So, I am very particular about my RP, and have my tastes. Some of us have stricter tastes than others, and that's fine. But my ultimate rule is that I will RP with anyone, without fail, assuming they do not break any fundamental laws of roleplaying that apply to any setting. That's not necessarily a "RP with them and be passive-aggressive at their lorebending", either.
For example, over a year ago, me and some friends went out to see the Grindstone, wearing Flame overcoat gear. Some dude comes along and in-characted declares we're 'pretenders' for wearing the overcoats outside city walls. Like, not real Flames, or some shit. I called him out for that BS in /tells, but he proceeded to dismiss me and shut me down by insisting it was all in-character and I was making it out-of-character...utter bullshit, of course. By its passive-aggressive wording IC, it was clearly designed as a meta-assault on me and my friends' RP.
That is not something I think anyone deserves as a roleplayer. We all have our interpretations, although I don't necessarily believe we should be compelled to accept one player's interpretation over another. What many people fail to realize is that it is extremely easy to reconcile differences during contact (which may or may not be inadvertent) by using...well, basic social skills, really. Or just surprise in other cases.
The oft-mentioned Miqo'te Dragoon or some other irregular race/culture combo can be reacted to with a simple "Well, that's strange. Anyway, would you like a second drink?". More belligerently, another response might be "A cat in service to the Holy See? How preposterous". At most, you just ignore them. If you're socially retarded, you proceed to declare to the whole Quicksand how this PERSON MUST NOT OBVIOUSLY BE THIS THING BECAUSE THIS OTHER THING SAYS SO.
I like to use the analogy 'Punting the Puppy' for this. Some roleplayers are a lot less intense in their commitment, perhaps more casual and not so serious. As such, they might pick a character build which is not as accurate as some others may like. They might not even care that much, not necessarily in a bad way, but just because of their lifestyle they probably have better things to do. As such, yelling at them IC about how wrong they must be is effectively dropkicking a puppy. They're just there to have fun and roleplay, not BUILD THIS REALLY PRECISE CHARACTER THAT COMPLIES TO THE LORE HNGHH. Because any moment you challenge someone's existence IC, there is automatically going to be OOC implications. I would never insult someone's intelligence and /tell them by saying "it's all IC!". Because it really isn't. I'd just say something like "My character is just reacting to something that seems strange to him [according to my interpretation of the lore]".
Anyway, this is probably a whole lot of "No shit, stupid", and a lot of roleplayers who are lore-strict already do this. But I figured it was worth mentioning, in defence of 'elitism'. See you out there!
For example, over a year ago, me and some friends went out to see the Grindstone, wearing Flame overcoat gear. Some dude comes along and in-characted declares we're 'pretenders' for wearing the overcoats outside city walls. Like, not real Flames, or some shit. I called him out for that BS in /tells, but he proceeded to dismiss me and shut me down by insisting it was all in-character and I was making it out-of-character...utter bullshit, of course. By its passive-aggressive wording IC, it was clearly designed as a meta-assault on me and my friends' RP.
That is not something I think anyone deserves as a roleplayer. We all have our interpretations, although I don't necessarily believe we should be compelled to accept one player's interpretation over another. What many people fail to realize is that it is extremely easy to reconcile differences during contact (which may or may not be inadvertent) by using...well, basic social skills, really. Or just surprise in other cases.
The oft-mentioned Miqo'te Dragoon or some other irregular race/culture combo can be reacted to with a simple "Well, that's strange. Anyway, would you like a second drink?". More belligerently, another response might be "A cat in service to the Holy See? How preposterous". At most, you just ignore them. If you're socially retarded, you proceed to declare to the whole Quicksand how this PERSON MUST NOT OBVIOUSLY BE THIS THING BECAUSE THIS OTHER THING SAYS SO.
I like to use the analogy 'Punting the Puppy' for this. Some roleplayers are a lot less intense in their commitment, perhaps more casual and not so serious. As such, they might pick a character build which is not as accurate as some others may like. They might not even care that much, not necessarily in a bad way, but just because of their lifestyle they probably have better things to do. As such, yelling at them IC about how wrong they must be is effectively dropkicking a puppy. They're just there to have fun and roleplay, not BUILD THIS REALLY PRECISE CHARACTER THAT COMPLIES TO THE LORE HNGHH. Because any moment you challenge someone's existence IC, there is automatically going to be OOC implications. I would never insult someone's intelligence and /tell them by saying "it's all IC!". Because it really isn't. I'd just say something like "My character is just reacting to something that seems strange to him [according to my interpretation of the lore]".
Anyway, this is probably a whole lot of "No shit, stupid", and a lot of roleplayers who are lore-strict already do this. But I figured it was worth mentioning, in defence of 'elitism'. See you out there!
