21 Just Folks Roles

 

There are loads of Modern Day MU*s out there, especially those with a supernatural element.  On nearly all of them the wizards try to encourage people to play some “Just Folks.”  Perhaps you have to play Just Folks before you can play the nifty supernatural type, or perhaps they’re just begging for some diversity so that not every single character is a Superhero or a Vampire or a Wizard or a Werewolf.  Universally it seems to be assumed that you can’t get into any of the “good” (adventure-oriented for I would say about 75% of most anyone on the MUSH) if you are not any of the above things.  But for you, the player who is being forced into a “Normal” before you can play something “cool,” and for you, the Wizard who wishes people would play some active Normals, I present a list of professions that most people don’t think to take.   There’s plenty who will take the trifecta of Cop-FBI-Reporter (and sometimes Doctor) thinking that’s the next best thing to where the action lies, but it’s just not that true.  It can be true, but like any other role it has to be worked.   So here I present the “Adventure” hooks for each character type, as well as the “Get to know you RP hooks.”

 

I’ve tried to go for characters you don’t see a lot of, and concepts you might not have thought up on your own.  But even if you don’t want to use a single one of these 21, perhaps watching the process might help you think creatively about your own character choices.

 

1.  The Vet: I’ve never seen a vet played on any modern day MUSH, but the Vet comes first because the thought of a vet is what sparked this whole article. 

 

Adventure hooks:  When Fluffy or Fido get strange damage, who is likely to see it?  Who would you bring a weird animal corpse to that makes no sense?  If Fluffy starts acting weird (because of supernatural activity) who would you ask?  If you are convinced you saw a rabid dog about four times the size of a normal dog, who might you ask to ID the species for you?

 

Simple RP hooks:  MUSH characters love pets.  They love love love love them.  MU* chars often seem to be swallowed in more animals than the local humane society.  So bringing Fluffy to the vet provides an instant RP hook.  

 

Variants:  The Zoologist or Zookeeper, Forestry Professional, or any other local animal expert.

 

2.  The Sales Rep:  Here’s another concept I’ve never seen.  The sales rep, specifically the residential sales rep, who goes around hawking some item (vacuum cleaners, alarm systems, satellite television).

 

Adventure hooks:  Who might end up in the house of the creepy villain who is ordering too many satellite televisions or actually does need a new dishwasher in spite of having evil designs?  Who might, in the course of filling out paperwork, here or see something he shouldn’t?  Who goes walking through strange, unfamiliar neighborhoods, knocking on the doors of strange, unfamiliar people, in the hopes of setting an appointment or making a sale?  What might this person see?

 

Simple RP hooks:  It takes nothing for this type of character to set up RP with new people.  See person sitting alone.  Page person.  Ask person if they want some RP because you’ve got a built in reason to be there.  They may not buy your vacuum but you might get an evening’s interaction and a new acquaintance out of the deal all the same.

 

Variants:  In-home repair guy.  In-home cleaning woman.  Any person who works in other people’s homes for any reason.

 

 

3.  The Process Server:  A process server is the guy who shows up to get lawsuit papers given to people.  In civil cases for the most part, unless a person actually receives those papers they cannot get sued.  Process Servers therefore spend a lot of time hunting people down and finding crafty ways to surprise them with suit papers.

 

Adventure Hooks:  Obviously this is a person who ends up in a lot of weird places as a rule, talking to some fairly weird individuals, and dealing with some very tense situations.  This is a guy who could easily be in the wrong place at the wrong time for any number of reasons. 

 

Simple RP Hooks:  The most common reasons why anyone gets sued is for bad debt, but these days anyone can get sued for anything.  Doctors can get malpractice suits, there’s car accident suits and slip and fall suits and any kind of suit you can think of.  Just make sure you get OOC consent from the target of your RP before getting them involved in a fictional lawsuit.  If you’re feeling ambitious, however, the suit itself can become a whole tinyplot.

 

Variants:  The repo guy, the courier, the private detective, or any other professional that has to find a lot of people and either get things to them or take things away from them.

 

4.  The Nurse:  Nearly everyone goes for doctors, but doctors are harried individuals.  And unless the player is a really talented researchers doctors are hard to play.  Nurses, however, are the ones that spend time talking to patients. 

