Post by Deroga on Oct 29, 2005 22:08:06 GMT -5
Role-Playing (RP) Guidelines/Rules for All
By Deroga | Tronix | Doktorr - Tarquinas Server, SWG
Preface
These are Rules/Guidelines I've learned and gathered from almost 2 years of role-playing on 5 different servers in Star Wars Galaxies, and a few months in World of Warcraft. I've met tons upon tons of role-players and have been involved in countless RP situations. If you are an arrogant person, don't read this. If you are a modest person looking to improve/start your role-playing, this guide is for you. Enjoy.
In role-playing, you must ignore any and all ingame mechanics. This includes:
* The person's name you see over their head
* The person's profession/level/combat rating/bio info or anything else you can find about them by using game commands.
To be a great role-player doesn't require fantastic English or a giant vocabulary: only a solid consistent creativity. You must be in-tune with all that your character is and react as if YOU were your character. React as if this was real life and everything in the game was really happening. That is the key to role-playing, and what separates a role-player from a power-gaming junkie.
Two terms you must know are:
1. OOC (Out of character): Anything done OOC is anything that includes ingame mechanics, use of terms like 'lol' and 'haha'. This also includes anything that has no relevance to whats going on in the storyline/game scene. If you decide to be OOC (like all power-gamers are), you must use double-parenthesis around your OOC speech. For example, if I say want to say: "Sup dude, I dunno how long Imma be online tonight", I should say it as (("Sup dude, I dunno how long Imma be online tonight")). This shows I respect RP'ing and know what I'm doing. It is also a symbol of a higher status of player with whom you would be able to create tons of fun aside from game content.
2. IC (In Character): Anything done IC is anything that includes your role-playing. When IC, you must never EVER use 'lol' or 'haha' or address someone by their name unless you've been given it IC. For more info on IC interaction with others, read section II below.
I. Knowing Yourself
To effectively role-play in any MMORPG, you must first understand yourself. This means knowing everything there is to know about your own toon (character). You MUST be able to identify anything about your character at any time regarding any possible given situation.
See if you can answer the following questions about your toon:
* What is my toon's name?
* How old is my toon? (Though it may be a secret in your RP, you should at least have some clue)
* Does my toon have a family? Who are they? How many? What is their role in my toon's life?
* What type of work does my toon excel at?
* What type of work does my toon suck at? (Modesty is the key to achieving a believable character)
* What is my toon's favorite color? (Used for clothing, schemes, etc)
* Why is my toon here, in this time, in this place?
* Is my toon strong or weak / physically and emotionally?
* What kind of people does my toon associate with?
* What kind of people does my toon NOT associate with?
II. Knowing Other People
Now that you know yourself, you are ready to start getting to know other people. This is where you being IC comes into play. * Meeting someone new:
- When meeting someone new in a game, you are usually tempted to call them by the name you see hovering over their heads. This is fine if you play with NON-RP'ers. In RP, however, you must ask them their name first. Pretend you approach someone in real life. Would you say, "Hi Frank!", without them ever telling you their name? NO! That would constitute some sort of awkward situation I'm sure.
- Do not assume anything about this person based on their tag, profession, bio, etc. Do not use anything about this person when talking to them for the first time that you are able to gather from ingame commands. If you want to find out about this person, ask them IC!
* Meeting regular friends:
- IC friends: Obviously if your friends RP you're all going to be IC all the time. Being IC DOES NOT mean you talk with a stick up your ass (pardon my French). Do not assume that IC toons must speak like old English poets. You must speak the way your toon speaks based on how they were raised, their culture, their heritage, etc.
For example, I met this one guy playing a zabrak warrior. He would always greet people with words from the zabraki vocabulary. Due to my lack of knowledge in Zabrak lingo, I wont even try to repeat what he says. I knew another guy a long time ago who plays a Smuggler for jabba. He always spoke with a southern accent and had fits of anger/cursing because that's what his toon was all about.
