A Note About OOC Coordination

[Howlando]

It might be worth reviewing the EFU Rule List if you have not done so for a while.

Particularly I would mention rule 45:

(45) The use of voice chat programs to communicate with team-mates while RP'ing on EFU is not allowed. Communication between characters/players must exclusively be through NWN while in-game.

I know that there are many of you who will disagree with this. I understand in contemporary gaming culture it's common for groups of friends to play games (particularly MMORPGs) while using ventrilo or skype to chat with each other. I understand that many people who do this would defend it by saying that they take care not to metagame with it.

Nevertheless, we ask that you do not do it. Why? Because I sincerely believe that OOC'ly chatting while running a quest would be incredibly destructive to the immersive roleplaying experience. Because that at any moment in EFU PvP or a scary monster or DM spice might break out and relying on fast voice-chat to coordinate a response would not be appropriate or fair. Because it is very irritating as a DM to zoom to some group tackling a quest and not seeing any dialogue in between characters - knowing that the players are just rushing through the quest and dealing with the tactics through voice-chat. It's also just generally not fair to other players who don't take advantage of such systems, and surely would only encourage a tendency towards small cliques of insular OOC friends.

In the same breath I'll also mention as a reminder (which I hope should be obvious to all) that tells (which are OOC) should not be used to coordinate IC things. To a degree there is a blurred line there - in consideration of OOC concerns and limited playtime, it's all right to say things like, "Hey I'll be in town in a little while" or "Our group is headed out soon, probably could find us near the gate son." But even that should be done carefully, with an emphasis on IC methods whenever possible. Using tells to precisely coordinate the ideal questing group to meet "by chance" at the quest giver is pretty lame, in my opinion. A good rule of thumb to use is to ask yourself if the reliance on OOC methods is just convenience for a group of OOC friends, or if rather it's bending the rules slightly in order to involve another player or make something interesting happen.

Even if you still disagree with all of this, I hope players will respect EFU by avoiding these OOC methods of communication while roleplaying your characters.