I Know That, But My Character Doesn't Know Yet

[Lady_Alizarin]

This is something that recently crossed my mind, and it has to do with some expereinces I've had during random roleplays. I will list some example stories to kinda explain what I mean:

Story 1:

I was roleplaying as Kopper the red fox out in Flourite Plains. She was skipping along, looking for some of her friends. Well, she encounters another fox near some clan cats. Being social with other foxes, Kopper decided to go over to the fox and say hello. She starts off with her roleplay line, -The vixen trotted up to the other red fox, while wagging her tail right behind her in a greeting sign, "Hey there, stranger," she chirped. "I don't believe I've met you out in this neck of the woods before." After she said that, the stranger fox gets all hostile and starts growling and "hissing" at her? The fox then said, "Get out of here you stinking kit killer! This is -insert clan name- territory, and foxes like you aren't welcome here!" So at this point, I'm all like ".....What?" I take a peek inside the character bio of this fox, and it turns out that it was a fox raised in a clan and now believes it's a cat and not a fox. So I continued on by saying...
Kopper Fox: -She took a few steps back- "But... I'm not a kit killer, I swear," she said, trying to reason with the angry fox. "In fact, I have a few clan friends of my own."
Clan Fox:"LIAR! All foxes are killers that can't be trusted!"
Kopper Fox: "But... but.. you're a fox too," she pointed out.
Clan Fox: "No I'm not! I'm a cat, born and raised in a clan. I'm a loyal warrior that fights for his clan and protects them from killers like you." he spat.
Kopper Fox: "Even if you were raised by cats and lived like one, you're still a fox nonetheless."
Clan Fox: Dude, he doesn't know he's really a fox. Did you even look at my bio.))
Kopper Fox: Yes I did. I already read it.))
Clan Fox: Then you should know that he hates other foxes and will kill them))
Kopper Fox: I know that, but my character doesn't know that yet. I'm playing the part where she's just now finding out, give me some time to play it out here.))
Clan Fox: Okay fine -_-))


Story 2:

I was once up in Sky's Rim roleplaying as Melina the diamond manticore. There were a few dragons and gryphons flying around, and then there were these two "human" characters. They even had the word "human" in their character names. One characteristic of Melina is that she classifies humans as prey. Since she is a manticore, whenever she sees something that appears human, she is going to look at it as potential prey. I looked at their bios and saw that they were shapeshifting creatures. After reading that, I type out a roleplay line that went something like this, "-The manticore paced around the glowing crystal when something caught her eye. She looked down below and saw what looked like two humans sitting on one of the lower floating islands. She got near the ledge for a better view, and looked at them with hungry eyes.-" Well then they blurt out OOC, "We are not humans, we are shapeshifters!" "FAIL!" And then I was all like, "I know that, but my character doesn't know that yet." Then one of them was all like, "Yeah whatever... "
First of all, I'm playing as a character that doesn't know about these "humans" ability to shapeshift. Melina is the type of beast that acts on instinct rather than reasoning when it comes to hunting. I told these two OOC "Well if you "shapeshift" into something else, Melina will no longer see you as prey." So one of them magically turns into a cheetah and runs off while the other "human", or in this case "shapeshifter" stays behind to distract Melina. When I say the roleplay line "-Melina became confused when she saw one of the humans trasform into a cheetah. She wasn't too sure if these humans were warlocks, witches, or something else.-" And so the human shapeshifter says, "We are not humans, we are shapeshifters. You must be a really stupid manticore if you don't know the difference." I wanted to tell them the logic in the situation, but then the game crashed.

Just because my character doesn't know something about your character doesn't automatically make them stupid. They just don't know yet! That's the thing about roleplaying, characters find out about whoever they encounter through roleplay, whether it takes them 5 minutes to find out, or 2 days! If we were all to know exactly what your character was like, it would take away some of the flow of the story. What if my character never encountered a character like yours before? Do you expect them to automatically know what to do or say to you? How was my character supposed to know that yours was actually a shapeshifter and not a human? I KNEW it all along, but she didn't!

What's your opinion on this? Have you ever seen something like this before while roleplaying? Has something like this ever happened to you?
 

[Morqque]

That has happened to me a LOT of times before.

[Vask]

-Facedesk- YES! I'll be roleplaying and...I just. I can't even...

[WhiteLightHeart]

I know exactly how you feel on this one, Lady, and it's a great point.

Too many times roleplayers will put things in their bio that they expect you to read (which is courtesy when engaging in roleplay with someone), but assume that your character itself, which can only see what is right in front of them (in other words, your character can't somehow click the other character and see their past and thoughts and innermost secrets), will immediately know about this.

It's really a case of not thinking through the situation, and mixing OOC and in-character knowledge. It's as if you had gone to read a book, read the bios of two separate characters in the prologue who had never met before, then gone into the book and those two characters will suddenly have read those bios and know what the bios said in their very first meeting.

So, it really was uncalled-for for those guys to turn around and act all "Oh, they don't know how to read bios!" toward you, when really you were the one giving the storyline a bit of courtesy by not assuming your character knows everything before they even meet that fox, or the two shapeshifters.

Silly floofballs.

[darkknight]

M'lady, in my opinion, this makes me sad. What you described is called metagaming. It's basically using out of character information into the in character. I can relate to this by an encounter I had before. I was on my hyena, Heinrich, when I meet a blind wolf. We exchanged conversation and my hyena was curious of why the wolf was looking else where whenever he moved about.

[To the point of our posts]
Heinrich: "Ey, there, why are you looking that way? Something interesting you, what's wrong?"
Stranger: "I'm blind, sir. I can't see."
Heinrich acknowledges she is blind, but the later forgets that she was when he asks her to follow him.
Stranger: [please read my bio, im blind, remember?]
Heinrich: [No, no, I know you're blind, don't tell me that. My character does not know.

