Roleplay

Role Playing in Freelancer Discovery

As a new player, maybe even as an experienced player, you may have realized that you lack the knowledge of how exactly it is that one roleplays correctly. When I was just starting out, lots of people were making lots of demands on me, and it never seemed like what I was doing was enough. For this reason, I'm putting together a comprehensive guide to staying in character and good roleplaying.

Faction Role Playing

In Discovery Mod, there are many factions who enforce rules of their own in their systems and expect all players in the system to follow them. This is Faction RP. Breaking faction RP rules can bring you a lot of trouble, mostly in the form of death. Remember what your ID is when confronted with these rules. If you're lawful and can't comply, leave the system until you can. If you're unlawful, you can safely break the rules without warranting complaints to the admin. If for some reason you're in gray area, use your own judgement, but whatever you do make sure you roleplay it. Remember, breaking faction demands usually means death and dead players can't return to the system for four hours. You have to decide if it's worth it. Something that most people does, is believing that they will be safe by following the lawful path, this is at a certain degree true, because you can hang around and trade in Bretonia, Liberty, Rehinland and Kusari with no great risk, but it is also a good idea to try an unlawful character or to do some smuggling. It is also fun to be in a player created faction whatever alignement it has. But it is all up to you.

Choosing Your Role

In discovery, your role is determined by your reputations and your ID. The ID is a little item equipped in your Internal Equipment section of your inventory. You have to have one equipped at all times. In addition, after level 40, you must choose a new ID since your civilian ID expires. There are a few basic IDs you can get and there are more that you can find if you look harder.

Common IDs:

Military ID

  A military ID is usually used by poliece or military officers.  There is often a player faction associated with the military in the area, so be ready to join up with them 

since some factions require it to carry the ID in the system. Playing a military role involves a lot of commitment to high quality RPing. Trader ID

  A trader ID is for people who want to run cargo routes with large transport ships.  Traders are easy to roleplay, as one usually only ever has to deal with pirates and law 
  enforcement.  Most people tend to have one trader character because trading is the easiest way to make money.

Pirate ID

  Pirates and Lane Hackers spend their time waiting outside of trade lanes to catch unsuspecting Traders and force them to pay a toll.  Pirate Role Players usually have some 
  swanky accent or shout AVAST at ships which enter their cunning traps.

Freelancer ID

  Freelancer and Mercenary IDS are for pilots who hire themselves out to traders for protection across inter-system space.  Generally, the poliece take care of pirates in the       
  deeper reaches of the home systems, but out on the edges or the boarders or on secret routes between, Freelancers are the only thing that stand between the Traders and the   
  Pirates.  Freelancers are allowed to fly transports, fighters and gunboats (Although Liberty naval forces do not like non military players to fly liberty gunboats).  
  Freelancers and Mercenaries tend to be a little overprotective, but generally ought to abide by the laws, or try to appear to at least.  They'll try to get away with what 
  they can, but will often back down when confronted by the law.

There are more IDs that exist in the game, many are variations on those I've listed above. Find one which best suits the character you have in mind before you reach level 40 and maybe even buy it early so that you won't be in trouble later.

Alignment

Doing missions for bases of different alignments will make you friendlier with the people at that base. Unfortunately, it has the side effect of making the people you're fighting like you less. Be sure to think about what kind of player you want to be so that in the future you can be properly aligned and buy the right IDs. This is especially important to consider if you plan on being unlawful because many unlawful IDs are hard to come by once you're a friend of the police.

Your Ship

Your ship is as important as your ID. The first thing to do is to make sure that whatever you're flying is allowed by your ID card. The second thing to do before purchasing is to think about whether or not your character would conceivably be flying that ship. It wouldn't make sense for a Naval officer of Liberty to fly a Bretonian gunboat or any vessel of an unlawful faction, or a trader to fly a Pirate craft. Freelancers have a bit more freedom, but still ought to think about what is reasonable for them to have.

Remember that some factions have rules governing which ships players ought not to have for their RP. If you buy a ship from a planet, be prepared to be treated as if you came from that planet by such factions (Usually these are military factions, which means battleships).

