RAW there are no penalties for having your character subsist entirely on stale bread and lukewarm water, own only one set of clothing, wear their armour every minute of the day that they're not sleeping, and
so how many of us perform these purely non-essencial tasks with their characters? whether it be your wizard using prestidigitation to keep clean and make the group's food taste nice or your paladin rocking up to the mass in his clerical vestments rather than his fullplate, i want to find out how many gamers out there bother to make life comfortable for their characters.
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I am one of the few players that I know of to have had a character walk around town with no armor and no weapons, because, hey, it's supposed to be safe here! Of course it was so fun taking down a would-be assassin with a crate of cabbages!
I love having my characters spend money on baths, hot meals, luxury suites, massages, etc.
I am curious to see how many others do the same!
See, now this is where my female players excel. A hot bath is one of the first things they want when they return to civilization. New outfits (or taking the time to use mending and prestidigitation to restore old ones) are usually the next thing, followed by a good night's rest in a real bed.
Hot food, cool ale, and shopping sprees on things not directly dealing with killing monsters and taking their stuff is pretty standard throughout my gaming group.
It depends on my character. My witch is all about the finer things in life and is always looking for clean rooms, a bath, a gourmet meal, the best wine, etc. And he pays for them.
My druid doesn't even like to go into town and usually just finds herself a nice oak tree to relax in. Bathing is usually done when it rains or in a nice forest stream or pool.
My ranger is somewhere in between. He mostly just likes to kick back with a big stinky cigar and have a beer... Other characters have been known to plead with him to have a bath...
There's plenty of focus on "fine dwarven spirits", "dwarven fire ale" beer, and mead. Occasionally discussions about beds/rooms.
As for bathing that is one of the things I assume is going on without the need for rping out. Much like bathroom visits, I never have had a situation for intimate daliances but I would not want to rp those out. But thre are definately times to be in town not in full gear. I never let people sleep in medium or heavy armor without it costing them -'s the next day to stiffness, soreness and lost sleep.
I will never forget one night in an inn our party got robbed. My halfling rogue ran after the thief in my pjs, meanwhile the paladin donned his full plate. I was able to chase the thief down, nearly killing myself. Needless to say I was POed at the paladin.
With a good GM, role playing your character to be interested in good food, good drink, nice facilities, etc. can be a great way to introduce opportunities to meet different NPCs from different social strata who have different levels of knowledge about the area.
My witch specifically went to the most expensive restaurant in town because he wanted to meet the movers and shakers in the town. Of course he likes him some good food too, but because he tipped well, the waitress who served his table tipped him off to a rumor she had heard about certain newcomers to town having attracted the attention of a notable rich scalawag. Rewarded with an even bigger tip, and a promise of more to come if she had better information, she turned up at his hotel room that evening with a warning about a group of thugs who had met with the scalawag and who then entered the hotel. Forewarned as we were, we managed to avoid being the victims of a poison gasbag attack in our rooms that night.
@Axl: part-timers indeed, though now i come to think of it i seem to remember some of our characters using a suit of enchanted leather armour we found as a set of pajamas... good times.
Heh, I actually keep a list of all the different outfits I have described my characters wearing. We've also had shopping trips to various boutiques, attended plays and dined with the cast, performed numerous musical numbers, enjoyed 12-course dinners, and lamented over going without scented baths and perfumes while shipwrecked on a tropical island. Characters have given one another lessons how how to properly apply their make-up, worried over which fork to use at dinner, sponsored fellow party members at atonement ceremonies, and even performed at the opera. There have also been in-character romances, break-ups, and the like.
So yeah, I guess my group engages in the ROLEplaying side of RPGs. :)
Roleplaying: what would my character wear?
Rollplaying: can i trade my character's ability to dress himself for an extra feat?
I had a character who was a mage/monk. He would use the clean cantrip when we at a place to rest. He all also had at least two sets of court clothes.
Another character of mine was a fighter, and we were guests, we were taken care of by priestess's of Ishtar. Talk about characters getting pampered.
RAW there are no penalties for having your character subsist entirely on stale bread and lukewarm water, own only one set of clothing, wear their armour every minute of the day that they're not sleeping, and
so how many of us perform these purely non-essencial tasks with their characters? whether it be your wizard using prestidigitation to keep clean and make the group's food taste nice or your paladin rocking up to the mass in his clerical vestments rather than his fullplate, i want to find out how many gamers out there bother to make life comfortable for their characters.
** spoiler omitted **
I like to go canoeing in the BWCA in northern Minnesota. This sounds a lot like my 7-10 day trips when it's too cold out to jump in the lake (40 degrees is too cold for a bath, even after a week).
