====== How to start RP in EM  ======

**__This also covers the minimum you need to know to be in EM if you do not want to get deep into RP.__**

  - Just go about your normal ingame business.
  - Talk about that to other characters on alliance and on Matteremost in-character channels and operational channels, just like you’d normally do. 
  - Don’t worry about "talking fancy" or sending a lot of emotes to describe your character. You may, but you don't have to. Pilots use jargon too, and that’s fine. "Needs more DPS", "XXX is primary", "lost connection, what did I miss", "lol" and "wtf" are perfectly fine ways for combat capsuleers to express themselves, especially among friendlies.
  - Most ingame channels are just channels in RP too - ways our pilots keep in touch while everyone flies their own ship, just like we use chats for real too. Unless specified otherwise, think of the ingame channels are "Discord for capsuleers" rather than places.
  - Keep real-life things like your dinner, TV series, CCP, other games, politics and pandemics, on the out-of-character channel (linked on the alliance chat).
  - If there are things that make you uncomfortable out-of-character, as a player, don't try to solve it via RP. Open an OOC conversation and say that this bothers you, or check that every player involved is still fine with it (eg. an in-character argument).
  - Please remember people have real lives and real responsibilities and avoid questioning too closely the fact that people need to quit in the middle of an op or be absent from the game for longer periods of time. You _can_ invent a story to explain these if you want to, but you do not have to.
  - Clarity over fluff. It is ok to invent a little IC around something OOC, but it is also fine to just state it, instead of keeping people guessing what you mean: "<nowiki>((</nowiki>client crashed, sorry<nowiki>))</nowiki>" or "Damnit, lost my ship due to catastrophic system failure <nowiki>((</nowiki>client crashed<nowiki>))</nowiki>" are ok. (Double parenthesis indicate OOC in an IC context.)

That is literally all you have to do to fit in to an RP/pvp alliance, and it's fine to stay on that level forever, if you prefer.

====== When you want more RP ======

  * Check out [[https://forums.eveonline.com/t/so-you-want-to-roleplay-a-minmatar/154535?u=elsebeth_rhiannon|this thread for intro to Minmatar lore]]
  * Start inserting bits about your pilot’s background or opinions here and there. Don’t try to be flashy at first, just ease into it. 
  * Gain shared experiences with other players by joining fleets, working together, hanging out on the same channels / events, etc, and bring those into RP.
  * Participate in RP events or invite other characters to have join yours for drinks or gym or whatever and get some interaction that way.
  * Don't worry too much about not knowing all the lore. EVE lore is vast and messy, no one does. 
  * Ask other characters about things. Don't worry about appearing clueless. Characters don't need to know everything either, and teaching and being taught are great story material. 
  * If you still want more, join the RP channels posted on the OOC_EM channel MOTD and/or RP events and/or follow the [[https://forums.eveonline.com/c/fiction-portal/igs/39|CCP provided public IC forums]]
  * Join the wider EVE roleplayer community at the [[https://discord.gg/fUJRaAf|RiP Discord]] (that whole server is OOC, for talking about lore/RP, not doing it). 

====== More words on it ======


When we say that we are a roleplay (RP) alliance, that our alliance chat is In-Character (IC), that our operations are IC, people often get confused what we actually mean. There are dozens of different ideas out there what "RP" actually means. None of them is "more true" than the other.

Traditional EM style RP is immersionist, about the daily life and interactions of our characters, based on their opinions and motivations.

===== What's "immersionist"? =====


RP is immersionist when we try to "immerse" into the game world, to play a character that lives inside the world of EVE.

You know this feeling if you have ever read a good book or watched a good movie. It's the feeling you have when you are right "in" the story - when you feel with the characters, when you feel yourself "in" the story. When your emotions are high because of the actions in the book, when you are totally thrilled at whether the character will achieve what he does, and have totally forgotten that you are in a movie theatre - that is immersion.

===== A pilot's daily life? =====


Most of our RP revolves around the daily life of our characters. My character "gets into pod" for work - i.e. I log in - and then starts his daily tasks. He might be trying to earn some ISK today because he's a bit low on funds, or go to hunt some hostiles because he's a combat pilot. Or he might go and mine something, or go about other duties for the corp. I might curse a bit on corp chat because my agent hates me today with these stupid missions, or ask corp mates about their daily activities.

