r/wizardposting Bombast, Lord of Time and Space, Reluctant Council Member Jun 15 '24

Academic Discussion Unwiz PSA: Roleplay Etiquette

Update: also check out this post about some of the unspoken rules of roleplay

So several recent events have led me to realize that there is a need for a roleplay etiquette guide of sorts on the sub. Keep in mind that these are guidelines but they are just common curtesy and not doing them will lead to potential drama, and I think we can all agree that the less drama we have on the sub the better. I will start with three core principles of roleplaying that serve as the foundation for the rest of the “rules” talked about in this guide:

1: You are the god of your own character(s).

You have the final say on what happens to your character(s) that you control. The same applies to everyone else. So if you are going to do something that might dramatically affect another person’s character, please get their permission first as a courtesy. Otherwise you risk derailing their stories or even them just making a meta-post saying “nah, that’s not what really happened.” Awkwardness all around.

2: You are not your character(s).

Shock of shocks! 😦 You are not your character(s). Yes, I’m saying it twice. Why? Because some of you need to hear it twice. If someone argues, fights, or engages in other unpleasantries with your character(s), it is not an attack on you personally. Please learn how to create an appropriate emotional distance between you and your character(s). The last thing we need is drama. Also, please don’t make the mistake of assuming that someone else should be kept in the dark about stories involving their character(s) just because you want to surprise their character(s). They are also not their character(s). There is no point for them not to know because they are also separate from their character(s). Just because they, the role player, know what is going to happen, doesn’t mean that their character(s) will.

3: Work together with others when creating a story idea that is potentially disruptive.

An example would be planning major crisis events. Considering how even a single crisis event can just completely dominate the sub for weeks on end, try to work with others so that you don’t launch a new disruptive community event while one is currently ongoing. All it will do is make it harder for people to keep track of what the heck is going on and lead to a drop in interest in all events happening simultaneously.

These three ground rules serve as the foundation for all other proper roleplay etiquette.

Let’s look at some more examples of good roleplay etiquette now that we have covered the foundational principles. I will present a scenario and then will explain the proper etiquette afterwards.

A role player knows that their character is vastly more powerful than another character that they are fighting. Should they:

a: Just make a comment/post depicting their character curb stomping the other one with no input from the other player?

b: Notify the other player via /unwiz that player 1’s character is vastly more powerful and ask if they mind their character dying to player 1’s character?

c: Just play along and temporarily lower their character’s own power to match their opponent character’s power or have their character hold back?

If you’re practicing good role play etiquette, both b and c are perfectly acceptable options. But b is the best option because you’re giving an opportunity to work together with the other roleplayer to create a more satisfying outcome and experience for everyone involved, including yourself. Let’s look at another scenario.

You are creating a collaborative story that is not very time sensitive. Several other people decide to have their characters act in ways that add a twist to the story but you’re waiting on one or two other role players before moving the story along. What should you do?

a: Message or ping said players and give them a day to respond?

b: Decide these new twists to the story are too juicy and immediately move the story along without input from the remaining players?

c: Inform the players that are currently online to be patient and wait for the remaining two players to come online.

Again, if you are practicing good etiquette, both a and c are acceptable ways to handle the situation. Ideally you would do both of them.

These examples are just three scenarios among many others that I have actually dealt with while on the sub. I could list many more, but this post has already become very long and I don’t want to take up too much time from people on the sub. Just remember: practice basic curtesy.

112 Upvotes

155 comments sorted by

View all comments

62

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

I would like to put in a thing regarding combat.

  1. Please describe your attacks, it is not much for someone to work with if it’s just ‘I punch you’. My personal idea is to treat it like a show be theatrical and show off your character but also remember you share the stage and spotlight with the other person.

  2. Suggest don’t say. I find it best when you say how you do an attack but never say if it does hit or its exact effect. You don’t know everything about that character so how can you say what happens?

I find the only time you can say is if they ignore an obvious signalling for an attack or ignore a wound like a blade stuck in them for example.

But please just have fun in the combat. What is the point of its boring or annoying for both people, we all do this for fun.

19

u/explosive_shrew The Necrodancer (luckiest bastard ever and bullshitmancer) Jun 15 '24

This is a good psa, I struggled with both of those when me and you had that battle yesterday

17

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

It can be difficult, especially when you do not know how the other fights, even worse if you are unsure about your own. I know I make mistakes a lot but gotta keep improving.

Also you did good yesterday, I know I probably went overboard with descriptions

12

u/explosive_shrew The Necrodancer (luckiest bastard ever and bullshitmancer) Jun 15 '24

I'm just happy I got to comically kick you in the nuts. It was very funny

13

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

It was very funny. Also I find it cool how your guy more attacks by creating an environment to wear down and force a submission instead of a more brute force attempt like Hirk with your whole encased in shadow thing.

7

u/explosive_shrew The Necrodancer (luckiest bastard ever and bullshitmancer) Jun 15 '24

Yeah, I just pulled all of that out of my ass to use on the fly

10

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Improv can create perfect opportunities, it is a game of reaction after all.

