More In Character

[Harroghty]

Forgotten Kingdoms continues to provide a high standard of role-play for players in a game genre increasingly moving to opposite ends of the spectrum (all role-play and no role-play). In an effort to maintain that high standard, we want to promote role-playing and discourage out of character behaviors that detract from it.

A part of this effort has been holding more staff-run events, supporting player-run events, and providing things like the Adventurer's Guild for PCs to accomplish together. We will continue to keep our doors open for events you may have in mind to run. You are encouraged to run events for faiths as any PC of any faith rank. You are encouraged to run events for guilds as any of your PC guild members. Please feel free to post in Applications if you have an event you for which you want supplies. You may submit ideas for jobs for the Adventurer's Guild at any time to Mele. We enjoy seeing your events unfold and what they bring to our community.

This is our community, really. It belongs to both staff and players (all of the staff are players). Neither the staff nor the player base want, I think, the staff to enforce good behaviors harshly. It engenders ill will and it often does not correct the problem in the long term. Really, what's effective is if players help other players to maintain the high standards of the game.

Some bad things and good examples of how to fix them:

OOC conversations on IC channels. There's really no way to get around this subject. Some people blatantly speak OOC on IC channels (mostly very new ones) and some people just bypass RP to immediately ask things like the location of a trainer, if anyone is willing to sell a specific magic item, or the like (some new ones, too many veteran players). The best response is probably just to respond IC as you would in real life if someone you barely knew walked up and asked something rude.

Long conversations on OOC channels. We see a lot of these. Most often it is one of three things: something that could reasonably be said IC, something that is totally not related and could happen outside of the game, or exchanging quest information which should not happen. You can suggest taking these back IC, if appropriate, or you can just resume RPing your PC without seeming rude, I think.

Doing something OOC because the code allows it. I'll give a great personal example of the problem and the solution. Harroghty used to wear a sporran and, when he was in Waterdeep, he would often remove his helmet and put in the small pouch to prevent theft (he'd had some objects stolen recently). Gwain would always remark, in character, about how amazed he was that the big helmet fit in such a small pouch. Eventually, I wised up and started carrying around a pack for the purpose. My bad OOC move was corrected by his IC reaction; he was not rude, but he was IC and consistent and I eventually figured it out.

We encourage you to post examples and how you have learned from them in the past, or how best you feel to gently correct them in the future. This is not about everyone role-playing a certain way or in a certain style, but about raising the standard of everyone's behavior. This is best solved by us all as a community. We, the staff, do not want to be the hammer on this issue until we must be, but we have seriously discussed consequences for certain accounts who -despite many IC and OOC discussions and warnings- continue this kind of behavior which damages the game for everyone.

[Hrosskell]

Just wanted to point out that a common alternative to flooding the game with OOC messages but still being able to communicate with the community exists. The FK Discord is very helpful and populated, and it gives you access both to our chat and PMs. The moderating staff (which, admittedly, I'm part of) has done very good to discourage and scrub any illicit trade of IC information. Most members are very clear on not just the rules of the game, but the spirit. Frequently Asked Questions include: Inner-workings of game mechanics, etiquette both IC and OOC, lore/resources for the Realms, and developing an RP style. Many of its members are very willing to help tackle these sometimes confusing/unspoken guidelines, as well as set up RP/adventure meet-ups and events.

To be clear, this is in no way an "official" endorsement, and no content within the Discord is supported, by the staff of the game. A lot of content is more adult-oriented than the game's general atmosphere and encouragement, but we do strive to keep a sensible environment. Should you wish to join us, and funnel the OOC chatter elsewhere, the link is below!

https://discord.gg/W3d4DAj

[Yemin]

My reaction to OOC chatter is usually to suggest we go back to IC after 4 or so lines of this.

My reaction to OOC chatter that is generally unpleasant like an argument brewing is just to walk away. Being the ardent argument lover that I am. I know the only way to kill this particular fire is to starve it of fuel.

Ditto when people chase me with otells, there is a command to block all tells to you. Though I haven't had to use it in a while. Something like help channels covers it I believe.

I do lots of OOC things without really realising, mostly when I'm tired and simply forget. A good personal example is I walked into the keep's tower and killed some guards then because they weren't set to agro, I moved to the next and started meditating infront of him.

