2024 - Roleplay Reminders and Notes
Howdy all, been about a year since we've done one of this but here is some reminders we wanted to give y'all as well as some clarification regarding some things we have discussed internally recently.
RDM Clarification:
Our RDM rule states: “Random Deathmatch (RDM) / Vehicle Deathmatch (VDM) is not allowed. You need to have initiated contact with someone at some point and have a reason for harming someone. VDM includes but is not limited to carriages and horses.”
We have seen some misunderstanding about what constitutes RDM, so we want to examine the rule and make sure everyone is on the same page moving forward. You need to have initiated contact with someone at some point and have a reason for harming someone. At its core, there are two requirements here. Initiating contact, and a reason for harm.
What is initiating contact exactly?
Contact can come in many forms, it is the point at which you know hostility is occurring and who it is occurring with. Initiating contact can be as simple as insulting another bar patron, or being held up by a masked individual. You steal a random horse from town, you just initiated contact between yourself and the owner and possibly their gang. You shouldn't be surprised when bullets start flying past you as you sprint away.
What is a reason for harm?
Can you reasonably understand why the player might be attacking you? This doesn't mean you need to fully understand their motive or agree with it, but you shouldn't be left wondering why someone got involved or attacked. Is someone fleeing from you and you are continuing to chase them? Reasonably they don't want to be caught. You rob a store and grab a random horse as you are escaping, a seemingly random town folk starts sprinting at you with a rifle. Reasonably, this might be their horse you just stole.
Hostile RP:
Hostile RP is something that will likely happen to all of us on WWRP at some point, in the Wild West traveling from town to town was a dangerous thing and that is something that is repeated in our server, often you may find yourself at the wrong end of a rifle with somebody out for either you property or revenge. Hostile RP is a very unique form of Roleplay and can very tricky to get right, and while we would not say there is a list of things you can do to make all hostile encounters better or worse, there is one thing we would advise all players to try and with this type of RP, and that is to take your time.
Rarely does any situation need to be rushed, this is not to say never shoot first or not to escalate situations but rather to make sure that the players on both sides react and have a moment to think about what is best for them to do. As rushing straight into it can and will make players panic and not always do the best thing for the roleplay scene. Slowing down a bit in hostile encounters can give more possibilities for how the scene could proceed and end.
Context Matters:
We know players often look at player reports as ways to learn to not make the same mistakes that others have, and this is good, that is one of the major reasons that we have them as public. However it is important to remember with this, that most of our rules are not black and white and this is done intentionally, we want too leave room for roleplay to happen and for not every situation to go the same way, as the saying goes variety is the spice of life and the same goes for RP.
Every situation in the server will have context leading up to it and around it that can change how a situation may or may not be a rulebreak. For example, it can be seen that when someone has a gun pointed at you, you should do whatever they say or it is NVL, and while that is not necessarily wrong, it is important to take into account things like the location, is it in the middle of town with 20 people around? Or is it in the middle of nowhere? The relationship the characters involved have can also have an impact on it, hell maybe somehow you managed to figure out the character pointing a gun at you doesn’t have any ammunition or at least believes that and will try to fight back or run believing they won’t get shot.
There are many other things that can also be taken into account but those were just a few examples. The point we are trying to say is every situation is different and the why something has happened is often just as important as to what and how it happened.
Storage Box Looting:
We've made further adjustments to Rule 8 - Fail RP's clarifications to make it clear what is considered unacceptable pertaining to robberies. You may not force an individual to take their belongings out from personal/group storages, such as saddlebags, banks, camps, or LEO storage. Using personal/group storages during hostile encounters or when encounters are imminent to protect items is not acceptable and is considered Combat Storing.
5. You may not force someone to go into personal/group storages to rob them of stored belongings.
This includes but is not limited to:
-Forcing someone to withdraw money from their bank.
-Robbing someone of items within horse saddlebags.
-Robbing someone of items within camp storage.
-Robbing the Sheriff's Office of items in LEO storage.
Using personal/group storages during hostile encounters or when encounters are imminent to protect items is not acceptable and is considered Combat Storing.
If you are searching for specific items you believe are stored in a personal/group storage, consider methods of roleplay which give characters agency in accessing stored items. For example, holding a member of a group hostage at an alternate location in exchange for a specific item.
