certain things due to the fear of being yelled at, or make the person upset. No one wants to make anyone upset. Let’s look back at this SS again from my previous post:

Overhaul’s admin was answering the way they believed Overhaul would respond IC, but you got upset about that and showed you were not happy about their rejection. This stressed out the admin. I know this because they came to me to express how stressed they were, telling me they possibly offended you and made you upset.

—————

I’m sure you’re not a bad person, genuinely. Just please be aware of what you say sometimes, because there will be roleplayers that are hesitant to express their feelings.

I will no longer respond to anything else regarding this. This wasn’t meant to be a big deal, but if I were in your shoes, I would’ve felt somewhat attacked, so I greatly apologize for making you feel that way. Don’t make me stop you from what you enjoy doing. Keep interacting with whoever you please 🙏

[merelymatt]

Yes! And A Horror Borealis' Keeper Alex Flanigan wrote a micro-RPG called WONDERS which we're playing on @merelyroleplayers next week!

[storyseek]

Roleplaying Ironically

This is about reading the room and tone. It's also about the subconscious disconnect and dissatisfaction so many roleplayers feel when they're attempting to engage either with a story via a Dungeon/Game Master, or with fellow roleplayers - whether that's at a tabletop session, or in a LARP environment, or online - with a game platform like Conan Exlles, Red Dead Online, or Final Fantasy. Everything you come up with for yourself (as your character) to do, is going to be motivated in some way by feelings. Feelings you have, or feelings you want to have - and feelings in others (have or want). Sociopathic roleplay involves merely doing what you feel or want to feel, and represents whole extra layers of problematic psychology - so for the sake of this thought, let's acknowledge that the best roleplay does have to incorporate other people's feelings to some extent.

Accepting that everything is done from and/or to cause feelings, the next obstacle is tone - or register - or genre - or any of the other words that mean the 'stylings' of action, element, expression. This is a vast topic as well, but if the players and story-collaborators aren't in some way aware of the tone of the story, their contributions are likely to be off-key. Sometimes this helps, and creates a complexity, like jazz - to continue the music metaphor - but often times this can be incredibly destructive. And here's why. The meaning being created in an interaction involves the collision of values, and the affirmation or contradiction of those values causes emotion in the observers and participants. See something beautiful and heroic? ...you might get misty-eyed. Have your expectations diverted? You may laugh or become angry. See something innocent getting wantonly destroyed? You'll likely feel the fear or rage as it's been failed to be protected. Now, add in multiple contributors each with their own value system, and you can see how different aspects of a story will evoke different emotions, depending on the observer. I was watching District 9, and the scene where the main character's fingernail came off made the guy behind me in the theatre burst out in laughter, my friend next to me nearly crawled out of his chair, and I was engrossed in the story because things were getting intense and interesting. Three different reactions all within a meter of each other to the exact same stimuli and content. Alright, so roleplay 'tone' actually needs to be a collective construct. The DM or GM can initiate it, but the players have to uphold it. Conversations about session 0's aside, this is absolutely an ongoing responsibility of everyone. In large unmoderated environments, like LARP or online games, it's even trickier to navigate, but my personal suggestion is to watch for the tonality of roleplay other people are consistently leaning into. Be honest with yourself about whether their direction is the same direction you want to go. Do you have the same shared values when it comes to story? Final thought - there are three different types of story value combinations. 1. Singular - You both want the same thing. If you're going to craft a story with someone as your Nemesis, it's absolutely important that they actually have the same story values as you, or you'll never get the conflict off the ground and it will be incredibly dissatisfying. 2. Cooperative - This is where you have different values, but they're alongside each other. You want to tell a story about good conquering evil. Your friend wants to explore complicated combat mechanics with a min-maxxed character build. Guess what? You can cooperate and both still make it work. 3. Counter-Productive - You get the idea. This is the main point of the title and reason for writing this. But the old joke about the DM creating Lord of the Rings while the players enact Monty Python is exactly the point. They'll be upset everything's so bloody serious all the time - and the DM will be frustrated that their carefully crafted motivations and plotlines of epic truth are being completely missed or openly sabotaged by slap-stick roleplay.

In short - be honest with yourself about what you want. Know what you want! Know when you're getting what you want and when it's being completely missed or messed-up, and while we are none of us story-tyrants (or shouldn't try to be), we all do deserve to realistically get out from a roleplay experience what we come to get from it. Sure, be realistic and humble and cooperative, and endure the small shifts of tone that happen in nearly every story ever... But in the end, communicate what tone you're going for, and once agreed upon, be consistent. Stories are arguably one of the greatest social forces ever, and when done right, collaboratively, it can be an incredible experience that creates, keeps, and shares meaning like nothing else we've yet discovered.