Nathaniel

Well, here's how I see it:

First and foremost, always speak consistently. If your playing a giant who is a bit slow, there shouldn't be any brilliant flashes of cunning, unless of course the thought is one of those "so simple I should have thought of it" ideas (a la Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz). A man who is cool and confident shouldn't start fearing about his life just because the player behind the screen is shaking (and even then you can always have the "pretender" character which is fine as well, but the acting would have to be consistent). Sudden changes should only occur after huge transformations or traumatic experiences. A templar who turns to citizen after fleeing his city state might change his attitude toward life, but even though, he should keep the old habits with him.

Don't let your real life personality conflict with your role-playing. If your character plans to assasinate someone, and in the end you are reluctant to kill the character because in real life you feel bad that he'll lose his character, then either role-play a reason why your character doesn't murder him in the end, or get on with it. Just because you might be a great guy in real life, that doens't mean you can't play a maniacal mul.

Treat unto items as you would treat unto them. In real life, how would you react if you found an elven dagger lying on the street? Would you walk by it ignoring it, or would it catch your eye? If someone hands you an obsidian shortshord he found on a dead man, would you just toss it on the floor because you already have a better weapon? Perhaps in some cases you might ignore these things, but in most cases you would react with interest. Just because all elvish daggers are the same doesn't mean you can't stop to look at one. Perhaps when travelling in a group you stop to pick it up, and examine it, wondering aloud where it came from and the history behind it, maybe even admiring its workmanship. In the case of the obsidian shortsword, perhaps you would consider the shortsword bad luck if you were superstituous since it came from a dead man, or perhaps you'd claim it housed his soul (if you believe in some type of similar afterlife). Maybe you'd keep the sword, hoping to find a friend of the deceased and give it to him. All these things take role-playing, since no one wants to logically carry extra weapon weight on them when it is going to weigh them down. The key is sacrifice. Wear fancy clothes if you think your character will look nice in them, even if they don't offer a lot of protection. If your rich and arrogant, you'd likely flaunt it off through silver wrist bands and jeweled necklaces. (Yet, logically you might want to put a duskworn neck guard or wrist bands, but hey! This is role-playing, and power gaming isn't role-playing, although in some cases it is, which I'll explain later.)

Death is not just a generated beep. If your in a city, playing a child, and three thugs start butchering an old man to bits, you'd likely scream and run to the guards, probably crying and sobbing at this point. If you are playing a character not used to death, then perhaps you should gag or throw up if the death is gruesome enough. Looking at a corpse in a room that's been there for a few days isn't a favored passtime, (unless your crazy) and the stench should be role-played, the horrible appearance should be enough to inspire some semblance of fear, and if you knew the person well, you might want to show some signs of emotion instead of paging him on the internet. Burial rites and ceremonial cremations are just two simple examples of what you could do with the dead. Each elemental sect probably has its own idea of how to take care of the dead, and if your a cleric, you might want to choose how you'd perform those services.

The EMOTE command is the color in vision. Without it, things can get pretty dull unless your using the pre-made actions properly and aren't over doing it. (Like smiling every five seconds) Make up custom actions that your character might do a lot. If he carries a fan, then make him fan himself a lot, if he carries a staff, make him lean on it. If your angry, portray yourself throwing your weapon to the ground, and fall to your knees pounding the floor. All of this adds so much depth to visualization, and is an essential part of role-playing.

Not all characters are human. A mantis wouldn't likely be impressed by a pile of gold, unless he could turn it into a weapon or armor. A halfling might see a dead gith as the next meal. When you play a strange character race, make sure you have a good idea of how that race performs in its natural environment. A good way of doing this is playing a human at first and observing veteran players play the other races.

Make mistakes. You might be some sort of God while watching over your player and deciding what he will do next, but your character might not have a complete understanding of the entire situation. A stupid half-giant might see the illusion of his friend attacking him, and when it vanishes, he seeks out his friend to kill. Of course, you, the player, might know it was an illusion at some point, but it is unlike that your giant would. If your a templar, and your in a primal rage, you might scream out some death cry in tatlum even though your superiors may have ordered you never to speak it in public. (After all, it IS the language you use amongst your fellow buddies and its probably instinctive, especially in a fit of anger to curse rather creatively in it.) Of course, when I say make mistakes, it doesn't mean go out and buy some poison roots and swallow them believing they are healthy food. All making minor mistakes does is make your character more believable. You get the impression he isn't some fat kid with a serious acne problem and glasses behind a computer screen, but more of the impression he is a rugged elven ranger, who's a little unfamiliar with city customs, but in the desert, he's a godsend.

