Shattered Kingdoms

Good evening, it's your friendly neighborhood rules manager and Lord of Fear here with a quick reminder.

OOC communication in-game is frowned upon, but it's not something that is generally punished unless it approaches harassment. It's important to note that it isn't looked down upon because we don't like fun, or we don't like people discussing the game, but because it introduces a lot of problems.

1. People get too comfortable around OOC chatter.

If it feels like a chat room, it's going to be treated like a chat room. When people start feeling too comfortable, they might start over-sharing and people start becoming uncomfortable. What was fun, is now something else altogether. No one intends for this to happen, it just does sometimes, and it's one of the reasons random OOC chatter is a problem.

2. People share actionable OOC information without realizing it.

It seems a bit silly, but it can be really hard to tell what is important information and what isn't. You might send someone an OOC message about how bored you are because a run isn't going anywhere fast, and they might take that as an indication that it won't be done any time soon and they have free reign to commit all manner of actions they might think twice about otherwise. Sometimes it's even less obvious than that, but it can lead to hurt feelings pretty quickly when someone feels taken advantage of.

3. It's not fair to the people you share OOC information with.

I hope no one would say if I was purposefully telling my enemies where I am OOCly that they should be barred from coming to kill me, but that's the type of dilemma being given to people who are sent OOC information. You're forcing them to try and pretend as if they didn't know certain sensitive information, but as we all know once the cat is out of the bag it can be incredibly difficult to feel like you're making a fair decision, and it's even harder for others to determine if a decision has been fair. Would they have checked that area for you anyway? Would they have went to another area first? It's a lot easier to refrain from putting people in a position where they need to ask these questions than it is to answer them.

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There can be good reasons to have some brief communication OOCly, for instance if you need to go AFK momentarily. Another reason could be if someone is making you uncomfortable, and you want to let them know in a calm and respectful manner. However, the vast majority of all communications in-game should be in-character, or IC, and while I don't want to discourage people from having fun, I do want to discourage people from continuing to be so loose with their OOC usage.

As always, if anyone has any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to send me a PM or contact me via e-mail at Algorab@ShatteredKingdoms.org.