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Roleplaying Rules
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Roleplaying Rules
by Admin 20/3/2017, 16:38
Roleplaying Rules
These are meant for the sake of the roleplaying itself. In a lot of ways, they are the same rules that exist in any rp, albeit our take on it might be slightly different. In any case, in the end, keep in mind that these are mostly meant to keep the game fun, and that they're not as hard-wired as the forum rules.
1. Have fun! Seriously! It is the first and foremost reason for the entirety of the forum in the first place, after all! If for any reason you feel like you're not having fun, contact an admin, write a post in Opinions and Suggestions, tell us why you don't have fun. We'll do our best to fix that for you, we promise.
2. Don't spoil the fun of others. After all, we all like having fun, so let's not be selfish. This rule mostly falls into a number of sub-rules:
2a. Do not godmode. This really means don't be immune to damage ("X got shot in the head. He spit the bullet back out."), don't always dodge ("X dodged the bullet. And the next. And the next. And the firing squad. And the cannons. And the nuke.") and in general don't always come up with 'nah, you can't touch me'. Take damage sometimes, okay?
2b. Do not puppeteer. As in, don't control others. This really makes the most sense if you think of it in reverse: would you like someone else to control your character in your place? Most likely not. As such, don't do it. (This refers to both outright control: 'My character goes out the door, and yours does not', but also naming consequences 'My character hits yours. You reel back in pain and with a broken arm'. It's always the other player that decides what your actions did to them)
2. Don't spoil the fun of others. After all, we all like having fun, so let's not be selfish. This rule mostly falls into a number of sub-rules:
2a. Do not godmode. This really means don't be immune to damage ("X got shot in the head. He spit the bullet back out."), don't always dodge ("X dodged the bullet. And the next. And the next. And the firing squad. And the cannons. And the nuke.") and in general don't always come up with 'nah, you can't touch me'. Take damage sometimes, okay?
2b. Do not puppeteer. As in, don't control others. This really makes the most sense if you think of it in reverse: would you like someone else to control your character in your place? Most likely not. As such, don't do it. (This refers to both outright control: 'My character goes out the door, and yours does not', but also naming consequences 'My character hits yours. You reel back in pain and with a broken arm'. It's always the other player that decides what your actions did to them)
- Combat and this rule - personal experience and other suggestions:
As one might have imagined (or experienced), when doing PvP combat, the no-puppeteer rule is kind of a hold-back. This is meant in that since you HAVE to wait for the other person's post for basically every punch you throw, posts tend to be very, very short. They can even end up looking like:
Guy A: I punch you.
Guy B: I dodge the punch. I kick you.
Guy A: I block. I punch with the other hand.
etc.
The way I have found to be very fond of in avoiding these sorts of posts, but also respecting the rules, it's a method I call 'hypothetical combos'. To elaborate, it consists of making your post say what you do, then say what you WOULD do if the enemy responds in various ways. From that point, the other player can either make a response that you did not talk about, or go in your sequence up to a point where he makes a move that wasn't in the plan. In this case, he is not puppeteering you (despite writing your actions in his post), and that is because you are the one who thought each of those actions up in the first place.
An example is in order:
1. Ignoring sequence:
Guy A: I punch. If you block, I do a low kick, and if you dodge, I follow up with a second punch.
Guy B: I take the punch, then advance and knee you.
2. Following partially:
Guy A: I punch. If you block, I do a low kick, and if you dodge, I follow up with a second punch.
Guy B: I block the punch, then walk in too close for you to kick low.
3. Following fully:
Guy A: I punch. If you block, I do a low kick, and if you dodge, I follow up with a second punch.
Guy B: I dodge the first punch, then I block the second. After that, I move in to attack.
All of the three situations are perfectly good example of the method in action. Also, Guy B could continue his posts with a combo of his own, which then player A can ignore, follow partially, or follow fully.
Also, keep in mind you can combo as many actions as you want (for example: "I punch. If you block, I kick. If you dodge the kick, I push you away. If you ... "), but you really should try to never go over 5-6 moves at a time, for the sake of not being very, very tedious to read.
2c. Do not metagame. Metagaming is when your character knows stuff that he should not know, like someone's backstory (without having a reason as to why he knows), or in more extreme cases the other guy's thoughts. Also, always being a step ahead in planning (Guy A:"I pull out a gun" Guy B:"I knew he'd pull out a gun, so I walk in and stop him before he can do that") falls under this as well. Ass pulls ("I get a gun from my coat!" when you're a civilian and the character has no reason to carry a gun, and there's no way any other player could have known that beforehand) are another example of metagame.
