Role-playing Guidelines

Things to do | Things to Avoid

So that you may best enjoy life in the Realms, the following tips may contribute to your character development.

Develop a sense of who your character is.  If your character is two-dimensional, you will experience less of the fun of role-playing.   Give your character a history, a set of common phrases, a unique sentence structure, or perhaps even a creative disposition.  Here are examples of each of these . . .

History:  Skyelance was born and raised north of Shard in a village located in a vast grassy plain.  His parents, both now living in Riverhaven, are true Wind Elves.  Your character's history can run as deeply and richly as you wish.

Phrases:  Skyelance often says, "Who me?" when receiving a compliment or a criticism.  This deliberate, but fun-loving and coy comment almost always solicits a grin from others.   Your character can have his or her own common sayings.  Your friends will begin to recognize, relate to, laugh about, and all-around love these common sayings, if you do them light-heartedly and with good intentions.

Sentence Structure: Many characters choose to speak in third person.  A character may always refer to herself or himself by their name and never with the personal pronouns "I," "Me," or "My." This lends an interesting twist to converstations with that character.   Other interesting sentence structures are gerund clauses,  passive voice, or inverted predicate usage.  Instead of saying, "Let us travel to Shard," one might say, "Let us be traveling to Shard."  A good example of these structures is the speech patterns of StarWars' Yoda.  Instead of telling Luke, "You will face him," when referring to his father, Darth Vader, Yoda says, "Face him you will." (inverted predicate.)

Creative Disposition:  You character may fear the dark, love the rain, refuse to travel with less than two mates, or any other disposition you wish to create.  This individuality lends realism and fun to a role-playing environment.

Things to Avoid

The use of internet shorthand such as AFK, LOL, BRB, and any other abbreviations is considered Out of Character.

Talking about GameMasters, tweaks, and any other staff-related involvement in game mechanics is Out of Character.

Using emoticons while speaking or any other form of text based icons, is considered Out of Character.

Using the term "premies" to describe a character whose player has
subscribed to Premium service is Out of Character. The In Character
description of their status is Estate Holder.

Talking about game commands is Out of Character.

Speaking about the raw numbers drawn from EXP screens and INFO screens is considered out of character. Note: the command EXP RP has been set up to aid in speaking about how skilled your character is.
If you need to speak with another player on an OOC basis, use the WHISPER command followed by the word OOC, and the message you want to send to the other player. Example- WHISPER <character> OOC Have you circled to 7th yet?

Using the QUIT command to disconnect from the game to escape death in player vs. creature combat is a direct violation of the Abuse of Game Mechanics Policy and is Out of Character.