At Mischief Managed, we are open to all styles of roleplay, as well as all experience levels. Whether we’re your first roleplay experience or you para-RP, your style and contribution are welcome here. That being said, there are a few basic courtesies that we do ask you to observe. There are also some terms thrown around that, to a new roleplayer, might be unfamiliar. Please read below to learn more.
BASIC ROLEPLAY DEFINITIONS
GOD MODDING
- God modding is being immune to all types of influence or injury. You are almighty, nothing can hurt you or bring you down. This is not acceptable roleplay behavior at Mischief Managed and is dealt with OOC consequences.
IC
- Abbreviation for “In Character”. Anything that involves what happens while roleplaying is IC.
METAGAMING
- Metagaming is simply taking knowledge that you gained OOCly and bringing it ICly. For instance, a friend tells you a plot that went on between a friend and someone else where you were not involved. Reading a tag immediately knowing their name (Though the exception to this is if you are in the same year and house, you would most likely know their name). Any knowledge not gained through RP is not knowledge you know ICly. This is not acceptable roleplay behavior at Mischief Managed and is dealt with OOC consequences.
NPCS
- NPC is short for Non-player character, meaning that these are characters not played by actual players.
- We know that every now and then it looks as though no Professors/Students are around. But please remember that the castle is always filled with NPCs. So please role play as such. Just because it looks empty does not mean it has to be. Unless a Professor/Student specifically roleplays or give you permission to believe they are not around, you are to act as if they are. You are also to act as if the castle is constantly filled with NPCs. Remember, Hogwarts has ~400 students at any one time, so just because there are 25 roleplayers on sim does not mean there are only 25 students at Hogwarts.
- Every now and then it is possible that a player takes that role temporarily to fill in a gap or a scene, they might be mentioned in posts without being actually visible to your eye. For example using an NPC nurse within a post as you are role playing in the Hospital Wing. As long as you do not name a specific player character within that post, it can be a valid NPC.
From time to time staff at the sim or roleplayers will create NPC accounts. These accounts are made purely for IC scenario or plots. They do not hold any depth and/or any story behind them other than plot points nor do they have the ability to have a hud, a permanent role in students daily life etc. These characters generally do not appear always and are always there for some sort of reason. If you wish to be part of a plot and roleplay an NPC please speak to a member of staff. All NPC characters that wish to become fully role-playable characters must go through the application process.
OOC
- Abbreviation for “Out of Character”. Anything that happens while in sim but NOT during roleplay is OOC.
- Please remember when you are role playing to keep your OOC chatter to IMs. If you absolutely need to say something OOCly then use the OOC channel on the chatter by typing “/33 WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY”, or by using ((OOC HERE)). It is a common courtesy to other RPers around you.
POWERGAMING
- A powergamer is a roleplay whose main interest revolves around going on a power trip. They often enjoy portraying characters such as, but not limited to: Powerful wizards, all knowing in every special ability, etc. Powergamers often never display any flaws or weaknesses in their characters.
- This is not accepted at Mischief Managed – you most certainly may be skilled, but you must be realistic in your character development. It is dealt with OOC consequences.
RP
- Abbreviation for “Roleplay”. This is when you act out your story through emotive messages.
STYLES OF ROLEPLAY
ONE-LINE EXAMPLE
Brenna Morrigan looks around as she walks up to the Hogwarts Express and spots her friend. “Hey Emma! How was your summer?”
SEMI-LINE EXAMPLE
Brenna Morrigan rubs her tummy as she hears the dinner bell chime in the Great Hall. Once arriving, she walks to her house table and sits down, leaning forward to grab a roll off the table. As Brenna sees her fellow housemates, she gives them a short wave. “Hey, how have your classes been so far?”
