Viranos:Roleplaying Etiquette

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Welcome to the Viranos Roleplaying Etiquette Guide, comrade! As the name suggests, it is the official Guide on Roleplaying Etiquette. We expect you to read and understand this entire guide and revisit it if such need arises.

Mark: this is a definitive set of rules that can be referred to in solving any roleplaying disputes ─ a written Word of God, if you like.

Chapter 1. What is Roleplaying (RPing)? What should it be and what shouldn't.[edit source]

In short: roleplaying is a collective story-telling, done from the perspective of a role ─ a character, usually, ─ you play as.

It is important to remember that we, in effect, shape an entirely abstract (as if, not real) world with a freedom of deities, much like the biblical god, and we're only limited by preset internal workings of the world, the scope of the roleplay and the character we play. We can easily imagine any sort of thing within those restrictions and, as the result, shape the story in all possible ways. It is also desirable to make the process enjoyable: otherwise, what's the point of wasting time on it?

Those "requirements" (lets call them this way) inevitably lead to the idea of collaborative approach to the process as it should be. Let we be forgiven for anime example, but Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai anime series, in fact, are a good example of roleplaying in its better form.

A note on competition and why it is harmful.[edit source]

Unfortunately, sometimes RPing is being treated like a sort of competition. From all the stories about it, we know that such a "competition" always ends up either in flame wars or bullshitting until someone tires enough to drop out. It is just an objective logic of this kind of "competition": we're talking about imaginary world where we can imagine almost everything, up to something nonsensical; hence, it inevitably degrades into a dick-measuring contest, putting it straight, and later in flame wars ─ or bullshitting further, until someone is tired. "Winner" is one with the most patience.

So if you want to compete (as in, person-to-person), roleplaying is the worst way to do it. It should never be viewed as an out-of-character (OOC) competition. It's not the most enjoyable passing of time, and not decisive as well in terms of competition. Doing this over and over attracts bad reputation in general NS. We in Viranos will consider it a "strike" matter, because it is plain toxic.

Summaries:[edit source]

1) Being a collective story-telling, RPing encourages collaborative approach to make it enjoyable and sensible.

2) RPing must not be viewed as a competition. Try Hearts of Iron IV instead.

Chapter 2.[edit source]