Seriously RP rules?

We need some realistic rules for this section... Any ideas? Please format these in a forum rules type format.

Staying on topic

Only Literate RPs and Advanced Literate RPs can be posted in this forum

No Mary Sues/Stus (No Kawaiis too. This rule can probably just be part of the general seriously RP rules as basically every literate and advanced literate RP has this rule)

No controlling other people's characters (I.E, no saying "Everybody" or "They all", etc)

No powerplaying/goddmodding

All the basic RP rules that myself and other people tend to type out should apply, me thinks. I'll just list a few examples here for you with my own touch on them (i.e what I would expect xP):

- No Mary Sues, Gary Stus or Kawaiis.

- No godmodding (taking control of other people's characters).

- Forms have to be approved by the creator(s) of the RP before you can begin.

- Good grammar, spelling and punctuation is a must.

- Lengthy forms, i.e, not just using one-liners like 'blonde hair blue eyes' for appearence or having 'shy and clumsy' for personality. For description, pictures are allowed but no anime, as it's pretty unrealistic to have your silky smooth pink hair about 10 feet high in spikes that could take someone's eye out.

- Same goes for posts. No one liners, post at least something like... 5 decent length sentences? Also, no script format, i.e Emma: okay sure let's do that *giggles* *walks off*

Of course, we have to decide what 'mature and experienced roleplaying' in this forum means to go with that sort of stuff above...

EDIT: Gosh darn it, Runner, you had to post just before me!

***OST EDIT: Please try to avoid swearing. Thanks.***

Join only if you are a literate RPer.

I know that this technically isn't rules, but I feel like I should bring it up... how do we class who's 'mature and experienced'? Mature doesn't necessarily mean old, of course, but I do believe that most of the people who consider themselves to be experience roleplayers are the older users of this site and section. So, instead of having an age limit, as we've discussed and some people have said they didn't like, I think we should go by experience. For example... 1 and a half - 2 years roleplaying experience? It's harder to moniter experience than age, yes,but still. You'll know if you're ready to take the jump, I imagine.

EDIT: What if, to check out whether people are perhaps 'ready' to move to the experienced section without being yelled out for having mary sues or godmodding, we had roleplay mods like the older members who class themselves as 'mature and experienced' to check them out, perhaps on request?

I would like for you all, the experienced RPers, to flesh out the rules here. What I do request is that they be in a format similar to tamaturtle's "No godmodding (taking control of other people's characters)" which includes the simplified rule and a quick clarification/explanation of the rule so that less experienced members will be able to start learning what is expected. This also gives us the ability to post the simple rules at the top of every page with a link to the more detailed explanation (similar to the other 'seriously' forums here).

As far as mods and approvals go... Let's get the rules set first. Assigning mods for this kind of role can be tricky because then interpersonal politics start to come into play (i.e. I'd rather avoid this if possible).

Finally, let me know if there are any existing topics you want moved to this section!

I doubt 'personal politics' would get in the way, as we all want to help make a brilliant RP section and help others become better at the things they love. Of course, the mods couldn't just do that - they could perhaps do the job of moving topics into this section?

But anyway, rules first. Here's a re-draft of mine after talking to some people and reading what Admin has to say -

- First up, please be literate. ('literate' does not just mean you can read. 'literate' means you can communicate clearly in your posts wthout tlkin liek dis.)

- No Mary Sues, Gary Stus or Kawaiis, i.e. 'perfect' characters. (If you're not sure what one is or if you have one on your hands, a Litmus test is a good way to check.)

- In the same vein, no attention seeking characters (AKA charries that are all hyperactive and run up to other people's charries and talk to them even though they are complete strangers to the character, and charries that like, faint and trip alot.)

- No godmodding or drastic plot changing (taking control of other people's characters/using your character to alter the plot in such a way that's it's completly different or centered around your character).

- Forms have to be approved by the creator(s) of the RP before you can begin.

- Good grammar, spelling and punctuation is a must.

- Lengthy, descriptive forms that give a good idea of the character (i.e, not just using one-liners like 'blonde hair blue eyes' for appearence or having 'shy and clumsy' for personality. For description, pictures are allowed but no anime, as it's pretty unrealistic to have your silky smooth pink hair about 10 feet high in spikes that could take someone's eye out.)

