Camp Half-Blood Role Playing Wiki:Policies Overview/Roleplay

Now in general role play can be a lot of fun, but sometimes people may take things a little far, feeling like that because this is a fictional world that has been created, the real world rules of etiquette don't apply any more. This however is far from the case, there is a wide range of ages that participate here, and because of this we try to maintain a pg-13 atmosphere so all users feel welcome and comfortable role playing here. Aside from general rules of etiquette, we also have to have rules in place to keep things fair to all users involved, this involves having policies in place to ensure fair play by avoiding things like meta-gaming, godmodding and being generally OP with roleplay and characters.

Being Appropriate
So for instance, writing about relieving yourself in public is just as inappropriate in role play as it is in real life. Also although some insults are tossed around, they should remain somewhat appropriate and tasteful. Just because you have a bitch or a-hold character, doesn't mean you should do anything you want, if a situation arises in roleplay, that it makes sense for your character to be particularly rude, raunchy, inappropriate, murderous, etc you aren't writing a book here, so you can time skip or summarise bits that would be too inappropriate to write out. For example, if you have a character whose nature is to murder and rape, you don't need to write out/describe every single gory detail of the event.

Sex
As relationships are being developed between characters, interaction should also remain at a pg-13 level, as far as intimacy goes. Anything that goes beyond general making out and kissing (such as anything sexual) should be "censored", and private body parts should not be described in detail, or really at all. For instance, once it's clear a couple is making out, simply put "censored" or some variation of it, do not actually roleplay them having sex. The main purpose of this wiki isn't to roleplay couples, that may be part of it, but detailing out every kiss, touch, caress, hicky, etc is not necessary or appropriate. We are not a soft porn site, and yet we realise that even in young teens, sex does happen, but it should never be the focal point.

Examples:

Good Example of What's Appropriate: Time Skip, things happen, things that must not be written here, but sufficed to say they are no longer virgins, and they spend quite a few hours together exploring their new found extracurricular activity.
 * Character A: As they kiss, he slides his hand up her back, waiting for any indication as to whether or not she wants him to stop or continue, in his heart he knows he's ready for the next step in their relationship, but he's not sure if she is or not.
 * Character B: She feels his hand sliding further up her back and let's out a slow moan, then deepens the kiss, trying to urge him on without actually having to verbalise that she's ready for more. When she feels him hesitate, she guides his hand to show him that she's ready.
 * Character A: When he feels her guide his hand, he eagerly takes the hint and deepens the kiss, leaning her back against the bed, he proceeds to take the next step in their relationship.

Notice how it's been clearly insinuated what's going on, but no private body bits have been described in detail, and neither has the sex.

Example of What is Inappropriate for This Wiki:

This is bad, Our wiki is not a soft porn site, if you want to write porn, there are plenty of other sites you can go to.

Role Playing Don'ts
Role-playing can be a fun and entertaining way to pass the time. With so many MMORPGs (Massively Multi-player On-line Role-playing Games) available today, more people turn to this form of on-line entertainment. Role-playing gives you freedom other types of gaming lacks. If you are a creative type looking for a way to hone your writing skills while having a good time, then role-playing might be for you. However, before roleplaying in your chosen area, read this list of "don'ts" to help you make a good first impression. Obviously, godmodding, OP characters and metagaming are some obvious don't's.

Don't God Mod
The term "godmodding" is used to cover a variety of role-playing faux pas. Other terms may be used in place of godmodding, however it all means the same thing. When a player god modes, they essentially commandeer the situation and dictate what all characters do and how they are affected. There is no choice left for the other players. This takes away from the draw of role-playing with others, because one person is governing the entire story. Before you add your next turn in the role-play, consider the other role-player's point of view. If no choice is left, then you probably need to edit your contribution.

Godmodding also refers to a situation where one player acts in such a way that makes their character immortal or invincible. This can be very frustrating, especially in role-play fights. Avoid this problem by always staying realistic. Your character will not be able to dodge every blow or withstand every attack. Once in a while, he will end up flat on his face. Let it happen and react accordingly.

