Basic RP rules & etiquette

fairly new to the forum or fairly new to RPing in general. Here you'll find rules about things like basic etiquette when RPing as well as basic mechanical rules that have to do with RPing that are specific to Tanu in general! Here you'll find guidelines about things like post order, what to do when you want to recruit people to RP with you, and more specific information like how to go traveling about in your stories and the very basic flavor of the forum.


This is a great question and something a lot of people wonder about once they've learned the basic rules and registered a character and are looking to post their first RP in the wastes section!

The best way is to utilize the Cbox to ask if there is anyone open to an RP. You can also post a query in general chat, PM other new members who seem available, or even so much as just posting (open) in the subheading of your new topic and hoping someone available has the courage to jump in.

Post order is the just what is sounds like - the order in which a group posts in an RP. The majority of the time, it is considered very rude to break post order, jump into someone else's topic unsolicited, or to skip someones turn without giving them time to reply.

Let's just start by going into different 'types' of post order.

Structured:
Structured post order is the general system that almost all missions and events on the wastes follow. In this system an order is established beforehand in the first post, via PM, or simply be following the order in which you posted in the topic in the first place. Simple, straightforward, and recommended.

Unstructured:
A basic system that is one that is better used for people who don't want to restrict their various narrative flows or just want to not worry about posting any particular time. It can be a total free-for-all in which everyone posts whenever, or something a little more organized in which you might all try to post the same general amount as the others.

Designed:
While it's more complicated to set up, a 'designed' post order is just that. Designed to fit to your different members. For example, you may make post order RPer 1, RPer 2, RPer 1, RPer2, RPer3. You can really make it anything you want. The whole idea is to balance out more active and less active users. While harder to set up, this may be ideal depending on the situation.


In general, the answer to this question is a reassuring 'not really.' Mostly, writing fiction here in the forum isn't much different then writing it anywhere else, and for the same reason most conventions are quite similar. The biggest or most noticeable difference you might notice is that on the forum indention can make paragraphs look awkward and sometimes even harder to read. For that reason, you'll notice it's far more common and acceptable here to separate paragraphs with a blank line and skip the indention.


The current character limit on the forum is two, and it is recommended that newer members get a good feel for one character before they upgrade to two of them. When you have two characters, it is against the rules for those two characters to interact, meet, or trade with each other in any way.


Characters must travel from place to place semi-realistically. This means that if your traveling from one place to another, you need to show passage of time and explain your journey.

It's important, then, to keep a vague idea of where exactly your character is locationally at all times and apply that knowledge. While relatively short distances can be explained by a post in your next mission, any very long treks will probably require their own separate quest.

The exception to travel rules is a forum wide event. Obviously, most of these events are going to be set in one specific town or region. Therefore, if you want to participate, it is allowed, and assumed, that everyone's character, regardless of distance away from the event, will arrive within a few days of each other. Afterward, by the same merit, it is assumed that after the event your characters can return to your starting location very quickly.


Inventory is just the basic set of items of various types your characters have with them. In general, there isn't much to say other then you should keep a tab of the possessions your character has as he goes in your signature if you use a signature as well as in your character topic.

To facilitate ease and fun, characters can generally carry more then would be reasonable for a person. That said, the number of items a character has should stay away from being flagrantly large amounts of things, and stronger characters should fairly expect to be able to hold onto more than those of lower strength.

Metagaming: Just because it is clear to you that your character is about to be attacked, or should go hide in a particular house, does not mean it is clear to your character. Using your own knowledge of the story to influence your character's actions is Metagaming.

Godmodding: Quite simply, when you make your character do the impossible (or something far enough out of reason that it is overly noticeable). If it's so much that it will have people saying 'really?', don't post it. Go ahead and have your character fist-fight that marauder, just don't have him taking on a gang of ten with ease.

Puppeteering: A term I myself coined for when one user takes control of a different user's character without permission. it can be anything from having them turn around when they don't say that they do up to actually controlling what they say or do, or controlling significant physical actions. In general, avoid all types of puppeteering at all possible times. In some occasions, it may be best to PM the user and talk about ground rules before RPing with them - most of the time minor pupeteering is fine with members and it helps make RPs flow much smoother.