- Lengthy posts too please. (No one liners, post at least 4-5 decent length sentences? Also, no script format, i.e Emma: okay sure let's do that *giggles* *walks off*)

- And, of course, basic TT rules.

Feel free to suggest more, guys

- updated with Runner's rule!

No attention seeking characters (AKA charries that are all hyperactive and run up to other people's charries and talk to them even though they are complete strangers to the character, and charries that like, faint and trip alot.)

I agree with the whole mod thing. I can tell who's good at RPing and who isn't- I wouldn't let personal politics get in the way. It could be like the whole chat thing- People wishing to be a part of Seriously RP can send a PM to an RP mod, asking for approval. The RP mod will then go and look at RPs this person is in, and see if they qualify to be in Seriously RP.

Qualifications would generally be among the lines of:

• Can the person follow the RP maker's rules properly?
  
• Is the person literate?
  
• Is the person an experienced RPer? Have they RPed before? How many RPs on Tamatalk have they actively participated in? Do they RP on another site?
  
• Is the person's character staying true to what was wrote down in their form? (This is important- this is basically seeing whether the person can play a character without letting it become a kawaii)
  
• Does the person follow most general RP rules, and understand plots of RPs to the point where they follow plots correctly?
  

All of the previous rules that people have posted are exactly the kind of rules I would have posted myself.

I have a couple that I would like to throw in:

-If you are going to be absent for a long period of time, or if you plan on quitting the roleplay, please let everyone in that specific roleplay know.

-If you are roleplaying a previously made character (film, comics, books, etc), please do not change their personality/appearance/etc. They have set characteristics, and it can irritate other roleplayers if you change a canon (already made) character.

^I agree. Actually, add in another rule:

Do not join an RP if you do not plan to be active in it, in other words, do not bother to apply to an RP if you aren't planning on actually RPing in it.

Sorta similar to Becca/Swan's rule up there. I hate it when that happens, because you're all YAY 7 PEOPLE JOINED ME RP HOOORAYY DDDDD and then you end up with only like 3 people actually participating and the rest of the people basically quitting and leaving and suddenly poofing.

If you had to be Role playing for a longer time to join this topic I have no clue if I'm allowed to join these ones.

I've been Role Playing for a year and I've noticed irritating things about other peoples characters.

Of course - Kawaiis, Sues and people who Godmod irritate me - but lets get down and dirty.

People who get bored in the Roleplay and stuff everything up and mostly breaking the rules. Lets say the I have a character called Fransico and I get bored with the RP. In the rules it says that you can't die. I make Fransico die and this usually stuffs up the RP. It may not but it bothers me that everyone else is going well on following the rules - then someone stuffs the entire thing up.

And also how the beg for attention. Even if their form has nothing to do with clumsy/shy/loud. They bump into walls near others when they are careful characters. Talk to strangers when shy and loud when their form says quiet.

So all these could possibly stop in this form?

You all have a nice batch of rules here... Any rule(s) that anyone think needs to be tweaked or changed or removed?

@tamaturtle: great revision of the rules!

So far we have the following:

Seriously rp rules: (so far)

• First up, please be literate. ('literate' does not just mean you can read. 'literate' means you can communicate clearly in your posts wthout tlkin liek dis.)
  
• No Mary Sues, Gary Stus or Kawaiis, i.e. 'perfect' characters. (If you're not sure what one is or if you have one on your hands, a Litmus test is a good way to check.)
  
• In the same vein, no attention seeking characters (AKA charries that are all hyperactive and run up to other people's charries and talk to them even though they are complete strangers to the character, and charries that like, faint and trip alot.)
  
• No godmodding or drastic plot changing (taking control of other people's characters/using your character to alter the plot in such a way that's it's completly different or centered around your character).
  
• Forms have to be approved by the creator(s) of the RP before you can begin.
  
• Good grammar, spelling and punctuation is a must.
  
