IC Consequences to IC actions.

In all the time I have RP’d this seems to be a topic that comes up a lot, and oddly enough I’ve never blogged it.

It seems that a lot of people have trouble dealing with the IC consequences of their IC actions. The reasons could vary, but they mostly stem from our OOC feelings. We want to be OOC liked, we want our character to be liked, we’ve grown attached to our character and don’t want anything bad to happen to them, don’t want them to die, don’t want them to lose their job, or go to jail, etc, etc, etc.

I notice this especially when our character does or says something that could be misinterpreted or misunderstood, not only by the other character’s around them but also OOC’ly by the typists, and since we don’t want them to misunderstand we go into this long internal monologue to explain the actions, or we IM the other person to explain.

“hey, my character said that because….”

I usually tell the person there is no need to explain. We misunderstand IRL, so misunderstandings in RP are fine too! But part of the reason we feel the need to explain is because we really don’t want to deal with the consequences.

For example, Johnny pulled out a gun in the middle of a crowded room full of people that were armed--yet he doesn’t want to be gunned down. So he goes into this long-winded post full of thoughts about how his girl left him, the dog died and the truck broke down. Truth is, despite all that internal explaining in his thought emotes, no one in that room can read his mind, or know what the character is going through, or maybe the people there just don’t give a fuck. Chances are that despite the inter spiel, Johnny is going to be lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood with more holes in his pixel body that a colander. And since Johnny’s typist didn't want him to die anyway, he’s going to RP that despite being hit by 23 bullets, none of them hit anything vital and thank the Linden Gods he’s gonna make it. His typist might even get mad that no one paid attention to his internal monologue and shot him down anyway.

Sorry, Johnny.

Okay, so that was a bit of an extreme example, but it is the gist of what I’m trying to touch on here.

Here’s another one. Johnny walks into a store acting like a douchebag. But it’s okay, he’s superbadass! He is not wearing a shirt in 50 degree weather, has all these tats, and treats people with disrespect or in a threatening manner. But wait, Johnny the Douchebag gets thrown out of the store, possibly at gunpoint, and told never to come back. Now Johnny’s typist is ooc mad. But… but DOESN’T ANYONE REALIZE THAT HE IS A BADASS?

Sorry again, Johnny, no.

The solution is simple:

a) accept the consequences to your character’s actions/words
b) don’t do it.

However, there is a little twist to this -- CONSENT

Before engaging in a scene with others that could have serious repercussions for a character, especially one other than just your own, the consequences should be discussed and taken into consideration. A character that goes through a traumatic event will likely go through some changes. In the same way consequences for the aggressor should be discussed.

Check limits, it matters!

So.. in order to keep your RP SAFE, SANE, and CONSENSUAL.. er I mean, FUN, if you don't think you can handle certain things to happen to your character, think of the possible consequences before you go through the scene.