- OOC friends: Well, if you're with friends that don't RP I think that speaks for itself how you will interact.
III. Knowing RP Combat
Role-playing combat is a very sensitive issue. It is not a secret that MMORPG's attract the stupidest of players, who play only to grief, 'pwn', and jeopardize the integrity of all that is decent with a roleplaying game. To those people, go away; you have no business reading this.
* Roleplaying random combat: When two role-players wish to raise the action level of their situation, they will usually agree on who will win, who will lose, who will walk away, etc. Under NO circumstances must one deliver a deathblow to another RP'er in RP combat (unless it has been agreed upon by both players).
* Role-playing a planned situation: When a situation involves a good sized group of people, basically there will be two sides to the encounter. Both sides will agree OOC how to handle the situation more or less. A general agreement should be reached about the nature of this struggle. For example, do you want to use poisons, melee, ranged, etc?
* /Duel: This duel command does not constitute all RP combat. You can hit people without physically dueling them. For instance, a person (someone I RP with), is in my way. I can do a "Deroga Faale walks past [person], shoving them aside.". The person would then react with something like "Steps back slightly at the shove and sneers at Deroga." Of course you would not do this verbatim, just a random situation I'm presenting. Modesty is the key to RP'ing successful combat.
In general, RP combat is an amazing way to heighten a situation when done PROPERLY. Just because you are a Level 80 Jedi Master with an insanely high combat rating, does NOT give you the right to win everytime. I could be a Level 4 Medic and still knock you out cold, then make away with your money bag if we agree on it. Of course this would be done using emotes or something along that line.
IV. Knowing How to Have Fun
Remember that you're playing a game. Do NOT take anything in the game personally. RolePlaying helps GREATLY with this, because you deal only with people who can differentiate real life with role-playing a game. You become a much smarter person due to your increased understanding of the artistry involved with role-playing a character.
Most of all you remember, you also put aside the lack of game content at times, and basically CREATE YOUR OWN CONTENT!!!
By Deroga | Tronix | Doktorr - Tarquinas Server, SWG
Preface
These are Rules/Guidelines I've learned and gathered from almost 2 years of role-playing on 5 different servers in Star Wars Galaxies, and a few months in World of Warcraft. I've met tons upon tons of role-players and have been involved in countless RP situations. If you are an arrogant person, don't read this. If you are a modest person looking to improve/start your role-playing, this guide is for you. Enjoy.
In role-playing, you must ignore any and all ingame mechanics. This includes:
* The person's name you see over their head
* The person's profession/level/combat rating/bio info or anything else you can find about them by using game commands.
To be a great role-player doesn't require fantastic English or a giant vocabulary: only a solid consistent creativity. You must be in-tune with all that your character is and react as if YOU were your character. React as if this was real life and everything in the game was really happening. That is the key to role-playing, and what separates a role-player from a power-gaming junkie.
Two terms you must know are:
1. OOC (Out of character): Anything done OOC is anything that includes ingame mechanics, use of terms like 'lol' and 'haha'. This also includes anything that has no relevance to whats going on in the storyline/game scene. If you decide to be OOC (like all power-gamers are), you must use double-parenthesis around your OOC speech. For example, if I say want to say: "Sup dude, I dunno how long Imma be online tonight", I should say it as (("Sup dude, I dunno how long Imma be online tonight")). This shows I respect RP'ing and know what I'm doing. It is also a symbol of a higher status of player with whom you would be able to create tons of fun aside from game content.
2. IC (In Character): Anything done IC is anything that includes your role-playing. When IC, you must never EVER use 'lol' or 'haha' or address someone by their name unless you've been given it IC. For more info on IC interaction with others, read section II below.
I. Knowing Yourself
To effectively role-play in any MMORPG, you must first understand yourself. This means knowing everything there is to know about your own toon (character). You MUST be able to identify anything about your character at any time regarding any possible given situation.
