Post by Ike on Mar 12, 2012 20:46:11 GMT -9
No introductions to be found here, just plunging straight in. These are the most well-known offenses.
Godmoding/Godmodding
Doesn't matter how it's spelled. Some people think that godmoding only has to do with having an overpowered, all-dodging, ever-successful character who talks endlessly about how mangly their opponents get before said opponents can post a reaction. It is true that this is one way to godmode, but it's not just confined to fights. It's everywhere.
Even in the most mundane of situations, godmoding can occur. Let's have a random scene here: Faris and Reina are travelling on Faris' ship.
Looks fairly innocuous, right? Wrong. I'm sure you all see it. It's right there in the last line, when I talk about Reina smiling. That right there? That's godmoding. True, all I did was say that Reina smiled at Faris, something that would seem natural for her to do. But that does not change the fact that I am controlling someone else's character. And that is completely and totally unacceptable. What's the point of RPing if you just describe everything the other characters do? It wrecks the fun of not quite knowing exactly what someone else's character is going to do, and it wrecks it for the person playing Reina because I'm taking away her control over her character, and it would piss her off.
The same thing would apply if I had Reina look up, or Reina still sleeping, or indeed if I described anything that Reina was doing if Reina hadn't actually done so yet. Never, never, NEVER say what someone else's character is doing if the player hasn't actually posted it, even if you think the character would do that.
Next.
Metagaming
Another generally common offense. Metagaming is when a player knows something about some character or plot element, and immediately transfers that knowledge to their character without any sort of IC explanation. This is annoying and ridiculously Sue/Stuish. I'm not too sure about that second sentence, so let's have another example starring Faris - this time with her as the victim.
'Kay, so this shouldn't happen. For one thing, Faris has essentially been raised as a man; she's not just "pretending." For another thing, if she kept Bartz, Galuf, Lenna and oh, her crew fooled for so long, don't you think she can fool Rinoa for five minutes? The same sort of thing applies if I was Faris looking at Rinoa and having her think "holy geez, a Sorceress." How the hell does Faris know? And if your excuse is "well, I'm not too familiar with x game so I don't know all this stuff," you shouldn't be dabbling in this kind of metagaming anyway.
And this is a relatively minor thing, too. Don't even think about clueing your character in about what's going on in some other world, or knowing about some plot device that hasn't happened or hasn't happened to them yet, even if a GM has been talking about it OOC. If there is no IC reason for your character to know, then guess what? They don't know! No matter how much you want them to. Save us all the trouble and don't do this.
Copycatting
On forums without linear storylines (i.e. a character can be in many threads at one time), this is more of an issue with people ganking each others' plots and suchlike, but since FFR is linear, that's not really so much of a problem. The copycatting I'm referring to is things like this:
Faris glared at Krile. "How can yew be so... so... glib? My ship's disappeared, Bartz is missin', and yer stannin' here tryin' ter make light of it?" Here he was, without a ship, one of his best mates who-knew-where - maybe even dead - and here was Krile, acting as though it was nothing more serious than losing a boot. He shook his head in disbelief and stomped off a ways, glared out at the ocean for no apparent purpose, and then stomped back over to Krile.
The post right after this should not look like this:
Faris glared at Krile. "How can yew be so... so... glib? My ship's disappeared, Bartz is missin', and yer stannin' here tryin' ter make light of it?" Here he was, without a ship, one of his best mates who-knew-where - maybe even dead - and here was Krile, acting as though it was nothing more serious than losing a boot. He shook his head in disbelief and stomped off a ways, glared out at the ocean for no apparent purpose, and then stomped back over to Krile.
"Hey, I know this is serious!" Krile snapped angrily. "I'm just trying to be optimistic about the situation, instead of just clomping around anxiously."
That post is right after Faris', so there's really no reason for Krile to repeat what Faris said. Furthermore, that entire first paragraph is from Faris' perspective, blatantly copypasted from Faris' post. It's redundant, annoying, and thievish. Not to mention that we don't know anything else about what Krile is doing, since all we get about her are those three sentences and nothing else.
Repeating dialogue when there's a swath of posts in between yours and theirs? That's okay, as long as you don't just copypaste the whole thing. Do it from your characters perspective. But there's no reason to repeat every line of dialogue and prose when it's already clear what's going on and who you're interacting with.
So, that's it. Just don't do these things, and you'll be fine.
Godmoding/Godmodding
Doesn't matter how it's spelled. Some people think that godmoding only has to do with having an overpowered, all-dodging, ever-successful character who talks endlessly about how mangly their opponents get before said opponents can post a reaction. It is true that this is one way to godmode, but it's not just confined to fights. It's everywhere.
Even in the most mundane of situations, godmoding can occur. Let's have a random scene here: Faris and Reina are travelling on Faris' ship.
