Roleplaying

BattleMaster is not just a strategy game, it also is a roleplaying game. Roleplaying means that you play your character as he acts, adding flavour to his in-game actions or even describing things he does that have no in-game effect.

Roleplaying adds depth to the game and makes it more interesting to interact with other players. The level of roleplaying can go from very light to long and intense, the choice is yours.

Roleplaying Game Actions

The easiest way to roleplay is to simply present game events from your character's perspective, using terms and phrases as a medieval noble would, and avoid references to in-game mechanics.

Examples:

• You are following your general's orders to travel somewhere. Your message to him is: "Yes, my lord. I will tell my men to saddle the horses immediately."
• You are doing civil work. Instead of using cut & paste to post the results to your duke, you send him a message saying: "Sire, I have instructed my soldiers to help the people repairing the damage from the last battles. My men were not too happy about it, but they repaired a mill and a wooden bridge, and the villagers were thankful." - you can add the actual game mechanics (production +2%, morale +3%) if you like, but in most cases they are not really that useful.
• You are the ruler and declare war on a former ally who betrayed you. This is a great opportunity to write a rousing speech to your realm, and make in-game accusations on the ruler channel.
• When you swear fealty to a liege, you really should write a short message describing this event. This is a ceremony, with kneeling down and sword tips on the shoulder or whatever other ceremonial proceedings you can imagine.

Roleplaying Non-Game Events

You are free to invent any actions you like and write roleplays about them, as long as they don't have in-game effects. It would be weird if you describe how you kill another character in duel if that character continues to run around unharmed. That is why you must limit this kind of roleplaying to events that are not covered by the game.

Examples:

• Describe your visit to the marketplace or your walk around the city, writing about the place and its people. This is pure description, but it gives life to a place, and defending a city that has been extensively roleplayed is much more fun than fighting for a collection of statistics.
• Marry someone. We have female players, and a few male players who play female characters. We have had a few marriages in-game, and they all have been great events.
• Give more than just a name to your unit - describe them in detail, invent names for some of them, write about the minor events during travel ("The cart got stuck again in the mud. When will this rain end?")

Cooperative Roleplaying

This is the big one. Cooperative roleplaying is when you do not just write about yourself, but interact with others, who are roleplaying in return. Your visit to the city can quickly turn into this if someone else decides to enter the scene.

Cooperative roleplaying is a little more complicated, because the presence of others often means that things do not proceed quite as you would like them to. That is why we have a few rules.

Roleplaying Rules

The word of any GameMaster is final

Accept it and move on, even if you dislike it. Questioning a GM decision in public is very, very much discouraged and will only bring you pain. If you think you have a

What was written has happened

If you don't like what someone else roleplayed, there are two things that you can do about it. Our preferred approach is incorporating other roleplays and is described below. The other option is to appeal to a GameMaster and ask him to invalidate that roleplay. From this follows the rule

Only a GameMaster can invalidate a roleplay

If a GM says that something that was roleplayed did not happen, or happened differently, then that is so. Nobody else can do that. If someone writes a roleplay where your character gets hurt, and you don't like it and find no way to incorporate it, then finding a GM who will invalidate it is your only option.

In order to trump game mechanics, you need GameMaster approval

You can roleplay things that will change the status of the game, but you need a GM to actually make the change. If you want to murder someone, that character has to be killed in-game, and only a GM can do that. You probably won't find a GM for this extreme case, except if the "victim" is willing to go along.

Roleplaying Guidelines

The following are guidelines, where contrary to the rules above there can be exceptions. Try to follow them, but they are not set in stone.

Allow others to interrupt

Don't write everything that happened during the entire day into one roleplay. Yes it hurts, but you have to stop your roleplaying after a reasonable amount of events in order to allow others to contribute as well.

Ask others for permission for major events affecting their characters

You can't marry someone without them saying "yes", and you should not seriously hurt, steal from or otherwise impact in any major way another character without having the permission of his player. Note the difference.

Only play your own character

You can not roleplay other characters, only your own. As far as it is necessary, you can have them make simple, obvious and fitting reactions, but that is the limit. For example, when you meet another character you can assume that he would return your initial "hello", but any replies to your questions must come from the other player, not you.

Don't take things personal

Your character gets attacked, not you. Your character loses the love of his life, not you. Your character is a great hero, not you. Don't confuse the two, and most importantly do not confuse other players with their characters. Some of the most vile and evil characters in the game are played by very nice people.

Incorporating Other Roleplays

The preferred way of dealing with roleplays of others that you don't like can be summed up as Yes, but.... Try this for a while. Every time you feel like saying "no", say "yes, but..." instead and find something fitting for the part after "but".

Example, someone wrote a roleplay where your character is surprised and wounded on the open street, and the assassin escapes into the nearest alley. For sake of this example, your character is named Adam and the other guy is name Mallory.

• "Adam is surrounding by onlookers, and as a noble quickly brought to the houses of healing. While the wound is deep and bleeding profoundly, no vital organs were hit. By dawn next day, Adam is walking around again, weakened but with stronger resolve than before." (This example reduces the impact on your character to a level you should be able to deal with.)
• "As Adam lies bleeding, Mallory turns around to face the city guard running down the alley towards the marketplace, alarmed by the cries and swords drawn. They spot Mallory, and they spot the bloodied blade in his hands before he can put it away." (This says nothing about your character's fate, but turns the tables on the other player, giving him something to think about.)
• You can also accept a wound and continue playing your character as normal, roleplaying that he is acting from his bed via servants and messengers.
• If you don't like the assault at all, you can even answer with a roleplay that reveals that the man who was attacked was not Adam at all, but simply some local lesser noble who looks very much like him. Yes, it is a bit constructed, but it is not more outrageous than roleplaying an attack on another character.