Role-Play Tokens: These are items that you collect In-Game that can be earned through several means. Participating in events, writing articles for the Aeon Current, hosting player events, community wiki contributions, and other means that otherwise benefits the community as a whole. They are a reward for your RP inclusion and efforts, and in turn you can use them to invest in RP enhancements. If you have a unique idea on how to help the community and earn tokens, feel free to contact a role-play moderator with your idea!

Influence Characters: Among the many things you can purchase with your RP Tokens, an ‘influence character’ is worth noting. These come in degrees of ‘minor’, ‘moderate’, and ‘major’ influence. You can be creative as you like with your character’s self, but when it comes to the impact or importance they hold in the world around them requires the investment of these tokens. When your character holds political, military, religious or financial influence in the world, you should contact a roleplay moderator to find out what ‘bracket’ of influence your character falls under to determine your token cost.

Examples of those with influence: A note-worthy priest of a faith, an extension of any political office (senator, counselor, etc), a power within the black market, the leader of an assassin clan, a general, or a swordsmen of fame all fall under these classifications.

Just as the name implies, you can readily see how any of these characters bear an ‘influence’ over the world, be it minor or major. These assume positions where you could have some degree of financial and NPC control, and other over-extending features. To encourage people to RP more, and to even ‘climb up the social ladder’ with these characters, we’ve implemented the token system.

Let it be known that per unique player you are allowed -one- Major Influence character. Your minor and moderate characters are not limited thus, but the reason for this is to prevent players from overburdening themselves by playing too many sides. Leave enough slices for everyone to take, and make sure your focus isn’t too divided!

Public Speaking: You must remain in character at all times in public. All out of character (OOC) is to be put in within double parentheticals - ((Like this)). Public OOC will remain at a minimum and always refer to the roleplay going on. All other types of messages will be kept to private messages, party chats or guild chats. The @ooc command, custom-implemented in AeonRO, will automatically add the double parentheticals to the rest of your line.

Skill Spam: Maybe for flavor once in a while, you want to do something flashy. Maybe you’ve gone through the lengthy process of healing someone in RP, and want to cast a ‘heal’ just to add a little flare. While in select, tasteful situations this is okay, blatantly spamming skills in RP situations and maps will not be tolerated. It’s annoying, no one thinks you’re cute for doing it, and the only one laughing is probably you.

No Metagaming: Each character has different experiences and knows different things. This is easy when every character has a different player, but the same should hold true for different characters under the same player. While it is okay to have your individual characters have conversations amongst themselves in your head, make the assumption that they will know only the important parts, not every detail. In other words, be realistic… passing information is often like a game of telephone.

The same should hold true for in-game and out-of-game knowledge. If you as a player know that a certain character is going to attempt to murder yours that night through what someone mentions in the IRC channel, you should under no circumstances assume that your character knows this too. The same holds true for emotions you may hold for other players. Although you may have a grudge against someone, do not pass this on to your character’s emotional state or let it guide your character’s actions.

No Autohitting: This is a simple concept. *Hits Joe over the head with her flail knocking Joe unconscious* This is an autohit. This gives the person you’re acting upon no chance to react. This gives you an unfair advantage and is not considered good roleplay. *Swings her flail at Joe’s head, hoping to knock him unconscious* This is not an autohit. This tells the other player your characters intent, then gives them the chance to react according to their character’s abilities. The point is to play your character, not other people’s characters. Mostly, this rule applies to actions in fights and is ignored in more low-tension interactions, but still - assuming is a dangerous thing. Be considerate to others and give them proper a proper chance to respond.

No Powergaming: Keep in mind that Game Play does not equal Role Play. While your character might be a Lord Knight with Fury, it does not mean that you get to automatically curb-stomp the acolyte you don’t like. If you have a hard time role-playing your character suited to the class they are, refer to the class descriptions in the Role Play Library.

The same goes for skills. While you are allowed to come up with alternate skills and powers (such as psychic ability) they should compliment your character and class. Priests should not be tossing about fireballs, for example. But in the same breath, it’s hard to picture an assassin throwing balls of purple energy, either. Ragnarok’s skills and classes were hardly designed with sensible role play in mind, so it’s up to us as players to insert the ’sensible’ factor.

Be Realistic: No character is completely unstoppable. No character goes into a dangerous situation and returns completely unscathed. There are other elements that roleplay allows that the RO system does not. Illness, disease, fatigue, infection, blindness… all of these realistic elements can add much more to roleplay.

Ratings: Many players are older and enjoy playing out some of the… finer points in their character’s lives. In public, the general rating is R. In private (such as a person’s house), the rating is up (or down) to X. If you as a player -EVER- feel uncomfortable roleplaying certain situations, private message the person you’re playing with and tell them so. Do not ever go ahead and play something you are uncomfortable playing for -any- reason. If you feel you are being forced to play such things, private message a GM in the IRC channel. This doesn’t just apply to ‘adult’ RP, but any role-play you’re uncomfortable with, be it someone mutilating your character or something equally uncomfortable! NEVER feel forced, and NEVER feel like you have to do anything.

Have Fun: The point is to play and have fun. The point is not to win, but to play out the life and adventures of a character. So do so and enjoy it. Yes, it’s a rule.

Rules of Naming

NAMES! Your character’s name is a part of his/her personality, and determines what other players expect of both your character and of you, the pilot, upon first meeting. as such, it is vital that you choose a name which is both reasonable and beneficial to your RP experience.

This has become a slight issue. Please recall that when you sign up for AeonRO, you are signing up for A ROLE-PLAYING SERVER! We take the fourth and fifth letters of MMORPG quite seriously. Therefore, we would like to outline our rules for naming your characters:

1. Be Original - Public RO servers are filled to the brim with various versions of the names Vash, Sephiroth, Cloud, and many many other favoured video game and anime characters. Additionally, try to refrain from naming characters after historical figures. In some cases, this may be acceptable if the name is not terribly well-known, but if you’re going this route, it would be best to check with a team member first. Please keep these and other well-known allusions out of your names. There are many under-appreciated combination of syllables in this world. Make them feel wanted.
2. Be Realistic - Names have a meaning, yes, but don’t make it a blatant meaning. If you’re going to be an Assassin, don’t use the word Assassin in your name. If you’re going to be a Knight, don’t use your name to explain what type or quality of Knight you are. If you’re going to be a Smith…. well, Smith is a real name, but try to come up with a worthwhile first name and let Smith be the last name.
3. Unlike in iRO where many names properly formatted are taken, you need not use an underscore ( _ ) to space out your name. As a corollary, do not pad your name with Xs or other superfluous characters and do not use numbers in your name unless they have a very, very, VERY valid RP reason for being there. If the name you wanted is taken, do not try to be a look-alike. Just spend some time to work out a new name or a new twist on your current name.
4. Be Pronounceable -Since this is roleplay, even though you’re speaking and listening in text, it still has to be plausible that your name can be pronounced. If your name consists of a series of consonants or vowels which have no obvious meaning, it can not be expected that anyone could call you by name in real life. Please do not expect us to call you by such a name in the game. Again, exceptions have been made for clear RP purposes, so talk to a team member if you have a question or concern.

I hope we can all agree upon these rules. Players with names not fitting these rules will be forced to accept a name change. Please, if you are having problems coming up with an RP-worthy name, or are wondering if yours fits, contact one a staff member and we’ll tell you our thoughts on the matter. Look forward to seeing you all in-game!