Portal
This thread defines the basic terms and general rules for participating in our server's roleplay sessions. These are in part edited from the set of rules posted by Xanadus.
Regarding canon:
As our name may suggest, our RP stories are based on Star Wars Legends continuity, as opposed to the new canon established by Lucasfilm in 2014 (unless stated otherwise), and we try to stay as close to the lore as possible. However, this generally only applies to the setting and the events leading up to the time of the current campaign. Events within the campaign are not and will not be restricted based on what happens in the lore. Just because something never happened in the lore doesn't mean it can't happen in the roleplays. Because of that, not all campaigns will be in the same continuity as each other.
Starting points:
A starting point is the base of a roleplay session. Its purpose is to create a base for a role play, from where players can start improvising the play further with the given information of the environment, and abilities & attributes according to their characters. Starting point is not a plot, but only a point where the story begins. And the story itself will be developed in the cooperation of all the participating players.
Characters:
The very base of starting a role play after the starting point, is to create your character for it. You almost have a totally free hand in creating a character, as long as it supports the idea of the given roleplay.
According to the class you decide to pick (Sith, Jedi, smuggler, and so on) you should keep the character's abilities realistic. For example: if your character is a Jedi Padawan, then you should create it to be like one. In saber fights, avoid using your full potential. Hold back, pick a stance you don't know so well and use Force powers with caution.
It's always good aiming to be descriptive with the character. Having a background and personality helps with improvising in situations where dialog takes a strong dominating part during a certain scene, and develops your character further later on.
There are three basic types of characters in any given session:
Combat:
Of course, we all aim (or at least we should?
) to keep our character created at the start alive as long as possible and they should only end up dying if it fit the on-going story and if the events foreshadowing it led to the situation naturally.
Because of this, the character deaths will not be counted if they're randomly caused by the environment(*COUGH* doors *COUGH*), by accidentally hitting a "kill" bind or if another player just suddenly jumps at you from behind the corner with a spinning wiggle and one shots you.
For this reason, major saber hits and gun shots will wound and possibly stun your character, but not kill them. Should the hit ''kill'' you, it means you have been rendered unconscious for a short time with a non-lethal take down (unless it is decided by the admins to be actually lethal). When such situations occur, you should aim to act accordingly. However, this does not mean your character has "plot armor". Major wounds will have a lasting effect on your character, especially if your character is not Force sensitive and/or going without proper medical attention.
Also, please avoid using splash, or any high damage/AoE weapons in combat situations, especially in close-range combat because using them without caution will lead to confusing situations that abort the flow of the role play entirely. No one will like it. Use them only if it really supports the on-going situation, such as in a wide-open battlefield.
In action-oriented role plays, try to keep this detail in mind: Categorizing the RP to be 'action' is not an excuse for anyone to become trigger-happy. Even when the RP is supposed to rely on action-oriented situations, it still is lead forward by drama and interaction between the characters. There likely will be situations where shots are fired more often than not, but even those situations have to be orchestrated carefully so that it doesn't make the situation confusing and obstruct the flow. When you see that people are clearly typing out sentences for their characters to say, even when the situation is menacing, you might want to wait for them to finish and then, if you want to start shooting, warn them about it so they at least have a chance to react to it
NPC orders:
The mod we use on our server allows you to make NPCs follow you by pressing 'use' next to them. When dealing with friendly NPCs, especially military forces, try to take your character's class and rank into consideration. Soldiers, even low-ranking ones, probably won't take orders from a civilian. But if your character outranks them, and they belong to the same faction, then you may give them orders. Of course, when mercs, agents and force users are involed, things might get a bit confusing, so here are some notes to clarify:
Bringing a character back to life:
If the current campaign is not connected to a previous campaign you played, you may bring back your character from that campaign. But keep in mind that this is a "reboot" of your character as opposed to a continuation of the original. It is also possible to, under certain and observed circumstances, bring your character to life for a sequel role play or even in an on-going one. It all depends on how your character first died, their possible abilities that could ease the resurrection/recovery and how you had planned to bring your character back.
If your character dies, write a line about how and why they survived, and the fellow player(s) decide whether it makes sense or not. If the others agree, the request to resurrect your character is accepted.
Without the chance of resurrection/recovery, putting effort and time in a character would be pointless and constantly running from a fight would be the best option (and also a boring solution) to not to have your character killed.
Note that people can always agree about outcomes between their conflicts in advance and make deals: when you go in a fight with the other player, you could, for example, agree that the player who gets killed, doesn't die, but ends up unconscious, or abducted.
Force powers:
Using Force powers won't be forbidden, but always depending on the character, use them with caution and reasonably; don't abuse or spam them.
Force powers can also, with certain classes, work as active non-force abilities, like with the bounty hunter and mercenary classes, force heal and force protection can be accepted as a part of their equipment as devices that help them to maintain themselves physically. They're obviously not allowed to use powers like force drain or force grip though. :p
Regarding canon:
As our name may suggest, our RP stories are based on Star Wars Legends continuity, as opposed to the new canon established by Lucasfilm in 2014 (unless stated otherwise), and we try to stay as close to the lore as possible. However, this generally only applies to the setting and the events leading up to the time of the current campaign. Events within the campaign are not and will not be restricted based on what happens in the lore. Just because something never happened in the lore doesn't mean it can't happen in the roleplays. Because of that, not all campaigns will be in the same continuity as each other.
