Etiquette

Introduction

Text based RPG's are a great environment for people to come together and explore a universe limited only by their imaginations. However, in a game where people come from all walks of life, bringing with them differing customs, comfort levels and backgrounds, and when text is the only form of communication, there is also a lot of potential for misunderstandings that can quickly grow disruptive and hurtful to all people involved.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid these types of misunderstandings!

The primary key is respect, communication and receptiveness. This is a game, a fun hobby that we do for relaxation. Please remember that when you are feeling frustrated, and try to treat other people respectfully as well as extending good faith before assuming negative intentions from other players.

On top of that, here are some useful guidelines generally followed and understood in our game's culture:

OOC Etiquette/norms

General Communication

In a text-based environment, we do not have tone, body language, facial expression nor eye contact with which to couch our statements. This can make it harder at times to communicate clearly when we speak. Even the use of smiley faces can be confusing (is :P a smiley face or a tongue-sticking-out face? Does XD mean you're grinning or winking? Depending on who you ask, you might get wildly different answers!) There are ways, however, to avoid miscommunication.

• On our game we put a high priority on open, respectful communication -- whether it's about plot ideas or ongoing scenes or just casual chatter. It is very common that we communicate a lot outside of scenes to establish background, check in on what goals the other player(s) might have, and generally all make sure we are on the same page about what we want and don't want in RP. It can be a lot to get used to when coming from other game backgrounds, but we find it helps greatly in maintaining the non-hierarchical collaborative atmosphere we want.

• Be direct. Many of us are taught from a young age that politeness is in passiveness. But in text, passive suggestions are much harder to infer the intended message from, which can lead to frustration to both the party speaking and the party being spoken to. You will get much more effective results simply from stating "I'm looking for RP" than you will by hinting "I'm bored." The same can be said if you are feeling offended. If you do not speak up, the person that has offended you may not even know they have done so. It's hard to do, but it can nip so many problems in the bud to state it up front when you are feeling uncomfortable.

• Be receptive. If someone tells you OOC that they are uncomfortable, you should stop what you are doing. You do not need to understand why, you do not need to agree, you don't have to like it, but if something bothers someone OOC, you should not continue doing it. Doing so is harassment.

• Do not badger. We all get excited sometimes, and when we're enthusiastic, we're eager to do these things that we're excited about. And in a world of RP, these things tend to rely on other people also doing them. Enthusiasm and energy is a good thing! But, hard as it may be, once you've expressed your interest, unless the other party is returning it, you may have to wait until they have the time, energy or interest.

• Be mindful of people's boundaries in terms of familiarity. Unasked for nicknames, hugs/snuggles/kisses etc. cross many people's comfort levels; unless you know someone is comfortable with it, don't do it.

• Remember that in-character communication is entirely in-character, and out-of-character communication is the same. If you find yourself puzzling over something that someone has said or done with their character, the best way to clear up that confusion is to ask, either ICly if you are positioned to do so, or OOCly if you are not. This is probably one of the biggest mistakes made on any game -- we assume that a character's actions or statements are in any way tied to the person who controls them.

• Disagreements happen! There will be occasions when you disagree with a character or with a player. Sometimes people have a tendency to treat disagreements as hostility and avoid anything that feels like "conflict", but, addressing concerns goes much farther towards promoting an environment that we all can be comfortable in. It's how we deal with such disagreements that matters most. If you are having a disagreement with another player, please try to keep a respectful attitude rather than simply venting your frustrations at them. Let them know your concerns and try to work together to find a solution that lets you all get back to the type of play you enjoy.

• Feedback: Feedback is important because it informs both parties that they are being heard. If you aren't sure you understood something correctly, it's good to ask for clarification, rephrasing and feedback. In this stage, all participants should be looking for some sort of constructive resolution or solution to the issue.

• Mediation: If players are unable to resolve a disagreement or conflict between themselves, we have a mediation system in place for addressing conflict. See the mediation guide for a comprehensive overview.

OOC Channel Guide

Channels are the primary form of OOC communication on X-Men rEvolution. All public channels on this game are rated R in their content, as regards general language and topics. This does not, however, excuse purposely offensive messages or abusive language between Players. If in doubt, be respectful, and try to be sensitive to the fact that you do not know what personal experiences the other people on a channel have been through or would find offensive.

Please keep channel chatter to its appropriate channel. Often times, people will mute spammier channels when they are not in a situation where they can keep up with excessive chatter, but will leave on other channels for updates, new or other relevant feedback.

Many channels have descriptions in Discord or pinned messages with more detailed guidelines for channel use. Please read the descriptions/pinned messages to familiarize yourself with these.

Channels are a fun place to unwind, kill some time, make friends and share stories. If you find yourself talking a lot more than everyone else, though, you might want to take a step back and consider if you are monopolizing the conversation. A good rule of thumb is that if <your name> appears on a channel more than <everyone else's name together>, you might be talking too much.

Additionally, bear in mind that while this is a community and we strive for a congenial atmosphere, everyone here does not have the same comfort levels or levels of closeness! We aim to be friendly, but we aren't all friends -- the public channels are just that, public; and not everyone knows each other, so keep in mind that everything you say on there is open to an audience who is not all familiar with you.

