Some RP Guidelines

I know that there are a lot of RP groups out there, and also some people that may want to start up their own RP group.


Please keep in mind that these are just some general guidelines and things that we do for our group. This isn't saying that you have to follow these guidelines if you have a group of your own, it just makes things easier for us.


Our group has three rules:


1. No drama in the public feed. If you have an argument with someone, take it to DMs or somewhere else off the feed. Take it to your blog. Take it to e-mail. Take it to chat. Handle it however you want to, but do not have the drama fest in the feed. Period.

2. No unauthorized jacking - a lot of times when one of our characters signs off, you'll see them say something like "So and so has jacking rights." This is especially true if someone has to leave in the middle of a scene. The reason that we do this is so that the other players are not stuck mid-scene. They can move things along even if they are missing a player.


"Jacking" is short for "hijacking" - one player saying that another player is doing or saying something. 


Jacking another player (unless permission was given) is a definite no-no in our group. If I see it happening, and I have not seen permission given in the feed, I am very quick to send a DM and make sure that prior permission was given between the two parties.
      

There's a reason for this. Several, actually. The first is just that it's common courtesy. The second reason is it can disrupt a person's storyline if they are jacked.  It can disrupt a storyline that is already planned for the future, or it can disrupt a part of the character's back story.


3. Keep it PG-13 in the public feed - I do not have a problem at all if somebody wants to cybersex. I honestly don't. In fact, there are some cyber feeds I enjoy watching.


However, in the public feed (for our group), I ask that everybody keeps things PG-13. 


Why? Well, we do have subscribers for the RSS feed that don't want to see anything over PG-13. They subscribe to the feed for the storylines, and they really just don't want to see anything graphic.


Another reason is because of the fact that anyone can see the public feed - including minors. It just makes me feel a little squicked out to think that minors could be reading stuff that was adult in nature, simply by doing a Twitter search (for something that was sci-fi related, for example).


Still another reason is the fact that we do have some players that are under 18. I can't control what they do if it doesn't involve the RPG, but I can ask that they keep things PG-13 when it comes to RPG activity.


That's pretty much it. We don't have a requirement as far as activity is concerned (although if someone is going to be away for a while, it's nice if they check in every so often). We don't have a requirement as far as clearing storylines with the group leader (as long as the no jacking rule is followed, of course). 


I hope this helps to answer some questions. Feel free to leave comments.