Donovan's Basic Guide to Role-Play

The beauty of roleplay is that you get to portray a being other than yourself, in an environment other than the real world. This allows you to escape everyday life for a time, and allows you to control the life of the character you choose. Now, while roleplay should be fun for everyone, there are a few basic principles that you should stick to in order for your roleplaying to become more respected and generally accepted within the playing body of Hollow. Bear in mind that this is not mandated as of this point, but it is strongly encouraged to avoid conflict.

General guidelines:

• Make sure that you keep IC (in-character) and OOC (out-of-character) matters separate at all times. This includes invoking your personal feelings into your character's, or vice versa. Simply because you don't like something or someone does not mean that your character should automatically share those same feelings. In that same vein, don't take OOC feelings out on someone or something IC. This separation also goes for information. If you come across some knowledge OOC, do not bring it into the game setting, as it is poor form to do so. This is the MOST IMPORTANT thing to follow in regards to roleplay, yet it is also oftentimes the most difficult to follow as well.

• Make sure that the race/class/status that you have chosen is acceptable and practical. There is nothing more certain to draw another gamer's ire than a race-mixture or a class/status designation that is either not practical or is supposed to command some automatic reverence or fear for your character.

• Your character is not you. Make sure you pick a suitable name for your character (preferably not your own) and roleplay to your heart's desire. Bear in mind that, like OOC and IC mixing, you are not the one in this world, your character is. Don't take things that happen IC personally, as it's not you, and remember this is place to have fun and escape real life.

Don'ts!:

• Make impractical race mixes - You should remember that certain things happen when you mix races. For instance, a vampire would never feed from a dragon, because dragon's blood kills vampires. Also, lycans and vampires cannot feed from each other, because the one being bitten would die. Hence, there cannot be vampiric lycans or vampiric dragons. Also things to bear in mind are mixes that just wouldn't happen. Things like half-elf, half-drow. Or anything and half-dryad. Dryads only reproduce other dryads, and are only female. Be smart about your mixes. If it's half-human, half-elf, that's one thing, but be smart about it. The 1/4 this, 2/3 that, 1/125 the other is not only impractical, but you're likely to be ignored or flamed by other gamers for it.

• RP advanced life forms - Angels, Demons, and other eternal immortal forms like gods and goddesses are strictly off-limits unless given explicit permission by one of the advisory board members. Don't use them! If you want to incorporate one into your roleplaying, that's one thing, but to have your character be one screams of attention-seeking and is all-but guaranteed to get you ignored and not taken seriously. Even if you want to use a god, angel or demon in your RP, it's best to take it up with the administrators before doing so just to make sure it's acceptable.

• Godmoding - The game is not 'who can learn the coolest mage-warrior-spell blade-wizard-druid-ranger-sorcerer of DOOM' attack whilst never having RPed a lick of it ever. Stick to your race and class, and go from there. If you want to expand outside that over time, more power to you. But generally stick to the class and your character's history and you should be fine. Just bear in mind that your attacks are not the most powerful known to man, nor are they perfect every time. Again, just be smart about it.

Do's!:

• Be creative - Use your imagination, within reason, of course. There's a world of possibilities out there for your character to explore. Don't rip-off ideas from manga, anime, movies, video games, or anything like that. Roleplay requires the use of one's imagination, and if you start off by copying the ideas of others, it doesn't get you off to a very good start in that department.

• Roleplay something other than sex (in any form, implied, stated, in forms traditional or alternative) - Hollow is not on the set of Days of Our Lives, and it is not the year 2007. IC promiscuity is generally frowned upon, the guilty outed and shamed, except known wenches of course. IC homosexuality or other sexual practices outside the norm of the time (incest, partner-swapping, etc.) are't as common but tolerated as per the guidelines and rules of Hollow. [Note: Hollow does not discriminate against players. These examples are to be taken as IC information and OOC sense.] On an aside, IC racism abounds. Roleplay accordingly. Hollow is not a very tolerant society, in an IC sense. This is not a command not to do the aforementioned (though I find it almost always causes more problems than most are willing to deal with), but be prepared for possible IC repercussions if your character is found out and don't complain if and when they are. This doesn't even go into the aspect that if you partake in these types of RPs on a regular basis, you are likely to lose any or all credibility with a large section of the RP community which doesn't partake in those activities. That is what you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife for, folks. If you don't have one, get one - and I mean OOC. Keep it in real life and not in a game setting where it doesn't really belong.

• Roleplay intelligently - Do your homework when you interact your character with other characters. This is not to say that you need to wait to get a complete appraisal of a situation down to the most inconsequential of details, but it's always a good idea to get an idea as to what's going on before jumping in headfirst. This not only prevents you from perhaps stepping on the toes of an existing RP situation, but also allows you to do some reconaissance in the event of things like controlling moves, or any other form of RP, so that you don't do anything unrealistic or otherwise silly.

• Bring your character along slowly - If you are to understand only one concept of character development, this is the one you want to get a firm grasp on. Many characters come into existence with a heap of backstory accompanying them. This is all well and good, but the rub lies in that sometimes characters will have these other-worldly powers from this other land that they visited three lands before they came to Hollow. This does not fly. Essentially, when your character comes to Hollow, they are starting with a clean slate from the perspective of power. This basically means that no new character is going to come along and smite Alexander into oblivion on the first day they come to Hollow. It's just not practical. Hollow is a separate land with a separate natural law, and it needs to be learned and worked within by characters within the bounds of Hollow. There is no issue with characters becoming very powerful over time, but in order to respect the gameplay of the past and present as well as earn the respect of your fellow gamer, it is best to develop your character's powers over time and not start off with ungodly powers. Otherwise you have no room to develop your character's prowess and thus there's no real reason to play them any longer.

• Have fun! - This is a place to enjoy yourself and escape everyday life, for a time. Just don't let it overtake you and rule your life, or you might become all cranky and bitter like that Donovan fella.

• BE FLEXIBLE! - This is crucial. Not everything can go according to how you want it or how you plan it to go. Most players just roll along with whatever happens with their characters. You are in control of your character, the actions are up to you, but it's in everyone's best interest to be flexible and take things in the flow of the game.