RP Etiquette Guide

RP Etiquette, or 'Ways to Make This Fun For Everyone'
==Seeking RP==
If you want to look for RP from the general player base on the game we ask that you use the RP Channel to make a request or offer for RP. There may be others who are also wanting to RP but not yet involved in something, and the RP Channel offers a good means of getting in contact with them.
Otherwise, if you want to RP with a certain individual(s), it's far more polite to take the request to pages to ensure that they receive the request directly without cluttering up the channels with chatter, or causing confusion as to whom you were asking for RP.
==Joining Scenes Already In Progress==
The general rule of thumb is to always page and ask the players if it's okay to join the scene even if it's in a public location on the grid. The answer may be no. It may be yes. Just walking in and trying to join without knowing what is going on is considered rude, and can be disruptive to the flow of RP.
If you join a scene that had already started it's a good idea to ask the other players for an explanation of what is already going on. They can give a general OOC overview, or they may pose with explanations to give your character a good idea of what it is they're walking in on. Either way is acceptable, and it's polite to offer the same courtesy to others joining any scenes that you may be in as well. Communication is the key here to ensure that it’s fun for everyone involved.
==RP Suites and Private Rooms==
The RP Suites are rooms set up to be used for when an IC room may not exist for the scene that is going on. If people are in an RP Suite it's a safe bet that whatever they are role-playing is not something that they want random players walking into. It could be a battle in Siberia, a scene that they were finishing up from the day prior, or a private scene.
If you want to RP with people who are in an RP Suite it's okay to page asking if their scene is something you can get involved in, but please don't just walk in and try to join. It's quite possible that this scene may be unable to accept new players, so don’t be surprised if the answer is 'no'.
The same holds true for individuals on the main city grid in a private room (such as a residence, hospital room, secret headquarters, Mary Jane's closet, or anywhere else.)
==Logging Scenes==
Logged scenes allow us to help keep the Heroes Assembled storyline consistent to provide a more enjoyable gaming experience for our players. To aid in this the staff ask that scenes be logged to be posted on the Wikia. While it may seem like an unimportant detail, logging can be quite useful for multiple reasons.
If a player were to drop a character, having logged scenes would allow for the next applicant interested in that character to get up-to-date on what that character had been doing on the game. They can include exciting fights, or important character development that would be otherwise unknown by the new player. Logs also help the staff of Heroes Assembled to create plots and keep track of what villains may be available to use in other scenes.
It's typically customary for the scene runner, or individual who requested the scene, to save the log. If you are the scene runner and are unable to log for whatever reason, it's polite to inform the group of this and ask if anyone else can log in your place. While not every scene is a major world shaking event, it may be a scene of importance to the character development of other players involved. Don't just assume that because this scene isn't important to your character that it isn't important at all. Give other players the option to log.
==Turn Based Posing==
When in a scene it’s typical to follow a pose order to allow for every individual in the scene the chance to add in the reactions/actions of their character. This is basically taking turns, and waiting your turn, to pose. It starts with the person opening the scene, then player A, player B, and so on. Once everyone has posed it is considered the end of the pose round and will start again with the first person that had posed.
Though this is common practice, if you feel that there’s something your character would say or do before another could react, it’s courteous to ask the group OOCly if you can jump pose order. When this happens, it’s still standard to go back to the pose order that was established prior when the next pose round begins.
==3 PR (Three Pose Round)==
When in a scene consisting of 5 or more people, the 3PR rule is put into effect to ensure that there isn’t too long of a wait between poses from players. 3PR, or Three Pose Round, refers to allowing at least 3 poses from other players between your own poses.
Though it’s safe to assume this is the rule being followed when in a large scene it’s always best to confirm that this is the case at the start of the scene, or when joining into the scene. This is especially important to check with the group about if your addition to the scene brings the number of players up to 5. Always go with what the overall group decides in this case.
==OOC Chatter==
During scenes it’s alright to use the OOC function to ask quick questions or gain clarification on scenes, though we do ask that the OOC conversation be kept to a minimum. If you want to joke around with someone about something please take it to page so as to not disrupt the other players during RP.
In larger scenes such as plot scenes or combat scenes, it is especially important to keep the OOC chatter to a minimum. Those running such scenes are often attempting to keep track of multiple players and having the screen filled with OOC conversation can make it difficult for them to do so. Always keep questions short and quick if necessary. Should you need more information please take conversations to pages with the people that you need to gain clarification from.
