Post by StoryTeller on Apr 4, 2008 18:10:39 GMT
Basic Rules for FFRP
Written by Georgette Tan & Elisabeth Cook
Free Form Role Play, or commonly abbreviated as FFRP, is as its name suggests - a system that can be based on any, none, or all existing systems. There is no fixed list of skills, no character sheet, basic or no rules on combat, casting and character creation. By-the-book gamers look on in horrified fascination at such a lawless realm, but then again, roleplaying by-the-book involved a lot of ROLL-playing and very little ROLE-playing. FFRP is the art of spinning tales with independent characters played by different people in an environment pre-defined by the founder.
A lot of roleplaying is based on something most people tend to leave behind when they switch on the computer and log into the Internet - courtesy and common sense. Remember to take those with you the next time you roleplay, and the rest should be easy.
1. There is a difference between IC and OOC
IC stands for In Character, a mode that requires all players to play their charaters role. Call it roleplaying in progress. Or lights, camera, action. This is when you will find people in their roleplaying personas, acting and talking like how their character is suppose to. OOC means the opposite, Out Of Character, where you can all relax, be yourself and talk about what's on TV tonight. In chatrooms, OOC talk is required to be enclosed in brackets, (()) or [[]]. Some has a separate channel for OOC, which is much better then peppering the roleplay with OOC comments.
A thing I often see is people taking things that happen IC personally as an attack to the player and not to the character. Most of the time, this assumption is not true. Strife well-executed between two characters can contribute to good roleplay, story and character development. If someone suddenly decides to hate your character, it does not necessarily mean he hates you. It happens sometimes, and that kind of behavior is just a display of immaturity.
Similarly, OOC should not be taken into IC. Say for example two people who are friends IC and OOC. One day, these two friends have a fight. When they meet IC, their characters start fighting for no IC reason. Hmmm
2. You don't know me until someone introduces us
The way the Internet is designed requires us to have a name to identify us by. Channels and chatrooms display the names of the users, but the problem with that is that some people think roleplay channels works along the same lines as #chatzone. Although its perfectly fine to say "Hi Jacob" to a chatter named Jacob who just entered a general chatroom, it is a different thing all together in a roleplaying environment. Rule of the thumb, if we have never met, you don't know me, I don't know you. Referring to a stranger by name in an action (e.g. Alice smiles at Jacob) is fine. Calling them by name is a roleplaying boo-boo.
3. Language
Remember what period you are playing in and speak the lingo accordingly. This includes but is not limited to:
* Having a modern name like Cyberdude in a medieval-fantasy chatroom.
* Using out of period phrases like "What's up man?"
* Overusing swear words. Some channels allow moderate use of swears but most are kept PG. It's always safer to stay PG in language use.
4. Actions are in 3rd person.
Some perfectly good sentences get spoilt by confusing the 3rd person and the 1st person (narrative). Things like "Jacob slips down the path quietly, my hand on the hilt of my sword." Or "Alice walks over to Jacob and puts my hand on your shoulder." Roleplaying actions are always in the 3rd person. "Jacob slips down the path quietly, his hand on the hilt of his sword." "Alice walks over to Jacob and puts her hand on his shoulder." Also, remember that actions are in present tense or present continuous tense.
5. Assume makes an ass out of u and me
Inevitably, you might walk into a channel or room where the action is already happening. As there is no way of reviewing a log of a room you weren't in before, the only way you can find out the current situation is to ask OOC. There's been plenty a time when someone walks into a room and begins talking to everyone in it, whether they are within earshot or not! This not only disrupt the flow of RP, but annoys the other players as well.
6. Don't read minds
Be careful when responding to someone. First of all, make sure that your character can hear it! For instance, Jacob is thinking of ordering ale but doesn't say so aloud. You know for a fact that the bar is out of ale. What do you do? Nothing. You can't read minds, so you can't possibly know that Jacob wants ale. Don't make a reference to his thoughts in your own action, speech or thought. What goes on in someone else's head is their business!
7. Too much information
Read this description: "Clara is tall for her age, standing close to 6ft tall even though she is only 15. Her hair is long and brown, her eyes are hazel. She is wearing a pretty dress in her favourite colour blue. She has a little dog named Barky who follows her around. She lives in the forest nearby."
