Directives

The Rapier Division (RP)

Rapier is one of the nine divisions of Nine Swords. The purview of Rapier is role-play. Role-playing is meant to be fun and stimulating. We imagine, we further and we take part in ongoing story telling through the fictional characters we create.

Role-playing is not reserved to members of Rapier. As an example, whether or not they're a member of the Zweihänder division (PvE), any Nine Swords member is expected to follow the looting rules established by Zweihänder. The same principle applies for roleplaying. If you are not member of the Rapier division, you can role-play anyway; just make yourself acquainted with the basics so that it goes smoothly.

If you are a beginner, we want to help you get started. We can provide tools and tips to make it easy. You may need time to get familiar with those, it's a skill that develops with practice and time. Most importantly... Communicate. Communication is your best friend for a smooth experience. We strive to keep Rapier, and role-play in general, a fun, helpful and supportive experience.

Joining the Rapier Division

As a Nine Swords Cabal member, joining the Rapier Division is as easy as speaking with the RP Division Leaders about your interest in joining. The Division leaders will review your request and hopefully approve your application by promoting you in to the division.

In addition, all new potential division members will have the option of going through an IC “interview” as a part of joining or being promoted in Nine Swords in an in-character fashion. No one will be rejected in these interviews (as everyone is already a 9S member!) This is for the benefit of the new division member, to give them the opportunity to role-play an IC entry or promotion in 9S, and get to know some of the division members. All Rapier division members are invited to attend IC interviews. (again this is for the benefit of the membership base, as it's just one more opportunity to role-play with your division mates.) As a re-iteration, this IC interview is 100% optional. Please let the Rapier Division Leaders know if you wish to have one.

RP Events

Roleplaying events can really encompass many things, the examples and suggestions outlined here are far from the absolute all that you might take forwards to build on an idea you have, however perhaps they will help you start building the foundations for your event!

There can be many different styles of event, such as:

Party/Celebration/Social

Is it someones Birthday? Perhaps you want to do a poetry event. Perhaps your team has finally completed some content and wants to celebrate it with the cabal. Why not organise a socual gathering for it. Whatever the occasion, send out the save the date cards and head over to the location. Whether you are going to dance the night away or play drinking games. Enjoying yourself is stacks of fun!!

Action/mission

Perhaps you don't like to sit still, maybe you want to make a roleplaying event that involves everyone hacking and slashing their ways through something.

Investigative Roleplay

A treasure hunt to a murder investigation. Set up clues and design a roleplay experience to encourage the participants to have to figure out their journey through the roleplay. Perhaps have a series of different scenarios that you could have as outcomes depending on the direction the participants take.

Collective project

Maybe your sights for a roleplay experience are huge and all encompassing. Maybe its time to consider a story arc project with other people and work on it collaboratively!

Whichever style of event you choose, remember that they can also vary in participation. Perhaps you would prefer a private or just a small group of people, maybe you would like a group event with a couple of teams of people, a large cabal wide event, or maybe even a public event helping to publicise the cabal. The choice is ultimately yours.

Other considerations are:

• The medium of the events. You could offer in-game roleplay, forum threads, PMs, voice chat - or maybe even a mixture.
• The frequency or duration may vary greatly: ongoing story scaling on several days/weeks/months, recurring event, regular gathering, etc.
• The type of events can also go from the informal, spontaneous event to the moderately "guided" story all the way to the significantly scripted one.

FAQ

Q: What is the purpose of the Rapier Division?

To promote roleplay.

Q: Can I roleplay in the cabal/TSW without being a member of Rapier division?

Absolutely! The purpose of Rapier division is to promote roleplay, which is more than simply doing roleplay. It is to encourage

Q: What about the Cabal Chat Channels

Cabal chat channnel: The Nine Swords cabal chat is Out Of Character. This does not mean you are forbidden to chat In Character in the cabal channel, however it is important to remember that some members of our cabal do not roleplay and to carry out a long in character dialog may not always meet other RPers ears.

You can use a script to subscribe to different channels (See TSW Forum Post Scripts for Custom Chats)

Q: How can I promote roleplay?

There is no one way to do this, but here are a few suggestions:

In-game

• Solicit pick-up RP from the cabal. Let's say you're in a roleplaying mood and are thinking about going to the Horned God or some other in-game RP hotspot. Throw a comment into cabal chat like, "If anyone's up for some RP, I'm heading to the Horned God. Come join me." Depending on the time of day and who's on, you may not get any takers or you may get some. They may even be from outside of the division. It's always worth a shot.
• Plan an RP gathering. This is tricky because the Real Life server is very buggy and often has massive lag spikes. So sometimes it is hard to plan things ahead of time. Sometimes the schedule makes no sense whatsoever. For instance, after a few months it seems it is easier to get an RP event going on a weeknight (US primetime) than on a weekend. As summer gives way to fall and winter, expect to see more people on in the weekend. Whatever the case, plan something and stick with it.
• Offer to help a new roleplayer. This...is the hardest but perhaps best thing you can do. It is the hardest because you have to know who's new to roleplay. Then you have to find out if that individual wants help. Then you have to figure out how to offer advice without creating that player's character yourself. In general, general advice is more valuable than specific advice. In other words, it is better to say, "How do you think you would react to this situation if you had your character's background" than to say "Given your character's background, don't you think it would be better to react this way?"

