The Twelve Tables of Role Play in YATS - MUST READ
Players of YATS,
Elendil and I have noted the recent troubles concerning the grand finale of our last incarnation with increasing anxiety. The rules of what is and is not allowed when rp'ing are vague (as they should be, otherwise there would be no freedom), and leave a lot in the open as to what is and is not preferred when rp'ing. Therefore we have taken it upon ourselves to write 12 guidelines to adhere to when RP'ing, the Twelve Tables of Role Play in YATS.
These are meant as guidelines to your RP choices and as basic rules and an introduction to rp'ing, to give some basic solidity to what is (and should be) such a loose subject.
So, without further ado:
The Twelve Tables of Role Playing in YATS
I – Don’t break the Rules
This is the most crucial of all the commandments. YATS has several written and unwritten rules to guide daily procedure and to make sure this does not turn into a Wild West scenario. The written rules are in the constitution and in the various stickied posts in the main YATS board and the Forum Romanum. The unwritten rules are the traditions of YATS and will be called upon when the situation calls for them. The experienced players and the Mods of YATS can fill you in, in case of doubt.
II – Respect other players, and accept them as thy equals.
This is second most important commandment, it really is. This will be touched in several other commandments, but it is important enough to get its own. We are all players of YATS, we are all trying to have fun, and Out Of Character (OOC) rivalries would only detract from that fun. Even though your character may be a consul, and someone else’s merely a lowly inexperienced senator, that does not make you better than that player. His posts are worth just as much as yours, and any rank differences are only between our characters.
III – Know thy character…
Any post you make In Character is a post In Character, it is representative of what your character says or does. So in order to reply accurately to a given debate or Role Play (RP, it is important to think of how your character would reply to the situation. Note that this does not have to be how you react to the same situation, nor do your character’s opinions have to reflect your own. This is a Roman RPG, and Roman opinions on a lot of subjects were markedly different from our own. We may write a more extensive guide about this subject later.
IV – …and know his ignorance
As any soap opera writer can tell you, a lot of the intricate dealings between people become interesting to the reader/watcher/listener, because this observant knows something the character does not. Your character is not almighty, nor is he omniscient. What happens when your character is not present is unknown to him unless he is specifically told of this event. Note: There is an important exception to this rule, namely provincial governors and the curia. We may safely assume that the governor receives word of debates in the curia through messengers and dispatches. However, this does not work both ways and knowledge of the province must be explicitly brought to the curia before it can be known by them.
V – Read other people's posts
This is a commandment that is always important. This is a community Role Playing Game and this means you are playing with other people. Failing to read other people’s posts often results in your own posts being out of date, irrelevant or even breaking other people’s RPs. If done systematically, this may have as a result that other players will have less respect for your posts. During some debates the situation can occasionally get so frantic that your post is outdated the moment you post it. This is no problem, you can edit your posts quickly to make them up to date, but at least make an effort.
VI – Plan ahead
This is a commandment for the larger RPs. When thinking up a large RP, you will often have a rough idea about what the RP will be about, but you may just have thought: ‘Wow, that’s an awesome idea, I gotta do that with my character!’, but an awesome idea does not make an awesome RP. If you plan ahead to what you intend to have happen in two or three posts time (or perhaps even the entire RP in the case of some control freaks), you can give subtle hints about events to come and you can flesh out relationships.
VII – It is a bad plan that can not be altered
This commandment is closely connected with ‘Plan ahead’. You may have a grand masterplan that reaches all the way to a masterful conclusion where you reach result A, but remember, you are playing a community RPG, and therefore a single post can ruin your masterplan in its infancy. This comes with the territory, read and accept the other’s post and change your plan. You are not writing a single player AAR, you are playing through this along with others. If you really want to, you can ask other players to have respect for your RP and refrain from interfering until a certain event, but this is up to the discretion of other players. Most players will respect this, of course, but it offers no guarantees.
VIII – Being defeated does not mean losing
You cannot win You are the Senate. It is not a game that has a beginning and an end. No-one is keeping score, nor are we moving toward a goal (apart from Roman republican world domination, MUHUHAHAHAHAHAHHhhh… sorry, got carried away there). Not every character needs to be a Caesar and conquer Rome, nor does everyone have to survive. There have been many examples of players who chose to kill off their characters in a beautiful RP, and whose reputation (both their forum reputation and their real reputation) was enhanced significantly for it.
IX – You are not the people.
While it may be tempting to have the people chant your name after a riveting speech on the Rostra, it is simply unrealistic to assume that the mob simply cheered on everyone who uttered a syllable in the right place. In the same vein, you cannot use the mob to discredit or disadvantage another player, nor can you use them to break the fabric of YATS. This is done for realism’s sake, to win the crowd, a Roman needed to have done really great things and even then he needed to truly convince the mob to join his cause.
X – Work together
This is really a friendly word of advice. If you want to do a large RP with someone else, it is wise to contact that person beforehand to make sure you are on the same page and that your plans are at least somewhat synchronised. Preferably this will happen in private, using PM, MSN or what have you. Please note that your characters do not necessarily know what you know, and that your knowledge of what will happen is not necessarily your character’s knowledge of what will happen. For further information regarding knowledge see IV.
XI – Experience is the teacher of all things.
For the inexperienced players we have some additional advice: Let the more experienced players lead the larger role-plays. They have the experience, they know the traditions, and they will often have developed characters, and is advised that you join them. However: do not try to make big turns in these RP's if you don't know what you are doing. If you have a good idea in such a large RP, discuss it in private first on PM, MSN or what have you. Over time you’ll learn what is and is not accepted in RPs.
XII – Use your imagination, but keep it real
This is somewhat ambiguous, but we can give you clear guidelines about what kind of far-fetched imaginatory things are and are not allowed. Basically, you can let anything happen, as long as it remains possible in reality. You can have thunderstorms (watch other people’s posts though, if they say it is a clear day, then obviously that goes), you can have your back yard struck by lightning, you can be hit by lightning and survive, etc. In addition, you (or your character) may ascribe it to divine activity, e.g. a thunderstorm from Jupiter, but things like aliens from the planet Mars are out of the realm of possibility and as such unacceptable.
Originally Posted by Rebel Jeb
