Roleplay Guides

## Roleplaying

Roleplaying is essential to this game. What sets this game apart from others is that you must speak and act like your character would in the world of Wisteria. To roleplay, press B and start typing your message. It is best if you roleplay with others, but roleplaying by yourself is still acceptable. Also, keep in mind that when using the "Roleplay" command by hitting the "B" key, what you will be typing in there will post into the chat as actions you are taking. By default, the post will begin with your character's name, then your typed message will be displayed. There is an option at the bottom of the Roleplay window called "Include Name", which is checked by default. You can un-check this option to be allowed to type your roleplay without your name at the beginning.

Roleplaying shapes how the game progresses, as there are many possibilities to affect gameplay for others (See Character Paths). You might choose to be criminal and extract a certain type of pokemon from the wild until extinction, or you might be a police officer aimed to kill other criminals.

## Roleplay Battles

All types of roleplay style battles are encouraged. Whether you want to roleplay each pokemon's move, or simply just battle! Discuss with your opponent to see which type of battle best works for you both.

Generally, the first pokemon to move in a battle is determined by showing the pokemon's speed. This can be broadcasted by roleplaying "/Show Speed" in the roleplay box. After the speeds of both opponents are shown, the battle begins. Fainting a pokemon does not yield any death percentage, whereas killing a trainer's fainted pokemon increases that pokemon's death percentage by a few.

## RPP

Roleplay Points determine how you can interact with many systems in the game. RPP is required for increasing relationship with pokemon, acquiring new perks/skills, evolving pokemon, and so forth. RPP is obtained from actively roleplaying. Every 10-20 minutes, your RPP increases based how much you have roleplayed, and will diminish if you haven't roleplayed. More RPP is obtained from roleplaying with others, and can be obtained through the roleplay verb and speaking to others as your character or your pokemon. You can click the "RP Rating" command in the Trainer Tab, and it will give you two Roleplay Scores: Total Roleplay Score and Recent Roleplay Score with letter grade ratings from F all the way to SS. Total Roleplay Score is the measure of your total Roleplay Points accrued from when you began to the present. Recent Roleplay Score is a rating of the quality of roleplays during the course of the last 10-20 minutes. It is imperative to continue to roleplay often (even if you are alone), because if your Recent Roleplay Rating falls to "F" then you will receive no gains in things like training or relationship building with your pokemon.

## General Roleplaying Guidelines for Success

When playing a roleplay oriented game (like Pokémon Wisteria), you have to play the game differently than you would other games. The goal in a roleplaying game is to create a sense of immersion for players, which makes them feel like they are IN the world they are playing. Immersion can be easily broken if you don't know what you are doing in a roleplay-oriented environment. If you continue to act in a way that breaks immersion and RP etiquette, you will most likely either be ignored, met with hostility, or banned (especially if you are a repeat offender). With this in mind, here is a list of a few General Roleplaying tips which will help you improve as a Roleplayer and prevent you from being on the wrong side of the playerbase and/or a banhammer.

### 1.) Use RP Appropriate Names

When playing a roleplaying game, like stated before, the goal is immersion. This means making your character and actions make sense in the world of Pokémon Wisteria. This would mean you would give your character a name that would be one that would make sense in real life. For example, if you named your character "xXFaded\_Dream69Xx" that would not be an appropriate name for RP, because that wouldn't be anyone's real name in a realistic setting. Instead, come up with a name that is plausible like, "Isaac Grey" or "Eros Discordia". You don't have to use boring names, but just make sure they would make sense in the setting. Also, don't name your character after a popular character from the Pokémon series or other shows and games as this is HIGHLY frowned upon (e.g. Ash Ketchum, Naruto Uzamaki, etc.)

### 2.) Don't Metagame

When roleplaying, you are expected to act in the way your character would with the knowledge they had from their own experiences. Metagaming is when a player uses their "real-life" knowledge of the game to influence their character's actions, whenever their character would normally have no awareness or knowledge of these things. For example, if my character were to walk up to someone I had never met before, and I (as a player) saw that their name was John based on their character name displayed on the screen, calling them by their name would be an example of metagaming. This is because if you were actually the character, people don't have floating names next to them, so you would have no way of knowing this information. This also means that if you start a new character, and your character has never been exposed to a particular location or bit of knowledge, then you would have to RP and act as if you were unaware of that knowledge no matter what you may know as the player. If a friend of yours said they were on Mt. Moon, but your character had never been there or told about it, you would have to roleplay and act as if you had no idea where to go.

### 3.) Good Grammar and Spelling

When taking part in RP, nothing will get on people's nerves more than improper spelling and grammar. Now, a bit of misspelled words here and there are fine, and some grammar mistakes are understandable. However if you walk up to someone and say, "hey r u ok lol", then that is not appropriate for RP. Don't use "Text Messaging" acronyms while roleplaying. Only use abbreviations where they would make sense in conversation, like "Hey, I am headed to Z.C. (Zilph Co.) in Saffron!".

### 4.) Big Projects in RP Take Time

Like the old expression, "Rome wasn't built in a day", the same goes for large projects in RP. According to Inu, one day IRL is two days IC. With this in mind it is important to remember that in RP, reality is simulated as much as possible for the sake of immersion. If you were to try to RP building Bill's Pokemon Storage PC System and then said you managed to do it in one day, that wouldn't make any sense. Real inventions or complex projects take large amounts of time to complete, which means some of these projects could last for weeks IRL or even months. The biggest takeaway here is to be patient and do extensive RP.

### 5.) No IC in OOC and Vice Versa

Within the game you have IC Chat (or In Character Chat) and OOC Chat (Out of Character Chat). IC chat is used as a means to have your character speak to others in the world. This means that you wouldn't talk about things your character has no IC knowledge of, and you wouldn't have OOC conversations, such as "What lvl is ur pokemon?" or "lol wyd". If you want to communicate something in an OOC fashion to someone near by, you can put your text in parantheses to say something to them OOCly. Example: (Hey, how's it going? What level are your Pokemon btw?) Now the same sort of rules apply in OOC. You **CANNOT** go into OOC Chat and ask people for things regarding your character. For example, you can't request items from someone in OOC, the location of certain places, or for them to come to a set location to meet you. This is because OOC is "Out of Character" which means anything you say there is completely separate from your character, and none of our characters can acknowledge you. If someone does acknowledge you in OOC and actually provides you with an item you requested in OOC, then that is **Metagaming**. Please see Rule 2 for more details.

### 5.) Don't Godmod

**Godmodding** is taking control of another player’s character during roleplay. It’s frowned upon and with good reason: you only control your character and no one else’s. The best way to explain it is by example. Let’s say that I’m playing as Pikachu and my friend is playing as Charmander.

This is my friend’s post:

*Charmander inhaled deeply, summoning as much power as he could handle. Then his wild gaze focused on his attacker and his jaws opened. Bright orange flames burst forth as both a warning and defense.*

And this is mine:

*Pikachu jumped out of the way of Charmander’s attack and dashed behind him. “Pikaaa!” he cried; a flash of lightning shot towards Charmander’s back and knocked him forward, twitching and dazed. He couldn’t get up.*

How do I know whether or not Charmander could get up, or whether he fell at all? It’s not my responsibility to control Charmander - I only have control of Pikachu’s actions. A better response would have been this:

When engaging in an action that affects a character, you need to give them the chance to respond. You can't assume an outcome. Often, if there is debate on whether or not an action succeeds against a player, you would use the "Dice Roll" tool in the Roleplay Window (by hitting B). That makes it fair and a little more realistic. Keep in mind that godmodding doesn’t apply only to combat: it applies to every day interactions as well.