Roleplay Rules

Consent-Based Roleplay

Major consequences require player consent. Significant impacts on a character or their assets, friends, or hometowns cant be imposed without player approval. Players should know though, that exposing their assets and vulnerabilities does invite reprisals. Consent-based roleplay is meant to keep things into a roughly shared comfort zone, not shield a character from all consequences.

For some examples:

Extreme Injury or Death: Characters can suffer injuries but must be able to recover. Major damage requiring long-term recovery needs player consent. What that looks like can vary wildly from character to character due to differences in physiology, and abilities, and access to advanced medical care. A broken leg (or worse) for Batman can be devastating without the intervention of fantastical healing. That same broken leg, for Alexander Anderson, isnt even worth talking about. Our games setting can provide very advanced medical care and player characters and their Worlds often do the same, which softens the impact of this kind of consequence. Thats a good thing, but isnt a license to go overboard and having characters constantly ending up on deaths door

Disempowerment: A characters powers/abilities cant be unilaterally taken away/nullified without darned good reason. It could be part of a greater narrative or challenge, such as having to win a fight in the anti-magic zone, or adventure in Zeldas Dark World despite its transformative effects. Situations like this need to be cool and engaging, not a complete bummer.

Imprisonment: Since being fully and properly imprisoned makes a character effectively unplayable, its not to be done casually. This is probably the setup for a breakout plot if it does show up.

The Kryptonite Clause: Exploiting a characters major weaknesses requires consent and should aim for a good story.

The Rabbit Hole: Deeper bad situations lead to harder-to-avoid consequences. High-risk scenarios are not easily escaped from or hand-waved by consent. It shouldnt be easy to wander into these - one usually doesnt accidentally end up in Emperor Palpatines Throne Room surrounded by the imperial guard.

Rated Whatever for Adults

Keep public RP at a roughly PG-13 level. Scenes should align with the tone of modern superhero or action movies. Explicit or shocking content requires prior consent and warnings. If someones not comfortable with a situation they have the right to excuse themselves and/or fade to black their characters involvement.

Public Tone: Action, drama, and mild romance are fine. Avoid gratuitously overblown descriptions of guts and gore horror shows and explicit sexual content in public scenes.

Exceptions: Plots can have mature themes but must be consensual and warned about in advance. On the flipside, a scene set in Dreamland (Kirby series) would likely benefit from avoiding heavy topics and embracing the lighthearted aspects. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, as they say.

Sidebar: Wait, TS is allowed?

Technically, yes, TS (TinySex, aka erotic roleplay) is allowed on Convergence MUSH. Its allowed in the sense that its not strictly banned. However, we strongly discourage it. Many games ban it for a good reason. We simply haven't, because we think it's futile to do so, and an unnecessary breach of privacy to go looking for it.

That said, it SHALL NOT be showing up on public channels, public roleplay logs, etc, and it sure as hell shouldn't involve any characters who aren't of the proper age. Really, if someone else can stumble upon the act in progress, youre probably doing it wrong.

If TS is what you're primarily here for, this may not be the MUSH for you. However, there are adult-only MUSHes like Shangri-La, Penultimate Destiny, and Naughty Muffin, which cater to TS.

Communication is Key

Clear communication is at the heart of all successful roleplaying. Share scene intentions and styles to keep things cohesive. Read the room and seek to understand a scenes focus. Avoid disrupting the flow or resolution of a plot prematurely. Heroes and villains should both have their times to shine - in good stories, villains usually have the advantage up until the finale, after all. Your character might have abilities or knowledge that could change everything in the current scene or plot - if so, its good to ask those involved if thats something they want to work with.

Be Cool to Each Other

There will inevitably be friction over time and disagreements about things. Just remember that there is in fact a human on the other side of that monitor that youre dealing with and that its far better to find ways to resolve things in a positive manner for everyone. If you need a moderator or something to help, dont hesitate to contact staff.

There's Room on the Stage for Everyone

Characters aren't made equal. Some are badass normals, some have absurd superpowers, and some are wizards that create pocket dimensions. Thats perfectly fine! However, making sure theres room for everyone to contribute and express themselves often makes for a better story. Players of characters with extreme and absurd powers should be careful to not hog the stage and trivialize things for their co-stars. Even without such characters on the field though, a certain degree of confidence is needed to step forward and find a place for your own character in an ongoing story.

Sidebar: Wait, there's no balance effect?

In the sense of there being some kind of external force - whether natural or artificially imposed - which arbitrates between Worlds and dictates that Mario can punch out Superman - no, there is not. No IC phenomenon is present to enable such. If Superman should somehow come to blows with Mario, though, Superman's player should be open to getting some nasty surprises that may leave the Man of Steel flinching and rethinking this engagement - only for the whole thing to be called off as some more important matter arises. Its assumed that most characters, in most engagements, arent putting everything on the line, and thus are likely to retreat or take a few lumps than engage in an all-out deathmatch. It is perfectly acceptable, and encouraged, to lean more on rule of cool for conflicts between what seem to be wildly disparate matchups, because that is what battles between epic characters ought to be and WOULD be presented as in a movie or book. One-sided curbstomps are only useful if it serves a narrative purpose, after all. The Challenge Resolution System, however, and its guidelines for assigning Ability values does in effect create a de facto flattening of the curve. This system is intended to be used for PvE, however, not PvP. There is a dedicated combat system planned that does not adhere to the same values.