Companions and RP

[harpalyce]

Any thoughts on how to deal with this?

I am just going to dismiss Jorgen and pretend, essentially, that he doesn't exist; but I'm also saying Harpalyce isn't the last member of Havoc squad because there's only so many last members of Havoc squad that the universe can support. I figure droid companions make a lot more sense to have, well, everywhere, because droids are manufactured repeatedly to the same standard.

But what do we do about the companion characters that are organics?

Ignore them for in-game RP, but write stories about them? Substitute with a similar character of our own make? It's definitely an elephant in the room as far as roleplay goes.

[dira]

I can't wait for a droid. I especially want one who is a total dick; I can't be the only one who misses HK-47. Corso doesn't have much of a sense of humor.

[celethorn]

For in game RP I generally put my companion away.

[The Duchess]

I say we treat them like warlock "pets" from WoW - not really necessary, and even disruptive most of the time, but there are some creative ways to handle them and still make them unique. It just requires twice the damn emoting.

I knew a guy who had a "robotic" succubus (gnome joke) - but just as an idea, the companion doesn't even HAVE to be human. Hell, for that matter, droid companions make a lot more sense in general, and don't ruin immersion as much as having 10 clones of the same npc standing around.

[gcrust]

If I'm RPing, I generally send my companions off on crew missions.

[The Duchess]

Which begs the idea: DROID FIGHTS.

[gcrust]

Honestly? I'm chomping at the bit to get Droids as a Playable race. They've got what seems like most of the animations of other classes down in Droid NPC enemies, and dang it...I want to play as a Droid! A Droid Imperial Agent or Smuggler would be awesome!

[Cyras]

This was one of the problems that my husband and I discussed. We are always in character when we quest together (which is 100% of the time) because I usually lose interest just questing. RPing with the companions can get a little tricky.

Because we don't send the ones we are using away, we will include them in our roleplay with each other. Of course, they take a different name in our RP. I mean, how many Khems can there be? Some are not even named. For the SW apprentice, we generally call the comp "apprentice" or their race.

It was humorous to have my husband RPing in general, talking down to "my" apprentice on accident. It's what he gets for being helpful. lol (joking)

If we are in the main city and RPing with others, we will send them on missions or just dismiss them. They are still as much a part of our RP, but they aren't "there".

[Raphael diSanto]

Warning: Incoming Wall of Text (tm)

tl;dr - Just be cool, be flexible, be respectful of others.

I do the same thing as I do in any MMO, have very selective RP filters that get turned on and off.

All of the things I do in game happen in many, many multiple weird alternate dimensions/alternate universes. If I'm RPing in a duo and we both have companions out, I RP that they're there, usually. Due to the limitations on class-specific story instances I very very rarely (read practically -never- group with members of the same class, so there's no issue having the same companion out)

I won't use them or RP about them if I'm in a larger group. In a larger group, they're usually not there anyway, due to mechanical reasons, or if it's just an RP gathering, I'll put mine away.

My trooper is -only- the last member of Havoc squad at those times when it makes sense for him to be - That is, during his class missions. Outside of those, he's just another trooper, or alternatively, Havoc Squad is/was larger than just the people we saw in the intro and every trooper is a member of Havoc Squad.

I'm no roleplay Nazi, and I have no interest in using either in-game events or the lore to stomp all over other people's RP. I duo'd Enemies of the Republic with another trooper, a while back, and we had a great time RPing -both- of us as members of Havoc Squad taking down the bad guys.

That isn't canon, and that isn't fitting with the in-game events, but it sure was fun.

I can run a heroic on my character one day, and the next day help a friend with the same heroic and RP that I've never done it before. Same for side quests. The MMO 'world' doesn't change, so I find that I have to take that into account. I can have a character run Coruscant from start to finish multiple times, and RP it all as fresh and new, every time.

I think my brain would bleed out of my ears, otherwise.

I don't RP about important NPCs in public. You can only kill Tarnis once. But within the party, that can (if everyone agrees) be the the "only" Tarnis, so I RP about him in on that specific mission. It's all fluid and flexible, and very much based on what I feel will have the least impact on others' roleplaying and the desires and ambitions they have for their own character.

IMO, RPing in a world that doesn't change, like an MMO, requires creative and mental flexibility and a desire to work with other people, not superimpose your reality upon theirs, but to find a consensual collaborative reality that makes sense for the time you're RPing together. Once you're not together, that reality can be discarded, remembered, but rarely re-referenced, unless it's the same people back together, picking up from where they left off.

RP for me isn't about the overarching story anyway. It's about the vignettes, the scenes, the character interaction within those little snippets, the windows we get to see into our characters' lives. I know that my characters definitely exist and do things when I'm not playing them - And with 8 characters, each individual char has a lot of time to do things on his or her own.