Degrees of Courtesy in Role Playing in Regards to Other Players

One thing that has me baffled in role playing is how much one can manipulate and control characters that are not one's own. While it is generally accepted that killing others' characters is out-of-bounds, everything less than that is fairly grey territory. Is it considered rude to attack another character, and have the attack hit? How about have the effects of the attack play out? How about for things that aren't attacks, or if the person is a friendly character?

To present a hypothetical situation, Goku is my character, while Vegeta and Gohan are controlled by separate players. I've put differing degrees of infringement on the other characters at different areas. Please tell me where I have overstepped the margin, and what I should have done instead. The post is not horribly written, and mostly conforms to canon in regards to techniques and the like. (My Goku is a tad OoC, but ignore that for the time being.)

 

In common practice, yes, it is considered extremely rude for one to assume control over another person's character, under most circumstance. This would include forcing hits on them, stating their reactions, thoughts and/or feelings in light of events and such. But there are exceptions. In the example you've given it could be excused for the sake of plot purposes, which might have called for Goku winning the fight, or otherwise, it might have been arranged by the players to have it happen. But in any case, if I were Vegeta's player, I'd have been annoyed that the other person followed through with my character's recovery and such.

 

Yes, but to what extent? Should I only say, "Goku use instant transmission, intending to reappear behind Vegeta's back" so as to give the person a chance to react to it? Or is it acceptable to go so far as to grip Vegeta's leg? What about getting the crab to grab Gohan? Dealing with the threat of the crab?

I'm certain I would be eviscerated if I were to post that entry into someone else's RP. I'm more interested in what I can do, and where to draw the line. Otherwise we get situations such as:

"Goku tensed, preparing to teleport behind Vegeta"
"Vegeta noticed Goku tensing, and wondered what Goku was going to do."
"Goku raised his fingers to his temples to trigger the technique."
"Vegeta saw Goku raise his fingers, and started gathering his energy to do an area attack."
"Goku sensed Vegeta gathering energy, and pulled out of his technique."
"Vegeta saw Goku relax, so he too dispersed his gathered energy."
"Noticing that Vegeta's guard was down, Goku started to charge an attack..."
Ad infinitum.

This becomes even harder if you're in an extended/lengthy RP, in which long posts are obligatory, and you desire to cover multiple actions in a single entry. So I'm assuming there's a fine line between convenience and powerplay. I'm trying to figure out where that line is, so I can get as much stuff done as possible without worrying about whether my posts go into the realm of powerplay.

 

DBZ probably isn't the best canon to use as an example. There's a whole lot of leeway for any person to justify their character's ability to unconditionally mount and succeed in their attacks, while at the same time allowing the same opportunity for another character to evade that attack. This is due to the high speed nature of DBZ cI'm at. In light of the powerplaying, you would in fact need to state that Goku, whilst behind Vegeta, reached to grip his leg. From there you would have to, in someway, state or insinuate the following move as something that WOULD happen, if Vegeta didn't or wasn't able to do something. That gives you're opponent in that battle the chance to evade, while also clarifying that they'd have to take some sort of hit unless they had a very good reason out of it. And in your situation, any decently courteous RPer would at least acknowledge the sneak attack and get thrown, even if only to recover before hitting the ground. Granted that you're likely to have a longer battle on your hands. It sounds tedious, but when you're up against sensible RPers, then it works quite well.

To hit on the situation with Gohan, that one is, for the most part, a no-no. You can say the island shook from the giant crab but you can't say that another person's character(s) were knocked off balance. That's just outright powerplaying, and there's no real way to justify it.

 

I'm usually a bit lenient on that kind of thing in my RolePlays. Certain things, like Goku throwing Vegeta into a wall after it, would be a bit much, but if Goku teleported behind Vegeta, grabbed his leg, and threw him, I wouldn't see a problem, especially if it said that he "threw Vegeta towards" something instead of implying Vegeta hit it.

Of course, there's the other end of it where a player will have his character avoid any attack or will suffer an attack but with little damage.

 

I think I'm getting the basic idea. It's more the subtle things that baffle me.

For example, I like to do multiple things in one post. So lets say the following occurs:

Person A (playing Kouta): Kouta turned to Nyuu and asked her, "Nyuu, do you remember what you did to me?" He couldn't bear to forgive Lucy, but he knew Nyuu hadn't done anything to him. His hand went to the bulge in his pocket, feeling for his gun, ready to take vengeance if she remembered anything.

Person B (playing Nana): Nana was camping in the backyard. She had a tent, sleeping bag and everything. All she had to do was make the campfire, and she was set. She walked into the house, past Kouta and Nyuu, to the communal supply of money for the month. She filled a bucket with the green notes and stumbled out the door, telling the two, "Nana is going to light the camp fire!" Nana then went back to her site, put a couple of sticks into the bucket, struck a match and dropped it in.

Person C (playing Nyuu): Nyuu answered Kouta nonchalantly, "You mean that stuff about killing your family and traumatising you? Yeah, Lucy told me." At that point, Nana stumbled through with the money. After a few seconds, it hit her. "Nana's going to burn the monthly supply!" Nyuu dashed out out the house, towards Nana's site, to see Nana strike a match and drop it into the bucket. "Noo!" Nyuu yelled, as she launched a flying-kick at the bucket of notes, sending the aflame notes flying all over the garden.

Has Person B powerplayed by not giving the two a chance to react to her collecting and subsequent burning of the money? Has Person C powerplayed by denying Kouta his chance to take revenge, in order to deal with the threat of money burning? Is Person C allowed to 'resolve' a thread of action (conversation) in order to deal with another (money) in a single post? I do this sort of thing quite often, so I'm trying to figure out whether it's incredibly irritating, but no one's telling me, or whether I'm just touched by a shade of paranoia. ^^;

 

Typically, a power play refers to forcing an act DIRECTLY onto another person's character(s). Taking the money and burning it would be alright, unless there was some agreement in the RP that the money was to be treated in some similar fashion to a legitimate character. The way it seemed, everyone had stake in the money, and it was just sitting there. Technically, it's not against the rules. Though I'd be a bit annoyed that player B carried out such actions as though C and A wouldn't have noticed, I'd get over it; after all, C and A are involved with something rather intense. All in all, I don't see anything wrong with that.

As for Player C running off form Player A, I don't see the power play in that. Player A had never pulled the gun out, and never shot them. To run off on someone like that doesn't constitute a power play. All they really did was delay an event.