*RP Rules and Etiquette

Well now, it seems that a lot of people on DA, and across the internet for that matter, have a huge misconception about what Role Playing actually is, let alone the fact that they have no idea how to do it properly.  Most of those who are clueless are children (under 18) who not only have no idea what they are doing, but also clearly had no proper instruction, or very bad instruction, on how to Role Play correctly, let alone proper Role Play etiquette.  The rest of the clueless ones that are actually adults are one of four things: generally ignorant and need proper instruction, received bad instruction on how to RP, are arrogant jerks who think they are the center of the RP, or are drama queens seeking attention and will throw a childish tantrum if they don't get their way.

Me, I usually like to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to give them proper instructions on how to RP correctly.  As a lifetime RPer, from Live Action ReCreationism Role Play, to COStume PLAY, to Live Action Role Play, Table Top Role Paying Games, and on line forum, list, and chat Role Playing, I have extensive experience on how to Role Play correctly.  To that end, I am posting this journal as a guideline for real and serious RPers, including RP Etiquette and Rules that true RPers follow.  These are not my personal rules, these are rules and etiquette established before I was born by the father of all Role Playing Games, Gary Gygax himself, used in every RPG ever made since his own game, Dungeons & Dragons, was released in 1974, the year I was born, and have adapted to what you see below as On Line Role Playing has developed from traditional Table Top RPGs.



Role Play Posting Etiquette –
Spamming the RP is not acceptable.  Spamming an RP and posting more than once without waiting for anyone else to reply is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP.
God-Modding is unacceptable.  Every character can take hits, every character can take damage, and every character can be killed.  Please conduct yourself accordingly and do not have your characters super powerful, have god-like abilities, or dodging every hit.  God Modding is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP.
Power playing is not acceptable.  Playing another person's character without permission will not be allowed.  If necessary, confer with the other character's RPer to negotiate combined actions for posts, or imply your character's intention and follow up action if their intent succeeds.  Power Playing is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP.
Character killing is not acceptable.  There will be absolutely no character killing permitted in the RP without prior negotiations with that character's RPer first!  There will be no exceptions!  Killing someone else's character without consent or permission is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP.
No short one liner posts!  Be creative! Get into the spirit of things and let people read your character's thoughts and feelings, some inspiration and motivation for your character, anything, just make it interesting.  Typing a one word or short one sentence reply to a full and detailed RP post gets annoying fast.  While there is no word count minimum, the general rule of thumb is "try for at least 50-100 words."  If you end up typing a one thousand word post, that's perfectly okay too!
Be realistic with your posts.  If your character is hit, give them appropriate damage to the hit.  For example – In a Transformers based RP, if your character is human and Megatron shoots him with his fusion cannon, I'm sorry but your character is dead.  If a Transformer is hit with a blast from that same cannon, he is going to be hurting.  Be realistic and have fun with it.
There is something called spell check, please use it. Please use proper spelling and grammar with your posts, and proofread them!  It is very hard to read posts with spelling and grammar errors, misplaced words, or missing words, in an RP post.  Please be kind to the other RPers and at least type like you paid attention in English class at school.
Absolutely no 1337 Speak, Chat Speak, LOL Speak, Internet Slang, Text Speak, or Text Short Hand will be allowed in any RP posts!  We do not want to see it anywhere on the boards and repeated use of it in the RP is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP.
One-Upmanship: Just don't do it. Pulling the "Yeah, and my character can do this" attitude and continually trying to One-Up other people's characters makes the rest of us want to either not RP with you or leave the site entirely. It is as immature as God Modding and refusing to let your characters be damaged by enemy fire. JUST DON'T DO IT!
Keep personal Drama out of the RP! If you have an issue between you and another RPer, take it to Private Chat. Drama Baiting and Drama Mongering in public view drives away established members of the RP as well as new or potential members. If you have Real Life issues that are preventing you from posting promptly, politely excuse yourself from the RP. If you are simply having a bad day/week/whatever, do not take it out on others. While many do offer sympathy to those who are having an especially hard time, airing one's dirty laundry continuously is rude and annoying. It is also considered drama queen attention seeking and is liable to earn you nothing less than being shut out from the RP and likely cause others to turn away and ignore you.

Ratings – Keep the posts and storylines to PG-13 rating!  This means you do not go into graphic detail of your characters sexual escapades.  Use common sense and "Fade to Black" if such things do occur in the RP.  As for battle scenes, while it is okay to describe injuries and damage, try to not be too grotesquely graphic.  Going into morbid detail about internal organs hanging out and how much blood is gushing from a wound is unnecessary.

