It's not even to do with the game's focus on combat. It's to do with different attitudes towards roleplaying. By far, the most obvious form of roleplaying in CoH is GG on Union, simply because we make the most noise. If roleplayers in CoH were inclined to come together as one cohesive group, and were able to agree on all matters of IC importance, then GG would probably by now be the only form of RP on Union, or at least its epicentre. It isn't.
And, honestly, I'm glad it isn't. Variety is a good thing.
In my own opinion, I think most people are happy with how things are. We don't -need- to change things. Right now, everyone can RP as they wish. There's more than enough roleplaying besides GG to make sure that everyone should be able to find something that suits them.
Just out of curiosity, Harvik, notiving your registration date for the forums, have you stopped by GG yet? We're probably actually quite close to what you seem to have in mind, if a little less formal and (obviously) not nearly so all-encompassing.
The trouble is with the concept of a unifying set of guidelins/rules is that you're automaticly going to have to define what the accepted form of role-play is, which is something that I imagine every forum dedicated to role-play has tried to so at some point.
I tend to role-play in the setting of the game COH, that is I use the tools the game provides to role-play my character and interact with other characters, no extra external tools are needed for the style I play.
If I want to fight a hero I use the arena, I dont need to use a created tabletop rules system to run the encounter and I also do not run or play in set "statics" which I have seen some others doing.
Unlike the "GGs" who seem to have thousands at their meets (heroes as faaaaaar as the eye can see 
) I would estimate that I have met only about 25 other people who rp like me, and then rarely in any large groups the average size is about 5 characters in a group at any one time.
As our style does not need rules constructs, we would pretty much automaticly be edged out of "The community" especilly if it has set itself up to be a paragon of quality role-play.
And once lines like that are drawn they are pretty hard to remove, and any differences or sterotypes will start to reinforce themselves amongst the players.
Bah I ramble..
As an aside:
The commonly accepted rules for rp I have encountered are:
1:Have fun
2:Be responsible.
DG>
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And once lines like that are drawn they are pretty hard to remove, and any differences or sterotypes will start to reinforce themselves amongst the players.
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Exactly the problem I predict if we were to introduce a set of "official" guidelines for roleplaying. Over the last year, roleplaying in CoH has evolved and developed. People have found their niches, and (rightly so) don't want to change out of them in favour of something they may not enjoy.
Nice piece of rhetoric, by the way.
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I'm looking to bring the CoH and CoV RPing community closer, that's all.
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But the game wants to keep them apart.
We now have an area where heroes and villains can meet without braining each other, or (more likely) being brained by a passing PC who is wondering why they were just standing there talking. "It's a PvP Zone, n00b!"
Unfortunately, as various at GG can attest, PDP (or Pocket-D) isn't a great place to do extensive roleplaying. You'll find yourself surrounded by people who haven't readthe "rules" and wouldn't know what to do with them if they had.
PDP is probably best suited to small groups 'chatting', and there's no real reason for having guidelines at that level of interaction.
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Guidelines, rules, whatever... but something is needed.
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So, write some, like I said.
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I want to make a full fledged community, one that calls home to a single town under a single ruleset.
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Now, here I think I see what the issue is.
You've recently arrived in the game. You liked the RP set-up you had in SWG. You want the same thing here.
Unfortunately, someone already did that last March. The person was called The_Prize, and his character, The Prize, asked a load of heroes to join her under the Galaxy Girl statue before leading an attack on the Wolve's Throat. The closest thing we had to an RP community started then and it's been evolving (as Wordmaker said) ever since.
You want something different, but there are a lot of people here (and I don't just mean at GG) who like the way things are now.
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It wouldn't be that hard to do, even with CoH and CoV's orientation towards combat.
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I don't actually get this whole 'carving out an area' business.
For starters, unless we want to take and hold Bloody Bay, the only location we could do this with is PDP. There are only two locations in the game. Paragon City isn't ours to have, and neither are the Rogue Islands. If the RP community decided to 'claim' Pocket-D, I can see us being laughed at a huge amount, or told to stop annoying the other players by the GMs.
I'm not sure how big the community in SWG was, but, as far as I can see, the vast majority of players in CoH are not in it to roleplay. It's not an MMORPG, it's an MMOG.
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It can be done, with your help we can have a place to RP.
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Got one, thanks. It's called GG.
Lots of other people have one too. SG bases, missions, rooftops all over the city.
Same applies to CoV I'm sure.
