Roleplaying

Roleplay, or RP for short, is the act of playing the role of and acting as a character would rather than yourself. Lord of the Craft is a roleplaying server, and thus all players are required to create a roleplay character whose shoes they will fill for all in-game interactions. Players must roleplay their character's name, age, race, interests, and character history.

General Rules of Roleplaying

To make the Lord of the Craft an enriching experience for yourself and everyone else, roleplaying should be used whenever possible, especially during in-game interactions and in the local chat stream. A starting place for roleplay is embracing one's chosen race. You can start by giving your in-character chat a dialect appropriate for your race, for example:

Elves should be as literate as possible and quite refined.

e.g. Always greeting others with hail, addressing other players by their proper name and home nation, etc.

Dwarves should have an Irish/Scottish feel to their language, often using improper slang and slurs.

e.g. "Hello there, how are you?" is replaced with something like "'Ello t'ere, how are yeh?"

Orcs are unable to speak the normal tongue due to their large tusks. They speak a language, labeled the Blah.

Humans tend to speak as humans in the middle-ages would, with some variations in speech from one town to the next.

However players are free to develop their own unique dialect as all characters have unique mannerisms and ways of speaking. In addition to speaking in a roleplay dialect, below are some ideas to enhance the depth of your character's roleplaying abilities:

- Consider your character's age.

- Incorporate your character's history, both fictional and events you have experienced in-game into your roleplay experience.

- Roleplay gossip and rumours.

- Be respective of the lore of your race/nation - pay tribute to your ancestors, etc.

- Roleplay the subtleties of your sub-race in addition to your race.

- Always find a roleplay motive behind your options.

Metagaming

Aside from chatting out of character, the biggest action to avoid is metagaming. Metagaming refers to making decisions and discussing topics based on information that your character would realistically have no way of knowing. Much like reading a book, the reader knows things the character doesn't at the time. Be like a reader! You cannot communicate with the character of the book!

For example, showing up to a friend's aid when they are being attacked on the road when they messaged you via OOC (/msg, Skype, Teamspeak, etc) is metagaming. Using general information your character does not know or has yet to find out is metagaming.

Information posted on the roleplay section of the Lord of the Craft forums is generally considered to be posted on bulletin boards and thus your character may see this information. However, not all the information on the Lord of the Craft Wiki or discussed on in-game OOC Chat is accessible by your character.

Power-emoting

Power-emoting (or powergaming), along with metagaming, is another one of those actions that will send you straight to the Nether. In the well written words found on Wikipedia, "A player can be described as power-emoting (powergaming) if he or she presumes or declares that his or her own action against another player character is successful without giving the other player character the freedom to act on his own prerogative."

The classic example of this is when a guard is trying to arrest a crook. This is an example where both sides power-emote:

Guard trips Crook and binds his hands and legs.

Crook uses his large strength to break the bonds and runs.

Guard sprints to the Crook and tackles him.

Crook pulls out a dagger and kills Guard.

As you can see, neither side was being realistic or letting the other side react. An example of good roleplay:

Guard attempts to grab Crook.

Crook barely escapes Guard's grasp.

Guard throws a rock in an attempt to trip Crook.

Crook stumbles, and slowly recovers.

Guard tries to force shackles on the Crook.

Crook resists, but is caught.

The lesson is, you can't always win! But, luckily in roleplaying, losing is fun as well. Strive to never power-emote, no matter how tempting it is. It is not fun to play with a power-emote.

In-Game Chat Modes

Local or RP

The default chat stream on the Lord of the Craft server is Local. The local stream can be joined by typing /join rp while logged into the server and /rp to focus on that chat. Local chat is an exclusively roleplay stream, thus everything you say in local chat mode must reflect things your character would actually say, in every way from content to dialect. Like in reality, things you say in the local stream can only be heard by characters within audible proximity of you.

Out of Character

All public non-roleplay chat on the server should take place in the Out of Character stream, also known as OOC. Out of character chat can be joined by typing /join ooc while logged into the server and /ooc to focus on it. You can also leave OOC chat at any time by typing /leave ooc. While chatting in the OOC stream, players are not required to abide by the normal laws of roleplay and dialect. However, discussing roleplay events and details such as coordinates for secret locations, trade, and general happenings in Vailor in OOC chat is considered meta-gaming and is strictly prohibited.

Wandering Soul Channel

The Wandering Soul Channel, or WSC, is the default chat for Wandering Souls who play on the server without being whitelisted as accepted members. Wandering Souls cannot leave the WSC and it is the only channel they can speak in. Accepted members can enter the WSC at any time by using /join ws and leave by using /leave wsc. There they can offer guidance to WS.

Local - Out of Character

Local Out of Character chat, known as L-OOC, is a purely out of character channel where messages in the chat are only received locally, as its name suggests. It can be used by proceeding your text with any bracket, including <, (, [, and { or typing /looc. The message you write will be displayed in gray text to anyone within 30 blocks. You will disrupt other's roleplay if you spam L-OOC or just generally argue in it. Arguments are to be had with /tell.

Tell

By typing /tell <minecraft name>, or alternately the command /t <minecraft name>, can be used to send messages directly to a single player that is not visible by any other players. Tell messages are prefixed by a blue [PM] and the text in the message is gray in color. Tells are solely a form of private OOC communication. To contact another character and not a player, birds must be used, these are tells to another character which must be first emoted in game, with writing, calling a bird, and sending the message. You may not use birds in situations where it would be impossible, such as in the middle of combat. That would be meta-gaming.

Shout

By typing /shout or /s a player can speak with a much larger range than with the normal Local chat.

Quiet

By typing /q a player can speak with a smaller range than with the normal Local chat. This chat also doesn't allow the text to pass through walls, the players behind them only hearing a "Muttering" instead.

Whisper

By typing /w a player can speak with a much smaller range than with the normal Local chat, useful only when in very close proximity.

Help

The Help chat is a place to receive assistance and help. Use /join help to enter the channel and /h to focus on it. Anyone may attempt to assist those who request it. Trolling or use of the chat as a secondary OOC are against the rules.