Sharing at length intimate details of your life (overly detailed health concerns, deep traumas, anything better suited to telling your best friend or your therapist) might be better kept to private conversations where you know the people involved. Teasing & dark humor can be well-received by friends who know you well but may not come across very well with strangers who don't have the benefit of friendship and tone/context, so consider your audience before making jokes that might be perceived as insulting or offensive. As well, conversation that is very specific to offline-interactions with specific individuals might be better suited to page or offgame messaging (i.e., do not use Public channel to make your dinner plans with someone; you can do that via pm or offgame text messages.)

If you find yourself talking a lot and getting little response, it never hurts to sit back and ask yourself - What am I trying to accomplish with what I'm saying? Who is responding, when they do? Is it positive or negative? Could what I am saying be considered negative? Is this the appropriate channel to be saying this on?

Requests for help and questions are always welcome. Our channel guide below can help you determine what channels are appropriate for what types of discussion.

Welcome & Help Channels

• announcements - Low-volume channel, only for posting important OOC/administrative updates, regular idle checks, etc. If it is not relevant, important information for all players to know, it does not belong in this channel.
• welcome - Where folks land when they first arrive -- if you see a new person joining, feel free to say hi to them here!
• rules - Our game policies. Can also be found here. All players are expected to be familiar with the policies here and abide by them.
• information - contains technical information on how to navigate our Discord that might be helpful for those new to the server.
• guest-intros - If you are new and unsure whether this is the server for you, you can test out a little bit of roleplay before doing the work of submitting an entire application. Use this channel to post a short introductory blurb to the character you are interested in playing, and a Member will give you the guest role.
• help - If you have issues that arise with the Discord, don't understand how something works, or notice something is broken, ask for help here.
• applications - For new (unapproved) players who would like help brainstorming or refining their applications.
• introductions - For approved players to tell us a little bit about who they play on game and how they would like us to refer to them.

OOC Chatting Channels

• genderal - Our general channel. This channel is for generalized chatting. Casual conversation goes here!
• happy-mediums - A channel to discuss what kind of media you're currently enjoying (or not enjoying!) Games, books, movies, music, etc!
• book-club - Currently inactive, but feel free to revive it! This is for picking a book we will read and discuss together as a group. Books you're enjoying yourself can be discussed in happy-mediums.
• artists-alley - To show off your own projects, art, etc -- if you made it we're glad to see it!
• election-hell - For discussion of "politics" in the specific, election/politicians sense. We do not require that conversations about current events, social justice, etc, be relegated to a specific channel; this is specifically to put the often high-volume discussions about campaigns/elections themselves in one place.
• pandemic - For discussion of COVID-19 and its related troubles.
• collexecutive-function - A channel we sometimes use to help each other stay on task! If you want reminders to do something, prompts to finish work you need to do (game-related or otherwise!) you can ask for a little bit of group encouragement here. When using this channel please be specific about your request -- not "I need help remembering to do my homework" but, "I have a project due tomorrow at midnight, if anyone sees me RPing before then please remind me I am not supposed to RP" / "It would be helpful if someone could ping me at 10 am tomorrow to remind me to mail a letter" etc.
• random - Exactly what it says! Often used for memes, silly pictures, etc that you want to share but don't necessarily need a conversation.

RP-related channels

• find-rp - This channel is exclusively for seeking roleplay/organizing scenes. The majority of scenes on rEvolution are organized via channel or pages (as opposed to via hanging out in public rooms), so feel free to ping the channel if you're looking for a scene! Please keep off-topic conversation off of this channel, and read the pinned message for RP search guidelines.
• scene-info - Used to post information about ongoing scenes, including whether they are open to new people or closed as well as relevant content notices if applicable. Make sure to read the pinned post and please use this channel if your scene requires content notices. Topics that we require content notices on can be found here. Please delete your scene notices once they are no longer relevant.
• rp-services - This channel is for posting offers of assistance you are willing to provide to other players. If you love writing descriptions, if you love writing newsposts, if you love helping people think through timelines, there is likely someone else on game who hates that task and would love your help. Requests for help do not belong in this channel.
• brainstorming - This channel is exclusively for talking through roleplay-related ideas -- whether you are trying to think through new characters, plot arcs, or other game-related ideas, if you want to bounce thoughts off of other people this is the channel to do so! We encourage the use of individual threads for longer/more involved brainstorming requests. When asking for brainstorming help, please be specific about what type of help you want. "I would like help figuring out reasonable limitations for my power idea", for example, rather than simply posting the idea and waiting for people to guess what feedback you are looking for on it.
• peanut-gallery - This channel is for commentary on roleplay. If you have thoughts on scenes or characters, bring them here! Remember to keep it polite and constructive -- we use this channel for gushing about other people's characters and scenes, or for requesting clarifications for your own ongoing scenes, or for helping work through things in poses that might not make sense with current history. This scene is not for uninvited criticisms.
• wanted - For posting RP-related requests you have. If you are looking for participants in a plot you are running, or would love someone to pick up your character's sister/best friend/nemesis, etc., post it here! Please delete your request if it is no longer relevant.
• administrative-info - Locked to those with the Member role; this is a collection of errata that we find helpful for remembering process and procedure. If you can't remember what app review team entails, or the necessary steps to approve a new player, etc., find it here. No chatting allowed in this channel.
• v-srs-game-bsns - Locked to those with the Member role. This is where we discuss game administration, changes to game policy and rules, etc. If there are any administrative game issues you need to discuss or hash out, this is where to do it. Please try to keep discussion on-topic and constructive.
• modest-proposals - Locked to those with the Member role. This is where we vote on proposed changes to game policy. Please read the pinned post for proposal and voting procedure. No chatting allowed in this channel; discussion of proposals happens in #v-srs-game-bsns.
• bot-spam - If you need to look up descriptions, check another characters profile, etc., please keep all bot requests in this channel so as to not spam players. Type `?help` in this channel if you would like a list of the available bot commands.

