Guidelines to Woodcrest Roleplay
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These are called guidelines because many times when we state a rule, we can think of exceptions. There is only ONE HARD RULE: if everyone agrees that they’re having FUN, then the roleplay has satisfied its goal. If someone is not having fun, seek accommodation as long as it is reasonable.
However, there are general guidelines and standard roleplay conventions used across RP sims that are helpful to facilitate good communication and fair and fun RP for all involved. We encourage everyone to learn and default to the following guidelines.
SUMMARY:
0. Understanding In-Character (IC) vs. Out-of-Character (OOC)
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0. Understanding In-Character (IC) vs. Out-of-Character (OOC)
✦ MAINTAIN THE IN-CHARACTER (IC) and OUT-OF-CHARACTER (OOC) DISTINCTION: IC actions are what your character in the fictional world does. OOC actions are what the player sitting at the keyboard, controlling the character’s action does. Do not mix these up.
✦ KEEP IC IN LOCAL. In-character dialogue and actions should be kept in local chat. With the exception of text messages, phone calls, emails, secret notes, interactions behind closed doors, etc., IMs are otherwise usually seen as out-of-character by default. Unsolicited IC communication through IMs is frowned upon and may be viewed as harrassment.
✦ KEEP OOC OUT OF LOCAL. Except in short portions that is relevant to those in hearing range. Take longer OOC conversations into IM to avoid disturbing others.
✦ The WOODCREST ROLEPLAY group chat is for IC only. The WOODCREST OOC CHAT is for OOC only. See Groups & RP Zones for more details.
✦ Conflicts and Rudeness may be played IC, as long as all participants consent to it. But rudeness and drama are never acceptable OOC. Always respect the other player!
1. Actions: What you type
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✦ DESCRIBE what your character does through emotes, either by inserting your action between ** or by starting with the command /me
E.g. /me eats the donut happily. She swallows it before waving to the newcomer, “Hello, welcome to Woodcrest!”
E.g. *eats the donut happily*
*Swallows then waves* “Hello, welcome to Woodcrest!”
✦ WHEN SPEAKING IN-CHARACTER (IC), enclose your spoken text with “”. Even if your intention is IC, without the quotation marks that may not be clear to everyone else. Using “” (the standard for every RP sim) ensures there will be no misunderstanding.
E.g. “Hello, Welcome to Woodcrest!”
✦ OUT-OF-CHARACTER (OOC) communication should be enclosed by (( )) unless you are conducting OOC business in a designated area or at some special OOC event approved by admin. When in doubt, assume your interactions are IC and punctuate appropriately, but it is reasonable ask for clarification whether something was said IC or OOC just to be safe.
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E.g. ((When you said your house is on fire, did you mean that IC or OOC?))
✦ AVOID TEXT ABBREVIATIONS. Unless this is what your character is her/himself typing or texting, try to spell things out in full English. Be advised that many RP sims frown on the use of emojis, but we are okay with emoji use in Woodcrest.
E.g. use /me laughs, “you’re great!”
instead of “lol u gr8!”
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2. Paragraphing and Turn Order
✦ RULE ZERO: Share the limelight with all participants. Allow everyone a chance to contribute to the direction of the scene. Only an event storyteller, or an instructor in the confines of her/his class may impose expectations on all participants beyond the sim’s setting and rules.
✦ RULE OF THUMB: (a) Describe your action in 1 or more sentences, and (b) take only 1 major action in a post. Do not take another major action until everyone involved has acted. Be patient for slower typers. This is more important when stakes are higher, such as in contests or combat.
✦ BE FLEXIBLE. People go Away From their Keyboard (AFK) without notice (although they shouldn’t), or are just shy and go quiet. This would stop the action if you had to wait for everyone. Shorter, 1-sentence posts often work better in crowds. Still try to practice reasonable turn order: give time for others to act, and be mindful to reach out to those who are more shy. But it may be appropriate to take actions out of strict order to keep things moving.
✦ ADAPT TO OTHER STYLES. If everyone around is typing in paragraphs and waiting patiently for other paragraphs, you might seem rude excessively posting short snippets out-of-turn. If everyone is typing short posts without strict turn order, then you may wish to break up your long paragraphs. Or just suck it in and constantly re-edit your paragraph while you type, as short posts zing around you.
✦ CLASS SESSIONS SHOULD DEFER TO THE INSTRUCTOR. Some like open discussion. Others want you to raise your hand and wait to be acknowledged. Respect their expectations. Do not disrupt a class without collaboration or prior OOC permission from the instructor.
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3. Interact Reasonably with the World
All RP should be CONSENSUAL (OOC) among all participants. But let the world affect you in ways you didn’t plan or expect!
✦ PLAY ALONG: If a male stripper rings the doorbell of your sorority, or if a car crashes next to you, you’re going to react one way or another. Even if your reaction is to just stand there wordlessly, being shocked into inaction and silence IC requires you to emote it! Additionally respect the intent of another player. If a car runs over you unintentionally due to lag, do not force them to RP a hit-and-run.
✦ ACCEPT CONSEQUENCES: If you walk around naked or openly carry weapons, expect to get into trouble with the authorities. If you commit a crime, give the police a reasonable chance to catch you. Making yourself immune to consequences is trolling rather than RP.