Faris lingered outside the hatch to Reina's quarters - well, his quarters, technically speaking. He wasn't about to let his little sister sleep in the crew berth. Pirates were not to be trusted around beautiful women, despite the fact that Faris had told them in no uncertain terms that anyone who looked at their passenger the wrong way would be flogged with a sea-soaked whip.
I sure 'ope she's awake, he thought as he sent the guard away and opened the door. The ship was due to arrive today, and Faris wanted to get Reina off as soon as possible, just to be safe.
Oh good, she's up. Faris nodded hello to Reina, who smiled in reply.
I sure 'ope she's awake, he thought as he sent the guard away and opened the door. The ship was due to arrive today, and Faris wanted to get Reina off as soon as possible, just to be safe.
Oh good, she's up. Faris nodded hello to Reina, who smiled in reply.
Looks fairly innocuous, right? Wrong. I'm sure you all see it. It's right there in the last line, when I talk about Reina smiling. That right there? That's godmoding. True, all I did was say that Reina smiled at Faris, something that would seem natural for her to do. But that does not change the fact that I am controlling someone else's character. And that is completely and totally unacceptable. What's the point of RPing if you just describe everything the other characters do? It wrecks the fun of not quite knowing exactly what someone else's character is going to do, and it wrecks it for the person playing Reina because I'm taking away her control over her character, and it would piss her off.
The same thing would apply if I had Reina look up, or Reina still sleeping, or indeed if I described anything that Reina was doing if Reina hadn't actually done so yet. Never, never, NEVER say what someone else's character is doing if the player hasn't actually posted it, even if you think the character would do that.
Next.
Metagaming
Another generally common offense. Metagaming is when a player knows something about some character or plot element, and immediately transfers that knowledge to their character without any sort of IC explanation. This is annoying and ridiculously Sue/Stuish. I'm not too sure about that second sentence, so let's have another example starring Faris - this time with her as the victim.
Rinoa smiled knowingly at Faris' gruffness. She wouldn't shout it out loud, but it was fairly obvious to her that Faris was not who "he" said he was. If she's going to pretend to be a man, she should try a bit harder. I'm surprised her crew hasn't figured it out yet.
'Kay, so this shouldn't happen. For one thing, Faris has essentially been raised as a man; she's not just "pretending." For another thing, if she kept Bartz, Galuf, Lenna and oh, her crew fooled for so long, don't you think she can fool Rinoa for five minutes? The same sort of thing applies if I was Faris looking at Rinoa and having her think "holy geez, a Sorceress." How the hell does Faris know? And if your excuse is "well, I'm not too familiar with x game so I don't know all this stuff," you shouldn't be dabbling in this kind of metagaming anyway.
And this is a relatively minor thing, too. Don't even think about clueing your character in about what's going on in some other world, or knowing about some plot device that hasn't happened or hasn't happened to them yet, even if a GM has been talking about it OOC. If there is no IC reason for your character to know, then guess what? They don't know! No matter how much you want them to. Save us all the trouble and don't do this.
Copycatting
On forums without linear storylines (i.e. a character can be in many threads at one time), this is more of an issue with people ganking each others' plots and suchlike, but since FFR is linear, that's not really so much of a problem. The copycatting I'm referring to is things like this:
Faris said:
Faris glared at Krile. "How can yew be so... so... glib? My ship's disappeared, Bartz is missin', and yer stannin' here tryin' ter make light of it?" Here he was, without a ship, one of his best mates who-knew-where - maybe even dead - and here was Krile, acting as though it was nothing more serious than losing a boot. He shook his head in disbelief and stomped off a ways, glared out at the ocean for no apparent purpose, and then stomped back over to Krile.
The post right after this should not look like this:
Krile said:
Faris glared at Krile. "How can yew be so... so... glib? My ship's disappeared, Bartz is missin', and yer stannin' here tryin' ter make light of it?" Here he was, without a ship, one of his best mates who-knew-where - maybe even dead - and here was Krile, acting as though it was nothing more serious than losing a boot. He shook his head in disbelief and stomped off a ways, glared out at the ocean for no apparent purpose, and then stomped back over to Krile.
"Hey, I know this is serious!" Krile snapped angrily. "I'm just trying to be optimistic about the situation, instead of just clomping around anxiously."
That post is right after Faris', so there's really no reason for Krile to repeat what Faris said. Furthermore, that entire first paragraph is from Faris' perspective, blatantly copypasted from Faris' post. It's redundant, annoying, and thievish. Not to mention that we don't know anything else about what Krile is doing, since all we get about her are those three sentences and nothing else.
Repeating dialogue when there's a swath of posts in between yours and theirs? That's okay, as long as you don't just copypaste the whole thing. Do it from your characters perspective. But there's no reason to repeat every line of dialogue and prose when it's already clear what's going on and who you're interacting with.
So, that's it. Just don't do these things, and you'll be fine.