Auxientia values player agency! We encourage players to Text Roleplay for building relationships, planning, and backstory in our Discord for in-character interactions. Each faction will have its own channel. Text based Roleplay before and between games can be a lot of fun! Writing out your character’s personal story is highly encouraged. Use them to get to know each other in character.
For Auxientia, please be mindful that Text Roleplay between games should not affect Plot as we want this to play out in-game (during the weekend of the game) as much as possible. It can get very confusing and ultimately leads to a conflict in design and meta-techniques. If all your alliances and conflicts are enacted by the time the Auxientia begins, we all lose out on critical, exciting moments of In-Game Roleplay. We would also lose out on dynamic moments that anyone can react to, which could influence their characters in unexpected ways. Finally, it does not give us a chance to shed the skin of the character after game, which helps to minimize bleed.
We draw a hard line between Text Roleplaying personal backstory and scenes, and new, game changing narratives that later affect Plot in game. The former is heavily encouraged. The latter is designed to take place at game, and must be avoided before this game at all costs. We thank you in advance for respecting that!
However, we also understand that some things cannot play out in game and are better suited for Online Text Roleplay. We may present text RP opportunities for players and faction in the Discord guided by designers which will be canon. However, these quests will be focused on establishing goals and raising the stakes for the upcoming game, not playing out your narrative before you arrive on site. If you have ideas, we’d love to hear them and will always try our best to accommodate requests, if we can. Please reach out to Nathan Pease, Hilary Norton, or Steven Townshend. We ask that you be understanding that we are sometimes juggling narratives that you may not yet be aware of either because of what we have coming up or narratives that are currently affecting your fellow players. The designers want to create the best story for everyone and we know you do too.
We want to “Yes, and” as much as possible and we always, always, always want to encourage players to come to us with ideas. What that means is while the choices we make in the moment during the game we should “Yes, and” as much as possible, we also want to make sure that the content and creativity players and the staff bring has continuity with the world we create together. When introducing big changes to the established narrative, or working with concepts outside of what is currently written, please reach out and work directly with the runners and your design team to help fit your ideas into this great world we are all creating together!
In summary:
- RP-ing backstory and establishing relationships is A-okay.
- RP-ing plot changing events in text RP is not okay
- If there are any questions or ideas for RP, please reach out to Nathan Pease, Steven Townsend, and/or Hilary Norton