Roleplaying is an interactive experience where you collaborate with other members of the site to create a multidimensional storyline.

This story can be told using videos and images, as well as through writing personal blogs, posting to the forum, or interacting directly in the chat room.

The goal should not be to make yourself or your character look good, but should instead be to try and tell the best story that you possibly can along with the other members of the site. You should not think of yourself as your character, but should rather consider yourself a writer, telling the story of the character you created.



The One Overriding Roleplaying Rule

Roleplaying is an interactive experience where you try to create a complex multi media story along with other members of the community. While we try to leave the roleplaying on this site as free form as possible, the following rule is important to ensure that all characters on the site are treated with respect, and if necessary, it will be enforced by moderators.

No character is allowed to impose any major life changes on another character without their express permission received either publicly or through private messages.

This means that you cannot kill another character, maim them, cause them permanent bodily harm, steal from them, alter their body or personality permanently, or affect any change that lasts longer than a few days without their express consent.

You are also not allowed to rape or sexually assault another character in any chat, forum, or private message without prior consent from that character's player. 

If you wish to pursue a story that requires another character to be permanently altered, you should contact them ahead of time via private messaging in order to work out the details of the story and ensure that you have their permission.

If during the course of a story you inadvertently cause something permanent to happen to another character without their permission, you should do your best to work with them on a creative means of resolving the issue in as friendly and respectful a manner as possible.


RolePlaying Profiles

Your profile is your chance to describe your character in as much or as little detail as you want. From there you can upload a profile picture of your character, rename them, and add pertinent information. The profile page will also act as an aggregator, collecting information about all of the activities your character participates in on the RolePages Community site.


Action Marks

Since roleplaying is an immersive experience, it will often be necessary for you to have your character write out actions that they are invoking in order to further the storyline. This will often be done using actions marks to denote that a physical activity is occurring rather than a verbal message. The following are examples of action marks. These actions marks can consist of any characters that indicate that the following writing is not verbal. The following are several examples of action marks.

::walks into a room::

*waves hello to everyone*

-sits at a table and thinks-

)stares silently at the wall(

=waves to a friend=

You can technically use any characters that you like to indicate action marks; however it helps if they are not characters which are commonly used in speech.


Combat

Conflict often occurs in forums, worlds, and on live chat sessions. When it does it may be resolved by fighting. The most important thing to do when a fight occurs is to respect the one overriding roleplaying rule of the site: you MAY NOT permanently affect another person’s character without their direct permission. This means that you cannot simply write

::takes a knife and shoves it in their heart killing them::

A good alternative to that action would be to say

::takes a knife and starts stabbing at the other persons heart::

This gives the other person time to counter the attack. If you have permission you may kill or permanently harm the other character, otherwise you will have to find a way to resolve the conflict in a non-lethal manner.


DM – Directional Moderator

The DM tag is a label which can be affixed to any characters name on a temporary basis. It indicates that this character is the moderator of a storyline that is taking place within the chat at a given time. As moderator, this person has the right to settle disputes, arbitrate between two parties, and lead the general direction of the story for as long as it takes.

The DM tag should only be added to a screen name at the time that a storyline that you are moderating is taking place. The tag should be removed IMMEDIATELY after the story has ended.

Anyone that chooses to become involved in a story that is being run by someone with the DM tag on their screen name is choosing of their own free accord to abide by the rules and guidance of that character.

Failure to follow the guidelines and decisions made by a DM during a storyline can result in RolePages.com Administrators being contacted, and may have further penalties or consequences associated with it at a later time.

There may only be one DM in any room at any given time.

If a storyline with a DM is taking place in a specific room, you can create an alternate room using the cavern chat, to avoid participating in that story, or to run your own game.

The heart of RolePages.com is about free form storytelling in a multimedia and interactive environment. As such DM’s should strive to control the action with only a very light hand, leaving it up to the players themselves to decide how the story will be furthered whenever possible.


Character Death

The death of a character on RolePages.com is a solemn and serious event. The only time it should occur is when a person has planned out and chosen the time and manner of their death, or has agreed to let another do this.

Nobody should be able to kill another character without their consent. If a battle occurs and neither side can decide who should win or lose, another outcome will have to be figured out.

The one place where a character can be killed without prior consent is in the case of a game run by a DM. If someone engages the DM, or another player, in such a way that their character is practically “committing suicide”, the DM should warn that character once through private messaging that if they do not desist, they will be killed.

An example of this is if 10,000 superhuman soldiers are marching on you, and everyone else has retreated, you cannot simply run into the army and start killing all of them. If you do the DM will send you a private message once, letting you know that if you do not retreat you will be killed. If the player fails to resolve the issue, either by escaping, or discussing it with the DM, then their character may be killed off.

Character deaths should not be taken on lightly. If you have your character die, and then you have them resurrect the next day, then the death has no meaning and you detract from the potency of the story. Generally deaths should be permanent. However if you have to have your character resurrect, it should be done in a logical way which furthers the story, rather than detracting from it. You should also wait at least a week before having that character return to the site in living form.