Making oneself look more alive in Norrath


The basics Using emotes Eloquent Speach Public Speaking Dealing With Others Olde English

Part 1: The basics

The very essence of role-playing is assuming the persona (and role) of a fictionary character who is thrust into a variety of dramatic and fulfilling challenges, who may or may not ultimately succeed. The fun is not in "success" or "victory", but merely in trying, and pretending to overcome imaginary (and usually fantastic) obstacles. Of course, there is nothing to say that the fictional persona thrust into these situations is nothing more than a carbon copy of yourself. But sometimes, it is fun to actually pretend to be someone or something else than what you really are. The self reflection gained from playing a character contrary to one's own natural self is often valuable.

The very first part of a character would then be the name. The name is a very important part, it is what you will be known by in Norrath for as long as you play this part. It is important that you choose a name that is distinctive and original. If you do not, it is likely you will either be confused for someone else, or you will infringe upon the artistic rights of another. Names such as "Merlin", "Gandalf", "Raistlin", "Conan", "Fafhrd", "Drizzt", or any mispellings of such are extremely poor choices. For one, there is no originality in them, they are nothing more than copycat characters created by someone else. In addition, these characters are the property of the authors who created them. To assume their persona in Norrath is a strong slight to their creators, who ultimately and authoritatively know them best. Likewise, avoid historical names such as "Miyamoto Musashi", or even "Yanni". These are real people, who lived their own lives. Create a life of your own when making a character. Choose a strong original name. The name generator provided by EverQuest's character creation process can be of great help in creating an original name. Feel free to modify its suggestions.

Beyond a name however, there should be an actual person. You the player will provide the motivation, personality, quirks, and speech of a fictional character. A character should be consistent. Unless your character is literally insane, there should be a reason (and cause) for why your character changes reactions to similar stimuli. However, characters change over time, and as your character progresses, it is only natural that his/her attitudes change as well. A character should also be motivated. What reasons caused your character to choose his or her class? Why does he or she adventure? The reasons could be fantastic or mundane. A good way to develop a character is think of answers to these 5 questions:
  1. Who are your parents?
  2. Where and how did you grow up?
  3. Why did you leave home?
  4. What do you want to accomplish with your life?
  5. Why have you chosen to worship (or lack thereof) the god you do?
 Once you have answered these questions, your character is more than fleshed out, and ready to interact with Norrath.

Part 2: Expressing yeself

There are several interesting visual moves one can do in the world of Norrath. Not all are listed in the manual of EverQuest. Each one of the following emotes has an animation associated with it. Some emotes are the same, and only differ by name (i.e. /rude, /finger, and /flipoff).

/agree
/amaze
/apolgize
/applaud
/bird
/bleed
/blush
/boggle
/bonk
/bored
/bow
/burp
 /cackle
/cheer
/chuckle
/clap
/cough
/cringe
/cry
/curious
/dance
/disbelief
/drool
/duck
 /finger
/flipoff
/frown
/gasp
/gesture
/giggle
/glare
/grovel
/hungry
/kneel
/mourn
/nod
 /peer
/plead
/point
/ponder
/puzzled
/raise
/ready
/rude
/salute
/shiver
/shrug
/sigh
 /snicker
/stare
/tap
/thank
/veto
/wave
/whistle
/yawn

In addition, the following other emotes contain textual messages but no animation. They are not as expressive or noticable, but they are convenient, allowing one to avoid excessive typing.

/bite
/blink
/bounce
/brb
/bye
/calm
 /comfort
/congratulate
/eye
/grin
/groan
/happy
 /hug
/introduce
/jk
/lost
/massage
/moan
 /panic
/poke
/roar
/rofl
/smile
/smirk
 /snarl
/tease
/welcome
/whine
/yell

Lastly ye have access to the emote command, which can be accessed by either typing in "/em [emote text to appear here]" or ":[emote text to appear here]". The resulting text to be seen by everyone around ye will be "[Your name] [emote text to appear here]". Notice that the space is required to separate the /em command from the emote text, but in the case of : this is not needed at all, the space is provided for ye.

Example:
/em unwraps a bandage and begins to dress his wound.
:unwraps a bandage and beings to dress his wound.
Resulting text:
Branin unwraps a bandage and begins to dress his wound.
Editing a custom social emote One example of a fine combination of animation and original textual emotes is creating a social button. By right clicking upon the buttons in the social menu (appearing in the right side of windowed mode, these being buttons such as AFK or GM, etc.) you can access the editing screen. Each line will enter in text when the modified button is pressed. You can enter in /commands as well as :emotes.

Example: I have made a button for myself that I have renamed "Laugh" It's text is in two lines as follows:
/cheer
:roars with laughter!
Results of the custom emote Results:
I will cheer at my target (the first line of text is entered in and executed), and immediately after the following text will appear in everyone's screens: "Branin roars with laughter!"

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Part 3: Eloquent Speach

The absolute most important part of making sure ye come across in Norrath as someone who is fully there is to ensure that ye do not use abbreviations in non-combat situations. In combat, this is completely acceptable because ye lives are at stake, but in a tavern or on the street, this only shows a complete lack of character (and a certain unwillingness to type out the word as it was meant to be spelled).

