How to Roleplay
Some terms used in the forum:
OOC = This means "Out Of Character". In other words, not roleplaying.
RP = Role Play.
IC = In Character.
TP = Tiny Plot. If this is a cartoon series, a TP would be a single episode.
00. Rules On Etiquette.
It is common sense that you treat others as you would want to be treated. But if, for some twisted reason, you enjoy being treated badly, then common sense is gone and I have to define things in this section.
01. Powergaming
Thou shalt not powergame. To give you an idea of what this means, let's assume you have a hedgehog for a character and this character can bench about 100. This means you can NOT lift a SWATbot over your head and throw it like a it only weighed 50 pounds. Also, if you can run 50 miles per hour, you are far from being Sonic (who can run about 700+ miles per hour). Another example of powergaming is if you are in a fight with someone who is equal to you and you keep posing that you dodge all their attacks. Powergaming is defined as making your character do things that are either beyond their abilities or beyond the realm of possibility.
02. Twinking
Thou shalt not twink. Twinking is defined as any attempt to control what happens to someone else's character OR any attempt to control what someone else's character does. There are exceptions (mentioned later in the section about players who hold up roleplay), but for now let's focus on what the definition of twink means. If I pose something like this:
Katy swings a shovel at Matthew and hits him in the stomach!
That is twinking. I did not ask Matthew's player permission to pull off hitting his character in the stomach. Nor did I even present an opportunity for Matthew to have dodged. This is an example of controlling what happens to someone else's character. Now for an example of controlling what the other person's character does:
Blipvert activates his radioactive rays and Rick begins to feel weak.
As you can see, Blipvert is posing for Rick what Rick will do in response to the attack. This takes away the fun in roleplay and you may as well just go play alone if you play this way since obviously, if you DO play this way, you already assume you have the power to pose for someone else. So you don't need them to pose anyhow. Here are the propper ways to pose those two twink poses I showed you:
Katy swings a shovel at Matthew's stomach!
Blipvert activates his radioactive rays in an attempt to weaken Rick.
03. Summary of 01 and 02.
If you still have trouble posing right, please ask people to help you. I can understand it is hard sometimes when new to roleplaying (Trust me, I've done my own share of powergaming and twinking when I was new). So if you are trying to learn or are improving, then the occasional twink pose is excusable (especially since others can simpley ask you to redo the pose). But if you are reported as continually powergaming or twinking without any sign of changing, you will be given only one warning. After that, you will be suspended for a period of time determined by the wizards. If nothing improves after THAT... then you lose your character.
Although I personally was told powergaming and twinking are more or less the same thing, I am simpley defining them here so you can know the different methods of what they both fall under: Cheating. Do not cheat. In the end, it is not fun because you either wind up with the other not wanting to roleplay with you OR you wind up with the other cheating and making YOU upset as well. Remember: Rules are here to guide you and help everyone have a good time.
04. Ongoing RPs / TPs.
If there is a roleplay going on that is put off for a week and one or more of the players involved do not pose or do not agree to roleplay, wait another week for them to come back into the roleplay. If by the end of that waiting period, they do not show up or do not agree to roleplay, you and those who show up have permission to either whipe out that player from the roleplay or decide a way to pose the character out (So long as it is at least *somewhat* believable).
If such unfinished roleplay become very commonplace (Ie every time or almost every time the person roleplays, they hold up Rps like this) then the player in question can be 'wiped out' from the main rp plotline. I will define common place as 2 times out of 3 AND the offender doing this to 3 RPs or more.
This rule is meant to be a guideline. The point is: Do not try to hold up roleplay. Someone might say "sorry guys, I can not be available for RP for the next 2 months because my family is going on a trip." This does not count as holding up RP. If you feel someone is holding up RP unneccessarily, let me (Timothius) know.
If a TP starts to hold up normal RP for too long, though, the TP should come to a close. A TP should be planned out and organized. So when it is executed, the one who designed the TP should at least have a general idea on how it will end. Open-ended TPs are allowed, but within reason. So... if you find that a TP is taking too long and holding up RP, contact an admin AND the one responsible for the TP. The wizard will talk over with the one who started the TP and try to reach a compromise on both concluding the TP and making sure it all makes IC sense.
On a final note, please inform others if you will be out of an RP for a while and tell them why. It is the polite thing to do and will make you less accountable for holding up RP in most cases.
05. OOC Spilling into IC
Most times, you shouldn't take IC actions personally OOCly. But there are occasions when someone dislikes you IRL and does things ICly to annoy you OOCly on purpose. I will be keeping an eye out for this.
06. Blood and Guts
Understand that although Robotnik is a sick and twisted individual, this theme is not sick and twisted. You are not to RP bloodbath scenes that involve detailed descriptions of lost bodyparts or other such things. You can bleed. You can have others bleed. You can even lose body parts. But there is NO NEED to go into detail describing it beyond suggesting how it happened. Just go by what would have been shown on the SatAM series and you should be fine.
It should be noted that this is an easy one to screw up, so if you are caught, you will be informed and warned. But if the offense continues, you may be suspended.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:34, Fri 11 Apr 2008.
