Roleplay Conduct

Roleplaying is one of the main methods of content creation in Amaranthine RPG. We welcome players of all experience and skill levels - if you’re never roleplayed before, don’t worry!

This article is mostly intended for those new to collaborative writing and roleplay, but it doesn’t do any harm for veterans to refresh their memory either. Remember that roleplaying is, at the end of the day, supposed to be fun for all participants and is a collaborative effort.

## General Guidelines

* Follow our rules.
* Treat other players like you would like to be treated - be nice, polite and accept any boundaries they might place.
* It’s usually a good idea to discuss pre-game what each player is looking to get out of the game. Fully improvised games can be extremely fun, but a bit of discussion first can save you from awkward situations later. In DnD terms, think of it as a session zero.
* Likewise, it's often wise to discuss what boundaries each player has when playing with someone new - maybe someone wants to keep things very strictly E-rated, while someone else wants to avoid a specific theme completely
	+ Boundary discussions are often especially important if the game is planned to be a fight, or otherwise violent
* Remember that characters are characters and players are players. Don’t take it too personally if someone’s character doesn’t like yours
* Likewise, try to separate your own views and opinions from your character’s.
* Be an active player - have your character react to things, think about things, speak and act.  Each character is different, of course, but it's generally considered bad form to not give the other player anything to respond to for several messages.
* Most importantly: allow your character to be affected by the things that happen to them. Roleplay characters evolve and grow through gameplay - sometimes in the most unexpected ways. Let them feel strongly and make mistakes.

## Things to Avoid

### **Godmodding & Autohitting**

Godmodding means forcing another character to think, feel or act a certain way. The most typical and drastic example is writing that your character killed another without that player's consent. However, godmodding can range in severity, and this kind of extreme example of it is very rarely seen. Godmodding could for example something as innocuous as describing how someone reacts to your character’s words - before that player has had the chance to tell you how their character would react.

Autohitting is a type of godmodding, and specifically refers to touching (especially damaging) or moving another character without the owner's consent. As the name implies, this is when you decide that an attack, push or touch lands. It can also be things like forcing the other character to run away, or saying that they are now following your character around, even if the other player didn’t agree to that. Again, there are many perfectly innocuous examples of this, such as saying the characters kissed (without asking for permission first).

Godmodding could also present itself in describing your character or their actions in a way that the other player is forced to either godmod themselves, or let your character do what they want. This could be things like describing an attack that’s impossible to dodge, saying that **everyone** is charmed by your character and so on.

Note that if players have agreed beforehand that something is okay to happen, no rule-breaking occurs. It's often very beneficial to the fluidity of the game to allow some actions to just “happen” from one player writing them, and another reacting. Just get consent first.

### **Invincible Characters**

Another close relative to godmodding. Refers to characters who are either invulnerable, or do get wounded, but are seemingly completely unaffected by any and all damage they’ve sustained. They do not tire, and their injuries are downplayed or don’t affect them at all. Your character **can** be strong, stubborn and fearless - but everyone has limits, and if your character has broken ribs and a twisted ankle, they probably aren’t sprinting after the bad guys anytime soon.

Wounds also take time to heal, and even when cured by magic there’s likely to be some lingering aches from severe injury.

### **Metagaming**

Metagaming is very tricky to completely avoid, but you should still do your best to keep it to a minimum. Metagaming broadly refers to “character knowing things they shouldn’t”. This can be things like reacting to what other characters are thinking, a character knowing secret information about another character or characters having knowledge about topics in-game that they wouldn’t realistically know anything about.

The key to avoiding metagaming is to try and separate what you, the player, knows, from what the character knows. When your character meets a stranger, remember that they haven’t read through that character’s bio, and would have no idea about their tragic past or propensity to lie. Even the smartest character is unlikely to have an encyclopedic knowledge of every topic.

#### **Time travel**

Related to metagaming, but occurs for a different reason. This often occurs when a character has games going that happen during different points in time, and information they gain in one “travels back” to influence their decisions and thoughts in a game that technically occurs before they found out.

The best way to avoid this is to keep a timeline for yourself on when your character learned about or did certain things.