Roleplay isn't always improv, but I'll give it some thought. I haven't roleplayed in a long time, heh. EDIT: You found an ancient and unusual relic in a deep cave and rush off to show it to your friends. A buddy invites you to go exploring/adventuring with them. You've invented a new type of capacitor that allows for 30% more energy storage than current technologies and are eager to proclaim your new invention to all. You're an X merchant selling X things. You decide to set up a table outside a bar and play parlor games with people for money. A disturbing signal comes from a remote planet. You think you'll need more people if you want to investigate safely. You decide to wear black and white and hopelessly try to infiltrate the penguin regime. You receive a delivery of terrible sweaters knitted by your grandmother. You decide to try and give them away for free. You and a group of strangers decide to gather resources and build a colony together. Analyzing a particular planet's core fragments has revealed high concentrations of geurtoscin, hinting at potential manufacturing qualities.
Ok but Starbound's setting involves religious sacrifice, scientific experimentation on unwilling subjects, cannibalism, crazy cults, the killing of people for their stuff, to eat those people, and for sport, torture of prisoners, brainwashing, etc etc etc That's all stuff that happens in the setting without any RP. I don't see how any of these are any worse or better than slavery. The current PVP rules were just fine, needing admin interaction for a certain type of RP just slows down things terribly and ruins the fluidity and dynamic that RP should have.
Yeah, I can see why the slavery rule makes sense. Many times I've seen a slave trade where someone just walks up to the outpost because they heard something on the radio, buy the slave, and immediately set him free, which adds nothing to the roleplay, but the rest of the rules could make the experience... a bit... Dull. I mean, the entire point of Antares is that its a far out, unsettled land, not to mention all the dangers of the normal starbound universe, and if were all just politely asking to blow each others heads off i think it will take away most of the excitement.
First the ability to make any form of sexual innuendo is banned. Now IC elements like slavery and torture are being removed! Can't wait for combat to get a revision. Next rule's gonna be, 'be sure to get consent before roleplaying with anyone, you might scare them'.
To be fair, these are things that should've been addressed when I initially made the server and laid out as foundation rather than introduced way later after people are used to them. I made many mistakes. Atom pointed out something good though, PG-13 is a good rating to go by. It's the same rating Chucklefish uses for their forum policy.
Sexual shit being removed is fine; Slavey being removed is fine; Violence being removed is NOT fine because of the fact that Florans exist and are my favorite race to play.
Regarding people who play Florans who worry of these new rules, you shouldn't worry. Kidnapping and slavery is a bit more difficult at this point, but Florans are more than that. I'd argue that Florans have more depth to them than any other race, but unfortunately I only ever see them played as mindless creatures looking for their next meal. While I vehemently abhor snowflake Florans, and think they should just about always be violent, they are more intelligent than a mere carnivore. Play your Floran as belligerent and fierce, maybe even a monster, but put more depth into them than "Hssss meats hssss". Note the use of the word "Obscene". Regarding Florans, see the note above. Violence is allowed, just don't turn your roleplay into a low-budget horror movie.
