Courteous Practices

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Courteous Practices

There are certain practices that we encourage people to follow in order to keep avoid stepping on other people's feelings on an OOC (Out of Character) level. These aren't exactly rules, just guidelines, but people who repeatedly violate these guidelines in a way that upsets other people on a regular basis may be asked to leave.

Be Courteous with your Metaposing

Metaposing is the inclusion of information in your pose that other people can't and aren't meant to be able to know and respond to on an IC level.

Your poses should generally convey IC information that other characters can respond to IC. While it's not wrong, or even discouraged, to do some degree of metaposing -- it can make the narrative more interesting when done well -- we do ask people to avoid engaging in certain kinds of metaposing. This includes:

  • Metaposing that includes details of the actions, thoughts, intentions, etc of other characters not under your control without their consent. e.g. Posing something like "John puffs up his chest and steps closer to Brian, who takes a step back and looks cowed" when Brian is a character controlled by someone else in the scene, whose actions and feelings John's player has no right to dictate. This can be okay to do if you've asked the person involved in advance (such as asking them "is it okay if I pose you entering with me?", but we ask that you verify this consent for every pose you do that includes this kind of metaposing.
  • Metaposing that insults other people in the scene in a way that other people can't reasonably respond to IC. e.g. "Brian rolls his eyes, because John is a pathetic worm that isn't worth the oxygen he breathes" would be rude, while "Brian rolls his eyes, clearly expressing that he thinks John is a pathetic worm who isn't worth the oxygen he breathes" isn't because it includes the information in a way that people can respond to without metagaming themselves.

Be Courteous to your Storytellers

We encourage people who have someone storytelling for them to be courteous to their storyteller, whether that's someone on staff or another player in a player-run plot. Being a courteous player in these situations involves:

  • Know your sheet: You should try ensure you know your sheet, what you can do, and how your abilities work before going into a scene. If you're new to the game that's okay, but in those cases try to let your storyteller know in advance that you'll need some help, and be prompt in asking for it when you need it.
  • Be attentive: Try to avoid engaging in storyteller scenes when you can't be attentive. If you're regularly taking longer than five minutes to respond to OOC questions, or twenty minutes to pose, it can be frustrating and discouraging for the people who have volunteered to give you their time.
  • Don't multi-scene: If someone is storytelling a scene for you, please try to avoid being in other scenes at the same time. This is mostly an extension of "be attentive", but the discouragement that people feel if you're not being attentive to their scene gets magnified if you're engaged in other RP at the same time.

Be a Courteous Audience

While our current game setup allows people to observe the RP being done by other players, we do ask that people be a courteous audience so that people feel comfortable engaging in RP in a public way. A lot of us enjoy being able to watch that RP, and encouraging, engaging, and otherwise friendly commentary on ongoing scenes is generally welcome and encouraged. Negative comments are not, and will only result in people being less willing to RP where people might be able to watch them.

This applies to both the IC and OOC content of the various RP rooms.

We also ask that if you aren't an active IC participant in a scene and aren't a member of Staff providing OOC clarifications about rules or theme, you refrain from commenting about ongoing scenes in the RP rooms -- please keep that commentary to the OOC rooms, in order to avoid breaking the flow of the scene. It is generally okay (and often even enjoyed by the people doing the RPing) for players not in the scene to use Discord 'reactions' on poses - please be courteous and appreciative. Reacting with a 'gasp' when something big and exciting happens? That's great. Reacting in a way that might come across as passive-aggressive or making rude OOC commentary? Not so great. Use your best judgement and use reactions only to make your fellow players feel more awesome about their incredible RP.