Stop killing RP.

[Kaitlin]

Why would anyone want to come into SL Gor and RP a fantasy of the mundane, the usual, the ordinary and the banal? I LIKE unique - it shows imagination and creativity. It is much more difficult and challenging (and admirable to me) to RP a disctinct character within the boundries of what is considered acceptable gorean behaviour than to do what you wish and disregard the genre/theme in an attempt to be *different*.

The problem arises I suppose, when what one considers acceptable, another may not.

The problem I see most often is absolutely no knowledge of the boundaries. Creativity is great but not if it isn't a gorean themed creativity.

[Violetta Daviau]

Why would anyone want to come into SL Gor and RP a fantasy of the mundane, the usual, the ordinary and the banal? I LIKE unique - it shows imagination and creativity. It is much more difficult and challenging (and admirable to me) to RP a disctinct character within the boundries of what is considered acceptable gorean behaviour than to do what you wish and disregard the genre/theme in an attempt to be *different*.

The problem arises I suppose, when what one considers acceptable, another may not.

The problem I see most often is absolutely no knowledge of the boundaries. Creativity is great but not if it isn't a gorean themed creativity.

I agree with Kaitlin. One can surely be a special one, as long as it, "microcosmologically" seen, stays still Gorean /Realism plausible and is not just a hiding for e.g. disability to play and lose a conflict, i.e. take ICC, and, "macrocosmologically" seen, that the exception does not become the norm.

If everyone also is that special one, not saying some can be very plausibly play that, the risk of people clashing against each other in terms of OOC drama, ignoring each other's RP, etc. becomes much bigger.

Also I see a lot of boredom coming from it. IF people would accept the mundane a bit more, surely played in a certain way, it has a huge potential to bring more RP and fun. Chores for chores reason is surely silly, but chores / mundane things as a "by-product" to other things makes the entire play far longer.

[Anarch Allegiere]

So I'm assuming what people generally are saying is that for them the "unique" characters and storylines are okay, as long as it's based upon "knowledge" of the books?

I'll take what for me is one of the examples which for me personally is certainly "acceptable", and that's the example of a panther having managed to tame a tarn. As long as it's done through a 'believable' background I wouldn't instantly see a huge objection to the idea of a woman that has survived for a long time in the (extremely savage) wilderness of Gor that through circumstances might've managed to tame a tarn. Let's say that the animal was wounded and she helped feed it, but also at appropriate times excerted her dominance over the animal to make to it clear that she's it's "mistress".

Would -you- have major objections with a character like the above that through her RP and storyline has managed to acquire such a rare feat? It's not exactly a 'real' example because the only real "example" that comes close to the above would be a rather hyper-active individual that wasn't know for her plausible / gorean RP.

What -I- would or might have major objections with is that she'd just crash into a place (sim) flying on her tarn without communicating her background or story with the sim-administration first to get some sort of consent or validation of her background.

I've also made another thread to ask a related and personal question on the subject:
viewtopic.php?f=230&t=6784

[serene mistwood]

chores / mundane things as a "by-product" to other things makes the entire play far longer.

No, chores/mundane things make me yawn. Perhaps I have a short attention span, or just don't have the time as you do in the few hours I can indulge in SL Gor weekly.

As for a panther/female training a young wild tarn ( not a War tarn) - I believe it would be possible yes, and acceptable to me for a specific storyline. There is even a hint of this possible conditioning in the books.

When I had borne Talena home from Ar to Ko-ro-ba I had tried to teach her the reins of the tarn-harness and help her, at least with me at hand, to learn to master the brute.
In the whistling wind, as the need arose, I had called the straps to her. "One-strap!", "Six-strap!" and so on, and she would draw the strap. That was the only association between the voice of man and the arrangements of the strap harness which the tarn had known. The bird, of course, could not have been conditioned in so short a time, nor for that matter had it even been my intention to condition the bird, for I had spoken only for the benefit of Talena. Moreover, even if it had been the case that the bird had been inadvertently conditioned in that short of time, it was not possible that it would still retain the memory of that casual imprinting, which had taken place more than six years ago. Outlaw of Gor

The problem is, as someone has already pointed out, that we will then have lots of panthers wanting to become *Tarnswomen* - and the exception, which we admire, becomes the rule, which we don't. So, for me.. specific sim storyline with admin consent as an exception yes. New rule or behaviour change, no.

[Adoveea Rau]

Yep, I agree there with Kaitlin.
And since Adoveea Rau is now a special snowflake *laughs hard* I'll have to expand on that too. Lets ignore my ooc skills of my creation of tarns-programming/building/textures/animations/3d modeling scupty/mesh shall we? And all my ooc testing of tarns-flying etc, that's not roleplay at all, that's ooc activities.

When you do a special snowflake routine, are you doing it just for yourself or others? Is that special snowflake focused and the entire purpose of your personality and roleplay?

What makes it acceptable to the gorean roleplay community?

Adoveea breeding of tarns and the Tarn House is for those who want to roleplay out merchants bartering for tarns, tarnsman getting a tarn,tarnkeepers, slaves cleaning the pens etc.etc. That's her *gorean roleplay * business. She just keeps records and tells tarnkeepers "breed this one and that one to each other* and notes the traits and qualities for future generations as the tarns mature and are trained.

