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 Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:21 pm
[ RP Rules and Guidelines ]
Because what's a game without a little unbridled tyranny?
All joking aside, though, everyone here comes from a slightly different RP background. GMs all define things differently, and various groups may very well be either more or less lenient than this one. Some standardization is needed for us to function well as a whole and minimize conflicts, hence this long-winded rule page. It's definitely not our intention to throw the lawbook at anyone by surprise and randomly declare perfectly capable players the agents of Satan, so we're going to try to state everything clearly. Do please look through this page once, before starting play, and refer back to it if you're ever unsure.
This thread isn't and won't be locked...if anything's unclear, please feel free to post and ask for clarification. Whatever's fuzzy was probably worded badly, so your stepping forward and saying "hey...!?" will help get things straightened out for everyone.
Post II : The Rules and Other General Info
Post III: What's considered powerplaying/godmoding?
Post IV : Reporting In-Game Problems, GMs
Post V : Possible Consequences
Post VI : FAQ and Game-Specific Concerns
Post VII: Reserved
Post VIII: Reserved
Post IX: Reserved
Post X: Reserved
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:24 pm
[ Rules of Play ]
Two sections here. The top half is intended for quick reference, whereas the bottom half clarifies and elaborates on the same rules.
[ The Rules in Short ]
1: Don't be a jerk.
2: Powerplaying and godmoding suck. They are dealt with more strictly than anything else.
3: You have two full days to respond to a post. (See elaboration.)
4: Absolutely no killing major characters without getting permission OOC .
5: Use proper English at all times.
6: Be creative!
7: Have fun!
[ The Rules in Not-So-Short ]
1: Don't be a jerk.
1b: Always, always remember that this is a game, and meant to be enjoyable above all else. Never take things personally, hold IC stuff against players, or target characters because you don't like the people who play them. Be nice, kids, and you get cookies!
2: Powerplaying and godmoding suck. They are dealt with more strictly than anything else
2b: Please read the next post.
3: You have two full days to respond to a post. (See elaboration.)
3b: Okay...too many games die because one person is an important plot player and then stops posting for whatever reason. We've all seen it. Now, don't panic on me...this rule isn't nearly as harsh as it sounds. It does not mean that a) if you don't do something in 48 hours the players or GMs will do something wickedly evil to your character or b) you're going to have problems if you can't log in on the weekends. (Pre-announced absences are fine.) The rule does mean that your character may get ignored, or, in a battle situation, sustain minor damage or a small powerplay by the GMs or NPCs that sweeps them out of the picture until you're ready to come back in. The "consequences" (duhn duhn duuuhn) post, post V, will explain and expound upon this.
4: Absolutely no killing major characters without getting permission OOC .
4b: This is far too important a move to just make assumptions about. Just in case you don't know the other player as well as you think, just in case it turns out they're not giving you permission IC to kill them...just PM or IM them. Get confirmation. It's easy, and avoids a hella lot of trouble and irritation. (If you call an attack and they declare their own char dead, this is just fine...circumstantially. Still again, see third post.) A "major character," by the way, is any PC, the five major NPCs, or anyone who seems a big plot point at a given moment. (Note that randomly killing even small NPCs may violate powerplay rules...be sure you know what the other person's intentions are!)
5: Use proper English at all times.
5b: No, the occasional spelling mistake won't result in squirrely wrath, no, there's no rule about intelligently-placed profanity in moderation (noting that we do have twelve-year-olds hanging around!), and yes, of course we understand that bad grammar may be an attribute of your character. Your narration, though--that is, everything you write that your character doesn't actually say or think--should always maintain pretty good grammar. Leet-speak, chat-speak, and shorthand are never okay.
6: Be creative!
6b: If you want to take your character or even the plot in a bold new direction...go for it! Please do PM Jyoti if you want to do something that will radically affect the game's main plot, for obvious reasons...that, and there's a very good chance the GMs and NPCs can work with you to help you implement your idea. ^^ Sub plots, side quests, and so on are pretty much always okay...just go for it.
7: Have fun!
