Needs some advice regarding RP TOS statement

[Doug R.]

I cobbled together a concise Terms of Use for Cantr. I had a clause involving role-play, but Jos justifiably didn't like it as it was too vague, and role-play is defined differently by different people.

1) If I wanted to say something in 1-2 sentences about role-playing rules/guidelines in Cantr, what should I say? (God-modding is not permitted? - I just learned of this term today).

2) Can someone give me a link to a website that gives a comprehensive overview of role-playing etiquette?

[Gran]

God-modding is not well-estabilished in my glossary. Yet.

As for etiquette, fas search reveals:

• This;
• This;
• And this.

I actually only skimmed over those sources, but they seem to make a nice setting for your own writings on the issue.

[Doug R.]

Godmodding

Copying it here, since it's a wiki and can disappear, and I quite like it:

It's actually correctly called "godmoding", in reference to the "god mode" you can enter in a computer game to become invincible.

In roleplay, it means trying to exert too much control over the plot and other characters, usually because the player has no concept of in character or out of character and is there to "win" and satisfy their ego rather than be creative and collaborative. Examples:

1) Invincibility
Creating a character so powerful and invulnerable that it cannot take any damage, be incapacitated or hindered, lose a fight, feel pain etc.

2) Dictating other players' responses
Swinging a punch and telling the other player that they are down, that they are unconscious, cut, dead or whatever. In sexual roleplay, it might mean dictating someone else's level or signs of arousal.

3) Impossibility
Drawing a knife when your hands are tied. Pulling a bow out of your rectum when you're on the ground and hogtied (I wish I were making this up). Drawing a bow out of your rectum at all, come to that. Being held by the hair and with a knife at your throat but whizzing round and slapping your captive and disarming them.

4) Just plain silliness
Taking the plot to asinine turns purely to avoid your character having to suffer a misfortune too weak for your manly fictitious self. Being shot at and deflecting the bullet with a penny on a string so that it flies back up the gun nozzle. Again, I wish I were making this up.

5) Anything that is used to let one character force the plot and does not enable the story to be a properly collaborative effort with plausibility.

It's annoying, anti-social, counterproductive and makes you look stupid. Nobody thinks the godmoder is strong, hard, cool or intelligent. We think you have no consideration, no understanding of roleplay and no intelligence whatsoever. Don't do it.

[Gran]

Oh, it's what children do when they play make-believe. That's just nasty.

Actually, I noticed that one of the links I posted might be innapropriate( and a bit ironicaly, or fittingly, the one I thought was better ). Anyway, it's hard to find somehing that actually fits Cantr. Maybe some MUD guide, or something can be extracted out of FTO.

Back-on-track, summing up what might be a good rule on roleplaying is 'not playing with what you don't exert control over'. You can't, that way:

• Roleplay items you don't have;
• Puppeteer other people's characters;
• Become invincible;
• Decide the outcome a blow, abstract or physical.

The downside is that it could also forbid roleplaying interactions with nature, but that's an issue of interpretation. Also, as I written it, it's not clear if it's spoken to the player or the player as in character. Because technically the player has control over his other characters, so this might lead to something unwanted.

Are any other things to be forbidden other than Godmodding? I mean, other than that, it would be a regulation of customs.

[Addicted]

Godmodding

Copying it here, since it's a wiki and can disappear, and I quite like it:

It's actually correctly called "godmoding", in reference to the "god mode" you can enter in a computer game to become invincible.


2) Dictating other players' responses
Swinging a punch and telling the other player that they are down, that they are unconscious, cut, dead or whatever. In sexual roleplay, it might mean dictating someone else's level or signs of arousal.

Kelli and I met one. It was awful. She mentioned it on the forum. The male character dictated our responses and gave us no opportunity to respond before moving on. It was frustrating as we couldn't role play with him at all really. My character just ended up ignoring him or running inside or out, where ever he wasn't.

[formerly known as hf]

Isn't godmodding basically impossible in Cantr? Much written about RP is for games and events which are much, much more freeform than Cantr's world. You can't pull a bow out your arse in Cantr, because your arse is not defined as a container. Also, you probably haven't got the tools to make one yet.

It's less that godmodding isn't permitted, but that it's basically impossible, given that so much of Cantr is defined by the mechanics of the game.

Re: Above post.
Sure, in Cantr you can -demand- that other people do those things. You can even try to make them do it with violence or imprisonment. But that doesn't mean they will do those things. It's not on the level of godmodding.

Try to avoid anything about etiquette (except maybe other than basic literacy is appreciated) - Cantr needs more (in character) bastards out there!

So:
"Roleplay and interaction between characters should follow the mechanics of the game, and control over other characters is limited by the game mechanics (such as dragging and combat).

Charcters are free to be independent of any roleplay that proceeds beyond these mechanics and whilst you are free to roleplay other forms of interaction, it is up to the players of other characters to determine the response."

Two for you sentences there. Some examples may help:

"You cannot, for example, knock someone unconcious, unless the other player is willing to roleplay being unconscious.

And do not be surprised if your all-powerful magic user finds his or herself a bit nonplussed when their magical meteor storm that they bring down upon the local heathens is summarily ignored."



In regards to the Terms of Use, wouldn't something about OOC & metagaming (if it's not in there already) be most approriate for its impact on roleplay:
i.e:
"You are expected to play your characters 'In Character.' This means that their actions and interactions are shaped by the personalities and goals you develop for your character, rather than any overarching goal you may have as a player. Moreover, any information characters posess they should have learned only in-game (No out of game information such as maps or forum messages, Instant messaging or other out of game communication between players is allowed to have any bearing on the actions of your characters)."

[johnmatthais]

1) If I wanted to say something in 1-2 sentences about role-playing rules/guidelines in Cantr, what should I say? (God-modding is not permitted? - I just learned of this term today).

I would make sure that that 1-2 sentences made it clear that it was important, and that it was a big part of the game's experience. I don't know what else I'd say. We're talking rules/guidelines, not what the community has done with said rules/guidelines.

2) Can someone give me a link to a website that gives a comprehensive overview of role-playing etiquette?

Just Googling brought up a few articles that look pretty in-depth. However, the first one, the one I wanted to click, was red flagged by Chrome.

EDIT: I like fkahf's two sentences.

[SekoETC]

Violence should primarily happen using the programmed combat system but if someone wants to spice things up by rp'ing it, they should only write where they're aiming at, but leave it up to either the combat mechanics or the other player to define if it was a hit or a miss. Basically a person should never rp another person's reactions. People should also avoid chaining their moves if there's reason to believe that the opponent might do something between the actions mentioned in a row that would nullify the rest of the actions.

This makes me think of the time when a certain person rp'ed peeing on another person's face while leaving town, failing to notice that said person had gone inside minutes ago and wasn't present anymore, thus making the action impossible. But even if he had been outside, it would've been considered auto-hitting to do something like that. Too bad that topic about bad rp got locked because I think it would be educative to post examples of seriously bad emoting to show people what not to repeat.

[Doug R.]

"Role-play and interaction between characters should follow the mechanics of the game, and control over other characters is limited by the game mechanics (such as dragging and combat).

Characters are free to be independent of any roleplay that proceeds beyond these mechanics and whilst you are free to roleplay other forms of interaction, it is up to the players of other characters to determine the response."

Jos would really like this.