Binocular Meta:
We wanted to give a reminder about the in-game binoculars, and the noise it makes when your character uses them. This is a bug in RedM, which players need to be especially mindful of.
The range of being able to hear the sounds of the binoculars is quite large. If someone is not within eye-sight, and you're only hearing the noise, then you should NOT be reacting to it IC.
Having your character react to it, or comment on it, falls under meta-gaming if they are not within your visual range. Basically, if you hear the noise, your character would not have. Unless your character somehow sees the person pull out their binoculars, you should not be reacting to the noise at all. This includes changing your character’s behaviour, or suddenly having them look around, with the OOC intention of discovering who's pulled out their binoculars, to give reason to react IC.
Having Multiple Criminal Alts:
While players have the freedom to play, and create criminal characters, we urge players to remember some important aspects to ensure they’re providing a fun, and fair RP experience to those they encounter.
IF you decide to have more than one criminal character, please remember the following:
1. Keep your criminal characters in different locations. Do not make them all be in one area, as this could lead to targeting the same victims over, and over, again, as well as potential cross-alt meta-gaming.
2. PACING. If on one criminal character you get caught, and sent to Sisika, do not immediately jump onto another criminal character, to continue to commit crimes. This, too, can lead to burn-out for other players involved. Let the RP breathe, and give other players a chance to recover.
3. Have your criminal characters be VERY different. One could be a moonshiner, the other a bank robber, etc… If you make all of your criminal characters similar, it can be difficult for others to differentiate them, and then it ends up just being the same scenario repeated. Be unique, and develop different personalities, and goals for each of your characters. They should not look the same, nor should they act the same.
Addition to Cross-Alt Characters:
Aligned with the previous reminder, we strongly urge all players to review our rules on Alt Characters. https://wildwestrp.com/threads/guidelines-on-alts-related-alts.11630/
A clarification has been put in:
- Players should not be adding multiple alt-characters to a singular camp. It is Abuse of Game Mechanics, and Meta-gaming to do this.
Separating IC, from OOC:
Remember, you are not your character, and the things happening to your character are not happening to you in real-life. This can be tricky to manage sometimes, and emotions can spill over. When this happens, remember that it is completely okay to step away, and take a break. Your real-life mental health is more important, and it’s good to note the signs when things are becoming too much.
A way to help with this, is creating characters that are different from yourself. Of course, everyone naturally puts a bit of themselves into their characters. That’s normal for any forms of acting, art, and writing. But, having a character who may have the same insecurities, traumas, backstories, can cause a very real reaction to yourself in real-life, especially if other character’s react to such in a negative way.
It is okay to go outside of your comfort zone, but always acknowledge your own health when going into RP, and understand if it’s something you are able to tolerate. If IC actions impact you strongly on an OOC level, then it may be time to step back, and evaluate how best to manage these feelings, and IC choices/actions.
RP in Guarma:
There has been a trend in Guarma that has been noticed. First, a reminder that Guarma is an island in the Caribbean. Realistically, it is not a 10 second trip, and should not be treated as such. Do not abuse the fast-travel mechanic.
Guarma is not a free-for-all for committing rule-breaks, participating in RDO style behaviour, or breaking character. You should not be instigating shootouts with the local NPC guards for the fun of it. They are a heavily-armed military force, and should be acknowledged as such in-character.
Server rules apply to EVERY part of the server, including the map room.
Proper use of /me’s:
There are certain types of /me’s which are unacceptable to use in-server. It’s good to remember that /me’s are actions, or expressions that others can see, and react to. You should not be doing /me’s of your character’s thoughts. Nobody can see what your character is thinking, but they could see an emotion on your character’s face, which could give insights into their thought process.
For example:
/me thinks about how much he doesn’t like stew.
This /me is not acceptable. Instead, you could do something like:
/me stares at the bowl of stew, a look of disgust on his face.
This allows players to actually react to something your character is doing, and helps to further RP between characters!
Another unacceptable use of /me’s are emoticons.
Players should not be doing “ /me’s
“, or anything of the sort.
