JohnLegendRIP – Versatile Roleplayer
Community member Jallen has conducted a new series of interviews with various members of the community. These interviews will show you the people behind the characters of DayzUnderground, and showcase the wealth of personalities and experiences we have here in the community.
A well-respected storyteller, role-player and community member: JohnLegendRIP Is a veteran of DayzUnderground. Known for his excellent portrayal of characters such as the eponymous John Stalvern, membership of groups such as MFSG the Black Paw, and his outstanding general quality of character and company, he has been invaluable to the community over the years in many ways.
How did you hear about DayzUnderground, and what made you want to apply for membership?
I had played with my friends to begin with but they stopped playing because of the various bugs. One day I was playing with my friend Ross on a public server. We breeched the camo prison building at Vybor Military and I was killed by a guy in the wall. Needless to say I was extremely salty and I vowed that day I would apply for a whitelisted server because I was sick of people abusing glitches and getting very frustrated with the game in general. I was watching RunningManZ’s video series about DayzUnderground and thought it looked like a good choice. From what I could tell it was a hardcore server with 1pp and you were free to PvP anytime. So I applied for whitelist.
Was it hard for you to get into the RP and lore of the server initially? What made you want to get involved?
I looked up some of the factions and lore on the subreddit before I got stuck in with introducing myself and meeting people.
It was hard as I was primarily a PvP player. I looked up some of the factions and lore on the subreddit before I got stuck in with introducing myself and meeting people. I quickly found some friendly fun people to play with in the fabled Morgan Freeman Spiritual Group, a group very closely associated with another group called Shield. Within A week I joined the MFSG and became a full-fledged Morganite. After a week or so I was starting to get the hang of being a character and understanding things like OOC and IC. So yeah it was hard at first but I learned quickly.
You are one of the longer-serving members of this community. How long have you been playing and interacting here for, and what keeps you coming back?
Four years I think. I keep coming back because all my closest friends play on the server and the adventures I have are amazing. DUG is my home and I’ll be here until the end.
You have been or are currently a member of several prominent factions: including the MFSG, Black Paw and the Lucky Bastards. What motivated you to join these factions? Did you find the adjustment of your playstyle between them difficult?
There were different motivations and difficulties in adapting to the different playstyles of the groups.
With the MFSG it was difficult at first just because I was new on the server and still getting the hang of how everything worked in terms of characters factions IC and OOC all that jazz but Nessie, Pope Mage and Bob Stooky were good dudes they showed me the basics. We were a friendly group and as such I would only fire unless fired upon. Eventually we made a radio show at Altar which became quite popular but Nessie insulted Nick Layor the leader of a cannibal group known as the Gilligans. They attacked us every day until finally they teamed up with Black Paw and kicked us out in what became known as The Battle of Altar.
Black Paw was an extremely daunting and almost scary group to join especially in the way I executed my joining of the pack. At the time Black Paw was the most feared and hated bandit group on the server. I had met Felix le Loup in teamspeak and we got along very well. I asked if I could join and essentially a week later I defected from the MFSG to Black Paw. I revealed IC secrets of the Guardians to Felix namely their leader Kyle’s history of murder including two children. This lead to basically all the previous groups I was a part of to want to hunt me down and execute me.
When I was finally accepted into Black Paw I felt I needed to prove myself as a warrior as many of the wolves didn’t know the extent of my combat ability. It didn’t take long before I proved myself to be wolf and not to long afterwards I was appointed to a leadership position within the faction.
My playstyle changed and I became more aggressive opting to hold everyone up at gunpoint when interacting. However, my friendly nature would often seep through and I would end up making friends with the people I was holding up. This is actually how I met Georgie Luz.
After my character John was essentially assassinated. I wanted a fresh start with a different kind of group. I had long admired The Lucky Bastards because of their conduct in game and their mature attitude OOC as well as the incredible storytelling on the subreddit. It took a long while for my newer character Jim to be accepted into LB but when I was I found an instant rapport with them. They are very lovely people with a mix of different playstyles and so I fit right in.
Has the way you play changed significantly in your time on DUG? Why, or why not, do you think that is?
Yes massively. When I first came to this server I was a friendly survivor used to being KOSed or backstabbed on public servers. I spent about 1400 hours on public and didn’t get too much interaction. What I found coming to DUG was a wealth of character interaction and storytelling. I was amazed by the community, the factions and the lore. It felt like playing a completely different game than I was used to. I basically played as a fly on the wall taking in how people RP and making friends with the community.
