From the outside, the building is grey, dingy, and looks a lot like an old warehouse... fitting, since that is what it once was. As the door opens, music from cleverly concealed speakers drifts out, and as the room is entered, chairs and table are seen to the side of the entryway, and a bar takes up almost the entire length of the far wall, with a door behind it leading to what is assumed to be a kitchen. To the left is a jukebox, and in the furthest corner is a modest dance floor. Ceiling fans move with just enough force to get rid of any cigarette smoke or other fumes. Fading movie posters and other assorted pictures adorn the walls, giving the place a bit of color
You have just stepped into the X-Roads, the webpage for the mIRC role-playing channel/chat-line. It's on the Sorcery servers of the IRC network, and the official channel name is #X-Roads. If you're checking out this page chances are you've already gone to the channel, and are wondering what is going on in there. Hopefully this main page and its sub-pages will clear up some confusion, without starting much more.
First of all, X-Roads is a roleplaying channel. What's that mean? You pretend to be a character, not yourself. Shouldn't be hard, these are chatlines after all, how many people are truly honest anyways? *grin, nudge, wink* So, you're a character now...
Well, this is a channel based loosely on the Marvel Comics X-Men universe, slightly futuristic, and the bar is set in a run-down neighborhood of Detroit.
So... now you are a super-powered being in Detroit, and you have come to this bar which is known to be a mutant hang out. When I say mutant, for those of you who have been living under a rock, I mean super-powered being born with their power, or somehow always having it, not just a guy who carries a gun and is a really good shot. This is not a NRA channel.
Now, if you have seen the X-Men movie, or the animated series, or read any Marvel Comics books, then you likely have a character that you really like and would like to play. Who wouldn't want to control the weather like Storm, slash through anything like Wolverine, crush things in your bare hands like Colossus, read minds like Jean Grey and Professor Xavier, or blast pure energy from your body like Cyclops? While the ops (Operators of the channel, the people whose rules make this a fun place to play) allow you to take existing characters, we do have some guidelines. They are as follows:
1. No God-like beings. If you show up with the nick Apocalypse, and your character is supposed to be Apocalypse from the comic series, bend over and assume the field goal kicking position, 'cause we will kick you.
2. No God-moding or Power-gaming. This means that if you throw a punch at someone, please refrain from typing this, and fellow mIRC users will know what this means: "/me punches Mikey in the face." Let's look at it and see what's wrong. Now because this is role-playing, we are *pretending*. It's fine and dandy to believe in your own mind that your character is the best fighter in the world, skilled in the martial arts of forty thousand different worlds and realities. When someone type "/me punches Mikey in the face", experienced role-player will assume one of two things, either you are too lazy to think of a more descriptive attack, or that your age is lower than your shoe size.
"/me punches Mikey in the face" is not only dull and boring to look at, but it's also powergaming. Why? Because it assumes that your character has already hit Mikey, and there was nothing Mikey could do to avoid it. We do not like this.
Powergaming is the role-playing version of a two year olds' temper tantrum. "But I am the best and I hit him no matter what he does" will not cut it in here, un uh, no way. If you want to do that, go join #Kindergarden_Crybabies, because we don't want that crap on our channel.
If you must use a short attack, do something like /me tries to punch Mikey in the face, or /me aims a blow to Mikeys' chin. See the difference? It is not saying that you have hit him, merely that you are trying to, this is what role playing is about. If someone is powergaming you, talk to an op, and they will haul you and the offending party to #X-Roads_OOC for an out of character chat, pat you on the heads, and give you lollipops for settling it without calling each other doody-heads, okay?
3. God-Moding. Someone asked me to define this a little better, as it is somewhat different from Powergaming. Both are the product of unimaginative people, but godmoders are a pain because they are the best at everything. If they throw something, it always hits the bullseye. If they paint a picture , it's an instant masterpiece. They are dieties, beings of increadible power and very little brain matter.
How is it decent Role Play to have a character who is the best at everything he or she or it does? I prescribe to this statement, both in my Role Play, and in my real life: 'No matter how good you are, there is always someone better'. Someone else out there is going to have more training in a certain field, or else your character would be in the world's top ten for people with that skill, wouldn't they? If you are going to come in with a character who is a god, or who is godlike, please be ready to get kicked, because we want Role Play, not constant hack and slash type gaming, that kind of crap went out with eighties action flicks. Our unofficial motto could be considered to be "Come here, have fun, treat the characters of others as you want your characters treated".
Okay, complete bastardization of the golden rule, but it's all I could come up with off the cuff. All in all, I just want people to be able to come to the channel, and when they leave, have they say that they enjoyed their time here, and wish to return when they can. That's all. I'm not out for personal gain. I'm not looking to dominate the world...yet (Was that out loud? Oops...) I just want an environment that people will enjoy playing in, and if you're a lamer who thinks they can come and ruin it, come right in, I got a size thirteen steel-toed boot to kick you outta my channel with.
4. Don't flood. It's not cool, it's not funny. It pisses people off, and we do kick for it without warning. If we kick a flooder once and they come back and continue to flood, they get banned. It's as simple as that. No third chance or crap like that, just *poof* gone.
Those are really all that we expect as rules for the players to follow, there are rules posted in the bar for characters to follow, much like the ones at real bars, and whether your character follows them or not, is really up to you as the player.
If you have any questions about this page, or about the channel, please feel free to talk to one of the ops in the channel, or if you wish, leave an e-mail through this page, or contact me, the page administrator, directly at charlemaine@hotmail.com and leave me an e-mail that way, with the subject line havng "X-Roads" in it, or else it may be mistaken for spam.