Abusive Language and Sexual Harassment – Abuse and harassment of other RPers will not be tolerated.  If you are found to be committing such acts, you will be subject to nothing less than being shut out from the RP, and possibly being reported to the authorities, especially with regard to any sexual harassment.

Theft – Do not copy or steal another person's work! Meaning writing, poems, songs, art, anything someone else made and you claim as your own is considered theft. The exceptions to this are things like using official character images for Icons and Signature images for canon characters, as well as canon information for character bios. While it looks cool or may be well written, always credit your sources! You may have created the compiled images and bio for the character, but the pictures and information you used were not created by you. If the bio is for a canon character, do the research and write it yourself, do not steal one written by someone else. If the character is an OC, do not steal someone else's character, images, or information.

Creating Your Character – When bringing in a character (canon or original) into an established RP, go by the character bio template provided when making your PC (Permanent Character) and follow how it is to be filled out.  Often on RP sites and forums, character bios are required to be posted with that character's account. The ONLY character bios posted on such sites and forums are for the RP.  DO NOT post character bios for fan fics or from other RPs off site as it causes confusion and misunderstandings they would rather avoid.

Member and Character Account Names – To avoid confusion and potential issues with other RPers, especially on an RP site or forum, DO NOT use Character names for your Member Account, especially Canon Character names. This creates confusion and can potentially create hard feelings where none were intended when people start using Canon Character names for their Member Account names and someone is already playing that character. Also, do not use names for Member or Character Accounts that are offensive to others, especially derogatory terms. If you are unsure if a name is offensive or derogatory, it's best not to use it.  Such offensive and abusive names will only earn you the label of "Troll" and cause you to be banned from the RP in question.



I have taught quite a few people how to properly conduct themselves in various Role Playing venues (note that Cosplay is not actually Role Play, it is strictly playing dress-up in costumes like Halloween, thus its name – Costume Play or Cosplay).  I have run campaigns and built campaign worlds, as well as created quite a few detailed and well fleshed out characters for various Worlds, Universes, and Fandoms, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Gamma World, Marvel Universe, Battle Tech, Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, Rifts, Society for Creative Anachronism, Star Trek, Star Wars, Transformers, and others.  I am also a natural researcher and innate organizer, much to the delight and occasional dismay of some of my friends.  **smirks and winks at Catalyst**  So I have quite a lot of knowledge and experience in this sort of thing.

Now, do note that this account is my Personal Art Account, not an RP account.  I RP on established RP sites, forums, and lists, not willy nilly random on an ART site.  Some would argue that Role Playing is an art form, and normally I would agree with that.  However, this particular "Art Form" does not belong on DA; though the posting of RP character bios on Deviant Art and posting stories that result from RPs (in story form, not in RP posting form, and only with permission and full credit to all involved in the writing of said RP story) on Deviant Art is perfectly reasonable and I would not argue against such postings.  But actual RPing in chat and comments on Deviant Art is tedious, lawless, uncontainable, uncontrollable, and frankly pointless.  The reason I say this is because with trying to have an RP on DA, you can't establish set rules, timeline, or storyline and plots for the RP to follow, you can't limit who sees the RP, you can't keep random people from coming in and crashing the RP, and you can't keep someone from trying to take over the RP.  This is why RPing simply does not belong on DA, though doing so is not strictly against DA rules.  RPing belongs on closed and controlled sites and forums set up for that very purpose so established staff members can oversee and maintain the RP, set up rules and protocol, storyline, plot lines, and story timeline for the RP, control membership and board access, and remove troublemakers from the boards.

While I can see having a personal art account and a professional art account on Deviant Art (to keep your private and professional works separated), any more than that is just ridiculous.  Having multiple RP accounts on DA is honestly pointless since Deviant Art is not an appropriate place for RPing.  Also, having multiple separate accounts for each hobby or whatever you're into on DA is beyond pointless when you can so much more easily make multiple folders in your gallery to post your varied interests and hobbies in.  Also, making accounts to pretend you're someone else or for trolling and harassing someone is just childish and stupid, as is lying and deceiving others for whatever reason.  There is nothing that will validate or excuse such idiotic behavior as far as I'm concerned.

And to those of you who believe this is a personal attack against certain individuals (including yourselves) who clearly have poor RP skills or who insist upon having multiple accounts on DA, it is not. This is a general resource and information journal for anyone to utilize to improve themselves, like any other such journal I have posted.  However, I do know there are those who will take this as a personal attack against them, and honestly, if they are so insecure, petty, and vain as to believe that, that's their problem and I frankly don't care.  I have better things to do with my time than to post personal attacks against people on the internet.  Openly laughing at someone's inept stupidity however, is another story.  **chuckles**

You can find further reading regarding characters and Role Playing in my What REALLY Defines a Mary Sue/Gary Stu Character journal.