I've noticed a lot of people starting to Role Play in places like Drozana Station, Bajor and other places, more than I've seen in the past. I also see a lot of good intentions, but some people have problems getting things going because they aren't getting the reaction they'd like. It took a while for me to have the sort of decent character/story building interactions that I have fairly often now. A lot of people helped me along the way and I wanted to share what I've learned from them with others who are interested in RPing but aren't sure where to start or how to go about it. I'm not saying this is correct, or the only way to do things, but it's what's worked for me, and others I've seen who know what they're doing.
My Personal Basic Role Player Guidelines for Star Trek Online.
1. Use proper spelling, grammar, capitalization and punctuation on all dialogue. If youre not sure how to spell a word, look it up or dont use it. If you make a mistake, correct it quickly if you feel not doing so would change the meaning of what you typed.
2. Pick a format and stick to it, whether it be dialogue in quotes and action without, or action indicated by use of * ~ or some other symbol with dialogue outside it. Dont switch back and forth, and dont just type everything without a method for others to tell whether its action or dialogue, as that is confusing to everyone. When speaking Out of Character, indicate that someway, perhaps with ((brackets)), or by 'OOC:'
3. Just because you can read it in the chat doesnt mean your toon is close enough to see it, hear it or react to it. Even if your toon has some special hearing ability that doesnt mean others will react to your response if youre too far away to realistically be heard. Yes we see everything in the local channel it doesnt mean that our toons can hear or understand the conversations they are not involved in. Most Role Play I've seen is done in the Local Channel, please don't RP in Zone Chat. If your Role Play is 'Mature' in nature, use Team Chat or Tells please so you don't break the conduct rules of the game.
4. Dont just walk up to someone new and say, hello Steve, if you havent been introduced to Steve, you dont know Steve or his name. This goes for his Rank, unless indicated in the bio or clearly on his uniform, just because a toon is level 50 doesnt mean that toon is playing as a Vice Admiral. This also goes for the information in the Bio, just because you read the Bio doesnt mean your toon has the other players toons official file in his hand, to read it at will, and know everything about them. Interact with the toon, get to know the character, thats how socializing works in the real world, it should be no different in STO.
5. This is the Star Trek Universe, circa 2409ish, please try to live in that world when you Role Play. You can really do whatever you like, but when you walk up on a player talking about using The Force or going back to the TARDIS, it really can derail things.
6. If youre playing as a species from the Star Trek Universe please try to keep it somewhat realistic, if youre going to be a Vulcan Partyboy at least have a good story for that. Dont give your toon abilities and traits that arent canon, if youre playing a canon species. If you want to be a unique snowflake make an alien.
7. You are not a unique snowflake, even if you make an alien species, and theyve from the double secret upside down universe, or City 17, or from a galaxy far away. Please dont give your toon a set of traits that are so unrealistic it becomes laughable. Your toon is not 15 billion Earth years old, you are not the last of your kind, you cant control the minds of anyone you like, or drink straight from the warp reactor when you get thirsty. If you want to be taken seriously at least try to make your toon somewhat realistic to the set of physics and guidelines set in the canon of the Star Trek Universe. Your toon should be mortal, at times vulnerable, and your special powers should not be the whole story, try to keep your super powers limited, or go play Champions Online.
8. Try to have a backstory for your character. Write a bio, fill it with interesting things about your toon, so we can read it, and subtly ask you questions that lead you to tell us about your toon. What does your toon do, why do they do it, where are they from, who are they when theyre off duty? Make us care enough to want to talk to you.
9. Do not God Mod your Role Play, or the Role Play of others. You cant kill someone elses toon, unless they let you do it, you are really at the mercy of the people you interact with, so dont try to control how they play their game, you wouldnt enjoy RPing in STO if someone told you how you have to play, so dont do that to others. Also dont ignore the actions of others if they are being reasonable and youve been interacting with them already. If I spill my drink on you, youd react, so if my toon does it to your toon, I imagine your toon would react.
10. Blind Friend/Bridge/PvP Challenge invites are rude. Send a tell, ask first and respect the answer.
11. Dont feed the trolls, there will be trolls trying to ruin your Role Play out of boredom, rage or whatever it may be. Report them if they breaks the rules of the game in general or are abusive to you specifically. Ignore them on chat if its just verbal though, we shouldnt be reporting everyone who says something we dont like. Also dont feel horrible if you have to move the Role Play to a ships bridge, another instance or another location, it happens.
12. Have fun and thanks for bothering to Role Play in what is really an anti-Role Play environment at times.
Feel free to disregard this post if you disagree with it, or perhaps share with me where I'm wrong, add to the list, suggest new things I missed. Discuss and perhaps meet other Role Players so you can interact with them in-game.
I am Katar with the KDF and i am Clayton Adams iwth the federation. I have been to Drozana and agree with you about almost all of what you say. I did some roleplay with some Orions (in my KDF character) suffice to say after and awkard blind friend request i ended up talking to about 4 of them. I ended up dancing with 3 of them I am happy to say that Katar is allied wiht the House of Beautiful Orions. Not a member! Nothing personal to anyone but in real life i am a man and here as a Klingon Augment as well. But most of my crew are Orion. But really this whole roleplay and your guidelines for roleplay are great and should be considered. Especialliy if you wnat to meet new people and make friends. Which i am happy to say that i have. Drozana is the place for me. I will be at the bar between mission watching my beautiful friends dance and the Devidians going in and out of phase from time to time. LOL
This isn't a bad introduction. I've read, hell I've written much worse.
RP is a personal thing, everyone does it differently and has an opinion on how it should be done. The posted guidelines here are a good place to get started, but like anything else, it will improve with practice.
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RP is a personal thing, everyone does it differently and has an opinion on how it should be done. The posted guidelines here are a good place to get started, but like anything else, it will improve with practice.