In-Character Channels

• ic-updates - This category is for posting in-character news and updates.
  • ic-news - Use this channel for posting any news that is applicable to the game as a whole. If it is something that would be widely accessible to anyone who is reading the newspaper, watching the evening news, if it's going viral on social media -- basically, if Your Average Person is likely to have heard about an event, put it here. If you have had a scene/plot/other event that would have made the news, it is courtesy to include a newspost here so that people can stay up to date without reading Every Log or needing to make assumptions about what has been newsworthy. No off-topic or OOC posts allowed. Active players should make an effort to be aware of the news posted here.
  • faction channels - All the faction channels are for things that are applicable and likely to be known to a specific faction. If there's juicy gossip going around the halls of XS, if the Brotherhood has new rules handed down from on high, if the Morlock tunnels are on lockdown, etc -- post here to keep your faction up to date on things they should know. Active players should make an effort to keep up to date on information relevant to their applicable factions.
• ic-communication - This category is used for ongoing in-character communications, whether it be social media threads, your characters' friends group chat, an email chain, or the like. If you would like to start a new thread in this section for personal communications, go for it, just make sure it is clear who can participate.
  • twitter - We keep twitter threads in this channel. If you would like to begin an IC twitter exchange about a new topic, make a thread within this channel -- make sure the thread topic is descriptive enough people know whether they would like their characters to post!
• ic - roleplaying channels - This category is where we put active roleplaying scenes while we are roleplaying. Our convention is to make a new channel per scene. Once a scene has been finished and posted to the wiki, we typically delete the channel. Do not delete a channel until EITHER the scene has been posted to the wiki OR all players involved have agreed to delete the channel.

DMs

DM is the quickest way to communicate with individual Players on a game. It's a convenient way to ask questions, make plans and clarify poses. However, it is also a feature that can cause a lot of unintended problems if misused. Some people can multitask and don't mind a lot of side chatter, but it's generally safer to never assume. Ways to avoid common PM peeves:

• If you do not know a player well enough to know their preferences around unsolicited DMs, it is polite to ask before you send them a private message. Everyone has different preferences around direct messages. If you are not sure where to ask a specific player about RP thoughts, start on #brainstorming.

• Be direct. It's tempting to only DM a wave and then sit back and wait for a response before delving into a topic, but PMing is not the same as checking for a pulse. A PMed 'wave' isn't something a person even necessarily might know you are waiting for response to. Instead, try to state the nature of what you need all in the first message. (ie: 'Hello! I was hoping to ask you about potential follow-up to the scene we had. My character would likely want to ask more about X. Let me know if you're interested and we can work out more details!')

• Be patient. Yes, there are some situations where a person might have simply forgotten to respond to a message, or it got lost in spam, or their connection blipped and they didn't get it. But more times than not, if one message isn't responded to right away, a second will not hasten the speed in which a response comes. PMing 'I have a question', waiting five minutes, and then adding 'Hello? Is anyone there?' is going to come off sounding rude. People have offline lives and may not check their messages for a while. If you have not gotten response by the next day, it may be appropriate to ping again -- politely! -- with a follow up in case they missed your message. If you still get no response after that, perhaps the person is uninterested, which can be a bummer but this is a game! It's okay to let it go, there's plenty more RP out there.

• Many people prefer to keep casual conversation on the channels and use DMs for more specific purposes (planning RP, answering RP-related questions, working out plot hooks, etc.) rather than for socializing. Please be aware of the boundaries of the person you are messaging, and refrain from DMing people "just to chat" if they seem uncommunicative or have actively expressed that they would rather you didn't. The social norms are different from game to game and people not wanting private messages does not mean they are rude or do not like you; socializing here just tends to happen on channel, and DMs more often utilized for things such as planning scenes or plotting.

RP Etiquette

world social contract

Many different roleplaying games have different approaches to how the world is shaped. In some games you can go blow up Times Square or go on a shooting spree and there will be very little lasting impact on the world.

Our approach here, as opposed to on other games, is that everybody is invested and involved in the same setting -- we're all playing in the same world rather than playing in 30 different individual versions of a comics world. We aim to treat everyone's character as if they matter equally to the setting, and can have lasting impact on the surroundings. The worldbuilding is important and persistent -- things your character does today might have lasting impact in their circles and the world.