An admin simply made the guard shout enemy wizard, which was a great non lethal and fun way to jerk my mind back into the environment. To say the least, after that I've been more likely, at least for a time to correct my behaviour and chat with NPCs like a mad man.

[Elisabeth]

What has worked well for me (I think) when confronted with a lot of osay or pseudo-IC conversation has been to ignore the OOC and react to the IC as appropriate. At the risk of seeming mean though that's not my intention (mods will shut me up if needed) I'll include a log or two to show what I mean.

This tell came at me the other day. There was nothing before it. This is exactly how it progressed.

Someone tells you 'I think I found another blade'
You reply to someone 'Beg pardon?'
Someone replies to you 'Another greater enchanted blade'
You reply to someone 'Forgive me... With whom.. do I speak?'
Someone replies to you 'Oh [Guysname]'
You tell someone 'Ah. Greetings then to you, [Guysname].'
Someone replies to you 'I am tied to Shadowdale with [Otherguysname] for the moment waiting for him to recover from death'
Someone replies to you 'But I think I happened upon a greater enchanted greatsword'
You tell someone 'That is most unfortunate. The death, I mean. I would send my well wishes.'

I would also note that my character barely knew this person to begin with, which just makes it all the more awkward. But you just roll with it and eventually things get slightly more IC. Ignoring osay is super easy, though otell is always really hard for me for some reason. I fail at it most times admittedly because I don't want to seem like an ass, but sometimes I manage not to reply and keep on going with IC, and all's fine.

Another thing I've noticed that happens a lot is various players' alts all having the same friends IC. I think this one is sort of natural for a lot of people who feel uncomfortable stepping out of their norm. I used to do it myself, but have been making effort both IC and OOC to make sure it doesn't happen. RP being an enemy to one of your best buds some time, or try letting your characters branch out and make friends with characters of players you don't usually interact with. It can be great fun either way. But the groups of two or three players who just play with each other all the time on every character has always irked me. It breaks emmersion pretty easily.

One that I do a lot: sleeping in random places just to quicken HP regen. I've slept in stable rooms, in street rooms, in rooms to which aggressive mobs have access, etc. It's an annoying habit I picked up I don't know where and I'm still working on not doing it.

Treating death like no biggie is also one I see a lot. I think I used to do it back when I first started? But I honestly can't remember. These days, when one of my characters gets raised, I'm spending at least ten RL minutes lying flat on the ground wishing I were anywhere but there. Obviously I don't mean to say that everyone should RP the incident with as much length and depth as I try to, but if the first command you enter after being raised is 'meditate', or 'stand', or 'grin', or any movement commands, maybe you should rethink what just happened IC.

[Yemin]

I find the less church orientated your roleplay is, the easier it is to mix crowds. Also, having played here for 3 ish or more years, I feel not getting too involved in the player's rl lives helps me rp with any char that crosses my path really.

Its a completely human thing to want to stick in a specific group, I imagine it'd be all the harder to break out of that if you spoke with someone regularly on teamspeak or discord from here. These are of course just observations and not recriminations. Just something I've noticed from my own behaviour on games where I do speak with players online quite regularly.

Out of interest, I assume this thread was spawned because there are some as you mentioned that don't wish to rp as much as others. Is this a recent development in the last couple of years, or has there always been players like this and you're tackling it now Harroghty?

[Harroghty]

Although we sometimes think fondly of the olden days, I feel that this is nothing new.

What's concerning is that there are now new players joining the game and learning a low standard of RP whereas, in the past, there was a greater degree of accountability within the player base that prevented as many people from sinking to the lowest common denominator. Today, I think a new player is more likely to go on oblivious of the problem.

[Oengus]

There are a few moments this had haunted me, but just today this happened:

You tell FaithQuestee 'Seek the plains if you will, eheh.'

<100%hp 97m 98%mv>
FaithQuestee replies to you 'brb, one sec'

*shakes staff*
Aside from that - once Oengus entertained the very idea of allowing a wizard to animate a corpse so they might defeat a terrible evil enemy. His symbol was stripped away, and presumably the flow of divine power was cut off. However the wizard insisted that he try anyway using holly. It was difficult to just say "no" and I do regret not explaining OOCly that, a symbol, is more than its material make and that the Goddess was punishing Oengus by taking away his magic. So, for probably the third time, Oengus threw himself on the ground before the altar begging forgiveness from his Goddess, abandoning all his magic and even food or water for himself in a fast.