Also, if the scene runner requests that all pages are redirected to an alt character, please respect that. Again, in large combat scenes, they may have pages going to one of their alts just so they can keep up with what's going on.
==Powergaming==
Don't Powergame. It's not cool.
What is powergaming? Powergaming is a pose where you pose the results of another character's interaction over with yourself or in a scene without their permission. It can be something like posing their reaction over to your character or scenario, or posing the results of actions upon them.
A powerpose might be 'As Doctor Doom approaches, Supergirl can only cower over in fear from him' by the person running the scene or something like 'Miss America can't help but smile over at how awesome Captain America is' by the person playing Captain America. It is posing how someone reacts, whether the response over is physical, emotional, or mental and forcibly making their character react to cues being given without their permission.
Also powergaming can be forcibly posing the results of actions, such as hitting someone or the damage from an attack without someone's permission. It can also be putting someone in circumstances where they have no options or are forced to take an action and the results are coerced.
A powerpose might be 'Thing hits Abomination with all his strength, and Abomination staggers backwards, completely stunned and disoriented' when someone else is posing Abomination. It can also be something like 'Joker pauses, gun in hand, and goes, "Oh well, I suppose they're all dead." And then shoots each of the five people in turn in the head when everyone is gasping and horror and cannot react.' In the first case, Thing is posing the result of his attack over on Abomination, and in the second Joker is shooting several people in the head while posing that no one present over can react.
Powergaming can also be abuse of powers or circumstances without consent, such as Quicksilver going 'Quicksilver is so fast, that no one can touch him this round and no one can remotely land a shot on him', which is possibly within his powerset, but not conducive over to the scene and states that any particular action taken against him will fail. Or something like 'Superman stands impassively, crossing his arms then, even as everyone around him falls still' where Superman is posing his presence having an effect over upon others.
Powergaming can also be as a result of posing powers (such as pheromones, mind control) or circumstances no one can possibly resist or react to (someone with superspeed, grabbing someone so they can't move, knocking someone out) or circumstances where there is no option and participation or doing things in such a manner is enforced (abusing IC authority by humiliating someone or giving them unreasonable orders, having someone completely resistant to all effects to stop them or invulnerable to things, having characters perform unreasonable actions in circumstances or not giving other characters attempts to stop them or interrupt, etc).
With everything, it's always best to pose attempt and then let someone else pose the result, or if you want to do something to another character or setup someone is emitting, to ask them first. As always, if unsure ask, and pose as an attempt then without the consent of another player, and it's helpful in such things to let other participants in the scene know quickly so as to not interrupt the flow of things.
==Metagaming==
The easy definition of Metagaming is using OOC knowledge for IC gain when the character would otherwise not have that information. This is when you as a player know something (ie, Bruce Wayne is Batman) and then you roleplay your character as having that information. Unless you’re on a short list of people that Batman trusts to have his identity, or one of his few enemies that know his identity (see Talia al Ghul) then it’s pretty much going to be metagaming if your character knows who he is.
Another example of Metagaming is having knowledge of cutscenes or logs that your character was not ICly present for, or knowledge that is given in a pose but not outright said. If a character is lying they may pose that they are for the awareness of the player, but your character may not have any means of knowing they are lying. Even someone like Jean Grey can and has been lied to numerous times canonically, and been unaware until a later point.
==Plagiarism==
Plagiarism, for those that don't know the definition, is claiming the use of someone else's work as your own. On a game such as this, where you write your interactions with other people, there's really only two ways that it can occur. The first is when applying for a character, and the second is when writing a character description.
When submitting an application for a character we do require that you be the one to write your own application. This means that we require you write up the history, the personality, and any other pertinent information instead of copying from a wikia on the character. Having someone else write your application is also not allowed. We don't care if it's your best friend, sister, brother, or anyone else and they're okay with you using their work. If you are going to be the one playing the character, you need to be the one applying for it.
As far as character descriptions go this one is a bit more fluid. It's okay to have someone else write how your character looks if they're willing to do so. What is not allowed is copying the description of said character from another player on another game without their permission. It doesn't matter how awesome their descriptions are. If it's without their permission that's theft, and if someone reports that to us we won't be happy with you.
Category:Policy