supernal

Its all good. You've been more then fair I think. Its just how things are with real life always interfering.

Of course, just looking and trying to find some active Tavern threads. 

Usually the main action is in the primary tavern thread itself. I think recently a main group of players broke off into a dedicated quest. It may make sense even to add you as a new player to that quest though I don’t want to presume. I’ll tag the mentor @ticklefarte here so they’re aware but otherwise I imagine the OOC chatter thread is the best place for more convo about that

The quest could use some more people, as it's pace has slowed down. If you're interested I'll get you up to speed!

Thank you!

Thanks! I’m already hyped up t’ make my latest monst- Character.

Thank you! Really appreciate that haha

I'm glad to hear it!

If you find yourself with any questions consider me a resource

I can create one, but I might not be able to post it until later on.  If you or someone else would like to post one while I'm otherwise occupied, you're more than welcome to do so.

Deal!

Just so! It's a certain viewpoint among the roleplaying community that is neither right nor wrong, I reckon. Some people want to have PCs that they admire tooth and nail, and no fault to them for that, since it is a delight to embody ourselves in our characters.

I just kind of take a novel-telling approach to roleplay more than a gaming approach, granted that this is suitably debatable for a General Chat thread lol, but what I mean is that authors can write some horrible characters and not exactly like them. In roleplay as we understand it (e.g. Valucre), your PC can kind of be your avatar—like in the movie Avatar, a means to carry yourself into a whole different world, while not necessarily becoming someone else.

I like my characters to, while in some ways preserving some of my own personality traits, otherwise be separate from myself. Sometimes that means being the person I could only hope to be—you know, those katana-toting knights in black and white armor who charm women with a wink and slay dragons with a handshake or...something. Trust me, I love it. On the other hand, sometimes it means portraying characters who are nigh the total opposite of who I see myself as being. This is Veron Blacktear.

Not unheard of. In professional writing, shall we say, you get Mr. Hyde, Patrick Bateman, Phillip Pullman's Mrs. Coulter, Shakespeare's Iago or GRRM's Petyr Baelish (or GRRM's...wow...Ramsay Snow, Gregor Clegane, Euron Greyjoy). Is there at least some semblance of understanding among these characters? Yes, for some of them, but there's a reason I italicized "Euron Greyjoy". 😉

One of the best things I ever read, "A villain doesn't want to beat the hero. The villain wants to scar them," and I agree with that. The degree changes with the story. Some characters aren't meant to last. They're meant to be locked up, die, etc. In the end the smile because of the scars they leave behind. Although, I do want to see your dragon slaying ninja, I know of the grin you probably wear while being Veron.

Eventually, I'll probably play a villain, too. If I'm allowed. I can probably hear an old voice speaking from my noggin, and it's a voice that could use an upgrade. And duality exists in several works of literature. The protagonists are only good as the antagonists. Even if the characters are all shades of grade, lighter grays shine brighter because of how dark those darker spots get. 

Veron doesn’t make me grin so much as frown. I’m aware of the monster I have made, and while some might say that and pat themselves on the back, this is a monster who I don’t admire.

Some folks can’t really grasp that and it’s understandable because it ultimately depends on the writer’s perspective. Most of us want to control PCs who appeal to us in more ways than not, and this is not wrong, I do the same, but sometimes the writer’s goal is to portray an irredeemable persona and that’s what I aim for with Veron.

I don’t like him. What’s to like? He’s a sadist and worse, who has done things that I can’t reveal on the site, and not the things that make one grin because of how awesomely evillish they are, but some truly depraved things. I don’t know how familiar you are with A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones but take Gregor Clegane—what is there to like? He is a monster, just not the kind of Ledger’s Joker or Hannibal Lecter who you root for. I doubt that George RR Martin was grinning while telling of the Mountain’s despicable deeds, but it had to be told in order to tell his story, and this is just as achievable in roleplay largely where the writer doesn’t intend to ‘avatar’ their PC as some kind of extension of himself but rather treat that PC as a separate entity.

Clearly, the writers behind Gregor still had to invest in him enough to portray him, but they didn’t need to smile while doing so. Cinema, arguably, portrays this sentiment more clearly, since you have eyes to see whether a scene in which a character commits some terrible crime is gratuitous or is nothing but tragic, and can glean how the staff might have felt when they arranged it. Not much to grin about.

Yet it’s still done for the sake of storytelling, which is my driving force behind Veron and the Lost Scions, alongside worldbuilding. I aim to paint those darker shades of the world that are often mentioned on the fly, but without the glitz and glamour. Whether I succeed in that endeavor is in the air—I have a number of literary hurdles to overcome—but that’s where my enjoyment comes from; not from the Lost Scions or their leader or how awful they are, but how they ultimately fit into the shared setting, serving as scum upon the earth but also as a device for collaborative roleplay (eg “do you need a mercenary?”) as well as a tool to offer general storytelling and challenge with my own plots.

Certainly, though, Veron and company are not the kind of people I ever want to meet. I hope they die. xD

Thanks so much!