De: An honest trade

[bjornwilde]

From saphyria :

One of the sometimes challenging aspects of RP is having characters whose knowledge-base is wildly different from that of the player. So your character has adopted a pet - you have to go look up what a pet-owner might expect from that species and breed at different stages of its development. Maybe your character is an expert at a craft, occupation, or sport with which you're not terribly familiar, or you want to make sure you portray a character from a specific time period and socio-economic status accurately.

What I'd like to know is: what sort of research has RP led you into? What things do you know now that you wouldn't have known, if you weren't playing in Milliways?

[Have a wicked idea for a DE? Leave a comment here!]

Comments

[adiva_calandia]

Thieving and the Regency era of England! For Kim Merrill. I even ended up in at least one class in college specifically to learn more about 18th/19th century thieves, prisons, and culture in order to improve my writing of Kim.

[calavera]

Well, I know more about fashion than I ever wanted to know about (though now I own pinstriped suits 'cause of it) and fine-dining, and knives, and food -- and all of that is sort of what pushed me out of a medical setting and into a culinary one.

Not complaining, though.

[bcgphoenix]

I have a whole folder on my computer devoted to info about transtibial amputations: treatment, prognosis, physical therapy, types of prosthetics, all that good stuff. Or, you know. Heartbreaking stuff. :(

...En route to this information, I also accidentally stumbled across the amputee fetish community on YouTube. So, uh, THERE'S THAT TOO.

("'How to don and doff a prosthesis.' Oh, this video looks promising! Wait, why is she in lingerie and what's with the sexy music in the back...ground...oh.")

[themidnightson]

Meet Edward Cullen.

Also known as the character I need to keep at least twelve tabs open for, including Google and Wikipedia, no matter how basic his thread going on is. Start with one helping of 'has lived nearly 110 years, while traveling everywhere, with multiple medical degrees to his own name, a savant musical ability/obsession, an ability to spout literature like its nothing', add to it that fact every memory he has is eidetic to the exact moment it happened.

Ladle on a shit storm of copiously crazy once you realize this also pertains to every to the that moment used knowledge, memory, emotion, and though of every Other Person within like a mile of him for the last ninty something years.



For Edward the question is not 'what have you researched?' It's 'Is there anything out there you haven't or don't have to?' Also. According to Steph, Georgia, and I, the better question is 'Holy crap, honey. You realize you should be insane, right?' While we shake our heads at SM's lack of foresight or planning skills.

[cibopathic]

I salute you for your dedication to sparkle motion.

[thenewblack]

I won't lie. After the first sentence my brain took a break to play the music from the 'Meet the Sniper' video.

Vampin' 's a fair thing mate. I guarantee you'll not get older...

I'll just go now.

[a1enzo]

A whole lot of computer terms for pun use, mostly.

This is EXACTLY why I decided not to app Mary Russell.

[kd7sov]

Not much, actually. I've looked up a few things about horses for Fluttershy, but she's a a)cartoon b)pegasus, so getting things right-according-to-our-reality is not exactly necessary.

In certain types of Felix threads it's useful to know things about various types of rock, but those threads don't happen very often.

[sdelmonte]

Not that I wasn't getting interested in the "Golden Age of Piracy" anyway from watching the PotC films, but playing Gibbs led me to begin reading about the real thing. I now know about Commodore Morgan, the shifting allegiances of privateers, pirates and pirate-hunters, and the role that piracy played in British foreign policy. The fickle nature of the players in the films, while exaggerated, was not far from the truth.

Playing Kirk has required the far more mundane job of forever looking up the little details of a canon far too big for anyone to keep track of. And playing Howard Stark, which came about mainly due to a love of history, has led me to acquaint myself more with things I didn't know about WWII and its aftermath.