Setting up Scenes

• The #find-rp channel is the primary place people go to look for scenes. We have some etiquette guidelines when using the channel that are important to keep in mind.
  • Use this channel only if you are willing to make a good faith effort to accommodate any player who replies!
  • making rp requests: Use @here to get people's attention if you are open to any RP, or @Faction if you only want RP with a specific subset of characters. In your ping, let us know:
    • What char options you want to RP & a little bit about them.
    • If there are specific things you are interested in (would love an action scene, only want to play at Xavier's, etc.) Be up front about your preferences.
    • Let us know concretely when you are interested in starting a scene! With no clarification, we will assume you want to start immediately/as soon as a scene is worked out.
    • Let us know concretely if you have time considerations (need to end by X time, will probably have to sleep and pick up tomorrow, will be at work till x so may pose slow, etc). "Slow" posing is generally considered to be 2 or more hours between poses.
    • If there is a long-unfulfilled RP request on channel when you go to request a scene, it is considered polite to ping the person when you are requesting, in case they are still looking for RP. We are all busy people with busy lives and sometimes RP requests get answered many hours after the fact -- if it has been less than a day since someone's RP request, there's a chance they would still be interested in a scene!
    • Be patient when looking for RP. If it has been many hours since your last RP request (e.g. you asked in the morning before work and now you are home from work) it is totally cool to ping again, but asking/pinging multiple times in a short time frame with no response is more likely to annoy people than to encourage people to RP.
  • Responding to requests:
    • When responding mention what characters you are interested in playing and where they might intersect with the requester's characters
    • Be considerate of their time -- if you can't start until x time, people are not obligated to wait for you to be available if someone is available to RP sooner.
    • Be willing to assist in brainstorming -- affirming other people's ideas or offering your own is more helpful than "whatever is fine!" or "i'm good with anything!", which puts the effort of setting up a plausible scene entirely on the other person.
    • Respect other people's character limits - if a character pairing is not working out into a mutually fun scene idea after a good faith effort, try a different pairing!
    • If it has been many hours since someone's RP request when you answer, often times they still do want to RP! However, do not take a change of circumstances as a personal slight -- if something has come up for someone in between their ask and your request, you can always work out RP another time!
  • Negotiating scenes:
    • It is absolutely okay to express preferences about the overall type of scene you want, but do not use #find-rp channel if you only want to RP with specific players or do very specific scenes with very specific characters at this time.
    • Respect people's expressed preferences - if someone has put a request on channel that says they would like to scene with another Xavier's student, or are looking for a scene doing some Brotherhood terrorism, it is not a snub against you as a player if you only have a peaceful Morlock character. Sometimes preferences just don't line up!
    • If a scene negotiation is already underway and players, it is perfectly okay to ask if you can join; do not demand to join their scene. Most players here will make a good faith effort to accommodate all RP requests, but it can be frustrating to have spent a long time hammering out details of an interesting character hook only to have someone attempt to insert a character who makes no sense in that context.
    • On a similar vein, if many people are seeking RP on #find-rp at once, it is often more productive to work out multiple smaller scene groupings of 2-3 characters each rather than trying to fit ten characters into one scene! Many people do not enjoy large scenes ("large" here is usually considered 5+ characters) and that preference is fine. We generally try to accommodate all players who are responding on #find-rp, even if that means taking a little time to sort through character combinations & ideas that everyone finds fun.
• Arranging RP Privately - Often, you may have concrete scene ideas you already want to do, or ideas you have kicked around with a friend. That is totally fine! We do not expect everyone to always want to RP with anyone who comes along at any time. While we expect people using the public RP channels to make a good faith effort to accommodate anyone who replies, players are absolutely welcome to arrange scenes via other methods.
  • If you have specific scenes you know you want to do -- your character is going on a date with their partner! Fighting their archnemesis! Decompressing with their sister -- the #find-rp channel is not the appropriate place to reach out to individual player(s) about these scenes.
  • Keep in mind the etiquette regarding DMing if you are planning to message someone privately about RP.
  • Always be ready to take no for an answer! If you pitch an idea to someone and they aren't interested, or if you had an idea you had both agreed on two months ago but they don't want to do it anymore, do not badger players to RP with you.
  • brainstorming channel is also a perfectly appropriate place to hash out these RP ideas before sceneing. If your ideas are narrowly applicable -- scene ideas only applicable to a specific faction, or to a small group of people, it is appropriate to make a thread and tag the appropriate faction or individuals so that you do not spam uninvolved people.
  • Keep in mind when using brainstorming to work out ideas that this is still a public channel, not a private conversation. While you are absolutely not required to incorporate anyone's ideas or feedback, if you are not open to the possibility of other people weighing in, DMs are better -- oftentimes in brainstorming threads people will bring up angles you didn't even think about to begin with or ways characters you had not considered could get involved! If that is not something you want, it is more polite to DM individuals or make a small group chat for the people you want involved.
• Notes on Scene Time Expectations:
  • We assume that everyone playing here has offline lives that come with their own enjoyments and responsibilities. As such we aim to always respect other players' time. We do not expect instant gratification from RP partners, whether that means being patient waiting for scene requests to be answered or understanding that oftentimes people will not reply immediately in scene. We also expect that players will let each other know if they will take unusually long to reply or need to be offline for a while.
  • Our general expectations around time are that on average, scenes will be finished within several hours to a day. If you would like a scene that finishes quicker than "a few hours", make sure to let your RP partners know up front that you would only like a short scene. If you see someone asking for "an 8", that means a scene that is 8 poses long -- a common go to when someone just wants a bite-sized amount of RP!
  • If you know you will be very busy and may take considerably longer than a day to finish an entire scene, let your prospective partners know up front. Sometimes people are very willing to do a slow scene and sometimes they have a lot of scenes they want to get done; sometimes they'd be happy to have one alt on pause for several days but have a lot to do with a different alt. It is polite to let them know before they get into a scene that the character may be held up in scene for a considerable time.
  • Average time for people to reply in game can be anywhere from 15 minutes to upwards of an hour, all considered normal! If you will take over two hours between poses -- e.g. you'll be going to sleep, going to work, out with friends, etc -- just let your scene partners know!
  • If you go 24 hours or more without posing, your scene partners may consider you to have idled out of the scene. At that point, other players are free to continue the scene without you or to close the log. Oftentimes people will be willing to wait as long as you let them know, but players are not obligated to wait longer.
• Joining Scenes Already In Progress
  • Depending on various people's RP backgrounds, there are some common courtesies and conventions some people prefer regarding 'scene crashing'.
    • While adding more characters to a scene can cause an interesting new dimension to whatever is going on, there are some cases where other players might, for whatever reason, have a limited time in which they can RP something specific, or might be trying to accomplish something time sensitive. Some people also struggle to keep up with larger crowd scenes and may or may not be able to handle more people joining. It is always considered a courtesy to add new people to a scene in progress, so be willing to take "no" for an answer graciously.
  • Check the #scene-info channel before joining -- if people are actively looking for more people to join their scene, they will often post there if their scene is an open one.
  • If you're interested in joining an ongoing scene, whether or not it is posted in #scene-info, make sure to ask the players involved for permission first -- it is not acceptable etiquette on this game to simply pose into a scene uninvited.
  • If someone is joining your scene, you generally should wait on posing to them until after they have actually posed in. They might be planning to pose in a manner you wouldn't have anticipated; don't assume that a character is ICly present or what they are doing until the player has posed already.

