Roleplay Tips

As in any community, the roleplay on NorConMUSH has developed a few guidelines of etiquette than can help keep every scene as smooth and easy OOC as it is lively and exciting IC.

Pay attention to spelling and grammar

In a medium where all communication occurs via text, it's important to make sure that you keep tabs on your spelling and grammar. No one expects you to be a walking MLA handbook. Everyone makes mistakes. That said, please keep in mind that the act of reading a pose should never been a feat to itself and your writing should not require deciphering.

As a side note on this point, we recommend that you avoid phonetic accents. 'Toe-may-toe', 'toe-mah-toe', it's all tomato in text. You're better off describing the accent than spelling it out constantly. No one should have to read your pose aloud to figure out what your character is saying.

Say hello when you enter a scene

Just a quick 'Hey guys, mind if I join in?' can go a long way toward making friends with your new RP partners. Just as you would say hello when you sit down with someone, paging a quick 'hey' helps to let players know that you realize there is a real person at the keys behind every character.

Let others pose in

You never really know how a person might enter the room so it's best to pose as if they aren't there until they write their own entry. For example, if you are sitting at a table and Julio joins you in the room, you may be tempted to have your character wave and smile, etc. But let's say that Julio intends to enter this scene with his hair on fire. Well, it would be pretty weird if your character's reaction to that was to wave and smile. So, with that in mind, when someone joins you, let them choose how their character enters the scene before your character reacts to them.

Page if you have questions

If ever there's something you're not sure of, it's better to page and ask than to make assumptions. Don't hesitate to check with your RP partners if you have questions or concerns.

Offer hooks

If your character sits like a lump and provides one-word answers, your RP partners will soon get tired of trying to interact. RP hooks are anything your partner can respond to: an expression or behavior, a comment or question, anything that could make it easier for them to pose in return.

Respond to hooks

Just as you should strive to give your RP partners something to react to, your partners are including hooks in their poses to you. Don't let them go to waste! You don't have to react to every single one, but responding to hooks not only keeps the scene moving, but lets your RP partner know that you're paying attention to what his or her character is doing.

Don't power pose

A power pose is a pose where one player decides the reaction of another player's character. Power poses come in a number of forms but the two most common come from physical interaction and personal opinions.

As a general rule, unless you know your RP partner very well or you have paged them ahead of time to discuss it, avoid posing that your character is touching other characters or use optional terms. 'Joe kisses Cathy' becomes... 'Joe attempts to lay a kiss on Cathy'. 'Cathy smacks Joe' becomes...'Cathy aims a smack for Joe's face'. In those examples, Cathy can stand there and get kissed, or she can turn away. Joe can get smacked or he can duck. It leaves the other player with options.

As far as personal opinions go: for every person out there who thinks Julia Roberts is lovely, there's another who thinks she's a horseface. Claiming your character is pretty or attractive is often considered powerposing, as one man's treasure is another man's trash. You are better off keeping to the facts and leting the beholder decide whether or not there's beauty. For example, you might want to say 'Juliette is fine-boned with large, warm brown eyes and an expressive mouth' as opposed to, 'Juliette has a beautiful face with eyes that make you fall in love with her and a mesmerizing mouth'.

Pose out

Sometimes it's unavoidable that you'll leave the keys in a hurry, but whenever possible, give your RP partners a heads up that you'll be leaving and write a pose in which your character removes his or her self from the scene. That way you don't leave your partner hanging.