Instead, type out the action/expression, such as: /me smiles
For further guidance, please review: https://wildwestrp.com/threads/proper-use-of-me-and-ooc-commands.12769/
Howdy all, been about a year since we've done one of this but here is some reminders we wanted to give y'all as well as some clarification regarding some things we have discussed internally recently.
RDM Clarification:
Our RDM rule states: “Random Deathmatch (RDM) / Vehicle Deathmatch (VDM) is not allowed. You need to have initiated contact with someone at some point and have a reason for harming someone. VDM includes but is not limited to carriages and horses.”
We have seen some misunderstanding about what constitutes RDM, so we want to examine the rule and make sure everyone is on the same page moving forward. You need to have initiated contact with someone at some point and have a reason for harming someone. At its core, there are two requirements here. Initiating contact, and a reason for harm.
What is initiating contact exactly?
Contact can come in many forms, it is the point at which you know hostility is occurring and who it is occurring with. Initiating contact can be as simple as insulting another bar patron, or being held up by a masked individual. You steal a random horse from town, you just initiated contact between yourself and the owner and possibly their gang. You shouldn't be surprised when bullets start flying past you as you sprint away.
What is a reason for harm?
Can you reasonably understand why the player might be attacking you? This doesn't mean you need to fully understand their motive or agree with it, but you shouldn't be left wondering why someone got involved or attacked. Is someone fleeing from you and you are continuing to chase them? Reasonably they don't want to be caught. You rob a store and grab a random horse as you are escaping, a seemingly random town folk starts sprinting at you with a rifle. Reasonably, this might be their horse you just stole.
Hostile RP:
Hostile RP is something that will likely happen to all of us on WWRP at some point, in the Wild West traveling from town to town was a dangerous thing and that is something that is repeated in our server, often you may find yourself at the wrong end of a rifle with somebody out for either you property or revenge. Hostile RP is a very unique form of Roleplay and can very tricky to get right, and while we would not say there is a list of things you can do to make all hostile encounters better or worse, there is one thing we would advise all players to try and with this type of RP, and that is to take your time.
Rarely does any situation need to be rushed, this is not to say never shoot first or not to escalate situations but rather to make sure that the players on both sides react and have a moment to think about what is best for them to do. As rushing straight into it can and will make players panic and not always do the best thing for the roleplay scene. Slowing down a bit in hostile encounters can give more possibilities for how the scene could proceed and end.
Context Matters:
We know players often look at player reports as ways to learn to not make the same mistakes that others have, and this is good, that is one of the major reasons that we have them as public. However it is important to remember with this, that most of our rules are not black and white and this is done intentionally, we want too leave room for roleplay to happen and for not every situation to go the same way, as the saying goes variety is the spice of life and the same goes for RP.
Every situation in the server will have context leading up to it and around it that can change how a situation may or may not be a rulebreak. For example, it can be seen that when someone has a gun pointed at you, you should do whatever they say or it is NVL, and while that is not necessarily wrong, it is important to take into account things like the location, is it in the middle of town with 20 people around? Or is it in the middle of nowhere? The relationship the characters involved have can also have an impact on it, hell maybe somehow you managed to figure out the character pointing a gun at you doesn’t have any ammunition or at least believes that and will try to fight back or run believing they won’t get shot.
There are many other things that can also be taken into account but those were just a few examples. The point we are trying to say is every situation is different and the why something has happened is often just as important as to what and how it happened.
Storage Box Looting:
We've made further adjustments to Rule 8 - Fail RP's clarifications to make it clear what is considered unacceptable pertaining to robberies. You may not force an individual to take their belongings out from personal/group storages, such as saddlebags, banks, camps, or LEO storage. Using personal/group storages during hostile encounters or when encounters are imminent to protect items is not acceptable and is considered Combat Storing.
5. You may not force someone to go into personal/group storages to rob them of stored belongings.
This includes but is not limited to:
-Forcing someone to withdraw money from their bank.
-Robbing someone of items within horse saddlebags.
-Robbing someone of items within camp storage.
-Robbing the Sheriff's Office of items in LEO storage.
Using personal/group storages during hostile encounters or when encounters are imminent to protect items is not acceptable and is considered Combat Storing.
If you are searching for specific items you believe are stored in a personal/group storage, consider methods of roleplay which give characters agency in accessing stored items. For example, holding a member of a group hostage at an alternate location in exchange for a specific item.