OOC Commentary During Scenes

• We encourage players to communicate with each other to make sure RP is fun for everyone! While most of this negotiation often happens before starting a scene, there are many reasons people also need to communicate while scenes are ongoing.
• We use #peanut-gallery channel heavily for side conversations during scenes. People will frequently comment here on parts of other people's scenes they are enjoying, and, additionally, players use the channel for clarifying conversation during a scene, filling each other in on context/backstory, etc.
• We generally try to keep OOC commentary within a scene channel limited to what is actively relevant to the RP currently going on. For example, if you want to switch up the posing order, or need to clarify what a character is doing before you can respond, etc., that can go in the scene channel itself. If you just want to comment on how someone's pose was touching or hilarious, that goes in #peanut-gallery.
• OOC commentary within a scene channel should be denoted on its own message, between double parentheses

  ((like this))

  or prefaced with ooc

  ooc like this

  -- this tells the bot that your comment is ooc so that it will be omitted from the final log. It is important to put these in their own separate message rather than simply at the bottom of a pose.
• While the norm on many games is to ping people when it is their turn, this is not the standard on our game. Discord allows you to enable notifications on a per-channel basis, so most players will set an RP channel to notify on every new message if they are in scene. If you would like to be pinged when it is your pose, let your scene partners know -- most people are happy to do it but will not do it by default, and most players will not want you to ping them on their turn unless they have requested it specifically.

In-Scene Expectations

Pose Content

• Style Guidelines
  • Poses on game should be written in third person, present tense.
  • Unless otherwise negotiated, poses should not include or assume any actions by other PCs that they did not already write or agree to. See "Powerplay" section for more details.
  • At least 50% of your pose should include content that the other characters in the scene can perceive and respond to. See "Meta" section for more details.
  • Prose/exposition should be written primarily in English. If characters are having dialogue or thoughts that are extensively not in English, our convention is to use curly braces to denote that a character is speaking another language. For example: "{English isn't my first language}," he grumbled in French.
  • Our convention is to use << >> to denote mental dialogue, when sceneing with telepaths; we do not encourage people to include extensive in-character thoughts if no other characters present are capable of hearing them. See "Meta" section for more details.
• Setting a scene
  • If you are the first person to pose during a scene, we call that "setting". Some people love doing it, some people hate doing it, but for the first person the responsibility falls to you to establish enough relevant information that other people have a good idea of what their characters are walking into.
  • Good information to include in your setting pose:
    • A description of the location, if not using pre-stored descriptions from the bot.
    • A general sense of what is going on in the location (atmosphere, how many people are around, etc.)
    • General of day, weather if applicable.
    • What your PC is doing -- make sure to pose this in a way that leaves openings for people to interact! If you are playing a scene with your characters' best friend, it might be fine to pose your character sitting in a corner of a coffeeshop reading a book, but if you are having a scene with two characters who are strangers, sitting alone with nose in a book is probably not the easiest thing for your partner to engage with. It's your responsibility to make sure there are reasonable openings for interaction when you set a scene.
  • It takes a little extra work to be the first person to pose. If you are not the first person to pose in a scene, be respectful to the person who did the work of setting! This means:
    • Reading what they wrote about the location and not contradicting it (if they say the cafe is nearly empty, don't pose that your character is interacting with a big crowd there. If the building is on fire, don't pose that your character is sitting and enjoying a relaxing danger-free coffee.)
    • Taking into account what they wrote their character doing and finding a way to interact with it. Much like it is the responsibility of the person setting to create openings for interaction, it's your responsibility to take them. If you pose your character sitting in a corner quietly reading with headphones on after their character has stumbled bleeding into a bookstore and knocked over the entire display case, you are not doing a good job at collaborating with the scene. Unless you've explicitly talked about it with your partner, don't expect that other people will come over and drag interaction out of your character -- make sure you are meeting your scene partners halfway!
• Making an entry pose into a scene
  • Whether or not you are setting, the first pose you write in a scene should give other characters a solid picture of your character and what is happening with them.
  • Good information to include in your character's first pose in a scene:
    • Idea of what they are wearing (as general or as specific as you care to get!)
    • Are they already there, are they just entering?
    • Are they alone or are they with other characters
    • Anything else particularly noteworthy about their current state (if they are obviously injured, agitated, excited, covered in dirt -- things people would be able to perceive about them)

