Appraisal of fellow characters

[hsparks]

Is it just me, or do people appraise eachother way too much in this game? I mean, I can understand if it's an enemy, but I meet a friend I don't immediately study him to see how strong he is compared to me. For example I can understand if you're about to take a friend to a tough dungeon, you could check and see if he could handle it. But it would seem that some people's general method of introduction is. 'introduce me' 'appraise <target>'

I figure hey, maybe if we can reduce how everyone looks at everyone else like a piece of meat when they first meet eachother, it'll be a little less awkward. Does anyone else see where I'm coming from in terms of roleplay here? Another example would be a city guardsman appraising new people entering his city. But we don't have much of that.

[Olrane]

To be honest, I think it's pretty fine in terms of roleplay. Every time I meet someone new in real life, I immediately size them up physically, and from that I try to learn something about them. Of course, then I try to get them to talk so I can get an even clearer picture.

It isn't unnatural at all, I don't think.

[caelia]

I think a talented warrior (and I know some real-life ex-military or police types who do this) would be pretty much constantly sizing up others constantly, looking for whoever might be a potential threat.

If a Geas "appraisal" is analogous to this, then I see it as being (potentially) a fairly subtle, non-intrusive action, which an experienced warrior could do at a quick glance. A novice warrior, on the other hand, would probably end up staring rather awkwardly, or perhaps a bit longer than is socially acceptable. I think for the most part I agree with Hsparks - a simple "look" is probably better in most cases - but I don't think that all appraisals are necessarily equal.

Very good question.

[hsparks]

Well for example I don't do it without reason. I'm a member of a clergy so I'm supposed to generally treat people with respect. So I don't run around looking at everyone like they're a piece of meat.

If you really think about it, you study them in great detail considering you're guessing their weight, volume(O_o), and comparing yourself to them.

If you really just look at someone you can tell usually how strong they are by their desc or armor etc. I just think the whole "appraise this guy as soon as I introduce myself if not sooner" thing is kind of weird.

[lanyara]

This is a good example of how the system encourages or discourages certain behaviour patterns. It also provides a lot of OOC information ("this halfling could be that evil little famous dude, if he is more agile").

It also gives some unique information like weight or height instantaneously (and volume, which I always found pretty hard to measure in reallife... especially instantaneously...)

The thing I find even more peculiar than appraising someone else is appraising everything just to get skill improves.

By the way, what I also think is strange are multiple appraises in one go.
The current maximum seems to be 6 / person in 1 second ... that's just spam ... almost as horrible as appraising everything...

[Olrane]

This is a good example of how the system encourages or discourages certain behaviour patterns. It also provides a lot of OOC information ("this halfling could be that evil little famous dude, if he is more agile").

Just to nitpick here a bit: this isn't OOC information. The problem isn't using OOC information, the problem is that there are OOCly known rules which simply aren't present in the game world. This causes people to jump to conclusions that don't make sense ICly, but are obvious OOCly.

You appraise a halfling and you find that he's very fast/dextrous. That's IC, and perfectly fine. If, however, he is not recognized by your character, your character should not assume that he is any specific PC, even if you would be correct. At best, your character knows that he may be capable of certain things, and might guess that he belongs to an organization. To make the jump from "possibly a thief" to "a certain PC guilded thief" is to assume that it's impossible to run into similar NPCs, or that a set of known active players represents all of the characters you may meet.

/derail

[arxthas]

Yes I agree with Olrane. That isn't OOC information.

There is just one known evil little halfling thief - that is the OOC information. Jumping to the conclusion that it's that same PC/character is the real cheat. Like many things, like using the who list, it's impossible to check that players aren't doing it.

[adanath]

Not to mention I have on many occassions used it to gather height, and weight information. Something that would "normally" just be a cursory glance, however in geas, it must be an appraise. I think the semantics of the word itself seem to imply a deeper investigative look than many times I imagine my character doing for the reasons he is doing it.

[lanyara]

Just noticed something else.

The appraise system reveals the "mental capacity", as in if someone is feeling veggie or not.... Hmm... should characters be able to find out how much mana someone has? I can understand IC stuff like physical wounds, height weight... but mana? How is this explained IC?

[arxthas]

Since I am not native English speaking, I never reflected about the exact "depth" of the work appraise. Might also be a problem.. I always considered it like a glance that sticks just a little bit longer than comfortable for the appraised.

[lanyara]

The instant magic eye ... 6 times in a second ...

[luminier]

Typically people roleplay having low mana as having a severe headache. That being said, as a Lifeguard IRL Im sorta trained to notice such ailments in a person, and I know just from life experience what someone with a horrible headache feels like. Could that be sized up in an appraisal? I think so.

[lanyara]

The magic eye in real life

[Andreati]

I would really like it if the age (adolescent, mature, etc) of a character would go under examine, instead of under appraise. When I meet new people, I like to see how long they have been in existence, and I tend to skip over all the other information.

[Veriya]

Definitely... I use appraise to check for age above all else.