In other words, you have a very dull real life show dog/cat/etc breeder in a gorean roleplay world with a supporting roleplay force (npc and real players) who do the actual interactions for tarns.

In her OWN personal roleplay she's BORING and a book parody of a Free Woman. Highly proper, icy frigid to the extreme, and always covered from head to foot, sits around sipping black wine, gossiping, and working on her genetic charts for tarns.

Adoveea doesn't cross the lines of the standard acceptable behavior of a FW. Adventuring out ? No. Traveling alone? No. Romance/companionship/sexual adventures? Zero interest. Do combat? not a chance in hell. Fly a war tarn? Are you nuts??! Adoveea is not interested in becoming a tarn snack.

I've been creating tarns for gorean roleplay since Oct 2008 where Tarn House was first created in Teslit on the Vosk as a living roleplay place.(and ooc business)

More then any other female roleplayer in any part of Gor, I have the right to be able to fly any tarn I want.
But I don't, it would break my character's personality and roleplay. That's a special snowflake limit I refuse to go over.

Now if I get into a very extreme radical situation, yes, I might leap into the saddle of one and fly, but it's been almost five years..and I've roleplayed through alot of very extreme situations without ever hopping onto a tarn. So that should tell you something there.
It's all about setting your own boundaries about how your character is portrayed and acceptable in roleplay to others in the world of Gor.

[Violetta Daviau]

chores / mundane things as a "by-product" to other things makes the entire play far longer.

No, chores/mundane things make me yawn. Perhaps I have a short attention span, or just don't have the time as you do in the few hours I can indulge in SL Gor weekly.

I surely do not want to convince you, play as you like it. What I mean though is that chores should not be played for chores only, but they can add flavor and depth to anything else.
Imagine the following scenes:
Preface: a warrior player and a kajira player enjoy some chat, IC chat. He is at the wall to guard.
Situation 1: He stands guard, she kneels, they speak.
Situation 2: He stands guard and cleans his sword meanwhile thoroughly, she kneels aside of him and washes her master's tunics or sews them while the two speak.

More than situation 2 I do not mean. I played the crafting of a furkini with a pewpewer labled person who came just back from a capture, with amnesia. Their band healer wanted to heal the amnesia with a cookie. My intend was not to craft the furkini itself, the chore was really of no matter.
a) I was OOC pissed at the poor healing play of the healer so I stepped in at all
b) My IC intend was to bring back the girl to her memories slowly (hoping it would work) by showing her her prior life, to show her how agile her fingers were at things she cannot remember currently, and so make her get blinks of memories, maybe break the amnesia over the days

On the next day (I was playing a GE PK cultist priestess), I fetched her and showed her how her fingers were skilled at fletching arrows while converting her to my twisted faith version in talks, 4 hours.
I punished a captured panther girl by gnawing on guttjuices soaked leather strips that later formed the whip I whipped her with, 2h, and the crafting itself was an IC punishment already.
I went with a kajira into a forest sim to hunt imaginary animals, my OOC intend: get captured. But no man came by so we hunted, then night came, we built a temp outdoor camp, cooked together and told stories at the camp fire... 8h

It is really not a "craft craft craft, done, what next?"

As for a panther/female training a young wild tarn ( not a War tarn) - I believe it would be possible yes, and acceptable to me for a specific storyline. There is even a hint of this possible conditioning in the books.

When I had borne Talena home from Ar to Ko-ro-ba I had tried to teach her the reins of the tarn-harness and help her, at least with me at hand, to learn to master the brute.
In the whistling wind, as the need arose, I had called the straps to her. "One-strap!", "Six-strap!" and so on, and she would draw the strap. That was the only association between the voice of man and the arrangements of the strap harness which the tarn had known. The bird, of course, could not have been conditioned in so short a time, nor for that matter had it even been my intention to condition the bird, for I had spoken only for the benefit of Talena. Moreover, even if it had been the case that the bird had been inadvertently conditioned in that short of time, it was not possible that it would still retain the memory of that casual imprinting, which had taken place more than six years ago. Outlaw of Gor

The problem is, as someone has already pointed out, that we will then have lots of panthers wanting to become *Tarnswomen* - and the exception, which we admire, becomes the rule, which we don't. So, for me.. specific sim storyline with admin consent as an exception yes. New rule or behaviour change, no.

Here I agree with Serene. While I understand also Draco's point, the problem is really that we do not find just a limited number of exceptions that might be such plausible. It would become the rule as soon after like all would do what gives them RP benefits and kill their role restraints. And it would surely not only be panther girls, it would soon also be FW and slaves even to ride tarns.
We see that pretty much in GE / BTB main rule difference: Tarna was an exception in the books, yet GE is flooded with combatative FW, so called femlaws, but also combatative citizen women in the few cities GE actually has.

It is the same in RL. You maybe have a hand full of people that are well able to drive a car at 300 km/h without trouble on public autobahns/highways, but allowing that to all would increase the crash ratio tremendously, but as it is an all or noone thing, it gets forbidden for all.

As nice as it would be if all SL Gor would be as mature and experienced in RP, as Gorean, as many posting people here on the forums appear to be, it is just not the case, so being more restrictive in general will help more than it damages...