The events of HHB called for a huge influx of new players for featured characters. We have been so pleased with the results, and with the fact that so many of you have enjoyed the position well enough to remain on as the primary player for a featured character. The game gains a realness from the presence of book characters, and varied players for those characters makes them easier to keep active, more distinctive, and more fun.
That said, featured characters can be very difficult to play, because they are sometimes passed from player to player, and because their personalities are not entirely (or sometimes at all) your own to make of as you wish. With that in mind, I've gathered some tips for playing them. Many of these are useful for playing any character, but are especially crucial for featured characters since it is important to preserve the illusion that these characters arise straight from the books themselves.
1. Study your character's role in the books.
The events of HHB prove to me that you all have done a marvelous job of this. Keep up the good work. Refresh yourself every once in a while. Look for particular things you can lift. Do they present their thoughts well or frankly, or are they often misunderstood or hiding something? What phrases or sentence patterns do they seem fond of? What do their primary values seem to be?
2. Take your time!
It's okay to be a little slow. It's even okay sometimes to be a lot slow. While a fast turn-around can make for good RP in some circumstances because it serves to preserve tension, it's more important with FCs that you prioritize quality (which will also preserve tone and tension, although I sympathize mightily with the urge to shoot off a fast come-back or at the very least not to keep the other player waiting). Most players are very happy to wait on an FC because they know they will receive quality for the waiting. Elaborated points on time are below.
a. Consider larger implications. Minor featured characters are in a unique position. Whereas leaders like Nevarre or Petraverd have roleplayed the journey into their leadership roles and therefore understand them intimately, and characters like Edmund or Bree have a great deal of established material to draw from in order to figure out what they know and think, minor featured characters often have a lot of power, with not a lot of book-help or (for new FC players) experience with the character to feed their motivations. Take a moment before you pose to think "what does my character know about this situation? What does what s/he is saying imply about her knowledge, values, or skills?". Do not be ashamed to ask for help from the other player or a staff member if you are not sure of an answer to this. It will help your character seem competent and in-charge if you have a full working knowledge of their position and established relationships.
b. Research! Everyone should be doing this from time to time. Sometimes your character will have knowledge/skills that no other players really know how to help you with. If your character is the steward, do research into what a steward's role is, and what knowledge he ought to have. Even if s/he is something simpler, like a guard, or a musician, s/he will have specialized knowledge. You can add a great deal of realism with a little research. This applies to other issues as well. If your character is injured, look into the location and type of injury and consider the rate and chance of full recovery. If she is a parent of an NPC child, keep tabs on child behavior for that age. Not only can this add realism, it often creates new RP and tension which you might never have considered on your own. Again, the couple of minutes it takes to do this can greatly impact the competence and believability of your character. If you need more time, simply tell the other player OOCly that you are researching. They will be understanding.
c. Check grammar and spelling. This is so important with featured characters. Typos happen, and we don't imagine anyone on our game is a copyeditor, but it is very easy to have your suspension of disbelief thrown by a poorly punctuated or constructed sentence coming out of a supposedly eloquent character. Please take the time to check.
3. Be mindful of future players.
a. Record your character arc. Past staff has recommended using SIK to preserve knowledge for future players. I recommend keeping a logblog of at least your most important RPs. If you prefer RPs to be private, you can password your blog and save the username and password in your SIK. This is much more useful to future players because they can get a more detailed account of your voice. This is especially useful to "secondary" featured characters -- the kind that only get a mention in the books, but which may have been played quite a lot here. You don't have to record everything -- every player has a day where they feel off, or where the RP just didn't seem to go anywhere -- but do record significant events, personality traits, or knowledge in a way which is readable by another person.
b. Get attached, but not TOO attached. It's possible if you are not available in a reasonable timeframe for an important roleplay that staff will ask someone else to take on your character for that day. It's no insult to you or your skills, simply to practicality. Under some circumstances a character may also be reassigned. I encourage you to enjoy your featured character and flesh him/her out (especially if s/he is one of those "secondary" characters), but keep in mind that s/he isn't "yours" the way a normal character would be.
4. Stay relatively in character OOC.
In the past we've asked that you not use OOC as a featured character. I find this a not entirely reasonable request. However, I do encourage that generally your Lunes be mirthful and your Edmunds thoughtful and your Lucys kind, even OOC. Sacrifice a few of your usual OOC traits in the name of keeping your character true. I do ask that major FCs try not to be in the OOC lounge.
For more information on playing FCs, please check the Info Section (type "info" on the game screen), under 1. Character Setup >> 1. Requesting a character. Some of the information here will be outdatedly strict, but none of it is in conflict with what we do look for in FCs.