Note: Be forewarned that as of 5/04/08 when I am writing this, Gunboats from the house systems are controlled and non-military personell are not normally allowed to pilot them. This law is enforced by the factions whether for good or ill and is not necessarily a law for the entire server. If you buy a gunship from Liberty, Bretonia, Rheinland, or Kusari without membership in a military faction, be prepared for trouble.

Your Weapons

Your weapons can get you in a lot of trouble. By and large, people don't care what you equip, until you start equipping powerful weapons. Nomad weapons especially will get you in trouble if you fly around without a license. Military officers in Brettonia and Liberty have well protected policies against these weapons and a license will cost you several million credits to carry them. Carry these weapons without a license at your own risk. If you buy weapons from a player dealer or from a planet where an enemy of the government is in control, chances are you're doing something illegal and will eventually have a run in with the police. This is OK, so long as you consciously make the choice In Character.

In Character Decisions

Before every purchase, before every action, always think "What Would My Character Do?" and you shouldn't go wrong. When you buy a weapon or a ship, think of all possible in game consequences before proceeding. Buying an illegal weapon basically makes you into a smuggler. Buying a ship made by enemies makes you into a traitor. Buying a ship not listed as allowable on your ID card makes you a rule breaker and can get you into serious trouble with the admin. Be careful with what you do in game as it will effect what others think of you and how they act towards you.

Conversation and Chat

A commonly overlooked aspect of role playing is staying in character during chat. I like to put on accents when I roleplay (Which is hard to type) and change my attitude. Most importantly, remember to hide your true feelings of anger and frustration when you play. Screaming about rules at a pirate or a naval officer won't do you any good, however staying in character and talking smooth can often earn you respect.

There are a few levels of role play that I think I should discuss. Feel free to choose between them.

• Silence is Golden: Some role players speak only when spoken to. This can be to avoid detection, or it can be out of shyness. This is perfectly ok. Be prepared that the most common people to speak to you will be police and pirates, so have some witty retorts or respectful comments prepared just in case.
• Game only RP: Another group of role players only role plays as far as the game goes. They're a captain in space and they hail other vessels, sound like something out of a sci-fi movie and are generally quite appropriate for the setting. They'll banter back and forth, they know who their character is, but mostly how they relate to combat, trade, and other such facets of the physical game.
• My other life is a star pilot: The final group that I've noticed on discovery takes the cake. There are some who role play everything from in space combat, warnings to friends, walking each other back to their rooms after docking, and wailing over the death of a fallen comrade. These people go above and beyond the call of duty to make the game more like a forum RP attached to a video game and less like an in character space shooter. The only thing I have to ask here is that you respect the other players and keep some of the more complex role playing to group or private chat. Nobody really cares if you're walking your friend back to the dining hall aboard Newark Station, but private chat is a perfect place to do that when doing serious role playing between two or more people.

Have your story ready! When police stop you to ask why you're flying an Order ship or why you're trying to sneak into Alaska, have a story ready. If you can't think of a convincing reason to go there, the police won't be able to buy what you tell them and they will probably assume you're evil and kill you. If you get caught by pirates and are begging for your life, it helps to have some consistent RP reason to live. Often, good role playing will get you out of trouble and as I said before, good role players respect good role players, not rules mongers who scream that they're going to report everyone to the Admins. That spoils the game for everyone, whereas role playing betters the environment and is good for everyone.

Unnacceptable Conversation

When new pilots first jump into a Starflier they often are infected with a terrible disease thought to have come from Manhatten's surface. Sometimes it jumps over to veteran pilots in an unknown way. Many police are wary of this disease and if detected, will challenge the affected person to determine if the pilot is suitable and capable to safely fly their ship. This terrible disease is known as the "lawl" syndrome. It often appears in conversation with variants such as "lol", ":)", ":(" and many others. There is a cure, thankfully, and this is to continually expose the affect pilot to good roleplay. Eventually the lawl syndrome will be replaced with good roleplay itself and the affect pilot will show good signs of growth.

There have been reports of lawl syndrome appearing in private messages, but this is so far unconfirmed.