Razorwing Roleplaying Guidelines

This is the guide to making this whole shebang run smoothly both in-character and out-of-character.

In-character

• A GM's word is final - This is a very straight forward rule…what the GM says, goes. If you have an issue with a rules call or anything like that, please approach the GM privately and calmly to have the situation sorted out. Disobeying the ruling of a GM will result in temp-bans to start with. Punishments escalate from there.

• Do not power-game - This is probably the most basic rule in any well run RPing community. This covers the following things:
  • Min-maxing — Dumping as many skill points as you can in a certain area at character creation. Real people are rarely gods at anything, and are at least nominally talented in a variety of areas. Your character will hone several talents over time with XP, however. This is fine.
  • Mary Sues — Playing your character as the absolute best at everything. Good characters have personality flaws and things they are not good at.
  • Hogging the plot — Getting involved in all plots and then keeping them to yourself. You do not always have to find an excuse for your character to be involved in something, particularly if it's mostly for someone else.
  • God-modding¹ — Having your character do things they should not be able to. If your character is wounded, role-play it out and make sure your attacks are realistic to the weapon you wield and the character that does the wielding.

• Do not meta-game - Keep in-character discussions in-character and do not confuse IC and OOC drama. Don't let things you've been told out-of-character influence how your character acts. While the GMs cannot be the thought-police, meta-gaming takes away from the overall roleplaying experience. Use your judgement as players to determine what you should and should not discuss OOC with other players — typically, anything a GM sends you over private message should not be shared with other players until it comes up in-character. While this rule really only applies to 'hard' (GM-run) roleplaying, keep this in mind for soft RP as well.

• Is this good for the story? - This is a big one…in fact it is THE big one. Every action you take in a roleplay should be prefaced with this very question. All players should always ask themselves "Are my actions good for the story?" The same thing should be asked before taking issue with another players actions. We may not agree with one anthers actions, but sometimes you need to run with what the others give you. This is also not a player-versus-player environment: the characters are not here to defeat each other. Consider RW player vs. the plot, and remember that we're all here to have a good time and tell one amazing story.

• RP what you want - It is the player's right in any roleplaying game to step away from scenarios they are uncomfortable with. RW is no different. All cast members have the right to say public or privately to the GMs that they are not going to participate in a given scene for whatever reason. This also extends to soft RP scenes. No player can force another player into a plot/scene they do not want.

• The law of wiki - Players are always encouraged to add their own unique tidbits into the role-play as it progresses. Doing this is a good thing, and it impresses the GMs and means a lot to them as well. That being said, before adding in your own bit of history or worldbuilding, please check the thematic pages on this site for anything that already addresses this — a lot of work went into those pages.

• Players cannot retcon.² Sometimes, because humans make mistakes in what their character can or would do, it is necessary to retcon something³
  • The following two situations are the ONLY exceptions to this rule.
    • Factual errors. Either a character is shown knowing information that they had no way of knowing, or they're doing something that they can't do, due to personal ability or location. Alternatively, they give information that directly contradicts with established fact (and they're not lying).
    • Characterization errors. A character says or does something that they would not do. These should be caught quickly — it's hard enough to justify a retcon without needing to undo significant amounts of dialogue.

• Be coherent: Adurrr! If there's ambiguity in what your character is doing, where they are, or who they are talking too, fix that. And no gibberish.

• Characters run by the same player cannot not have prior history⁴: The point of roleplaying is to bounce off of each others' characters. Interrelated backstories make for bad roleplaying. Spread the RP around, include other players' characters in your backstory, it's far better for the game than keeping plot and RP to yourself.

• Do not roll when narration is an option: If you're not on a GM-run plot, and need to determine how well something is done, talk it out with those involved, don't start throwing rolls around in a soft-RP scene if you don't have to. Narration and mutual discussion is always the better option for text-based soft RP⁵.

