All the World’s a Stage: Cheating and the IC versus OOC divide

There’s a single primary fundamental to roleplay. It’s a dynamic that is so innate and implicit about the act of roleplaying that most roleplayers never give it any thought. Why would they? It’s as universal and binding a dynamic as could possibly exist in an activity. This dynamic is not only the building block of roleplaying, it’s also the very point and end-goal of most roleplaying. I want to throw in some kind of yin and yang analogy, also, but I’ll get to my point.

All of roleplay is based on the idea of being “In Character” instead of “Out of Character.”

I know that will seem so simple to most of you that the statement seems puerile. But I think both brand new players and experienced roleplays would be well served to take some time examining the dynamic. What drives in character actions? Where does the out of character begin? At which point does out of character affecting in character stop being “just the way things are” and become metagaming? It can be some pretty deep stuff.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: Cheating and the IC versus OOC divide

Filed under: All the World’s a Stage (Roleplaying)