All The Galaxy's A Stage: Story And Role-Play In TOR – How Are You Preparing?

All The Galaxy’s A Stage is a regular column at Ask A Jedi with some lofty, creative goals.  On one hand, we will be discussing and exploring meaningful topics to support the role-play experience and community.  On the other hand, we also want to introduce the casual Role-Player to the writing-acting experience that can add so much more to an MMORPG like Star Wars™: The Old Republic™.  Join in the discussion below to share your perspectives and experience as we co-create magical story in that galaxy far, far away!

I started role-playing first edition Dungeons & Dragons when I was 8 years old.  I am now 40.  Setting the math aside, I’d also like to note that I’ve spent a number of years role-playing in various on-line settings.  And so, when I first heard about Star Wars: The Old Republic and its story focus I was excited.  I’ve been a Star Wars fan since 1977, and the idea of a story-focused RPG in an MMO, with ‘consequences’ was very, very intriguing to me.  However, my second thought was, ‘wait a minute…’

No Role-Play for you. Talk to the hand!

Many of the role-players I’ve created story with would agree with me that story and character development are critical ingredients to amazing Role-Play (RP).  And yet I also know that the role-playing community (in any genre) is filled with exceptionally creative people with diverse takes on what role-play actually is.  Such creativity results in a cross-spectrum of play-styles, a continuum that stretches from the very casual to the serious writer-actor.

Comparing the Role-Playing Potential

In contemplating the casual end of the RP continuum I’ve got a suspicion that the story-focus of SW:TOR is going to be an excellent inspiration.  BioWare has clearly established itself in the story-meets-computer-game genre.  Their games are filled with memorable creativity, and I will confess I’ve enjoyed the creative challenges that games like Mass Effect have put before me.  And so for a casual RPer looking to enjoy some story, I expect their experience of logging in, rolling with the cinematics, events and choices offered to them, and using this experience as a backdrop for RP with their friends is going to make for great entertainment.

Yet, the other end of the continuum presents more questions than it does answers.  As a veteran RPer I’ve made a habit out of developing deep, three-dimensional characters.  I invest time in establishing a nature, a demeanour and goals when creating a character.  I imagine a backstory that explains what brought the character to this point and how such events have influenced the type of person they are.  I then look to my RP guild and the RP community for shared story, and by the time my preparations are done my goal is to have a seriously fun character, dripping with meaning, morality and motive.  For me, such ingredients are essential to help me stay the course.  I’ve spent years role-playing some characters (my longest lasted for about 9 years in a Live Action RP setting before I sacrificed him for story).  And experience has taught me that the more prepared I am, the deeper my character, the more meaningfully I contribute to the shared story.

From the moment I saw the first video of the fourth pillar, questions started to surface in my mind.  There’s a world-wide story extending Lucas’ beloved saga.  There’s a class story dripping with meaning and consequence.  There are side quests that effortlessly slide into your quest tracker to promote the perception of reducing the grind.  These are all good things.  But what happens when I bump into hundreds of other players who are sharing their war stories in character?  As I learned with Lord of the Rings Online there is a simple solution.  You take what elements and moments make the most sense and weave them into your character’s (and guild’s) story.

The Impact of Story to Role-Play

For the first time as a serious RPer I will be playing an MMO that will present me with dialog coming from the mouth of my game-character.  How will that dialog resonate?  Would my character say such things?  Does BioWare’s interpretation of morality align with mine?

I think the answer with dialog is going to line up with my experience around story.  I suspect I’ll be mostly an observer, I’ll nab slices that really resonate with my character, and then I’ll weave the actual story from there.  In fact, I’m already preparing for this.  I’m role-playing a Jedi Master who will be about 40 years old in 12 ATC (assuming this is the launch year).  My main character has two Padawans and we’re busy filling in gaps.  One of the Padawan’s in particular is going to great lengths to build a story that will see him knighted not long after launch (and so align somewhat with the game’s chronology for the Jedi Knight class), and offer us a rich backdrop story as we proceed into game.

And then there’s the player in the middle of this RP continuum.  They may have begun to think about such questions, and others may be of the impression that I’m seriously over-thinking this.  But I know that some of you have been role-playing for a number of years and have been contemplating how best to prepare for and participate in this game as a role-player.

Whatever the case, in introducing the role-play column at Ask A Jedi we wanted to let you know that we’ve also been thinking about these sorts of questions.  As we brace for the release we will continue to delve into the topics of interest to role-players, and once that magic day comes we’ll be looking to create a community for role-players to bookmark. Until the next column, where we expect to discuss some of the challenges of real time RP in an MMO, we’d like to get to know a little more about you.

 Loading ...