Gor RP Etiquette (Rules)

There are some significant differences in our role-play etiquette then you may be familiar with if you come from a standard role-play communities. Such difference include a difference in the way we communicate with each other out of character, how we handle thought-emotes, meta-gaming, power gaming, and OOC limits. You will be expected to understand these differences.

Respect the Fiction

Even though most Gorean role-play communities do not require applications, do not confuse this for a lack of dedication to the fiction. Instead, accept it as an opportunity to learn the fiction while role-playing RESPECTFULLY with us. Gorean roleplayers are every bit as invested in their chosen lore and fiction as any other roleplayer is, be it Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, or Elder Scrolls. As such, there is an often unspoken, but universally expected, covenant between the roleplayers to uphold certain standards for maintaining immersion. Perhaps more than some other communities, if you come into Gor RP with a flippant or disrespectful approach, you will be met with hostility often crossing into the realm of OOC.

This desire to immerse ourselves in the fiction rolls over into OOC communication in what maybe called Immersive OOC. In many Gorean RP communities, including ours, there is a certain desire to maintain Gorean aesthetics and etiquette. There is polite formality between players that has a heightened sense of courtesy, where terms like Sir, Ma'am, Lady, girl, Master, Jarl and Mistress are used. In most communities, especially ours, this is not a requirement but rather a style of OOC interaction that lightly maintains immersion even when not in character.

Strict Separation Between IC and OOC?

It’s important to note that some in our community prefer to strictly separate IC and OOC and are not themselves a part of lifestyle crossover that is prevalent in Gorean roleplay. However, it is expected that these role-players adapt to the community, and not the other way around. If you want to be a respected and constructive member of a Gorean role-play community, like ours, you will wish to approach OOC interaction in a respectful way that maintains immersion.

Empowerment

Rather than telling role-players what not to do and thus putting the responsibility of dealing with the rule break on the staff, older communities educated players on how to handle it themselves.

Metagaming

Metagaming is the exchange of information from in character to out of character or vice versa. In modern role-play communities metagaming is punished by the admins.

However, on Barbarians of Gor, the admins will allow the players to act in-character on knowledge of your metagaming. This means if they find out that you, the player, betrayed someone’s trust, we are giving them permission to respond to your OOC metagaming with IC consequences.

Negative Thought Emotes

When someone role-plays what is called a “negative thought emote” it’s considered cowardly. Instead of complaining about it to a moderator you have permission to respond to what they “thought emoted” to you as if they said it outloud. Having used this rule for years, I’ve discovered it’s a really fast way to get players to stop doing this.

Forceful Roleplay or Godmodding

God modding is when you force a role-play action onto another player with the assumption that it will be as you role-played. A common example of this is *punches Bob in the face* rather then *attempts to punch Bob in the face*.

Rather than fussing about the way things were worded, you are simply NOT OBLIGATED to accept any role-play action done to your character which circumvents your options to respond. So in the case above, don’t give them a hard time about how they worded it, simply *block the incoming punch*.

If the players can’t get on page with this … well that’s why we are a PvP server with the option to knock someone out.

Superman or Mary Sue role-play

Also known as powergaming, this type of role-play is when someone claims to do everything, or have everything, or solve everything. This issue has not changed much over the years, and people still get annoyed by it. Keeping in theme with our empowerment, we recommend the following:

You don’t have to accept what they say if you don’t believe it. If it has a game mechanic solution you can expect them to put their money where their mouth is. For example, if some guy says he can bring 10 men to an upcoming fight, you are well within your right to expect some combination of 10 players and thralls to show up. If someone says they are an amazing cook and can make the best meal in the land, you can expect them to produce one of the exotic feasts in game.

For everything else, we agree it’s annoying, and we are willing to take the player aside and educate them, but you still have to find a way to deal with it, even if it means ignoring them.

And now onto the rest of it.

Standard RP Etiquette Rules

Role-play Punctuation

It is considered good manners to differentiate between dialog, emotes and ooc comments. Please use quotes around dialog, asterisks around emotes, or parentheses around ooc comments when necessary to indicate a change of format within a single post.

Role-Playing a Dialect or Language

Please be understanding that we have new players in our community so keep your use of typed dialects to "flavor words" that allows others to understand you via context.

Disruptive Roleplay

Disruptive Roleplay has little to do with conflict per se, but has more to do with one or two people telling a completely different story than the scene is called or planned for. Just as one might be watching a play, there is a general understanding that the actors on the stage are engaged in a single scene where the audience can follow along with the unfolding storyline.

Role-play is deemed disruptive when the focus is forced to constantly shift back and forth between what the primary actors are doing, and what is going on in the sidelines. When it becomes difficult to follow the main plot, the other plot is considered disruptive. If done intentionally to troll, moderators will step in.

Disrupting Events

Do not interrupt events that took planning such as companionships (weddings), religious events, markets, and festivals, etc. If an event is marked as peace-bound don’t raid or disrupt. These types of events are important for a community, and those few willing to run them work hard to do so, pissing them off by ruining the event isn’t good for anyone.

OOC Limits

We will not be allowing personal limits that contradict with what can happen in the books, instead we maintain the following server wide limits:

Challenge as Ungorean

Players may challenge any scene which involves actions which are not Gorean. As much as I love a good blood-eagle scene, players are able to challenge it for not being Gorean. If challenged, I would have to pick a more Gorean style of torture. Obviously, if you think the action is in theme for Gor, don’t challenge needlessly.

If the situation is not resolved by a simple challenge, and you can not extricate yourself from the scene without impacting it, please open a moderation ticket in discord so we can discuss it.

Right to Fade to Black or Fast Forward

Players have the right to “fade to black” on any scene that is more detailed than is found in the books. Fade to black means that you opt to be excluded from the details of a role-play scene and is similar to “fast forward” where you ask to skip the middle details and go to the end of the scene.

The Gorean books do not detail sex, punishment, torture or death. Consequently, you are not obligated to participate in a level of detail you don’t enjoy.

Capture Intent

This server allows for the intentional capture of a player with the use of a truncheon. You are obligated to schedule at least two hours of role-play with the captured player to happen within the next 24 hours. If this can not be arranged due to time zones or scheduling conflicts, you must allow them to escape or agree to keep a clan NPC in their place.

No “capture role-play” can go beyond three days. During those three days the captured must be allowed reasonable access to the clan role-play, either by being caged in a public RP spot, give dedicated RP sessions or allowed to move around freely as a captive. Consequences are good, sitting in a cage for a week with nothing to do - is not.

At the end of three days, the “capture roleplay” must end and the captive must be able to fully re-engage in as much role-play as they wish, i.e. send them home or bring them into your clan (typically as a slave).

Note that this rule only applies to two parties who aren't necessarily on page with the RP being provided. If you and your new RP partner/antagonist are having a good time and are on board with however the RP is going, it should go without saying that you should ignore this rule. This rule covers what admins will enforce and what you as players should generally expect from each other.

Perma-death/Maiming

In our experience FORCING a player to take a perma-death (or to role-play with a character negating effect such as maiming) is tantamount to the player either rage quitting or being banned. Consequently, we are not going to put non-consensual perma-death into the rules. Instead, we will simple handle it as admins with the player directly.

If a role-play or PvP situation devolves to such an extent that the only solution appears to be the perma-death of another character, please open a discord ticket and reach out.

Otherwise, if it happened in the books it can happen here.