ROLE PLAYING ETIQUETTE

 

Role-playing can be both fun and frustrating. These are some RULES that help cut down the frustration. These once used to be unwritten rules but over the years it seems there became a need to write them down. so please try to follow them to the best of your ability.

 

 

RP Rule 1: IC and OOC.

 

Do not Disrupt RP with needles/to much OOC.

 

Try to stay In character as much as possible.

 

This really shouldn't need saying, but it seems like one of the more common problems. Try to stay In Character (IC) as much as possible, try not to drop Out Of Character (OOC) to often. If you are in a private conversation, then it needs to be out of sight from others (an outside instant messenger like Discord would be best, but if that isn't an option use the Chats MSG). If you absolutely must say something out of character in the presence of people who are in character, then enclose the OOC comment in parenthesis.

((Example of Out Of Character post in parenthesis)).

This can often be personalised to each Role-player, and as you get the hang of things you get the idea of who does what to signal themselves as being out of character, which at times can be confusing for the Oldies in the chat as well.

 

RP Rule 2: Details are The key to everything! (Quality Vs Quantity)

 

Give detail in your posts so people can react to something and see in their mind what you see in yours.

 

Try not to over fluff posts just to make large posts, Aim For Quality posts not Quantity.

 

Try not to make one liners (or 2 or 3 word posts) a bad habit give people something to work with.

 

Do not use Emoticons/Emojis' (to often) as a shortcut for doing expressions or moods in RP.

 

Try to give as much Detail as you can in your posts all the time, in other words aim for post quality.

No one can see into your mind what your Character looks like, what they are wearing, what their personality is like, or how they are doing their actions.

It is up to you to give that key detail! So that other people can see in their minds what you see in your own mind.

 

 

"One liners" happen, but try not to make them a bad habit! Give other role-players something to work with, not just 2 or 3 words with no detail. (it can, and will disrupt Role play, but it also makes it hard to Role play with someone who is putting too little or no effort into their posts by giving no details to work with.)

 

 

Try to avoid using emojis as a lazy shortcut to facial expressions. It is ok to add some in now and then. but do not let them take up all your post just because you are feeling to lazy to add the detail of a facial expression.

 

 

Details are key to everything, but try not to repeat yourself or over "fluff" too much just to make an overly huge post. Try keeping in mind that you are aiming for quality posts not quantity. Some posts will be short, that is ok, some posts will be long, that is also ok, but whatever the post size try to aim for post quality.

 

 

 

RP Rule 3: Meta gaming.

 

DO NOT use Out of Character knowledge on a character who does not know it in character in any way without consent of the person who is in charge of that information.

 

Meta gaming is Rude and EXTREMELY disruptive to Role plays!

 

Never use Out Of Character information In Character in any way.

The best example I can give is, just because you can see someone's name (Handle) before their Text, your character would not know that character's name unless someone had told you in character.

This also includes something you may have seen in a role play interaction between two other role-players that are in a location out of ear shot to your character, or the other end of the world wherever else that's not where you are. Or if you have seen something while you are lurking, or even on character Profiles. Unless you had in character interaction where you get that information, with those who are in the know already in character, then your character should not know that information. The BIG problem with meta gaming is that it is Very Rude, and can be EXTREMELY disruptive to Role plays!

 

 

 

RP Rule 4: Never assume someone will react in a certain way.

 

Actions should be phrased as attempts to give people a chance to consent to it, or react to it.

 

Give others the chance to react in their own way

 

Do not assume someone will react in a certain way just because you think they should. Always give others the chance to react in their own way, and don't get upset if the reaction isn't what you expected. Any action you perform on someone else's character, no matter what the action might be, should be phrased as an attempt. By making an attempt instead of just doing it outright, you give the character's player the chance to consent to the action or avoid it if it is something they'd rather not have happen to their character.

 

RP Rule 5: Be considerate of the role-playing mood of others.

 

Try to Find the mood of the RP before you join it. (some are dark, some are light and some are random.)

 

Do not Disrupt a RP by jumping and ruining the mood with a totally different mood.

 

If you come into a situation where other characters are already engaged in some RP, don't just leap in with a radically different mood unless you get permission (Either IC or OOC, depending on the situation and whether you have any way to contact them OOC).

Example: say there is a couple sitting at a table discussing a recently deceased character and you jump in acting like a court jester and spill their drinks in their laps while telling bad jokes.

That is a huge change in mood of that role play and you are not going to make friends like this, in fact your actions can offend the players behind the characters and even put them off role playing and land you on an ignore list.

 

 

 

RP Rule 6: NO Spotlighting.

