Castle Marrach is a roleplaying game and players have created characters with distinct personalities, goals, likes, dislikes, and so forth. Ideally, the characters created are just that: characters. However, behind each character is a player, and sometimes keeping the our in- and out-of-character worlds sufficiently divided can be challenging, so this page sets out some considerations to achieve just that.
What is IC vs OOC?
In-Character
- The things a character has 'seen' or been told
- A character's goals, motivations, thoughts and feelings
- A character's actions
- Characters speaking using the game parser
Out-of-Character
- Information a player has read on Discord, the OOC forums, etc.
- The player's goals, motivations, thoughts and feelings, about their character or anything else
- The player's decisions over how they play the game
- Players speaking over @ooc, @page or other channel, e.g., Discord
'Bluebooking' or 'hand-waving' is an out-of-character agreement that something has happened in-character. For example, two players agree that they want their characters to meet, so they 'bluebook' or 'hand-wave' that their characters had agreed a meeting time and place by scroll the day before. However, it should be used sparingly, and usually only for relatively unimportant matters.
IC and OOC connection
In-character actions do not equate to their player's out-of-character feelings. The driver of a good story is often conflict, but too often characters will shy away from it because they're scared of upsetting another player; similarly, players may experience a scene and come away thinking "They must hate me!" The truth is, telling the story of two rivals, enemies or frenemies can be just as interesting if not more so than the story of two friends, achieved when both players understand that it is a only a story between characters.
The only time in-character actions may touch on out-of-character issues is when we need an in-character way to explain things like "I can't play at that time". In-character, these characters live full-time in their castle; out-of-characters, we're players of a game and so we need a way to explain our way out of things we're not available for
Real life will always come first, and there should rarely if ever be in-character consequences for playing the game accordingly, e.g., if the times a player has available to play don't align with an important event their character would be expected to attend. That said, managing the expectations of fellow players is appreciated. No one likes to schedule their play time around a specific event, only to find they've been stood up.
That said, unless the player specifically intends for their character to perform poorly, players should avoid taking on in-character roles that they are uninterested, unable or do not have time to roleplay. While they are in-character "jobs", they can ultimately have an impact on other players' enjoyment of the game - and that's what we're all here for, after all.
Influence and empathy
Many players put months and years into developing their character, so of course it's easy to become highly attached to them. Unfortunately this means occasionally letting the player's emotions (out-of-character) bleed into their character's actions (in-character), or letting in-character actions impact their out-of-character emotions.
Story Staff understand that this will happen and players aren't going to be contacted by Story Staff just because they're having a bad day - unless they become abusive via out-of-character communications (e.g., @page, @ooc, Discord DM, etc.) or clearly have their character behave in a manner which is motivated out-of-character.
If Story Staff hear of an out-of-character spat between players and then in-character they're suddenly going at each other's throats, we'll 100% make inquiries. The same goes if there are in-character spats and suddenly people are arguing out-of-character.
Our advice is, if you're feeling a mixture of IC and out-of-character, please step back from the game for a few until you reorient yourself. It's often a sign of someone being invested in their character and empathizing with them deeply, which is great and makes for believable characters. However, if you can't pull yourself back to yourself, it can also ruin said character or cause you to act in ways you may well regret later.
That said, please try finish a scene reasonably before you take a step back. It's poor sportsmanship to say, "I don't like how this scene is going, bye!" and vacate the scene. Please finish it up in a reasonable way and then step back, rather than seek to "get your way" in a scene by ending it. This sounds callous, but while we don't want anyone to stick in a scene that makes them uncomfortable, we also can't condone people abusing it to get out of consequences for their character's actions. If it looks like it's becoming a habit, Story Staff will be asked to step in.
Avoiding information crossover
This one is pretty straight forward. If a player knows something in-character, don't spill it about out-of-character.
There have been numerous attempts at secret societies, murder plots, and things of general intrigue that have been wrecked over the years because someone was included in-character but discussed it out-of-character with their friends, who were less able to separate their in- and out-of-character knowledge and just 'had an idea' about what was happening. This sort of behaviour deprives the game of legitimate intrigue created by players and Story Staff both.If a character can't keep their mouth shut, that's fine. These are in-character choices to involve that character and they come with in-character consequences. However, this is different to out-of-character information that seems to give another character 'spidey senses'.
We know (and are glad!) people are going to be excited and want to talk about things that happen in-game and there's no stopping that. However, the repercussions of spreading information not widely known via out-of-character means is detrimental to the in-character environment and something that COULD have been entertaining and surprising fizzles out.
Typically, if the information is widely known, it's impossible to know if it was in-character or out-of-character gossip, but if it's confined to a few characters in-character and yet somehow a seemingly independent character acts on their 'sixth sense' without cause, Story Staff will likely step in and discuss it.