 

Adventure Hooks:  Nurses are the ones who notice things.  They’re giving the care, they’re paying attention.  Doctors are rushing to put out their next fire, nurses are the ones taking care of you.  If drugs are missing from the hospital, nurses will realize it.  If someone has funny bite marks, the nurse will be the one to admit they don’t know what the hell it is. 

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Same as the good old doctor standby.  Anytime someone gets hurt.   But often routine check-ups get ignored as a good source of RP as well.  You can be the person who suggests it.

 

Variants:  The pharmacist, the candy striper, the x-ray tech, or any other person who a) works in healthcare and actually interacts with people, and b) has the opportunity and IC time to notice weird crap and perhaps act on it.

 

5.  The Professional Activist:  Someone who believes in a cause, works to forward the cause, and is generally loud about the cause.  Any cause will do, because no matter what, some folks will be naturally sympathetic to the cause, and some will think the cause is moronic, and either way brings good RP.

 

Adventure Hooks:  When supervillains or evil supernatural things start inserting themselves into government and business, they tend to need certain laws passed.  A loud, effective Activist who starts getting their own, contradictory agenda passed could be a serious threat that needs to be dealt with somehow.  Killing said activist might not always be the best course, because that just draws attention to the cause and fuels the fire.  So Evil has to get more creative than that…

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Soapboxing on the city streets.  Walking up to people with pamphlets and tracts.  Knocking on doors to get petitions signed.  Soliciting votes.

 

Variants:  Politicians, especially crusader style politicians with a Mission, who either need to solicit votes from the constituency or his fellow politicians.  The Community Organizer.

 

6.  The Non-Catholic Minister:  Nothing against Catholics, I just notice that those who want to play religious types often go for priests, even if they’ve never set foot in a Catholic church.  The disadvantage to a Catholic priest, however, is they can’t have relationships or families, and at some point a great good deal of RP often revolves around those things (though if you hate relationship RP you might see this as an advantage). 

 

Adventure Hooks:  People tell things to their pastors.  They tell things to their pastors that they wouldn’t tell to anyone else.  Particularly brave pastors who believe in the works of demons might go investigate “demonic activity” (and see no difference between demonic activity, werewolf activity, etc.)  They may not be called exorcists but protestants have their own version of “casting out demons,” and you can decide what kind of protestant your character is without having to worry about “official church stance.” 

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Hospital visits, visits to the poor with food or assistance, and the good old fire and brimstone sermon with the advantage that every protestant church runs their services a little differently and you won’t have to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes.  Recruiting volunteers and leading teams of them to do things like build houses or clear out vacant lots.

 

Variants:  Clerics or gurus of any other religion.  Streetside prophets.  And, well, Catholic Priests or Nuns.  Also note that often the Minister can serve some of the same roles as an activist.

 

7.  The Claims Adjuster:  This is the guy that goes and looks at things that people have insurance on to try to determine if the insurance is going to pay up.  It’s also the guy who goes looking for fraud, so there’s an investigative role as well. 

 

Adventure Hooks:  If there is some fraud going on, or arson, or some other scam, this person is in a prime position to find it.  And as insurance payouts can sometimes be massive, there are people who are perfectly willing to go to great lengths to keep them.  This is another instance where killing the problem may not be the villain’s smartest move ever.  There are other, better measures that might prolong RP.

 

Simple RP Hooks: Car accidents, fires, slip and fall, disability, workman’s comp—all the things people get insured and need to file claims, whether minor or major for, are good reasons to link up with other characters for a night of RP.

 

Variants:  Private investigators sometimes do this sort of work as well, though usually they do so when the adjuster can’t find anything.

 

8.  The Auditor:  This is an individual who looks for discrepancies in financial records.  It is not only the IRS that hire them.  Law enforcement has them.  So do most major corporations.  It’s their job to make sure everything is on the up and up with the money.