7b: Yup! That's the primary goal of everything here...even the rules. They help avert bad feelings of any sort between players...if anyone's going to be a bad guy, it should be the GMs. That way the rest of you can just kick back and enjoy yourselves.
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:30 pm
[ What's Considered "Powerplaying"? ]
Powerplaying...godmoding...being a cheesehead...whatever you want to call it, it sucks. Nothing creates bad feelings between players faster than this. "Powerplaying" is the word that will be used the most here...but what's the exact definition of it? What constitues a powerplay? After all, in games between close friends where players know each other and all characters well, it may very well be okay to make a post that says "Siya grabs Yusake's arm and puts him on the floor in one smooth motion." Meanwhile, if playing the other extreme, poor Siya would have tripped and hit her head if she hadn't rolled a natural twenty. The check system Lotus plays under is pretty open in letting you determine what your character's skills will let hir accomplish. On the other hand, it forces you to respect each other's decisions on the matter as well. All in all? It's the honor system.The Golden Rule You call the action, they call the response.
You may only state what your character does...not how the other person's character reacts (or doesn't react).
Let's go back to good ol' Siya and Yusake, shall we?WRONG Siya grabbed Yasuke's arm and put him on the floor in one smooth motion. WRONG, though closer Siya grabbed Yasuke's arm and tried to throw him to the floor. CORRECT Siya grabbed for Yasuke's arm with every intention of throwing him to the floor.
An impressive in-play example of this:Keishii [My char has been harassing hers. He's currently hiding behind some crates, a fact that NPCs have alerted Cailean to.]
Grinning, Cail placed his boot uncerimoniously on the side of one of the boxes, and pushed it aside without much of a struggle, more than likely due to the fact that the box was empty, but he wasn't going to make mention of it. "Let's just see what kind of mischievous little halfwit we have on our hands today..."
[ Other Forms of Powerplaying ]
Okay, so maybe you didn't violate the golden rule. You still may not be playing fair. Other types of powerplays include:
Consistently being untouchable. This includes:
- unrealistically inpenetrable defenses
- unrealistic speed
- consistently being "lucky"
Being nigh-omnipotent.
Your character knowing things your character has no way of knowing. (Bring OOC [out of character] knowledge IC [in character].)
Calling truly inescapable attacks that will have serious consequences (especially death) without consulting the other player first.
Deciding important aspects of another character's history (again, without consulting the other player first.)
[ Q and A ]
Q: Wait, wait...if the other person gets to decide their character's reaction to my move, can't they just come out unscathed every freaking time?
A: Yes, of course. The drawback of the honor system is that not everyone, well...honors it. The person who always escapes or is always "just too bloody good" is being a god-moder and should be reported to a GM. Please do not take matters into your own hands and start a powerplay war, or you may both end up in hot water. These kinds of catfights are absolutely no fun to break up, so just leave it to a mod to handle. We'll react pretty fast, promise.
Q: My post doesn't quite fit in with that "call the action only" format...I need the response before I can finish."
A: Find another way. Think outside your comfy little box. Make a shorter post if you have to, save some part for later. In a few very rare cases, though, you're right...the rule's not practical. If you really need to powerplay a character, espcially for plot-moving reasons, ask the player permission via PM. Include just enough information for them to make an educated call on whether to give you permission or not. If you have them on an instant messenger, this may become quite the habit...it can be a convenient way to speed up play if you know and trust the other player. Even in this case, though, you need permission to powerplay every time. This is because you never know just what the other person may be planning and may inadvertantly throw a wrench in something you may have really liked.
[ IMPORTANT! ]
Yes...sometimes powerplays are planned ahead of time. Sometimes a powerplay can actually help a game (as in the case of NPCs making them.) For these and a number of other reasons, the GMs will constantly be wrestling judgement calls about whether a given powerplay was "okay" or not, drawing from knowledge of how well we know and trust players. Further, if this game gets very large, we can't possibly see everything! For these reasons:
If you have a problem with another player's actions, let one of the GMs know privately and immediately!
