Getting started with Forum Role playing: Rules and Guidelines

How to get started with Forum Role playing, Rules and Guidelines.

So you’ve become interested in joining the action?
Step one… READ THE RULES!!! The rules are in this thread, after the steps, skip ahead and look at them. The rest of the steps will wait for you.

Alright, step two, create an application. Usually best if you open up Microsoft Word, or wordpad, or notepad etc. To create an application, visit this thread: (link)
When/if your application is approved, The mods will take your character sheet and post it here:
(link)

Step Three… wait. Yep. Wait for someone to approve or deny your application. You’ll get criticisms from the Mods and Admin about your character and why it might not be suitable for the RPG, just remember, it doesn't take much for an RPG do go downhill, so we need to make sure you and your character will fit in. Just accept the criticism and fix your application/character sheet, or join in a beginner’s RPG and gain some experience.

RPG RULES:

The following rules and policies are required knowledge for everyone who wishes to post in this RPG. These rules apply universally to every member and violating them may subject you to Moderator action. Please read them carefully and understand them well before posting.

Read and Obey the Forum Rules
The LVL Forum Rules apply to everyone posting in any section of this forum, this section included. Mods have the authority to enforce these rules and will take direct action against violators. Rule violations should be reported to the Mods for appropriate action.

The Admin’s final word is law
If you disagree with anything, please talk with a Mod, and perhaps they can resolve your conflict. If you feel that your situation has been dealt with unfairly, you may contact the RPG Mod (Krishna) or the Admin (Noah Kaiba) with a full explanation of your situation, and what has been done about it. Whatever We decide is final, and that’s that.


No Powergaming
Powergaming is where you make another RPer’s character’s actions for them. For instance, if I was to have my character interact with your character, and then have your character respond for you, that is powergaming. You’re taking power away from other RPers.

No God Characters
Yes we all want to be the hero, but that’s not the way RPGs work. When you RP, you need to stick to the plot. Or, just RP around with the others and interact.

Distinguish your OOC talk at the beginning or end of a post
OOC stands for “Out of Character.” It means that, you want to express something of some kind of importance to the others that could not be done through Role Play. Simply separate your In Character (IC) portion of the post with a line, and place “OOC:” at the front of any OOC talk.
In some cases it is necessary to explain something in between a post. Use the same method, separating the IC from the OOC.

More rules may follow.
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Guidelines:
The following guidelines are a collection of best practices for being a well respected contributor to the RPG. Violating these guidelines will typically not result in Moderator action, though you could easily earn the scorn of your peers. As such, adherence to these guidelines is strongly recommended.

Lurk and Learn
The best way to find out what should and should not be done on any forum is to look around and see what other people are doing or being told not to do. Most long time members post in a way consistent with how they would like new members to post and make good role models to emulate. When in doubt about whether something is acceptable or not, PM the Moderator or one of the long time members; they'll know what's ok and what isn't.


Read Carefully
Very often, games have some elements of story and developing plot which all of the players are trying to keep in tune with. If you don't read the other posts in the thread carefully, you may find yourself confused by what's going on in the thread; or worse, breaking the continuity and risking angering your peers/RP Mods and Admin.


Use Proper English
In the real world, how you present yourself is often at least as important as what you are trying to present. Even the most qualified candidate is unlikely to receive a job with a Fortune 500 company if he shows up to an interview wearing a ragged teeshirt and jeans. Conversely, a good suit and well pressed slacks can make even a mediocre candidate appear above average to an interviewer.

The same is true of posting on a web forum. Regardless of the merits of what you want to say, people will generally ignore you if you consistently fail to use proper English. AOL and SMS abbreviations, lack of appropriate whitespace, erroneous or missing punctuation, and poor spelling can all make posts difficult to read or understand. People need to want to read what you have to say, and just as the interviewer will tend to ignore the man in rags, your peers will tend to ignore ragged posts.

Now, this is not to say that if you misspell every so often we’re going to jump down your throat. Everyone’s just human, so we all make mistakes. Or if English is not your native language, you more than likely will not be able to make perfect posts. But an RPer here should be able to make understandable posts for others to interact with.

Take Your Time
One advantage of a web forum over other media like IRC is that there is a lot of time to write coherent, thoughtful posts. Communication is typically not done in real-time, but rather, spread out over several hours, or even days. This gives you a lot of time to make sure that when you post, you post what you mean to.

Post types
There are multiple ways to post in rpgs.

Post type 1: Observing
Observing is done when an RPer wants their character to either
A: Stay on the sidelines, or
B: Become introduced as a character, but their character is too shy to actually interact with the others.
In an Observation post, a character will sometimes talk to themselves, or you can “hear” (meaning read) their thoughts, but none of the other characters can hear them. They can interact with their own surroundings, or just remain still. It is ok to interact with a character who is doing this, though you should access the situation first and decide if the RPer wants attention. If you make an observation post, it is ok for you to say at the end of the post “OOC: Please leave me to Observe” or whatever you want to say to explain to the others what you want.

Post type 2: Interaction
Interaction happens when 2 or more RPers (Not characters) are posting 1 of their character’s actions, and/or speech towards each other. This includes physical fighting, but does NOT include being in a DUEL, which will be explained later. It is ok to interact with RPers who are doing this, though you should access the situation first and decide if they want attention. However, even if they don’t want the attention, but you want to give them attention, the only thing they can do is have a character tell your character to get lost or something.

Post type 3: Dueling (YGO RPG SPecific)
Dueling is when two(or more) characters are playing against each other in a game of Duel Monsters. Duel Posts are the most complicated of all the posts you can make in this RPG.
Here are the steps to duel posting with another RPer.
Step 1, Determine if this duel is a Plot progressing duel. If it is, then you and your “opponent” need to make sure the RP Mods and/or Admin are aware of the Duel. They will be helping to make sure things run smoothly for the Plot.

Step 2, Determine who will be the winner. If this is a Plot progressing duel, then the RP Mod/Admin will be determining this. If not, then you both come to a mutual agreement. If you can’t, then a RP Mod/Admin will determine the winner VIA a secret process that we have.

Step 3, PM each other back and forth your character’s actions until you feel you have a large amount of text, then the person who started the duel posts all that info into the RPG for the others to see what’s going on.

Step 4, Continue the duel, making sure that each player gets good plays in. No, you’re not actually dueling IRL, you’re making it up, and we want it to be interesting. Don’t use your best cards each and every time, that gets boring. (For example, don’t use Dark Magician of Chaos every duel)
It’s ok to have a favored monster however, or a key card like in the show (Dark Magician VS Blue Eyes White Dragon)

Step 5, finish the duel and continue with the RPG.

Post type 4: Plot Progression
This type of Post is usually done by RP Mods or the Admin, but they will sometimes allow others to post as well. Basically a Plot Progression Post is where a lot of action is going on, or a decision has been made to do something. Or if someone tells everyone to do something (for instance, following them to a classroom). It’s hard to explain, but you’ll get the idea when you see them.

A truly experienced RPer can blend these types of post into 1 well written post.