Also, every paladin I've ever played has owned a bar of soap. Cleanliness is godliness and all that.
One of my players plays a druid and another an elf fighter. Every evening they use their survival skills to find food in the forest - they specifically look for herbs and flavoring and then describe how they cook really fantastic meals for the rest of the group.
From the last trader they met they bought wine and nutmeg.
One of my players plays a rogue with an extravagant lifestyle. He always meets his contacts in the most expensive restaurants, throws huge parties and wears expensive clothing (and hates it when this clothing gets dirty).
On the other hand, one of my players plays a monk, who had a winter blanket which got so dirty that as DM I seriously considered letting it mutate into some kind of filth ooze!
RAW there are no penalties for having your character subsist entirely on stale bread and lukewarm water, own only one set of clothing, wear their armour every minute of the day that they're not sleeping, and
so how many of us perform these purely non-essencial tasks with their characters? whether it be your wizard using prestidigitation to keep clean and make the group's food taste nice or your paladin rocking up to the mass in his clerical vestments rather than his fullplate, i want to find out how many gamers out there bother to make life comfortable for their characters.
** spoiler omitted **
At a certain point listing everything you would do becomes too much bookkeeping. That is what downtime is for. It is assumed that you eat, bathe, practice your craft, train with the party on tactics, and so on during that time.
I would probably have to take the time to write up a large list, just so I did not forget anything, not because I don't bathe or eat in real life, but I am sure the fantasy land characters have to do a lot of things that I don't need to know about during the session.
That is a good point, but no I don't bother with such things most of the time. It is not about Roleplay vs roll play though. I just don't consider it to be important. As to another player doing it, I don't mind as long as it does not soak up 30 minutes of real life time for not reason at all. I have never felt like a character is just a character though, but I do understand how some people feel like doing those things makes the character more real.
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I usually add soap in my characters inventories.
Anyone ever played a Suikoden game, one thing I learned from them, people can have the weirdest conversation in a (relatively) public bath.
Heh, I actually keep a list of all the different outfits I have described my characters wearing. We've also had shopping trips to various boutiques, attended plays and dined with the cast, performed numerous musical numbers, enjoyed 12-course dinners, and lamented over going without scented baths and perfumes while shipwrecked on a tropical island.
.... and this is why I fear calling myself a roleplayer.
Does nobody in your party play rangers, barbarians and druids?
I can think of maybe two characters out of all the people I've played over the past ten years who might go along with that stuff, but they'd be much more likely to lament their inability to bring their massive libraries with them :)
Shopping, fashion, worrying about etiquette --- that's boring enough IRL, do I need to RP it too?
My last game session we had a 10 minutes of game time taken up by 4 players describing how they were getting cleaned. We had just been informed we would be meeting the King in 30 minutes.
The 5th player went out to play with her animal companion.
I find things like this important. They can serve as important RP elements, and give the GM ideas for interesting ways to interact with the party. And you never know when an interesting item like 100gp of exotic curry might come in handy.
.... and this is why I fear calling myself a roleplayer.
Does nobody in your party play rangers, barbarians and druids?
I can think of maybe two characters out of all the people I've played over the past ten years who might go along with that stuff, but they'd be much more likely to lament their inability to bring their massive libraries with them :)
Shopping, fashion, worrying about etiquette --- that's boring enough IRL, do I need to RP it too?
Haha! Actually we've really enjoyed it for the most part. The PCs who are high-rollers enjoy the chance to live up to their social status while the RP from those whose characters would feel out-of-place in at a ball or fancy dinner RP that awkwardness well. Also, there have been many late nights where the PCs have talked privately to one another about the pains of their pasts, coming to grips with their own spirituality, and discussing their worries and hopes for the future. I couldn't be more proud of them.
Anyway, since you asked about rangers, druids, and barbarians, here's the party breakdown prior to getting shipwrecked looked like this:
- Alis: Half-elven princess. Gestalt Bard/Monk with sorcerer spell-casting and a level or two of Cleric and Rogue.
- Lureene: Redeemed 'Succubus' retainer to Alis. Gestalt Wizard/Summoner with a dash of Rogue, and some levels of Tiefling Paragon to pay off the succubus abilities.
- Malandraenas: Half-elven/half-'catfolk' bodyguard to Alis. Gestalt Ranger/Druid with a bit of Barbarian thrown in to represent his beastly demeanor. Would rather wrestle a bear than attend one of Alis' soirees.
- Priyya: Aasimar and itinerant (and snarky) do-gooder. Gestalt Cleric/Paladin/Zen Archer. Came from a humble background, more comfortable covered in blood and bruises than in make-up and finery.
