If someone is bringing in their "achievements" of real life you just know there is something wrong.
Agreed. It's not like any of it could be verified, anyway.
Ok... I understand realism.
No, not realism,
settings.
And I can tell you, no matter who you ask, or what guide you read the NUMBER ONE thing that effects realism are characters.
seriously, don't confuse realism and settings, they are different. A setting doesn't have to be realistic at all, there are several completely unrealistic RPGs out there.
Setting is always at least the second, if not third. I've also taken a few psychology courses, including 'Psychology of Speculative Fiction' in DCU, which explicitly states that people identify best with people, NOT the background.
You needed to take courses to notice that?
However, characters help only so much, and if the settings is crap, or doesn't appeal to one, then one won't read / participate. But that's besides the point: PS's setting is perfectly OK with me.
Star Wars - the first three were great because of the timeless characters of Yoda, Darth Vader, Leia, etc., but the most recent three were less-liked because the focus shifted more to world-building and social commentary than cool characters)
These are not at all my reasons to dislike the most recent episodes. I mostly disliked them because they scream "marketing" in your face. And because they rely on nothing but FX, instead of interesting plot. And because I hated Jar-Jar Bings or however you spell this ill-concieved mutilation of a sad, in-bred version of a failure of a comic relief substitution. Not to mention that the so-called world-building included that one can not only measure Jedi-ness, but also be doped to Jedi-ness (AKA, how high is the percentage of these force-bacteria in your blood?). Oh, and the desperate need for a shallow love story and associated scenes. On the upside, I liked the explanation of how the emperor came to power. But that's about it.
A good RPer/writer can 'validate' anything creatively and believably. There's hundreds of devices you can use to change any situation to what you want it to be. In fact, it's the mark of a bad writer to leave things all straightened out and perfect. People like wrinkles and twists. If you're on a mission to do something, you don't want it to go perfectly. If you go outside the realms of what is considered by some of the more fussy people to be 'invalid by a factor of 1.23', there's always a way to bring it back.
As has been said, a good writer doesn't equal a good RPer, because writing gives all power to the writer, whereas RPing does not. In writing, when you want something, you change the settings. In RP, you don't.
Additionally, yes, you may find lots of possible kludges to make up some sort of half-assed explanation why this and that happened. This doesn't mean it's good RP, nor good writing. You'll likely also find the "my char was teleported to Yliakum from some other world" thing a good and valid explanation to have Mr. Spock in PS the first time you see it. Maybe also the second or third, but at the 100th, you'll start noticing that it isn't all that imaginative...
BTW, I'm not talking about missions going perfectly in RP, I don't see how you might have arrived at that conclusion. It is
obvious that if everything always works out, things get boring. However, this has nothing to do with violating the settings.
Taking the purple cow... It could be a spirit, the strange form of an unknown god (there's plenty in Yliakum, and the other worlds),
Ahem... seriously, there is
exactly one unknown god in Yliakum. That is Vodúl. No other god has
ever set divine foot inside the stalactite, and Vodúl has never, ever, so much as looked inside Yliakum. Add the DR god thing and the BF, that makes three. All of them are known settings-wise, and gods and their like are not to be tempered with by players. It's really common sense, and I doubt you'd be prepared to accept me "RPing" Laanx or something like that.
a hallucination (magic, poisons, insanity... Planeshift has it all.
So you mean a hallucination of everyone you meet? Or poisoning them? Or selective mass insanity? All of Yliakum even? Even the most powerful wizard? Eheh...
This could be a brilliant twist to your character. Classic of horror movies),
Well... no. First, horror movies aren't usually that realistic, if you look at the story. Also, even if, then it'd affect solely your character, noone else. Thus, noone would ever see your imaginary pet. Not o mention that we are not talking about RPing insanity, we're talking about RPing normal people off the streets, and their pets.
a magical entity created by a mage's imagination (unless we start governing what your character is allowed to imagine and create),
Guess what? we
are. You seem to not have grasped the concept of "settings" yet. Granted, the creation of something like a pet "merely" involves a very powerful high-level wizard. However, even these have their limitations, and as such this cannot be used as cop-out for anyone except a believably RP'd powerful wizard who has a realistic background to create such a pet.
a fugitive hiding in a disguise, a secret weapon developed by the military, whatever.
Hmm, a fugitive disguising as something that doesn't exist and therefore sticks out like a torch in total darkness? Brilliant idea, the guards will be delighted!
And you
do know that there isn't that much of a military in Yliakum? The secret weapon... what would it be? A raven that pecks out your eyes? One that explodes? Even then, a more disguised form would be much preferred. After all, secrecy is about not being found out... or looked at at all, if possible, blending into the background and stuff...
You see, even if it starts out as something, doesn't mean it has to actually be something. Your character won't be 'ruined' at all. There's always a way to write something off, you just have to be creative.
As I said, if you play only with yourself, then yes. If it shows up in other's RP, then no.
There's nothing to even change yet. Just a very vague description. You don't even have any rules to be pedantic over... Yet you're still worried about people strictly following something that probably won't be around for another year. Why bother getting all worked up?
In order to prevent people like you from creating destructive trends that can easily get out of control and set a bad example.
It's not acceptable? What exactly are you talking about not being acceptable? Where are these rules no commandments that are "absolutely not acceptable" to break?
These of common sense and coutesy? That which makes it possible to have one RP and another RP intertwine, instead of clash? In contrast to writing, RP is a group effort, and this means people will need to play by certain rules in order to not spoil it for everyone.
