Within the context of Furcadia, roleplaying, or RP, refers to the act of assuming a character role in order to act out collaborative stories with other players. This is in comparison to socialising, where players chat to each other as "themselves". Players generally refer to these distinctions as IC ("in-character"), meaning a player is speaking or acting on behalf of his or her character, versus OOC ("out-of-character"), where they are speaking or acting as themselves.
Several types of roleplaying standards are commonly recognised within Furcadia, including persona play and strict roleplaying.
Persona play[]
Persona play, or persona roleplay, is the more "relaxed" roleplaying standard. Persona play is comparable to a collaborative fiction effort between two or more players, generally without any specific rules or limitations on setting. It is the most common form of roleplay players are likely to encounter within Furcadia. "Spontaneous" roleplaying, particularly on main maps, is most likely to be persona play.
Rule of Consent[]
In public areas within Furcadia, persona play is governed by only one rule, known as the Rule of Consent. This rule is defined as:
- If somebody poses or says something that implies your cooperation, you can act like it didn't happen.
Private dreams may have different standards or interpretations of the Consent Rule.
Para RP[]
A somewhat contentious concept within Furcadia's roleplaying community is the concept of "para RP". Generally-speaking, players favouring this form of roleplaying require each player "turn" to consist of a substantial quantity of text, i.e. a paragraph or more.
There is no universally-agreed standard for what constitutes a "paragraph" for the purposes of para RP, with acceptable minimums varying from player to player.
Strict roleplaying[]
In contrast to persona play, strict roleplaying refers to roleplay that is conducted more akin to traditional tabletop pen-and-paper roleplaying, such as Dungeons and Dragons. Strict RP is usually conducted in a specific, limited continuity, with well-defined rules governing player interactions.
Though Furcadia has its own canon continuity for the purposes of strict RP, known as Furre!, most strict RP occurs using differing house rules across a variety of private dreams.