An Overview of How to Roleplay on Livejournal

Role playing on LiveJournal is a unique experience compared to tabletop gaming or MUD adventuring. There are no dice, no stats, and nearly everything is player-driven -- especially since the moderators are players at the same time. It's more like event-driven story writing or verbal acting. There are typically two separate environments: the journal environment, and the "physical" world that your character exists in. The interaction between these environments is what makes up the game.

1. Learn how to play, if you don't know already. For how to play with journals, see here. For how to write logs, see here. If you're still confused, try looking around the comms and seeing what other people are doing.

2. Get a feel for the game's setting by looking at the campus map and reading the FAQ. (Pay particular attention to the Arrivals section, since you'll need to know that information for when you first start playing your character.) If you have any questions, leave them there!

3. Make sure you know what isn't allowed. Read the rules. For more information on godmoding, see the bottom of this page.

4. Decide on a character. If the character you want to play is taken, check the adoptions page -- they might be up for grabs after all, or someone might have a character journal you can use. If not, try the requested characters page. A lot of people will be really happy if you pick a character from that list! It isn't at all mandatory, of course. 

5. Once you've decided on what character you want to play (make sure you brush up on their history!), submit an application. If you can't manage to apply for a few days, but you want to make sure no one else claims your character before you, put in a reservation.

6. After the mod has approved you, your e-mail address will be added as an account on the Wiki. If you don't know how to edit Wiki pages, take a look at the tutorial. Create a LiveJournal for your character, and use it to join the main comm, the OOC comm, and the log comm, and friend the taken characters if you would like to.

7. You then need to put your contact information on the Wiki, and assign your character a dorm room. Make use of the neat LJ stuff, if you'd like, or poke your head into chat or the OOC comm to meet the other players. New players usually make introduction posts on the OOC comm, but it's not necessary.

8. Then you just play! For fun, check out Step 4 on the Main Page of the Wiki. If you need to get rid of a character, leave, or take a break, use the hiatus and drop form. If you have ideas for improving the comm, or problems with a mod or another player, you can leave a comment on the suggestions and complaints post.

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Godmoding - Godmoding is the term used whenever a player gives their character an unfair advantage in a situation, either by giving them absurdly powerful abilities, or by dictating the actions of another player. Godmoding most frequently takes place in fight logs, and events where secrecy is involved. Original characters are most prone to godmoding, because there is more or less no canon dictating what they can or cannot do--because of this, players of original characters (or OCs) must be more careful about putting restrictions on their characters. However, some very strong canon characters, such as Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7, or Master Chief from HALO, can also be prone to godmodding--even accidentally. Master Chief may be an excellent shot, but if he's suddenly startled, or knocked into, he's still likely to miss his target. Sephiroth is very strong and powerful, but he still bleeds and can be injured, and has been defeated by other characters in his canon. These are things to keep in mind when playing powerful characters. By that same token, a character who is physically weak that tackles another character that's much heavier is not likely to knock said character over.

Action jumping is a form of godmoding where you take the choice of a character's action away from their player. Keep in mind that the player of a character typically knows best what their character is capable of, and it's best to leave the decision up to them. For example, you can say your character throws a punch at another character, but you cannot say whether the punch connects--that is up to the other player. Most players are fair and will let the punch connect if the character really is unlikely to be able to stop it. If you think a player is being unfair about their character's reaction, or if you know their character really well and don't think that they're playing them the way they should, you can call the other player on OOC-ness. This does not mean that you confront another player every single time their character says something you don't think the character should have said--no one is capable of being perfectly IC, and if the OOCness isn't blaringly obvious or affecting your ability to play, you should leave it alone.

Another way godmoding comes into abilities is if a character has too many different abilities, or has a knowledge ability, such as the ability to read minds or otherwise gather information about a character without the other character knowing. Keep in mind that if your character can see in the dark, fire ki balls, defy gravity, grow claws, fly, transform, and speak to animals, you're probably godmoding. If your character knows everything about everything at a whim, that's also godmodding. Good storytelling (and RPing) always has restrictions involved, because observing how the characters work around the restrictions is what makes things interesting.

A final way of godmoding (usually unintentionally) is mixing up your IC knowledge and your OOC knowledge. If you as a player know of a meeting that's going to take place, but your character hasn't seen any notices or had it mentioned to them by another character, they will not know that meeting is going to take place. Deliberately trying to manipulate events or make your character act OOC so that the character can get the knowledge you already have can also contribute to godmoding.

If you're ever in a situation where you suspect that you might be godmoding, please feel free to ask a mod for advice, or discuss the situation with the person you're playing with.