San Monte Vista Isla

SMV RP Handbook

RP Introduction

Roleplay is a great way to express and explore yourself in ways which may not be possible in real life. When you are roleplaying you are essentially acting out the role of another person which you play as a character separate from yourself. Roleplay can be as complex or basic as you wish it to be, though it is proper etiquette to give at least 2 lines of roleplay to your fellow players when in a scene.

Understanding In-Character (IC) & Out-of-Character (OOC)

Every roleplayer participates on two distinct levels: In-Character (IC) and Out-of-Character (OOC). Understanding the difference between them is one of the foundations of enjoyable and immersive roleplay.

Out-of-Character (OOC)

This is you, the player behind the screen. It includes your personal knowledge, emotions, opinions, friendships, and experiences outside of roleplay.

In-Character (IC)

This is the fictional character you portray. Your character has their own knowledge, emotions, beliefs, motivations, relationships, and experiences that may be entirely different from your own.

Great roleplay comes from keeping IC and OOC separate. Your character should make decisions based only on what they know, believe, and experience, not on information or emotions you have as the player.
Utilize your character’s senses when making descriptive posts. Think about the things you feel in real life on a daily basis and translate that realism into your scenes to create an immersive experience that all players can enjoy.

How to Roleplay

Roleplaying is very simple! Local chat is always to be regarded as “in character” which means you are actively playing your character when chatting in local. The best and most widely used method of roleplaying is entering the following command in local first:

/me
Here is an example of how you would type a post in local:
/me walks into the Irish pub and looks around at its inhabitants, it seemed it was the regular crowd tonight and he knew all of their names, so he gives a wave to all of them. He grinned at the familiar Lou behind the bar and making his way with a happy dance in that direction, “I’ll take my usual, Lou.”
and then it appears in local chat as such:
[15:19] John Buddy (john.buddy) walks into the Irish pub and looks around at its inhabitants, it seemed it was the regular crowd tonight and he knew all of their names, so he gives a wave to all of them. He grinned at the familiar Lou behind the bar and making his way with a happy dance in that direction, “I’ll take my usual, Lou.”

As you can see we use some good details here and without much effort we can include our speech in “quotes”. This gives your roleplay a tidy appearance and gives other players something to react to.

Think about using as many details as possible as roleplay is not only entertainment for you but also entertainment to those reading it! Use your common senses such as smell or taste, employ the use of your character’s facial expression, body language and think about what other players will see when they look at your character. You will find that with a little detail and effort you can delight your fellow players with descriptive RP. We encourage what is called “freeform” roleplay, simply put, the power to manifest your own destiny is in the players hands (within realistic limits). You are not going to be told what to roleplay, it is wholly up to you.

Scene Etiquette

Roleplay happening in public spaces is always regarded as public RP, however it is good etiquette to wait 1 post round to know what you’re walking into so you can respond appropriately. This especially applies to ongoing combat roleplay.

If roleplay is happening behind a closed door or in a clearly private location, use common sense before joining the scene. If you are unsure whether a scene is public or private, politely ask OOC in IMs before entering.

Unless otherwise stated, local chat is always considered in character (IC). If you need to speak out of character, clearly indicate this using ((double parentheses)).

Post Order

Like any game it is important to take turns. Every scene you walk into should have a post order, if you are new to arrive you should go last after a round has happened and follow the established post order for future posts.

Emotes vs. Thoughts

Roleplay should focus on actions that other characters can reasonably observe. While it’s acceptable to briefly describe your character’s emotions or intentions, avoid relying on internal thoughts that no one else could realistically perceive. Give other players something they can see, hear, or react to.

All About Consent

San Monte Vista encourages dramatic stories, conflict, romance, crime, injury, and other mature themes. While these are all welcome, roleplay should always remain collaborative.

No player should ever feel pressured into roleplaying something they do not wish to participate in. If another player declines a scene or asks to Fade to Black (FTB), respect their decision and move on. There will always be another story to tell.

Remember that IC conflict should never become OOC conflict.

Consequences

Good roleplay includes consequences.

If your character commits crimes, insults powerful people, starts fights, or makes reckless decisions, expect those actions to have consequences within roleplay. Likewise, victories should feel earned rather than guaranteed.

Characters who have flaws, make mistakes, and occasionally lose often create the most memorable stories.

Injuries

Characters are expected to roleplay injuries realistically. For example, a broken leg should affect mobility, a gunshot wound should not be ignored moments later, medical treatment should take time, and recovery should reflect the severity of the injury.

You don’t have to lose every fight, but injuries should matter.

Character Death

Character death is entirely optional unless agreed upon by everyone involved. If a situation could reasonably result in death, discuss it with the other player(s) beforehand. Remember that some of the best stories come from surviving rather than dying.

The Golden Rule of RP

The goal of roleplay is not to ‘win’, the goal is to create stories that everyone involved enjoys as we’re all collaborative writers.

Sometimes your character will lose, will make mistakes, sometimes they will succeed spectacularly! The goal is just to have fun all around.

Common Roleplay Mistakes to Avoid

Even the most seasoned roleplayer can be guilty of making mistakes in the course of roleplay! Let’s talk about some of the most common mistakes which can be avoided simply by understanding what they are and how to avoid them.