 

You are not the only one role playing So don't try to be centre of attention ALL the time share the spotlight.

 

Don't try to be the ONLY hero in the RP world.

 

Remember RP is about Story & Character Development and having a good time all round.

 

Don't try to be the centre of attention all the the time. Be polite and share attention with other characters. You are not the only one there to have fun, give everyone their turn in the spotlight.

Role play is not who can be centre of attention it is about story, character development and having a good time all round.

 

 

RP Rule 7: Post timing balance & Posting order.

 

Give people time to react

 

Don't take TOO long to post

 

Set up a posting order in your group so everyone can post.

 

Ask to join RPs so you can be added to posting orders and keep in that order to avoid RP disruption.

 

Do not flood and disrupt RPs with multiple tiny posts to disrupt the flow of RP. (It is rude and disruptive and borderline trolling & flooding.)

 

One of the strangest things I've noticed in online RPs is impatience. People will walk up, say something, wait about 0.0000001 seconds and run off. The person they talked to would barely have had enough time to read what they said, let alone respond to it. This also happens in conversations. People will say something, wait a very short amount of time, then keep going as if they think the person they were talking to didn't hear them or isn't going to respond. In most cases, the other person was going to respond but simply wasn't as fast as expected, and loses the chance because the conversation has moved on without them. There's no need to hurry so much, just relax and enjoy the interaction.

the problem is with the balance of posting is getting it just right so try not to take TOO long to react, it gets boring hanging around 30 mins for a post even more so if that post you have been waiting on is a very short one.

 

The best way to get this balance right is to set a posting order with those you are role playing with thus giving everyone a chance to respond.

 

 

 

RP Rule 8: God moding and power gaming.

The Chat has a dice roll system to prevent this so use it!
 

DO NOT PULL POWERFUL TECH OUT OF THIN AIR (you Must RP how you found it, made it or got it)

 

GIVE BACK STORY OR RP OUT GETTING ITEMS/TECH OR POWERS (as above, Make it a journey of it's own in acquiring powers or making items DO NOT just instantly have them.)

 

DO NOT PULL ARMIES OUT OF NOWHERE (They must be RPed on how they got there)

NO CALLED SHOTS (all actions should be Phased as attempts).

 

DO NOT MAKE CHARACTERS PERFECT. (All Characters, EVEN god Characters should have flaws and take wounds.)

 

DO NOT USE MAGIC WITHOUT SIDE EFFECTS. (The more powerful the magic the more potent the draining/effect on the magic user Divine or Arcane. Not even God or god level characters are immune to this.)

 

TECH AND MAGIC ARE POLAR OPPOSITES (Tech is the opposite of Magic the two DO NOT MIX see chat world setting for more detail on this as well as a thing called Magi-Tech.)

 

Try to avoid godlike abilities and invincible technology for your characters and Locations. Role playing is not about who can make up the best super powers for their characters, it is about the personalities of the characters. Any character that is ridiculously powerful or has a perfect personality, is going to be fairly boring to role play with and will end up being mostly ignored by others. You will get tagged as being a 'Noob', 'god-moder' and 'Power-gamer.'

( Yes Characters can ascend to godhood, and the likes over time it happens to us ALL. At that this point it is best to semi-retire them to NPCs , cameos, or give them a reboot.)

 

Every Character should have flaws and you should Role play those flaws accordingly. If your character takes wounds after any form of combat, have them act according to the injuries they have taken. Do not have them walking around as if nothing happened.

In Real life no one can dodge, parry or even hit every attack. So thus is stands to logical reason that no character can dodge, parry or hit every attack. For fairness you MUST take damage to your character or miss attacks accordingly. (Phrase actions as attempts not out right actions!)

With items and even powers you must provide back story or RP out getting your tech or items not just random flash quick less than 1 mins or 1 post Rps, but decent story telling ones. Make it a journey of it's own in acquiring and making these items not just instantly have them, make it interesting, because there is nothing more annoying than trying to RP with a power gamer or god moder who pulls stuff out of nowhere making everything unfair for everyone else.

 

 

RP Rule 9: Random attacking of other Role players.

 

Gain Consent from the other RP'er in some form before attacking them.

 

Respect that they may not want to do an RP fight right now.

 

It is generally considered rude to just up and attack someone out of the blue. If you and your target are not part of some planned combat event, get out of character consent from the player before you attack their character. (This can be done in character if you make your meaning clear enough and you can't contact the other players out of character). If there is no good way to get this permission, at least give them plenty of in character warning that you might attack, and if they seem to approve in character, then go ahead. If they don't seem willing to fight, or you can't tell one way or another, it would be best not to attack them to avoid out of character troubles.