✦ ASSUME THE PRESENCE OF NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS (NPCs): Play as though the town is populated, as you’d expect in the real world. Just because no avatar is at the counter of Starpugs doesn’t mean that no one is there. Just because no emergency personnel players are online does not mean that there are no police. This is an opportunity to use your imagination to narrate limited actions from NPCs, within reason (see Godmoding below).
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4. God-Moding: Meta-Gaming, Power-Gaming, God-Modding
✦ DO NOT METAGAME: Meta-gaming is using knowledge gained from OOC in order to act IC when your character should not possess that knowledge.
E.g. knowing a character’s name or position by reading their title.
E.g. listening in on a conversation without emoting your presence, or while wearing your OOC tag, or on a conversation that’s meant to be behind closed doors without you, then acting IC on that information gleaned.
✦ DO NOT POWERGAME: Power-gaming is controlling another player’s character by describing their action, or the impact of your action upon them, without allowing them to react.
✦ Instead, describe what you attempt if it is reasonably interrupted, and allow others to describe the results. Use key words like “attempts,” “aims to,” “intends,” “tries,” etc. Avoid overusing “would” as it makes your sentences klunky (instead of “/me would go to the door and leave unless stopped,” use, “/me heads to the door intending to make her exit”).
E.g. /me attempts to stab Ted in the heart. He hits with unerring precision, plunging the blade deeply into his opponent's most vital part. {this describes the result of your action without giving the other player a chance to react} Ted tries to curse but gurgles blood instead as he sinks the the ground. {this controls the other player's character}
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✦ DO NOT GODMOD: Related to power-gaming, it's when your character has no weaknesses. And no, unless you’re carrying it around with you in public (which the police would see and respond to), you don’t have a bazooka.
E.g. no one can hit you in a combat situation even when you’re stuck in a box.
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E.g. You remain unfazed by the threat of academic discipline or expulsion, when the cost of undergraduate education these days is in the range of 6-figures.
E.g. NPCs cater to your every whim, or become a way for you to outnumber your antagonist for an instant win.
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5. Forgive RP Mistakes
We all make them. Whether due to fatigue or multitasking, we’ll miss or misread things in local chat. Or we’ll make confused, conflicting statements or actions.
✦ DON’T BE UPTIGHT AND MEAN as if the mistake were meant to offend you personally. Be polite and allow players to make corrections and carry on.
✦ IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE own up to it agreeably. If your mistake was pointed out in a less-than-friendly manner, that’s their problem; there’s no reason to escalate drama.
✦ A very common mistake is the meta-game tendency to know someone’s name before a proper introduction. One strategy is to PLAY ALONG in-character. You can even do it in a way that helps set an example in RP. If their intent was friendly, you’ve helped to mentor them in RP. If it was creepy, you’ve cleverly rebuked them for coming to the sim for the wrong reasons.
E.g.
Hi Mary
/me purses her lips, trying to remember where she had met the person who had just greeted her. “Oh, hello. Um, I’m sorry, my memory for names hasn’t been the greatest lately, please remind me what your name is again?”
6. Follow the Guidelines But Know When you can Break Them
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Case Study: EMOTING YOUR THOUGHTS OR HISTORY that other characters should have no access to could be taken as a form of god-moding. Be advised that many dedicated RPers dislike it, as it communicates something their character cannot consciously act on; indeed it can be abused to prima-donna or to bully (e.g. insulting someone else in your thoughts).
However, who are we telling stories for if not for each other? Used well, thought emotes can enhance joint storytelling. Semi-omniscient narration is a legitimate mode.
✦ It can be gainfully used to acknowledge someone else’s emote without resorting to ((OOC)) when your character would show no visible reaction.
✦ And if used cleverly, it can make your actions more entertaining for others, or provide hooks where players give each other inviting cues to elicit unintended or surprising (from an IC perspective) responses.
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Consider this situation:
E.g.
Megumi blurts out, "You have a small face," without consideration that Americans might not understand the compliment by Asian beauty standards.
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/me sniffs haughtily in that annoying spoiled princess manner of hers as she misinterprets the compliment for an insult, "Well..., um...," she stammers, grasping for a witty comeback that eludes her, "Your face is also!"
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Megumi beams, "Arigatou!" thanking the girl for the unintentionally returned compliment.
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/me not understanding a word of Japanese, exclaims, "I don't have time for this kind of negativity!" She promptly spins to storm off, but spins too far, causing her to lose balance, and fall onto Megumi, latching onto her.
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Megumi, surprised by the girl's response, is doubly surprised to find the girl's arms wrapping around her. Still, she was happy to return what she thought was a hug....
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By many strict roleplaying rules, this is poor or inadmissible RP because it is full of information unavailable to the characters. But the thought-emoting commentary allows a humorous conflict to be played smoothly. It can provide inviting cues to demonstrate a player's self-awareness and self-deprecation, reducing the chance that an IC conflict will be mistaken for OOC offense. Notice also how these players are able to work off of each other's thought emotes without meta-gaming.
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Really, information of this sort is not different from RPers who reveal extensive character history in their profiles or on forums. Of course, don't bore others with irrelevant walls of text. Try to keep everything relevant to the scene at hand. We’re here to share stories, and thought-emoting is a means to do that, demonstrating engagement when the characters themselves might not appear to be doing much, and as a useful tool to avoid the appearance of disrespect or trolling.
DON’T KILL THE SCENE by debating the merits of one RP style over another in local chat. Don't take yourself too seriously. Just remember the golden rule: do what is fun for everyone.
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