RP Guide

**This is meant to be fun and not stressful, so please try to enjoy yourself!**

**In Character and Out Of Character posting.**

OOC stands for Out Of Character. IC stands for In Character. When you are IC you are narrating what your character is doing. When you are OOC you are talking as yourself, the real you. It is important to separate IC from OOC so that others know when their character should respond to your post, and when it is the REAL YOU talking. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if someone is talking OOC if they don't use parenthesis or brackets, and their posts will be accidentally acted upon in RP. Stay IC at all times. This will help eliminate drama and confusion.

**OOC (Out Of Character talking)**

Its common guidelines to keep OOC posts in parenthesis () or brackets []. Some forums will allow OOC conversation to make a quick comment, usually to help better explain the post but if you're going to have a whole conversation then please do so via private messages or In the Hangout Zone

**Commonly used RP symbols and their meanings.**

(( )) or [[ ]] or even {{ }} signifies OOC chatter.

" " or even none at all usually signify spoken rp text. Often, when " " isn't used, action symbols are employed to break up action from spoken text.

\* \* , ~ ~ , - - , -- --, or sometimes nothing at all can signify an action done by the character. Usually when no symbols are used for actions, " " is used for the text.

:: :: is generally used to signify telepathic communications between characters, and MOST of the time its respected as if other characters can't hear it and its treated like a private conversation.

<c> usually means "continued". This is used for when a post becomes too long and requires another post to finish.

<e> typically indicates "end". This is used for when a continued post is ended so that others know you are finished with the post.

Please note: We do not require symbols in order to initiate a post. So long as you add " " to indicate that a character is speaking, thinking, ect, we will not be too fussy. If you have any questions, please locate our Help Center.

**Bullies**

Be respectful of other players and characters. Please don't suffer in silence. Bullies are not tolerated, no matter who they are. Please don't bring OOC issues in role-play though. Please try to resolve any issues off-list first. No one enjoys role-plays where people snipe at each other constantly.

Be considerate of the role-playing mood of others. If you come into a situation where other characters are already engaged in some RP, don't just leap in with a radically different mood unless you get permission (Either IC or OOC, depending on the situation and whether you have any way to contact them OOC). As an example...say there is a couple sitting at a table discussing a recently deceased character and you jump in acting like a court jester and spill their drinks in their laps while telling bad jokes. You aren't going to make friends like this if your actions offend the players behind the characters.

Don't try to be the center of attention all the time. Be polite and share attention with other characters. You aren't the only one there to have fun, give everyone their turn in the spotlight

**CAPS**

Do not post in all caps. Caps are considered yelling and I will most likely be the one yelling if rules are broken or if making announcements.

**Proper Grammar**

Please make an attempt at proper grammar. While slang may be cute in a live chat environment, it is not conducive to clear RP. Please refrain from using common chat abbreviations in your role play.

**Talking in a different language**

Different role plays have different species, and different species have different languages. Some role playing rooms ask that you post a translation in English. Others will be indifferent. Most languages can be googled by you in the background and translated, but not everyone can do that. So, if someone should request a translation, take the time to offer it. Just because the person playing the character cannot understand the language, therefore needing it to be posted in English as well, doesn't mean that their CHARACTER does not understand the language. It can make for interesting story and plot if someone else can understand your conversation. However, if your conversation is THAT private, then please take it to a private window. You may also use the whisper feature.

**Mind Reading**

In or Out Of Character, it is not polite to read someone else's mind without their consent. First, prod their mind and wait for their response. If they block their mind and do not allow your entrance, then you may NOT read their mind. If they say that their character doesn't notice the intrusion or if they give permission, then you MAY read their mind. Failure to acknowledge your attempt at mind reading does NOT give you the right to know every thought the person has. Never assume someone will react in a certain way just because you think they should. Always give others the chance to react in their own way, and don't get upset if the reaction isn't what you expected.

**Greetings**

It's not proper to assume names! Your character does NOT know someone's name unless they specifically tell you In Character. In Real Life, if you entered a room, you would not automatically know everyone's name. The same concept applies in the role-playing world. If your character has never met the other character then do not use their name. Remember OCC knowledge does not equal IC knowledge.

**Moderator's [Otherwise known as "Staff."]**

Many forums have moderators that enforce the rules of the owner. If you should happen to see or speak to a moderator, give them the due respect they deserve. After all, they were made moderator of the forum for a reason. If you disagree with an action done by a moderator, send an admin a message and it will be handled between the Admin, Moderator in question and reported in question.

