Unofficial guide to serious roleplay.

[Most credit goes to a fellow named Nugget and Skull, edited by myself.]
The unofficial guide to serious roleplay!
Hello new roleplayer! If you are here then this new world must be a big and scary place to you! Fret not, however, as I am here to help explain the basics that you'll need to know! Grab a snack, put on your thinking cap, take a few notes, and be the roleplayer you are expected to be! Hopefully you'll learn something from this and make your mother and father proud.

IC and OOC.
The first thing you should know about RP is that it isn't you speaking, it's your character. That is referred to IC (or in most instances, 'In-Character'). Actions done are your character acting, not you. If you wish to speak to other players then you must use an OOC command (covered later). OOC is Out-Of-Character in most instances. However, these two cannot be connected in any way. Going somewhere ICly while using OOC information is known as metagaming. An example is if someone says they are going to the camp OOCly and your character decides to go to the camp in the hopes of 'running into someone'. This is a poor way to RP and leads to issues (and banning in all instances).

Another IC and OOC regulation you need to know is when you recognize a character. Are you in the server alone except for another survivor? Logic dictates that using the player roster should allow you to know them immediately or looking at their LOOC or OOC name. I hate to break this to you, new RPers, but that is also metagaming. You do not know a character until you've heard them ICly say their name to you or another character. Players must press F2 and click the choice with how they revealed their name (Yelling, normal speech, whispering). While it may be tempting to have an omnipotent character that knows everyone remember this: Metagaming is a bannable offense and it will almost always prevent you from ascending on the RP ladder.

Names and Descriptions.
IC and OOC understood, it is now time for a name and a description.

Names taken from games or actors should not be used and descriptions to match them are way out of the question. A name must seem natural and it should fit in if called out in a line-up (IE, it shouldn't be Duke Nukem or Tony Stark). The next thing to know is how to treat descriptions. A description covers how your person looks physically, not their past history or their personality. You could say 'seems gullible but somewhat smart' but you can't just flat out say that your character is smart.
An example of a physical description that covers the basics: [5'9''|Brown hair|Dirty clothing|Bags under eyes|Small frame|Slight hunch]
Your character's model may not actually look like that but this allows for greater diversity and helps you stand out against the 'smarts decision maker and really really super smart' people.

RP chat commands.
Alright, now that you know the difference between acting as your character and speaking as yourself and you have a good name and a believable description it is time you know how to do actions, change your voice volume, and the different OOC commands.

/me- This command, once given text to use, will act as if your character is moving or behaving in the way you depict. An example would be: /me would stop walking, hearing a slight moan behind him, turning himself around and spotting a monstrosity, his eyes widening.

/y- This command makes your character's speech reach farther. Each speech type has its own radius. It's usually used as a form of communication from long distances, or a sign of anger.

/w- This command shrinks the radius of your character's speech to a small group around them. Usually used to get a point across when you don't want eavesdroppers or other people to hear.

/radio- This can only be used by survivors that own a radio. All radios have different frequencies so you can change them when you feel your frequency is being tapped into.

//- this command allows you to speak to the entire server as a whole. Be careful, though. There is a timer in place to prevent a continuous stream of OOC so that the fluidity of IC roleplay isn't disturbed.

.// or [[- This command allows you to speak to other players OOCly in a small radius. It allows for groups to chat without needing to use the global OOC.

/pm <Character name>- This command allows you to speak OOCly (NOT ICly!) to other players. Admins can watch your PMs so trying to use them as a way to coordinate an IC move will lead to a ban.

Alright, so you've found this thing called a can of beans. That's a food item, which is ICly and OOCly used to give characters nutrience for livng life. items like that are found around the map for people to loot, remember to always /me picking up things!

Next. See an item and someone standing over it with the word 'Performing...' over their head? Best time to swipe it, right? Wrong. First off, this person is roleplaying and can't stop you if you decide to mingegrab the item. People work hard for some things and just swiping it and darting is pretty mingey, bannable, and downright mean.

See a prop you like? Use the hand weapon to pick it up by right clicking. However, treat it like you would in real life. You don't just hold a bike in front of you with two hands in real life (I hope) so when you RP taking said bike, do a /me of you rolling it beside you.

The different minge- and -ings.
Let's list a the problems with RP, shall we? You want your character to survive and prosper right?. This just can't happen. You can't force actions onto other players and expect them to be fine with it (especially if you decide to beat the shit out of them and dart off without them ever seeing you in the first place). Let's begin with the issues now, shall we?

Punch/stunwhoring- This is where you punch or stun another player without RP when they have a chance of fighting back. You can fight a player by starting a fight with a /me.

Example for what to do when in combatRP: /me would obviously be quite angered from the rude comment said earlier, clenching his fists and raising his left, attempting to slam his knuckles into the mans nose.

Stat Whoring- This is something that is never permitted. Stat whoring is where you do actions without RP to boost your attributes. Even if you are doing it just for a point or two, if someone walks in on you acting like an idiot then they won't take the server or your character as seriously. I know the population isn't an issue but when no one is doing RP correctly on a serious RP gamemode it's hard to attract a serious playerbase.

Mingerunning/jumping/crouching- Running away from a situation without RPing it properly. Just because you don't want to be /mugged/scolded/attacked doesn't mean you should run off. RPing you running away and then darting off is also mingerunning. You must let players react to you. Same thing applies for jumping and crouching. Don't just jump to jump and crouch to crouch.

Mingegrabbing- Look at that. Someone is buying something from someone. Oh look! They dropped a box of money for the other player! No. Stop right there. You don't just grab something and dart off. First, you must RP trying to take it. If they fight back, you still don't just snatch and grab. This isn't darkRP if you know what that is.

Fights, weapons, and Badass Mcoverpoweredchars
Want to punch that man in the face? You can. I suggest you don't for the fun of it, though. Punching someone is considered RDMing if you're doing it without RP. That's a hefty ban in itself. However, if you RP punching someone but don't let them react (/me punches you in the face with a mega punch) is known as powergaming. Ruins the feel, especially when it's in groups. Things tend to get heated and people get mad. You want to let people react.

Ok, so you say you found an IC knife in a dumpster. Instant weapon? Nope. People try this all the time and it shows poor RP. Admins must supervise you getting weapons of any kind. If your RP is logical enough you may find something. If you try to find a shotgun with laser sights and a super stock you may just get scolded or ignored. Weapons in this world are rare and finding working firearms that aren't in a soldiers hands are even rarer.

Kill a soldier or bandit somehow and you pick up their pistol? Rule of thumb and everything else: Shoot to miss. It makes things fun. You may want to kill a bunch of soldiers but you don't want to just kill them all in seconds. Most survivors aren't megamarksmen with training from the Grey Beards.

Looking towards the future.
You know the basics, good. This guide should have helped you better understand what you should or shouldn't do. Now it's up to you how your story unfolds. Remember, roleplaying tells a story and everyone around you is involved. You are your own main character but you aren't the main character of someone else's story. Try to be an average Joe. Make your actions hold you above you crowd, not your looks. Just be prepared. Be fair and roleplay well!