Out-of-character

• We do not have free speech. It's a nice ideal, but yeah no. While you are allowed to believe whatever you want, you are not allowed to say whatever you want.
  • Our tolerance for racism, sexism, cissexismand heterosexism⁶⁷ is functionally zero. Expressing views along these lines is likely to get you kickbanned, with the evidence forwarded to whoever we feel deserves to know. RW is not a battleground — don't bring any of that up.
  • Dishonesty is not okay.⁸ While you do not have to share any information that you do not wish to share, lying is not acceptable. If you have information that could significantly affect someone else or their comfort level with a situation⁹, you are expected to give them that information. This applies to any interaction that occurs between players, either in the chat or outside it. If you are found to be untrustworthy, you may be asked to leave.
    • The flip side of this coin is that some information is confidential and should not be shared with others. That is to say, if someone tells you something and asks you not to tell anyone else, don't tell anyone else. Anything said in a private message is considered confidential unless the person gives permission otherwise. The exception is when someone is at risk in some manner.
  • Evangelism, religious or otherwise, is discouraged. RW is not your soapbox. Everybody is guilty of this occasionally, since everyone has strong beliefs on one thing or another. Further, political arguments will happen every so often, and there's nothing we can or wish to do about that. If your strong beliefs are disruptive enough, you will be asked to calm down. If you do not, you will be asked to leave.
  • This is not an exhaustive list. I'm not going to write a paragraph on every type of social misconduct just to get rid of all the loopholes — you should have good enough judgment to know whether you can say something here. If you're an asshole, shape up or leave.

• We are your friends. The players and GMs here are nice people who won't do anything on purpose to hurt you, and we want to make an effort to be your friends, if we are not already. You can come to RW and expect a safe environment where you can hang out with cool people. Conversely, you are expected to be nice to other people and to make an effort to be nice to them. Don't mock people after they ask you to stop, don't do things that you know will irritate them, and don't snap at each other. Listen when others are talking. If you don't have anything nice to say to someone, don't say it.¹⁰ While you won't always like everyone that comes in the chat, if you are actively unfriendly to others, you will be asked or made to leave.

• Don't be a drama llama. A drama llama is someone whose real life woes affect their behaviour in a social group. We all do this from time to time, because life is hard, and it's natural. Providing that you have the consent of your fellow members, you can talk about your shitty day/life/whatever — as mentioned above, we are your friends. That being said, we have a strict 'leave your baggage at the front desk before you enter' policy. We want to have fun, and forcing others to deal with your problems takes that away. If you are too distressed to function properly in- or out-of-character, it is recommended that you take a break for a day or two — this shows maturity. If you continue to be a drama llama, you may be asked to leave.

• We have a system for handling complaints. It is inevitable that someone is going to be upset with something that has happened in-character. There is, of course, a right way and a wrong way to deal with this. The wrong way is pulling the issue into OOC chat and shouting and screaming giving the GMs a headache. The PROPER way is to contact one of the GMs via private message on IRC and discuss the issue. During this discussion the GM may 'freeze the scene' meaning no RP continues until after the complaint is resolved (if possible).

Restricted Concepts

[placeholder]

Extended Absence Without GM Notification

Players that do not appear in at least the OOC channel for extended periods of time¹¹ are considered inactive. Characters controlled by an inactive player are automatically retired from play. For more information on character retirement, click here.

If a player knows that they are going to be absent for a long period of time, please inform the GMs as soon as is possible regard the absence¹². Players that have notified GMs regarding an extended absence with not lose their character(s).

Footnotes

1. s/modding/modeing

2. retcon, v.- To retroactively remove from the continuity. Something that is retconned did not happen. "Whoops, retcon that, she wasn't in the truck."

3. Some might use 'redact' as a synonym out of habit.

4. This rule is fluid and can be ignored in certain circumstances.

5. This does not apply to a GM-run plot. On those, you had better be rolling…cheater ;)

6. You may be more familiar with the term "homophobia". That is a specific type of heterosexism.

7. Yes, we have three types of sexist that you're not allowed to be. If you think this is overly restrictive, you probably won't fit in anyways.

8. I should not have to say this. But alas, experience says that I do.

9. This doesn't apply in-character — secrets between characters are fun.

10. This is not a "don't say that anyone is wrong ever" rule. You are allowed and encouraged to constructively criticize each other. The line is drawn where you start being mean or snide rather than honestly trying to help.

11. In this case, an extended period of time is two (2) months

12. If you are unable to provide advanced warning for an extended absence speak to the GMs, the possibility of an exception exists