Atlantic Roleplay Community Boards

[Kinn]

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I’m posting this here because I believe it’s time for the community to have this discussion. If it’s already been had before, I apologize, but from what I’ve seen it definitely needs to be had again.

We’re all here to RP. We like taking on the mantle of our characters when we’re in-game. We like the immersion factor of it. We like being surrounded by other people who have taken on the mantle of their characters and seeing where things lead when our character and theirs mix. It’s fun and that’s why we do it—right?

The ARPC, as I understand it, was created to foster an RP-conducive environment. Rules were established and agreed upon. The territory maps were created so that everyone could see who owned what. The Sosarian Summit was created to help guild leaders get on the same page as far as plot lines and RP rules were concerned. All of this was done to make RP more immersive and better for everyone. We all agree this is a good thing, I think, or else we wouldn’t be active members of this community.

On top of all that we have these forums. They provide us with both an IC and OOC means of RPing and sharing thoughts/ideas with our fellow RPers. Most of us use them to some degree—even if it’s just to enjoy what others write. We also have MIRC channels and the pigeon network (ICQ) as means of fostering community and communication among Atlantic’s RPers.

I see all these great things in place to help facilitate RP and I see so many people taking advantage of most of them. That tells me that people WANT to have a better in-game RP experience. Would that tell you the same thing? I mean, why would you post on these forums, for example, if you’re not wanting to be part of this community and have a better in-game RP experience?

And yet….

There are so many people trying to be a part of this community who do not want to FULLY follow our guidelines and who obviously don’t want a complete immersion into the RP of their characters. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the “blue” RPers.

They’re all over. They want to be in on the major plotlines going on right now (go to Umbra any night of week and see how many blue RPers are there trying to get in on the Umbra plotline action), but they don’t want to be held accountable for their words/actions. You see, when you’re not orange to me—you can say what you want and I have NO way of holding you accountable. You can make any claims you want, do anything around others that you want and act in any manner you choose. Being blue, as an RPer, is the ULTIMATE god-mod.

I think we can all testify that being orange to everyone around you is a powerful “reality check’ for your character and thier IC words and actions. Kinn, for example, isn’t going to go mouthing off in Moonglow because the militia there—all being orange to him—will put him in his place quickly. He relies on stealth to even BE on Verity Isle. If he’s ever caught there, he’ll have to rely on his quick wit and the ability of his player to RP him out of a sticky situation to determine if he’ll even live or not. If he were blue to MTC he wouldn’t have such worries and THAT would be hugely unfair to them. Not to mention that it would cheapen everyone’s RP experience (even mine).


If you’re new to the community, that’s one thing. You haven’t found your guild yet or you haven’t created one and asked for membership in the ARPC—so of course you’ll be blue to us. I can understand that. Take your time and find the right guild or create a solid guild concept for one of your own. But I’m seeing a ton of blue names lately running around saying and doing things they wouldn’t say or do if they knew they might have to pay a price for their IC words and actions. Not all of these people are new players, either. Some of them, as I understand things, have been around a LONG time. These are people who are active on these forums—so they obviously want to be part of this community. It seems they just want to be involved on their terms, not ours.

If you’re here to RP and want to be part of this fantastic RP community that’s great. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we want you here. I’m pumped that our community is as big as it is and so I, for one, would love to see it grow. Obviously, the ARPC founders/leaders have done A LOT of work to give us all a great environment in which to live out our sosarian alter-lives. One of the rules they laid down was that it is REQUIRED to accept a war invite from another ARPC guild. There’s a good reason for that. Sosaria is both a fantastic and dangerous world. In it, your words and your actions have consequences. That’s TRUE RP—I hope more people get on board with it.

[Cal Hurst]

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The rules state that everyone SHOULD be warred to one another to prevent blue godmoding. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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[Darrien Church]

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The rules state that a guild cannot reject a challenge to war if it's I.C. in terms of land-claims and so on...they don't state all guilds MUST be warred or allied.

But I will agree with you Kinn & Cal in that if a guild is going to engaged in hostile RP their GM should ensure they are orange to their enemies, to avoid endless emote fights.

[Edda]

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I honestly feel the same way you do, Kinn

[Rags]

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Totally agree with you Kinn. If you are rping a powerful mage/warrior than you better be able to back it up. If you are mouthing off to people, expect a violent reaction. It kills immersion if we can't interact with each other on all these levels.

[Kinn]

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Section I: Rules for Accepting War Invites

1. If, a guild of the ARPC through role-play declares war on another guild of the ARPC that war-invite cannot be denied, to do so is god-moding, and promotes poor RP.

Example:

The Order of the Ebon Skull wishes to vanquish the Knights of Trinsic, their sworn enemy. In good RP undead should have the right to attack paladins and vice-versa, if the two guilds do not war, emote-wars, verbal slandering and the dreaded “Duel me in Fel.” will occur. Good role-play would dictate it is impossible for a nation or organization to magically be impervious to the attacks of another because “we don’t want to fight.”

Taken for the rules sticky at the top of this forum.