Pose Order

• Unless otherwise negotiated, we use a strict turn order when in scenes of 3 or more characters.
• Most often someone will volunteer to go first. If someone has already said they are setting, wait for them to write their pose before you jump in.
• Occasionally there will be reasons it makes sense for a specific person to go next (their character is already hanging out with the character who set, etc.) In these cases please be proactive about letting people know if you are planning to pose next.
• Otherwise, the remaining pose order is established casually by "whoever poses in first". If you know how many people are going to be in your scene, it is polite to wait for everyone to pose in before continuing.
• Once everyone has posed in, the order in which you posed generally remains the same for the whole scene.
• There are circumstances it might make sense to switch pose order around or pose out of turn. If these come up, ask before simply skipping someone's turn.
• If you enter your pose and then notice there is content you need to change significantly, tell your RP partners that you will be editing, do not just make the edits. Most of us do not compose our poses within Discord and may have read your pose then switched to a different window to write a reply -- it can be deeply frustrating to have written an entire reply and then come back to find someone edited the content of their pose so that yours no longer makes sense. If you are just editing for typos/minor stylistic changes, that is fine.
• There are times that we negotiate other tempos or formats for posing beside strict pose order. Very large scenes or very chaotic action scenes or very scripted scenes with specific themes or goals, often are not well suited to strict pose order. These scenes will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis, but, here are some common alternative formats we use:
  • 3PR - 3 Pose Rule. A common approach to large or chaotic scenes -- instead of a strict pose order, the rule is "if at least three other characters have posed since your pose, you can pose again".
  • Anthology - a type of more choreographed scene that consists of very short (usually one or two characters/2-3 poses) snapshot interactions. Often used in facilitation of plot progression, to establish mood, or to fill in character histories over a longer period of time, these are often scenes that are planned out to convey a large amount of information in a smaller amount of time.

Sex, Violence, and other Explicit Content

Sex, violence, and other sensitive topics can be fun to write about, but can also trigger powerful OOC emotional responses. Clearly expressing our own boundaries around triggering content and respecting other people's boundaries are both crucial to ensuring everyone has a fun, safe, and comfortable experience!

We require our players to be at least 18 and we have no prohibition on writing explicit content. We do have a prohibition against writing underage characters engaging in/experiencing explicit sex or violence. While those things may be part of a character's life story, we do not allow these scenes to be written on our server or posted on our wiki.

When a scene is likely to involve sex, violence, or other content you think may cause distress to yourself or other players, discuss with everyone involved first. If such content comes up unexpectedly in a scene, and you're not sure everyone involved is okay with it -- ask! This doesn't have to mean ending the scene or avoiding the content (which are valid options!), as long as you are on the same page about how to proceed. Never spring graphic or disturbing scenes on people, and never pressure anyone to write content they are not comfortable with. Be ready to pivot if your partner does not want the scene to go in that direction.

You can make arrangements to mitigate potential harm, such as checking in periodically, having a friend stand by to support you, or agreeing on safe words/signals and procedures to follow if they are used. For more ideas on navigating these situations, check out resources like https://ttrpgsafetytoolkit.com. Remember to add content warnings to #scene-info for ongoing scenes, and to the top of any logs posted to the wiki with such content.

If something in an ongoing scene makes you feel OOCly uncomfortable, you are under no obligation to continue ICly. You can fade to black or find a reason for your character to step out of the scene. Do not pressure other players to remain in a scene that makes them uncomfortable, even if the material in question isn't upsetting to you personally -- we all have different experiences and needs!

If you are writing content in a scene that is going to include graphic or disturbing content (for example explicit violence/gore, depictions or extensive discussions of rape or abuse, anything at all on our Content Warning List, make sure to post in #scene-info channel with appropriate content warnings so that other players can decide for themselves if they want to read. Similarly, when posting the finished log, include content warnings in the subtitle section of the log.

A note on death and violence: While ensuring no one feels as if their boundaries have been violated is a top priority in this community, there are many plotlines that carry with them a significant chance of harm toward your character. No one wants to make you uncomfortable here; however, it's important you know what you're getting into. When people tell you that a scene or plotline carries risks, please believe them. If you don't want your character to die under any circumstances, it's imperative you listen to people when they tell you that participating in a given scene carries with it a risk of character death!

If you find yourself in such a scene or RP and want out -- or if you feel as if you haven't been properly informed as to the risks -- then take a step back, talk with the people involved, and, if necessary, request mediation to resolve any miscommunication or conflict. Also, if you're running such a plot yourself, please make sure everyone going in knows precisely what the risks are!