The reason it makes me sad is because first, alot of people do this. Another is that is not a good way to role-play at all. If anything, it takes away the sense of discovering something about a person's character later and feeling achieved in having done so. How can your character be mysterious or interesting if we cannot play out the scene as is and make the realization or discovery? I like not knowing what is going on and being able to fix the problem or find something out. Having the answer just handed to me is a bit discouraging.

[BlueKinTsukiko]

My reaction when people think that my character is going to know everything about their character when they just meet.


Oh, and lady~ Your profile pic reminds me of something, and idk what, help Dx Im so confuzzled by who she is, and I could've sworn I saw her. Idk where else, but dangit! Its driving me nuts cause its on the tip of my tongue every time...please help x-x

[Warrior4ever]

I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing a case as extreme as these before me, but I've noticed this on a smaller scale. Many times a new member (or on a rare occasion, myself) will join in a RolePlay I am either participating in or watching, and seemingly immediately know everyone's name. One of my encounters went as follows, and happened while I was gathering members for my group in Flourite;

<Random Cat> "Hey there Lynx!" she mewed.
<Me(named Lynx)> "Greetings miss," the tom purred, blinking lazily and nodding to the female, "I had not realized my name was so well known."
<Random Cat> Whatever... -.-))
<Me>But... chu don't know his name yet, do you? ;3;
<Random Cat> Duh, it's in your name tag ))
<Me> has Lost Conenction.

'Twas a short experience, but it was actually quite funny. As you saw above I normally just work around the other person's All-Knowing comment, and it usually produces funny reactions. Sadly after I lost Connection the other member was offline, but I still thought about that encounter for a while, and every time it made me smile or laugh x3

Down to the point now, I really have noticed this mistake being made by many users, but I like to usually work around the small ones. Bigger mistakes would call for a re-type, but luckily I've not had any for a long while.

[Ex0rcist]

Arr, I have to agree with the point you are making, Lady. It bothers me so to have been told to read someone's bio and to use it accordingly during roleplay. Pfft, I'm not going to do that. The whole point of roleplaying is basically getting to know one's character to progress further. And Warrior, I went through the exact same thing. xD Here is a time I've experienced this sort of thing:

So I was roleplaying in a well-developed pack on my character, Talon, with this other person who was a bit exemplary with their roleplaying. However, it seemed she lacked the forethought that her character would automatically know mine's name just by reading the name tag. She also expected my character to know her name as well...

Stranger: The femme gazed upright towards the gleaming stars with awe, her pinstriped banner wrapped tightly around her rump. It seemed forever since she last took her gaze off the dancing balls of light, finally lowering her charcoal cranium gently.

Talon: The hessian approached the speckled dame whose sleek bodice silhouetted from the dim starlight. His thick cranium tilted slightly as he reclined on his haunches with a creeking motion, his neck pivoting along the axis as a sign of mere content. Parting his slim jaws to speak, he locked an icy gaze upon the interlope with slight concern. "Who are you...?"

Stranger: Just look at my name tag. No need to ask who she is)

Talon: Oh, but I do. And it is not me asking who she is, it is Talon. I know who she is, but he doesn't. ))

Stranger: After hearing the brute's raspy voice, the dame jumped with slight surprise until she gained control over who he was. With a slight chuckle, she said, "Ah, Talon. You need not ask who I am. I am but a curious rogue wandering these parts. I have no intentions to search for trouble."

Stranger: Yeah, alright. Made no sense but I'm down. )

Talon: Excuse me, lass... but I don't recall your character ever meeting mine. How on earth would she know his name? ))

Stranger: Your name tag... Like I said before, come on dude )

Talon: I'm sorry.. but I believe we are done here. ))

It irritated me so... and I couldn't deal with it any longer. Yar, I believe I made a bit of my point as well. I don't like when this happens, but sadly it happens quite often. I don't suppose there is anything that can be done.

[Lady_Alizarin]

Oh, and lady~ Your profile pic reminds me of something, and idk what, help Dx Im so confuzzled by who she is, and I could've sworn I saw her. Idk where else, but dangit! Its driving me nuts cause its on the tip of my tongue every time...please help x-x

Her name is Holli Would, and she is from a movie called "Cool World".


You all share some good opinions on this disscussion.

The whole thing about "Oh I know your name because of your name tag," is just plain ridiculous. Do some people forget what roleplaying is all about? Roleplaying is pretty much story-telling. When characters in a story meet each other, they get aquainted with each other and gradually learn more about each other over time. They don't encounter each other and automatically know one another's names. Would something like that happen out in the real world? Not really.

[Wizardmymom]

Yea, thinks like this annoy me >:L
I made this mistake yesterday on my Glaceon (I'minapokemonfaseshutup>:L) Druid.
I'm in another RP with my Umbreon with the other character, so I accidentally said their name.
I quickly fixed this, but when characters say "Hi there Druid, how is Silent?" (Silent is totally not me charrie's random crush thing e.o)
I just wanna slap them, icy wind them, and all that Pokemon nonsense.
And when they answer (We met before, remember?) I look back at the chat, and see NO posts by this person until a minute ago. Erm, wut?
I just... I wanna....
Scream.
>:L

I think the worst example I can think of is Pokemon and their Trainers.
When a Pokemon is caught, apparently, the trainer can AUTOMATICALLY tell what it's name is. NO.
A trainer names it Pokemon whatever it wants, and the Pokemon has to go with it. Not the other way around.
-Rant Overish-