Don't get held hostage by your characters!

Oh shit, it's me with another wall of text. Well, if you've ignored me in the past, I'm asking you now, please don't.

In all my time playing, there's been a pattern I've noticed. People with characters who are shy, mean, or otherwise antisocial wind up bored and disgruntled with RP. They don't get involved in events and stuff, they don't get to know people or their characters, and they usually end up just sitting in some corner doing nothing. It may be that the player himself is shy or antisocial, but not always. If you are shy or antisocial, then my advice is to put yourself out there and try to overcome it. It's tough, but worth it.

Now, if you have characters like this, no one's asking you to delete them or change them. But don't expect to have a lot of fun and make tons of friends on the server. There are things you can do to address this, if you want to:

1. Put your character in awkward situations. Maybe your character trips and falls, gets drunk, or has no money to pay for the beer he or she just chugged. Or all three. It can be painful at first, but once you realize it's your character that's suffering, not you personally, it can be entertaining for you and other people. It can also lead to friendships being formed, when other characters help your character out of it. It will force the character out of his or her comfort zone and into a social situation.

2. Create connections to your character yourself. Not many people go through life without making someone like them or hate them. Perhaps your character's friend or enemy from the past is in town, and asking random people about him or her. Now your character is suddenly in the spotlight.

3. Create a "social" character. Make a new character that's not shy at all, and loves to talk to random people. While it seems weird, it can lead to interesting encounters between characters and players who wouldn't normally talk to each other. And if you combine this with #2, your introvert character will get a lot more attention.


Anyone who has other suggestions, please feel free to post them.