 

Adventure Hooks:  Which means if someone is cheating on their taxes, or embezzling money, or has a smuggling ring set up out of the distribution center down south, or is “cooking the books”, the auditor is going to be the one to find out about it.  Ditto if some supernatural group is shifting corporate profits into say, weapons, or buying up crazy pieces of real estate for no apparent reason.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Gathering expense reports.  If with the IRS…conducting a surprise audit.  Pulling receipts right in front of that store employee and stating flatly that you’re looking for employee theft.

 

Variants:  Computer forensics guys or people who watch corporate computer security to make sure employees aren’t watching porn on the clock.  Quality control inspectors, fire inspectors, health inspectors.

 

9.  The Career Temp.  Organizations hire temp workers for all sorts of reasons, either because a project is only going to last so long or because they need to fill in for someone who is sick or on vacation.  Projects can be practically anything, and a professional temp might end up with a weird range of skills.  There are industrial temps, clerical temps—all sorts of temps.

 

Adventure Hooks:  This character may see paperwork that they shouldn’t see.  They may get hired for a weird project that the company wants to hide from its normal employees, and may be perceptive enough to get that All Is Not Well.  They’re also in the perfect position to steal data or files if they’re sneaky, though it’s rare for a temp to get any kind of important access right off the bat. 

 

Simple RP Hooks:  You can RP with anyone working in any business.  The other player has a shop?  Ask if you can be a temp shelf stocker for the day.  The other player is a lawyer?  Ask if you can be a temp secretary or file clerk for the day.  The other player is a…you get the idea.

 

Variants:  Professional corporate espionage people (often private detectives as well, though not always).  Secretaries and clerks, who often know more than anyone in an entire organization about what is really going on, though this lacks the mobility advantage discussed above.  Self-employed people or contractors who might go from office to office performing one sort of work or another. Unpaid interns.

 

10.            The Social Worker.  The typical image of the social worker is the child services worker, and that’s a perfectly great character concept.  There are also social workers who work with Medicaid (health insurance for the disadvantaged), HUD and other low income housing programs, FIA and any other program designed to help give poor people some kind of a leg up. 

 

Adventure Hooks:  Low income people see sides of life that most of us never get to see, and one of them might tell a social worker and prompt them to investigate.  Claims of abuse of children or elders could draw a social worker to look into things.  If the homeless disappear, a social worker is more likely to look into it than the cops, who have much more politically advantageous cases to give a damn about.  The social worker might also relieve the wrong villain of his child (or be under the thrall of a bad guy to relieve a hapless hero of theirs), and either make enemies or serve enemy agendas.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Meeting with characters who are portraying low income people to get them set up with services.  Checking up on claims of child/elder abuse or neglect, which has to be done if someone reports on it whether it’s happening or not.  Meeting with a character suspected of food stamp fraud.

 

Variants: Volunteers, who could have any sort of day job. The activist might do some of this stuff as well.  The street lawyer, who helps these people get the services they’re entitled to (often from the clutches of overstressed social workers). 

 

11.            The Agent:  A popular character concept for a lot of people is the musician, actor, model, or writer.  Fantasy careers.  Thing is, they’re not always easy to portray.  The musician can spark a great RP event but he’s up there doing the music, not talking to people.  The model can float around by virtue of being a model for only so long and if they’ve nothing else to sustain them the character collapses.  The agent, though, gets all these people their gigs.  They get them favorable contracts.  They nurture the careers of these individuals.

 

Adventure Hooks:  This is a guy who knows a lot of people.  A mover and a shaker.  So who could the heroes go to if they need access to the villain’s gala?  If some magical group needs to achieve something through music, who can make sure that the band gets booked—and who might end up in the crossfire if another magical group doesn’t want that band there?

 

Simple RP Hooks:  RPing with all of those models and actresses and whatnot out there.  RPing with the people who have “venues” where these folks could work.  Hashing out contract details with another lawyer or agent.  Scouting out new talent.

 

Variants:  The school guidance counselor.  Seriously.  Graduating students need introductions to those bright shiny jobs and internships.

