User blog:The Black Dragon of Orihara/Solar's fun little guide to Roleplaying

I'm gonna be blunt, and I'm gonna lie it short and sweet here, it's came to my attention, along with several others, that some people are ruining RPs mainly from godmodding, powerplaying, metagaming, etc. Along with somewhat sloppily designed characters. Here's what this guide is, so you either reform (or prevent), or get a kick out of reading this. I do realize that some people right now are likely 'Nope, not gonna read this at all', and thing is, good for f***in' you.

Otherwise, this blog will be about a proper etiquette advancing within the story.

=1. The Obvious= No Godmodding, Powerplaying, Metagaming, and all that nonsense, this includes autohitting to a degree. RP Battles are done with the thought that it moves in a realistically-timed pace per posts of each of the combatant, if your character has a punch thrown at them, and all they do is talk in the next move, or if they ignore something done to them in the RP, chances are, in a realistic time scenario, they'd be hit.

See FAQs for what this is, etc.

=2. Call Outs= Only callout someone if you're sure they've broken a rule in RPing etiquette, not if you're losing the fight. Not only this makes you look like a bit of an a**, but it does change peoples' opinions on you. Before you call someone out, here is the three questions you should ask yourself.


 * 1. Have I also been Godmodding?
 * 2. Am I just angry at the person because things aren't going my way?
 * 3. Am I sure they're Godmodding?

If you answered yes to questionaires 1. and 2., then don't call the person out. If you answered yes to 3, then go nuts.

=3. How to deal with Godmodding= Simply tell the Chatmod or call the person out, if they try to accuse you of the same, review what you've done in the RP and clarify facts on why you haven't Godmodded, or just admit that you have Godmodded if you were, Denial is often the reason why Godmodders aren't that fun to play with.

=4. Make sure your character is balanced= This is an obvious one. Characters being expert swordsmen or ninjas at the teenage years is a glaring issue to me, and I mean heavily. I do get the idea that everyone is raised differently and whatnot, but you don't just learn everything in the world all by your lonesome, you're taught. Characters with insanely High IQs within a young age, I am looking at you. Yes, even my own.

Now I know what you're thinking. "But Solar, this is Fantasy, we don't have to play by the rules.", sorry to shoot you down, but there is one thing every single RP needs unless the RP is a gag/joke RP, Logic. It's this said logic that people choose to ignore, like a group of murderers killing a boy's parents then raising the boy himself to be a killer for no good reason at all. Instead of murdering the boy and taking the family's money. As well as someone who only grew up on the streets with just a gaming console and whatnot, automatically having high intelligence to build himself some things that a child his age wouldn't be able to get, particularly due to monetary reasons as well as the fact that it's highly improbable.

I've honestly seen a straight line that has a less predictable outcome. Because somehow kids get access to nukes, high power tech suits, armies, empires, and all the like, and can supposedly lead it fine even if they turn out to be a pretty s***ty leader, and c'mon, what kind of group is right in the head if their leaders have been killed, and they put a young TEENAGER in control of the nation?

=5. Canon Relations and Relationships in general= Oh, this is the glaring issue I've come to love and hate the most. Canon Relationships are perhaps the most scathing thing for a character's originality, where the FC and the canonical character see each other as 'The One' and other bull like that. Or being the daughter of a pairing they ship, the issue is though, is that there's so many canon-fanon children that whenever the two get into the same presence as each other, they're either siblings, or something entirely convoluted and unnerving. I'd get to explaining that, but it'd be pretty graphic.

That aside, if your character has a relation to the canon character in someway, please make sure that it's done correctly, correctly as in you develop the relation as much as you can, without derailing how the character acts, their own plot, or anything else fairly significant of them, or at least have a partial modification to it too, but most of all, it's important to stay true to how the canon character would act, along with their personality and what not. Shadow doesn't care about Swiss rolls, and I'm sure if an army was standing at the door to his home, he'd give more a damn about the army.

Now, to relationships in general, there is no "We're bf-gf now okay? Okay.", that's just plain stupid and wrong in my honest opinion. Now, the worst cases is when someone decides to cheat. I've seen a cheater in the RP every year or two, and trust me, it gets to be a real doozie when people find out, most RPers tend to feel what's done to their characters, and I can see why. But not only this can make the cheated on character vengeful in someway. If this character is said to be a persona of yours, then that can draw major red flags. It makes people see what you could be as a person.

That being said, be careful when making relationships, and make sure the canon character's original being isn't distorted so heavily.

=6. Mooks aren't always Mooks= This is a glaring issue, and I do mean glaring. Many people assume whatever soldiers they're fighting to be mooks, so generally a weak person, therefore whatever these mooks do are often negated or ignored mainly since most people go by the general precipice that is their character is what towers over someone who doesn't have a name. To be blunt? Most people kill mooks and expect their characters to get away scotfree without any sort of injury, or that their characters shouldn't be held accountable for killing nameless people. Which goes to the second part.

=6.1 Crowd Control= Honestly, Awkwarddingo has pointed this out, but sometimes, crowd control is done with good reason, to make the RP World feel alive. He pointed this out too. Sure, one person can control the crowd, that's where I can see the issue. And I've experienced this on a few sites I've went to, where people automatically assume that their character is in the right and that the crowd should agree with them.

But, there is a way to properly crowd control. And it's called playing multiple factors.

