Fort Weyr

The following are some high level guidelines for RP at Fort Weyr. We try to foster an open atmosphere with a lot of leeway for players to explore character interactions with each other and also with events going on in the background. We also encourage players to come up with their own situations that create further RP for themselves and others.

To that end, here are the governing principles behind RP at Fort:

• IC Actions Equal IC Consequences
  We adhere to this principle strongly as an admin team. What this means is that players can play anything that they want so long as all parties in a scene have given consent, since NC is a consent-based game. You don’t need admin approval to do interesting things or even controversial things. Just expect that if you do, there will be IC consequences.

  Here’s a a ‘real world’ example: B’kaiv and Y’nolek were playing together and Nolek ICly came up with a plan to manure-bomb Fort Seahold. They contacted admin about it and got a go-ahead with the understanding that there’d be consequences if they were found out. They went through with the scene and for a while, no one knew who had done the deed. ICly, B’kaiv confessed to it and was given a punishment that was worked out with his player to both answer the need for IC consequences without completely limiting his RP opportunities. Later on after he’d served his term, Kai was found to be ‘innocent’ of masterminding the incident and Nolek had some IC consequences to face, also worked out with his player.

• Admin Approval Is Only Needed For Wide-Ranging Effects
  This principle addresses the idea that things that could affect the whole Weyr or the whole area, or all of Pern widely and deeply, should be discussed with the admin team so that we can in turn coordinate with other areas if necessary. Some examples of things that we’d prefer were discussed with admin first:
  1. Killing another PC or a high-profile NPC. Players have control over their own characters and their own NPCs. However, if you’re planning an assassination attempt on Lord Boll, for instance, we’d really appreciate a heads up so we can coordinate what’s likely to happen with you. Since NC is a consent game, PCs cannot be killed without their players’ permission. If a PC has agreed to be killed, we’d just appreciate a heads up from the involved parties so that we know it was all agreed-to and okay. You’re welcome to make your own +bbposts and +gossip posts about the event and if you’d prefer it, we can take care of posting about dragons keening if a rider is killed.
  2. High Profile NPC Political Actions. Please check in first, if you’re planning to say, have the Masterharper sign something into ‘law’ or want to have a head to head argument with Lord Fort or have a serious conversation with other NPCs that have a high profile role in a current plot. If an NPC /hasn’t/ been mentioned in a plot, you’re welcome to use that NPC – just try to stick to any posted guidelines about the character’s personality in +npc. If an NPC is ‘owned’ or run by another PC, please check with that PC and if you want some backup on what was agreed to, feel free to +cc the admin team.

     Example:
     If you’re planning to RP something involving Gar’s Holder, and we have PC relatives of the Holder in the area, please +mail those players to check in before, say, having the Holder banish you from Gar.

  3. Acts of God. Please don’t decide that there’s a killer blizzard going on outside unless +weather says so or it’s been bbposted. If you’d like to run an Act of God mini-plot, please check it with the admin team first. Of course, this doesn’t apply to passing rain showers, or a minor rock fall if you’re out and about doing some hiking or rock climbing.
  4. Spying. If you’re spying on NPCs, check in with the admins or the person running the story arc to get an idea of what you’d find while spying. If you have suggestions about things to find, these are more than welcome – we don’t think of everything! If you’re spying on PCs, check in with the admins just to let us know you’re doing it, otherwise, work it out with the other player.

What You Can Do
Things that don’t need check-in with the admins are things that are ‘localized’ to the scene, to your character or have been mutually agreed-to by the players in the scene. Brawls are a good example of this. You want your characters to get into a fight? Go for it. No admin approval required. If however, you want moderation for your scene, you’re perfectly welcome to ping a connected admin for that, or even /another player/ who isn’t part of the scene. This basically equates to deputizing someone to be your gamemaster or GM for the duration of the scene to help with figuring out what makes sense or if necessary, to roll dice RL about whether or not a punch landed.

The general rule of thumb, is what’s touched on above: if what you’re doing primarily only affects you, your character and the players and characters in scene with you, then admin approval isn’t necessary. Admin don’t have to run all of the NPCs either – you’re welcome to grab NPCs marked public on +npc, just check in if you have any questions about the NPC if he/she is involved in heavy plot foo. Admin approval and check in are necessary when what you’re doing will have an immediate impact beyond you, your character and the players and characters in scene with you.

When doing plot RP, here are some of the options available to you to help make plot scenes go smoothly:

• Be the GM/Storyteller! Admins don’t have to be the GM, we welcome player-run arcs.
• Request an admin to moderate a scene if you’re uncertain about the flow or needing to make decisions about what is happening.
• Request moderation from another player who isn’t involved in the RP.
• Plot hints from admin to help spur scenes in different directions.
• NPC ownership – several current PCs at Fort are Blooded and are from minor Blood families in Fort – these PCs have ownership of the NPCs from those families and are welcome to play those NPCs in scenes with each other.
• NPCs – Make up your own NPCs to fit niches in your scene that aren’t covered by PCs. If you’d like others to be aware of your NPC, we encourage you to put the character into +npc.
• Plot outlines, where necessary to help document mutual agreements about plot directions.
• Use +suggest for plot ideas that could be game-wide or the FortNC community LJ locally to pitch plot ideas and coordinate with other players.

In all cases, when a player is checking in with admin, we’d prefer to get a +mail to ftwadmin rather than a paged request, so that all admins are aware of what’s going on. However, if it’s something that requires immediate discussion, please do page all currently connected admins or even ping on the knot.