 

12.            The Teacher Who Cares:  Part activist, part cheerleader, part agent, part psychologist.  We’ve all seen Dangerous Minds.  Everyone wants to play students, but hardly anyone plays teachers.  But there’s so much to work with here…

 

Adventure Hooks:  Again, students talk to teachers they trust.  Teachers Who Care will tend to get involved in their problems for good and for ill.  Teachers Who Care will also push for things somebody might not care to see pushed:  better lessons, books, alternate teachings of history, whatever the pet project is.   If a Teacher Who Cares sees a threat to his students he or she will charge into any number of insanities to protect them, and if something is markedly, weirdly wrong with a student the Teacher Who Cares will be the first to know.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  The student advice session.  Teaching a class or a lesson (obviously).  Leading a field trip.  Going out to the house of the student who hasn’t shown up to school for 2 weeks.

 

Variants:  The Guidance Counselor, The Principal Who Cares, The Tutor (which can have elements of The Sales Rep advantages as well), the Coach.

 

13.            The Retiree:  The Retiree is great because old people stick out on a MUSH full of sixteen to thirty somethings.   The Retiree will likely have a bunch of skills and abilities, more than younger characters, though they may be “a bit rusty.”  What Retirees have going for them is twofold: wisdom/knowledge of the past, and time.

 

Adventure Hooks:  With so much time on their hands, retirees have plenty of time to go have a look-see when they think something may be wrong.  They may be passionate in defense of their neighbors, their families, their communities.  They may not be afraid to stand up.  And because players will seek out old people (for wisdom, knowledge, and novelty factor) they’ll be in a good position to find the adventures.  And if they start saying things they shouldn’t, oftentimes they’re not taken seriously (ditto for learning things they shouldn’t), which can only work in their favor.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  You’re old.  You can damn well go anywhere you feel like it within reason, and talk to anyone you want to.

 

Variants:  The Nosy Neighbor, the Neighborhood Gossip, The Bored Soccer Mom up in everyone’s business.

 

14.            The Untouchable:  So often when players decide they’re going to play criminals they go for crimes perceived as glamorous, or they go for straight up sociopaths.  But here we take you to the lower strata of society.  Homeless guys.  Street buskers.  The street artist or tarot reader.  The itinerant worker.  The illegal immigrant.  The prostitute or stripper.  The drug dealer or gangster.

 

Adventure Hooks:  Every facet of these people’s lives can be very dangerous indeed.  They lack the social supports of most of society, and they sometimes lack defensible shelter.  Some types are considered to be “asking for it” when they’re victims.  They’re not taken seriously, are ignored, targeted, and are often privy to street knowledge, rumors, or sights that nobody else would ever see.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Busking, begging for money, doing the tarot reading, asking for an odd job and performing one, selling drugs, buying drugs, robbing stores, muggings, picking pockets, dancing and, er, solicitation, as policy and theme allow.

 

Variants:  The class itself is so varied that there’s nothing that really stands out as a variant.

 

15.            The Field Scientist:  Guys who sit in their labs all day and tinker with things most of us have no clue about don’t make the best characters, though when people create scientists this is the stereotype they gravitate straight to.  But scientists who get their hands dirty, like geologists, environmental testers, storm chasing meteorologists who are out and about can make great characters even if your science is sketchy, because taking a test tube or picking up a rock requires very little explanation 90% of the time, and the other 10% can be covered with Wikipedia.

 

Adventure Hooks:  These guys are going to see traces and evidences that the villains don’t even know they’re leaving behind nine times out of ten.  They may not be looking for trouble, but trouble may find them if their test results show an awful lot of toxic something getting dumped into the nearby lake.  They can be called on to testify in some sorts of cases, and that can open up all sorts of interesting troubles.  The scientist will notice when something just isn’t right.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Excuse me ma’am, can I get in your ditch? I need to test the water.  Chasing a tornado with a camera crew or group of thrill seeking kids.  Setting up a bunch of crazy devices in inconvenient places with vague explanations.

 

Variants:  The ghost hunter, the parapsychologist, the Macguyver clone.

 

16.            The Camera Man.  Or woman.  This can be the obnoxious film student making documentaries or the photographer who is just trying to capture good moments on film.  This could even be the television camera man for one of those endless reporter characters—making you the character that makes the reporter work out because that reporter will have someone to talk to other than interviewees.

