CLOK BBS

So I'm new here and I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about who I want to be here. A character that I would really like to play (and unlike anything I have RPed before) is a two-faced, manipulative, do anything to gain power type of person. This is someone who would always appear to be well-mannered and even kind but wouldn't hesitate to burn a village to the ground if it gained them standing in the world. A sort-of evil politician/lawful evil archetype.

A problem I'm foreseeing though is that the most interesting parts of RPing this sort of character would rarely if ever manifest because most of the fun happens internally. It's a very inner-monologue type of character. It would be fun for others to see my IC thoughts but they could only know them OOC. Is this possible here? Is there a way to make a character like this work well?

I do have ideas for other characters but before I go to deep in the rabbit hole I wanted to get some thoughts on this.

This is most definitely doable! XD

It is possible! The "think" command is awesome to show the GMs what your character is truly plotting and help flesh out how you really feel. You can also submit a character backstory to the GMs.

Though be careful, this community IC and OOC love to talk. If your secret gets out, it probably won't stay that way and will be difficult to gain the trust of others. Also, consequences are swift and long-lasting so your character will have to often weigh the worth of their actions.

Lastly, you won't be allowed to do this as a Church member. The GMs don't allow or support any kind of evil Church types. It may impact your participation in other guilds but they have been most vocal about nothing like this allowed within the Church.

It's doable for sure.

There's the 'think' command Avedri mentioned, though it won't show other characters your character's thoughts. It will, however, show you and the GMs. Alternatively (and one of my favorite methods) is to have your character find some kind of confidant -- someone they trust, who they know won't reveal their secrets, and hopefully who agrees with their motives. That way you can play out the character's true self without shattering the illusion of potentially not being all that bad.

I'd highly suggest considering the RPHardcore (no ooc features) option if you play, or at least disabling tells, because there are some people who have a bad habit of OOCly ferreting out information or attempting to share it, and what Avedri said about consequences is extremely true, so be careful.

CLOK has a lot of support for "un-nice" characters. There are several guilds and even a town that's not all butterflies and rainbows (though there are tea parties). The GMs encourage well-done antagonists. It can be very rewarding.

I say go for it if it's what you want to do! As Avedri said, however, people are very wary and very talkative around here. Likely due to trickery and tragedies in the past, people will be swift to report and spread word of your eeeeevil doings if they observe them, so do yourself a favor and resist that urge to gloat or verbally monologue at people, at least as far as your deeper and darker secrets. If you're just deceitful and manipulative, that's one thing (and really, you should expect people to kind of catch on). Certain factions, however, are extremely intolerant of others and there are some severe prejudices, so you have to judge carefully how close you want to toe certain lines. The most well-known is the conflict and hatred between the towns of Shadgard and the Corvus Outpost. They have a bloody recent history, and most citizens aren't eager to forgive or forget.

Be mindful of NPC crowds. Even if no other player characters are in the room, the NPC crowd can still see and report any overtly horrendous acts. For example, if you murder someone (PC or NPC) on Main Street, there's an NPC crowd there, so word is going to travel quickly that you're a murderer, even if other no obvious specific people were there to witness your crime. If you're going to do horrible things, be subtle about them, or do them in out-of-the-way places where you won't be seen by bystanders (i.e. outside town/outpost borders).

There have been a few characters that have gotten away with quite a lot while keeping it under wraps due to being careful about where they perform said horrible deeds and whom they tell about them. One in particular really amuses me, considering what they've done and yet hardly anyone seems to know or suspect.

Lastly, expect consequences. You're likely going to get caught or outed at some point. If you get caught or outed over something big, we (the GMs) don't feel it necessary to provide special excuses or outs for people just because they're a player character. We have multiple factions for a reason - if some bridges get burned, there are others to seek. Reputation/faction is a very big deal in CLOK, and shouldn't be taken lightly.

Thanks for the feedback. I think I will follow through with this. I don't intend this character to commit murders (unless backed into a corner) as he would rather have someone else do his dirty work but I do have a question. If I did kill someone where no one would witness what happens to the character when they return to life? Can they just rat me out?

I do see myself one day getting caught and being punished but I see that as part of an evolving story that would make the character more interesting.

Yep, that's the issue with the Undying. If you kill someone and they come back to life, they can certainly report how they were killed and by whom, if they see you do it.

But no worries! There are plenty of people who can kill without being seen, not all being assassins.

Cool. One last thing, is there any way to disguise myself or maintain an alternate persona? For instance if someone saw me in an outfit that covered my face and then later someone saw me in a different outfit with my face exposed do they recognize me as the same person?

Not currently, no.

They will likely recognize you regardless of whether your face is covered or not. Your name still displays as normal while your entire face is covered, it just adds (face concealed) after it, which is supposed to help people RP that they shouldn't be able to recognize the person immediately, if at all, but even I'm guilty of either not seeing it immediately and acting like I recognize them or just simply not even thinking about it.

Yeah I've never seen a disguise system done before but I always imagined it would be something pretty cool. The players name would be changed to something generic like "A man wearing a mask" or maybe if they are skilled enough you could even appear to be something specific like a farm hand, cook, guard etc. Of course, players with telepathic or special magical abilities could probably see through that like mummers. There would have to be some sort of limitation though as I imagine city guards wouldn't allows you to walk around with a mask and be able to recognize someone who isn't really a guard and NPCs would bar you from their shops and inherently distrust you on sight if you are wearing a mask.

I've seen a good way to handle disguise systems, but it generally requires the game to have an Introduction system as well, in which PCs appear to one another based on a descriptive string instead of a name. Unfortunately, as the GMs have stated, swapping Clok over to an Introduction system would be ridiculously work intensive at the moment.

Yep, tangela suggested something like that a few posts back. Would make things interesting.