Role-playing

RolePlay refers to acting In-Game

In Character (IC)

In Character means that you are acting like the character you are currently are playing with.

Out of Character (OOC)

Out of character means that you, as a real life person are talking.

Out of character talk is not allowed on Pangaea, with a few exceptions.

You are allowed to use OOC in brackets when

1. You ask another player for his ICQ number (or what ever chat program you use)
2. If you have to explain OOC and IC to a newbie (if the newbie needs more help, use ICQ etc. for that)
3. If you are talking to a GM/Counselor and can’t answer a player talking to you.

What is Role-playing?

"To assume the attitudes, actions, and discourse of another, especially in a make-believe situation in an effort to understand a differing point of view or social interaction." - Dictionary.com

On Pangaea every player is asked to take part in role-play, or RP as it is known. Some will choose to take this aspect further than others, however all players should be capable of what is regarded as 'good RP'. Role-playing is essentially behaving in the manner that is dictated by the internal thoughts and feelings of the character that you are playing (also take into account context, such as your character's age, profession, guild affiliation etc.), rather than in a manner influenced by your own thoughts, feelings and personality.

Role Playing is both actions and what you say.

Examples

Bad Role-Playing

You are a highly trained Necromancer, you RP as a typical necro; evil, with an obsession for death and a hatred of the living. You have just killed a Druid and his horse is standing by his corpse, a nearby Lich begins to attack the horse. You decide to intervene because you've always liked horses. You kill the Lich and save the horse, and begin to heal its wounds, you then feed it a carrot and wait with the horse until its owner comes to retrieve it again.

Good Role-Playing

You watch as the Lich kills the horse, you then re-animate the horse's corpse and force it to attack its old owner when he returns to his corpse. Afterwards you laugh maniacally.

How to Behave

How to act during normal game play

You must at any given time roleplay, this means that you must act like the character you are playing. Our IC-board can be used to improve your roleplay. You can learn a lot about roleplay and other players history/background when reading the boards from time to time. Other players are welcome to notify you when you are not showing proper roleplay. As long as this is done in a peaceful manner (refrain yourself from badmouthing anyone). Expect Game Masters to strike down on those who show bad roleplay, whether this is observed during quests or any other time. You are subject to punishment by the Game Masters, if you repeatedly show bad roleplay. These punishments may either be excluding you from Quests or at worst marking of your account.

Please note that out of character talk should be kept to a minimum as it is disruptive to the roleplay environment, which we try to create here on Pangaea.

Role playing is also your key to a fun and exciting experience playing Ultima Online. Areas such as quests are to be considered completely In-Character.

When conversing with other players In-Character, it’s of course done in English. You are not obligated to speak ol`english`. Addressing everyone ye are no more RP-like than speaking in todays English. So unless you master the English language from the 13th century, just keep your grammar and such normal. Only allowed spoken language is English, this goes for both In-Character and Out of Character talk. If you want to chat with your friends in your native language, use a message program.

With respect to the above we consider today`s English to be the more formal tone. Don’t call everyone dude, bro or for that matter ho. DO NOT use abbreviations, with the exception of addressing a guild by it`s initials, but don’t refer to Skara Brae as SB. We will not tolerate people speaking with the computer language, l33t d3wd or $up4h m4n is simply not roleplay, so don’t use it. If you don’t want to roleplay, there are plenty of other shards that don’t require it.

Using ICQ to order items, either to be made or done In-Game is okay. Roleplaying this is easily done by calling the messages pigeons, black ravens etc. A hint would be that an evil necromancer used a black hawk, while the protecting druid used a silver pigeon, your choice of course. Use common sense is basically what we ask, so please do so.

Ultima Online can’t provide unique appearances for all players, so we have decided that your name will identify you at any time. This means that all players you meet know your name, even if it’s the first time you meet them. Same goes for identifying murders. Info from the paperdoll like guild, titles, etc. are also know to everyone. It could be roleplayed that there is a public board in all cities with the same info.

Spamming text is not allowed in any way, neither when casting spells or during normal conversation.

Names on Pangaea

When creating a character on Pangaea, you must select a proper roleplay name. There are certain guidelines that must be followed upon character creation. When a name is selected, it may NOT be changed unless two players have the exact same name, and one of them wishes to have a last name added. If however you wish a surname to be added or changed, you may contact staff about it, but it needs to backed up with enough roleplay (story on forums or screenshots from game which are posted on forums).

1. Your character may not contain the title “Mister”, “Sir,” “Dragon Slayer,” “Carpenter,”
2. Your name can’t be any longer than 16 characters, included spaces.
3. You may not choose the name of a famous person, such as Trent Reznor, James Hetfield, etc.
4. Names from books, computer games, etc. are not permitted. (Ex. Gandalf, Drizzt, etc.)
5. Slang or abbreviated names will also not be accepted as appropriate names. (Things like Solja, Killah, etc.)
6. Tags like [FDF] cannot be part of your name.

If a character is created with the same name as an existing player, the new player will be forced to change his name. Either by a complete new name or by adding a last name to the current name. The old player will not be allowed to change his name instead of renaming the new player. If two players decide to get married In-Game, they can choose to have a last name added to their name, still the max. length of the name can’t exceed the 16 char limit.

Tamed animals must be named with the same restriction as players names. Do not name a pet after another player to put him down, this will be considered very poor roleplay and will be subject for punishment. If we see any names that break the following rules, we will change them without hesitation. Please use common sense, and use your sense of creativity.

• Naming creatures "I TAMED THIS" just to avoid re-taming the same creature, is a good example of horrible names.

When naming elite item, the name must be role-play too, so don’t name your weapon “I shall kick your ass”.

Religions

All religions have one and only one Head Priest. The Head Priest will be the head of the Order. The priest with the highest piety will be the Head Priest. Piety can be granted up to 40 by any priest with high enough piety.

Other Priests can be granted up to 50 piety. This applies aswell to Monks. Knights and Rangers can gain up to 40 piety. To indoctrinate someone in a religion, 30 piety is needed and to excommunicate a member, twice the piety of the victim is needed. Piety can be combined when excommunicate, but not when indoctrinate a new member. The staff try not to interfere in who is the Head Priest, and if a group of members successfully excommunicated the current Head Priest, a new one can be chosen. How this is done will be up to the rest of the members.

If you choose to join a religion, none of your alternative characters are allowed to join an opposing religion. For more information about opposing religions read the ‘Religion’ section on the website. No account is allowed to have a red and a Law character. Should you have a Law character, and one of your alt becomes wanted by Law (red), you will have 2 month to get a salvation. Meaning your red alt must start serving his time in jail within 2 month after he became red. An alternative option is of course to delete the red char, but this has to be done by you, and within the 2 month. Should you fail, your Law character will be excommunicated from the order.