Introduction
Hello! I've been contemplating whether to make this post for quite some time now, but given how many people seem to be getting involved with intrigue or information gathering and sharing RP these days, I thought it was a good time to make it. This is a list of suggestions and recommendations for intrigue RP, rather than being any sort of ruleset or gospel. The list primarily pertains to intrigue RP surrounding CvC situations, but has a lot of general stuff as well, pertaining to how various things affect intrigue RP on the server.
List
Avoiding Meta-info: Avoid learning meta-info to the best of your capabilities. This is sometimes unavoidable, however it's generally best not to seek it out. Don't OOCly ask about IC information your character wouldn't know, for instance.
Meta-info Sharing: Avoid sharing IC information OOCly to other people. While I can understand sharing or talking about your own character to other people OOCly (still best to avoid it), don't share IC information about other characters/plots, this is disrespectful towards whoever or whatever you're sharing information about. This has been an issue over the years, and I'm hearing more and more about people doing this. If you are doing this, stop, and if you are around people doing this, call them out on it (to them). Lastly, some people use the excuse of "everyone knows", which is almost never true, if you aren't completely sure someone OOCly knows something already, avoid discussing it with them.
Treating intrigue OOCly: I've noticed a fair amount of people treating intrigue RP like some OOC game. Whether through lying OOCly about IC stuff, going through OOC means to find out IC information, OOCly organizing the sharing of IC information, etc. This sort of behavior has to be avoided.
Character Knowledge: Most of the time, player knowledge and character knowledge are vastly different. Separating the two can be difficult, but is important to do when involved with intrigue. Whether it be knowledge of classes, guilds, deities, etc. Forgotten Realms is far more vast and complex than what the server can portray. In general, always be mindful what your PC actually knows.
- For instance, most people are OOCly aware Shadow Adept is a class on the server, and are likely OOCly aware of the Shadow Weave being a thing, so there's a good chance they OOCly attribute "shadowy mage" and such to Sharrans. But given that the Shadow Weave is one of Shar's most highly kept secrets (only known to her followers as per server lore), and shadow adepts only account for one type of her worshippers (likely a more secretive one), it would be hard to attribute "shadowy mage" to Sharrans ICly, unless they were to reveal their faith themselves, or your PC had some major religious/arcane knowledge (even this is highly questionable).
- Another note to keep in mind. There are maybe 200-300~ active characters on the server at any given time. The population of Baldur's Gate is around 100,000~. Which means that the PC population is about 0.2%-0.3% of the population in Baldur's Gate alone. Considering that the Sword Coast is much bigger than just Baldur's Gate, the PC population is almost nothing compared to actual population. This is often forgotten, and thus helps to provide a reason for the rarity of some things compared to what's seen in-game (tieflings, aasimar, etc). Thus it's something to keep in mind, the world is often more lively than what it appears to be in-game.
Shortcuts: I'm separating this from metagaming as this take is more subjective. Jumping to conclusions or taking shortcuts in intrigue RP is something that I see happen regularly on the server. This usually involves letting OOC knowledge/suspicion take part in characters coming to a conclusion while not having any strong evidence, with the more egregious examples being straight-up metagaming.
- Oftentimes a player will RP their character "knowing" some secret about someone or something, when it's rare that their character actually has heard about or witnessed some strong evidence or proof of the supposed knowledge. This could be attributed to the character simply being prone to jumping to conclusions, yet this rarely happens when the player OOCly knows or suspects something is false. This "knowledge" then spreads as fact, when really it's just suspicion. You are then left with a bunch of characters "knowing" some secret without any strong evidence. This completely ignores the RP and information that might make someone doubt their suspicions, it also removes the potential investigative RP that could happen as a result.
- My suggestion to avoid this is to allow your character to merely suspect something if they don't have any strong evidence, rather than having to "know" something (unless they are the type to jump to conclusions). In addition, if your character hears some super secretive information about someone or something, perhaps have them wonder (or ask) how someone managed to acquire such information, and if it's not some strong evidence, or they simply heard it from someone else, then it may just be mere suspicion or a rumor. Lastly, if your character is suspicious about something and wants to confirm it or find out more, investigative RP can be a lot of fun.
"Winning": Winning in intrigue RP is rarely a thing, and it's best not to go into intrigue RP (or any RP) with the goal of "winning" against other players. Allowing your PC to not know something or be fooled, when you are aware of something OOCly, is probably one the best signs of a good intrigue RPer.
Infiltration: If your character is infiltrating another faction, I'm of the opinion that they should be actively contributing to that guild's RP. If they're just copying or reporting information back to whoeever and going to events (that other people organize), it's lazy and not adding much to the faction they're infiltrating. So if you ever have a character that is infiltrating a faction, try to contribute to their RP, it will make things more fun for all involved.
Cliques: In the past (and likely the present), discord/skype/etc groups have been involved in meta-info sharing, metagaming and all sorts of toxic behavior. When a clique has players of characters that are ICly involved with one another, one has to be very careful with it, not allowing it to become some place where these sorts of things happen. Discussions on IC matters/information need to happen IC, rather than OOCly. And while I do agree it's fun to play with your friends, be careful to keep OOC and IC separate, as friction or distrust between characters when appropiate is important.
Being Considerate: Finally and most importantly, being OOCly considerate in intrigue RP (all RP) can make things better for everyone involved. There are actual living human beings behind the screen of the other characters (crazy, I know), and thus it's important to keep them in mind when you're doing something that could affect their characters. If you're having your character jump to conclusions or metagame in some effort to "win" in RP, then it's probably best to think about how you would react if someone did the same to your character. Overall, try to be inclusive (when appropiate IC), avoid talking trash about other players or characters, try to make sure people are having fun, and lastly, be excellent to each other.
Conclusion
Two things to add to this post. First is that Discord servers and chat groups aren't always a bad thing, they are a great way to build communities and friendships, I've personally made many friends over the years through chatting on voice. They do however have to be handled responsibly and with care, with players capable of being mature and policing themselves. The second thing is that nobody is perfect in regards to handling intrigue RP (and RP in general), we've all made mistakes in the past, but we all can work on things we've faltered on. This isn't some post bashing about how people are handling intrigue RP (even if I have been irritated at times), but rather a way to help inform people and remind them to be mindful of such things, so the quality of intrigue RP on the server can improve.
Thank you for reading this through!
Big kudos, great post all around.
