KeDjA

Kedja = Kette = chain

My biggest criticism of RP: ignorance.

I get the impression that many people have forgotten what role-playing is really about.

A slave is not a piece of furniture, not a decorative object, and not an NPC who exists solely to pour you wine, look pretty, or provide validation for your character.

And above all: Behind every slave is a person who invests just as much time, ideas, and creativity into their character as you do.

Why do so many free characters believe that only their story is worth telling?

Why should only the free character experience intrigue, build relationships, have enemies, grow, or be the center of a scene?

A player in a slave role also has the right to their own story. To conflicts. To development. To scenes that revolve around them for once—and not just around their owner.

Anyone who treats a slave character solely as an extra isn’t playing with other people—they’re using them as a backdrop for their own role-play.

That has nothing to do with good role-playing.

And please don’t come at me with the argument: “You’re a slave.”

Yes. In character, I’m property. Out of character, I’m still a player. A player who pays just as much for their enjoyment, invests just as much time, and has just as much of a right to experience stories as any free character.

John Norman doesn’t describe slaves as mindless beings. Many were educated, observant, quick-witted, and were deliberately included in conversations. They were observers, sources of information, advisors, musicians, scribes, healers, or teachers. They had personalities.

Anyone who consistently ignores them in RP reduces them to a single function: to remain silent, to serve, and to fade into the background.

And then people are surprised by “thought emotes” or by the fact that players in slave roles eventually lose motivation.

Maybe the problem isn’t with the slaves.

Maybe the problem lies with players who believe role-playing is a stage for their own character, while everyone else is merely an extra.

I don’t role-play to be a spectator in other people’s stories.

I role-play to tell stories together.

If you just want to role-play with your friends and ignore everyone else, then at least be honest and say so. But stop pretending that you’re engaging in collaborative role-playing.

Because good role-playing isn’t measured by how many emotes someone writes.

It’s measured by how many people feel, after a scene, that they were part of that story.