The way I played on DUG chopped and changed. I was a very neutral character on my main “John” but sometimes my bloodlust for PvP would get the better of me so I created The Creature characters. They were an excuse for me to go around causing terror and eating people. Then I had other goofy characters like “Krusty the clown” a friendly clown that nobody trusted and “Jed McGooder” a complete naïve coward. I find it best to experience every kind of playstyle from complete pacifist to evil murdering cannibal.
What advice would you give to new role-players and storytellers on the server? What do you wish you had known earlier?
Try to play the game as organically as possible don’t try and force a story to go how you want it.
Read up on subreddit content. All the history and lore of the server is achieved there. You can find out about all the factions, their territories and what they stand for.
Also try to play the game as organically as possible don’t try and force a story to go how you want it. Play the cards you are dealt. For me organic RP means exactly that. You have little control of the events that will take place so learn to adapt to the situations and integrate them as part of your gameplay and story.
In recent memory, you have killed off a character you have played for a long time. Was it easy or hard for you to do? What advice do you have for people thinking about perma-killing their character?
My most recent perma was my character for Lucky Bastards Jim. I had contracted a bugged sickness that I couldn’t get rid of. I like to play the game as organically as possible and so I just rolled with it being a terminal disease. I was also infecting others around me with the same sickness so I chose to have someone take me out to the back shed and put me down for the greater good. Felix obliged me and did the deed as I didn’t want any of my comrades in LB to have the memory of putting down their friend. It was hard for me afterwards as I missed playing the character but it made for an interesting story and I wanted it to be a good example of Organic RP and how I like to play. It’s hard to give advice as to how to perma because it’s up to the individual. My advice would be perma your character in an RP situation.
What has been your most memorable interaction to date? Why was it so good?
Well that’s a really tricky one. I have had so many incredible encounters and adventures over these last four years it’s really tough to pick one.
I’ll go with the Fish fry. I was playing a random goofy character named Jed McGooder. Jed had heard of a fish fry going on up north near Kemensk so he went along and met some people and had some fun fishing and fish fighting. Everything was going fine until DAMN showed up to murder everyone and eat their flesh. Jed just sat there terrified as 506, black sheep and other survivors were being gunned down all around him. Draven approached Jed and told him to surrender. Jed sat begging for his life, pleading with the cannibal not to kill and eat him when all of a sudden Draven was shot in the face.
It was an amazing interaction and one of the most incredible little events that I’ve ever been part of.
Jed ran to a nearby tent and hid all the while screaming in terror. From inside the tent he heard a German voice shooting “Take this you cannibal cunts I’ll fucking kill you all!!” It was Hans Gruber of the 506 pushing forward and taking the fight to the cannibals. As Hans neared the tent he shouted “Get out of the tent and fight you fucking coward!” Jed then proceeded to get out of the tent pick up a nearby shotgun and join Hans in the fight. I remember Hans running off into the forest emptying his automatic rifle at the Cannibals and driving them off screaming obscenities whilst emptying his rifle at them . From that day on Jed told tales of the heroic German goliath Hans Gruber who single handily killed a thousand cannibals with his bare hands.
It was an amazing interaction and one of the most incredible little events that I’ve ever been part of.
Who are some of your favourite storytellers on the subreddit? What makes their stories stand out?
Spootin, His stories are extremely in depth and emotional. Also we shared a lot of in game adventures so much of his writing involves my characters so I get a good feel from another players perspective of how I am perceived. He’s extremely descriptive and explores the darker nature of his characters thoughts and his inner battle between good and evil.
Redstar, Again her stories are so in depth. She describes the in game interactions with immense detail and adds her own inner thoughts which add another dimension to the initial interaction. The stories make you think about what day to day life in an apocalyptic wasteland would actually be like. Also English is not her first language so it really astounds me how well she writes in comparison to someone like me who is terrible at writing with English being my first language.
Dixie, Dixie’s writing was extremely heartfelt. Often she would go back and forth through her characters timeline mixing events from her backstory with events that happened in game which led to a greater understanding of her characters emotional state. I remember the sadness in her writing when Jari died. It was so vivid it genuinely brought tears to my eyes. She really knew how to bring the characters to life in her writing.
If you ever stepped away from DUG in the future, how would you want to be remembered?
Just as a dude that was fun to play DayZ with.