Mission and RP Etiquette

This is a quick guide to the standardized etiquette used while engaging in text roleplay (RP) in West Marches. For experienced text RP’ers, this should be a refresher of common practices, along with some new rules that are easy to implement. For novice text RP’ers, this should be an easy to understand guide on how to properly RP on the discord server
  Between missions, your character will have time to do whatever they like within Veil's End. This will take the form of downtimes and text roleplay. Downtimes are addressed in detail in the Downtime. Text RP is a chance for players to interact with each other and the world outside of missions without a DM running the world. You can text RP in any of the “Valoris RP” channels in the Discord server. Each channel corresponds to a location in Veil's End, influencing the kinds of interactions you typically have there, the NPCs you may meet, and generally sets the stage for your roleplay. Don’t overthink it, and don’t get intimidated! It’s all meant to be fun. Here are a few guidelines to make text RP fun and consistent:
 

Basic Rules

 

• Respect each other. Content warnings are important. Respect each other's boundaries, and if you think something may be a sensitive topic, please spoiler it or consider not talking about it. See the section on Content Warnings for more information.
• Ask before joining an ongoing RP. Use out of character text to make sure you are not interrupting, and do not be offended if someone says no.
• Only RP as your character or your character's animal companion. You cannot RP as an NPC, a deity, a random animal, or anything else.
• Check the pins of the RP channels to get more details on the location that DMs have written to set the scene.
• Areas outside of Veil's End are not accessible for text RP, unless a particular event is happening or a DM is running it. This will rarely happen.
• Remember, we are all playing a game and trying to have fun.
• DMs have final say on everything. If you are having problems with someone or have any questions, ask a DM.

 

PVP

• Any and all fights in RP must be consensual between everyone involved - not just in character, but out of character as well.
• Killing your opponent is not allowed, and fighting can only end in incapacitation/downing your opponent.
• Fighting in character has consequences. Your reputation may be tarnished, and other character's opinions of you may change. Keep this in mind when choosing if you are going to engage in PVP.

  Example: Jim plays a character called Jom, and Pam plays a character called Pom.
 

Example of when PVP is allowed

Example of when PVP is NOT allowed

Out of character (in real life), Jim and Pam hold no bad feelings for each other. In character, they start roleplaying, and Jom calls Pom’s mother a llama. Pom may then want to, say, punch Jom in the face. Pam could then ask Jim, “Hey Jim! Is it okay if we do a little bit of PVP for this?” If Jim agrees, then Pom can go ahead and punch Jom in the face. Jom may retaliate, and they may fight. However, do keep in mind that starting fights can get you a bad reputation. Jim is also allowed to disagree, then Pom cannot attack Jom.

Jim is mad at Pam because last week, Pam ditched him at karaoke to hang out with her ex, even though they’re no good for her. Pom is roleplaying peacefully in the tavern. Jom comes up and starts beating Pom up for no apparent reason! The issue here is that not only did it not make sense to have PVP here, but Jim did not ask Pam if that was okay with her, and the PVP was because of an out of character conflict. Even if a character ‘has it coming,’ if the player says no, then you cannot start PVP under any circumstances.

Sabotage on Missions

• Missions are great ways for players to acquire XP, gold, unlock town-wide buffs, and progress plotlines. Due to limited spots on missions, it is expected that all players on a mission work towards the common goal of completing the mission’s stated goal. As such, intentional sabotage on a mission by a player is strictly prohibited.
• This does not stop players from addressing an ethical drama that is implemented by the DM and is part of the mission. It is meant to discourage players with ulterior motives from ruining a mission for everyone else.

Example: If there is a mission where the players are being hired by some whalers to hunt down the Big One, a player character that is an environmentalist and intends to sabotage the whale hunt should sign up for a different mission that week.
 

Content Warnings and Spoiling Content

• Content warnings are words, phrases, or concepts, that are discouraged from being discussed at length in WM3. Often, these things are unnecessary to be discussed or are words that need not be used. If you are planning on discussing something that is likely to be triggering at length, think about if it is necessary to do it in a public chat, or if details are needed. Often, it isn’t necessary to discuss sensitive topics at length. This is a school organization, and we need to be mindful of the content we are discussing.
• We cannot predict everyone’s triggers, and that’s okay! We can all be respectful - if you think something should be spoilered, just ask, and the person should respond positively.
• If a certain topic you wish to mention in RP is a known trigger, you must spoiler all related parts of your RP. Spoilering means using Discord’s text editing feature to block out the text, so it can’t be seen unless it is clicked on.
• The spoiler command is || desired text ||
• Be sure to state the nature of the content warning in brackets - spoilers are worthless if you don’t state what is being hidden!
• The spoiler and content warning should look like this: Stuart takes the goblin and [CW: gore] || gore description ||
• Only use spoilers for content warnings, not for any other RP reasons.

 

Text Formatting Masterlist

 

Text Style	Formatting
Indent	> desired text
Spoiler	||desired text||
Bold	**desired text**
Underline	__desired text__
Italicize	*desired text*
Strikethrough	~~desired text~~