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We can have a place where we get nothing but high quality RP.
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That, mate, is just elitist.
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It's been done in numerous other games. Ultima Online, Lineage II, Star Wars Galaxies, and many more.
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Doesn't mean it'll work in CoX, and doesn't mean it was a good thing for all the roleplayers in those games.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
I was part of -the- two major roleplaying communities on Ultima Online.
First of all, CoY (Crossroads of yew) a 'Hardcore' roleplay setting, very 'realistic' in the eyes of the coy roleplayers and -very- heavy on the 'you will not be ooc'
We did have an area that was 'ours'... we actually bought all the houses in a certain area. next to the crossroads (i was in the GRD, Guardsman Militia).
Now, what happened to the guardsman militia? heh
It got called Elitist, got its RP disrupted because of the things it used to do like building barricading through a major part of the game world and extracting a 'road tax' from people using the road and through that RP, disrupted a lot of non roleplayers who just wanted to do a little monster hunting. I left CoY after i got sick of all the elitism and the rules. Few months later it collapsed because no-one would RP with them anymore.
Then i joined CoRe (Community of Roleplayers Europe, i beleive) which was a lot less rule heavy and only really had limitations on 'game breaking abilities'... like summoning deamons, training White Wyrms (one of, if not the hardest type of trainable creature in the game) or using certain types of potions. it was a PVP and PVE setting and it worked well, however it really wasnt for me and i ended up stopping playing.
What i think is...
We have a community
Your new to the game let alone that community
And i'm incredibly protective of 'that community'
now, Sit down, your rocking the boat.
You have such an eloquent way of putting things, Reb. 
But he's right. We have our groups. If you can get a few people who think like you and are new to the community too, and want to start something like this with you, that's fine. But really, the established RP communities are just that; Established. You can join, that's fine, you're more then welcome to, but don't try and change it, m-kay?
Many of us are not interested, especially when one comes out with elitist statements. I've been roleplaying for nearly 10 years now, and never forgot where I started. No one was born the best roleplayer in the known history.
Ba-Pssh. Eloquent my [censored].
I just dont like people telling us we're doing something wrong when we've had very few hiccups.
And if your telling us we havn't done something wrong... Then why change it?
*points ala the Fonz*
Think about it, Kujo.
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We did have an area that was 'ours'... we actually bought all the houses in a certain area. next to the crossroads (i was in the GRD, Guardsman Militia).
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Spiritwood, the Custodes Fati... old memories.
And I agree, hun, I meant really, that I love the way you put it, it makes me giggle. ;-)
Just thought I'd add my 50p worth... It's a bit rambling, but you can see my meaning easily enough.
Before I came across the GG meets last July, I'd never roleplays before in my life. I hung around for a bit, tried a couple of ideas out, nothing that went anywhere, and just got to know the general guidelines before I felt comfortable. Then I started to join in. Just a little at first, but that grew until I know get people asking ME what to do! 
If there'd been a ruleset I had to learn before I would be allowed 'in' as it were, I'd have just walked away from it and not bothered.
Roleplay in CoH is of a more casual vein. In a sense we have a kind of ruleset, it's called respecting your fellow players.
Now, I've made some mistakes in my RP; stuff I may not have done with a guiding set of rules, but I -learned- from those mistakes, and they've made me a faily OK roleplayers... Certainly, I'm comfortable doing so now. When I made the mistakes, people told me what I'd done wrong, and explained more appropriate methods of doing what I wanted to do. These were not rules, they were suggestions, ones which helped me a lot. Maybe putting these to print is a good idea, but truthfully, most of them are pretty much common sense anyway, and covered in what general guides we DO have...
We've also, over the past few weeks, had a large number of newer people start to arrive at the GG meets, and quite likely other people are roleplaying at other places too. These people seem to be enjoying their roleplay so far. Why scare them off with a big tome they must read and comply with or be ignored?
So, what I'm trying to say is... We don't NEED a set of rules telling us what we can and can't do. All that will do is scare people off who've never done it before and want to give it a go, just like I did half a year ago...
We have a nice boat here, it's quite stable, got a spare set of oars, a nice outboard motor, and the sun is shining in the sky... Why make us sail into unclement weather?
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I believe the "ruleset" idea is only writing what is already in place for most of RPers : acting responsibly, limited to no OOC chat in Local.
Maybe instead of the wording "ruleset" which sounds very restrictive, "guidelines" could be used.
However, "RP guides" are already available (and shows not everyone agree on).
