General RP Guidelines

IC =/= OOC

First off, you SHOULD NOT take anything negative said about your character IC as a slight to YOU yourself OOC. Nice little catholic children can roleplay the most damned individuals and not have anything in common with the character. That's why it's called ROLEPLAYING, folks.

You're not going to get punished because your character is a dick, and as long as everyone is able to keep the IC/OOC line from blurring, we should be able to all get along well... as well as we can.

Probably more importantly though, just because you know something, that doesn't mean that your character should know it, and in fact, often times they shouldn't. I know a lot about random videogames, but if my character isn't a video game player (Or heck, lives in a time where those don't exist), then he probably shouldn't know the same things as I do.

Of course, with characters coming from different ages and dimensions, not all of them are going to be familiar with humans/modern technology. This does not give you an excuse to have them magically know about it. There are IC reactions to this kind of stuff that must be carried out and dealt with. I'm sure your character will eventually get used to the way things are and this won't even matter anymore.

However, this isn't as dangerous as another way this could work. Let's say you and a fellow player are discussing things about your characters. Unless your character and their character have a history, you should still be entering the interaction blind. Even if you know from the beginning that the other character is going to be trying to mess with your character, that doesn't mean that your character should be entering the interaction defensively, unless that is in their character.

Let's say you know that a character will at one point in the game be undergoing a dramatic personality shift, it doesn't make your character look cool to have them think, for no apparent reason, that said character isn't acting natural. In fact, it just makes it look like you can't differentiate between in character and out of character.

ICA=ICC

In Character Actions have In Character Consequences.

In case you aren't immediately grasping what this means, it's basically just a reminder that if your character acts like an unrepentant asshole, they're probably going to get treated like one. Likewise, if your character shoots a man in the face, hey guess what, you're probably going to attract the attention of the police because you just shot a dude in the face, and that's generally frowned upon.

Now what does this mean for you here? Well if your character winds up pissing off a character, guess what, they might avoid your character. It's basically just a reminder that what happens to your character is more or less entirely decided by what you do with them, for better or for worse. If your character winds up telling a man with a knife at his jugular to fuck off, they're probably going to get cut.

You're not likely to wind up screwing yourself over due to in character actions, but In Character Consequences are always there, at least as long as your character is, well, performing actions.

Just please, if your character goes around murdering/raping/generally making life a living hell for every other character, don't be surprised or upset if every other character hates your character.

Your character isn't perfect.

Your character is just one among many. They're an individual with flaws and shortcomings. They can be tricked, they can fail. Too many players fall into the same trap of trying to show off how cool their character is by having them be the smartest and best, but when everyone is doing that, it's no fun to read.

Now there are a lot of reasons why having a perfect character is bad. With a perfect character there is rarely a legitimate conflict. Oh yes, an enemy showed u- oh hey they already killed it. Now we all know that most characters around these parts can fight competently, but that doesn't mean you can't make them struggle. We all have a layer of player character armor, so our characters aren't going to die without our consent, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't make things hard for them now and again.

This is especially worth noting when your character is fighting someone else's character. One character WILL lose, and if yours is smaller and weaker... chances are you will be the one to lose. That doesn't mean you can't put up a fight, nor does it mean your character can't outwit the stronger character. Fights are subjective, mostly, but just remember that most of the time, stronger > weaker.

Now, notice I said 'player character' armor, and not 'main character' armor.

Your character is not the main character.

Now, I won't go and say that your character isn't an important character, because that just wouldn't be true. Everyone's interactions with everyone else is what fuels the roleplay. But guess what, we don't need a main character, and if we did, they would be only very slightly more important than the other characters, probably getting the final hit on some big bad or some such thing.

Don't be a douchebag.

Naked unchecked aggression does not for a happy funtime RP make. You have to think about it this way, even if you completely hate player X, and you really don't care if they like your or not, making those feelings obvious is a really good way to alienate yourself from the other players, no matter how they feel about player X.

If they know you for being a hateful person, they're likelier to step on broken eggshells around you, or just completely try to avoid you. Now I don't know about you guys, but I'd prefer that we all played as one big happy family, and even if you have that one family member that always shows up at the family functions wearing that stained wifebeater, already drunk, rambling about how the robots stole his job and the aliens stole his teeth, you put up with them as long as they aren't a danger to others or yourself, because they're family. Last I checked we were still a happy mushy family blob thing, so just quit hating on each other and congeal already.

Now again, I'm not saying that you can't dislike people in the RP, but if you can at least put up a nice front in public, we can at least get to the end of this without killing each other, and isn't that what we all would prefer?

Godmoding is bad and you should feel bad.

Okay, I'm sure we all know what godmoding is, but I'll clarify what I mean. Any time that you basically write out someone else's reaction to something your character is doing, you're godmoding. Yes, I'm sure your dark and mysterious silver-haired long sworded character's display of swordsmanship was very impressive, but that doesn't mean you can write out how the other character gasps in amazement.

It's their character, not yours.

You may be a total fan of so-and-so canon character and know EVERYTHING about them, but you don't know how the other character will react and you don't know their thought process, because guess what, you aren't the person writing for the character. It's all fine and dandy to be thinking something along the lines of, "Okay, if I say this, their character will likely respond like this," but don't go and throw a hissyfit when their character DOESN'T respond like that. Of course, there's an even worse way to react. And what would that be, boys and girls?

Telling people how to play their character.

You may have the absolute coolest idea for some character interaction, but if they don't think that their character would do what you think needs to be done for said interaction to occur, tough cookies. All the planning in the world means nothing if you don't get the other player to agree to it.

However, there is always the chance that you actually DO know better then the other player. What if you believe that they're playing a canon character very, well, out of character? It may be best in that case, to POLITELY tell this player how you feel the character is being portrayed OOC, and try to help them feel out the character better.

Just do NOT blow a gasket over the matter. Especially if you're the one receiving the constructive criticism. Be polite.