Godmodding can also be considered metagaming, metagaming is where you the user knows something that your character does not, and you use that to their advantage. For instance, a less severe example of metagaming would be when you the user knows that someone has made a new character and that they are new to camp, but your character does not know this. Realistically camp has become a bit larger here than it was in the books. As such, between demigods and minor characters, there could easily be anywhere from 900 to 1500 characters at camp at any given time. The odds your character knows all of them, and can quickly recognise a new camper on sight is rather unlikely. There's ways around this, be creative. Instead of just saying on your first post on a new character's page, something like "Hey, I see you're new, welcome to camp.". First look at the character and decide what you would know about them. For instance, if they are a Nyx kid, and you're using your Nyx kid, odds are they'll recognise a new Nyx camper quicker than anyone else as they reside in the same cabin. Also, you could post something like "Hey, you don't look familiar, are you new?" This way it makes more sense than pretending your character knows it.

Don't Speak Out of character
The term "out of character" (also called "OOC") means to speak as you normally would, without your fictional persona. Avoid doing this while in the midst of a role-play. Even if you are not currently involved in a role-play, do not speak out and interrupt the role-play of others. If you have something to say to another player, do so in whispers or other chat channels.

If you must say something in the same chat channel as other role-players, make sure you follow the preferred out of character format. For some it is a punctuation indicating the beginning and end of OOC speak to separate what you are saying from the story. Even then it would be best to try and leave OOC talk on the user talk pages or in chat.

Don't Take it Personally
Conflict is a regular part of role-play. It is what makes a story interesting. One of the biggest problems some people have is carrying role-playing situations over into real life. Remember, when another player's character insults or harms your character, it is all a part of the fictional story. It is not meant as an attack on you personally. Always keep role-play conflict in the story and out of real life.

Don't Do Things without Reason
Any time your character does something significant, you should have some reason behind it. Your character should not suddenly sprout wings and fly, nor should he or she suddenly hate or love another character that they did not previously love or hate for no reason. Everything should happen due to the story.

That does not mean everything must be outwardly obvious. It is possible two characters had a secret meeting that you were not aware of, or some major event may have occurred while your character was not around. As long as there is a story behind it, then it is OK. However, do not do something dramatic just to do it. This will only confuse the story and make experienced role-players avoid your characters.

Always stick with your character's story when you role-play, and you will do well. You may not realize it, but other role-players will notice your ability to develop a strong persona and create an interesting story. By avoiding these "don'ts" you will help create an intriguing story line or add to an existing one. Your fellow role-players will appreciate your consideration and dedication to the art of role-playing!

Godmodding/OP
Now in general godmodding is a general term/rule for all role playing games everywhere, not specific to this or any site. Those of us who go way back in participating in role playing games, know this term well, some of you are very new to RPG settings, and need to learn the do's and don't's if you are going to have any fun with others on here, and not get yelled at every time you make a mistake. Generally it refers to anything from being OP, taking control of the user's character, meta-gaming, etc.. On this wiki we generally keep the terms separate to make helping newbs easier. So we use godmodding to refer to taking control of someone's character, meta-gaming to knowing information your character shouldn't know (This is like, you the user knows that someone's character is new to camp, but your character has no way to have known that, but you make your character in the roleplay act like they do know this.), and OP (or over powered) to describe using your character in such a way that makes them way too powerful and unfair to the others.

So What Exactly IS God Modding
Godmodder's have been a burden of text based roleplaying games for a long time, and they can really annoy other members who like to develop their story gradually at a decent pace, only for the story to be taken on an unusual sidetrack or finished prematurely and un-dramatically.

In play by post games they usually aren't about statistics and experience points like more traditional tabletop roleplaying is, play by post games usually have more in common with collaborative storytelling. Each character is portrayed through paragraphs of description alone, and therefore the strength, skills and abilities of the character are open to interpretation through the storytelling, and not a number on a stat sheet.

This makes for great storytelling, but it’s also open to abuse. It means that a player can literally write anything about their character, even if it seems unrealistic.

To make your character seem a lot more realistic, they shouldn't always be the best at what they do, they should be fallible, and often fail a few times before succeeding in whatever mission they’re part of. Think about TV programmes and films, the characters don’t succeed in defeating their enemies straight away, first they usually have to go on a quest, then fail a few times, and then learn some valuable truth or skill that allows them to defeat their enemy right at the end. There is also a pattern with Godmodders which gives them a lot in common with Mary Sue characters, that these players are acting out their fantasies, which in itself isn't a problem and to some degree what a lot of members are doing. But Godmodders will take it too far and make their own character much stronger than everyone else, essentially demeaning all other characters.