[knightoftheswan]

Lohengrin is starting to turn into the pup I have to do research for. Heck, it was looking up his name that got me interested in playing him in the first place. I've learned a bit about Arthurian legend, which is always interesting, and a little more about Wagnerian opera. (Interesting tidbit I learned: the well-known Here Comes The Bride is from the wedding scene in the opera.) And with the way I've been playing him, I'll need to do more research on horses and swordfighting.

[shinyhappygoth]

It is from the wedding scene, yes, but it comes after they're married and is followed by slaughter! (I learned that from Cracked!)

[knightoftheswan]

Yeah. Spoiler Alert: Lohengrin does not have a happy ending.

[1nv1nc1ble]

Mostly timelines and Image comics characters that aren't in Invincible, because the Image Universe has a weird on-again/off-again continuity. (Did you know that Mike and the Boys are in Mark's universe, mnt_mike? What the hell.) I also end up using Google and Wikipedia for details on Southern Central California (since I don't live there), as well as for refreshing my memories of 2003, since Mark's timeline is nine years back.

[Edited to add new OOC icon.]

[psyched_you_out]

Mostly a lot of research on baby milestones for my pups who've had kids. And Arthur Dent is the reason I started drinking tea, which is sort of tangentially related.

I expect to do research for Brisco eventually, but his canon tends to ignore actual historical details, so I can handwave a bit.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Well, for starters, I have the Fallout Wiki and specifically the Wiki page that covers the Fallout universe's timeline perma-bookmarked on my cell phone's browser now. I've had to research the progression of radiation poisoning and the names of the people who've had it worst, both those who died and those who survived, and how fast the ones who died went down after exposure. There's been a bunch of other stuff as well, but I keep getting distracted by RL as I try to write this tag, so I'm just going to leave it at that.

[minkhollow]

Oddly, I can hold my own on Claudia's tech-fu by winging it. If I'm really stymied, the narration says so.
But what I can't let sit is an offhand mention of an Artifact. I'll run to Wikipedia to figure out what something might be, because in the Warehouse it's never just the obvious thing.
(I can't recall any specific examples from Milliways, but stuff I looked up for one of my Yuletide fics last year: General MacArthur, Mary Seacole, the Defenestration of Prague - interesting note, there have been at least four of those, two officially noted as such - the Bronte family and the basic Sleeping Beauty story. And that's just the stuff I ended up using.)

[inlovewithwords]

Less than I thought I'd have to. Usually I can hold my own.

I've tried to pick up some ideas of medieval combat, but I liked that before. Tavi is the reason I'm determined to learn more about strategy and tactics, especially the ones Romans employed. For Lois I keep referencing Smallville and DCU wikis. I've also had to look up info on finer points of journalism, and even got interested in a journalism class for it.

Also, the more I play Lois, the more I get acquainted with 80s music, particularly hair metal. May my sanity be preserved.

[death_gone_mad]

Beetle anatomy.

Seriously.

Amascut has been messing with the Scabarites (scarab-human hybrids who worship the god Scabaras) in recent history according to canon, manipulating them by turning their isolationist religion into xenophobia and getting them to do her dirty work. So, for OOM purposes I have to summon up research about beetles just so it a little bit more obvious that it isn't humans that she is leading around on her "hunting trips". Additionally, I had to find a beetle that matched the description the scabarite priest gives of Amascut's beetle disguise, and I think it is probably a humanoid looking Tribolium castaneum or the Rust-Red Flour Beetle

I also have a folder of human anatomy, most of it from Gray's anatomy. At first it was there for drawing reference even though I don't draw much of anything except electrical circuits, but now its there as things Amascut would know.

(fun fact: My mother learned to draw from copying excerpts from Gray's. That is what stood in for art education in rural Mexico in those days. Her old drawings are freakin' awesome as a result but she never really drew anything outside of school, besides a few dress patterns back when she was a seamstress.)

In the future I should do more research on combat and medieval/feudal weaponry. This includes feudal period weaponry outside of Europe, since such things tend to show up in canon. Combat is a major thing Amascut should know that I don't.

