Roleplay - What It Is And What It Is Not

Ok so you have negotiated your way through the Loading of the game, the logging in and you have created your first character
 

Now what do you do???
Well, the first thing as far as Role play is concerned is to decide what this character will be and what sort of personality it will have.
You may have decided that he or she will be a pillar of the community, dedicated to good works and be a friend to every one or he may be a rapist, thief, mugger, whore in fact anything you can think of. That is entirely up to you.

Having said that you have to paint a picture to other players as to what your character is all about, this means role-playing him or her. Sociolotron Is primarily an RPG and therefore, as this is a fantasy world, it would be ideal if every character was a fantasy as well. We don't want to limit your imaginations, nor do we wish to burden your experience of Sociolotron with heavy handed rules as far as RP goes.

However, please bear in mind that London is a stage and all the characters therein are actors. You will meet characters that are deeply involved in role play and some that are not. There will be times, especially at the start, when you will need to ask question such as "how do I harvest raws" or "How do I manufacture an item" These type of interactions are best done using the OOC speech which is located at the bottom of your game screen your text will show in Green and will be prefaced by "OOC". Please try to limit the use of this mode to a minimum.

Here are few ways to encourage RP:

• Use RP terms for things such as "London" rather than "the game" or Sociolotron, for example you may want to ask: "How long have you been a citizen of London?" rather than "How long have you played Sociolotron"
• Try not to use terms like "XP" "STR" "DEX" etc in a public room
• There are NPCs all over London...try to use a name for these such as bandits, robbers, muggers etc.
• You will see each characters name , or nick displayed on your screen but try to introduce yourself when you first meet someone, after all your character wouldn't have knowledge of everyone's name without being told.
• The best strategy for general RP that we can offer is to think: would my char know about this and if the answer is no find a way to work around the difficulty. Sometimes this will just not be possible, in which case use the OOC button or even the 1:1 speech.
• Do please keep your Chars a secret and never give out personal information. That person who is so nice and helpful can soon become someone you would rather not talk to in reality. Safeguard yourself at all times.

Now here's some things that we would actively discourage you from doing

• Please don't fall into the trap of naming all your characters as one family such as Billy Smith and William Smith. This just leads to confusion and ultimately can lead to conflicts between players. There is no way that any investigation of abuse (grief) can go forward if William Smith is mistakenly blamed for something that Billy Smith has done, especially if the player openly plays them as related.
• Please remember that all characters in the game are fictitious and therefore they are not actually the player behind them. Deal with the character, not the player.
• Do not allow "in game conflicts" to spill over into real life, this leads to a very unsavory situation for both players and staff.
• Don't take actions done to your char personally, you will find yourself in situations that are not politically correct whilst in the game. Some will be situations that you find distasteful in real life. At this point remember that this is a fantasy and deal with it in game accordingly. However, your actions towards other chars may well provoke responses that you are not expecting, be aware that not everyone will be able to RP as well as you do.

Roleplay is definitely not an excuse to cause other players distress in their real lives. Finally, Have fun, paint as complete a picture as you can for the other Actors, its easier to join in RP when you have some idea of the personality of the other chars. Use emote to convey your mood and your facial or body posture, don't forget a lot of meaning is lost in plain text. For instance the simple phrase "I'll see you later..." can be a simple farewell or a threat depending on the emote that goes with it.

Overdog Says: "I'll see you in game....."

Overdog breaks eye contact, blinks and points his forefinger menacingly then slowly turns away