Even the relatively simple action of putting words in another characters mouth can be seen as Godmodding, or making a character perform an action that their player might disagree with, which is why you should usually check with another player if it’s okay to use their character.

Why does godmodding make the game frustrating for the other players?
Godmodders can really ruin the experience of the game for other players, at the least it can make the game boring and predictable, and at worst it cause a lot of frustration.

All the players in your roleplaying game have invested a lot of time and effort into thinking up the story, thinking about what their character’s place will be in this story, and spent time writing the story in their head. To have all this undermined by another member can be very frustrating.

A Godmodder might also have a larger ego than your other players, and be quite bold about the decisions they make for their character. These players have the potential to sidetrack your game’s story and make it purely about their character, not allowing room in the story for other characters.

Examples
{|width="100%" class="collapsible collapsed" ! Click to see examples of godmodding....

Auto-Hitting
Arguably the most common form of Godmodding. It should be clear what this one means, but for those that are uniformed, Auto-hitting is saying your attack hit, without giving your opponent any time to react.

Now, in order for me to demonstrate, imagine two people in a forum Role-Play; Player A, and Player B. Their respective characters are ‘Joe’ and ‘Bob’.

Anyway, these two are busily role-playing, when their characters get into a fight. Here’s what transpires:

Player A   Joe punched Bob, hitting him in the jaw and sending him flying. Joe then used his knife to stab Bob in the shoulder. After which, Joe kicked Bob in the shins.

Player B   Bob punched Joe, sending him to the ground. He then brought out his shotgun and shot Joe several times, killing him.

Hold it. What? Okay, there are several things wrong here-and they all have to do with auto-hitting. Player A had his character punch, stab, and kick Bob, without giving Player B any chance to react! And what of Player B? He went so far as to have his character kill Joe? What?! These two both need a lesson in how to RP fights-definite godmodding going on with these two.

Now, imagine that the lesson I mentioned has been given and both players find themselves Role-playing together again. Just like before their characters get into a fight. Only this time, things are a little different:

Player A

Joe aimed an uppercut at Bob, hoping the attack would connect with his jaw and send him to the ground.

Player B

Bob ducked to avoid the attack, then came at Joe with a powerful right chop, aiming for his face.

Player A

The attack hit head on, sending Joe flying a ways. His head slammed against a tree, knocking him out cold.

Ah, now that…that is how you RP fight scenes! As you can see, neither of them forced a hit and they each let the other player react to their attacks. This is a huge improvement in both Player’s styles.
 * }

Dodging Everything That Comes Your Way
In one of the first rp's I've ever been in, I had the unfortunate luck of experiencing something like this. Sometime during the course of said RP, the characters of two other players got in a fight. What transpired, was dodging, after dodging, after everlasting dodging! Seriously, for the longest time, neither character got a hit in-the other would just keep on dodging. This lasted for several pages and got kind of annoying.

The battle never finished.

So yes, having an instance where someone dodges every single attack can be rather annoying. Look people, it’s okay to have a character that’s good at avoiding attacks-heck. However, let at least some attacks hit you so that it’s not being OP.

In this new RP they are in, the characters once again get into a fight. This is what happens;

Player A   Joe moved in with an uppercut, hoping to catch Bob by surprise.

Player B   Bob dodged the attack with ease, then shot at Joe multiple times. With any luck Joe’s body would be peppered with bullets.

Player A   Joe quickly sidestepped out of the way, avoiding the attack.

…And so on.

This goes on for pages upon pages upon pages. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but the fight did last for quite a while.

Now, the way to avoid this should be rather obvious; take some hits. Yes, I know you may not want to lose or anything, but be reasonable; is it at all fair to avoid every single attack that comes your way? Not at all. So while you can have characters that are great at avoiding attacks, it’s still a good idea to take some hits.

Let’s get back to our players now. After a quick lesson in why one should not dodge every single attack, they go back to their RP;

Player B   In an attempt to stop Joe once and for all, Bob shoots several arrows at him.

