RuneScape Forum Archive | In-Game RolePlay Guide & Help

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Introduction

It doesn’t have to be just a game. In fact, it can be much more than a game. The world of Gielinor offers much more than just pointing and clicking if you know where to look. This virtual world of Gielinor can be real books, plays, pictures, even poetry. It does have those - because we are authors, thespians, artists, and poets. We put the ‘ RP ’ into ‘MMORPG'.

We conjure our prose together, our feet synchronize upon the polished stage, our hands paint scenes in cooperation, and our rhymes sooth in unison. All of us, playing our roles with pride and yet knowing not what the other will do. Suddenly now, we don’t even feel the weight of the costume we wear, for this is not just a play but also a game - and no one wants to lose...

Will you combine your imagination with ours and lose yourself in our mindscapes?

But WHAT is roleplay?

There is nothing quite like roleplay. Maybe one could strum up a confusing string of similes and metaphors to get the point across...and hey, I’ll try.

Roleplay within an MMO is the polyamoric shotgun marriage between a theatrical play with method actors inside a fully packed auditorium, a speed writing contest, and a several million paged choose-your-own-adventure book that you put your contest entries in but this book is really old and pages fall out a lot. The book also talks and likes to hit you.

If that makes sense to you, great! Doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe you should be my counselor if you do understand. But jokes aside? We write our roles and enact them through the guise of this game. Our avatars no longer strictly a conduit for a player, but believable characters akin to your favorite NPCs. Maybe in time, your favorite NPCs will be the characters you meet here .

(We now have a Discord server! Leave a post on the thread and we'll get you in.)

Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:53:18 - Last edited on 21-Nov-2016 02:48:44 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

In contrast to the other pinned thread which is abridged, this thread mentions just about everything there is to be said about the community.

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Table of Contents

1.3 How-To

1.4 Rules

1.5 Rules

1.6 Rules

1.7 Symbols

1.8 Symbols

1.9 All About Lore

1.10 Character Development

2.1

Maturity

2.2 Character Death

2.3 Spheres of Roleplay

2.4 Spheres of Roleplay

2.5 Spheres of Roleplay

2.6 CURRENT EVENTS IN ROLEPLAY

-----------------------------------------------------------------

EXTENDED GUIDE

2.7 Other Guide Threads

2.8 Unofficial Rules

2.9 Unofficial Rules

2.10 Unofficial Rules

3.1 Unofficial Rules

3.2 Text Vs. Gameplay

3.3 Scaling

3.4 Scaling

3.5 Clichés

3.6 Clichés

3.7 Comprehensive Character Sheet

3.8 Comprehensive Character Sheet

3.9 Comprehensive Character Sheet

3.10 Comprehensive Character Sheet

4.1 A note on tradition

4.2 A note on tradition

4.3 Narration Perspective

4.4 To Be Added

4.5 To Be Added

4.6 To Be Added

4.7 To Be Added

4.8 To Be Added

4.9 To Be Added

4.10 To Be Added

5.1 To Be Added

5.2 To Be Added

5.3 To Be Added

5.4 To Be Added

5.5 To Be Added

5.6 To Be Added

5.7 To Be Added

5.8 Utility Threads

5.9 Borders

5.10 Tips

6.1 Mentors

6.2 Discussion Rules Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:53:27 - Last edited on 19-Aug-2016 21:13:29 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

HOW do you roleplay?

( Find RP here! )

Everyone has a different style of writing and a unique gait on that stage. Sometimes people even use different stages! But that’s okay, because all the stages are still in the same town. Just wipe your feet off after walking through the dirt to get to the other stage.

Metaphors aside, there are many ways to roleplay. You can stick to one-on-ones and small groups and crank out literal paragraphs of character driven actions and dialogue! You can stick to huge groups often engaged in frenetic scenes and focus on the plot! You can create a zealous character and engage in religious endeavors for a deity! You can create a noble character engaged in political turmoil for the seat of power in a kingdom! You can make many characters! You can have a singular career character! You can perform incredulous deeds through writing and hardly ever have to fret about skill levels! You can integrate (a lot) of your in game accomplishments into your roleplay character!

point is, you can do a lot. However you should keep in mind that some of the things you do may not be entirely compatible with how another person plays here. Some folks prefer to be in character as they play most of the game, while other folks prefer a more text centric approach and use the game more like a literal stage. For that reason it may be rather difficult if you want to take your text-centric friend to plunder Daemonheim and they only have a 1,000 total level or so. (Further elaboration on page 3.)

It's really not a problem, though. Just use discretion and don't be a bother. The division is just like the divisions in the rest of the game. You'll have your skillers, or PvP pures, so on and so forth. In addition, there are also baseline rules for everyone to follow. Don’t worry, they’re as seamless as Jagex’s official rules for the game itself. If you’re a good-minded player, none of it will be a burden. See below. Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:53:31 - Last edited on 16-Aug-2016 08:02:06 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The Rules

Don’ts

Godmodding/God mode’ing : Deities are the very core of this game’s plot. Gielinor is even an anagram of “religion”. For this reason, no character of yours may be on par with the gods’ abilities. They can have some pretty potent powers, sure! But never are they allowed (in Public) to pull a Zamorak and desecrate an entire continent.