Any action you perform on someone else's character, no matter what the action might be, should be phrased as an attempt. By making an attempt instead of just doing it outright, you give the character's player the chance to consent to the action or avoid it if it's something they'd rather not have happen to their character.

Give others time to react to you. One of the strangest things I've noticed in graphical online RPG's is impatience. People will walk up, say something, wait about 0.0001 seconds and run off. The person they talked to would barely have had enough time to read what they said, let alone respond to it. This also happens in conversations. People will say something, wait a very short amount of time, then keep going as if they think the person they were talking to didn't hear them or isn't going to respond. In most cases, the other person was going to respond but simply wasn't as fast as expected, and loses the chance because the conversation has moved on without them. There's no need to hurry so much, just relax and enjoy the interaction.

Avoid god-like abilities for your characters. Role-playing isn't about who can make up the best super powers for their characters, it's about the personalities of the characters. Any character that is ridiculously powerful or has a perfect personality is going to be fairly boring to RP with and will end up being mostly ignored by others.

It is generally considered rude to just up and attack someone out of the blue. If you and your target are not part of some planned combat event, get OOC consent from the player before you attack their character (This can be done IC if you make your meaning clear enough and you can't contact the other players OOC). If there's no good way to get this permission, at least give them plenty of IC warning that you might attack, and if they seem to approve IC, then go ahead. If they don't seem willing to fight, or you can't tell one way or another, it would be best not to attack them to avoid OOC troubles.

Never include someone else's character in a written story that didn't actually happen exactly as you wrote it without letting that character's player proofread and approve the story before you post it.

When writing up a story about combat that happened in role-play, don't be literal. Role-play's invariably have the loser of a fight "die". Since no one likes building characters over and over, there's always some way to get raised from the dead. But just because you killed someone's character and chopped up their body in the role-play doesn't give you the right to write this up exactly as the combat portrayed it. There's two reasons for this...either the character that lost has to get resurrected and put back together, or the character is permanently dead or maimed. It gets very old having people die all the time and getting dismembered only to show up the next day just fine. It would also get old if people had to waste their character development by killing off their character due solely to something that happened based on the combat of the role-play (which we all know is much less than fair due to lag and computer crashes) and not on RP. So it's polite to alter events a little bit. If the combat was a large battle, mention casualties but don't give names to the dead. Just assume the two sides had several no-name extras along for the fight that can provide convenient dead bodies. If it was a duel, then have it be to first blood or to loss of consciousness...unless of course a character's true death was agreed upon OOC ahead of time by the character's player, but these situations will be very rare.

**Think of it as writing a book.**

Imagine you are writing a book along with several other people. Your character does not have to think and believe in the same way as you do. Create a unique character, give them their own thoughts, ideas, beliefs, personality, etc.

**Make an entrance.**

When you enter a forum room make an entrance rather than simply saying, "Greetings fellow patrons." Making an entrance is important so that other role players know how to react to your presence. Is your character mad? sad? happy? wounded? dying? Is your character so wicked that others within can almost or actually sense it? If you need assistance with creating an entrance post, please ask a Staff Member.

**Moving to different areas**

When moving from one area, please be sure to add OOC-ly that you are doing so, adding it to the bottom of your post. Something as simple as [Leaving to go here.] Please link the next room at the word "here." If you are unsure of how to do this, a Mod will be glad to help you. When arriving in a new area, [Entering from here.] Should be added at the beginning, before you post. Once more if you do not know how to add a link, please contact a Staff member. A guide will be added later on to show you how to add links.

**Here are some examples:**

The door was suddenly pushed open as a woman dashed inside. She slammed the door shut as quickly as she had swung it open and sighed with relief to finally be out of the cold. She looked around the room, examining the inhabitants within before giving a warm smile and saying, "Good evenin', mighty cold!" as she took a seat in front of the fire.

Slowly sliding the door open he silently stepped inside. Gently he closed the door as to not make a sound. He spent a moment to observe those within before carefully making his way to the fireplace. He gave those he passed a sinister smile, for his inspecting eyes appeared as if they could examine one's very soul. "Greetings fellow patrons," his deep whisper-like voice flowed from his upturned lips throughout the tavern as if carried on a breeze, "distasteful weather we're having, isn't it?"

**Develop Your Character's Story.**

In order to create an interesting role play develop a story for your character. Fulfill these areas:

1) Personality (reserved, energetic, greedy, evil, etc.)

2) Thoughts, ideas, and beliefs on life and ways of life (religious? prejudiced? vegetarian? etc.)

3) Birthplace and current dwelling (town, farm, forest, mountain, traveler etc.)

4) Major events within their life (death, love, war etc.)

5) Current occupation (traveler, warrior, mage etc.)