In the Forums

• Create interactive threads in the Tea Room. Interesting threads here are a great way to promote forum roleplay.
• Write a blog for your character in your profile page.
• Write tutorials. Not every tutorial written is going to make it to the directives or get stickied, but you may just post something that someone else finds helpful.
• One suggestion that is applicable whether in-game or on the forums and whether you are a member of Rapier or not: point out good work. Everyone likes to be rewarded once in a while.

Q: What is 'roleplay etiquette'?

Short answer: do not control another player's character and do not use knowledge in-character that your character cannot know.

Long answer: Roleplay is meant to play your character from a real-life perspective. If I were really this character, what would I do, how would I react to this situation, and what would I know? The last of these is the easiest line to cross, because we as players know more than our characters can know thanks to the forums and game mechanics. An easy example is this: you walk into the Horned God and approach another character. If you call that character by name without having ever interacted with that character, how did your character acquire that knowledge? Expect to be challenged on this.

The other big taboo in roleplay is the two-sided coin known as god-moding and god-modding. God-moding is playing a character who is truly invincible. Thanks to game mechanics we have a level of immortality, but that does not mean bad things cannot happen to our characters. A great example of 'bad things' is exemplified by what happens to Jennison 'Jennet' Edwards in this thread: Grand Theft Artifact.

God-modding is taking control of another player's character. Notice the difference between these two statements: "Thanasi sets Wes on fire," and "Thanasi attempts to set Wes on fire." The first may be acceptable in out-of-character contexts like our AJAX chat room, but not in in-character contexts because it removes from Wes the ability to react. The second gives Wes the opportunity to react, so while it may be socially unacceptable (but funny) it is roleplay acceptable.

Q: I don't want bad things to happen to my character, but I also don't want to be a god-moder! HELP!

The first rule and good practice of roleplay (and, in fact, human relations) is to keep the OOC lines of communication open. If you begin to sense something is coming that you do not want to happen to your character, send the other player a tell and ask out of character what the plan is, and to explain your thoughts/feelings on the situation. A good roleplayer will work with you. A bad roleplayer...well, you can always leave the situation and avoid roleplaying with that person in the future.

Q: What if it's a cabal member who did the 'bad roleplayer' thing?

Please attempt to resolve any issues you have regarding roleplaying etiquette directly, with the person involved first. If talking to the person in question did not resolve the dispute, bring it to an officer. If it involves Cabal directives, go to a Nine Swords leader. For roleplay issues, please direct all issues to The Rapier Division Leader. Discipline and confrontation issues are never pleasant, but they can only get worse through avoidance or talking to the wrong people to handle the situation.

Q: What if it's a cabal leader that is the problem?

Talk to our leaders. If you need witnesses, go ahead, but please talk to them. There could have been a misunderstanding or incorrect perception of something that happened. Maybe not. If however, you are uncomfortable talking to the leader because your problem is with one of them, take it to one of the other officers to talk to them on your behalf. The worst thing you can do is avoid resolution. Avoidance hurts you (you feel uncomfortable roleplaying), it hurts the cabal (invisible rifts), and it hurts the players in question, especially when we find out we have offended someone months after the fact!

Q: Are Rapier Division members active in other aspects of the game?

Absolutely! While the main focus of The Rapier Division is to promote roleplay, our members regularly take part in all aspects of gameplay within The Secret World.

Q: What is Nine Swords' stance on ERP? (Erotic Roleplay.)

ERP is not promoted in any way shape or form as a part of official Nine Swords group roleplay, whether on the forums or in cabal chat. ERP is a private roleplaying experience between two (or three, or four, or many many more) consenting adults, and as such, should be conducted within private chat channels. That being said, mistells happen. No one will be punished in any way, shape or form for accidentally posting something intended for a private chat channel within cabal chat. We are all adults, and have a remarkable ability to laugh about such things. While not within the realm of Nine Swords official stance on ERP, a few things that should be noted:

• ERP in public is against Funcom's Rules of Conduct. It is in your best interest to keep things to private channels, and practice discretion.
• It is a good practice, to inquire about another player's RP boundaries before engaging in said activities with them. Open communication will ensure a comfortable experience for all parties involved.
• ERPing with a person under the age of legal consent is illegal. If you have any doubt as to whether or not the person you are roleplaying with is of legal age, it would be in your best interest to cease activities.

Q: What about swear words?

In general, keep them to a minimum. Yes, we all know walking the streets of London or New York is like reading Urban Dictionary with a screen-reader hooked up to a stereo, but that does not mean all people like that language. Be respectful and keep it to a minimum. If you're going to have a lot of that in a post, tag it at the beginning. This does not hurt you and it can save some grief.