by Aeroprism » Mon Jul 1, '13, 6:28 pm
@doncair99, now that is a very good, solid question.
SHORT VERSION:
1- Get to know EOTA a bit
2- Invent a character
3- Start playing as you get to know EOTA more and began to influence it as well.
LONG VERSION:
Roleplay means you create a fictional character of your own and, as the story unfolds in front of you through the writings of the game master (in this case: me), you make decisions (as you post) and "play out" the story.
The idea is very simple really: you play a unique, personalized Phantasy Star adventure through forum posts.
The first part is making a character. This is a process that takes you through several steps.
First of all, you would need to get acquainted with the universe of EOTA. It's tightly based on Phantasy Star 2 but since it's been evolving as an entity of its own for many years, it's become something different. It's still very much PS based but with many differences. For instances, the story heavily relies on military elements, spaceship battles are common and events tend to be on a much larger scale.
The keyword there was "acquainted". The idea is to let you understand the world just enough to create a workable character. The world is very rich and complex and no one (not even me) is expected to remember every single detail so you don't need to feel any pressure whatsoever in that regards. If you happen to write something that is based on your PS experience but incompatible with the EOTA, the players or myself will politely point it out and life will go on.
Character creation is super simple; all you need is an idea, a concept. The simpler characters tend to become the most interesting as they develop over time. I have seen players start with extremely complex characters and abandon soon after; either the characters were too arduous to play or they simply did not have anything to look forward to.
Character ideas can be very "vanilla" or completely "out there". Doesn't matter, the character will work just fine as long as the player tries to stay within the boundaries set by the EOTA universe.
There are no statistics or numbers. I tried that at first but it was too much of a hassle to manage, so now we go with concept ideas and work our way up. For instance, Tanith plays an esper called Esmeray. At first, Esmeray's technique list was clear and restrictive. Now? Bugger lists. She can use whatever technique she wants, as long as it isn't game breaking.
This is actually the concept players have the most trouble with at first but once you think about it, it's quite easy.
You, as a player, always decide what your character's actions are but never the result of these actions: that's MY job.
When you play PS2 on your Genesis, you select the NAFOI action for Rolf and start the round, what do you expect? You know that NAFOI does heavy fire damage so it is what you expect it to do. You don't expect NAFOI to summon an army of angry machines; it's not what it's meant to do. However, when you press that C button, you don't decide how much damage the tech will do that round or if it will even hit; the game does that for you. Well in the case of a forum game, the "game" is me. I will decide the result of your actions by respecting your original idea (as long as it makes sense).
In short, roleplay is very simple.
MY POST announces a situation.
YOUR POST describes your character's reactions/actions regarding that situation.
MY POST announces the result of those actions.
Rince, repeat, with more players.
As for character flavors, in my current player roster, I have many simple characters that work very well: a palman mercenary who wants to make a name for his own, a palman bounty hunter with a shady past. More complex but still very interesting characters examples are: a young college boy from Mota with a passion for biomonster-inspired kung-fu, a lovely blue-skinned, war maiden from the other side of the galaxy etc.
One of my former (very short lived) players tried to import a character from an universe of his own and ended up trying to play some sort of apocalypse-bound, blind newman kid with autism issues and god-complex. It did not work very well.
So there you go. That was EOTA RP in a nutshell, albeit a rather lengthy one.
A few useful/interesting notes for those who would still be interested after reading all that:
Roleplay is rewarded, laziness is not. The line "My character attacks" will not get the same response as "Looking left and right to make sure none of the other Cast soldiers are about to flank her, my character steps forward and, with a menacing glare, swing her sword at her opponent's head, hoping to end him with one clean blow!"
EOTA is an adult universe. Games tend to be serious and intense. Everything about PS that was adorable and uselessly fluffy was removed when EOTA was created. For example, there are no rappies and there never will be. That doesn't mean no one ever laughs. That means that if you do, it will not be at the expense of a joke targeting a 8 years old Japanese girl.
EOTA is different from other roleplay games/campaigns for one true, tested and provable reason: it endures. Most people are turned off by the idea of committing time to a forum RP because they know that the internet if fickle and that many if not most RP games start out with a big, loud, glamorous bang and run out of gas after a few weeks. EOTA has been tabletop since the early 2000s and is now tackling its fourth active and lively year. It's here to stay.
A minimum of commitment is expected from every player, however: no one will EVER force you to post if you have real life issue or if you simply don't feel like playing. Some of my players currently take weeks if not months between each post, some post literally minutes after me. If it suits them, it suits me. If however you are part of a more active game and still you take several months between each post and only drop short one line posts when you do post, expect your character to be treated accordingly. Just as well, if you post often and invest time, expect to get more attention and focus on your ideas.
This post is a solid four pages long. This is an average when I DM a story/game which I really like. Sure, I will often drop short posts to update a situation, especially in combat, but long winded posts are expected in a RP universe. It is not a game for those who do not enjoy reading.
Please follow up with any more questions you might have!