Role Play Taboos and Terminology

  • So many newbies lately! Here is a very important PSA about one of our most vital content policies! Read it even if you are an ancient member!
R

Rhomboid

Guest
Original poster
Role Play Taboos andTerminology

Detailed in this guide are some of the most commonRP "don'ts" out there, and the ones people should really betrying to avoid. I'll be adding onto this guide as I think ofmore.


God-Modding

"God-Modding" or "PowerPlaying" is the act of role playing such that your character isvirtually undefeatable or infallible. It often happens naturallywithout premeditation on the part of the role player doing it, and assuch can easily become a bad, bad habit. The fact is that no matterhow powerful your character is, he or she must not be perfect. I'mnot referring only to set weaknesses, but also to regular slip ups inany given position that may cause them to lose control of thesituation. God-Modding extends past fighting and battles to anysituation in which you make your character have complete control.This attribute in a character is unnatural and annoying to thoseothers who want a more balanced role playing experience. Giving acharacter moments of weakness makes him or her more human andrealistic.


Bunnying

"Bunnying" refers to thecontrolling of another role player's character besides one's ownin a given post. This can include substantial acts as well asthoughts or emotions. Most role players find bunnying annoying oroffensive, and naturally so: no one wants their character's actionsto be decided by someone else. Be very careful to review your postsfor hints of bunnying—it can be hard to find in your own posts.Here's an example of dangerously subtle bunnying to look outfor.


Adrian (your character) stepped towards the young boy(someone else's character). The boy could see the many tattoos thatriddled Adrian's forearms.

As minor as that is, the way it'sworded, it's bunnying. You decided yourself that someone else'scharacter could see something for the sake of your own expression ofideas. The simplest way to avoid bunnying like this is to reword thephrase.


Adrian stepped towards the young boy. The manytattoos that riddled his forearms were exposed and easilyvisible.

Now there's no bunnying. With a quick switch ofsyntax, you can easily avoid any offensive controlling of a fellowrole player's character. You express the same idea without havingto decide for someone else what actions their character will take.
 
Firstly, I've never heard the term 'Bunnying' until the last two weeks. Secondly, there are two sides of the coin for 'bunnying' or for the more natural terms, scene stealing or simply hijacking. On that note there is first needless hijacking, where your first example doesn't even touch. In fact, I don't see that as hijacking at all, it gives a more natural feel to the post and therefore contributes to the story. Needless hijacking is taking everyones character ever and taking them where you want to go, and not in the natural progression of the story. The other side of the coin is what I term the Asmodeus Complex (furthermore known as the AC), where the GM/other important character is willing to nerf a character, if only briefly, to turn the story in the direction it needs to go, where the second player in question is either (A) stalling or (B) fallen out of the roleplay/taken time off. On this side, the AC side, it is only permissable if one of two prior directives are met. One, it is put in the OOC that the GM/other important character will nerf if terms of the roleplay are not met, or two, there is a mutual agreement with both parties about said hijacking.
 
Palonis had some interesting threads like this a few ways back... Should we go back and fetch em?
 
I think another big RP no-no is the quiet background character that doesn't do jack-shit.
I hate that character.
That character is USELESS.