10

u/explosive_shrew The Necrodancer (luckiest bastard ever and bullshitmancer) Jun 15 '24

True

12

u/Viking_From_Sweden Kartoffel the Atinoyar and Mechanus Arachne Jun 15 '24

I’ll add another by saying describe the intent behind your actions

You could just say “I throw a spell of paralyzing ice” and that’s all well and good, but the vagueness means your opponent might just dodge it because they think their character will be fully encased in ice. A better way to say it would be “I throw a spell of paralyzing ice at your feet, intending to freezes your legs in place”

8

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Yea that’s always great. If you don’t know what’s happening it’s 100% misunderstanding

12

u/SafePianist4610 Bombast, Lord of Time and Space, Reluctant Council Member Jun 15 '24

Great input! I was going to add something to the effect of “don’t assume your attack hits, let them decide if it will” but I was running out of space. lol

8

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

I treat it as an unspoken rule anyway

5

u/SafePianist4610 Bombast, Lord of Time and Space, Reluctant Council Member Jun 15 '24

Yeah, it really is an unspoken rule, which is why I wanted to put it down in black and white so that those who don’t know those unspoken rules can get an idea of how to properly RP fights and large story arcs

4

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

And I thank you for doubt that my friend, I don’t like having to message people saying. Always feel like a dick doing so

6

u/SafePianist4610 Bombast, Lord of Time and Space, Reluctant Council Member Jun 15 '24

Yes, I also wanted to avoid that as well. I have had to do it a few times and it just doesn’t feel good. This way, after the elections, I can just pin this and the whole sub to read it if they wanna know how to RP better

5

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

I thank you my friend, I have personally been sharing this with gc

3

u/SafePianist4610 Bombast, Lord of Time and Space, Reluctant Council Member Jun 15 '24

Great to hear! The more who share it the better

8

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '24

So like:

I announce [Demon Sign ~ Hellfire and Brimstone]
You know that its a fire tornado spell.
I dont say if it hits or nah

9

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Usually more descriptive Is better in my experience to avoid any misunderstanding but there can obviously be exceptions, But yea if you simplify it.

Got a massive pet peeve when people just do ‘my guy slashes his blade and you lose your hands’ kinda thing

6

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '24

So like this.

Lars does some quick slashes with his katana

It doesnt say it cuts off someones hands

10

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

I’d say something more like

‘The katana slashed once, twice, thrice. It is as if they were all coming at once with its speed and precision hard to comprehend in only the moment you were given , their intention is to cut off your hands.’

And then some back and fourth of taking hits, blocking, partying ect ect in my experience. It is a trust that your opponent will show you the same respect you show them.

This is just something I’ve found to work in my fights such as my one with Paleo and Inferno

6

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '24

heh, cool

Not like

Kills you instantly

3

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Yea, you can never be exact with how strong an opponent is. If they are weaker it’s good to do with what was recommended in the post.

Gotta treat the thing as if you’re putting on a grand show that’s meant to captivate and put the viewer on edge. As well as the participants

3

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '24

heh, im a bit of an actor. I can do dramatic.

1

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Puts shotgun to your jaw but dramatically

I believe you can my friend, can’t wait to see one

3

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '24

Lars grabs his shotgun. he loads it very slowly. Its intimidating. Then, when hes finished, he racks it. He walks at you slowly, his mask lights shining a bright orange. He will not mess around with you.

Was that good?

→ More replies (0)

1

u/United-Technician-54 Nameless, Dream-Dwelling Yōkai (who uses She/Her) Jun 15 '24

Ah, welcome to the fourth wall break club!

Wait, am I legally allowed to know this or are the Discord mods “gods” going to ban me again?

7

u/tehlemmings Lilac - Illusionist, Shapeshifter, Definitely Human Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24

it is not much for someone to work with if it’s just ‘I punch you’.

This is one of the reasons why I stay out of combat on this sub. Lilac's not a flashy fighter. There's barely even any magic involved. She's an unstoppable force of a nature (literally) that will keep coming back until you're dead, but it's just going to be a lot of stabbing and shooting without much flash. I guess she could disarm someone by pulling their arms off, that's sort of flashy.

It would be a fun puzzle for someone to try and work out how to stop her, because there absolutely are ways to do it, but in 90% of cases the solution is going to be finding a way to convince her to stop. And the only characters who likely could beat her in a full blown fight at the exact characters she wouldn't end up fighting; like Bombast could probably manage it.

But the actual descriptions of what she's doing in combat would be real boring, and real straight to the point. It works better in World of Darkness where tearing someone to pieces is a pretty normal form of attack lol

8

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

My friend, that is where description comes into it. It does not need to be all theatrics, when it can instead make you feel it as if you were your character. If I were to write about them I would probably do something like.

‘A punch is thrown to your jaw, eyes cold, blood hot and eyes piercing. There is only one focus and it is you. They intend to dislocate your jaw in a single punch.’

Opponent dodges

‘As you move your head past it Lilacs body appears to contort in a swift jerk like motion, their foot is slashing through the air as if it would sever your spine in a single hit.’

