(Through out this post I will show the abbreviations for various terms I use for Role Play games)
As I have done a lot of Role Play (RP) posts and have seen a lot of good RP and bad RP, I think it’s time someone gave the ‘common sense’ RP talk. Some of us that might need it for Play By Post (PBP) forum games we’re currently running.
Lets start from the top:
http://www.theunderkeep.com/index.asp?page=freeform#godmodingThat site lists some general RP guide lines about Free form role play.
Next lets have an example of what NOT to do in PBP games:
Shouousan’s Post:
Shouousan walks over to the jack in chair and runs a hand along it before flopping into it. Kayda then runs through the halls of the ship to jump on Shou’s lap. “Hiya Showie, how’s it going,” Kayda asks.
Ok, now see what’s wrong there? I took over Kayda’s character and made her do things that aren’t really in her nature to do. (By the way I did ask Kayda’s player before using that example if it was ok to use her as an example.) You might ask yourself why is that bad? Well lets take two Famous characters and give them the same treatment shall we?
Neo walks over to the jack in chair and runs a hand along it before flopping into it. Smith then runs through the halls of the ship to jump on Neo’s lap. “Hiya Anderson, how’s it going,” Smith asks.
*wince* See what I’m talking about here now, you shouldn’t play other peoples characters because it’s the simple fact you don’t have 100% surety that what you’re doing is the thing they would do. Arguments could be brought up about how you can narrow it down, but that’s like arguing to the Wachowski brothers that Neo should do things YOUR way, and not theirs.
This brings up the nature of the RPs based on preset worlds. As we are all playing the Matrix online and we are all in it, we’ve already established what the world is like and how a lot of it functions, those are the rules. *Insert Morpheus* Some can be bent, others can be broken.*/Morpheus* Ahem, that is true, we can break how a lot of it works but if we do that in an RP, the suspension of disbelief kicks in and you have the loving couple of Neo and Smith from above. So the trick is to know what your Character can and can’t do and blend it into the world’s ideas already there.
Now after saying that some of you know of Shouousan’s back story and may point out how badly I did that story. But I would like to point out that I did fix a lot of continuity errors, not all but most, with The Real.
In the end RP is a very picky subject with me, as I’ve been doing it 11 years, yeah that’s right Eleven, and that’s not just MMORPGs, That is: Table top i.e. Dungeons and Dragons, Vampire: The Masquerade, Palladium Rifts; Console i.e. Final Fantasy (nearly all of them), Xenogears, Fallout Brotherhood of Steel, Star Ocean; Computer: Never winter Nights, Septra Core, Planescape: Torment; and that’s a small list. I don’t want have to dig up things and remember names right now, any way that’s my brag for today, back to the subject.
So as of today if you see me in your thread RPing, I will follow these rules:
I will only control My character(s), unless given specific permission otherwise, anything else I do is simply a rehash of peoples stated actions before my posts.
I will keep Out Of Character (OOC) conversations to bare minimums at the beginning and ending of each post inside an RP thread and more then likely to reference something else, like this post for example.
I will try to keep a regular updates, as long as at least one to two other people have posted after I have in a thread, that way the story doesn’t become a ‘Shou’ up.
I will NEVER use a main characters (Any named Counselor, Niobe, Anome, Tyndall) as an Non Player Characters (NPCs) for anything, only references and other non direct actions, i.e. order papers or NPC’s I’ve made that ‘interact’ with the main characters.
I will post a RETRACTION of any one’s post that uses my character without my permission.(unless of course the Wachowski brothers join up and want to use any of the Shou’s then I’ll just be annoyed)
I will abide by the wishes of the thread maker about the intent of the RP thread, as long as it doesn’t supercede any of the above rules.
And now with that said, I hope people understand that I’m trying to keep the level of standard that we have, everything the FA has done has always had that bit of quality that made me want to be an FA member, I’m just hoping to represent in a way that I know I can do the best job.
Veterans Day
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