I'm a snowflake Floran 4give me But obviousness aside. I do agree. I try to mix the idea of a smart Floran whose dealing with violent cultural urges and normal Floran behavior but is confused about the varying emotions that it feels and the morality regarding them. Where said Floran sometimes thinks 'Wow, maybe hurting people/eating organics is a bad thing!' but then goes 'No no, Chiefs say it's fine. So it's fine! Don't want to be a bad Floran. I'm a good Floran'. Then again I'm the type that vehemently believes that it all depends on how the character develops on how they end up acting. I compare RL to RP far too frequently some could say. A 'Floran should be like this!' feels like.. Like a real life stereotype, to be frank. I don't think I've seen any material that specifically states that it's in a Florans genetic code to be vicious, violent, etc (Course I could be wrong!). That's the only time I feel like it's an exception, is if it's in their genetic programming. Even then, I focus more on the morals that Florans can suffer from, as quoted from Starbounder (Website oOooO): Their aggressive nature appears to be borne from a lack of a concept of non-plant life as opposed to outright contempt. Owing to their relatively young age as a species, this tenet dominates their culture and justifies their treatment of visiting races, though there are signs of some beginning to question this, implying that Floran individuals might not be inherently “evil” as previously thought. Which is exactly why I agree with you on 'Floran have a lot of workable depth'. Morals can be twisted, cultural growth stunted, etc etc. Which is what I fiddle with, the mentality of a Floran that wants to adhere to its own culture, but is starting to question the morality of its own kind. BUT I moved way off topic there, I must return to it. Most rated MMOs or Online games in general have it in the corner that the experience may differ online. The rating may be T on the box, but in truth it can turn out to be more of an M online. A good example is World of Warcraft, which has RP that can approach very, very frightening topics depending on whom you play with. But, I digress. I just want people to understand this: I agree fully with the idea of OOC consent above all else. Although I enjoy being sporadic too. I may perhaps get into an RP that involves catching someone icly. They get caught in a trap, but tell me oocly that they don't want to be a slave or that they want to escape etc etc. The varying options I can work with are monumental. The trap goes haywire and breaks, perhaps an NPC guard is tricked to let them out, maybe they just bribe their way out of it or break through it with superior firepower. Just because a rule is in place, doesn't mean that all of the spontaneous things that can happen in RP, can't happen. Boom, you've got a semi-interesting scenario involving slavery and capturing where nobody actually gets enslaved, injured, or killed. In the end, RP is to enjoy oneself. I will, admit, that I am against the idea of needing admin permission to actually enslave someone if both players have OOC consent. A character made to be a slave, is not nearly as exciting as one made that inadvertently ends up being enslaved. Plus, it isn't hard for someone like me to work with that person on an OOC level as well. Perhaps they want to not be enslaved anymore. We can pitch ideas on how they could escape, trick, turn the tables, or beat my character. Perhaps it ends with the Slaver trying to get back their property, and failing or succeeding depending on the players OOC desires on how they want to continue the story. PS: I am very strongly against player deaths unless given OOC consent. PCs dying rarely leads to anything interesting or developing. PSS: I do agree with that I've rarely seen any slaver RP that has developed into something more. Then again, I'm new to the game. But, I believe slavers should be traceable. I believe good guys should have the power to bust down the doors and screw them over. Just like I believe slavers should be able to draw the law types into traps and turn the table. I believe there's potential for an actual slave market RP. The issue is selling the slaves to anyone without questioning who their buyer is or if their buyer is actually credible. If that happened then Slavers would see a trend of 'Hey I sell my catch, and now they're free to pretty much hunt me down if they want to. Maybe I should watch who I sell them to!'.
Avis has laid things out perfectly. We're not asking you to not attack people, or even maim and hurt people, we're asking you to do it in a way that isn't unnecessarily visceral and gruesome. If you want to cut off someone's arm, don't roleplay every tendon being sawed through or the blood or the viscera of it. Roleplay taking the arm. We're not saying don't be violent, just be violent in a way that makes the server less into Saw 103. And always get consent.
Basically like, instead of saying "The Floran rips the arm off the body and eats it, blood splatters everywhere" you can say, "The Floran grabs the arm and does what a Floran does."?
Dang, I need to tone down the medical surgery RP's. As far as Florans go, I like the happy middle: clueless and ignorant of other cultures, but not incredibly hostile because others are more fun alive than dead (most of the time).
I don't think surgery RP falls under "obscene violence", unless you know it's grossing someone out. Then you might want to simplify a bit. WE GOOD.
You were never under mugwumps knife. She goes out of her way to make you cringe sometimes. I just looked at it as motivation to not get hurt again.
Surgery can be waaay nastier then torture, depending on how hardcore the surgeon is. Cringe-surgery makes me think of one time, on another RP, my character's organs (And eyes, geez.) got surgery'd out while he was awake. Now that was some incentive not to go under the knife.