Being "overpowered" is more or less what it sounds like: giving something or someone an unreasonable, unfair, unrealistic, or unbalanced amount of power, especially when it interferes with the ability of players around you to have fun. It's very relative though. If you have a bloke in a H.A.M cult, it's not going to be reasonable for them to have any powers beyond what a Human would have. If you have a bloke in a Mahjarrat group, while they are naturally going to be powerful it wouldn't be fair for them to level an entire continent like Zamorak did. Zamorak was using the Stone of Jas when he did that, and your character can't just steal that from Sliske.

Lorebreaking : This is a gray area. By community consensus, the community may choose to eschew this rule for certain aspects and has indeed done that. You may have noticed it the moment you walked into this forum. Player-rulers of kingdoms and cities, mainly. A little custom lore on some species. Things like that. The thing here is...this is a cool game with lots of endearing lore and world building put into it by its developers, but the community has chosen to alter pieces in order for it to be more accommodating for roleplay. It creates more opportunities.

[cont. below] Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:53:37 - Last edited on 10-Aug-2016 20:54:07 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

[cont. from above]

For example, the Saradominist abbey west of Al Kharid is now an abandoned guild hall that's rather forgotten. These guilds have had very interesting history to them, but now the place is empty and it will be like that until someone else moves in.

Metagaming : Taking advantage of knowledge that you know, but your character doesn't. Perhaps your character is leading an army, and you catch wind that there is to be an ambush where you're going. While it might suck for you that you cannot fairly do anything about that, if your character doesn't know, you're going to have to stay the course and deal with it. Or perhaps your character has been wounded in a small skirmish and PM your pal telling him to help you out. Now, if your character isn't capable of long distance telepathy, then it's metagaming. That's the breaks, boy. Yeah, that's the breaks, little man. -Guitar solo.-

Blacklisting : Blacklists were once a tool used to justify the exclusion of other players from a specific scene. Whether the justification was right or wrong is irrelevant today because they are officially banned from the forum due to a trend of abuse. They caused bullying, derivations of metagaming, and upheavals of the cooperative nature of roleplay. While clans and friend chat channels are free to utilize the ban features of their channels in game, an upstanding and proper roleplayer is keen to make sure blacklists are justified (they can be... sadly, some people are just no good) or used as a tool for toxic playstyle. If you see malignant use of blacklists, do your part to speak against it for the good of the community.

Play the World Guardian : In roleplay we have a mechanic that differentiates our characters from the player character . The player character is obviously you when you are not roleplaying. It is the person that has done all the quests, more or less. They are the hero of the story.

[cont.] Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:53:42 - Last edited on 15-Aug-2016 05:46:51 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

And because they are THE hero, there is only one of them. Rest assured, your character(s) can also become quite awesome in their own right and be the heroes of stories not written by Jagex. Otherwise, you'd soon find that having hundreds of World Guardians would be terribly confusing and illogical.

Do’s

Cooperation : Be transparent in your intentions on an OOC level. There’s no need to spoil even most of the actions within an event, but whatever is happening in any event, be sure that everyone OOC’ly knows what’s happening and why. This most often applies to IC conflicts. Think of IC conflict as a game of Capoeira. It’s still fighting, it’s still competition, but not really . You don't want people to go all UFC, because that turns into an OOC mess.

Be Courteous : Mostly common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people are not courteous. Don’t block off areas with heavy traffic for a private/sandbox play (elaboration on that latter), stow away OOC chatter during a roleplay to a non-local channel, don’t actually be OOC and talk in the local channel within range of a roleplay. Those sort of things. Failure to follow this is the equivalent of someone talking on their cell phone in a theater.

Just be a nice person : Really. Have some chill.

Take action against rule breakers : A healthy server starts with you. If someone you see is breaking rules or otherwise engaging in behavior not conducive to fun for everyone, investigate why. As mentioned with blacklists - sometimes an individual may have to be a little harsh because someone else never learns. That doesn't mean apparently toxic behavior will always be justified, though.

Lastly, we have our forum specific rules. These are additional JAGEX rules. AKA; Word of God. Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:53:47 - Last edited on 10-Aug-2016 21:02:36 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Symbols

To make coherence out of all types of character interaction, we use several special characters in order to save space and to make distinctions easy.

Actions
Used to show your character's actions to others. Be sure it’s YOUR actions though. You don’t control anyone else’s character! Some players favor -hyphens-, and others even eschew action marks altogether as though they were writing for normal prose.

Example: -Faeyrin’s clawed click-clacks against the floor echoed outward inside the empty mansion.-

Commorb
Many devices exist in Gielinor for long-distance speech. Enchanted gems, commorbs, and faction banners among them. Use of any such device should be mentioned in Public chat, while you speak with it over PM, Friend's Chat, or Clan Chat. Braces used for this, but they are hard to distinguish from parenthesis in game so some may prefer brackets.