Be sentimental. An old dagger you used once might be your prized possession, even though it does a mere one point of damage. A cloth that a gorgeous gypsy woman might be your security blanket, or maybe a lucky coin. These items are useless in power gaming terms, but they are amazingly fun when role-playing. You may even use them to your advantage. By stealing a noble's favored pair of boots worn by his family for the past three generations, you might get a rather high price, or even force him into doing you a specific service.

Power is deadly. Get too wrapped up in "power gaming", and you will lose sight of the concept of role-playing, ignoring the minor details while you junk all your "useless" items. This also means not taking advantage of bugs in the game, "Look! If you use a deck of cards against a death vulture he dies instantly!". However, there are some cases where a different form of power gaming can be a useful tool in role-playing. A crazy defiler bent on ruling Zalanthas might do everything he can to increase his spell power and gain all the money he can. Of course, he'll have his weaknesses, and will still abide by all the role-playing requirements, just that his greed for power will probably one day be his downfall. Maybe the defiler is afraid of Gith, because when he was a child, they caught him outside the city and beat him up severely. Everytime he sees Gith he runs like mad, (well, he is insane, isn't he?) and might react rather irrationally. Of course, if this player was "power gaming" in the badest of senses, he would not even bother making up a storyline for his character, and would sit in the desert casting as many spells as possible and trying to find every bug available to get stronger.

Watch where your going. If your in the city, look north and south, look all around you, and see who's standing where. You might want to role-play this by squinting in a given direction, but it is a very helpful role-playing tool. In the desert, you can see landscapes across cliffsides, or look at a pack of Mantises from a distance, admiring them and their pack mentality. Perhaps you'd spend the day watching the sands swirl outside, or just go for a walk to the forest, admiring all the lovely plant life. Scenery is very extensive in Armageddon MUD, so take advantage of it. Make comments on things that aren't really "there", like nice trees or flowers. It'll make the environment so much more entertaining.

Well, I'm sure I could think up a ton more, like weather role-playing and more and religious beliefs, but I think this is rather sufficient for now.

Rhuduar

How I View Correct/Good Roleplaying

Don't mention the skills you have or the class you play. Example, I play an assassin but I claim that in fact I am just an entertainer with some skills to help out the tribal rangers. with the skills I don't say that 'oo, i backstabbed somebody' I say 'ahh, that was a very successful ambush!! Good job '

Use alot of emotes that are made up on the fly. I think that using the exact same emotes via tintin or aliases in the game are generic unless its something there character always does. Watching thrain always scratch his chin and smile broadly got annoying because thats all he did when he got amused.

When it comes to combat I think that sparring is ok, hunting animals and tribal enemies is ok (I sing at them .. it's a big tribal joke) .. just going out and killing for the hell of it is kind of bad roleplaying .. usually kinnar and I hunt when we need food (I despise paying for food..)

Typing in a skill 50 times to get it to go up is bad. I am guilty of this but sometimes it's hard not to when you know your at the edge of gaining a new skill with that next % point. The removal of the %'s and putting in the vague terms has helped me a great deal with this. (I think the most I ever did was type in hide 5 times waiting for it to go up ..)

Krizzak

Well, what I have here is my experiences as and elf in Zalanthas. Hints for getting started, making a character, and all that basic stuff.

Creating your character:

Name

You're in Zalanthas, try to stay away from names like Joe, Bob, Rudy, Mike, and all the conventional names you hear every day. I don't like using names I've heard used before as well.. the one's I've gone through are Kholduk, Mhaldrik, Deception, Shift, Sabbath, Sabataricus, Krizzak. (Yeah, Deception and Shift are convential, but I like shady characters.)

