Roleplaying

The Roleplaying articles on UESP have been the subject of many attempts at cleanup in the past. Southern Belle gave it a try some time ago, and Arch-Mage Matt has had another go recently. Currently there is a huge, huge, huge clusterfuck going on about the subject. Although there's plenty of chaos on this subject, there isn't any hypocrisy so I hadn't intended to write about it, but having received a couple of emails asking what I thought, I decided to chuck my hat into the ring and offer my views.

The important thing to remember is that the games in the TES series are Role-playing games. Even the early games contained RPG elements, but it was only when Morrowind and Oblivion appeared that you could honestly claim to have a fully open game. It is therefore only natural that people want to write about their roleplaying ideas and their experiences. I don't think anybody disagrees with what I've said so far.

The problem comes with how the information should be presented and how much information should be included. Let's say you want to live as a farmer. Obviously you need to live on or close to some farmland. Should a roleplay give that tip alone, or should it specify a farm? A farmer will obviously need to harvest ingredients, but should a roleplay specify how and when or simply mention the idea? Almost all the existing roleplays specify classes, birthsigns and skills. Are these genuinely required for a roleplay?

Why should roleplays be so prescriptive? Why does a mage have to be a Breton or an Altmer? There might only be one relevant orc in the mages guild but why does that mean nobody playing a mage can be an orc? You may not get many Bosmer as fighters, but why not make the fight against adversity part of your character's backstory?

The best idea I saw in the debate so far was one that said Roleplays should be one or two lines. Farmer would be something like "Tend your crops and fight off wild creatures to guarantee a harvest. Take your produce to town and sell it for the supplies you need" rather than a huge list of crap that is of no relevance.

Yes, TES is a roleplaying series so UESP should have roleplaying articles. On the other hand, anybody that needs to have the hand of their imagination held to the extent that the current articles encourage really shouldn't be trying to play a roleplaying game at all.

So what do I think? I think the system under vote at the moment will be a disaster. Either people will ignore it or use it wrongly and the site will end up where it is now after a week's worth of pointless discussion. I think a system of one or two line roleplays is the way to go.

Now, can I go back to insulting Elliot please? :-)