• Lengthy, descriptive forms that give a good idea of the character (i.e, not just using one-liners like 'blonde hair blue eyes' for appearence or having 'shy and clumsy' for personality. For description, pictures are allowed but no anime, as it's pretty unrealistic to have your silky smooth pink hair about 10 feet high in spikes that could take someone's eye out.)
  
• Lengthy posts too please. (No one liners, post at least 4-5 decent length sentences? Also, no script format, i.e Emma: okay sure let's do that *giggles* *walks off*)
  
• If you are going to be absent for a long period of time, or if you plan on quitting the roleplay, please let everyone in that specific roleplay know.
  
• If you are roleplaying a previously made character (film, comics, books, etc), please do not change their personality/appearance/etc. They have set characteristics, and it can irritate other roleplayers if you change a canon (already made) character.
  
• Do not join an RP if you do not plan to be active in it, in other words, do not bother to apply to an RP if you aren't planning on actually RPing in it.
  
• And, of course, basic TT rules.
  

Ideal characteristics for seriously rp:

• Can the person follow the RP maker's rules properly?
  
• Is the person literate?
  
• Is the person an experienced RPer? Have they RPed before? How many RPs on Tamatalk have they actively participated in? Do they RP on another site?
  
• Is the person's character staying true to what was wrote down in their form? (This is important- this is basically seeing whether the person can play a character without letting it become a kawaii)
  
• Does the person follow most general RP rules, and understand plots of RPs to the point where they follow plots correctly?
  

Any changes or tweaks to these?

tamaturtle said:

I doubt 'personal politics' would get in the way, as we all want to help make a brilliant RP section and help others become better at the things they love. Of course, the mods couldn't just do that - they could perhaps do the job of moving topics into this section?

Click to expand...

Runner said:

I agree with the whole mod thing. I can tell who's good at RPing and who isn't- I wouldn't let personal politics get in the way. It could be like the whole chat thing- People wishing to be a part of Seriously RP can send a PM to an RP mod, asking for approval. The RP mod will then go and look at RPs this person is in, and see if they qualify to be in Seriously RP.

Click to expand...

I have to disagree... Personal politics almost ALWAYS get in the way. Well maybe not always but there is a very good chance since it can be very difficult to stay impartial.

I think we need to work on setting up the section first and then we can see what is needed as far as specific mods and such.

Um, I know this seems a bit of a weird request, but is it possible to have the swearing rules a bit more flexible round here? Instead of having to say darn, we could say d*mn but with an asterisk. It's just a bit annoying having to find family appropriate swearing words, instead of just throwing an asterisk in. Or is that too much of a stretch?

I agree with MissInnocent. Take for example one of my earlier posts where I was edited to sound like something out of a really old American movie. 'Gosh darn it!' I understand that there are young children hanging around TT and fully respect that, but would it really be much of a stretch to write out the word but obscure it?

But back to the rules. I think that set looks good

I would like for the swearing rule to be respected in all areas of TT... Sorry.

About RP mods, I think we absolutely need them. Let's face it- basically every single person in the RP section thinks that they are wonderful, great RPers. Some of them can't even admit that they make mistakes (Like, in my two rant topics, the people who make mistakes regularly agreed.. But did not admit they made the mistakes I ranted about, that were annoying) There needs to be somebody who can properly choose who can participate in RPs in this new section, otherwise, basically every single RPer who normally RPs on tamatalk, regardless of whether they can properly RP or not, will post in this forum. I thought the point of this Seriously RP section was to separate RPs for mature, experienced RPers from RPs for younger and/or inexperienced RPers.

So, seeing as I believe we've got a good set of rules and guidelines here, I want to make one last point about the RP mod idea thing. Bear with me! xD Okay, so I realise we could just post the guidelines and have done with it... but who would be there to make sure people are following them? It's like with the TT rules: you have tht set posted, and the TT guides are here to make sure they're being followed without personal politics. It's been proven to work! I guess I'm just worried that if people weren't approved or whatever then people would enter this RP section and would possibly be... shall I say 'laughed out'? Basically, they may come in and get told by the experienced roleplays that they're 'so not ready' and be hurt. It's happened to me before - I joined a more advanced RP without realising what I was getting into and got (rather harsh) critisism which really knocked my confidence...

^This. Precisely this.