Roleplaying

Nearly everyone you speak to has a different idea about what roleplaying means. But when it all comes down to it, roleplaying is being the character you have on the screen. Lots of people want to take this to an extreme position, others just want to be their character but get money and skills the best way they know. Is there a right or wrong way to go about it?

Sorceror's Quest supports what we call relaxed role-playing. We are all there to have fun and the best way to have fun in a different world is to leave our own world behind and be our character. In point form this is our position (mixed up with a lot of non-roleplaying comments too):

• .msg and .reply are considered to be pigeons. In other words your character knows the information you get from an in-game message, so keep the messages to ingame topics
• irc, msn, or forum information is not known by your character. But let's be realistic, you know something that your character needs to know, so roleplay finding out. Ask a leading question or do something that gets that information for you in the game.
  • For example- you are a virtue guard and trying to find the last shrine. Someone tells you out of the game. What are you going to do, log in and make a bee-line for the spot? Not if you want to roleplay you don't. You get in-game help or work out some way to discover the location that will satisfy your conscience as a roleplayer
• We don't ban or censure people if they are not roleplaying to your standard. Remember everyone has different ideas about roleplaying. We do ask that players roleplay to the best of their ability and we honour them for making the effort. The only players that we don't encourage are those who openly refuse to roleplay. This shard is not for those. So please don't be offended by players who aren't roleplaying to your standards. A lot of in-game tension builds up when players tell other players they are doing something wrong. What's wrong with a bit of tact? Flat out saying they are wrong isn't going to get you a sympathetic ear. If you are an adult you wouldn't treat a stranger like that, so don't do it in the game please.
• We don't swear or use profanity. We have players as young as 9 playing and we don't want anyone's parents getting involved in accusing our game of any number of offences against their kids. Besides, I try hard not to swear in real life and don't think it's appropriate in our game either even if all parties are adults. See the rules page, it's a jailable and eventually bannable offence here.
• If you HAVE to speak out of character then use the square brackets. eg [phone afk] or [lag] It happens and will alert others that they might need to protect you while you are having problems. The square brackets let you OOC but again, don't overdo it or use it to tell others about your new computer.......
• Roleplayers don't shorten words but in fact I am changing my mind about this. Taking the time to type something in a war situation is risky, but in general you don't say words like 'ok' or other shortening of words. Strictly you don't say '3' either and instead you type 'three'. But sometimes it's all you have time to do, but be sensible about it.
• And don't use UO terms in the game - eg words like warmode or paper doll or gump.
• Emoticons - don't use them. :) and :( are not valid. Use the colon to express a face or action you can't show." : smiles" is better as it comes out as *smiles* on screen.
• Here's one that you should think about seriously - your character is capable of getting to 100 skill in nearly all skills in the game - but what do you do about it? This of course is a huge temptation as the tendency is to see every skill under 100 as an insult to your honour. But in fact, you shouldn't do it. In the land of SQ the elf is not strong and more naturally suited to magic or archery. The point is that an elf can learn swords if you like and if your roleplaying profile supports what you are doing. I am merely saying that in most cases the scripts don't stop you, but you should restrain yourself anyway - we didn't set out to make a class system where you can only do 10 things, so don't abuse this privilege. The idea is that anyone anywhere can decide to learn a skill. It doesn't mean you will be good at it, but you can do it in SQ. We don't stop Tank Mages, but there are alternatives - consider using potions to boost your skills and stats instead of the faintly silly situation of a bunch of armoured horse-riding players all sitting there casting spells on themselves before going into battle. To me it's better to not be a mage if you are a swordsman and simply use alchemy potions to boost your abilities. Same as travelling. Don't take up magery just so you can cast the gate spell - get a crystal ball and use them to move you around quickly. But in the end, what's wrong with riding between towns or taking the ferry or stage coach? What's the rush most of the time?
• A character can't see the title above your head, tooltips, or your paper doll. Nearly everyone has done it at least once - walk up to a complete stranger and say "hello Eloriad". How did your character know their name? This is different from saying "Hello elf" since your character could see they were an elf most of the time (okay so they were wearing a death robe and you couldn't see, but you get the point).
• If your character is playing the role of a grump, mute or rogue, how does the other player know you are simply not being rude or ignoring them? You need to make it clear that roleplaying such a character is not being rude to the other player. Player to player relationships should be clear - we are all playing the same game and should bear no ill will to any other player and should never express it to another player. However, character to character relationships should only develop when the players know it's all being roleplayed. All too often I see people from the same school transferring their bad relationship to the game. That's a NO, guys.
• Keep your real life out of the game. Chat in msn or irc.
• Don't rush around all the time. What's the rush anyway? Walk around in town, park the horse and get some town clothes. Buy an ale sometimes or play a game of cards. In other words don't let the rush to gain skills and money take over. Are you really so impatient to get the money to train that important skill that it can't wait another day?