Desc's

sdesc: A short desc is pretty easy to come up with, but I dislike when people use stuff like 'The white-skinned, copper-haired elf'..or 'the tired, brown elf'. I prefer to have a three word sdesc with some exceptions. It just makes things a lot easier to look at. Another thing that I REALLY hate is when elves use 'tall' in their sdesc. Elves are, for the most part, tall...I've seen at least a dozenb elves with that word in their desc... if you are going to make a short elf, i guess you put that in there. But its like saying 'the tall elf', 'the short halfling'....and what about the 'hairless mul'. It's so damn obvious. Some of mine were:

 The tattooed elf
 The bristly, red-tinged mantis
 The flea-bitten elf
 The paranoid elf
 The verile elf

desc: Well, when you first make a char or two you tend to keep your desc's to the minumum four lines. You don't know too much about what's out there(although I played DS and have all the shit). But, you want people to have this image of what you look like. Don't put him wearing any specific apparel or have any items. Try to show a bit of his personality through, if possible, through the desc. But it should be mostly just physical characters and little actions that help to bring yourself across.

 'penetrating eyes' 'scratches himself sporadically' 
 'runs his hand through his hair' 'twitches an antenna'

Here's some of mine you can take a look at for my elves and one human.

Mhaldrik, human defiler:
sdesc: the spindle shanked man
        Standing here is a human male with saffron-coloured
skin, mimicking the mustard-yellow shades of sand one can find 
out in the sandy wastes.  Where should be the normal human 
nose are only two slits.  High cheekbones adorn his smooth 
face and support eyes which are deep set ovals of sable 
darkness.  A protruding brow shadows his lifeless eyes.  Wispy 
shoulder-length alabaster hair flanks the sides of his 
elongated face.  From the tip of his high forehead to the 
scruff of his neck is a shaven head.  Circling his thin, 
slender neck is a necklace fashioned of scorpion shells, 
beetle pincers, and Other unrecognizable small desert insects.
He walks rather gently on spindly, longer than average legs, 
which in turn mirror his lanky, stretched arms.

Analysis: This is a little too bizarre even if it was accepted. The nose thing could have been left out. And I guess the necklace could have been removed too but I liked it.

Shift
Keywords: elf blue dreadlocks smirk haired hair
Short desc: the blue-haired elf
Long desc: An elf with blue dreadlocks stands here, smirking arrogantly.

Description:
    Before you stands an elf with chin-length matted blue dreadlocks.
Various beads and stones decorate his unwieldy mass of hair.  His
tattered garments and travel-stained clothes hint that he has
grown up in the harsh and wild wastelands.  Where should have been 
points on his ears are only cut-off stumps.  His eyes are hard and
sport a mud-colored tone.  His skin, which should have been tan
and weathered is smooth and a yellowish off-white colour.

Analysis: Short and to the point. I liked it.

Sabbath
Sdesc: the tattooed elf
LDesc: An elf sporting a razor-sharp mohawk stands here, eyes gleaming.
Before you stands an elf with a six-inch razor shaved mohawk.
The shaven parts of his head are covered with tattoos of claws and fangs
that seem to be bursting forth from his skull.  Tattooed blood runs
down to his neck and under his tattered garments and silt-covered
clothes.  His face is a perpetual scowl, his eyes are bluish in tone
and rel and reflect a fiendish maniacal gleam.  His stance is that of an
animal and his manner is verile.

Analysis: I liked it as well.

History

Now this IS tough when you are new to arm. You don't know much about what's going on where when you start off. But after my friend and I played a character to two we knew what to do. He started protecting the Rinth..but wound up dying of course. But its interesting to give your char a unique background. Stay away from...oh his whole tribe was killed and i'm the only one left... or i was abandoned... my mother was thrown out of the tribe.. i escaped from the arena.. or,if you do use the conentional's adding something of a twist to them. I personally like playing characters who are mentally unstable or have quirks. One guys was filthy and had fleas...one was arrogant and hostile... my new guy is paranoid and is being hunted by the imaginary Clan of the Feathered belt. He talks to himself, plays cards with himself, but without the cards, etc...

Basic character stuff

Get some emotes ready and think up of a lot more as you go along. I always remember one guy who always 'grasped his brow', or threw himself into scratching fits, talked to his fleas, or kept shifting his weight from foot to foot and glancing at the door every second.