As for shopping being boring? Well, unless you're independently wealth or have rich friends, their days around town are generally just a wee bit more exciting than a trip to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and the local maul. ;) The funny thing is, the princess has something of a reputation for finding trouble, so trips to boutiques and fine restaurants are generally met with more apprehension of disaster than setting foot into ghoul-filled caverns. After all, when a blackguard kicks in the door, you pretty much know what's going to happen. When rubbing elbows with conniving nobles however... it's more like navigating a social minefield — there's no telling what adventure hooks or wicked plots may spring forth from such dealings.
Now this isn't to say that I haven't had any player turn-over due to differences in expectations. Mal and Priyya's players opted out eventually, although that was long after all the high-class shopping trips were concluded. We were already neck-deep in on Smuggler's Shiv by 1000 and 3000 posts respectively when the Ben and Justin took their leave.
That said, the newer characters that have joined seem to enjoy all the RP that goes on. In fact, at least one of them was expressly designed by the player to woo the princess.
- Tyralor: Aasimar prince and Alis' probable soul-mate. Gestalt Paladin/Oracle of Flame. Eloquent romantic and fearless do-gooder with a painful past.
- Darvesch: Dwarven honor-cousin to Alis. Gestalt Fighter/Inquisitor. Brave yet fatalistic guardian of justice who shoulders the emotional burdens of others.
- Isaac: Half-elven Marshal of Eleder. Gestalt Fighter/Rogue. Dashing military officer who has caught the eye of both Lureene and her best friend NPC Sasha Nevah. Cares deeply for his NPC younger sister, though he's got plenty of bruised ribs from her elbowing him due to pursuing a succubus (redeemed or not).
- Amhranai: Retired elven field medic. Gestalt Cleric/Rogue. Immigrated to Sargava because she was tired of war and wanted to help the indigenous people. The local natives now look up to her to represent their causes to Alis' government.
Now as in-depth as our roleplaying goes (I daresay we have more RP and emotion in our combat scenarios than I've seen in any local game I've played it), our combats are generally quite demanding too. Surviving requires lots of tactics and teamwork, and the ability to adapt to shifting battlefields: underwater battles, waves of reinforcements, multi-level battlefields, timed encounters, urban infiltrations, escort missions, rescue missions, chases thru sprawling castles, and fights where the party is basically unarmed and unarmored, etc.
Lastly, a lot of character development has actually been brought about by injuries and close-calls. The NPC deaths that have occurred have also touched the characters sparking discussions on duty and morality, and genuine heartache.
Anyway, I'm probably rambling at this point, but I just had to give props to my players for being what I would consider exceptional roleplayers. You guys rock! :)
Shopping, fashion, worrying about etiquette --- that's boring enough IRL, do I need to RP it too?To YOU perhaps...
But many gamers love this aspect of gaming...
I don't have a PROBLEM with it, if that's what they want to do, in their games.
It's just why I don't like identifying myself as a "roleplayer" even though I have detailed stories for my characters and base all my actions on their history and personality. It's just that I'd rather roleplay interaction with a squirrel (which I have done, and it turned out to be rather important when we found it was actually a green dragon under a curse) than impress some princeling with my taste in silks.
People have this idea that "roleplaying is what you do in the city, ROLLplaying is what you do in combat". The first D&D game I played in had a number of characters that shaped my view of their classes. One was a ranger. He shunned cities; never slept inside one. If the party had this idea that we were going spend a significant portion of time "roleplaying" interactions within a city, he would have been called "not a roleplayer". But he was acting in character.
People have this idea that "roleplaying is what you do in the city, ROLLplaying is what you do in combat".
Not that I'm sure there aren't some people who believe that, but it just seems like an odd outlook to me. Of course, it could be that my group is just odd I suppose. However our "roleplaying" isn't merely restricted to your traditional social encounters. We have plenty of character development, dialog, internal monologue, and the like take place in combat and whilst trekking thru dungeons and the wilderness — all phases of gameplay that could just as easily be handled with only character stats, a map, and a fistful of dice.
Likewise, you could have social encounters reduced to nothing but rolls if your players tried to get by with only rolling Diplomacy, Sense Motive, etc. without putting forth any effort into actual narration. Mind you, that would fly with me about as well as a player posting rolls for their greataxe without any accompanying verbiage, but then some GMs prefer all narration be left to them so that can differ by group.
Personally I'd say it's a better reason to avoid labeling oneself as a "roleplayer" to avoid the elitist connotation that seems to be developing due to the... dichotomy between roll- vs role-play.
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It's all roleplaying as long as you're breathing some life into your vision of the character. Laithoron has his style, and other people have their own style and comfort zones.