 

Adventure Hooks:  Making the wrong documentary.  Taping the wrong video or taking the wrong picture.  Accidentally picking up the wrong reel or case of film that leads to zillions of problems.  Getting targeted for that thing you put on YouTube last week.   This type of character often ends up with evidence—of supernatural activity, of murders, of all kinds of things—and there are so many people who just don’t want that evidence out.  Seeing a detail in a photograph that is the key to the whole case.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Shoving your camera up into someone’s face and asking a bunch of questions.  Snapping pictures, either because you were asked…or not.   Visiting the newspaper to sell photographs.  Attempting to convince shopowners, bars, restaurants, and art galleries to display your work with a for-sale price tag.

 

Variants:  The obsessive vacation slide guy.  The sketch artist.  The picture developer guy at Eckards.

 

17.            The Athlete:  Whether you’re playing a high school football player, an extreme sports enthusiast, or a professional, there’s plenty of room for roleplay with an Athlete.  If your character is in a city with a known sports team your best bet is to play one of those if you take this concept, because people in those cities tend to be fans of that sports team.  They love the players that do well and hate those that do poorly, and either is a great hook for RP.

 

Adventure Hooks:  There’s a whole shady world surrounding athletes.  Gambling and those who make money off of gambling.  Drug use and abuse.  For male athletes, often, women.  There’s injuries and the desperation to get back in the game that might cause that athlete to make some really dumb decisions—the types of decisions that turn them into vampiric thralls or He Who Endorses The Evil Corporation.   If you want to play the fine, upstanding athlete you can learn about these things, or you can get caught up in the hole and try to dig your way back out again.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  If there’s other athletes, playing the game or practices.  Going to the doctor or nurse for a sports injury.   Meeting with a local business owner about an endorsement.  Providing an interview.  Posting something up about your lousy play and taking the abuse (the players will hate your character short term and love you long term if you do this, but if you do the opposite without it happening in RP they will hate you forever).

 

Variants:  I’m not sure there is a variant to this concept, to be honest…

 

18.            The Archivist:  Of course, it’s not terribly unusual for someone to pick a historian.  They’re envisioning loads of characters coming to their player alone for the knowledge they need to solve the plot.  Sadly this almost never happens.  They can get it quicker from the GM and they know it, and unless you are an RL historian then you probably don’t have info any better than they could get on Wikipedia.  Instead, consider a historian of IC events.  This works really, really, really well if there’s some sort of human society that watches supers and keeps tabs on them.  Instead of playing the experienced archivist, play the current events guy, who runs around keeping track of all the things that go on.   If you keep really good notes, and the game lasts awhile, you really will know what happened 4 years ago now that it’s relevant to the next plot.  You’ll start saving the storytellers some work and they’ll love you for it, and because you’ve RP’d your way to expert status  the players will respect your knowledge and come to you without prompting.

 

Adventure Hooks:  Now if you choose this concept, you’re not really seeking adventure to solve it or get involved in it (though maybe your archivist is a little bit of a maverick and does anyway).  You’re trying to learn what’s going on and keep ahold of the knowledge for later use.  So you’ll go out of your way to watch what’s happening and record it as your character understands it, but you might not go out of your way to stand right in front of the rampaging werewolf.  That said, even watching can be really dangerous, as can asking the wrong questions.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Your simple RP hook will be two-fold.  You’ll either be going all over the grid getting people’s versions of events whenever you  learn through any source that something might be up, or you’ll be going all over the grid trying to meet new people in the less-than-altruistic hope that they’ll cough up the info you want later. 

 

Variants:  The journalist is actually this type of character, when done right, without the secret society angle.  So is a documentarian (when he’s not being an annoying camera man).  So is the gossip, who just wants to know so they can be in-the-know to all their friends later.

 

19.            The Techie:  Mostly when people go for this role they go for the hacker.  The hacker the hacker the hacker.  They do so for the same reason they go for the cop—because the hacker is perceived as a person who will easily get involved in plots.  There’s nothing wrong with playing the hacker, but a good mechanic, or inventor, electrician, specialist in normal legal communications, or photo imaging expert will achieve some of the very same effects—without making you Yet Another Hacker.  Let’s examine them.

 

Adventure Hooks:  The good guys have to bring the bad guy’s schematic to SOMEONE.  The heroes are going to break a lot of crap and come to your mechanic to fix it.  So will the villains—opportunity to notice weird stuff abounds.

