RP Channel Rules

These rules relate to the Discord RP (Role-Play) channels and can be found pinned in each of the relevant channels.

## General Notification/Warning About RP Channels

### General Dangers of RP

It can take a lot of energy and time alike to participate in RP. Scenes often take hours to play out, and can even extend over multiple OOC (out-of-character) days, typically with a high level of engagement. Anyone can interact with scenes in the RP channels, which means it can be difficult to walk away at times for fear of missing something. The RP channels can also easily become addicting as you explore any number of facets of your characters and their lives.

Apart from this, when you spend a lot of time in a character's headspace, like in RP, you may experience some bleedover from the character's headspace to your own.

All of these are things to be aware of, and keep an eye on. We've looked into putting external limits on RP channels, but currently believe that such a solution would cause more issues than it solves. We suggest that you try to individually limit your own participation, such as only participating in RP channels 3 days a week, or only for 2 hours a day, or only for 3 scenes a week.

It might seem like you can do so much more than that, but it's very easy to end up overcommitted and burnt out, and we hope that this warning will help at least to catch that sooner, when it's still recoverable, if not prevent it entirely. If you've tried any particular strategy to mitigate these dangers, we welcome any and all feedback on how successful they were.

### Types of Characters

There is no restriction on character alignment in WM. Some people play evil-aligned characters.

People have also played manipulative characters in the past. This sort of thing in particular should be prefaced with some sort of OOC notice/player-to-player check-ins to make sure everyone is comfortable. This is important because manipulative characters in particular are more prone to creating OOC drama, so we want people to be aware of and careful about this. Communication is key, and will allow everyone to tell a story they're interested in and happy with.

## Channels/Locations

### Tavern

This channel (#wm\_tavern\_rp) represents the old town tavern in New Gork and the attached Adventurers' Guild hall. Although the tavern exists physically within New Gork, it can be accessed from the Adventurers' Guild headquarters in any of the other three major cities. From the tavern, one can continue through to the courtyard, or exit the building, returning to the city whence they came. All members of the Adventurers' Guild, which PCs are automatically assumed to be a part of, have free access to the Guild's teleportation circles, found in the adjoining guild hall, through use of which they can exit to another of the four major cities.

The tavern is assumed to always have an NPC barkeep. Players can assume their characters can acquire food and drink.

Combat is not allowed in the tavern.

### Courtyard

This channel (#wm\_courtyard\_rp) represents the tavern's courtyard, an outdoor space fully enclosed by the tavern/guild hall building, with outdoor seating, tables, and views of the open sky above. There's also a portal that leads directly to the New Gork "fight pit," a dueling arena open to PvP combat. All combat **must** be handled in PMs. Once the combat has concluded, and if all participants agree to it, you may post a recap of the combat in this channel before continuing the scene. Combat recaps should be no longer than a few sentences.

### Balcony/PG-13

This channel (#wm\_balcony-pg13\_rp) represents the balcony within the tavern, overlooking the main floor. It functions as a third role-playing space as well as the default location for content other players might want to avoid, such as PDA (public displays of affection), drunken behavior, or mild innuendo. It is **not** for anything more explicit than that; RP content should **never** exceed a PG-13 rating.

Further examples of what is or is not acceptable content for this channel:

* Mild innuendos
* Mild drinking/drunkness/substance use
* Moderate descriptions of injuries and violence
* Sex (explicit or implied)
* Graphic descriptions of drunkenness or substance use
* Graphic descriptions of injuries and violence

### Other Locations

The public RP channels should not be used for scenes occurring in other places. If there's a scene you feel must occur in another location, you're welcome to RP in PMs (Private Messages). If all participants agree to it, the results of such RP can be shared in #wm\_general as a story, should that be desired.

## Characters

### Player Characters

A player always has full control of their own player character (PC), and actions affecting a PC should always be confirmed by that PC's player. Players are encouraged to use open-ended action starters to ensure other players can confirm or deny the action. For example:

(Player 1) Annabeth moves to put her hand on Boris' shoulder.

Action confirmed: (Player 2) Boris blinks in surprise as Annabeth puts her hand on his shoulder.

Action denied: (Player 2) Boris steps back before Annabeth can put her hand on his shoulder.

While we do have DMs available over Discord, no one is adjudicating every action. Thus, Discord RP relies primarily on player consent to keep things running smoothly. While at the table, one character might be able to steal from another character without the player explicitly consenting, but over Discord, **you must obtain player consent** before interacting in ways that seem like they might be objectionable.

Players are also able to have multiple PCs at a time. A player's PC may never be used to mechanically benefit another PC of the same player.