What I find the most interesting in the idea is not handing a "ruleset" to the "spontaneous/personnal roleplay" but some coordination or "rules" between guilds.
Which is, by the way, exactly what the original poster is aiming at -> To all roleplaying guild leaders
I then suppose the question is : are current supergroup leaders feeling the need for more coordination and/or a ruleset, be it heavy or light.
Agreeing with the sentiments so far. At GG, and I'm sure other RP groups on CoX, common sense is the way of play.
Such simple things as respecting others, always asking through a tell before doing something that could really screw a character up, knowing that actions have consequences, asking when unsure of what to do, observing for a bit before really joining in, giving it a few days before deciding whether to carry on or go elsewhere, keeping IC IC and OOC OOC, all those sorts of things that apply to real life.
City of Heroes was my first proper RP experience. I'd done a bit before in Ragnarok Online and over IRC, but since CoH I've pretty much been there since, RP'ing away. No one's perfect, everyone makes mistakes. I've made more mistakes than I can count on digits on my body, but I've learned from them.
As what others have said, a unified ruleset wouldn't work in City of *, it's not like Star Wars Galaxies, superhero/villains come in all shapes and sizes, gaining power from different places. Trying to make a rule about that would just reduce creativity. GM's to move plot along wouldn't work well, having no tools to hand to do so and relying on missions which can't be altered or changed. Claiming a city zone wouldn't work. Really, it wouldn't, and it'd be a silly idea. Heroes live all over the city, from Founder's to King's to Atlas and Steel Canyon. What would happen with non RP'ers in there? Being told to leave as they aren't an RP'er?
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Claiming a city zone wouldn't work. Really, it wouldn't, and it'd be a silly idea
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It may not be that extreme. I agree "claiming" suggests it belongs to you.
But you can also say "I live there", pointing a building (you can't enter of course), I work there, my fav restaurant is there etc etc...
Some people already do that. Bases helped to give a better feel of "your home" but it's a workaround.
You can name places and streets, parks, bridges etc... beyond the regular naming coming from the game.
Like if saying "I live in Independance Street, in Steel Canyon" which may be the street leading to IP exit there.
Or at "Hotel Geneva Select, which is known for its fabulous service", as everyone knows and is the closest to GG statue.
And there is no problem if a non-RPer comes. Either he ignores what you say, either he explains you are ridiculous but that can happen for various, other, reasons (like speaking in character).
From a certain point of view, you "claimed" the city. You make the game environment your own, for your taste, to share with friends..
It doesn't disrupt others gameplay, be they RPers or not, it harms noone.
(re)mapping the city this way is a coordination thing which can fall under the "let's cooperate" idea.
Screenshot sections of the mini map, put names on streets and some places, make it public.
Just an idea on how *I* see what "claiming" can be.
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Which is, by the way, exactly what the original poster is aiming at -> To all roleplaying guild leaders
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I don't agree, sorry. Or, to be precise, the OP thought that RP in CoX was like it was in SWG, UO, etc. RP happens in guilds, there needs to be a formal set of rules between guilds.
RP in CoX does happen in guilds, but the most public face of RP has nothing to do with guilds. I'd go so far as to say that the majority of RP in CoX happens without any recourse to guilds, it's random stuff that happens on missions.
If not, it happens within SGs who are quite happy with the rules they have. Interaction with other groups i handled via the simple expedient of 'common sense'.
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I then suppose the question is : are current supergroup leaders feeling the need for more coordination and/or a ruleset, be it heavy or light.
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Answer: no.
Justification for answer: People have been roleplaying in CoH for a year (almost). According to outside observers, the level and quality of RP in CoH is good. Now, if those SG leaders haven't decided to band together in that time, then they are happy with what they have, or they don't exist.
In a way it's rather insulting to have someone turn up with no experience of the game or RP community, and decide that everyone is doing it wrong and we obviously need organising.
It's kind of like the brash young management type who comes into a company, installs a load of new management ideas and processes, and then wonders why all the staff left.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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I don't agree, sorry. Or, to be precise, the OP thought that RP in CoX was like it was in SWG, UO, etc. RP happens in guilds, there needs to be a formal set of rules between guilds.
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I understand what you mean.
But the discussion goes from supergroups/gullds to rulesets to various levels of interaction.
The OP being not the most active in this thread (no offense meant), I just wanted to remind he initially was talking about "guilds".
I saw him refering to a ruleset not designed for CoH, as an example.
