Roleplay

From Space Station 14 Wiki

Roleplaying or ‘RP’ is where one acts as another character, making choices regarding the character’s actions, dialogue, etc, and interacting with other players’ characters in the form of a story. Roleplaying is like acting, or like writing a story with characters that you make up and control. It is important to not break character, and to remove as much personal bias you have while playing your character so that your character makes choices that they would, not that you would.

Commands

You can IC communicate via speaking, telepathy or Radio using the following keys:

Command Type Definition
. IC Speaking
, IC Whispering
; IC Radio

Terms

Refer to Slang for roleplay terms / slang.

Character Creation

Making a character can be simple for creative people, but harder for those who aren’t sure how to go about it. You can use a character/personality generator and go from there. You can also use a name generator, appearance generator, and more. However, if you want to start from scratch, here are some things to keep in mind:

Personality

This is the most important part of a character, since it is the back and bone of how you’re going to play the game. Keep in mind what job they might be doing and what personality traits will be best for that role. It would be unwise to have a character who hates science, but is a scientist, although that might be funny to play, so why not? Character creation is entirely up to you and it can make the game more fun for everyone. History is not so much needed since rounds are quick and restart often, where your character will forget everything that happened in that round. You’ll also be busy doing your job and things within the station that your history will be less - if at all - mentioned or talked about. You can have a brief understanding of a history if you like, but not much more is needed. There are also short history generators that can help with that.

Name & Appearance

Keep in mind when creating a name that it is something original, and not taken from celebrities or anyone else you can think of. Make it original! Appearance of course you can just have fun with, that one is easy.

In Character

Make sure you always stay IC (in character). If you break character, that will be what people may call ‘Fail RP’ or something akin to that. If you need to leave the computer to do something, exit the situation from others by making up an excuse, such as, “I’ll be right back.” and then go AFK somewhere safe within the station. You can let others know out of character by typing in Local OOC (out of character) chat.

Out of Character

When talking in local/global OOC chat, do NOT discuss anything that is happening within the round/IC. If you do, that is what is called metagaming, and it is against the rules. It is okay to talk OOC regarding questions about general gameplay, or to just ask in the appropriate discord channel. Try not to use OOC that much, it’s a roleplaying game, so roleplay!

Metagaming

Metagaming is knowledge obtained OOC and using it IC. You may not do this, as it is against the Server Rules. Examples of metagaming:

  • Obtaining information through your friend in voice chat as to their current location, or if they’re being attacked and ‘need help,’ and then going to them/helping them based on your OOC voice communication.
  • Taking knowledge talked about before a round starts like “my character is evil,” “oh, mine is too,” “let’s work together.” Rather than having that conversation - if it were to happen - in character.
  • Taking a Ghost Role and using your memories of your past life. e.g. taking revenge on the person who killed you or using your pointer emote to guide security to a Syndicate member
  • Being Cloned and "remembering" what happened whilst you were in critical condition, dead or as a ghost.

Examples of NON-metagaming:

  • Consulting the wiki about any questions or information you may need during a round.
  • Asking staff using the Admin Help (aHelp) feature about something happening in the round or game.