Post by Hez on Jan 21, 2015 13:12:21 GMT -5
NOTE: This thread will be a running list of our RP Guidelines, which if you haven't already figured out are laid out in small batches accompanying our lessons, based on a theme. Consider this a 'cheat sheet' for the OOC take-aways, but do take the time to read the Archived Lesson if you missed a class anyway. You never know when there’ll be a pop quiz!
• First, there’s a big difference between roleplaying as a jerk and being a jerk. Know the difference, and don’t be a jerk. Golden Rule. Duh.
• If you recognize someone is on an alt, don’t out their identity unless they’ve given you permission or it’s common knowledge. They may not want everybody to know who they are, or may want people to have to work to find out their identity, for various good reasons.
• Try not to spam the Say channel when someone’s RPing. It makes it hard to keep up with everything going on when people are treating Say like it’s a chatroom. Instead, use whispers, or group or guild chat. This can get tricky when RPing with someone from the opposite faction, so just try to be respectful if someone else is trying to RP.
• Avoid godmodding whenever possible. Instead of doing actions like *cuts off your leg with a lightsaber* or “/e shoots your brains out”, consider giving people a chance to respond to your actions. A better way to say the above examples would be *swings his lightsaber down at your leg* or “/e puts her blaster to your temple, squeezing back the trigger”. This gives people a chance to improvise better and doesn’t exert too much control over someone else’s character they might not be okay with you having.
• Metagame if you like, but don't let that break the rules of RP. Metagaming in this case means using real life means to gain knowledge of characters or situations your character couldn’t possibly know. In practice, many people Skype, use voice chat, or access guild websites to learn about characters in-game. While there's nothing wrong being curious, it becomes a problem when you use that outside knowledge to influence the outcomes of RP.
• Outside of strongholds, you're rarely going to find a place where you and can RP in peace. Even then, you never know who else has a key to someone else's stronghold, so be mindful of what you say. Even if you think nobody's listening to your Say chats, they might just be another RPer's alt, or friends with a notorious troll. Do your best to handle crowd control.
• At some point we’ll have established lore, laid out elsewhere on this forum. Do your best to conform to it, but don’t feel beholden to it if it’s making your RP less fun. See Lesson 2 for more details.
• Mild metagaming is occasionally acceptable, so long as it’s done via RP and within reason. For instance, if two of your toons are old friends, it’s reasonable that one might have told the other about something that happened. Just be careful not to godmod. You can’t know everything, and if you think you can, I don’t want to RP with you.
• Officially speaking, ERP (Google it) is:
• Unofficially speaking, what you do in private chat is your business and people will be people. The Guild will not, however, tolerate harassment of any kind, including but not limited to sexual harassment.
• Do NOT:
• Consider alternate methods of delivering scenes involving mature content. If you think such an interaction would help your plot character development but are uncomfortable with explicit convent, I recommend “the screen fades to black” or “the curtains close". Leaving it up to the imagination is a perfectly acceptable plot device.
• Again, your stronghold is yours, but be mindful of who can and cannot enter at will and consider notifying participants about sudden unexpected entrances.
• The guild will NOT tolerate serious harassment or discrimination of any kind, including but not limited to gender, race, religion, sexual preference or political affiliation. Civil discourse is acceptable, but you may be asked to keep it out of guild chat if it's bothering others. Joking around is fine, but if someone indicates that they're legitimately upset please be respectful.
• If someone has another player placed on /ignore and chooses to keep it that way, do not harass them on behalf of the ignored player or risk being deemed as guilty as the original offender.
• All disagreements among guild members based on in-game behavior should be taken up with guild leadership. Screenshots help to make a case, but may not necessarily be considered ‘gospel’ for all conflicts.
• Using /roll can be a valuable RP technique, especially as an alternative to PvP dueling. Whenever possible, use it while in a group.
• Do not attempt to hijack or derail Guild RP with your own personal RP. Your character can obviously be affected by something outside of Guild RP, but be respectful to the guild and the person running the RP event by saving it til afterwards. Guild RP takes up 2-5 hours a week; you can do what you like for the other 163 hours.
• Use this tool, it's damned helpful and amazing. Our Official Guild RP takes place in 14 ATC, after the events of the main storyline of SWTOR, for those incorporating elements of the story into their backstory.
• Developing a character's backstory can be difficult, and everybody has their own methods. Try drawing on your own experiences, or something about which you know a lot or are passionate about. It's a good place to start, but don't completely plagiarize. Be creative!
• All good RPers will on occasion become emotionally invested in a character or story they're involved in. There's nothing wrong with this, it's nothing to be ashamed of, and it happens to almost all of us, myself included. If you don't care about the story you have to tell, why should anybody else?
