John More / Euan Coinneach Mhor )(Accepted)

Ah. Where to start. IC, I suppose.

well, I'm thinking of creating a RP-based character, John Kenneth More / Euan Coinneach Mhor. I may consider duplicating the character if possible with the Aglicised "good" front when he's outgunned and outnumbered by english ships, and the Scots spelling being used when he's being militant.

The basic concept is split into a number of options: One is that More is a Fifer, probably born in St Monans of a lowly birth, and who then grew up in Leith (or possibly if other players would like to use Leith, then Silverknowles or South Queensferry - a little rivalry from childhood times is possible and plausible.), working their way up from a early age to become a captain. Depending on background and creation options, I prefer the idea of the disposessed son of one of the Fife (possibly Saint Andrean) upper class whose father was brought to bancrupcy, if not outright ruin by the Darien Disaster in 1699. I see it part of the character's drive being the (probably unattainable goal) dream of proving his fathers "failure" was unavoidable, a goal that has dragged him from scotland into the carribean, and will likely see him pushing voiciferously for a return to the remains of New Caledonia, and the remains Fort Saint Andrews.
As a 3d Environment artist for the games industry, I'm sorely tempted to see if it would be possible to build the 3d assets for such a colony, in much the same way as 3d ship assets are being open to user created content. I'm a max user, rather than a maya arist, but as my work's good enough for my current company, it's certainly better than anything FLS's staff have in situ.


Personality-wise, I'm likely to look at the character being the classic early Scottish Enlightenment era "Natural Philosopher" type, with strong Jacobean sympathies.
To avoid religeous debate More is likely a Calvinist, and holding no particular view on catholisicm or protestant sectarianism. (this is predominantly a "get-out" clause avoiding OOC sectarianism becoming an issue at any point - I have no wish to deal with anyone who takes such sectarian sides too far. )

I'm also likely to look at him being a two-faced bastard, who publically hides his jacobean sympathies (as is accurate for the era, given to support the pretender was a death sentence.) however, his exhortations of "to the king, over the water", are, clearly aimed at William and Mary... honest.

Given the setting of 1720, I'm looking at a 30-35-ish age bracket, which, combined with Darien Disaster while he was only a young child, and then the union while still a teenager, have dented his belief in scotland. in some ways, I also see RP as a opportunity to reflect on reality, so some of the current affairs withthe SNP and the nationalism that is affecting me and many others in scotland today is likely to be mirrored in the character.

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so, that's the IC stuff looked at.
for ooc stuff, firstly as I mentioned, I'm looking at how and where my ability as a digital aritst can be used. part of what's caught my interest on POTBS is the user created content. if you're interested, I'd rather enjoy looking at creating things like the sail and ingame imagery for the company.

I'm also a historical consultant, having worked on a string of RPGs and games using historical reference material, and I'm likely to be a stickler for accuracy whenever possible. Expect long ranting essays on the realities of highland life, the clearances, and the likes. probably transcripts of reference books that've not been princed for two centuries on a few occasions, and quite possibly, scans from some of my even older documents that I've got in storage. all useful stuff, I'd hope, if people don;t object to the occasional ruffled feather from arguing a point of fact.

but there you go. hpefully, it'll be an interesting concept, and if so, I'll go from there.


do excuse any typos still in here... still recovering from a nearly broken hand a month ago...

OOC
Looks like you have a pretty good idea for a character there.
Only problem I see in the application is that your IC section isn't in character. Could we get a bit of an RP intro from the good Mr. More? You don't have to have all of the ideas worked out for him yet, but I think we would all like to see a sample of how you will roleplay.

Wilhelm von Somborn wrote:

OOC
Looks like you have a pretty good idea for a character there.
Only problem I see in the application is that your IC section isn't in character. Could we get a bit of an RP intro from the good Mr. More? You don't have to have all of the ideas worked out for him yet, but I think we would all like to see a sample of how you will roleplay.

*nods* I was'nt really bothering with actually writing IC for what is really more a character concept that's being poked around at the moment. I'll likely write a wee bit this evening, as an IC intro, given it does'nt sound like you're all screaming in horror at the concept there.

I'm also partly split, if it sould be with modern vernacular and spelling, or period. Inflicting Fife dialect on you guys might well be a little cruel. :lol:

ahl hae paie ah bridie ah twa paa, quine, aye?

I'm certainly not going argue that I would be feeling the pain if you were to be doing full dialect. Obviously, its your character, but I would personally suggest something inbetween as far as speech is concerned. Maybe something along the lines of what a period Scottsman would sound like if he were trying to be understandable to non-Scotts?

Theres certainly nothing wrong with using normal, modern English in my opinion, as long as you don't start throwing "yo" and "waz up" around. Somehow I don't think anyone interested in an RP guild is going to be doing that, though.

As for the character concept vs completed character, I'm doubting anyone has their character fully fleshed out. Really, I'm just interested in the general personality I'll be seeing around the RP forums more than checking to make sure that every aspect of your character is historically accurate or some such. As if I would know.