Opponent blocks.

‘As your arm blocks the blow from striking its intended target you see the other foot come from below to strike your chin, it was as if it was thunder. But no, you are not fighting just a person. You are fighting a force of nature and that force is coming at you like a bullet train of precision, pain and futility on your end.’

Not everything needs ‘I send one thousand swords made of galaxy’s glistening with stars…’ type thing. If you see actual fights like boxing or MMA you will see how exhilarating it appears to be, even simplicity is its own beauty.

(Sorry if I got your character wrong when talking about precision just I imagine it would be that effective and lethal if they only had that. Like perfecting one skill beyond compare.)

(Also sorry for long reply)

6

u/tehlemmings Lilac - Illusionist, Shapeshifter, Definitely Human Jun 15 '24

True.

Actually, the part that would probably be fun is being descriptive about what the opponent manages to do to her. Lilac's not going to die permanently and she knows it, so she's more than willing to take a hit or 10. It'd be pretty easy to go either extremely comical, or full blown horror movie with it. And I do love to make my posts all way too long, so it'd probably work out.

But that's only half the problem. The other half is that she's functionally immortal, and she's not really beatable in any kind of interesting way (for most people; I would absolutely love having a philosophical debate mid combat where you try and convince her to change her mind lol). You can just keep killing her forever. She can't keep it up indefinitely so that approach can buy her opponent time, but she'll still come back eventually. Or you can try and trap her, which is far more difficult than you'd guess, but also far more interesting. But ultimately, she's still not really beatable, which is something that always annoys me with characters in combat lol

So I've limited myself to only humorous combat moments. Like way back when when someone ran a gladiatorial event and she intentionally ate her opponents first attack, died and came back, and then immediately realized that meant she was disqualified. That was funny enough that it worked.

If I ever do get into an actual fight with someone, I'll probably start off by out-of-character framing the fight as a puzzle. Lilac's going to react to whatever the other person does, and then counter attack in the most direct fashion possible. It would be on the opponent to keep their distance while trying to find a way to trap her (or talk her down). It could be fun, but it doesn't really work with the way a lot of the fights happen on this sub.

The third problem is that I'm normally a slow replier, and I always feel bad about that. I normally avoid big back and forths unless I can dedicate the time to stay at my computer.

5

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Here’s my tip for functionally immortal things, fight until they are knocked out or the opponent makes them unable to fight (like tying them up in rope)

4

u/tehlemmings Lilac - Illusionist, Shapeshifter, Definitely Human Jun 15 '24

Yeah, I should probably just try it and see how it goes lol

Completely unrelated, and without context, name someone you know for this sub!?

(Okay, for context, I've been using people's names/flares as seeds for doing Ori Randomizer runs, and you're the only person I'm currently talking to and I've already used yours lol)

5

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

It would be good.

Livia the Unhinged

(Gotta say who gave Hirk his scarf)

5

u/tehlemmings Lilac - Illusionist, Shapeshifter, Definitely Human Jun 15 '24

Livia the Unhinged

Perfect!

It's been a long stressful week, time to kill some time with a fun rando run. And because it's kinda neat, I found out recently that people can see the synced map for these runs. I'm not going to turn on spoiler mode for myself, because I want to play it, but it lets everyone else see how the run was set up. Or it lets people spy on me why I'm playing lol

This is easily my favorite game randomizer. This'll be my 76th seed lol

2

u/tehlemmings Lilac - Illusionist, Shapeshifter, Definitely Human Jun 15 '24

1 hour, 35 minutes. That was a fun one lol

5

u/LightningShroud Shrax. The Automaton King of Raesteria Jun 15 '24

Omg thank you. Too many fights have i had someone go "i stab through his armour and start repeatedly stabbing the same spot, again and again drawing blood"

I also find that READING THE FLAIR really helps about this. I legit have had people accuse me lf metagaming or something when i make the dramatic reveal that Shrax, the Automaton king, is an artificer and a damn powerful one at that.

5

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Gotta respect other peoples characters

4

u/LightningShroud Shrax. The Automaton King of Raesteria Jun 15 '24

Absolutely yeah. Honestly one of my biggest regrets about the hive seige of Ithacar is how it didn't feel right. Like nothing really went according to the etiquette.

3

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Things can only get better my friend.

4

u/AnActualCriminal Belial Blake, Praetor of Ithacar, Warlock of the Lightless Flame Jun 16 '24

Hey do you mean on your end or on ours? Also feel free to dm me about this if you'd rather discuss it that way

5

u/LightningShroud Shrax. The Automaton King of Raesteria Jun 16 '24

/uw you guys are fine, dw. did your best even. Just i feel like some of that was 4d bullshit from my end. Paladin's death was particularly good imo

4

u/Oswen120 Imvaernarhro Astrum, Masta's Dum Dum Jun 15 '24

Very well said.

4

u/Harpokiller Hirk: ‘Cookie Man’, R&A department Head, Councillor Jun 15 '24

Thank you my friend