Binocular Meta:
We wanted to give a reminder about the in-game binoculars, and the noise it makes when your character uses them. This is a bug in RedM, which players need to be especially mindful of.
The range of being able to hear the sounds of the binoculars is quite large. If someone is not within eye-sight, and you're only hearing the noise, then you should NOT be reacting to it IC.
Having your character react to it, or comment on it, falls under meta-gaming if they are not within your visual range. Basically, if you hear the noise, your character would not have. Unless your character somehow sees the person pull out their binoculars, you should not be reacting to the noise at all. This includes changing your character’s behaviour, or suddenly having them look around, with the OOC intention of discovering who's pulled out their binoculars, to give reason to react IC.
Having Multiple Criminal Alts:
While players have the freedom to play, and create criminal characters, we urge players to remember some important aspects to ensure they’re providing a fun, and fair RP experience to those they encounter.
IF you decide to have more than one criminal character, please remember the following:
1. Keep your criminal characters in different locations. Do not make them all be in one area, as this could lead to targeting the same victims over, and over, again, as well as potential cross-alt meta-gaming.
2. PACING. If on one criminal character you get caught, and sent to Sisika, do not immediately jump onto another criminal character, to continue to commit crimes. This, too, can lead to burn-out for other players involved. Let the RP breathe, and give other players a chance to recover.
3. Have your criminal characters be VERY different. One could be a moonshiner, the other a bank robber, etc… If you make all of your criminal characters similar, it can be difficult for others to differentiate them, and then it ends up just being the same scenario repeated. Be unique, and develop different personalities, and goals for each of your characters. They should not look the same, nor should they act the same.
Addition to Cross-Alt Characters:
Aligned with the previous reminder, we strongly urge all players to review our rules on Alt Characters. https://wildwestrp.com/threads/guidelines-on-alts-related-alts.11630/
A clarification has been put in:
- Players should not be adding multiple alt-characters to a singular camp. It is Abuse of Game Mechanics, and Meta-gaming to do this.
Separating IC, from OOC:
Remember, you are not your character, and the things happening to your character are not happening to you in real-life. This can be tricky to manage sometimes, and emotions can spill over. When this happens, remember that it is completely okay to step away, and take a break. Your real-life mental health is more important, and it’s good to note the signs when things are becoming too much.
A way to help with this, is creating characters that are different from yourself. Of course, everyone naturally puts a bit of themselves into their characters. That’s normal for any forms of acting, art, and writing. But, having a character who may have the same insecurities, traumas, backstories, can cause a very real reaction to yourself in real-life, especially if other character’s react to such in a negative way.
It is okay to go outside of your comfort zone, but always acknowledge your own health when going into RP, and understand if it’s something you are able to tolerate. If IC actions impact you strongly on an OOC level, then it may be time to step back, and evaluate how best to manage these feelings, and IC choices/actions.
RP in Guarma:
There has been a trend in Guarma that has been noticed. First, a reminder that Guarma is an island in the Caribbean. Realistically, it is not a 10 second trip, and should not be treated as such. Do not abuse the fast-travel mechanic.
Guarma is not a free-for-all for committing rule-breaks, participating in RDO style behaviour, or breaking character. You should not be instigating shootouts with the local NPC guards for the fun of it. They are a heavily-armed military force, and should be acknowledged as such in-character.
Server rules apply to EVERY part of the server, including the map room.
Proper use of /me’s:
There are certain types of /me’s which are unacceptable to use in-server. It’s good to remember that /me’s are actions, or expressions that others can see, and react to. You should not be doing /me’s of your character’s thoughts. Nobody can see what your character is thinking, but they could see an emotion on your character’s face, which could give insights into their thought process.
For example:
/me thinks about how much he doesn’t like stew.
This /me is not acceptable. Instead, you could do something like:
/me stares at the bowl of stew, a look of disgust on his face.
This allows players to actually react to something your character is doing, and helps to further RP between characters!
Another unacceptable use of /me’s are emoticons.
Players should not be doing “ /me’s
“, or anything of the sort.Instead, type out the action/expression, such as: /me smiles
For further guidance, please review: https://wildwestrp.com/threads/proper-use-of-me-and-ooc-commands.12769/