 

RP Rule 10: Story telling and NPC'ing.

 

Do not Use someone else's Character in a story you have written for a profile or some such without their consent

 

Do not RP/NPC someone else's Character without their expressed request or consent. (Never just assume it's ok)

 

This rule covers two of the big Taboos in RP.

Never include someone else's character in a written story that didn't actually happen exactly as you wrote it without letting that character's player proffered and approve the story before you post it. Such as in profiles and things like that.

 

This also includes using other people's characters without their consent. There are two ways outside of the written story this may happen. Examples:

 

• let's say you do an RP with another role-player and talk about someone's character but you also semi NPC them in a way that is not even in chat or in character to the person's character you are NPC'ing, or worse the character is not yet a fully active character or born yet (story and idea dependent.) in a way that they themselves have not yet made public knowledge, You may be disrupting their story or portraying their Character in a way they do not want or like. So always make sure to ask first.

 

• NPC'ing someone else's Character. NEVER EVER DO THIS, unless they ask you to, or you have asked to do so and gained consent. Again you must respect that it is someone else's character and may not act in a way or do things that you role play them as doing, Or again you may give out information the Character's owner does not yet want out in the public.

 

 

 

RP Rule 11: RP Death and Fights.

 

There will be RP fights and a winner and a looser But do not try to kill each other just to be the winner.

 

Do not get upset if someone comes back from the dead.

 

Use NPCs for body counts in large or small battles.

 

Invariably there will be RP fights and there will be a loser of a fight and a winner of a fight, there are some who will aim to kill other people's characters, but you cannot kill a person's character without clearing it with them out of character first. Since no one likes building characters over and over, there's always some way to get raised from the dead.

Remember just because you killed someone's character and chopped up their body in role play does not give you the right to complain if someone is returned from the dead.

The reason for this is very simple. It gets old and very annoying if people have had to waste their character development by killing off their character due solely because you want to be the winner.

 

 

If the combat was a large battle, mention casualties but don't expect every Character to have names and if a player Character is involved do not assume they will stay dead, we all have ways and means of keeping our Characters alive. So just assume the two sides had several no-name extras along for the fight that can provide convenient dead bodies. Now If it was a duel, one on one or two on two then have it be to first blood or to loss of consciousness. Unless of course a character's true death was agreed upon out of character ahead of time by the character's player, but these situations tend to be very rare.

 

 

RP Rule 12: Disrupting role-plays (The Taboo's of RP).

 

Do not purposefully Disrupt RP in Any way.

 

Post replies that make sense, read a post not just post random nonsense.

 

include everyone in your RP, no ignoring someone without good reason.

 

No RP hijacking.

 

No trying to purposefully Derail RPs.

 

Do not commit the Taboos of RP. (Read the elaborations below to gain a better understanding.)

 

There has been a long history of role-play Disruption as long as there has been role-play, This is one of the single most annoying and frustrating things. This can happen in a few ways. so here' is a list to try and make this easy to digest.

 

 

• Not reading a whole post correctly or just scan reading a post.

  Please be sure to read a whole post and reply accordingly to a post do not just give a random response. ((if you have a real medical issue and you find it hard to read a long post, try the text reader found at the top of this page, or get on some kind of voice channel Discord or the likes and ask the Role player to read it to you, there is no shame in having REAL medical things.))

  If you are unsure of something ask the other person to explain things in more detail, but do not just scan read and ignore half or more of a role play and then reply with a nonsensical reply, just because you are feeling to lazy to read everything or just don't like what they put. Example:
  (RP'er1) *She goes into the shop*
  (RP'er2) *Sees RPer1 walking the street and hugs her*
  In this example Rp'er2 ignored everything RP'er1 said. This behaviour is extremely rude and highly disruptive to role play.

 

 

• Ignoring someone else who is part of the RP. (Unless you have a Good reason to be ignoring someone and you must tell them and others why) you should Try to interact with everyone involved not just one person.

 

 

• Going out of your way to disrupt an RP with needless OOC, or silliness with pure aim to disrupt things.

 

• Needlessly dragging out RPs by keeping people locked in locations for what should be a tiny RP. this is most often down to role players not watching time. Try to keep tabs on it and if you know you may have to leave soon, do not start anything, and if you are in something try to round it up and tie it off so that all role players are free.

 

 

• Knowing you are part of a bigger role play or a characters development of someone else's character Or Role play, but you don't like how its going. So you try to stop them from doing what you don't like, you try to control how they will act with their character by trying to force them to RP how you want. (Just don't do it, its RUDE it's their Character they asked you to be involved in that story, let it play out and see where it goes, that's what makes RP interesting.)

