An overview of our role-play
Forces of the Empire is an interactive role-play club. We do most of our
role play at a distance, as our members are scattered throughout the country
(and the world). So how then, you might ask, do you role-play? And a
good question it would be too.
A great deal of the role-play that goes on throughout the year occurs
by Aol Instant Messenger or through our E-Mail lists.
For those members not online, it may occur through snail mail. Someone
will come up with an idea, mail it to the others who might be
involved, who will respond with what their characters will do in
response to the idea, and so on. Sometimes this kind of thing will
happen over the phone, though it does get expensive.
When everyone involved in a scenario has worked out what will happen, one
of a number of things could happen: Nothing (everyone involved knows
what happened, what more do you need?), or they may publish an account of
what happened in the newsletter, or they might get together and write a
story about it that could be published in the club fanzine, or
newsletter, or just distributed to those interested.
We also do live action role-plays. This may be as
simple as getting
together for a weekend and role-playing our characters, or as complicated
as the Blaster Battle at
MediaWest*Con.
Here are some of the things to keep in mind when role-playing with us
(rules, if you will):
- You must be able to separate in-character and
out-of-character information.
- in-character information is information you learn
while playing a certain character.
Only that character can act on that information. If
you have more than one character, only the character who learned the
information can act on it, unless you have a good
in-character reason your two characters have met and shared information.
- out-of-character information is information you learn
while not playing
your character. Information such as is contained in a persona bio, or if
someone tells you in advance what they are going to do. Out-of-character
information
cannot be acted upon by any character, unless that character knows the
information in-character.
- You must get permission from all players who's personas
are involved in a story you've written before the club will print it (and
you should get permission before you print anything your self).
This is to make sure everyone's characters don't do something out of
character in someone else's story. If the person requests any changes in
their persona, you must
make the changes, try to work it out with them (if what they are doing is
vital to the story), or drop that persona all together.
- You cannot kill another player's persona without
their permission. We spend too much time creating our personas to have
them killed out of hand.
- Discuss plot lines and storys with everyone involved. This is just
good communication. And besides, it is more fun the more people are
involved.
- As the club encourages creativity. It is very important that everyone
respect each other's ideas and characters.
- And above all, have fun!.
This isn't really as bad as all the rules make it sound. Once you get
into the club, and begin role-playing you will get a feel for how things
work.
On to A list of In-Character
Divisions, or
back to Club Structure
Back to FoE page