Roleplaying rules

**GM_Ninja** Sun Feb 14, 2010 4:26 pm

First of all, everyone needs to be considerate of one another. That means no excessive swearing, flaming or trolling. We're here to have fun an enjoy ourselves, so keep the drama-queen antics off the forum.

Big Bad No No Number 1:

Do not kill another users character. I don't care how you justify it, that sort of stuff is not on. If the owner of the character doesn't mind them dying- ask. As in pm them and work it out privately, and then when you have permission, rp it. If you do not ask and just kill them off, you will get a three day ban.

God Modding.

Otherwise known as being a Mary/Gary Sue. Now everyone wants a little bit of fantasy an escapism when they roleplay- hell, it's why we do it. But sometimes things get excessive and out of hand. As in a completely human character engaging in a fight with a magical being clearly superior to them and somehow winning? Unless you can write it in a believable way and there are consequences for the human- NO. That is god modding.

A normal human who doesn't know magic suddenely gaining it? No. Strengths or weaknesses out of context for the story, which give your character a huge advantage? No.

To give you an example.... the following would NOT be allowed.

We have a panda- let's call him Bob. Bob comes from a world of martial artist Panda's, so Bob is very strong. Somehow Bob is also completely invulnerable to magic and can see through high strength illusions, bounce off fireballs and otherwise be completely unaffected by any magical attempt to harm him. Oh- and don't forget, he has kung-fu so he can hurt you

Bob is a Gary Sue, and he is god modding. Nothing in the above is believable. Bob could be a really good character if you stopped him being pretty much invincible, and set some realistic limits on his actions. So Bob has potential, but it's being used in an unrealistic way.

People who roleplay like this are looking for wish fulfillment; they want their perfect character to excel at everything. But it isn't going to happen. The Moderators will be instructed to issue warnings and the offender will be asked to edit that sort of content from their post, or will be warned that their actions could be viewed in a negative way. Please do not call people out, post in The Box > Mediation or PM a mod to let them know about the issue.

A lot of the time people will make honest mistakes, so you get three warnings; after each warning, a Moderator will sit down and discuss with you how to better structure your posts and point you in the direction of some good resources so that it won't happen again. I don't want to scare anyone off of roleplaying, but at the same time a certain level of quality is to be expected.

After your three warnings are up, you get three strikes. Once you exceed three strikes you get a week long ban, after which your 'strike counter' is reset to zero. If you continue to behave badly, once again 3 strikes will earn you a week long ban. If you want to appeal the strikes or the ban, copy your post and stick it in Mediation under the subject GM Appeal. Myself and two other mods will review the post and the reasons for you being given a strike/ban, and will either set you back to X strikes, or leave it as is.

Grammar and Spelling

Now I know the entire world doesn't have perfect spelling and grammar. However, if you want anyone to understand what your character is saying or doing, being able to write legibly would be a big bonus.

Using proper pronunciation, sentence structure and flow are major factors in a legible post. For flow- I'd recommend one major 'action' for each paragraph, and keep one character per paragraph. Separating speech from text is a good way to go about this. For example...

Shaun looked up with an irritated look on his face an arched one eyebrow, idly flipping a knife in one hand. The steely look in his blue eyes hinted that he was not, perhaps, in the best of moods. Shifting nervously, Amaya looked away for a minute and cleared her throat.

"Uhm... Lord Shaun, I regret to inform you that they've broken through the second barrier."

Letting his breath out in an explosive sigh, Shaun swung to his feet in one fluid movement, slamming the dagger back into its sheath as he walked forward. Grabbing a long bow from the wall mount, he stalked out into the corridor, firing instructions back over his shoulder.

"Send the third division out to hold the line, and round up some cavalry to flank them."

In the above, you can see that each time a new character speaks they're being given a line to themselves. If your character is speaking several times it's fine to leave it inside the paragraph and not space it out, but always remember that a paragraph is 4-6 sentences, not a whole page. And always remember that as soon as another character starts speaking, you need a new paragraph

There are dozens of great websites out there that can help out, so here a few links to look at.

On sentence structure.
Sentence variety
"Rules" of Writing (on sentence structure, flow and grammar)
Professional Roleplay Guide
In depth Rp guide for Newbies This is based on star wars but quite in depth, so it's worth a look.
Basic posting Guide
FAQ this links in with the above.

If anyone wants to suggest more links or finds something useful, post in The Box and I'll add it here.