Anyway, thats my two cents.

Suzerain wrote:

ahl hae paie ah bridie ah twa paa, quine, aye?

*Glances up from his half-full tin, gives a quick scratch of his head, before continuing towards the bottom of large mug.*


A letter or a note or a quick intro (few lines, not meant to be pressure or critiqued, just a fun intro to a proposed character). I think that is all the app was asking for. Of course things might change and your character might be completely different than what you thought pre-release - that is fine, but in game we are hoping to be in-character the majority of time so it is an opportunity to give a little IC introduction.

With respect to languages, we fly a bunch of flags but I certainly will only be productive in English. So tilts for your character are ok but within the game, I believe we are all speaking "French" since we fly under a French flag. But this will be a English speaking guild.

PS: The history based stuff sounds fun. Granted, I'm ignorant, but learning. I'm reading "The Republic of Pirates" and enjoying myself as I lay in wait for an opportunity to sell my good on the open seas!

Welcome. I'm going to add you as a recruit to the society and go from there. As far as period correct....well unfortunately we have to make allowances for the game. My heritage is Scottish, but I'm American and though I'd love to learn more about the dialect (is it a form of Gaelic or something else?) likely more of a modern or even victorian english would be easier to understand. Though it would be awesome to pepper your speech with the period stuff just for fun, but I leave your character in your hands.

As you can see we are fairly loathe to try and direct anyone in the playing of their character as we prefer to let people play out their RP as they see fit. Hehe. We love colorful characters though, so as long as the player and the character fit we're an easy going lot! Well except Dermid when he gets drunk...but that's something you have to discover for yourself. (Just kidding..Dermid only sometimes gets drunk these days...but he does seem to be in his cups alot. )

Again welcome and we look forward to learning more about you and your characters!

Hamish MacBane wrote:

I'd love to learn more about the dialect (is it a form of Gaelic or something else?)

nope, there's essentially three languages that were used in scotland concurrently , english, lowlands scots, and highland gaelic.

highlands is the "classic" gaelic that came over from ireland in the 5th century, and evolved distinctly from there through to the 16th C. it was only really used through the hebridean islands and the highlands, a line running diagonally through scotland from down in the south-west to the moral firth in the north-east. the total population of gaelic speakers, at their maximum was only a few tens of thousands - remember, even prior to the clearances (after the '45), the highlands were a very low density of population, and generally the language was only spoken exclusively by a smaller minority yet.


English has evolved as is pretty well-known, from saxon, into old through middle period, to elizabethan and onwards, becoming more uniform with increasing use of print. dead easy.

Lowland scots, also called Doric, is where it gets interesting. it's a dialect, much like the portsmouth "yarr" type accent you hear in films is as much of a dialect, and is evidenced in much of the pronounciation that people are aware of as the standard cliche' scots accent. Scotty's "she cannae tak' it" is in some ways close to doric, in that it is accented english.
Doric is mostly heavily influenced by the english language; spoken it can be much easier to understand than written, given then much of the inflection becomes clearer. it's actually more prevalent in the eastern coast, from aberdeen down and across. a good example of the language is the oath of allegience for the scottish parliament, that one MSP took in Doric:

"I depone aat I wull be leal and bear ae full
alleadgance tae her majesty Queen Elizabeth her airs an ony fa come
aifter her anent the law. Sae help me God"

it's a good example of how the language melds english and doric seamlessly, as the two languages cross-pollinate each other. I'm thinking it'll mostly be used for giving flavours , using language that's more used for the insults and the jibes, than anything else.
"Aye, that spaniard's a weee gobshite, an' a glaikit lummox tae boot" for example. :)

but, I'm waffling now.

*Returns to the Albatross to find John More seated near the bar. Dermid takes a seat and orders a round.*

"So tell me a bit about yourself. I've been in the highland woods a little too much lately. I've decided I need better trees and strong timber if I am to be a ship markers success and it has been a difficult search. I could use a bit of conversation."

Suzerain,

It was asked a while back by some members and Dermid was trying to spur it on a bit, but could you add an IC intro and info to your app? We aren't looking for best seller list or anything just something to get your character in the spirit of the society being an RP society. You've had a ton of good ideas, but we haven't seen any examples of your RP which is important to moving forward for us as we can't see this in game yet.

Also, you can help intro your character in the Albatross also if you wish, but mainly we need to IC intro here as it is part of our app process. Thanks!

I'll be posting up some stuff in a wee while, but for now, I'm afraid I'm dropping out of activity for a bit - I had a pretty hellish month of working (crunch time on the title I'm working on (and it's not even out till october...) and it's set off RSI in my hand - I'll type IC stuff once I can write again without risking permanantly wrecking my hand.

sorry about that. *grumbles*

Sorry to hear that... Hope your feeling better soon.

Yeah sorry to hear about all that. Hope you get better and no worries. Life happens we all understand.