[pulls_levers]

Beside the requisite canon rewatches, for me it's been Sheila. As one must do when you're playing a Medieval noblewoman in a deliberately anachronistic canon. I know more about culinary methods and birth control methods in the high middle ages than I anticipated to at this age.

When it comes to Milliways, it's definitely Dixie, even though Brisco canon plays pretty fast and loose with facts I STILL need to know about what dance hall girls could afford. Pinkie's canon is fantasy-tastic, Psych tends to ignore proper police procedure so Shawn can do his thing, and when it comes to Clem, knowing more than what her canon teaches us about police procedure seems unfair ;)

[aberration]

So I kind of hate driving and really know nothing about cars. Or motorcycles. Or mopeds. Or for the future, planes. Or physics. Or science.

So yeah, playing Asami can often mean a lot of sudden, wild research for me. Which is compounded by the fact that a lot of what Asami's used to would be really, really old-fashioned by today's standards. And the fact that even apart from that I often get into "would they have that in Avatarworld?" neurotics for her, anyway.

Though I do know the basics of driving mopeds and motorcycles now!

I've had to learn a bit about electrical conduction for Elle, as well as weapons training, and... RNA (so I can skew it as intelligently as possible, basically), but when it comes to things she knows otherwise, I do sometimes just try to keep it to things I know for my own convenience.

And I don't think I've done much for Leslie yet. But after I apped Manny I did do some reading up on post-revolutionary Mexico and 1930s Mexico City, and Aztec mythology. Fun stuff!

[bjornwilde]

I think by far my most challenging pup in regards to research has been Emperor Norton the First. So many little things I found myself looking up to see if they existed in his time; bottled beer, Guinness, restaurants, and much more.

Ben has been pretty easy. The only thing I've had to research was what rank he would be and what Air Force base he likely would have been stationed at. I also check whether foods are kosher from time to time.

Hank and Val have required checking for possible technology/science to base their comic book tech on.

For Palamedes I keep meaning to check out what Arabic culture in the Medieval times was like so I can add a little more to him but so far I haven't gone there.

[rowanberries]

Bondage


Uhm.

Techniques for killing people?

[misslucyjane]

For the Green Man, mostly it's been spring/May Day/Midsummer's day customs.

For Merlin, things like culture and food (even though the show has people eating tomatoes, what the hell), though thanks to an existing fascination with history I came into playing him with a basic idea of what he'd know and how he'd know it. I also found a Merlin wiki that transcribes the episodes and includes the spells in Old English, which will come in handy eventually.

For Bilbo, I have my big LOTR all-in-one edition nearby, so I can check the appendices when necessary.

For Stuart, I've looked up things like how the Oxcam school system works and British culture in the 80s.

Steve gets most of the research lately, since the early part of the 20th century has never been one of my focuses. I have dozen or so private entries in his journal with things like links to military sites, TVTropes, Wikipedia, music and books, language (especially slang--Steve doesn't use much but I want it to be correct when he does), Brooklyn, and Golden Age comics. (If anybody has a thousand dollars lying around you can get one of his first books in mint condition.)

[time_dancer]

I'm not sure if you are aware but Marvel does have a digital comic library which has a lot of the Golden and Silver age comics available as well as modern titles. I think it's $60 a year for the whole shebang.

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

I didn't know that! I'll have to look into it when I've got more disposable income.

[bjornwilde]

There are a far bit of free ones too. = )

Back to mun journal to be extra confusing.

[sky_child]

Swords (but not extensively) and narcolepsy.

[skidmo]

Nikola. Tesla.






(Actually for most of Nikola's, I tend to handwave, because even when I look up the science, I don't always understand it, and my rudimentary grasp is just the sort of thing that would make Nikola grimace.)