What makes this different from "non-RPers" playing the game is that my character has partly different opinions and motivations from me. He does things I probably wouldn't do if I would be playing this game without RP. In the interaction with other characters, my character develops in his own and sometimes unexpected directions. That is part of the fun we have in this game.

The RP of the daily life is important. This way, you can feel immersed into your character, and start to learn other characters. You get to know your wingmates and shared stories grow. This helps with further RP, also in events, when you have something to build on.

===== How do IC and OOC motivations differ? =====


An example about the differences in opinions and motivations that frequently cause confusion: we, as players, in fact think pirates are great. They enrich the game world and are necessary in EVE to make the game good. Fighting people is fun, that's where content is, and pirates make a good target. There should be more of them. My character can disagree strongly with me, because pirates kill citizens of the Republic and harm trade and development of low-security space, and have an outride hatred to them.

If we weren't playing characters in a pro-Republic loyalist alliance, we could very well play a pirates. There our motivation is different from those of my characters, but we play the game our my character. The end result is that we go and shoot pirates because our characters have an in-character motivation to do so.

====== Common Misunderstandings ======

===== RP is Just Flavor Language =====

For some people, RP means "I talk in a weird language" - like, "let us burn the shackles the slaver scum has cast upon us and bring pain to their children and children's children!" While some characters might talk like that, there is no reason why all characters would or should. Most people in the EVE universe talk quite normally. RP for us is about characters, not language.

===== RP Only Happens Outside of the Game Content =====


For some reason, a lot of people think that you either RP or play the game, but not both at once. For those people, RP usually happens mainly on the forums, where they participate in heated discussions, or in chronicles where they describe certain events in their character's development. But they stop to RP when they enter the game. This might be from RP in certain other games, where the central game mechanics do not fit into the game world. EVE is awesome for RP because the game mechanics (mostly) fit very well into the game world. The mining, hauling, production, and PvP we do is our game world. What we do in the game is RP.

===== The "Fantasy World Mindset" =====

Especially people coming from fantasy MMOs have certain ideas about RP that are necessary in a fantasy setting, but not so in a sci-fi setting. A sci-fi setting allows you to talk about most things of the game very naturally, because our characters live in a world that is more advanced than ours, and as such, includes most of the technology we have.

For example, the chat channels in the game are just that: Chat channels through which characters communicate. There is no reason to treat them like places on some planet. You can of course use the game mechanic of chat channels to enact certain places (and we do in some very specific channels, like bar channels), but that is absolutely not necessary for the majority of channels.

Similarly, you can usually talk about game mechanics IC just the way that you would OOC: 15% shields left, XXX is primary, I'm short 1.3 grid for this fit.

===== RP Has To Be About Your Race =====

For some people, RP is about being loyal to the character's racial faction (or sometimes another faction) by for example only flying that race's ships or only using that race's technology.

Our characters are personalities. Some may be fierce nationalists that look down on "inferior" technology or on working for foreigners, while other characters have more relaxed views. In our RP we enjoy the IC interaction of different personalities with varying temperaments and opinions.

===== RP About Combat Makes You Bad PvPers =====

Some people seem to think that you have to be completely OOC so you can concentrate on the "important things." This seems to be related to the misunderstanding mentioned above that "RP is Just Flavor Language" - and I agree completely that "heat your barrels and aim them at the scum that calls himself Rodj Blake to erase him from the face of the world!" is not a very good way to call a primary, but there is no reason why your character should do it that way.

All of the interaction on fleet chat and on voice about the operation itself can be assumed to have happened IC too, about almost the exact same way, just as concise and pragmatic IC as they would be OOC, and referred to in RP also later. Fleet command language is the way it is because it is an efficient way to do things naturally developed to the purpose - and our characters certainly are not more stupid about it than we are.

===== You Need To Be A Leader or "In" To Run An Event =====

Many people are hesitant to start their own stuff, for fear of stepping on toes. You do not need any specific permission or position to start organizing RP events. If you feel something specific should be done, feel free to do it! RP stuff can be pinged on the operations channel on Mattermost. (Same goes for FCing, by the way. Want to run a fleet? Run a fleet.)