This is a hard rule to abide by, as all roleplay naturally involves some degree of meta in order to work out. The main way to gauge how much meta you can do is really common sense. If you feel like someone is going too meta, just tell them. They most likely were doing it by accident (if they do not cooperate, feel free to tell an admin. We'll talk to the player and see what we can do).
- Planning and not metagaming - Personal experience and other suggestions:
Some of you might want to play a character whose entire thing is that they're smart. Really. Damn. Smart. Or that in general their characters plan ahead for everything, and have a response ready all the time, a la Death Note or Code Geass.
Doing this without metagame could seem very hard, because if something is particularly crazy, even if you did think of it ahead of time, it WILL seem like an ass pull (talking from experience, as both victim and offender. Emphasis on the latter). At the same time, having to write all those plans in your posts for everyone to see takes away from the fun of when you DO get to have your 'surprise' - it won't be a 'aha, got ya!' thing to the other players. While it would be always the best option to indeed write it in the post, I can fully understand why you would not want to, and such, my suggestions for you are as follows:
1. Give some ahead-time. This is meant in the sense of "don't do something that has instant consequences". To give some examples:
Instead of: "My NPC friends jump from the ambush they prepared!"
Write: "My NPC friends slowly slide into their positions. Soon, they would be able to unleash the ambush." then wait for at least your next post to actually DO something with that ambush. Let people have some form of reaction time.
2. Pre-write plans. Really. Just write the action in a PM (at the beginning of the thread, or the moment in the RP when you do have the time to play plans out in character) to another guy in the thread (one that you trust to not be a looky-looky curious guy), then as soon as you reveal it, tell him to confirm it. For example:
In PM: "Hey dude. I'll put a spoiler here with a bunch of plans for the thread X, please try not to look at them before I tell you to, ok?"
In RP: "My NPC friends jump from ambush! OOC: I ask TrustworthyGuy to confirm I did actually have this ready for a good while now"
Do note that this only applies for as long as your action is explained enough and not outright ridiculous.
Another way of doing this, and while better, also more time-consuming, is to codify the information then write it in the post of planning (once again, only if it's in the very beginning, or if your character got the time for planning and putting those plans in motion). Then, when revealing it, just explain how to decode the info, so that anyone can see that indeed, you did have it up your sleeve since the get-go. Example:
Beginning/Planning Post: "He stops to start his plans. After some thinking, he tells a few underlings a few words, and they leave, ready to execute orders. OOC: plan, encoded 'L SUHSDUH DQ DPEXVK LQ ORFDWLRQ Y' "
Reveal Post: "My NPC friends jump from ambush! OOC: Plan, revealed 'I PREPARE AN AMBUSH IN LOCATION X'. To decode, you need to change all letters three symbols down from the alphabet, like A->D, B->E, Z -> C etc. "
Just don't go over-the-top with this and the encoding. Keep it simple-ish.
3. NPCs and environment are free to use for everybody, as they wish. The only rules regarding this are really, don't do anything stupid/unrealistic (Like, really. You could even get banned if you, say, make a huge earthquake that breaks down the three huge walls. We'll warn you once, maybe twice, but don't tempt your luck), and don't do something that leaves no place for reactions (For example: "A few thugs run up the street, with the military police after them. Before anyone can do anything, they are out of sight."; doing that is the same as puppeteering, as in you made the other characters be unable to react)
4. While this is included in 'No Puppeteering" rule, but it should be mentioned again anyway: Under no circumstance can you cause any form of permanent damage (or death) without the explicit approval of the character's owner. Doing that will get us admins angry, we promise, and if someone did it to you, tell us immediately. We'll fix things up.
5. Don't write one-sentence posts! Try to go for at least two paragraphs, and feel encouraged to go over that as much as you desire. Short posts just make it less fun, both for the people you RP with, and yourself, in the long run. A forum RP takes time between posts, so please find the time and write an elaborate response.
Not a rule, but a suggestion: Generally try to keep a 'posting order': this usually means that after you've joined a thread, only post after the same person as you posted originally. This is meant to give everyone an equal chance to roleplay in that thread (after all, how would you feel to go sleep, then wake up the next day and find out they rp-ed 20 more posts and concluded the whole deal without you?). If someone does not make their post in 48 hours (and hasn' announced that absence), it is all right to skip them for the sake of keeping the RP going. The entire thing is optional, though, and usually up to the thread starter to decide.
These are all the rules for the roleplay. The rest is going to be in the various mechanics and systems employed (such as how stats work, how to make a character, etc), but these are the things you will always have to keep in mind. As always, if there's anything you did not understand fully or have more questions about, do contact us admins. We're here to help!
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