The world of Roleplay is a fantastic place. In this world you are the master of what happens in the life’s of the characters involved, and if not a direct influence on them you are a part of what makes the wheel turning for every one involved.
With this comes great responsibility. There are rules that we all should learn so we could better spread the joy of RP and to keep the drama at bay.
If you think it is fun that you will always get your ways, then you do not belong in the world of Role play. Then you should go somewhere where you can control all the characters involved. It is the life of the characters that should be in focus, and not your personal out of character agendas
Here are some of the musts of Roleplay that I feel are very important.
No God-moding.
It is in the word what it is, and there are rarely anyone who can pull of playing gods with out having the rest of the players feel down played. God-moding is when a character are able to do what they want, when ever they want and not face any or little consequences, and this is not allowed. When you create a character, you should add a few flaws. This is not for to let others get the upper hand on you, but for you to have a multilayer character and sides to play on for your enjoyment.
We play on the weakness and strengths of our characters, and play on the reactions we allow the others to give when they in their turn react to our actions.
No Meta-gaming.
A difficult subject but it must be addressed and agreed upon. When you, as a player know something, it does not mean that your character know it too. Unless your character have discovered this information through in-character actions, then there is no back up for how they suddenly knew this piece of information. You should not use this out of character knowledge to influence others based on it, though in some forms you and others want the story to develop in some certain way, and that is basically the only exception to this in my book. To be fair, all should be informed that this is a “fixed- roleplay” so no one feels left out or feel that they are suffering being the victim for Meta-gaming.
Also consider distances. How close are you to the person who you are " over hearing" in a crowded noisy cantina. Just because you can see the text, don't mean your character can hear everything. If someone emotes that they are whispering, respect the distances and natural boundaries that keep us from being able to hear such things.
Bunny-moding.
Sounds cute, but it is really a nasty thing to be on the wrong end of. When someone suddenly decide for you what your character do or how they react, then all the power is taken away from you.
Example : “Luinara pulls her CDF and aims at Ivyrane and pulls the trigger and ends up blowing a hole in the female human's body. Ivyrane twitches and dies on the floor while blood spills out over the cantina floor.”
Always give the others involved the time and courtesy to react on their own. Only they can decide if something happens to their characters, especially death. The correct way to do this action could be something like this. “ Luinara pulls her CDF and aims at Ivyrane and pulls the trigger hoping it would hit the female human.” And then Ivyrane would have to react to this, using her skill-sett to come away with this in a non God-moding way.
Do not assume that your actions have your desired action, or that you know what others will do as a reaction, and unless you are giving a explicit permission to run their character while they are away. DONT!
English please.
If there is something we know, it is a whole lot better if everyone use the same language during these roleplay sessions. In many worlds there are specific languages you can use, and as long as it is available with in the game then it is allowed to use in the roleplay as well. In SWGemu we have many languages that we can teach eachother, or chose not to learn, so that is all fine. But the game filters that for us if we cant understand it, so even if you speak wookie, don't ROAR like one in a secret code that other wookies or those with wookie languages, cant understand.
The same goes for any languages, coded or not. Keep to English please.
You kiss your mom with that mouth ?
When interacting with folks in an out of character way, please do not use abusive language. In-character, such things are mostly just a part of the play, so there can be acts of rude or even racist, just keep that in character!
If you have an issue with someone you should handle it with out resorting to childish attacks.
Don't be a creep.
ERP (erotic roleplay) is something folk chose to have or to not have. We cant force our selves onto others with this, or expect others to accept your advances. Communication is key, and it is not difficult to send a out of character tell to the counterpart to ask if they are alright with such a thing, or not. Respect any decision from the opposite party, and move on. You are not the stud of the galaxy, you can't bed them all.
Do not sexual harass anyone In-character or out of character. That is just nasty, and can ruin fun for everyone. If your character is a creep, send out a warning, please, so folk can let you know if they welcome such RP or not. If you as a person is a creep... Keep a lid on it. Not all want to know or deal with it. This is a game, but we are all real people behind the characters, and respect the individual human beeing.
Karma will get to it!
Dont violate rules just because someone did this to you. There are many ways to clear up situations where you feel violated on one or more accounts.
Most times, in my experience, when someone have God-moded, Meta-gamed and Bunny-gamed on me, I discover that it is ignorance that is behind the incidents and not cruelty or a planned attack. Sometimes a little reminder, or a helping point in the right direction is all you have to do to help new Roleplayers and educate them in the ways of roleplay. Instead of freezing one potential asset to the RP community, you might gain in time a great Roleplayer.
We all started out fresh.
SOCIAL RULES
1: You cannot control the conversation or be the center of attention
2: You cannot interrupt someone else's conversations (unless permitted by the other person(s))
3: You cannot make person say something, nor may you tell them to say something outside of RP chat (your character may tell them to say something in RP chat, but they are allowed to refuse)
4: You cannot relate to someone else's background or history without the consent of the other person(s)
BATTLE RULES
1: No godmodding (ie: being invincible, overpowered, etc.)
2: No controlling other people
3: You CANNOT kill another person(s)'s character without their permission
4: You MUST allow the other person to CHOOSE to accept or avoid an attack [Note: there are some exceptions to this rule once you are familiar with the rules and the feel of RP battles, but you must still keep it in moderation; it cannot be a big attack (ie: cutting someone's head off, stabbing their heart or lungs, etc.) and you must allow the other person(s) to do the same.]
5: You CANNOT say where a character(s) got hit, nor how they took damage (ie: you cannot say that their head exploded from being struck by a Lightning bolt [I'm talking to you, here, Grim. XD], they became crippled, they lost a limb, etc.) [Note: again, there are exceptions to this rule, as well; following the same exceptions as rules #4 and #6
6: You may ONLY make ONE attack at a time, still following rule #4 [Note: again, there are exceptions to this rule once you are familiar with the rules and the feel of RP battles, but you must still keep it in moderation; you cannot go into a frenzy (attacks that count over 5 in this case) and you must allow the other person(s) to do the same.]
7: You may not make any moves without giving the other person(s) a chance to do something (this includes running away, teleporting (not blinking), summoning things, banishing the person(s) (and it must be approved by the person(s), etc.)
8: You MUST take damage at some point
With all this I want to end with these words. Do not sit and idly wait for RP to come to you. Reach out to others and help make RP, and don't be afraid to put your self out there. If you don't let anything happen to your character, nothing will ever happen to them. That is very boring.
HAVE FUN!
( the battle rules are copy pasted from some placed I can't find again, sorry original writers! but it was too good to pass out! All credit to those who wrote this.)
