Roleplaying Etiquette
Form
Everyone has different experiences and preferences with text-based roleplay, but we would prefer if you followed our standardized style for making posts. Our standard format consists of the following:
Text inside – (minus) lines for actions and Plain text for speech.
Third person present tense, (-she says,- not -she said- or -she would say-).
Quotation marks ( " " ) are used to emphazise certain words in speech.
Do not include your character's thoughts (or any other hidden information) in a direct way.
Instead, aim to show how your character is feeling by describing what is objectively visible and obvious.
Do not include any out of character thoughts or information in your posts. All OOC chat should be relegated to The OOC Room instead, though if its necessary to ask something OOC right then and there, do so in paranthesis ( ).
Example post:
-For a while, Gustav says nothing. It might seem, for a moment, as if the neonate had stumped him, were it not for the icy certainty behind his eyes and the slow, calculated precision of his silence. It's as if he is waiting for a timer that no one else can hear. Finally, he raises one hand to his chest - the gesture of a man whose feelings are hurt, although even this is a pantomime, empty of any obvious sign of real feeling.- Really, -he says- is "that" what you think?
Actions
Here is a simple rule: never assume, within your post, that any action your character takes to affect another character is successful.
Example: -Jerry grabs Rebecca by the wrist and drags her from the room.-
This is poor form because Jerry's player is assuming that he's able to successfully do all of this without Rebecca having any say in the matter. If it's Jerry's intention to do this, he should instead write:
Example: -Jerry reaches out for Rebecca's wrist.- You're coming with me, -he snarls.-
This post allows Rebecca to take part in the roleplay. If her player doesn't mind what Jerry is doing, she will go along with it; if she resists, then a contested dice roll is called for in order to decide what happens. If Rebecca resists, and Jerry wins the appropriate dice rolls, then he may drag Rebecca from the room as above.
Dice
While in IMVU, we use
RPG Roller for now to handle dicerolls.
Combat
During combat, please observe the following considerations:
On your turn, post first (in a manner consistent with Rules 1 and 2 above), and then roll whatever dice the Staff call for.
Start writing your post before your turn. If you only start thinking about what your character will do when your turn arrives, it will massively slow combat down for everyone.
If you're unsure about anything, PM the Staff member who is supervising combat. It's fine to send a PM at any point, whether it's your turn yet or not.