  • Not getting your way you start to refuse to log in as the character involved, pretend to be off line, or deliberately log off mid RP, anything to delay, avoid or just totally disrupt the RP to the point the other role players quit the RP. AGAIN it is just RUDE to do this. Sure life happens no one can be on all the time, but try to be considerate to the other role players it is not just ALL about you.

 

 

• Deliberate Meta-gaming, power gaming and god moding.

 

• Taking longer and longer to post and-or posting nonsensical replies of 2 or 3 words or splitting up posts so you do multiple small posts to disrupt the flow of RP. This is extremely rude and very disruptive.

 

• RP Hijacking and/or Derailing. This has a few ways it can take place, so many that I am only going to list the most common at this stage

  • 1: is where someone joins an RP, and starts to forcefully take over from the person who is Leading/DM'ing the RP to try and pull another RP'er out of it or making it go the way they want it to. it is RUDE so DO NOT do it!

  • 2: You Troll the person(s) trying to run the RP by just messing about instead of taking it seriously. (Not all RPs are ​Serious and this can be Avoided simply by following)

  • 3: ignore all attempts to give you information by semi interacting with another character and then ditching them out of the blue to lets say say go frolicking in the grass and ignoring them. And then gripe that them OOC later for not giving you the information and then effectively hold things to ransom because you refused to interact Icly.

  • 4: Not thinking things out before doing things as well as spotlighting. Do not try to spotlight and act the hero of the day, you are not the only one Role playing.

    The best way I can put this is try to keep notes of things and numbers you have used, keep track of the things you do, and think of the situation you are in and think carefully how would your character react to the situation. Do not just leap in and have them instantly know everything like where the trouble is or how to defeat the bad guy. Not only is that spot lighting it is also disruptive, unrealistic and illogical. )

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• Excluding other RPers because of your own personal disputes with another RPer. By this I mean lets say there are 3 of you RPing together, and you end up in a personal dispute with one, and then start to actively force the other to RP in locations you control or the ignored RPer can not go, there by forcing the other RPers to RP how you want, with who you want, or locking them in a location or excluding them by using such locations. Not only does this destroy RPs but it also emotionally hurts people! I also see this as a form of emotional blackmail and bullying so DO NOT DO IT!

 

• NPCing someone else's character with out consent. This kind of thing is one of the Biggest Taboos in Role play Not only can this ruin plots of that Character by you Role playing them in a way that is out of their character, but it can also mess up plots that character might be part of. so NEVER EVER NPC someone else's character with out their express consent relating directly to being asked "Can we NPC such 'n' such for what ever your reason”. Or being asked to NPC them while they do a BRB or something. Do not assume things not only is this disruptive behaviour it is also extremely rude and amounts to you stealing the Character. It is one thing to have your characters talk about another character but its another to NPC them or use them in a way the owner of a Character may not agree with or want.
   

• Box in / Corral /Exclude/ Trap or Harass RP'ers!
  Do Not force RP'ers into a box. I will use an Example here of something that has happened myself and anther female RP'er. (sorry Lads not meaning to be sexists here I'm just using this experience as an example).
  As a female RP'er I keep finding myself boxed into a room or location to be kept for times when the Male RP'er feels a bit frisky and wants to ERP. There is nothing more boring and off putting then being trapped in a room and unable to leave because we have to wait on the other RP'er who pays little or no attention to what is being said in posts IC or OOC and drags the RP in one way. Sometimes even with OOC actions like suddenly going off line for days Or dishing out guilt trips IC and/or OOC until the other RP'er gives in or quits RP from the sheer Harassment, Sometimes they get other RPers to gang up on you as well. It's very annoying, its rude and it is disgusting behaviour to subject another person to, you wouldn't get away with in real life, you'd get a Harassment Injunction/ Restraining order / A.S.B.O. type thing slapped on you and might even look at Jail time, SO do not do it At all anywhere.
  Female Character's and RP'ers are not ERP slaves we have our own stories and Rp's we want to develop. Kindly do not treat other RP'ers and our characters as personal Objects by Subjecting them to such vile and evil behaviours. It comes back to Rule 2 about just respecting people. If someone does not feel ok with something listen to them do not force it. Because the reactions it can lead to can be costly, as you can drive a person into a defensive mode and they may start to lash out. They may even become so depressed they take their own lives. There are many repercussions from this kind of thing. So do not do such horrid things to another RP'er. Its not on, Its not called for and it's just Vile and evil.