Posted by Umguy on October 5, 2000 at 06:44:30:
In Reply to: On the subject of Roles. posted by *ORB* on October 5, 2000 at 05:16:27:
I think a "fantastic" role is fine if you can live up to it. Consider Istendil's as an example of that. He's said he thought of the background story for that char before he even rolled it up, and he stuck to his role. That role is indeed a fantastic one. But I'm afraid that Istendil living up to his fantastic role is an exception rather than the rule. When someone creates a role that they are the savior of the world or some such, it becomes REALLY hard to live up to. Hard to believe the savior of the world just got taken down by a sylvan deathsquad, or an imperial gangbang. Does anyone remember, for example, a couple years back, when that permagroup of 3 good aligns wrote that note to all about how they were the salvation of mankind or some such? Anyone remember who all 3 were? All I remember is thinking "oh yeah, THAT'll happen." I think I was playing an Imperial at the time :P. My point comes down to this: There is no character class that can become Rand al'Thor, or Conan, or Neo (bad Matrix reference), or Brutha, or Muad'dib, etc etc. The classes are quite simply too balanced (thank god) for anyone to be able to take out hundreds of foes with a glance, word, flick of the wrist, etc. Liches (read: Zorszauls) are the closest thing, but Liches are powerful when/if they pick their fight and basically flee if it looks like things might get hairy. The savior of the free world isn't just going to run from a group of 5 ragers because he knows they can entwine him in a norecall room and critical hit him to death. A smart lich would. If he didn't, he simply wouldn't be powerful enough to be "savior of the free world" (I should use the word savior more in this post). So basically, long story short, if you really think you can live up to the stuff in your role, go for it. If you can't live up to it, don't put it in there. There is a counterpoint to this, however...if you put in your role a "quest for the Holy Grail" type thing where you, OOC, know, that your char will NEVER accomplish this, but his life is all about TRYING to do so, I think you're ok. All of this is, of course, just my opinion, but I hope it helps.