Let's assume you are seeing Clara for the first time. What is wrong with her description? Descriptions commonly refer to what you can see. Pick out the parts of Clara's description that you should be able to see the hair, the eyes, the dress, the dog. And the rest of it? You won't know what her favourite colour is, what her dog's name is, or where she came from by just looking at her. Let's rewrite Clara's description:
"Clara is tall for her age, standing close to 6ft tall even though she is only 15. Her hair is long and brown, her eyes are hazel. She is wearing a pretty blue dress. A small dog follows her wherever she goes."
8. There is no such thing as an auto-hit
Combat and spells are tricky things to do in a FFRP environment because of the lack of standard rules. Powergaming happens. You don't dictate what happens to the other character, even if you happen to be a powerful mage who has never casted a spell that didn't work in your AD&D game. Always allow an opportunity for the other character to respond. Never write "Alice conjures up a fireball and throws it at Clara, killing her immediately." That is plain unfair to Clara and Alice may soon find that no one wants to roleplay with her if she keeps that up. Writing "Alice conjures up a fireball and throws it at Clara" leaves an opening for Clara's respond. FFRP is a very poor place to pick fights, look for monsters to kill, or exercise any skill that would have a "forced" effect on someone else's character.
9. Historical Accuracy
Most people don't care about factual accuracy as long as you don't stray too far from the pre-determined theme of the RP. Rapiers have been used in a medieval setting, coffee is easily available in any inn because most of us can't live without it in real life, and everybody seems to be literate. As long as you don't bring lasers and M16s into a tavern in the middle ages, you're fine. As far as highly technical roleplaying is concerned (e.g. you're tanning a deer hide and you plan to roleplay this in detail), it would be nice if you knew what you're talking about, or if you can make a reasonable judgement on how the process goes. The same rules work on fantasy elements if you have no clue how magic works, don't go there. There's always a smartass nearby who will laughs, dismiss you as a flake and generally embarrass you by telling everyone that you tried to shapeshift with an elemental manipulation skill.
10. Be Courteous
Roleplayers are people too. It's a nice gesture to say "Thank you for the RP" or "It's been nice RPing with you" when you're about to exit a session. Or asking if you may join in on a session that seems to be already in full swing. On IRC, most people are only concerned in channel-hopping to anywhere they can become the main attraction and God's gift to your boring little chatroom. I roleplay in a place where people actually say "thank you" and "that was fun, thanks for letting me play". And you know what? I enjoy being around people who respect the time and creativity others put into making roleplaying a fun experience for all involved. I won't have it any other way.
What is Powergaming?
Powergaming is something that happens when someone creates a godlike character or a character that is good at everything he/she does and the character tends to do everything better than everyone else in the game.
Powergaming and Its Effects
Powergaming is a phenomenon not wholly found in FFRP but one will be more likely to find it in this system more than others because free-form doesn't have the limits placed on characters as other systems do. Many times what happens is that a player makes an all-powerful character and sends him/her around generally doing whatever the player wants to. Other players don't tend to appreciate this and many times an episode of powergaming will end up with the powergamer leaving the game or all of the other players leaving the game.
Powergaming can also occur when a group of people get involved in some major event, say, a war and then start to try to one up each other all time. For example: "My army has 1000 of the greatest soldiers in the world."...."That's great, but my army has 2000 of the greatest soldiers in the world and they're better than your soldiers." An episode of powergaming like this can go on indefinitely. Many times other players get fed up and leave or tell the people causing the problems to just leave the game themselves. Sometimes powergamers are simply ignored.
Limitations of FFRP because of Powergaming
Since "pure" free-form doesn't have a DM or moderator the players must police themselves. Others may say that even then the game is not true free-form, but some sort of system of rules or simple recommendations usually needs to be put in place to try to prevent powergamers from popping up.
Basically, powergaming can occur easily in FFRP because of the lack of rules and DM's. If you have a good group of players, however, the powergamer usually doesn't continue powergaming for long if he/she wishes to continue playing the game. Actually playing the game is what anyone who ever considers powergaming should remember. You may think it could be fun to have an all-powerful character, but usually the opposite is true, having a somewhat true-to-life character who has advantages and weaknesses together will make a more interesting and fun character to play and for other players to associate their characters with.