 

Simple RP Hooks: Getting into wherever and fixing it.  Isolating pixels in photographs.  Rigging up something cool where other characters can interact with you.

 

Variants:  Techies are techies, basically—the field is diverse.

 

20.            The Recruiter:  Armies use them.  Corporations use them.  Clubs use them.  Evil organizations certainly use them.  The recruiter is any character whose primary purpose is to meet other worthy characters and try to convince them to sign on the dotted line, whatever that dotted line may be. 

 

Adventure Hooks:  The hooks for this character depend largely on who the character is recruiting for.  Are they so good at recruiting for the heroic group that they’ve become a threat to the bad guys?  Are they a primary recruiter for the bad guys and so part of the adventure by virtue of being villainous fuel?  And of course, recruiters meet all sorts of people in the course of their work, people who might get them into trouble.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  Hold a job fair or recruitment fair.  Scout out every other PC and decide who you want to target to recruit.  Use means fair and foul to achieve your recruitment.  Conduct PR spin damage control for your organization—you may have to make up why it needs some if it’s not yet a PC organization.  Hmmm.  TP Time?

 

Variants:  The PR guy, the Boss (of a large organization), the Poster Boy.

 

21.            The Rescuer:  People always flock to the police, and I’m always amazed by this.  Because people who flock to the police often want to do it so that they’ll be called upon to heroically rescue victims from bad things.  Thing is—police usually don’t get the chance to stop crimes in progress.  Usually, what police are doing is investigating when the situation’s already gone all to shit and someone’s life has already been ruined or at least greatly distressed.  But firefighters, search and rescue helicopter teams, civil air patrol, first responder paramedics and coast guard people open up a whole new vista of RP.

 

Adventure Hooks:  You’re kind of a walking adventure hook at this point, though your role in the adventures may be short and sporadic. Car accidents, fires, floods and search details for missing kids are all in your purview.  Then again if there’s a pattern to all the weird fires lately your character might notice it right away, or if there are strange patterns around the missing child just before you land your helicopter—the possibilities for what your character could spot are endless.

 

Simple RP Hooks:  And conversely, the simple hooks are harder.  But rescue workers are a tight knit group.  Beer and pool with the buddies would work out well.  So would going and talking to a group of kids about safety.  So would running a CPR class.  Rescue workers often do these sorts of civic things when they’re not busting out with the Jaws of Life. 

 

Variant:  The Good Samaritan.

 

            All this is great, you may be thinking, but I’ve already made my character.  I made a shopkeeper.  I made a waitress, which for some reason is pretty popular but never quite works out.  I made one of those singers.  I, uh, have a cop.  (Actually if you have a cop you’ll have plenty to do.  We’re not talking to you.  I’ll talk to you when I talk about how to play a cop well).  But for the rest of us, what are we going to do?  Make whole new alts?

 

            Never fear.  You can add elements of most of these concepts right to your existing characters.  Here’s how:

 

       Passions:  Most of us have something we really believe in, something that gets us fired up.  For some of us it’s giving money to those damn welfare people.  For others it’s a strong desire to feed the hungry.  For still others it’s a passion to see the local school do well.  For some, it’s all about the arts.  Adding causes to your character that have nothing to do with werewolves, vampires, mages and supers will give you new vistas of RP almost immediately.  They’ll also allow your character, in their spare time, to take on elements of:   The Activist.  The Recruiter.

 

            Hobbies:  Most of us have them and sometimes we MUSHers overlook them, maybe cause our hobby is MUSHing.    Elements of The Camera Man, The Techie, or The Athlete can be added to any existing character who takes on the right hobbies, or perhaps just reveals them as a facet of their character they’d never addressed before.

 

            Volunteerism:  If your character is of a mind to volunteer, he can get involved with all sorts of things on his IC off time, allowing him to link up with the chars who do it full time.  Volunteers might end up filling roles of The Rescuer, The Career Temp, The Teacher Who Cares, The Minister, The Social Worker, or even, if he’s out soliciting donations, The Sales Rep.

