Rule of Cool

Applying the Rule of Cool

This rule is not specific to Furcadia's official source material and background (the Furre!/Dragonlands game). It's usable in any Dream labelled Cool1, Cool2, or Cool3, to enhance that Dream's own Continuity. Here are the principles of the Rule of Cool:

1. Continuity.

A Continuity is a world or universe or dimension. Every Roleplaying game has its own Continuity, and what happens in one is not valid in another. Every Continuity is independent of all the rest. Several Dreams can share one Continuity, if its owners agree.

2. Acceptable Character Types Are Limited

You agree to not make up your own character classes, races, or major traditions. The Rule of Cool isn't free-form RP, but rather, playing in a shared world, with its own history already. Surprises are great, and creativity is wonderful, but too much can seriously hurt Roleplay.

3. The geography is mostly established.

Under the Rule of Cool, you agree not to invent IC locations outside of that Continuity. In the Dragonlands, this means the Olde World, Kasuria, and the Dragonlands. It's okay to make up the name of a village but you couldn't just invent the name of a capital city, because larger places already have names, for example, the capital of Kasuria is Malgrave. The purpose of this is to remove ownership of these places from the control of any one Furre; established locations are shared parts of the Continuity.

4. The Guiding Theory of Roleplaying: ICA=ICC

The guiding theory of Roleplay is this:
In-Character Actions lead to In-Character Consequences. This is abbreviated as ICA=ICC. It's considered very uncool to start a conflict without facing up to its natural results, for example.

Suppose that Liago the Lion throws his beer in the face of Grendilla, a powerful warrior. Under the Consent Rule (Persona Play), Liago can merrily run away or ignore it when Grendilla poses trying to punch him or attacking Liago with his sword.

Under the Rule of Cool, Liago is expected to respond to what Grendilla has posed. Liago may not just walk out casually. If Liago logs off (either by accident OR on purpose) Liago is expected to re-schedule a time when all the characters involved can meet and finish the brawl.

5. Show your respect for other players, OOCly if not ICly.

To show respect for the Continuity is to show respect for others. Your OOC reputation as roleplayer is quite important, and if you don't follow ICA=ICC, other players will very quickly spread that info about you. On the other hand, things that encourage others to RP with you are:

  1. Speaking in character
  2. Not using abbreviations like u instead of you
  3. Being careful to capitalize and punctuate, etc.
  4. Showing through your interactions that you're aware of what the other characters are like

When you multiworld, your ability to visualize the other character's appearance in your head is EXTREMELY poor, and to all but the most novice players, it shows. One of the easiest ways to show disrespect is to lag for four minutes between poses while you play another character in another scene. It might be just fine in Persona Play; in RolePlaying it's disastrous.

Descriptions

As a fine point, any information that could not be guessed just by looking at you, should not be in your description. If you must put in OOC info, enclose it in parentheses. Under Persona Play it's great to give people around you a helpful clue as to how to interact with you but in RP-- they're on their own! Be sure to leave out anything like the following:

(Friends with: Corrie, Mark, CG DJ, and Dogmaster)

(vampire)

(Member of Club D2D)

(looking for a mate)

A Roleplayed conflict can be handled many different ways. Some are not compatible with others, so, to avoid arguments, it's important to agree to one style before a conflict arises. Everyone actually has their own style, but to play in a large group, everyone has to make small compromises, to play the way enough other people happen to want to play. Here are detailed rules for handling conflicts, divided up into three stages of seriousness, to accommodate the three most prevalent philosophies of Roleplay under the different levels of Cool:

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