(no subject)

[stabilimento]

☆ SPECIAL GUIDES ☆

LJ RP
(for those of forum, AIM, or other backgrounds)

• Applications are meant to dazzle us. We should come away from reading an application with the impression that the writer is comfortable with the character in question! We should find minimal spelling and grammar errors, and be under the impression that the writer has submitted the application to an editor. Applications are meant to be the player's way of putting their very best foot forward to the mods and should reflect a high level of thought and polish.
• We use separate character journals, not your personal journal. This means that for every character you play, you will have another journal (example: checkerboard plays Heath, Pascal, and Karel. This means that Heath's journal is wyvernridesyou, Pascal's journal is sealedup, and Karel's journal is fallingsaintly). These are the journals that you use to interact with other characters with. It is not acceptable to use one character's journal for all interactions or to use your personal journal for interactions.
• All interactions are posted to the main community, not your character's journal. The only post (related to this game -- we are aware that people will use the same journal for multiple games) that should be in the journal is one that is marked as being for House communications.
  
  
• Replies that are meant to be in the same thread should be to comments, not to the original post. A conversation between two characters should be in a tiered thread as opposed to a long string of replies to the post. The exception to this is if the post is a specific kind of log involving more than two characters called an action log. In these logs, the replies are longer and there is usually a small plot that is being accomplished -- posts go in "turns" and they are unthreaded in order to keep replies from collapsing and make them more readable.
• Your character will be assigned a tag upon making their first post (it is not up to you to make it). Once the tag (as well as the round tag) has been assigned, you need to use it so that posts from a specific character can be easily found. Players must make sure to use the right tag, as some characters may have similar names.
• It is considered impolite to jump into the middle of another thread without asking permission of the players in that thread, even if it is "in character" for your character to do this.
• Icons are used to convey characters' emotions, especially in speech-only replies. Therefore having more than one is preferable. Generally, at the least, there should be a "happy," "sad," and "angry" icon, though more are the norm. Replying with only a default icon is considered somewhat odd without an explanation, such as being away from the computer and replying via mobile email.

ETIQUETTE
(those things we just don't do)

• Godmoding. We've probably really been mentioning this a lot, but we still see it happen. Do not do it. There is no reason to include another characters' reaction to your action in your tags. Doing so negates the entire point of playing. It is against the rules. You do not doodle on someone's face. You attempt to doodle on their face and then let them react and decide if they want to have squiggly mustaches or not. You do not punch someone in the nose. You swing at their nose and then let them decide if the hit connects or if it misses entirely. This is especially important in fights. [ here ] is a fairly well-played fight log that does not use godmoding to get the job done.
• Names. Due to the nature of this game, who knows whose name is very important, and it can get confusing just who has and has not told you their names. Therefore, the mods recommend that you keep a list of names that each of your characters knows others by. Several rounds have been somewhat spoiled in parts by characters suddenly knowing names that they should not. If a character goes by a codename and has never revealed their real name, there is no reason at all for characters to suddenly be mass-voting for the real name without some sort of plot (such as "let's all vote for a name we do not recognize"). This leads neatly into our next point...
• Metagaming. Some people may not know this term, so we'll define it. Metagaming is applying OOC knowledge to IC interactions. Some examples: The player knows that Matt's real name is Mail Jeeves? Suddenly, so do their characters! One character has gotten close enough to Otacon to know that his name is Hal Emmerich? Suddenly, all of the player's other characters are privy to such information! The player knows that Kefka killed a good number of people? Suddenly, every one of the player's characters are voting for him! Do you understand what we're getting at, here? What one character knows or what a player knows should stay what the player or the one character knows without IC reasons for the information to be passed around. And by "IC," we also would prefer to not see characters who have never spoken before (and who are suspiciously played by the same player) all getting together to exchange information and then never talking again.
• Fourth Walling. Again, one that may confuse people -- we do not mean characters addressing their players (though that is to be avoided as well; save it for dear_mun). What we mean is characters knowing things about other characters by virtue of "it's a tv show in their world" or "they're a total otaku" or whatever. Let's take Konata -- she would likely be able to spout off facts about other anime/manga/video game characters to their faces, such as, "Oh, I know you! You're Pikachu! Whoa, are you gonna thundershock me?" If this is IC for your character, it is allowed, but under one condition. You must okay it with the muns of other characters before doing so. This is where permissions posts come in. You make a post asking if it's okay if your character knows things about other characters. If a player says no (or doesn't respond), then we expect to see no "fourth walling" with that player's characters.