This is some stuff I wrote about RP, particularly concepts of fair play, a while ago. I'm reposting them here.
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In Character Actions yield In Character Consequences
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I ran into a couple of RPers the other day who were behaving badly. One did something that was pretty inappropriate so my character tried to knock him over for it. It wasn't a dangerous, killing attack or anything. It was literally a shove. He went Neo and dodged it. His reason? He didn't feel like RP fighting at the moment. /rolleyes.
He was unprepared to take the fair IC consequences for his IC actions.
He exposed himself to someone when that someone's significant other was pretty much right next to him. What do you think is going to happen? I mean come on.
Meanwhile, someone else sitting nearby who wanted to be a tough guy chimed in. So my character came and got in his personal space. He tried to attack me and so I emoted I was pulling a (what the other guy's name was) pulled and dodged the attack. Then I appended and said the attack glanced and the guy ran off before my character could retaliate... because he didn't want to fight.
So I make a remark about ICA=ICC, and that if inappropriate guy didn't want to face consequences for his IC actions he shouldn't have whipped his junk out. Dick guy says he doesn't know what that means but that I'm a snob and heads off and one of my friends asks "What's ICA=ICC?" I explain what the acronym is and the friend pretty much inferred the rest.
So here I am writing a blurb on it because it's on my mind.
ICA=ICC means: In Character Actions yield In Character Consequences.
It is pretty much a pillar of coherent, good roleplay. It separates the people who just want to play pretend from people who want to roleplay with realistic consequences.
ICA=ICC applies in several ways, both with direct character actions against other players, and character actions and concepts within the world its self.
ICA=ICC with other players: If your character does something that would upset, anger, etc another character, you should expect that character to react appropriately. If you're being a tough guy and a hardass, you best be ready to have someone else in your space wanting to act on your fightin' words.
If you do something that warrants having the crap slapped out of you, expect it. To the extreme, if you do something that warrants character death, you should be willing to accept character death as a consequence. (However, a good RPer will almost always let another character escape alive, as killing a character ends a story.)
If you are unwilling to consent to IC Consequences for your characters' IC actions, then don't do them. If you don't want to RP fight right now, then don't do something that would invite a pummeling. When you don't opt in to consequences for your actions, you are creating a disconnect in realism and suspension of disbelief. No one likes that, and it makes you a bad RPer.
ICA=ICC in the world: Like in real life, societies in game have certain social values. While these are not always written out, such as canon, one can usually infer basic decency by observing the cultures around you.
In RP you get these hardass mass murderer types, criminals, psycho killers, etc. You get things like Mr. Inappropriate and Mr. Tough Guy.
What these people don't consider is that the lawful society in various IC locations might not be so tolerant of such things. They don't consider that what they're doing is breaking suspension of disbelief because it would not logically, legally be allowed, and logically the NPC guards or npc locals would react in a negative way.
If you murder someone IRL, stab them to death in, say, a mall. Do you just walk away and get away with it? Hell no. There will be police and security on you. You'll be dragged away in chains and probably wind up buttraped by a large inmate.
If you were to stab someone in game, in public, what reason would there be for NPC guards to not be on your character dragging you away in shackles? There is none. As such. You should not do this sort of thing in public, because the consequences would remove your character from play.
========================
In Character Actions yield In Character Consequences
========================
I ran into a couple of RPers the other day who were behaving badly. One did something that was pretty inappropriate so my character tried to knock him over for it. It wasn't a dangerous, killing attack or anything. It was literally a shove. He went Neo and dodged it. His reason? He didn't feel like RP fighting at the moment. /rolleyes.
He was unprepared to take the fair IC consequences for his IC actions.
He exposed himself to someone when that someone's significant other was pretty much right next to him. What do you think is going to happen? I mean come on.
Meanwhile, someone else sitting nearby who wanted to be a tough guy chimed in. So my character came and got in his personal space. He tried to attack me and so I emoted I was pulling a (what the other guy's name was) pulled and dodged the attack. Then I appended and said the attack glanced and the guy ran off before my character could retaliate... because he didn't want to fight.
So I make a remark about ICA=ICC, and that if inappropriate guy didn't want to face consequences for his IC actions he shouldn't have whipped his junk out. Dick guy says he doesn't know what that means but that I'm a snob and heads off and one of my friends asks "What's ICA=ICC?" I explain what the acronym is and the friend pretty much inferred the rest.
So here I am writing a blurb on it because it's on my mind.
ICA=ICC means: In Character Actions yield In Character Consequences.
It is pretty much a pillar of coherent, good roleplay. It separates the people who just want to play pretend from people who want to roleplay with realistic consequences.
ICA=ICC applies in several ways, both with direct character actions against other players, and character actions and concepts within the world its self.
ICA=ICC with other players: If your character does something that would upset, anger, etc another character, you should expect that character to react appropriately. If you're being a tough guy and a hardass, you best be ready to have someone else in your space wanting to act on your fightin' words.
If you do something that warrants having the crap slapped out of you, expect it. To the extreme, if you do something that warrants character death, you should be willing to accept character death as a consequence. (However, a good RPer will almost always let another character escape alive, as killing a character ends a story.)
If you are unwilling to consent to IC Consequences for your characters' IC actions, then don't do them. If you don't want to RP fight right now, then don't do something that would invite a pummeling. When you don't opt in to consequences for your actions, you are creating a disconnect in realism and suspension of disbelief. No one likes that, and it makes you a bad RPer.
ICA=ICC in the world: Like in real life, societies in game have certain social values. While these are not always written out, such as canon, one can usually infer basic decency by observing the cultures around you.
In RP you get these hardass mass murderer types, criminals, psycho killers, etc. You get things like Mr. Inappropriate and Mr. Tough Guy.
What these people don't consider is that the lawful society in various IC locations might not be so tolerant of such things. They don't consider that what they're doing is breaking suspension of disbelief because it would not logically, legally be allowed, and logically the NPC guards or npc locals would react in a negative way.
If you murder someone IRL, stab them to death in, say, a mall. Do you just walk away and get away with it? Hell no. There will be police and security on you. You'll be dragged away in chains and probably wind up buttraped by a large inmate.
If you were to stab someone in game, in public, what reason would there be for NPC guards to not be on your character dragging you away in shackles? There is none. As such. You should not do this sort of thing in public, because the consequences would remove your character from play.
Edited by Zandrae on 1/15/2014 1:58 PM PST