PARA EXAMPLE
Brenna Morrigan walks through the doors of the potions room, gathering all of her belongings and placing them at her feet before pulling out her parchment and quills. She was not ready for classes to begin again! Her head was still in the clouds from having such a wonderful summer. Yet, here she was, back in her robes, in class waiting for the Professor to begin with another boring lecture. Brenna sighs heavily as she rests her elbows on the table and starts to draw little drawings all over her parchment. Her attention was drawn to the door when she heard it pushed open and she spotted her best friend Hannah walking into the classroom. “About time you got here!” She said quietly as she grinned at her friend.
ROLEPLAY ETIQUETTE
BE LENIENT IN YOUR ROLEPLAY
It’s more fun to roleplay when you know those you’re engaging with aren’t researching every spell you cast to see its validity. Be realistic and true to Harry Potter canon, but be trusting.
RP SHORTER POSTS IN CLASS
Class roleplay is a different beast from standard one-on-one or group roleplay. For one, there’s often not an order. The professor will post at regular intervals, and it’s your job to get your roleplay in quickly enough to be relevant to the class. You do NOT need to roleplay after every professor post. Roleplay at a pace with which you are comfortable. It’s also courteous to post no larger than a solid paragraph when roleplaying in class. Since there may be 10+ people all trying to get the most out of the class, shortening your standard 3-paragraph RPs to just 1 is a nice thing to do. It’s easier for the professor and your classmates to engage with and ensures you get your post out in time to be relevant. You do not have to shorten your posts; but, do not expect others to wait for you or the professor to acknowledge you if your posts are consistently behind those of everyone else.
DO-NOTS IN ROLEPLAY
CHAT BOXING
Chat boxing is when you just talk in local without using any sort of emotion. (ie. [10:30] Brenna Morrigan: Hey, what are you guys doing?). There should always be a short action in your roleplay when one-line roleplaying. A proper example would be the following (ie. [10:32] Brenna Morrigan waves as she sees her group of friends. “Hey! What are you guys doing?”) Machine Gun RP also applies to this.
MACHINE GUN RP
This is when you are talking over and over again before giving anyone a chance to respond. You should post one, and only one, post before waiting for your next turn.
GO OUT OF ORDER
Do not go out of order when RPing. A courtesy to RPers around you is to follow a simple order. Of course this usually does not apply in classes, for example. If wishing to join a group of RPers that are already immersed, it never hurts to IM them and politely ask the order of the RP and where you can come in.
TELL SOMEONE TO CHANGE THEIR STYLE OF RPING
If someone RPs in a style that you do not like, you can simply walk away and not chose to RP with them, or you can adjust your style however you feel fit to meet theirs. This is entirely up to the player — no one is forced to Roleplay a certain style, and anyone found attempting to change the way someone roleplays will face OOC consequences. An exception to this is if the roleplayer is chatboxing, machine gun RPing, or taking a long time between posts (10+ minutes). If it’s to try and streamline the RP session, it’s okay to discuss the best style of RP for the current moment.
TITLERS
These should say simply YOUR CHARACTER NAME on the first line, and your House and Year on the 2nd line. If you have a position such as Prefect, Head Boy or Girl that can go underneath on the second line as well. The ONLY exception is if you have some trait that would be visibly or audibly obvious but might not be apparent on your avatar. Examples would be a large scar or speaking with a lisp. This can go on a third line, but nothing else!
FIRST PERSON ROLEPLAY
Mischief Managed is strictly a third person roleplay perspective. When roleplaying, you should write your paragraphs as if telling a story. For example: ”/me i went and i sat down on the bench as i pulled out my wand and cried.” is not an acceptable form of roleplay. ”/me went and sat down on the bench as she pulled out her wand and began to cry to herself.” is acceptable.
Posting In
As a rule of thumb, unless it’s agreed upon, we politely ask people don’t post others into a scene as you may not know if they plan to be around or if they may be busy. To check we encourage you to IM someone and ask if they’re happy to be posted into a scene. We also ask that you wait and assess a scene before posting into it. Who knows, someone may be unconscious on the floor with a potato up their nose and you’ve just said “Hey! How’s it going guys?”