Example: {{They have breached the gates!}}

Telepathy
The equal sign is typically used for telepathy. Only characters capable of it, namely powerful magi, can understand it and use it. When used in a multi person channel, it is a good idea to indicate to whom this message is directed to.

Example: (@Player name): =Should we kill them?=

Whispering/Yelling

Not all characters will speak in a normal volume of speech. This translates to soft speaking <While this means you are yelling!>

Example: >Damn gurl, what is up with her shoes?<

<Your fashion sense is horrible!>

Emphasis
Due to the lack of italics in game, to put emphasis on a word, slashes are often used, but keep in mind this substitute is notorious for causing glitches with the censor.

Example: “Please /don't/ cast telekinesis on my hair..."

Language
Not all characters speak the Common tongue of Runescape. If you are using another language, such as Kharidian, Karamjan, Elven, or Fremennik, use one pair of square brackets.

Example: [I can only understand Kharidian.] Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:53:52 - Last edited on 27-Jul-2015 22:42:34 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

OOC Note
Used for quick OOC discussion while IC. Extended OOC chatter should be stowed away outside of local chat.

Example: ((I don’t think I OOC’ly understand what your character is trying to express.))

Thought
A way to show what a character is thinking.

Do note that Lunar Mages can read surface level thoughts.

Example: ~I wonder if Gwen is wont for a game tonight…~

This RP mark is currently broken in the NXT client and is substituted with the ^ symbol.

Speech
Many players use quotations to avoid confusion with normal speech. Some players who do this also drop their *-Action-* symbols, so keep your eyes open!

Example: “Sorry Abraxas...I forgot my wight snacks at home.."

Mental Persuasion
Though not commonly used for fear of inciting complaints of being "overpowered", specific species have this ability, such as Mahjarrat or Vampyres.

Example: +You will turn around and stab your friend.+

Note: Sometimes the in game censor may mess with these marks, as some of them are used in website URLs and Jagex does their best to censor those. If this happens, just try to rephrase. Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:53:59 - Last edited on 10-Aug-2016 21:04:45 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Lore: Bends, Breaks, and Custom Content

Playing in this world as we do, we have a respect for the lore of it. Although we alter select bits of lore, we still wish to maintain the majority of it. Otherwise, there’d be little point in using the game.

Lorebreaking is when a character breaks lore, which is anything that likely affects a character or scenario. The basis for these commonalities is origin, culture, and known historical events. For example, a non pureblood Vampyre that is unaffected when crossing the holy Salve barrier is a lorebreak because Vampyres are weakened outside of Morytania where the sun shines. Most lorebreaking is a no-no in public roleplay.

Lorebending, in obverse, is to create something that doesn't break lore, but such a concept isn't at odds with pre-established lore. Lorebends come in many, many different shades from ''My character lives in this house'' to ''My character is in a noble family in _____.'' to ''My character is a runite golem with a gem inside from outer space.'' Notice, how much more the lore bends with each example given. None of that is baseline banned. No one is going to get mad at your character for having a house on the overworld, but having an alien golem crash down from outer space in the middle of a war will be laughed at and probably ignored.

Custom content is the result of a lorebend being used to, within reason, craft a unique experience within RuneScape lore that could not be achieved otherwise. Many clans, groups, and even species reside within the realm of custom content in one way or another. Some people have created distant continents, some have even created concepts for characters before such concepts were in official canon, like liches or Chthonian demons. (Pretty sure JaGex takes some of our ideas.) Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:54:12 - Last edited on 10-Aug-2016 21:07:26 by DMMetalaane

DMMetalaane

Posts: 2,905 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Character Development and Balancing

Character development is possibly the core aspect of every (serious) roleplay you'll do - the decisions your character makes, those it goes along with and the rewards, or lack of, are always determined by your character's personality, conscience and contribute to their perpetual development. It is important to keep this in mind, and every time something contradicts your character's preference or morality, it will have an effect on the character which leads to growth. Everyone has a potential that is reached through this turmoil.

On balancing, it is important to remember that your character should have strengths and weaknesses though it is not necessary for them to have major penalties that hamper them, unless you're making them more powerful than the average Joe. It is common for characters to have more 'moderate' strengths than weaknesses, and it is not something to get hung up on unless you are deliberately trying to make the character stand out, or you're unfamiliar with the normalities of the Type/Race/Species you are playing (examples being any non-Human whose lore you're unfamiliar with, or if you're mimicking the Rock).

Development is constant, and almost every scenario shapes the path of your character and their hitherto development will shape their reaction - their reaction will have an impact on their future development. Balance is a creation issue and is largely done by simply being informed as to the formalities of the type of character you are playing.
Remember: If someone points out an 'issue' with your character's development or balance, they're not necessarily right but it is definitely advisable that you hear them out and assess the criticism, and see if there's any merit in it by self-critique or asking a friend. Save yourself.
Savior self.

08-Apr-2015 19:54:18 - Last edited on 07-Feb-2016 07:31:17 by DMMetalaane

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