And beyond that, some people don't have as much appreciation for going through all the details of the things that make other players feel brings their characters to life. Wraithstrike touched on this above. He dodens't care to worry about the details of bathing and food in-take. This all happens in the background noise of the important stuff, so he doenst' care to walk through and annotate all of it.
Laithoron, on the other hand, gets a thrill out of making these innocuous things important. So to him they're not innocuous.
I guess what i'm trying to say is there's no real way to do it 'right' or 'wrong'... just different styles and preferences. (Not an original thought, I know.)
Back to eh OP question, though. I love fleshing this stuff out when in an PbP game. I don't currently have any live games going, but when I did, I struggled to breathe as muc life into them. Not to say I didn't try to make my character "real", but i don't have the actor mentality in general.
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Just to echo what Eben and Laithoron are saying, is it all depends on the player and how much effort he puts into his characters. I believe in PbP games it is much easier to add RPing elements to the game than it would be at a tabletop. That said, not all of my characters are as detail-oriented or fastidious as, say, a royal Princess. It depends on the PbP itself and the DM running it.
I do personally like to take time to add some details to basic actions or thoughts because I know other lurkers do read these PbP and I want to give them a story to read and enjoy. I believe that is what good DMs do as well and as a player following along I enjoy reading the details (or 'fluff' as it were). Plus it is a good time for DMs to slip in clues or other plot stuff as well, he he. If you are going to put time and effort into a PbP you may as well have some fun with it right?
I mean that is why we play this game right....:)
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so how many of us perform these purely non-essencial tasks with their characters? whether it be your wizard using prestidigitation to keep clean and make the group's food taste nice or your paladin rocking up to the mass in his clerical vestments rather than his fullplate, i want to find out how many gamers out there bother to make life comfortable for their characters.
I do. So do all of the people I currently game with. We don't necessarily play out every minute of such activities (or anything even close to that level of detail for mundane stuff)-- but in pretty much every game (not just PF or D&D), there's usually mention of the characters finding and enjoying their 'creature comforts', getting baths, good meals, staying at the nice Inn (when we've got the money), etc. Even with parties out 'in the field', there's some mention of the extra steps our characters take to try to make life a little more comfortable and tolerable at camp-sites and on the road, rather than living 'like wild animals'.
PF (and D&D) specific touches? Pretty much every character I have has figured out a way to either cast prestidigitation personally, or get regular access to it through a fellow party member-- it's the eternally useful spell for staying clean and making the food taste better. Mending-- yes, that cantrip/orison gets a lot of use, because several of us think about such things. In town-- well, it's a pseudo-medieval/renaissance-type society... we don't go running around friendly towns in full armor, but characters do still wear their swords (or other equivalent weapon that can be conveniently slung on the belt-- equivalent to a modern side-arm)-- that does mean the guy with the great-sword may leave that at the Inn and carry a smaller weapon, and the archer isn't carrying a bow and full quiver everywhere he goes, but everyone carries some sort of back-up (too many things happen in town to go about completely unarmed). People don't sleep in full armor (if they wear medium or heavy armor-- in the 'field' my group too believes in having light-armor 'sleeping shirts' for those characters-- as a role-playing touch, we've been ambushed a few too many times to completely let our guard down on that). Of course, it's been quite a while since I've played a character who wore medium or heavy armor...
I'm probably the person in the group who is most concerned with 'creature comforts' and all those role-playing touches that have no impact on game mechanics, and I make sure that all of my characters have 'hygeine kits', changes of clothes (and/or magical means to clean and mend them), and other such useful things. I also tend to be the first one stating my character's off to get a real bath as soon as the party hits town after we've been out for a while... but then again-- in RL, I'm the only one in my current groups who knows (personally) just how much it can suck to be in the field for extended periods, always on the go with limited 'facilities' (from military experience-- the other former military types I currently game with were Air Force or Navy, and didn't get to have that particular experience-- at least not for long enough to exceed the feeling of a short camping trip).
We've varied based on the campaign and group. We've discussed the details of getting ready to meet the local royalty, including what we were wearing, in our current campaign. In the previous one, there were several scenes played out when we came back to civilization regarding getting rooms and getting cleaned up, including one where the arcane archer earned some points with my priestess by using a tiny hut to give her some privacy while she bathed after a nice jaunt through the sewers and the eldritch knight used prestidigitation on her dress while she was bathing (I never got around to researching that as a clerical cantrip, but I think we eventually agreed it was added to the cleric spell list) :) We routinely discuss what food and drink are available and how they taste. It helps set the mood in the game, gives us a few laughs, and may or may not influence things to come; I'm sure if the party had seen some of my priestess' scars, there would have been some heavy roleplaying repercussions, for example.