But I've also looked up lots and lots of poetry for Posner, as well as done far more research into the Oxbridge university system then I did even when I was vaguely looking into doing post-grad stuff there. I've also looked into music and technology and films and other things widely available in early 80s Britain.

I've looked into all sorts of musical instruments and timelines of Greek myth for Orpheus.

Darius has made me lament the general lack of insight into life anywhere beyond District 12 in Hunger Games. (I still don't have a surname for him. I need to work on that.)

And I'm sure Branson will provide me opportunity to research all sorts of things about Britain during WWI, Irish politics, the Easter Rising, class politics, and socialism.

[thenewblack]

Japan.
Japanese girls, culture, geography, drinking ages (20!), lots and lots of things that I still get wrong and should probably look into more.

Pretty much everything else gets picked up from a combination of wikis in another tab, my velcro brain full of random trivia and outright lies handwaving.

(How does the FTL drive work? Pretty well generally, thanks!)

[ceitfianna]

Oh gods, this is a rather long list that began with Will.

For Will I had to learn about weapons, medieval food, concepts, many borrowed from the Cadfael books, religion. He's not fully historical but he's enough.

Charles has me learning about genetics, neuroscience, psychology and whatever catches his eye. I look in the comics at points but there's so much that most of my research has been how he approaches the world and what he finds interesting, also the music of the 60s.

Sameth got me learning about how things are made and engineering. One time during a class trip during grad school to the Henry Ford archives, I happened to see the original models for Edison patents. Sameth in my head went ooh and can we stay here?

Demeter gives me an excuse to learn about France, which I love but more of it.

Moist has me reading up on any articles on conmen as well as a lot of referring to the Discworld wiki.

William has me researching day to day life after the Civil War, music, the cost of items and guns.

Jane has me looking at authors of her era, food, clothing, all those sorts of details.

Tumnus doesn't create that much research other than checking Narnia references and the Pirate King is also checking canon references.

One reason I love playing characters from other wheres and whens is because it gives me an excuse to research.

[gavin62truck]

Firefighting. Everything about firefighting. I can handwave a lot when I write Tommy's OOMs, but I at least have to have some authentic idea of what I'm talking about. I get my info from websites and blogs written by real firefighters, and sometimes I fictionalize real life anecdotes or news stories to create situations in which to put Tommy and his crew.

Also, I learned about hockey. I watched the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs because of Tommy. AND I LIKED IT. Goddammit, Tommy.

[alexiscartwheel]

Before she was a superhero, Carol was an Air Force pilot, a military intelligence agent, and NASA security chief. Thus far, I've done a little bit of background research about the Wing Carol belonged to in the Air Force (basically because I wanted to see how likely it was that she had been to Hawaii, of all things), but basically I've just avoided talking about planes.

Mary, on the other hand involves lots of research. Technology has been big since Downton has a lot of modern technology (cars, electric lights, telephones) but 20th Century tech changes so fast I always have to verify what they'd actually have around. Also, contemporary fashions, Yorkshire geography and climate, breakfast foods, coffee, tea, etiquette for introductions, mourning customs, the social season, the ranks of the peerage, women's education, Oxbridge, Roman mythology, horseback riding, fox hunting...

Really I need to read up in general on pre-WWI Britain because sometimes it seems like every tag requires further research. But now I know important things like: when one is in mourning, all correspondence should be written on stationary lined in black. The Edwardian Promenade site has been a godsend, and I of course use a lot of Wikipedia.

[bbq_platypus]

I've done a few things here and there - usually it's to go through the canon's official wiki to clear up a few points. Jim and Borgel pretty much require no research at all, though.

The most memorable research incident was the Leela EP where I had to look up how to field dress a deer. I also spent a bit of time looking into how pre-agrarian economics work, in an effort to determine how Leela would react to the notion of a bar tab.

Kane is one I frequently have to do some research regarding mid-20th Century history, since his 20th Century is so radically different. Occasionally, I've looked at some earlier historical points when referencing all the history he's seen.