They don't exist, and not even the GMs care if people make purple cows at this point.
GMs aren't devs, and up until now it was only one. And that one even stated that it will become important in the future, which should have served as a warning and as a hint to just not go there.
It's the definition of not relevant, because not only have I never met a real-life pet being RPed in PS,
...while me and others have...
but I've never seen anything telling us we cant.
Ah, you're one of the "If there's no law, then I'll do it, no matter what anyone says!" people. I can't express how much I despise this sort of thinking. It's what makes tomes of laws necessary in the first place, and what ends up reducing freedom of everyone in the long run. Common sense and courtesy should suffice, but instead people like you insist on following only rules, and thus rules are being created, to force your likes to adhere to what really should be common sense.
The only thing I have seen, is GMs and devs not being bothered, and references being made everywhere to horses and cows and birds and rats and snakes.
"cows" are not equal to "cattle", and "cattle" can mean anything, it doesn't mean it's RL "cattle". Birds can be expected to exist, but it doesn't define "raven" or any other bird. Same with snakes. Rats are ingame, and there's nothing to argue about with them.
Huh? No, it means that everybody's worried about not falling through invisible holes in the floor and dying, or spontaneously crashing mid-RP, and that the devs are busy fixing it. Nobody has time nor energy to worry whether we should say 'cat' or '<insert future term for cat-like thing here>'
Crazy, I haven't fallen off the world in a year. Not that I was particularly worried about any such thing yet. Crashing is
much less than it used to be, and there always was RP. Ever had the server crash once every 10 minutes? Ever had the client crash every 5 minutes?
That is when one worries about these things, not ATM, where the server goes down once or twice a day only.
Like I said; Nobody'll remember all this. It'll get to the point where RPs are seriously slowed down, or even burst into massive arguments, because people all have their massive compendiums of things that are allowed at the ready, and need to look-up three different things every time they say something.
The "all of this" is really just one sentence like "avoid references to RL animals unless they're explicitely mentioned". Even in size 200 letters that'd hardly fill a "compendium". Also, it's nothing that one would need in general RP, it's relevant only in certain circumstances which don't arise often. It's not that you'd have to check against a list of animals each time you refer to your pet.
No doubt if you're worried about animals, you'll be worried about other things too.
Absolutely, yes.
Enforcing a setting, and enforcing a bible-sized book of things you can and cant do are two very different things.
If you have access to that book, I'd be glad to have a copy of it. There are so many holes in the settings that I'd love to see definitions for, after all. It would allow me to use them in my RP, instead of avoiding them. Maybe you can scan and upload that book?
I'm all for talking in-character all the time. And I'm all for keeping things realistic and medieval. What I don't want, is have to constantly worry about little things that could easily be glossed over or ignored if people don't like it anyway. The difference is the freedom to have fun. (Assuming you don't find being limited by pedantics fun)
Freedom has it's limits where it removes the freedom of others. So if your "little things" disrupt other's RP, then obviously your freedom stops right there. Talking "in-character" can be just as OOC as talking about computers if the character is not covered by the settings. If you, OTOH, created a settings-compliant character in the first place, then, by being IC, you can never go OOC, and thus never need to worry about any rules you might be breaking.
I'd consider myself a good RPer
You see, what you consider yourself isn't important. It's what others think that is. Writing and RP are very very different.
or if not good, then at least someone who's worthy of playing Planescape.
Planescape? Runescape maybe, but not Planeshift, FAICT. Have you ever played a PnP RPG?
I'd also probably be considered a newbie, having been playing for just over a week. And I can tell you, If I'd seen a bunch of 'Must-read' guides telling me exactly how to do my characters, I would have gone back to Gaia or one of the other Role-playing sites.
See how necessary such guides are? It is
not, I repeat
not your character. It is a character in a world that must fit in, so you are far from given free reign over what you create and RP. This is not one of your stories, it is everyone's story. If you don't learn to work with others, within the settings, then I'm afraid you'll never become an RPer.
You can do what you like, but I'll only care if a dev/mod/GM says that what I'm doing is disruptive.
Yeah, people like you are spoiling RL all the time, too.
Personally, I'm going to use my own judgement, and should something conflict with future regulations, I'll find a creative way to fix it.
I hope your judgement is better than what comes accross in your posts here, or even includes some common sense and courtesy. Anyway, I sincerely hope that
I won't have to judge how creative it turns out to be.
If you're that opposed to it, you don't have to RP with me, or anyone else who isn't content to wait to be told what to do.
As always, I'll be absolutely delighted to do so. Please keep me updated on the names of the characters you play so I can avoid them, OK?
You might find the pool of decent RPers dwindling further
Unlikely, actually. There are several very good RPers in PS. The number of active ones has remained almost constant over the years, and I'm perfectly content to RP with a select few pristine RPers, instead of RPing with a whole army of crap ones.
Dismissive of the other person's arguments, yet still manages to tear into them...
Seriously, RP
is supposed to be fun, and creative,
but, as I am obviously still failing to explain, without staying within the settings, creativity stops being
actually creative, and others are stopping to have fun.
It's required to maintain a consistent world, and the devs have expressed this goal on the website. And consistency is possible
only if everyone plays within the settings and abides by the same rules, not only for OOC interaction, but also for what is IC and what isn't, and for what can be done and what cannot. So obviously there cannot be unlimited freedom, not even close. It may come over as dismissive, but I simply don't see any validity in you claiming otherwise.
I'm taking notes 
I'd prefer you to take notes on what we say, though.
