Consequences

Consequences

You'll see this word a lot here.

"Consequences of power" is THE major theme of the game, but just what does staff mean by consequences, and how will that affect what you RP?

Glad you asked!

(Okay, glad we fed words to you in such a way as to pretend you asked.)

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. You wiggle your foot in a stream, and ripples, small currents and splashes happen. Even just by dangling it there, the water has to flow around you as an obstacle, changing the path it would have taken otherwise.

RP is like that. What your character does, it changes things. It has an effect on things. Staff wants the world to be alive, and for a world to feel real, it has to be realistic.

This means that if you are a good person, no matter how wonderful and deserving and perfect you are, horrible things can still happen to you, and will, if you don't take steps to prevent it.

Saying "I don't want monsters to attack me" does not mean your character will not get attacked by said monsters while she's traipsing merrily through the Hedge. By entering the Hedge, you are risking attack. That is a simple consequence. Same goes for traipsing through dark alleys alone at night down in the city. Would you do that in RL? Depends on how much you want to get mugged.

In another example touched on by the FAQ page, if you are ICly a jerk, other characters are ICly within their rights to say, "No. You are not allowed in my business," or, "No. You are not invited to my fancy gala." By roleplaying a jerk, you are acknowledging that there are social consequences.

"But it's just my character! He's like that!"

Who designed the character in the first place? You did. You set the character up, and now you're reaping the consequences of that setup.

To be frank, if you do not want to handle the positives AND the negatives of what your character is going through, you may not find this game a good fit for your preferred RP scenarios. It's all a game, and it's all in good fun. None of this should cause you undue stress OOCly -- every character is facing the same choices.

Think of it in terms of opportunity: if you have power over someone else, you have the opportunity to RP out stories along those lines. If you are still trying to gain power, you have the opportunity to pursue storylines which will give it to you. If you are weak, and enjoy RPing that weakness, you have the opportunity to RP those consequences, too.

Consequences aren't bad things.

Consequences drive RP

We come to places like this to find roleplay, to play a game, to enjoy stepping into the lives of other people. Above all else, that means we are coming here to have fun. RP = fun. Sometimes RP is painful. Sometimes it's like reading a book, and you're on the edge of your seat, anxious, not sure what direction it will go.

When there are no consequences, no lingering effects, the story fizzles and dies.

When, however, Bad Stuff happens, there is a lot more for you to do, both as a player and as a character.

Of course not all consequences will result in dismemberment; the above is a severe example for the sake of exaggeration, but the point stands.

When you're stuck, when you can't find RP, think of what kinds of consequences would create more stories.

Some simple examples:

• Stolen boy: You're a regular human, and you hear a little boy crying on the other side of the fence when you walk past every day on your way to work. One day, you stop and ask why...

Action: compassion

Consequence: maybe the boy was kidnapped, or maybe his brother was, or... story! RP!

• Mask breach: You're a changeling and you do something you shouldn't, resulting in a breach of the mask. A reporter learns of this. What do you do? How do you resolve the problem? If you let staff know, you could even get a part in a worldwide storyline.

Action: revealing changelings when you shouldn't have

Consequence: oh shit oh shit oh shit I'm in such deep trouble, let me fix this before the Others find out!