 

            Temporarily:  You don’t have to wait for staff to run a plot for you, you can run your own (I promise).  Characters with a need might temporarily take on any of these roles.  A dedicated grandson, for example, sure that his aunts and uncles are abusing his grandmother’s money, for example, might take on the roles of The Claims Adjuster, The Process Server (more the private detective angle), or the Auditor in his quest to uncover the truth.  This is the kind of low key plot that you can involve others in that won’t require much staff intervention, so if you are willing to emit and set others on it you can step in as the Agent or as the Recruiter.

 

            Or maybe you don’t like any of these ideas, and prefer to make up some of your own.  As a guideline for designing these types of characters you need to be looking for the following:

 

 

·         A person with a reasonable degree of mobility.

For some reason “Small Business Owner” is a popular concept on MU*s, and I have seen it work in limited instances, but not many.  So is waiter, waitress, innkeep/barkeep, and night club owner.  The problem with these concepts is that they restrict your character’s mobility.  You’re relying on MUSHers, 90% of whom do not have a whole lot of initiative—not like you, who is learning all about initiative on my site—to decide to wander into your fictional place of employment.  It’s relying on you staying there to encourage them to do so instead of going out to find your own RP if you want to do anything with that shop other than take up DB space. 

 

·         A person who is not bound by the normal societal silence.

A really common problem, an awkward problem, on modern day Urban MU*s is this:  almost nobody in modern society feels comfortable talking to strangers.  In some cities we’re lucky if we manage to nod to each other on the sidewalk.  Magic is less of a stretch of our disbelief then the idea that we’d walk up to some perfect stranger in a bookstore or coffee shop or just out on the street and just strike up a conversation, and then proceed to become close enough to that person either as friend or foe that there’s potential for more RP.  Supers and such have less of those problems as they’re often bound by what they are into their own sorts of societies, but us working stiffs are different.  Sometimes you can build this into your character’s personality, of course, but it helps to have a job related reason to do such things too (or hobby or volunteer or whatever).

 

·         A person with IC initiative.

You not only want to be proactive yourself, you want to find a reason for your character to be proactive too.  Again, this can be built into the personality type but it sure helps if you have some sort of authority or mandate or need from your character’s life activities to back that up.

 

·         A person in a position either to see things, talk to people, or make things happen.

If your character sits behind a closed office door all day you may be in trouble—unless that person is making decisions and calling other characters in.  A person whose job requires him to sit in silence for hours at a time may be in trouble.  A person with no authority or ability to get anywhere outside the norm may be in trouble.  You only need 1 of the 3 elements to make it work, 2 is better, but you need at least one.

 

·          A person who you can think of ways to entertain OTHERS with.

Here’s a secret to MUSHing few people know.  The more you entertain others the more entertained you get.  The perfect character might just be the guy who can thrust one of those low level, low powered TPs on to other people in the playerbase to get them active and moving.  Let the wizards worry about how the vampires pulling the strings react to such behavior.  If they’re any good at all they’ll make sure it’s done, and even if they’re not some player may decide to take the initiative with their vampire, and even if they don’t you still get to have fun.  Closely linked to this is that characters who work better with or need groups are way better than the solo, rugged, bootstrap hero who wants to go it alone.

 

·         A person with some flaws.  Real flaws, not just oh she can’t sing and she has a mole on her butt that nobody ever sees. 

A character who is sometimes careless will generate more RP than one who is always reasonably careful, unless they’re careful to the point of cowardice.  A character with a temper who will miss details in his hot headedness that someone else can pick up on will generate more RP than one who is always alert and in control of himself.  A character who is an asshole in his pursuit of justice generates more RP than the nice guy.  We like flaws, mostly because we all have them, but most of us don’t want to give them to our own chars.

 

·         A person you can think of at least 2-3 possible adventure “ins” for, even if they don’t get used right away.  It’s okay to help others understand what those “ins” might be.  But not to the point of spammy @mails at your admin, ok?  If you’re RPing really actively, sooner or later…they’ll figure it out. 

 

·         A person you can think of at least 2-3 Simple RP Hooks—that are reusable—for.  Scene openers, scene openers, scene openers.  Reasons to RP, Reasons to RP, Reasons to RP.