Table of Contents
I. What is Role-Play?
II. God Mode defined
III. Metagaming defined
I. What is Role-Play?
II. God Mode defined
III. Metagaming defined
I. What is Role-Play?
Role-play is defined as making a conscious effort to act out the role of a particular character. This is done through one’s language and behavior. A role-player also separates out of character behavior from their in character behavior to some degree. Spontaneous just for fun emotes do not constitute as RP unless such emotes are consistent with what the character would actually do. Role-play is basically writing and acting a believable role in a particular setting, much like characters from a movie or television show. Role-play is seeing the world through the eyes of your character rather than yourself.
When one is actively role-playing, they are considered in character (IC). When talking about real life, game mechanics, and so on, one is considered out of character (OOC).
Classes of RP:
Role-playing can be divided into three classes: casual, moderate, and heavy. These are by no means the full spectrum and many role-players fall somewhere in between certain categories.
Casual Role-player: A light mix between being out of character and in-character. They enjoy their out of character activities but still enjoy engaging in role-play from time to time. They may or may not participate in deep character development and/or plotting. They may enjoy a form of "no-strings-attached" role-play.
Moderate Role-player: This player tends to lean more towards their role-play than their out of character goals. They enjoy engaging in deep character development and prefer only a light amount of out-of-character conduct. He/she typically has a good understanding of their character’s traits, habits, and other details.
Heavy Role-player: Full on immersion. This player enjoys staying in character as often as possible. They may still engage in out-of-character activities, though it is by no means a priority. They enjoy deep character development and plotlines, having an intimidate understanding and connection to their character.
Freelance role-players, while not a "class" of RP, deserve mentioning as well. The term "freelance" refers to the role-players not affiliated with a particular RP group.
II. God Mode defined
God mode: The act of making one’s character beyond that of the norm in a way that promotes invincibility, immortality, extreme influence, or unnatural powers that interfere with the natural laws of Hydaelyn.
God mode is usually a problem that comes up during role-play conflict, though it appears elsewhere in the role-playing world as well. Do not role-play yourself as the spawn or incarnation of a god. That is god mode. Do not role-play yourself as a being from another world with the power to level cities. That is god mode. Do not role-play yourself as a prince with supreme influence over the nation leaders and their subjects. That is god mode. Do not role-play yourself as being so powerful that you can dodge any and every attack thrown at you constantly. That is god mode. You get the picture, right?
Meet our exemplars, AbsurdlyPowerfulMan, or APM, and UnfortunateGuy, or UG. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about them.
Example1: AbsurdlyPowerfulMan wiggles his pinky finger, causing a flaming crack to open under UnfortunateGuy's feet and convey him directly to a fiery death at the planet's core.
(APM is clearly god-moding. There is simply no means within the game for any player character to do that under any circumstances. And what if the world doesn't actually *have* a flaming core?)
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Example2: AbsurdlyPowerfulMan gestures with his right thumb, causing a bolt of lightning to strike UnfortunateGuy and fry him to a crisp.
(Still god mode. APM may very well be a Conjurer capable of tossing lightning bolts around, but UG might very well have survived the blast, depending upon how tough he is, or how resistant he is to lightning. Or maybe UG does, in fact, have tremendously fast reflexes that might allow him to dodge the bolt!)
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Example3: AbsurdlyPowerfulMan raises an eyebrow, causing everyone within ten yards to think that UnfortunateGuy has stinky feet.
(Yep, godmode again. APM cannot dictate what other people think or feel. Whether or not UG's feet actually do stink is, of course, another matter entirely.)
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Example4: AbsurdlyPowerfulMan waggles his fingers, causing a bolt of lightning to streak forth in UnfortunateGuy's direction.
(Not godmode! At least, not if APM can actually toss a Thunder spell.)
III. Metagaming defined
Metagaming refers to knowing something OOC and applying it as IC knowledge without any logical explanation. When stories are posted on the forums, they are all considered OOC knowledge unless somehow specified otherwise (such as a newspaper clippings). This applies to other OOC sources as well. Don’t use OOC tools to gain IC knowledge.
For example:
Example1: AbsurdlyPowerfulMan, having never consulted an alchemist or alchemical text in his life, spends the afternoon before the castle raid mixing together a large batch of sulfur and saltpeter. "This oughtta blow a hole in the castle wall!"
(Clearly metagaming. Out-of-Character, APM obviously knows how to make gunpowder. But, even assuming that sulfur, saltpeter, and gunpowder even *exist* In-Character, there is no way that APM would know that mixing them together would do anything, much less how much of each ingredient to use.)
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Example2: AbsurdlyPowerfulMan, faced with the prospect of raiding an imposing castle, visits the Alchemist's Guild to acquire a few healing draughts. There, he sees an old man demonstrate his new invention, "fire-sand", a black powder that explodes when exposed to fire! Intrigued, AbsurdlyPowerfulMan purchases a large sack of the "fire-sand" from the old man. "This oughtta blow a hole in the castle wall!"
(Not metagaming! OOC, APM still knows what gunpowder is, but his *character* doesn't have any idea... until he happens to see the stuff in action at the Alchemist's Guild! Let's hope he has the good sense to stand well clear of any open flames between here and the castle....)
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Example3: UnfortunateGuy's player posts on the FFXIV RPC forums a bit of his character's background, including a secret place he has underneath a warehouse in town. Later that day, UnfortunateGuy's character opens the secret door behind the haybales, to find AbsurdlyPowerfulGuy waiting for him, sword at the ready!
(Metagaming. The only reason APG's player knows about the secret place is because UG posted on the forums about it! APG's character has no way of knowing about it, much less getting there *ahead* of him to set up an ambush.)
