We acknowledge that many roleplayers, especially those who have roleplayed over IRC previously, have their own preferred way of posting with their own distinct style. We at Carpe Noctem have our own preferred way of communicating and “netiquette” practices which we follow as well. We consider our game often from the context of a novel: Dialogue should look consistent, as should narrative action and exposition. It would be awkward if you were reading a book and line to line the punctuation, spelling and grammar consistently and dramatically changed with each line. In the same vein, we feel that lack of consistency breeds a lack of immersion which is detrimental to the overall play experience. As such, we’ve compiled a handy guide of Do’s and Don’t's so that we can maintain overall consistency.

Dialogue

Dialogue should either be by itself on a line, or distinctly seperate from narrative. What this means, is we should clearly be able to tell the difference from when someone is talking and when someone is acting. We use this by posting dialogue either alone with no special punctuation or symbols, surrounding speech in an emote (/me command) with double-quotes, or placing actions that take place in between dialogue with double-colons. Example:

<Lisa> I would not recommend taking that action.
* Lisa raises her brow, a look of uncertainty on her face. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
<Lisa> One moment before you begin. ::Lisa takes several steps back:: Okay, go ahead.

We ask that you do not use alternate symbols, such as :single colons for actions:, ‘single quotes for dialogue’, or ::Double colons for dialogue in emotes::.

In order to express emphasis on certain words in speech, we use -dashes- surrounding the words to be emphasized. We do not use *asterisks*, #hashes#, ^carrots^, or anything else you can think of.

Additionally, we do not recognize a set of ellipses (…) as valid dialogue. Posting only:

<Tasha> …

is not valid dialogue, nor does it describe anything. Please avoid using ellipses for anything other then a pause in speech. If you want to express that your character has no words, then do so with a description of how they look, not a symbol. Such as:

* Tasha stops and stares at Larissa, her face set in an expression clearly demonstrating her displeasure.

Inner Monologue

Along the same lines of what was just mentioned, when describing your actions or narrative, please do not tell us how your character is feeling or what they are thinking. There are several reasons for this, chief amongst them is that no player character has the ability to read minds. Additionally, this often comes off or feels much like you are trying to steer RP in one direction or another. We ask that you avoid using statements that are overly revealing or completely indeterminable when simply standing next to someone. Statements like:

* Sam recoils, she’s never seen an unmasked Nosferatu before.
* Sam frowns because she’s upset that Chris didn’t notice her new hair.
* Sam is furious because she doesn’t like being called names and is contemplating hitting Chris.

Should be avoided, as there is no way for the characters to have the details provided unless we were privy to their thoughts. Instead, we prefer intentionally statements that are more open to interpretation should be used.

* Sam recoils, shades of fear and disgust on her face.
* Sam frowns, a look of disappointment and defeat on her face as she looks at Chris.
* Sam clenches her face, her eyes like daggers fixed on the back of Chris’ head.

Out of Character

While in general, we tend to discourage OOC chatter in IC channels, sometimes it becomes necessary to clarify something OOC or ask questions. In these cases, we use ((double parentheses)) to represent this OOC chat. Please do not use any other form of brackets or enclosure to represent OOC chat.

Proper Spelling and Grammar

While we remain sensitive to those with learning disabilities, we insist that players make every effort to use correct spelling and grammar as often as possible. Uses of internet shorthand should never occur in any In Character channel. This includes items such as using ‘u’ instead of ‘you’, ‘ur’ instead of ‘you are’, as well as smilies ( -.- ) instead of descriptive actions (::Smiles::).

A note regarding colors

As of an update in 2009, the server now automatically strips colors from text sent to it. So if you use colors to try to format meaning, you will find yourself not being understood. This was done mainly because colors are annoying, and because colors don’t always translate to every one clients the same way. This includes the bot who was not able to interpret the control characters.