World of Warcraft®

I've been asked to post this publicly a few times now, so here it is! It's by no means complete, edited, or unbiased, so feel free to comment.

I will likely add on more over time, especially if people have additional points, but this is a good starting point.

1) OOC communication is king. This can apply to both RP and RPPvP. 'Surprise' attacks are not RP-PvP - often times that's just PvP, or you stomping guards. If you want to have a good RP-PvP event, communicate. If you want to be well-accepted and get along with the RP community, communicate. Plan out rules beforehand. Tell both sides how many you're bringing. Tell any extras that show up to take their leave unless the other side can gather more numbers. Moderate your RP. Don't rule it with an iron fist, but keep it from going out of control, and most of all, keep it fun.

Going to do something that could change a character, or many characters lives in a major way? Ask beforehand. All it takes is a quick whisper. Those that agree can participate, those that don't can find a way to get away from whatever's going to happen thanks to your warning.

This also applies to running events - we don't want to crowd the calendar. Try working events together! The AAMS and Da Doctas' events line up once a month, so they combine them. Don't hog the calendar to yourself. Spread out the RP between guilds. Even small guilds could run events.

On the flipside, please, PLEASE for the love of god keep it to whispers or /party if there's multiple people involved. Some events are hard enough to keep up with without you asking OOC to do something, much less prattling on OOC about what you had for dinner.

2) Don't god-mod. This seems evident, but I've actually refrained from posting information here on the DotOrg because I fear it'll be used IC, as it were.

The same applies to addons with 'background' information - I cringe everytime I see them. A good idea, in theory, but in practice it tends to fail.

Example:

My character, Vanyris, is a Magister. He's also a Warlock.

That said, he hides the latter fact in character. You couldn't 'sense' a fel aura on him, you wouldn't 'know', he hides it, and he hides it fairly well, unless he presents the fact to you.

But were I to post something about it in character, not only would I have to deal with people magically knowing because he's that class in-game, I'd have to worry about them reading it on his background tab/information section.

Again, when in doubt, communicate OOCly.

3) Be considerate with your character concept.

There are two lines you should not cross. The absurd/impossible, and the inappropriate.

The first is fairly simple. Keep your character concept.. well, simple. If your character breaks the lore in some massive way, it doesn't just affect you. Other people have to either consider you crazy, or take into account - why can't my character do that? Fairly simply, because they stick to the lore. When you start breaking lore, however, it becomes more difficult for others to stick to it. And ignoring another RPer on a small server like ours sucks, flat out.

In short, be considerate - your character is not unkillable, chances are you aren't a dragon. If there's only one of your class in-lore, or they're a super powerful class, you probably shouldn't RP it. This isn't 'lore !@#$ing', this is sticking to the only rules we have - Blizzard's lore. Without it, we're without standards, without a guideline, and RP's impossible to manage. If you're the most powerful mage in the world, why hasn't the Kirin Tor tracked you down, why doesn't everyone know about it, etc.

RP is not your own personal story. It's several people, a community, working together to create many plots, both small and large, and with a bit of work, interwoven together. If your character is far fetched, overpowered, or out of the lore, it becomes impossible to weave into other's plots.

The second line I'll be brief about. I don't care what your character's background is. Make it whatever the hell you want, I'm not easily offended. But when your character has a dark background, have a bit of consideration with it in public.

You want to RP that? Fine, I don't care. Like I said, I'm not easily offended. That said, children play this game. Moreso than that, that %^-* happens to people - you don't know if you're RPing with a person, or many people, to whom it happened.

Certain things are far over the line. RP that in private, hell, I wouldn't mind it in private RP - but you don't know who you're effecting spewing stories like that constantly.

4) And last, but not least, be open with your RP. I've seen this on CC, albeit not nearly as much as I've seen it on WrA/MG.

Quick example of what not to do:

A person, possibly new to the server, starts RPing with you whilst you're in the middle of a plot.

Annoyed, you ignore the person, and take your RP to whispers/party chat so that you can continue your plot uninterrupted.

This is a horrible, horrible thing to do.

Certain RP can be private, sure. In a house? Sure, do your thing. People wouldn't break into your house and if you wanna RP illicit deeds privately, go for it. More power to you, especially if you do so in private so you aren't broadcasting it.

But if you're in the open world, in the city?

Involve the person. No matter how new, how inept of an RPer they may seem, if they are an RPer, include them. At least give it a /shot/. If it works out, it can be a lot more fun for everyone involved, including the newcomer. If it doesn't, and they're lorebreaking/bendy/etc and they annoy you, fine, but at least you can say you tried.

TL;DR a lot of my posts revolve around common courtesy and communication. Most of RP's problems could be solved if people bit the bullet and talked more.

+1

Well said. :3 I don't think I could agree more with this, especially the emphasis on the importance of OOC communication. If my character is going to do something horrible to someone else, I always ask permission first. It is just a courteous thing to do.

Things Arothand said.

This. I wish this was here to read when I began RP here on CC.

This. I wish this was here to read when I began RP here on CC.

I'm glad to see the positive reactions!

This is in no way meant to be condescending, to anyone.

I realize some people may not agree on all points, but I tried to make them not -too- terribly subjective.

That said, if anyone does disagree, or think that something needs to be added, feel free to say something here! The RP community could certainly use a discussion of these things.