"Off-Camera" Etiquette

Some of of -- hopefully all of us! -- do not actually sit and RP out every moment of our characters' lives on-camera. Large swaths of time in each and every character's days are left off-cam for all sorts of reasons ranging from being too trivial or boring to play to not having time to play even the important things. But with many characters' sharing living spaces, school time, teams, or having intertwining lives in a variety of ways, OOC communication can be essential both for cutting down on frustration and also for helping both everyday RP and also plots run smoothly.

At its base, OOC communication helps avoid falling into the trap of 'that didn't get RP'd, so it hasn't happened'. It is always best to assume that regardless of whether people have had time to scene, until told otherwise, people's characters have continued on their everyday lives as would be expected. This means that if your character has PC roommates, family, best friends, etc, just because they have not had on-camera scenes with them please do not RP as though they have not seen them for days, as that can be a mild form of powerplay (presuming what the other character has been up to/that they have not been around.) If you are in doubt OOCly about what has been going on between your characters due to not being able to touch base on camera -- reach out to the other player! Ask them what their character has been up to!

When it comes to the less-routine, OOC communication is great for keeping involved with plots and helping them keep going! It can at times be really hard, given people's busy lives and schedules, to always get scenes with every person and relay all necessary information on-camera that needs to be relayed. But it is both convenient and realistic to do things such as:

• Have your character send an email or a text with pertinent information! IRL, how much of our communication happens digitally? Don't overlook that with your characters either!
• Send a player a DM if your character would have run into them (at home, at school, at a meeting, wherever); let them know if there is critical information they would have divulged and if you need a response!
• Utilize #brainstorming and #peanut-gallery to get context from other players that your character might have, or help fill in swaths of time where you might not have had time to play.
• Do your best here as ever to meet people halfway. If someone has been away from the game for a while, it takes just a little time and consideration to help get them up to speed on what they missed and figure out where and how to jump back in. If you have been away for a while, do not expect that the things other people have already established should be bent to accommodate what you want to backfill -- cooperate with each other to find ways to get people back into the action that do not contradict or interrupt established/ongoing plots or plans.

Above all, do not always expect the burden of these communications to be on other people. The best way to stay active is to be proactive, and people cannot be expected to know what is going on with your character/know how to get you involved in RP and plots if you don't help keep them in the loop!

Double-Sceneing

"Double-sceneing" simply refers to being in more than one scene concurrently -- common practice on many games. There is no rule here against having multiple scenes at once! You can have as many scenes at the same time as you have capacity for. However, there are a few points to keep in mind that are considered common courtesy here.

If you are having multiple scenes across different alts -- e.g. playing your X-Kid in one channel and your Brotherhood character in another channel -- that is totally fine; just honestly gauge your capacity so that you will not be holding up your scene partners too long. If being in more scenes at the same time will make you considerably slower, check in with your scene partners to make sure they're OK with that! If you pose super fast and can juggle five scenes simultaneously, more power to you.

Double-sceneing with the same character has more considerations and should be evaluated carefully before committing the same character to simultaneous scenes. For example: If you are already having Scene A with your character Bob, set on Tuesday morning, and then someone else asks for RP and you put Bob in Scene B Tuesday evening before Scene A has finished, this can end up feeling like a slight or resulting in powerplay to your scene partners! Let's say you pose Bob into Scene B Tuesday evening, uninjured and cheerful and talking about the great breakfast he had with his girlfriend this morning. But, the player of his girlfriend had been planning to dump him that morning and was so upset over it she was about to lose control of her pyrokinesis and burn the cafe down. Now, having already posed Bob happy and healthy later that day, you have made assumptions for your scene partner(s) about how the rest of your scene would have gone -- maybe his evening would look very different if you'd finished the scene first!

There are plenty of ways to get around this with negotiation and people are often happy to do it. Maybe you've already talked out Scene A with your RP partner and you know how you both want it to end! Maybe Scene B isn't set Tuesday night but is backdated to three months ago and is a routine X-Men training session that will not have significant ripples. Maybe you can adjust the dates on one or the other scene to accommodate the RP you want to do. But, if you would like to double scene on an alt you are already playing, it is best practice to check in with both current and prospective partners about logistics.

Meta

'Meta' in our terminology are all the parts of your pose that can not be perceived by other characters present. All the flavor that offering extra information or commentary to color the text, offers insight to the players into what your character is thinking, adds a bit of spice or humour. Not all meta is bad! It's a way to acknowledge absurdities and humor, to impart further details that might be common knowledge about your character or to clarify (or obscure) what physical actions your character might be taking. It's a common form of stylization and can help to set tone and tempo in writing.

However, there are some meta techniques that are common in the wider world of RP that we commonly try to avoid on this game.

