Guide to Good Roleplay Etiquette
by Setheroph and Mariah
This is a guide to RP etiquette, not a ruleset. It is meant to be used to enhance your roleplay and give general helpful tips to provide a smooth and satisfying roleplay experience for all players.
GENERAL TIPS
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Follow Consent Sheets
Follow consent sheets. If you say no to a consent sheet option on your own consent sheet you cannot perform that action on others, and it can not be performed on you. You also cannot perform an action on another player that they say no to on their consent sheet. If their consent sheet says Yes (Discuss) you must have an OOC discussion about the scene with your partner before that type of roleplay is started.
Chat commands
PRESS SPACE BEFORE THESE LETS PEOPLE KNOW YOU’RE TYPING!
/me - <character name> emote (blue text)
/do - emote (blue text) <character name>
/mumble - <character name> emote (dark blue text) [Halves the range]
/shout - <character name> emote (dark blue text) [doubles the range]
Give others the chance to speak!
When in a scene it's good to determine a turn order for emotes. Person A goes first, Person B goes second, Person C goes third. This gives everyone a chance to participate. In larger scenes this becomes a bit more difficult but time should still be allowed to give everyone a chance to contribute to the scene. If someone new approaches your scene, allow them to make a place in the turn order and go from there. This helps people not to feel left out, or ignored.
Post Length Doesn’t Matter!
Some people will write walls of text, and others will keep it short and sweet, with everyone else somewhere in the middle. RP what you’re comfortable with, but try to contain your emote in a single post, which will help others know you’re done typing, and they can go ahead with their emote. If your emote does not fit in a single post mark the end of your post with a -con- to let them know you have more to type. Be patient and respectful towards different roleplay styles. Do not make someone feel bad for big or small emotes. We all roleplay with different levels of experience, oftentimes people who use shorter emotes may be newer to roleplay, or fans of quick moving lite rp.
Be descriptive!
Even if you use short-hand rp it's still good to let your RP partner(s) know what you’re doing! For example: If you’re drinking at a bar, emote picking up your glass and taking a sip, so that when you start acting drunk, they know why!
Large Scenes
Local can often get cluttered when there’s a lot of people talking at once in separate conversations. Make good use of /mumble (which has a shorter range than /me /act ect) and if you @ someone, using their entire name with spaces on both sides of the name and @ symbol (ex. @Triel Zusztiirn /---/ @Triel won’t work), it will highlight the post, calling their attention to it!
Know Where You Are
It’s nice to be in a public space, and is a great way to find RP! People travel through major hubs and throughways, so it’s always a good spot to try and run into other people! On that same token, standing right around warp points and hallways isn’t great, as people are “RP trapped” as soon as they load into a new area. Please be respectful of others, and move aside and away from high-traffic areas when you’re in RP.
DICE ROLLS
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We use D&D style dice rolls to keep roleplay fair and fun to all players. If you are attempting to perform an action on another player without their consent you should make an appropriate roll using the thrall wars dice system (shift+n). Your partner should be allowed to make an appropriate counter roll, the highest roll determining the outcome. We will give examples but rolls come down to what the party and situation finds to be agreeable. If you’re unsure what to roll, discuss it with your partner.
Dice rolls are important because they prevent powergaming, and prevent players from feeling they have no control over a given situation.
Examples:
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Player tries to slap you outside of combat (without intent to drain hit points), they roll hand to hand. You roll tumble to attempt to dodge. The highest roll determines which player is successful.
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Player tries to escape a non-combat situation using the escape artist dice roll. You counter using athletics (to block), or hand to hand (to restrain). The highest roll determines the outcome. (In a combat situation please follow our posted dice based combat.)
FREEFORM ROLEPLAY
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If you are comfortable with your roleplay partner you may choose to avoid dice rolls in favor of freeform roleplay. This is fine as long as you have good OOC communication on what you are comfortable with. If you do something to your partner, consider using the term “if allowed” in your post, so they know they have a chance to alter the situation to better fit what they’re comfortable with. Or if they are okay with you doing something to them for flavor, be comfortable with them also performing actions on you as well. Staff cannot moderate freeform roleplay so it is very important that you have good OOC communication, if complaints are filed to staff based on free form rp we can do little more than tell the parties to retcon the scene and drop the drama. If you are worried about this, please use dice rolls.
YOU ARE ALWAYS IC
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♥Local is for IC (In Character) dialogue and emoting. If you need to quickly say something, like asking a question of someone, or getting clarification on a post, then put that in parenthesis ((Did you say your character looked up or down?)), but this should be kept to a minimum. If you need to have a longer conversation, take it to whispers or global, so as not to disrupt the flow of the scene.
♥If you are running around, and you suddenly run into people, don’t turn and run away. Give others the chance to post and react to your presence, even if your next post is to turn and leave. On the same token, when you say you are leaving, take a few steps in the direction, then let others have a chance to respond to your exit post. Remember, you’re still in earshot of them, and they might have something to say to you!
♥Any action you do (running around, crouching, laying down, etc.) you are ICly doing. So if someone comes up to you, and your character is bent over spreading their cheeks, that’s what they’re doing, and people are to react accordingly. Keep this in mind, and don’t say “Oh, that was OOC”.
♥All of your buildings and decor are IC as well! If you have a slave wheel, then you ICly have a slave wheel! If you have a thrall or dancer, or brewery placed down, it is there ICly.
♥ What players say in character should not be taken personally. It is not them saying that thing to you, it is their character saying it to your character. People will say things IC that they would never say OOC. This is part of playing a character and not a reason to become offended. Please avoid IC to OOC bleed.
HAVE FUN!
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This is just a game. A creative outlet for you to explore writing and stories with other. The objective is to have fun and roleplay in a way that allows others to do the same. We want to create an immersive, fun experience to tell your stories in, and enjoy!