#### RP-Only Characters

Any character who has yet to play in a game is considered an RP-only character. Players may create dedicated RP-only characters that are intended to never play in games. RP-only characters are subject to the following additional rules:

1. The equipment of RP-only characters **may not** be given to any other characters.
2. RP-only characters cannot be used to provide mechanical benefits to other PCs with effects lasting longer than that RP. For example, Rachel the RP-Only PC can help Addy the Adventurer with *Guidance* on a skill check, but if Addy went blind on her last adventure, Rachel cannot heal her blindness.
	* The exception to this is if Addy pays money or favors equivalent to if Rachel were a DM-controlled NPC. This money/favors is assumed to be used in the process of casting the spell, and Rachel does not retain it.
	* In the example of the blindness, Addy finding a person to cast Lesser Restoration to cure her blindness would be mechanically equivalent to her finding an NPC to cure it, flavored as if Rachel were that person.

### Non-Player Characters

There are varying levels of Non-Player Characters (NPCs) in the world of West Marches. Some of these NPCs may be controlled by players in RP channels, while others may not be.

 PC Companions (Non-Telepathic)
 Town Service NPCs
 DM-Created NPCs
 Previous Season PCs

## Spoilertext

When a post involves something that not everyone in the scene may know, such as a character attempting to sneak past or speech in a different language, players will often place the relevant pieces in spoiler boxes.

Players may click on spoilered text regardless of whether their character has access to that knowledge. However, if you as a player choose to read spoilertext your character wouldn't know, remember to keep the knowledge separated from your character mindset and don't metagame.

On that note, spoilertext affecting another character who has a chance to miss that spoilertext, such as in the second example, should always be confirmed with that player out-of-character. In that example, Annabeth's player must confirm with Boris' player that the action is acceptable in such a way that it doesn't depend on Boris' player clicking the spoilertext even if their character doesn't pass the check. A player should be capable of refraining from gaining metaknowledge if they wish, without the risk of actions affecting their character that they aren't comfortable with.

## Canon

Discord RP is intended to be **benign to canon**. Characters cannot gain mechanical benefit during games from actions taken in RP.

Roleplay that occurs in public RP channels is generally considered to automatically be canon; however, there are allowances for public RP being designated as non-canon in retrospect. When these instances occur, the posts in question should be marked by a **strikethrough**, rather than being deleted. Such allowances include:

* Player misunderstanding: For example, Player 1 misreads what Player 2 wrote, which leads to a potentially problematic interaction for the characters.
* Player lack of information: For example, Player 1 does not have knowledge that Player 2 assumes they or their character has.
* Player veto: For example, Player 1 is uncomfortable with an action Player 2 has taken, usually which affects their character, and requests that it not occur.
	+ Player veto has limited capacity. For example, if Player 2's character claims to be from Kairos when they are from Kanara, that is generally considered to be a reasonable action which cannot be vetoed. However, if Player 2's character impersonates Player 1's character without asking for permission, that is considered a vetoable action.

### X-Card

The X-card is a way to immediately call a stop to something that makes someone uncomfortable, no questions asked. In Discord RP, this is done by reacting to the relevant post with "❌". If your post is X-carded, you should add a content warning to your post, put the post in spoilertext, and, if appropriate, repost it in #wm\_balcony-pg-13\_rp. Posts that are X-carded should not be deleted—context is important to keep.

### Private Messages

Roleplay that occurs in private messages (PMs) is not considered official canon until every participant has explicitly said that they agree to it. This check-in might occur at various points during PM scenes, but should also happen for the overall scene once that scene has been completed. This goes doubly so for any PM RP that includes contests, fights, or other situations where characters are in conflict.

## Combat, Healing, and PC Death

As stated above, events of Discord RP are intended to be **benign to canon**. Part of what this means is that PC death **cannot** happen without player consent, *no matter what the mechanics say*. (Massive damage, insta-kill effects, failed death saves—circumstances *do not matter*.) If you want to do something to give the moment an extra impact when they *could* have died, you might consider giving your character an RP-based lasting injury.

This does **not** mean a character gets free spellcasting or spellcasting components from NPCs to recover. It simply means they **do not die** in the first place.

### Recovering from Unconsciousness

As stated on page 197 of the PHB, "If damage reduces you to 0 hit points and fails to kill you, you fall unconscious. This unconsciousness ends if you regain any hit points." Because PCs cannot die in RP channels without player consent, they are automatically considered stable. As stated on page 198 of the PHB, "A stable creature that isn't healed regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours."

#### NPC Healing

While NPC spellcasting does exist, it has associated costs, even beyond components and even for low-level spells. If you would like to hire the services of an NPC spellcaster, speak with a DM, but it isn't a cost-effective way of dealing with sparring matches or other RP channel events.

#### Flexible Time

Time is not strictly 1:1 in character and out of character. For example, combat takes hours longer out of character than it does in character, where it takes only a few seconds. For some circumstances, the reverse is true, and things take longer in character than out. If you would like to invoke flexible time so that an unconscious character awakes in a few minutes instead of a few hours, that's acceptable, but do make sure that others in the scene know what you're doing.

### PC Death

If you are okay with your PC dying in RP channels, **let the others involved in the scene know ahead of time**. This helps prevent bad feelings if they had assumed something was non-lethal and you let it actually kill your character.