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I then suppose the question is : are current supergroup leaders feeling the need for more coordination and/or a ruleset, be it heavy or light.
Answer: no.
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I have no problem with this. I am not a supergroup leader.
If supergroups don't want such guidelines/rulesets because they find them restrictive or unnecessary, that's perfectly understandable.
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In a way it's rather insulting to have someone turn up with no experience of the game or RP community, and decide that everyone is doing it wrong and we obviously need organising
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I didn't understand his proposal like that but you may have see it this way. It's just a matter of perceptions.
I just saw that as someone enthousiast showing what was done in other games and proposing to adopt a similar system, to be discussed, of course.
Maybe it was premature, awkward but I didn't find it insulting.
---
Now to clear a bit my opinion on the topic, I don't feel a similar ruleset is needed because most of the problems that showed a need for discussion or organization in other games are irrelevant in COH.
- the most restrictive rules are pointless in CoH
- the less restrictive rules are common sense for most of RPers.
But I am not a supergroup leader so my opinion is of little value here.
Now my two penneth, for those with long memories this was tried before, a long, long time ago, but not in a galaxy far far away .
How did it all end... well bluntly very very badly.
There is such a wide cross section of RP in COH (can#t speak about COV haven't played it properly yet.) that trying to unify everyone fails.
I'm fairly confident I'm not talking out of turn, but when Fury left the RHU to join Society of the Phoenix, I attempted to get the two SG's to RP together. I spoke to Shadowplay and we got on... but then Templar wanted things to go a way that went against SoP's preffered method of roleplaying, various people started dictating and arguing about which method was better (whilst in reality there was nothing wrong with either method - just personal choice)... and the long and short of it is that there was a lot of locked threads, the RHU nearly folded, and Templar left the game.
As far as I'm aware, everyone is happy in CoH roleplaying the way they are roleplaying, so please feel free to join any of the various RP communities depending upon your own style of play, and fit in... but a unified coordinated RP style is never going to happen.
As War Crow said the one and only time it did happen was when we all got together for the first Galaxy Girl, which enabled RPers to see what styles were available, and then either stay at GG or to their own thing.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to hold another all inclusive RP meet just for new players to see what's on offer... but I'd leave that up ot the RP community outside of GG to comment on.
part of point is Fire you could be, you above lvl 10, which is the only requirement to start an SG in this game, it's an extended friends list, or was till the introduction of bases, people use these thing in their own way as they did not have ramifications for Rp other than what people wanted it to have.
the game is so open that these things have only a small impact (my SG on Union is purely to stop the blind SG invites)
so it's only your opinion as an RPer that matters, not that your in an SG, or even the head of it, which is part of what the OP is missing.
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If supergroups don't want such guidelines/rulesets because they find them restrictive or unnecessary, that's perfectly understandable.
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Actually, I'd go with exactly the opposite. I think most of the SGs have more restrictive rules, or none at all. Certainly, a lot of RP SGs set up with a tight ruleset allowing their GMs to basically do anything the like to the players without asking anything first. That kind of thing simply doesn't work outside a tight group.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
People, you don't have to give up what you love to be part of a roleplaying community.
There will be nothing saying you have to be a certain archtype with a certain background. Be as creative as you want, do what you want. It is your character, your RP, no one elses.
A simple ruleset isn't bad nor evil, nor will it hurt RP one little bit in any way, shape, or form. It may only be active at events.
Making a community is a tried and proven method of bringing more RP to a game, not olnly that but better RP. It'll take away the need to search for another roleplayer, it'll give all a common ground to roleplay with.
The city/area we declare as ours will have but one single difference then all the others, you'll be under a ruleset.
You are fine to RP wherever you want however you want, but there... it's sacred. No OOC in "area chat", things like that.
To you RPing n00bs, it may sound harsh, I know. But it isn't, it makes for a much more enjoyable experience, gives you much deeper roleplay and such. You can use group chat or tells to convey what you need to OOCly.
This can and will be a good thing, I promise. You have my word. It will bring much better roleplay to the Union server, it'll be great.
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This can and will be a good thing, I promise. You have my word. It will bring much better roleplay to the Union server, it'll be great.
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What will? You keep going on about this fantastic ruleset to make RP better, save pandas and cure cancer, but when it comes to seeing this ruleset it's as existant as Duke Nukem Forever. On the Phantom console.
"People, you don't have to give up what you love to be part of a roleplaying community."