Starting points:
A starting point is the base of a roleplay session. Its purpose is to create a base for a role play, from where players can start improvising the play further with the given information of the environment, and abilities & attributes according to their characters. Starting point is not a plot, but only a point where the story begins. And the story itself will be developed in the cooperation of all the participating players.
Characters:
The very base of starting a role play after the starting point, is to create your character for it. You almost have a totally free hand in creating a character, as long as it supports the idea of the given roleplay.
According to the class you decide to pick (Sith, Jedi, smuggler, and so on) you should keep the character's abilities realistic. For example: if your character is a Jedi Padawan, then you should create it to be like one. In saber fights, avoid using your full potential. Hold back, pick a stance you don't know so well and use Force powers with caution.
It's always good aiming to be descriptive with the character. Having a background and personality helps with improvising in situations where dialog takes a strong dominating part during a certain scene, and develops your character further later on.
There are three basic types of characters in any given session:
- The Main Party, who are the main focus of the campaign. If a player character decides to (or is otherwise forced to) travel with the other party members, they are considered to have joined the party. In some cases there may be more than one main party.
- Supporting characters, who consist of any and all player characters not part of the main party. All new player characters start out as these.
- NPCs, AI-controlled characters spawned by the admins.
Combat:
Of course, we all aim (or at least we should?
) to keep our character created at the start alive as long as possible and they should only end up dying if it fit the on-going story and if the events foreshadowing it led to the situation naturally.Because of this, the character deaths will not be counted if they're randomly caused by the environment(*COUGH* doors *COUGH*), by accidentally hitting a "kill" bind or if another player just suddenly jumps at you from behind the corner with a spinning wiggle and one shots you.
For this reason, major saber hits and gun shots will wound and possibly stun your character, but not kill them. Should the hit ''kill'' you, it means you have been rendered unconscious for a short time with a non-lethal take down (unless it is decided by the admins to be actually lethal). When such situations occur, you should aim to act accordingly. However, this does not mean your character has "plot armor". Major wounds will have a lasting effect on your character, especially if your character is not Force sensitive and/or going without proper medical attention.
Also, please avoid using splash, or any high damage/AoE weapons in combat situations, especially in close-range combat because using them without caution will lead to confusing situations that abort the flow of the role play entirely. No one will like it. Use them only if it really supports the on-going situation, such as in a wide-open battlefield.
In action-oriented role plays, try to keep this detail in mind: Categorizing the RP to be 'action' is not an excuse for anyone to become trigger-happy. Even when the RP is supposed to rely on action-oriented situations, it still is lead forward by drama and interaction between the characters. There likely will be situations where shots are fired more often than not, but even those situations have to be orchestrated carefully so that it doesn't make the situation confusing and obstruct the flow. When you see that people are clearly typing out sentences for their characters to say, even when the situation is menacing, you might want to wait for them to finish and then, if you want to start shooting, warn them about it so they at least have a chance to react to it
NPC orders:
The mod we use on our server allows you to make NPCs follow you by pressing 'use' next to them. When dealing with friendly NPCs, especially military forces, try to take your character's class and rank into consideration. Soldiers, even low-ranking ones, probably won't take orders from a civilian. But if your character outranks them, and they belong to the same faction, then you may give them orders. Of course, when mercs, agents and force users are involed, things might get a bit confusing, so here are some notes to clarify:
- When not explicitly given a "rank", mercenaries are considered Privates.
- Intelligence Agents are considered Lieutenants.
- Jedi Padawans and Sith Apprentices are considered Commanders, and the former is even addressed as such by Republic troops.
- Jedi Knights, Jedi Masters and Sith Lords are considered Generals, and like Padawans, Rep military personnel explicitly refer to the Jedi as Generals.
- Unaffiliated force users are civilians.
- For the most part, normal soldier NPCs will be treated as Privates. Elite troops and special forces will generally be Sergeants unless stated otherwise.
Bringing a character back to life:
If the current campaign is not connected to a previous campaign you played, you may bring back your character from that campaign. But keep in mind that this is a "reboot" of your character as opposed to a continuation of the original. It is also possible to, under certain and observed circumstances, bring your character to life for a sequel role play or even in an on-going one. It all depends on how your character first died, their possible abilities that could ease the resurrection/recovery and how you had planned to bring your character back.
If your character dies, write a line about how and why they survived, and the fellow player(s) decide whether it makes sense or not. If the others agree, the request to resurrect your character is accepted.
Without the chance of resurrection/recovery, putting effort and time in a character would be pointless and constantly running from a fight would be the best option (and also a boring solution) to not to have your character killed.
Note that people can always agree about outcomes between their conflicts in advance and make deals: when you go in a fight with the other player, you could, for example, agree that the player who gets killed, doesn't die, but ends up unconscious, or abducted.
Force powers:
Using Force powers won't be forbidden, but always depending on the character, use them with caution and reasonably; don't abuse or spam them.
Force powers can also, with certain classes, work as active non-force abilities, like with the bounty hunter and mercenary classes, force heal and force protection can be accepted as a part of their equipment as devices that help them to maintain themselves physically. They're obviously not allowed to use powers like force drain or force grip though. :p