Metagaming

Using information you have gained OOCly (out of character) in an IC (in character) way.

For example:

  • Knowing someone’s name or position by their group title.
  • Listening in on local chat without announcing your presence in character and then using that information IC.
  • Using information gleaned from IMs that was not roleplayed as a phone call or email but regular OOC IMs to IC.

How to avoid this:
The best way to avoid metagaming is to look realistically at your character and only use information that they have actually gathered while in character in a roleplay scene yourself. Separate in character from out of character at all times.

Powergaming

Powergaming means portraying your character as unrealistically powerful, capable, connected, wealthy, skilled, or otherwise optimized in order to gain an advantage or avoid reasonable consequences in roleplay.

Powergaming can happen against another character without directly controlling that character. The problem is that your own character is being played in a way that makes meaningful opposition, consequences, or environmental limitations nearly impossible.

Examples:

  • Being an expert fighter who conveniently defeats nearly everyone.
  • Suddenly having exactly the skill, equipment, contact, or resource needed to overcome a situation.
  • Being the super-rich doctor-lawyer-chemist-scientist-assassin who seems qualified for everything.
  • Ignoring injuries, exhaustion, hunger, restraints, weather, shortages, or other realistic hardships.
  • Conveniently introducing new abilities or background details specifically to counter another character.
  • Using wealth, status, connections, or resources as effectively unlimited whenever they are needed.
  • Repeatedly finding reasons why consequences that affect everyone else do not affect your character.
Your character should exist within the setting, not above it. San Monte Vista has limitations, hardships, shortages, laws, dangers, and consequences that apply to everyone.
Godmodding

Godmodding means taking control of another player’s character without their permission or denying them reasonable control over what happens to their character.

This includes deciding another character’s actions, reactions, injuries, thoughts, emotions, or the outcome of an attempted action without allowing their player to respond.

Godmodding: John punches Jim in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious.

John’s player has decided what happens to Jim.
Instead: John swings his fist toward Jim’s face, attempting to strike him.

Jim’s player now has an opportunity to respond.

Godmodding can also include portraying your character as completely invincible or impossible to affect, particularly when this denies other players any meaningful ability to interact with them.

The Difference
Powergaming “My character always has the ability, resource, skill, or advantage needed to win or escape consequences.”
Godmodding “I decide what happens to your character.”
Both undermine collaborative roleplay. Characters should have limitations, weaknesses, failures, and consequences. The goal is to create a story together, not to win it.

Common Abbreviations used in SMV

RP: Roleplay
IC: In Character
OOC: Out of Character
NPC: Non player character-inconsequential characters that are props used to enhance roleplay.
FTB: Fade to Black: Agreeing to something happening but no details (closing a scene without RP completion). Useful for scenes too graphic and disturbing to be detailed out.
FTG: Fade to Gray: Agreeing on something happening, but also with details (closing a scene without RP completion). Useful if a scene needs to be cut short and you want to agree on what happened after without roleplaying it out.
NC: Notecard
LM: Landmark
TP: Teleport
LG: Land Group
AFK: Away from Keyboard
BRB: Be Right Back
WC: Welcome Center (skybox landing)
LZ: Landing Zone (ground landing on sim)
SM or SMV: San Monte Vista
SMH: San Monte Hospital
SMM: San Monte Militia
SMR: San Monte Rescue
WSH: White Sands Hotel

Character Creation

Character creation is an exciting time! You are essentially creating a character with their own tastes, occupation, age, family life, origin, and appearance among the many choices you can make for your character’s creation. We suggest creating a character card pick in your profile for your character for San Monte Vista.

How to create a character card pick: Be on Monte Vista Isla, the welcome center is best. Go to your profile, go to picks, select “new”, touch the picture and put your own in. Then go to the title and name your pick for your character. In the next box down under description add your character information.

You can offer all sorts of information but we suggest when first starting out your character that you use a basic template, basic information which can be found on a driver’s license or on your person in the event that you’re robbed or searched. You can include as much information as you like but some things we’d like to think should be left for other players to find out in roleplay!

Basic Template

Name: Date of Birth: (your character’s date of birth, not your in real life one!) Relationship Status: Background: Carrying on person: (wallet, cell phone, weapons, etc) Tattoos and Piercings:

A note about character creation:

Don’t worry about writing the “perfect” character. Some of the most memorable characters develop naturally through roleplay rather than having every detail planned in advance. Allow your character to grow alongside the stories they experience.

Starting Your First Scene

The easiest way to begin roleplay is simply to place your character somewhere they would naturally be. Visit a café, sit on the beach, browse a bookstore, grab a drink, shop at the market, or take a walk through town. Don’t be afraid to approach other characters with a simple greeting or observation. Most roleplay begins with ordinary interactions that naturally grow into memorable stories.

Now that you’ve learned all these basics you can go ahead and start roleplaying. Get out there and have some fun, don’t be afraid to pitch roleplaying posts to other characters in nearby chat. You never know what kind of adventures you may have! Feel free to use in character chat to post lures to invite others to roleplay with you, see you in roleplay!