Player A   While Bob managed to avoid a couple of the arrows, the rest of them shot into his body like the projectiles they were.

See this? While Player A dodged some of the bullets, the rest of them hit them. And that’s another thing one could do, with certain kinds of attacks. Elemental abilities and melee are good moves where you can dodge some of the attack, but get hit by the rest.

Controlling Characters other Then Your Own
This one is just like it says; a person, for whatever reason (usually to move the story along), takes control of someone else’s character and treats them as their own. What they do with them depends largely on the situation (and auto-hitting could be categorized as a form of controlling another person’s character), but one thing is clear; it’s annoying.

It’s simple folks, if a character in an RP isn't yours, then you don’t control them. However, there are people that don’t seem to get that, and it’s very unfortunate.

Player A   Joe rushed over to Bob, aiming his knife at him. With any luck the blade would go through his shoulder blade.

Player B   Bob ducked to avoid the attack. Joe’s knife got stuck in the wall in front of him. He tried to pull it out, only to find out that it was stuck tight.

Okay, notice how Player B took control of Player A's character? You cannot do that in an RP. I'm sure some of you can think of other explanations, but here’s one reason why you shouldn't control a character that isn't yours; because it isn't yours. Would you like it if someone controlled your character without your expressed permission? I know I wouldn't.

So what do you if someone hasn't posted in an RP for quite a while? Well, you could either wait for them to post again, or you could contact them somehow (such as through a PM system and the like). Either one of those methods are good to attempt, and they can help prevent unnecessary character controlling.

The same goes for weapons, unless a user throws away their weapon, it's on their person and you can't control it. For instance, if I come out someone with a sword, slashing at them, they can block, avoid, take a hit, whatever, but they cannot take my sword. Now if I throw a dagger, and it misses, then it's fair game to pick up and use.

Exceptions on THIS Wiki
Now there are a few very small very minor exceptions of what would normally be considered godmodding that we are lax on here. Mostly on quests or general rp's (never fight or battle rp's) where you are trying to move the story along. Say on a quest you have 5 people, and you all need to travel somewhere. Now Technically even assuming that all the characters travelled somewhere with you would be a god mod, but let's face it, around here, if we wait for every single user on a quest to rp the words "Followed the others", "travelled with the others", etc. a quest would take a lot longer than the 4 to 6 weeks real time that it already does.

Now sometimes you might be rp'ing across comments and want to move to another page, now usually even I ask first the person I'm rp'ing with, but if you forgot to ask, and you started on the new page with something like "you and your character walked up to the Dining Pavilion" we wouldn't crucify you for it, as long as you and that character were already involved in the role play. Now, even in a minor way, if you don't have permission to use someone's characters, and you weren't already role playing a story line on pages, you can not just randomly say that they are with you. For instance, I just logged on, Nhlott isn't on and I want to role play our characters out to the pond, I can't just say that our characters walked over to the pond, I would go over to one of that character's pages or cabin and role play my character looking for his, or what not, until he signs on and picks up the role play also.

Also, sometimes users give permission in private chats, to do a godmod move, so don't panic if you see a roleplay between other users and see something you think is a godmod. For instance, sometimes to make a roleplay go faster, if I'm rp'ing with say, Wonder and say her character has made a comment to mine that my character found inappropriate and offensive, I might ask her on Skype if I have permission to slap her character. So before thinking users have broken the rules, make sure you've spoken to them and found out if permission was given.

Relevant Votes

 * Voting:Admin Team/Policy: God Modding - Passed
 * Voting:Admin Team/Policy: Role Play - Passed
 * Voting:Level 5's and Up/Cabin Treaties Revamp - Resolved
 * Voting:Level 5's and Up/Challenges 7 and 10 - Resolved
 * Voting:Level 5's and Up/Counsellor Challenge Amendment - Passed
 * Voting:Level 5's and Up/Counsellor Challenges Change - Passed
 * Voting:Level 5's and Up/Unfair Counsellor Challenge Voting - Passed
 * Voting:Level 5's and Up/PG-13 definition - Resolved
 * Voting:Level 5's and Up/OOC Chat Bubbles - Resolved