That says to me that if you are sent a war invite you MUST accept. Not should...MUST. For RP reasons, I would hope every guild sends war invites to every other guild.

:S: is warred with Q^A. They're our fellow drow, for cryin out loud, but it makes sense that we're warred with them. If Kinn gets a little too mouthy with the Matron, she'll no doubt put him in his place. The war invite gives her the IC means to do it--thus making the RP realistic and keeping Kinn appropriately humble in her presence.

War invites across the entire community just make sense.

[TayM'real]

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makes sense to me........

with insurance, people shouldn't be worried about losing anything...but I also think that needs to go away
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To kill a non-believer tis not murder, tis the path to enlightenment...

[Ceinwyn ab'Arawn]

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I've always agreed with the war ring idea. It is the ideal.

Why won't it work right now?

Because not all the guilds who RP with us follow the same rules. Too many are not official ARPC guilds, and therefore exempt from the rules we have set in place. Also, they are excluded from any sort of recognized land-claiming. Warring becomes "at your own risk" when you war a guild that is outside of the official list.

True, it shouldn't be too much to expect a GM with summit access to at least follow the rules. We really have no way to force non official guilds to war. We can only rely on their GM's integrity to uphold some standards.

[Kinn]

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*shrugs*

I'm not advocating making the ARPC into a Fel environment. Just because you're OJ to me doesn't mean I'm going to PK you. I rest easily knowing it likewise doesn't mean you'll PK me. And there is a strict no-looting rule anyway, so I'm confident I could uninsure all my items on Kinn prior to an RP battle without worry.

I honestly don't know what people are afraid of either, except that it would mean for a good number of folks out there that they'd have to "put up or shut up". And even in loss...all you get is a knock to your fame...and maybe your ego.

I can tell you this much, though. There are a handful of folks out there whose RP would definately change if they were orange. I'm confident of that.

[Beleth]

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I know this sounds rude then but... if a guild is not a part of the ARPC and is rping with ARPC guilds and not following ARPC rules... Shouldn't the be shunned ICly?

I get not everyone guild would do it the same way but why not act as if they are insignificant, a joke, etc. if they become aggressive towards an ARPC guild ICly but refuse to join the community? Make them feel like worthless clowns, give them no respect IC.

The key here is be nice OOCly to them and explain to them that you are open to interacting with them but if they try to act powerful, important, etc. you will mock them ICly?

Basically the key here is, if a guild is trying to act tough and important but refuses to join the community and follow the rules, why should we show them the respect they are not showing us?
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[Kinn]

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[Merci d'Rue]

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While I know what your talking about and heavily agree with you Kinn. Even I have characters that are blue, why? Well they used to be in Umbra, but I dont want them in stonegate cause they dont fit there. I dont want to put them in another guild cause I dont have time for any more guilds.

However, my characters the blue ones, actually are rather *less powerful* characters. They do not go around and talk big or whatever. And, being blue does not stop someone from emoting smacking me, its just up to me whether they suceeded. Truth is I am very true to my character and I have respect for yours, the slap would probably hit.

I know this isnt what you speak of, most my characters that I rp on are in a guild. I like the anonymity of getting on a random blue character that no one knows from time to time and rping. Yet I am not an rper who badmouths or acts any different if she is warred via game mechanics or not.

Let us also not forget that sometimes we dont have control over whether our guild leaders have been on the ball and warred properly. Its not always the blue rpers fault.

We can not get to nit picky here, if they are blue and not in a guild then it is wrong to state that people HAVE to be in a guild, or make one up to be warred. However I do feel that a guild should war other clans and not, be unwarred and then trample thru their town making threats. I have had this happen to me and it is very irksome. We have to be careful also in our rule making that we dont stifle creativity, yeah we may not like the way some people rp. It gets tiresome the godly rp with no back up, the character that just seems unkillable that pops out of a crevice. Yet at the same time, Its rp? We should still be thankful, we need the rp. Some people are just new, or dont understand yet. Those that know better well life just isnt going to be fair.

So dont get me wrong, I agree with you but like anything there are acceptions. I dont see how this can be corrected. I FYI have not been traveling Umbra lately on a blue character, and honestly most of my blue characters have good reason for not being there. Yet I have gone to tavern nights on a blue character and rpd a bit with people, but I again stick to what my character would do regardless of whether they are blue or orange to you.

I do feel tho that as an ARPC guild you should war other guilds. On that I myself stay true. The only reason you wouldnt be warred is because you are new or there is some alliance change that took place. Can we force it no, would it be nice yes.
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May destiny guide you...

[Ceinwyn ab'Arawn]

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I can't even remember why we didn't make it mandatory. But, I do remember that there was a huge debate on why people just absolutely would not war the other official guilds. Some argued that they didn't want to subject their newb members to war.

When I GMed, I sent invites to absolutely everyone with a guild. Umbra was number one on the MYUO war list for the entire time it existed as a guild, for this very reason.

[Sindreline]

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I myself at the moment am blue to everyone here but IC I still follow by the rules set forth by the ARPC community.

[Rags]

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