During the course of Role Playing your character, IC disputes are bound to happen. During these IC disputes, it is important to remember that Role Play is OOCly cooperative, and absolutely not competitive. Work with the other Player to write out the scene of the dispute. Give them time to have their character react, in a turn-by-turn fashion. Never God-Mod, always emote in such a way that the other Player has a say in the success of your character’s attempts. For example, never emote: *Punches Steve in the face.* This emote should instead be *Throws a punch, attempting to hit Steve in the face.* The former is God-Mod, where you have fully decided the action without input from the other player. The latter is OOCly cooperative, allowing the other player a chance to weigh in on whether or not their character was able to dodge. During the course of disputes, keep OOC to a minimum, but do not feel like you cannot ask questions to get elaborations on what is happening, what is possible, or to decide on dice rolls. Sometimes cooperation requires communication.
There are often times where a situation cannot be fully and actively acted out. This may be due to any number of reasons from a lack of time to a player being OOCly uncomfortable acting out specific RP. It is acceptable to "imply" Role Play in these cases, OOCly having a brief discussion about what would have happened and then simply claiming that it did. Enough detail should be decided so that all Players involved know how to proceed with their Role Play from that point onward. Implied Role Play should be avoided whenever possible, but is nonetheless considered fully valid Role Play when it does need to happen.
Never use OOC exploits for IC gain. Just because the software allows you to move your Avatar through a wall (for example) does not mean your Character can ICly do that. During IC disputes, using such an exploit to have your character escape, or similar, is considered cheating. It’s actually considered cheating at any time.
Emotes should be almost as common as talking, and are denoted by surrounding the emote with star marks: *. Body language is important, and emotes help to get across that you as a Player are engaged in your Role Play and in what’s going on even when the character is not saying anything. A common trap to fall into is to simply type nothing at all because the character is not talking. Remember they may not be talking, but they are still doing something- even if it’s just staring at a wall. Whatever it is they are doing, emote it. This will give extra life to your Character and provide extra atmosphere and depth, and make your character feel very present within the scene (even if ICly they don’t want to be noticed!). A lack of emoting makes people feel like the Player is OOCly distracted or otherwise not very engaged, and the Character will begin to fall from the scene in the minds of the other Players in the area.
That said, do not over-emote especially in busy areas. When there are a lot of people in an area, emoting too much can spam the talk channel to the point that people simply can’t keep up. Be respectful in these cases and keep the emoting to a minimum.
“Para-RPing” is the practice of attempting to write emotes in extreme detail and in full paragraphs. This is very strongly discouraged. While some detail is very important, Para-RP tends to cause significant delays in response time, leading to a distracted feel. It also lends itself too easily to God-Modding because during the course of the paragraph, other Players don’t have the option to have their Characters respond to what the Character is doing. In the same light, it is usually best to break up long speeches so other Characters have the option of interrupting ICly.
Talk Channel is always considered IC, except within designated OOC areas, or with proper OOC marks. Which OOC marks are used is not so important, as long as it’s very clear. The most typical OOC mark to be used is (( )). Instant Messages (IMs) or Private Messages (PMs) and group conversations are always considered OOC, unless otherwise specifically agreed for specific reasons. IC IMs and group conversations should be kept to an absolute minimum and only used when absolutely necessary. All Role Play should take place in the talk channel whenever possible.
Always comply with OOC Admin requests. When making a ruling or settling a dispute, the Admin’s decision is final. While voicing disagreement is perfectly acceptable, once a decision has been made it is to be accepted and the discussion is to be dropped so that everyone can move on with Role Play. Showing blatant disrespect for an Admin decision is grounds for immediate banning.
If there is an OOC dispute between Players, it is best to attempt to settle it without involving an Admin. Fellow Players are to be treated with respect, and Players are required to remain civil at all times. Showing disrespect for another Player is grounds for immediate banning. If the dispute cannot be resolved or agreed upon, an Admin will hear both sides and make a ruling. The ruling is to be considered final.
Proper respect and civility is to be shown to other Players and Admins alike. Harassment will not be tolerated. Assholes will not be tolerated. Players must remain in control of themselves. Failure to behave as an adult can and will result in banning.
A proper balance should be observed between private Role Play and public Role Play. Private Role Play is any Role Play where it is generally exclusive to a small subset of characters, whether it be two or more, even if it is technically open to others. Private Role Play is extremely vital, but it is also inherently exclusive. It should be done sparingly such that a vast majority of your Role Play should be public, and it should be done without forgetting that it excludes others on an OOC level to devastating effect if not handled properly. Obviously, the specific reason of excluding others ICly is why it is so vital- that absolutely needs to happen from time to time. However it is the OOC exclusion that limits other characters' chances to reply or react to the Role Play, and that absolutely needs to be mitigated to maintain healthy Role Play:
- Understand that when you are doing private Role Play, it excludes others inherently, no matter what. You need to be prepared to actively assist others in countering that on OOC levels. This will often be at odds with your character's goals.
