Respectful RP

Hollow is a game, and intended to be fun for everyone playing. For this to occur, players should play in manner that's respectful of others, regardless of how divisive their character's relationships may be. Below are a series of guidelines to help outline some of the ideals which will encourage a positive game environment.

• The Golden Rule, Treat others as you would like to be treated
  • You would generally not like it if others ignored your RP efforts, abused NPCs under your player's control, undermined your RP by utilizing information gained OOCly, or were generally disrespectful to you in OOC communications; as such you shouldn't do it to others either

• NPCs are not irrelevant
  • NPCs aren't victims waiting to be killed, maimed, or otherwise manipulated by your character.
  • Regardless of how strong your character is, there are NPCs as strong, or stronger, than your character... period.
  • NPCs, while not played by other players, should still be considered active and viable characters within the game world, and treated as more than a minor bump in the road toward your RP goals.
  • NPCs should not be misused as allies either. Unless someone is leader of a large organization (clan, guild, city), it would be unlikely for them to have anything more than a companion NPC or two with them at any given time.
  • Area leaders have the right to reasonably RP the actions of the NPC city officials, citizens, and military of the area they lead.
    • When attempting to alter, kill, maim, or otherwise manipulate the NPCs of an area led by a Player Character (or Admin controlled NPC), general courtesy is to inform the player of your intended RP beforehand so that a compromise may be met regarding the actions.
    • If no compromise can be made regarding proposed use of an area’s NPCs, the RP Board members may be contacted for guidance and/or mediation of the situation

• Hostile territory is dangerous
  • Any city, clan HQ, guild HQ, etc, where one would be perceived as a potential threat would be incredibly difficult to enter and exit without capture, serious harm, or death of your character.
  • It may be assumed, considering Hollow is a very dangerous place full of magic, that most organizations have significant defenses in places to prevent intruders, theft, damage to property, etc... This could include Player or NPC guards, magical traps, decoy items, or nearly anything within reason considering the organization's power and resources.

• If your character didn't hear it or see it, they shouldn't know it
  • Generally speaking, unless an event is obvious in nature and takes place in a public venue (taverns, crowded arenas, etc) your character would not know about it.
  • Your character should only have knowledge of events that they have personally experienced, or were informed of ICly by other players
  • The actions of your character should be based only on what the character knows, not what the player knows (that fact that you OOCly heard about another clan proposing war would not suddenly encourage your character to start heavily recruiting for new fighters, etc)
    • Tip: Utilizing roguish characters on a regular basis for information gathering can greatly reduce the need or urge to Metagame, as such information can be provided to your character through entirely reasonably and valid IC means

• While -Players- have equal rights, Not all -Characters- are equal in power or influence
  • Like NPCs, some characters are stronger, wealthier or more influential than yours. This is not a permanent situation, and any character can grow in power, wealth, and influence through RP.
  • While no one is allowed to autohit, or otherwise directly influence or control your character without your permission, it is generally considered rather rude and silly to act as if well-known and respected characters, who have earned their power through years of RP, are no match for your character or completely unable to affect your character in any way just because "it's against the game rules" OOCly for them to autohit your character

Flagrant disregard of these guidelines can foster a hostile playing atmosphere, and may invite Admin intervention to moderate the situations.

Useful Links

1. Rules of behaviour
2. General Policies
3. Etiquette