In my seven years of experience and counting, I've learned how to RP many characters, illiterate bandits, noblemen and noblewomen. The Military commander especially, and the many shades of such. It's relatively easy to do the longer you RP, now, this doesn't mean I can't RP as any character. I can't RP as Thesis' characters mainly since I can portray her characters as very condescending, upon this factor, this breaks as they are. Of course, this makes it easier to RP as other characters, even canonical ones (Mainly that of Remilia Scarlet and Patchouli Knowledge from Touhou). But give me some time with a character, and I could get a generally good idea on how they act.

Now, I do crowd control Trinitarians for the most part, but that's because that would be my faction, but they still react in different, varied ways. Some don't approve of Solar's harsh way of battling, where others do. On the other hand, there can be those that don't care, either. But, here's where I say, again, Crowd Control can be done correctly. People love to get the crowd on their side, and I speak this from many problems that I've experienced in my childhood to even now. At work, you could say that my coworkers and customers are on my side, but occasionally I get off on the wrong foot during my job and they could end up being divided. What you do to the crowd impacts what the crowd thinks of you.

=6.2 Picking a fight can result in major consequences= Back to the topic of Mooks, they aren't always mooks. A trained soldier can do well better than a kid just given a gun and being told to shoot people. Were a Veteran to go up against the Greenhorn, the Veteran would win, not only by experienced, but because the Veteran is more of properly trained. This is honestly one of the worst factors of RPing, most people love to say their character is on the side of Good, therefore are entitled to a win and curbstomping the bad guys, even trained soldiers, regardless of their rank, training, or experience..

Of course, the problem is is that even if someone wins, they don't think they'll be held accountable for whatever crimes they've done, and thus, choose to deny anything they've done wrong, this also includes the Roleplayer in cases, too "My character's just a kid" / "My character's done nothing wrong" when said character is responsible for mass murder or killings, or simply murder. Again, the crowd doesn't forget, this also includes your fellow RPers. So if your character goes off killing mooks or other characters for the Hell of it, don't expect the hammer of Judgment to miss your head and not come back for an actual hit to the spine.

And no, being a God, or royalty, doesn't excuse you from any crimes of the sort either. Or any sort of powerful sort, doesn't give you automatic diplomatic immunity. Oh, and even if you claim that? Watch this.

=7. Other suggested etiquette= I know in some cases in listing this, I can be a bit hypocritical, but.


 * Do not harass others or repeatedly ask for a Roleplay in Chat
 * Do not harass others OVER what happened in an RP (otherwise you might get harassed back or treated the same way)


 * Do not put your characters in the superior limelight just because a group of people or a few like your character. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and just because multiple eyes look, doesn't make your character automatically better than others'.
 * That being said, just because your character is "better" doesn't mean your character should win, let alone, harass someone else over it. (Though if you truly act like that to people, they can tear your character apart and thus leading to a fight of who can see who grows plants the fastest)


 * Do not ask for character pages for strengths and weaknesses, even if your character has a high IQ, it's still meta should you use the page to your advantage.


 * Keep ERP in your pants or, at least, private chat
 * Forcing ERP is bannable, by the way.


 * Not RPing is an option
 * Not following a user's directive for an RP is sometimes recommended depending on the case and point scenario, a user shouldn't dictate what people should do during an RP, that takes all the fun away, plus, in an OOC standpoint, is technically dictatorship, no one likes a fascist RP regime. (Unless it has something to do with the RP)

=FAQs=
 * What's Godmodding?


 * Godmodding is the act of where the odds are stacked heavily against the opposition in such a way where the character they're fighting is technically a God, hence the term Godmodding, examples of Godmodding includes.


 * Ridiculously OP Stats
 * Dodging every single attack that comes your way
 * Landing all six shots with a Revolver with perfect accuracy, ignoring the Revolver's spread and recoil.
 * Cosmoguns with infinite ammo
 * Automatic weakness exploit
 * Autohitting for no damn good reason


 * What's Powerplaying


 * Powerplaying is the act of instantly obtaining some artifact of legendary power that is horrendously OP, or instantly obtaining an army and the like for no damn good reason. Examples of Powerplaying includes


 * Instantly having the seven chaos emeralds (This is so horrendously common)
 * Requirements to change Super is done in an easy fashion.
 * Again, Cosmoguns
 * Instantly obtaining an RPG at the start of the fight.
 * Technically, hammerspace, as it allows anyone to store anything and to pull it out with a blink of an eye
 * So many weapons to hold but apparently having a place to put them all without being weighed down or impeded in movement via any way shape or form.
 * Instant power-ups
 * 1-ups
 * An Hero (<--- This is a joke if you couldn't tell. :T)


 * What is Metagaming


 * Metagaming is the act where the character holds knowledge of something that they wouldn't normally have knowledge of, this is the ultimate factor of where an RP can turn really s***ty real quick. Examples of Metagaming includes


 * Knowing someone's name without even meeting them, if they aren't famous at all.
 * Instantly knowing someone's powers, abilities, and sets
 * Instantly knowing someone's strengths and weaknesses
 * Instantly knowing someone's location at any given time for no damn good reason
 * Shortly put, instantly knowing ANYTHING about a person before getting to know them.


 * How do I call someone out?


 * You first tell a Mod/Admin/whatever and see their input, along with your fellow users, except for the accused, if over half of the people say yes, call the person out for Godmodding, there is a fair chance that the accused can call you out for doing the same, so make sure what you're saying is something with confidence and is for the good of making the RP a bit healthier.

That's all there is to it, I might add some more along the way, too.