- Understand that when others are doing private Role Play, it excludes you inherently, no matter what. You need to be prepared to expect this and deal with it, because private Role Play is vitally necessary for others as much as it is for you.
- Because character interactions do not exist in a 1:1 parity, a proper balance for private Role Play means that for every portion of private Role Play you participate in, you should be excluded from 2 to 3 portions of others' private Role Play. If this is not what you are experiencing, something is out of balance and you're probably skipping the line. Think of it as a 4-way stop at an intersection. When you arrive at that intersection and let a car go, it's not always your turn to go next. Depending on the traffic, you're either next or could be 4th in line. When private Role Play is involved, it typically means you have to wait through more than you participate in for everyone to actually be in balance.
- Such out-of-balance situations cause deep and severe problems at the core of the Role Play, from which there sometimes cannot be a recovery. It can and will get to the point of even pushing whole settings beyond breaking points, and sometimes even breaking them beyond repair.
- Role Playing private Role Play outside of "prime hours" reduces only one of the problems in that it makes sure that you will be able to participate in more public Role Play, but it comes at a price. It solves exactly none of the other arguably more important issues, and in fact can make them even worse as it is inherently even more OOCly exclusive- permitting even less interaction with the Role Play. While it is generally suggested to do private Role Play outside of "prime hours" whenever possible, it takes even more discipline and OOC cooperation to make sure the effects are mitigated.
- Never Role Play privately for repeated consecutive sessions without breaking it up. This creates "bubbles" of unchecked, unmitigated Role Play which no one has had the opportunity to react or reply to. Popping these bubbles can be frustrating at best, and utterly devastating to the setting at worst.
- Keep in mind that even private Role Play gets "interacted with" by other characters, as it affects characters who then go interact with others. Private Role Play should NEVER be seen as OOCly exclusive, because what happens in private Role Play affects people outside of that Role Play, and others need an opportunity to react and reply to those effects.
- Constantly and perpetually facilitating others' opportunities to react and reply to your private Role Play in turn affects the future of that Role Play. This is just as vital as the private Role Play itself.
Certain things are not allowed to be Role Played, and other things are restricted to requiring Admin permission. All Role Play must fit within the established lore, canon, and setting of the server. Admins have the authority to restrict Role Play (both active Role Play and backstory) at their discretion even if it is not specifically listed here.
The following RP is DISALLOWED:
- Child (under 18 years old) Player Characters. NPCs under 18 are permitted, but must not become active within storylines, and must stay well within the realm of NPC.
- Non-Human characters
The following RP is RESTRICTED to with ADMIN permission only, and approval is expected to be extremely rare:
- Pregnancy
- Rape
- Suicide or Attempted Suicide
- Mutiny (Note: While we will allow mutiny if it is IC, understand that OOCly it is predestined to fail)
- Murder of a PC (also communicate closely with Admins for murder of NPCs, even ones you create for your own plots or backstory)
- A character that is abnormally good at everything, or almost everything
As a rule of thumb, the general setting of the server is what might be found in a "Rated R" movie. That is, content beyond "PG-13" is permitted, and should be expected. This includes language, violence, gore, sexual themes, etc. However "Rated X" and above is restricted. While explicit sexual content is not flat-out prohibited (we will not tell you what you can and can't do in private), it must adhere to the following:
- It is Role Play between Characters, not OOC between Players. Therefore, it is to abide by all of the rules of any other type of Role Play.
- While we understand that sexuality is a huge part of what makes a person, and therefore is valid and important Role Play, it absolutely must be completely IC in nature.
- All players involved must be adults consenting to the Role Play. If someone is uncomfortable with it, find a way out of it or imply the Role Play.
- Ask for consent, and for a Player's or Players' boundaries, before beginning RP with overt sexual content.
- All characters involved must be adults.
- It must not create any OOC or real-life issues with real-life people, including but not limited to spouses. Real-life relationships trump Role Play, enforceable by banning.
- "Cybersex" is OOC between Players and not permitted on the server.
- "Fade to Black" (i.e. implying) is always an option for those Players who do not wish to participate in sexual Role Play.
- It must be kept to private or ICly designated areas and/or moved into private messages as to not inflict vivid details on other Players who may be nearby but don't want to see it. Players should still emote that something is clearly going on, but please keep the visuals and details private.
- Understand that there may be IC consequences.
- General setting of the server is Rated R, not NC-17 or X or XXX. While it is permitted for characters to have strong aspects of sexuality, Characters who seem to have a primary focus of sex will be removed from the storyline, and if intentions seem OOC, the Player may be banned from the server. Note: Characters such as prostitutes are permitted. They should simply be Role Played in other aspects of their life as well, as to not make the act of sex their primary Role Play.
- Players must adhere to any Admin requests.