Chat Room Role Playing Instructions

Role playing is the act of assuming the role of a fictional character, and then acting like that character, using whatever creative medium is available. On RolePages, you role play by creating a profile as that fictional character; choosing your name, avatar picture, and filling out the questions all as if the character were doing those things.

If you are a guest you may enter the chat as such, but for the full experience you should sign up for a profile at RolePages.com and create a character before you start interacting.

Each room in our chat represents a different location. The name of the room, as well as the description at the top of the page will give you an idea of the fictional role play setting you are supposed to be in. Other chat room locations can be accessed by clicking the small “house” icon on the top right of the member list.

When you enter a chat room location, you enter as the character you created in your profile, and all interactions you have with people in that room location should be done as if you are that character.
Interacting within a chat room is a matter of using text and actions. Actions are written out in a descriptive manner, and placed within “action marks” which delineates them as movement rather than text. Action marks themselves can consist of any marking which clearly indicates the text as not being spoken. Several examples of action marks are shown below.

::walks into the room::

*holds up a hand*

<Smiles in your direction. >

While good spelling is highly encouraged, the use of tense, as well as capitalization and punctuation is generally left up to the style of the individual writer when describing an action.

Verbal communication is done as if the words are being spoken. Some people use quotation marks around their words. Others do not. This is a matter of choice.

Some people may be used to a chat room role playing style that uses a more strict literary form, with actions being unmarked and words being delineated using quotation marks. While this is not prohibited, it is not the general method of role playing in the chat rooms on RolePages, and may be confusing for many of the regulars.


Chat Room Rules

You must follow The Rules of RolePages.com at all times. Failure to do so can result in temporary or permanent banning from all portions of the community.

You can’t kill or drastically alter another person’s character without their consent. Talk things over in private messages before trying to do anything like that. In this way you can work out a better story, you both will be happy with.

There are several official DM’s and a number of amateur DM’s that will act as narrative story guides for various quests and missions. By submitting to participate in a quest run by one of these DM’s, you are agreeing to play by the rules of the quest, even if this does cause an alteration or harm to your character. If you believe that lasting harm is being done to the integrity of your character by a careless DM you may politely “poof” or disappear from the mission at any time. Remember that the DM's donate their time to create stories on this site, so you should always be respectful of their efforts and try to work disputes out in an amicable fashion through private messages.

The authority of the administrators is absolute. They can arbitrate all disputes, and have the right to silence, ban, or kick any member that they feel is being a disruption. While a warning will generally be issued it is not mandatory. All rules and etiquette guides should be followed at all times.

There is a constant chat log of all public interactions that happen within this chat. This will be used to review all reports of abuse or rule violation.


Chat Room Etiquette

The story is the most important thing. Sometimes bad things should happen to your character because they make the story better. All of our characters need to have moments of triumph, and moments of failure.

It is also important to remember that we are all on the same team. Just because your characters hate one another, is no reason for animosity in real life. We are trying to create stories here, and nobody should be trying to hurt anyone else in a real life way.

Unless you have a room that is designated as OOC or Out Of Character, you should generally try to keep the conversation In Character (IC). This means that everything you type is generally what your character would either be doing or saying.

In cases where the IC role playing is quiet or nonexistent OOC interactions are fine as long as they don’t interfere with out people who may come along and want to begin an IC interaction or story. Remember, there are OOC rooms designated for talking about things other than role playing.

Generally if you are interacting with someone and you are taken away from the keyboard you should indicate that you are (afk) so that they know what has happened to you.

Try to have fun, and never take role playing too seriously. This is our art, and so many of us are passionate about it, but you also want to try to have the most fun possible. Just relax and role play.