Things to Avoid in RP Part 2

This page was imported from a forum post dated June 27, 2015 in the category Chatterbox by Dylan Locke. Its content is likely to be out of date!

Sat, 06/27/2015 - 20:16

This is a continuation of this thread:

Things it is generally wise to avoid in RP

Which has since grown to large for a single thread.

This thread is to list common things that players may run into or they may even be doing.

Since this involves complaining about people doing things we do not like, please do try to keep comments civil. This is here to help list common problems, not point the finger at so-and-so for doing that annoys you. :)

This forum will also focus more on OOC behavior rather than IC actions but a few may crop up here or there.

Sniping

PROBLEM:

A player snipes a story by posing after every other players turn. Player A, B, and C may be in a combat scene for example, Instead of posing in the order of A, B, C, player A starts to pose after each player, turning pose order into A, B, A, C, A

This isn't a simple case of not having a pose order, this is a player interrupting everyone's turn, usually with short posts because they are typing so quickly, and with out warning.

Imagine typing out a longer, detailed post only to find that a player has posed ahead of you in a way that has invalidated your pose.

Solution:

Let all those who CAN react to the scene react before posing. If the party is split but still using the same room then having people pose out of order (with out running over others :D ) is acceptable. Otherwise, if all the characters in your group have not reacted to the given situation, event, or conversation, then it is not your turn yet.

Steam Rolling

PROBLEM:

More of a problem on forums but it can take place on a muck easily enough. This is what happens when two snipers get together and keep posing before the other characters have a chance to react. The rest of the party may just create a large back log of posts the other players have to read through or they may even change the scene before a player can react.

Either way this puts un needed pressure on players to keep up with them less they be steam rolled by the plot and their character is just sort of...there, in the back ground.

This can be applied if the scene continues while the player is not present to finish it as well.

SOLUTION:

Slow down.

Simple enough. Role play requires typing, typing requires time. That is why we have pose orders to keep players from being left behind :3

Meta Gaming

PROBLEM:

God Moding has been talked to death here and in other sites and is knowing by many names. Meta Gaming, Tweeking, Mary Sue among others.

In essence Meta Gaming is bending the universe around you to fit your needs and with out consequences. Be it a character knowing oocly information they were not present for, to controlling another players character.

There are however other ways to meta game that are not always talked about. Let's say you want sneak into Redwall abbey. What villain doesn't? So instead of showing yourself sneaking into the abbey, you just appear there, despite the fact that the walls are guarded, the gates are shut at night, etc etc.

Now this is not to say that you can not have a character appear out of no where, then later have the players search for how the villain got in. That would not be meta gaming...if the reason is plausible.

Another area is spoofing your character with out consequences. Thievery, assault, harassing the guards, are all major crimes in any era of history. If your character does any of these to any degree, expect there to be icly repercussions from the npcs or even players around you.

If you start a fight in a city, the guards are more likely to appear (not always instantly, but eventually.) If you threaten an npc in full public view, expect there to be a reaction from the people around you. If your character assaults a bad guy, the guards won't take kindly to you.

SOLUTION:

We will each meta game at some point in time, accidental or on purpose. Remember to not assume that what you do will always be successful, and if running npcs, ask yourself how YOU would react to the situation if you were in their shoes.

World's Greatest Detective

PROBLEM:

A player is instantly able to identify a villain and or treats the villain badly because they are the villain.

Another form of meta gaming or tweaking but taken to a different degree. In this scenario a player, or players, are able to instantly identify the villainous character or maybe even a simple jerk character with out meeting them before and then treat them accordingly. It doesn't matter that a 'heroic' character commits the same crimes, this character is a villain so he must be instantly hated and punished!

Unless the target character dresses in spiked plate mail and drinks his wine from a badger skull, your character would not be able to completely identify someone as evil from their appearance alone. To be fair, in real life you can get a 'vibe' from people if they wish you harm and there are people who just make you feel uneasy for no reason at all. That is not this. This is, 'you treat the bad guy badly simply because you know oocly they are a bad guy.'

SOLUTION:

Unless your character has a personality trait where they react violently to situations like this (which would make them just as paranoid and possibly violent as the people they fear) a character should wait until the villain or jerk gives them a reason to react accordingly.

SPAM

PROBLEM:

There are actually several ways to spam a muck. One, you spam the forums with posts off subject or different from the conversation IE you remind someone they need to start up a story by posting your request to something they replied to in a completely different forum topic.

On the muck itself there are 2 ways to spam the game. 1. A player over uses public chat or sends out bulk pages mails to multiple players at once, repeatedly.

2. They over use ooc chat (room page here) to the point that it is hard to find the posts of others.

SOLUTION:

By all means it is alright to greet others, to have fun in ooc chat, just remember to keep it balanced and to not be doing it to the point of interupting the games of others :3

PROBLEM:

SOLUTION:

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