1: Actually read what we write, we -Have- A community
2: Your right, we dont have to give up what we love to have a community. we -Have- a Community
"There will be nothing saying you have to be a certain archtype with a certain background. Be as creative as you want, do what you want. It is your character, your RP, no one elses. "
Like we do now.
"Making a community is a tried and proven method of bringing more RP to a game, not olnly that but better RP. It'll take away the need to search for another roleplayer, it'll give all a common ground to roleplay with."
We have a Community. we have a community we have a community we HAVE A COMMUNITY.
Are you insulting us now, telling us that with a community (which, by the way we allready have) we'll have better roleplay? Well you know what buddy? i love the RP with have, insult my friends again and i'll start to get nasty.
"The city/area we declare as ours will have but one single difference then all the others, you'll be under a ruleset."
We have an area we play at almost constantly. its found under 'Galaxy Girls Skirt' and you know what? we're not actually Conceited enough to stop people from going there just because we use it. its a public game, get over your need for 'Owning' somewhere.
"You are fine to RP wherever you want however you want, but there... it's sacred. No OOC in "area chat", things like that."
Funny, we allready have a place like that. However we ain't roleplay Nazis, We're a COMMUNITY of easy going (Bar me) nice people (See last bracket)
"To you RPing n00bs, it may sound harsh, I know. But it isn't, it makes for a much more enjoyable experience, gives you much deeper roleplay and such. You can use group chat or tells to convey what you need to OOCly."
Allright, i really don't like your tone. Noob is an Insult.
Newb - Someone who is new
Noob - An idiot. possibly someone who doesnt read whats being written to him and insisting we need something we allready have. like for example, a COMMUNITY
"This can and will be a good thing, I promise. You have my word. It will bring much better roleplay to the Union server, it'll be great"
I have but one thing to say to you buddy, and i hope it really hits home.
Welcome to /global ignore.
And if it was up to me, You'd not be part of OUR COMMUNITY
Ok, I'm stepping back in to this one now.
Dark, calm down. No need to get nasty.
I have actually played, long term, under both "systems". I hope everyone will agree I know at least a little bit about what I'm talking about.
In MERPC, I *always* felt like an outsider. I had friends who tried to get me involved, teach me the rules, but the simple truth was there was no existing guild that really fitted me, and without that getting "in" to the community was almost impossible.
For reference, I co-founded the dance accademy, we couldn't "break in" to the existing system properly even when we did that.
In almost a year of watching "from the outside" I never really saw many new faces, RP (outside big events) was very hard to find. The best RP by far I had was playing with The Kreetles, not an "official" part of the MERPC, and dancing in Bestine, where I got to RP with members of the many other RP guilds that inhabited Chimera.
Towards "the end" (also known as the wombat pup-braid) I was slightly more involved as a fringe member of the criminal element. Throught all this I never felt as welcome, wanted and accepted as I have at GG - from an OOC perspective.
I guess what I'm trying to say is "horses for courses", to me, GG feels far more like the cantina crowds used to, rather than a massive rulebook for "pure" roleplayers, we focus on drawing in more of the outsiders, making them feel welcome, and generally have, IMHO, a far nicer community.
A more flexible system is what we want, is what we like, and this is representative of some of the best online RPing I've ever been involved in, and I've been around.
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To you RPing n00bs
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Now, you see... You've just insulted EVERYONE who already RP's in the game... Well done, a round of applause. Magnificent way to validate your opinion.
You now have NO chance of getting what you want, not that you did anyway.
Now, please read this very carefully...
We HAVE a roleplay community in CoH. We have HAD a roleplay community for nearly a year. We do not need our existing community replacing with something which is not our current community.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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To you RPing n00bs
[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, I'm amazed I was the one to do it, but I do not intend to come up with a reasoned reply to that one. I just reported it to the moderators.
I'm considering Harvik to settle nicely into the category for which one of my favourite forum rules applies, and I suggest others consider these words when replying.
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Please, do not feed the trolls.
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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
I'm looking to bring the CoH and CoV RPing community closer, that's all.
Guidelines, rules, whatever... but something is needed. I want to make a full fledged community, one that calls home to a single town under a single ruleset. It wouldn't be that hard to do, even with CoH and CoV's orientation towards combat.
Pick up a Superman comic, take a look. A ton of that is just pure combat. It can be done, with your help we can have a place to RP. We can have a place where we get nothing but high quality RP.
It's been done in numerous other games. Ultima Online, Lineage II, Star Wars Galaxies, and many more.