• First, there’s a big difference between roleplaying as a jerk and being a jerk. Know the difference, and don’t be a jerk. Golden Rule. Duh.
• If you recognize someone is on an alt, don’t out their identity unless they’ve given you permission or it’s common knowledge. They may not want everybody to know who they are, or may want people to have to work to find out their identity, for various good reasons.
• Try not to spam the Say channel when someone’s RPing. It makes it hard to keep up with everything going on when people are treating Say like it’s a chatroom. Instead, use whispers, or group or guild chat. This can get tricky when RPing with someone from the opposite faction, so just try to be respectful if someone else is trying to RP.
• Avoid godmodding whenever possible. Instead of doing actions like *cuts off your leg with a lightsaber* or “/e shoots your brains out”, consider giving people a chance to respond to your actions. A better way to say the above examples would be *swings his lightsaber down at your leg* or “/e puts her blaster to your temple, squeezing back the trigger”. This gives people a chance to improvise better and doesn’t exert too much control over someone else’s character they might not be okay with you having.
• Metagame if you like, but don't let that break the rules of RP. Metagaming in this case means using real life means to gain knowledge of characters or situations your character couldn’t possibly know. In practice, many people Skype, use voice chat, or access guild websites to learn about characters in-game. While there's nothing wrong being curious, it becomes a problem when you use that outside knowledge to influence the outcomes of RP.
• Outside of strongholds, you're rarely going to find a place where you and can RP in peace. Even then, you never know who else has a key to someone else's stronghold, so be mindful of what you say. Even if you think nobody's listening to your Say chats, they might just be another RPer's alt, or friends with a notorious troll. Do your best to handle crowd control.
• At some point we’ll have established lore, laid out elsewhere on this forum. Do your best to conform to it, but don’t feel beholden to it if it’s making your RP less fun. See Lesson 2 for more details.
• Mild metagaming is occasionally acceptable, so long as it’s done via RP and within reason. For instance, if two of your toons are old friends, it’s reasonable that one might have told the other about something that happened. Just be careful not to godmod. You can’t know everything, and if you think you can, I don’t want to RP with you.
• Officially speaking, ERP (Google it) is:
- Against the Terms of Service outlined by SWTOR
- Illegal, depending on your location and the relative ages of the participants.
• Unofficially speaking, what you do in private chat is your business and people will be people. The Guild will not, however, tolerate harassment of any kind, including but not limited to sexual harassment.
• Do NOT:
- Engage in or talk about ERP in Guild Chat, Public Chat, or any stronghold that isn’t yours without the owner’s permission
- Discuss private interactions between you and another person without said person’s explicit permission
- Pressure somebody into explicit roleplay or RP they are not comfortable with, ever
• Consider alternate methods of delivering scenes involving mature content. If you think such an interaction would help your plot character development but are uncomfortable with explicit convent, I recommend “the screen fades to black” or “the curtains close". Leaving it up to the imagination is a perfectly acceptable plot device.
• Again, your stronghold is yours, but be mindful of who can and cannot enter at will and consider notifying participants about sudden unexpected entrances.
• The guild will NOT tolerate serious harassment or discrimination of any kind, including but not limited to gender, race, religion, sexual preference or political affiliation. Civil discourse is acceptable, but you may be asked to keep it out of guild chat if it's bothering others. Joking around is fine, but if someone indicates that they're legitimately upset please be respectful.
• If someone has another player placed on /ignore and chooses to keep it that way, do not harass them on behalf of the ignored player or risk being deemed as guilty as the original offender.
• All disagreements among guild members based on in-game behavior should be taken up with guild leadership. Screenshots help to make a case, but may not necessarily be considered ‘gospel’ for all conflicts.
• Using /roll can be a valuable RP technique, especially as an alternative to PvP dueling. Whenever possible, use it while in a group.
• Do not attempt to hijack or derail Guild RP with your own personal RP. Your character can obviously be affected by something outside of Guild RP, but be respectful to the guild and the person running the RP event by saving it til afterwards. Guild RP takes up 2-5 hours a week; you can do what you like for the other 163 hours.
• Use this tool, it's damned helpful and amazing. Our Official Guild RP takes place in 14 ATC, after the events of the main storyline of SWTOR, for those incorporating elements of the story into their backstory.
• Developing a character's backstory can be difficult, and everybody has their own methods. Try drawing on your own experiences, or something about which you know a lot or are passionate about. It's a good place to start, but don't completely plagiarize. Be creative!
• All good RPers will on occasion become emotionally invested in a character or story they're involved in. There's nothing wrong with this, it's nothing to be ashamed of, and it happens to almost all of us, myself included. If you don't care about the story you have to tell, why should anybody else?