While we will enforce things without being asked, this is the only way to ensure that we'll know there's a problem and correct it promptly. Your report will be kept confidential...no one but us will know the difference between a GM elbowing in and a reported offense.
Please observe the above, folks...if everyone does that, this will be an incredible, wonderfully functional game! All that said...I promise this thread is all downhill from here. wink
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:42 pm
[ Reporting In-Game Problems ]
If you have any in-game problemsJyoti is the one to contact. If you have concerns involving the main game plot, please also contact Jyoti. Being interested in executing a major main-plot twist is one example. She's also the one to bug about anything that's unclear about the setting...provided you thoroughly scour the main Lotus thread and the guild for the answer first.
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:43 pm
[ Possible Consequences ]
Alright...first off, I'm nothing if not big on second chances, especially if I don't think you understand what you're doing wrong. The first step is always a warning. We're sane, rational people and will always do our best to be on the rules' side...not our buddies' side. If you receive a warning for some reason, just play it cool, listen to what the GMs tell you on the rare occasion we stick our noses into your business, and everything will blow over quite painlessly.
Things only go so smoothly in a perfect world, though. These are some of the things that might happen to our resident delinquents, in roughly ascending levels of severity:
- you have to listen to Jyoti talk at you.
- powerplay by a GM or NPC that's detrimental to your character somehow
- character demoted or otherwise penalized in L.O.T.U.S.
- character "growth" significantly delayed
- suspension from game
- death of character (with the option to start over with a new one)
- expulsion from game and thread (total blacklisting)
- SKYLAB*
*SKYLAB is extremely rare. In all the games I've GMed, I've only even come close to using it once. This means that a SKYLAB falls out of the sky and crushes a character into total oblivion, to the extent that all characters lose all memory of hir. It erases a character from history, (s)he never existed. This is hard on everyone, and only used in the case of a character who's absolutely invaluable to the plot, who can't be discarded without destroying the game, being so insufferable and detrimental that (s)he deserves blacklisting.
All told, there's not a whole lot of chance we'll ever get past the fourth stage of that list, and note also that none of them will be used unless warnings are ignored. Okay? :3 Just play nice and have fun.
[ The Dreaded "You Have 48 Hours to Edit" Rule Explained ]
Okay...this is not as harsh a rule as it sounds, all right? As explained in the "general rules" post above, this game won't be allowed to stall significantly or totally end because one player drops off the face of the planet. Therefore you have two true days, 48 hours, to respond to a given post before the game moves on without you.
This rule means:
- Once someone's posted anything directly addressing your character, you have 48 hours to respond.
- No one can decide your char's reactions to something becaues you happened to log off for the night.
- No one can call an attack and later declare it a hit because you happened to log off for the night.
- You can't do those things to anyone else, either.
- Once 48 hours have passed, it's fine to note that the other guy was slow to (or didn't) respond. I guess this is attractive if your character's long attention span is fairly sacred to you.
This rules does not mean:
- If you talked to another character, you're stuck for 48 hours. If your character gets distracted and waddles off elsewhere, that's fine...just don't make a reference to the other character "not answering."
- Someone's going to kill your character if you don't edit in 48 hours.
- You can powerplay someone after this timeframe. Get a GM to do it.
If you go over 48 hours:
To be honest? Not much usually happens. The GMs or NPCs will powerplay your character mildly just to shove hir off to the side and clear the stage for active players.
If that happens in a battle setting:
The GM will call the effect of the attack on you. Powerplay. Damage will be mild if existant, and you will be shoved around however necessary...and out of the way as soon as possible.
GMs will never actually play your character unless you ask us to.
No damage will be incurred if you tell a GM ahead of time that you'll be gone. (More than one day's warning would be just dandy, thanks.) Please, though...if you know you won't be online for so long, scoot yourself off to the side if possible, just on the last turn before you go. It makes life simpler.
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:44 pm
[ FAQ and Game-Specific Concerns]
This post, of course, will fill as questions are asked and things come up. x3
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:45 pm
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:57 pm
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:58 pm
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:00 pm
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