• When not to use meta
  • A pose should never just be meta. Meta information, by nature, is information that cannot be responded to in RP, and can leave your partner scratching their head as to what exactly their character is expected to respond to. If you're not sure how much meta is too much, look at your pose and ask yourself this: How much of this pose could be seen if it were being acted out in front of a camera? If more than half your pose consists of things that other characters in the scene can not observe, that is too much meta and the other players will have little to respond to.
  • As a general rule, it is best to avoid meta-ing too extensively what your character is thinking or feeling. Show rather than tell; try to find physical actions or verbal cues that can hint what a character is thinking rather than spell it all out in meta. Make PCs work to find out who your character is - meta only tells the other player about them, which does nothing to further IC dynamics!
  • Heavily restrict meta-insults. While there is a time and a place for everything, meta commentary detailing out just how unimpressed your character is with someone else's character can often come off as OOCly offensive. Meta comes from the voice of the player, not the character, and meta-ing about the failings of another person's character can sometimes sound like OOC criticism. Use with caution!
• When to use meta
  • Meta can be great for adding additional context to a scene, particularly if there are things other characters are likely to know that other players may not know. Maybe your character is training with another X-Man and it's your first time as players sceneing together but the characters have been teammates for years -- including flavor context can help make sure a dynamic is landing where you want it.
  • There are many cases where characters have uncommon senses. In situations where another character can read minds, detect feelings, feel another character invisibly using their power, etc., please include relevant information! While most of the time we discourage poses composed largely of thoughts, if your char is in scene with a telepath that is a different case. If your character has unusual senses and extra information would be helpful, be proactive in letting your scene partners know what to include!
  • A style note on thought-posing: If you are in scene with a character who can hear thoughts, we have some stylistic conventions for how to include them. It is equally acceptable to include thoughts as mental dialogue, which we indicate between << >>, or as descriptive prose. Check out a couple of scenes for a variety of examples of the ways people incorporate psionic information into their poses when it is appropriate.

Powerplay

"Powerplay" is what we call it any time you write things that assume another character's actions in ways they did not write or consent to.

Powerplay can happen in a wide variety of ways, some very overt and some nuanced, but regardless of the form it takes, it is considered rude and should be avoided.

Some of the most readily identifiable types of powerplay happens in active situations -- say your character is in a fight and you pose that they punch another character and break their jaw. Maybe the other player would have posed dodging! Maybe they have an adamantium jaw. Maybe they're intangible at the moment. Regardless of the circumstance, it is best practice not to assume the results of your characters' actions without other players' consent. There are many approaches to avoiding this type of powerplay. A few common ones are to pose your character's action without assuming the result ("Jim opens his arms for a hug" rather than "Jim hugs Bob", for example), or simply checking with your scene partner(s) OOCly before entering your pose (Hey is it OK if Jim hugs Bob?).

While less direct, it is also considered powerplay if you write your character having knowledge that you know but that your character should not know (sometimes called "metagaming"). If someone's character is not openly known to be a mutant, but you as a player know it because you read their logs, don't pose that your character has mysteriously figured out this knowledge. If you aren't sure whether your character would know something or not, check in with the other player before assuming!

Another type of powerplay that is sometimes overlooked is when your pose makes statements about other characters that are skewed, biased, or otherwise inaccurate, but posed as though they are fact. This variety is harder sometimes to pinpoint, but can cause a lot of confusion, aggravation or even hurt OOC. If you pose, for example, "Bob looks up when Jim rudely snaps his name", but Jim's player said nothing about Jim's tone being rude or snappy, that is a mild form of powerplay that can nevertheless be frustrating to players. Note that this is subtly different from posing, "Bob looks up, thinking that Jim rudely snapped his name" -- one is expressing your character's interpretation of a situation, which may be biased or skewed in-character, while the other is stating that interpretation as if it is objective fact.

If powerplay does happen to you in scene, speak up OOCly and let the player know! It is most often unintentional and can quite often be quickly edited and resolved once the other player has the correct information or knows they made a mistake or overstepped.

Glossary

• alt: short for 'alternate character'. used to refer to characters people play. synonymous with PC.
• IC: In-Character.
• OOC: Out-of-Character.
• scene: other places may call this a thread.
• PC: Player Character. A character being roleplayed by only one Player on XMR that has been applied for and approved. synonymous with alt.
• FC: Feature Character. A character that is featured in Marvel comics, movies, television programs, or other Marvel media. Synonymous with canon character.
• OC: Original Character.
• NPC: Non-Player Character.
• PB: Played By; the actor or model being used as reference for a character's appearance. Also called a face-claim in other communities (because of confusion with FC for Feature Characters here, we do not use this convention).
• set: noun or verb. The opening pose of a scene or the act of writing the opening pose of a scene.
• wrap: the final pose of a scene. Other places this may be called a closer.
• thread: Subtopics within a channel on Discord, accessible via the spool-of-thread icon at the top of each channel.
• pose: other places may call this a post, an entry, etc. the main unit of text-based roleplay.
• meta: All the parts of a pose that cannot be perceived/responded to by other characters. Dialogue, observable descriptions of your character or the environment are not meta; commentary explaining what they did earlier that day or expounding on their thoughts (when no telepaths are present) are meta.
• log: a posted scene.
• finger: A character's on-game profile, accessible with the bot's ?finger command.
• desc: locations. Can be stored in the bot or made up as needed.
• retcon: Deciding to change established events/history. Can only be done with the permission of all affected players
• player: Other places, this may be called the mun or the driver.
• canon: definition. On XMR, this most often refers to events that have taken place during the course of RP, or events that did not take place on-cam but are agreed to be canon.
• on-cam: also: on screen, on page, on camera. Anything that happened during logged RP.
• off-cam: also: off screen, off camera. All the background things that we decide about character's lives through OOC conversation, but have not been roleplayed in a scene.

further reading/resources/something

https://lookrobot.co.uk/2013/06/20/11-ways-to-be-a-better-roleplayer/