See if you can answer the following questions about your toon:
* What is my toon's name?
* How old is my toon? (Though it may be a secret in your RP, you should at least have some clue)
* Does my toon have a family? Who are they? How many? What is their role in my toon's life?
* What type of work does my toon excel at?
* What type of work does my toon suck at? (Modesty is the key to achieving a believable character)
* What is my toon's favorite color? (Used for clothing, schemes, etc)
* Why is my toon here, in this time, in this place?
* Is my toon strong or weak / physically and emotionally?
* What kind of people does my toon associate with?
* What kind of people does my toon NOT associate with?
II. Knowing Other People
Now that you know yourself, you are ready to start getting to know other people. This is where you being IC comes into play. * Meeting someone new:
- When meeting someone new in a game, you are usually tempted to call them by the name you see hovering over their heads. This is fine if you play with NON-RP'ers. In RP, however, you must ask them their name first. Pretend you approach someone in real life. Would you say, "Hi Frank!", without them ever telling you their name? NO! That would constitute some sort of awkward situation I'm sure.
- Do not assume anything about this person based on their tag, profession, bio, etc. Do not use anything about this person when talking to them for the first time that you are able to gather from ingame commands. If you want to find out about this person, ask them IC!
* Meeting regular friends:
- IC friends: Obviously if your friends RP you're all going to be IC all the time. Being IC DOES NOT mean you talk with a stick up your ass (pardon my French). Do not assume that IC toons must speak like old English poets. You must speak the way your toon speaks based on how they were raised, their culture, their heritage, etc.
For example, I met this one guy playing a zabrak warrior. He would always greet people with words from the zabraki vocabulary. Due to my lack of knowledge in Zabrak lingo, I wont even try to repeat what he says. I knew another guy a long time ago who plays a Smuggler for jabba. He always spoke with a southern accent and had fits of anger/cursing because that's what his toon was all about.
- OOC friends: Well, if you're with friends that don't RP I think that speaks for itself how you will interact.
III. Knowing RP Combat
Role-playing combat is a very sensitive issue. It is not a secret that MMORPG's attract the stupidest of players, who play only to grief, 'pwn', and jeopardize the integrity of all that is decent with a roleplaying game. To those people, go away; you have no business reading this.
* Roleplaying random combat: When two role-players wish to raise the action level of their situation, they will usually agree on who will win, who will lose, who will walk away, etc. Under NO circumstances must one deliver a deathblow to another RP'er in RP combat (unless it has been agreed upon by both players).
* Role-playing a planned situation: When a situation involves a good sized group of people, basically there will be two sides to the encounter. Both sides will agree OOC how to handle the situation more or less. A general agreement should be reached about the nature of this struggle. For example, do you want to use poisons, melee, ranged, etc?
* /Duel: This duel command does not constitute all RP combat. You can hit people without physically dueling them. For instance, a person (someone I RP with), is in my way. I can do a "Deroga Faale walks past [person], shoving them aside.". The person would then react with something like "Steps back slightly at the shove and sneers at Deroga." Of course you would not do this verbatim, just a random situation I'm presenting. Modesty is the key to RP'ing successful combat.
In general, RP combat is an amazing way to heighten a situation when done PROPERLY. Just because you are a Level 80 Jedi Master with an insanely high combat rating, does NOT give you the right to win everytime. I could be a Level 4 Medic and still knock you out cold, then make away with your money bag if we agree on it. Of course this would be done using emotes or something along that line.
IV. Knowing How to Have Fun
Remember that you're playing a game. Do NOT take anything in the game personally. RolePlaying helps GREATLY with this, because you deal only with people who can differentiate real life with role-playing a game. You become a much smarter person due to your increased understanding of the artistry involved with role-playing a character.
Most of all you remember, you also put aside the lack of game content at times, and basically CREATE YOUR OWN CONTENT!!!