The following abbreviations are commonly used by others and it is reccomended ye do not use them unless in combat or dire circumstances. I can only stress the importance of fully expressing yeself by using whole words.

BBC (Bone Bladed Claymore)
BiBS (Blackened Iron Bastard Sword)
BS (blood stained)
CDS (Cracked Darkwood Shield)
CMS (Crested Mistmoore Shield)
DE (dark elf)
FBR (Flowing Black Robe)
FBSS (Flowing Black Sash)
FoM (full of Mana)
FS (fine steel)
GB (Ghoulsbane)
GWC (Glowing Wooden Crook)
GZ (Gigantic Zweihander)
Jboots (Journeyman's Boots)
KOS (kill on sight)
KS (kill steal)
LoH (Lay on Hands)
LoM (low on mana)
M2H (Mithril Two-Handed Sword)
 OBO (or best offer)
OOM (out of mana)
PBB (polished bone bracelet)
PGT (Polished Granite Tomahawk)
Pix (pictures)
Plz (please)
PoD (Priest of Discord)
R (are)
RTS (runed totem staff)
SBH (Shiny Brass Halberd)
SBS (Shiny Brass Shield)
SoW (Spirit of Wolf)
SSB (Skull Shaped Barbute)
Tel (tell)
Thx (thanks)
Tommy (Polished Granite Tomahawk)
U (you)
WTB (want to buy)
WTG (Way to go!)
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Part 4: Public speaking

The first thing to consider when one is public speaking is to beware large amounts of erroneous and unwanted text from nearby events. For this reason, there are several issues to consider before public speaking.

The first obviously, is location. One wants to pick a place that is easily accesible to the audience, easy to find, and away from the usual hustle and hubub of cities. Of course, outdoors locations are poor choices because of their relative danger to lower level members of the audience. I would reccomend speaking in taverns, or Innes, as they are rarely frequented at all, and have ample room for audiences.

In summary, one wants locations that are:
  • Easily accessible
  • Easily found
  • Away from normal activity
  • Free of significant danger
 Second of all, one needs to establish a proper etiquette for the public speaker. Beforehand, it is wise to educate the audience of the rules of speaking. The following rules are to ensure that unnecessary text does not overflow the screens of all who attend a large meeting.

  • The person who calls the meeting is the first speaker
  • The speaker stands, the others will sit facing the speaker
  • Only the speaker may speak or act, the rest shall remain quiet
  • The speaker may sit, and pass speakership to another who may stand
 The last and probably most important issue with public speaking is to ensure ye have a clear topic to speak on, and that ye have a clear idea of what ye are speaking on. Also ensure that you give a clear time when you are starting and ending to avoid yer audience leaving early due to other committments.

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Part 5: Dealing and bargaining with others

When dealing with others, other actions can be taken to make sure that they know ye are not another sap on the street. These can often help ye when dealing with others, but be warned, some of the empty ones will often curse at ye, or be dreadfully impatient that the time ye. The best advice I can give is simply let them be. If you need their goods or services, weigh this against your pride. Which is worth more to ye?

The first thing ye can do is to simply let ye hands to the talking while trading with others. Rather than letting yourself say "I offer 3,000pp for that Mithril Breastplate" or "How much you willing to pay for this Crested Helm?", instead put the item in a trade window for ye companion to look at and marvel. Let the money or item do the speaking for ye. Simply add the comment "Ye like?" or "Tis a beauty, no?" or something similar. Let the greed and items/coinage speak for itself. People will marvel at ye subtlety. Never refer to the product or goods directly, let the eyes of the buyer talk for ye.

When ye are on the buying side of the table, attempt to bargain down the seller. Mention how much cheaper another item is, which is of equal or harder difficulty to obtain. Mention how another more useful item (possibly in another area) is cheaper to purchase or obtain. Offer the seller anywhere between half and two-thirds of his original offer, and when he balks, continue to up your offer until a compromise is met. Few merchants are willing to let a customer walk off without offereing at least one compromise, large or small.

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Part 6: Speaking in one particular tongue (Or Olde English)

The last thing one can do in order to influence others in speak in tongues. While it is possible to begin to speak Erudite or Teir'Dal, this usually confuses others. What I heartily reccomend is a dialect of common that we all use. Below is a quick list of words and what they substitute for! Bewarned, some of us do not exactly speak common very well (i.e. Japanese, German, or French players) and may be confused, so ensure that ye target audience can understand ye.

  • Tis (It is, or it's)
  • Twould (It would)
  • HAR HAR HAR! (*lol*, or HA!)
  • Aya! / Curses! / Blast it! (#(*%&#(*%&)
  • Ye / yer / yeself (you / your / yourself)
 For those of ye who play Feir'Dal or Teir'Dal, or any other intelligent and haughty race, make sure ye use nice long words when speaking! Nothing impresses the local yokels more than words with more than three syllables, use liberally. But beware, ensure that ye know what ye are using, nothing embarasses more than using a word improperly, so make sure ye read Meriam-Webster's dictionary to look up any words ye plan on using.

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-Branin Black'Lion