Immersion & You

All too often, players are in such a hurry for seemingly no reason other than being too impatient getting from Point A to B. Just slow down. Whether it's on foot or horseback, when you run everywhere, you miss opportunities to discover things or pass potential RP by.

Even though the map can be traversed in mere minutes, if you take the game's day/night cycles into account, traveling can take hours or sometimes days for your character, depending on your pace.

Take the time to gather supplies for journeys, stop for food and drinks as you pass towns, check telegrams while you're there, find places to hunker down when it gets dark or the weather gets rough.

Obviously, if your character has a valid reason to be in a hurry, that's a whole other matter. If there's nothing pressing happening for your character, slow down, enjoy the journey, and you may be surprised at what you'll find.

While your horse is certainly convenient and allows for faster travel times and has convenient saddlebags for storing cumbersome items taking up valuable space in your personal inventory, this is a Roleplay Server first and foremost.

Even if your character isn't fond of animals, a horse was a huge investment, used for jobs, and was a primary mode of transport. On long travels, you could stop by water sources to allow your horses to drink to refresh themselves. You can feed them hay, apples, carrots, sugar cubes, or even roleplay offering them grain and oats. Clean and brush them occasionally.

You should also be mindful of how you travel with your horses, whether saddled or hitched to a wagon. Horses get tired and cannot run at a full gallop for long periods of time. Just because a mechanic allows wagon horses to run with seemingly infinite stamina, doesn't mean you should.

You shouldn't be traveling along railroad tracks. There's many hazards that could injure a horse realistically. Their hooves can get caught between the railroad ties, nails or debris could puncture the hoof and cause a horse to go lame. Running your horse carelessly through towns, through heavily wooded areas, or even through cacti in New Austin risks serious injury to your horse if you're not paying attention.

There will also be activities the server will host such as Horse Races. Certain breeds are banned from the horse races because it's unrealistic for those breeds to be in a horse race. Shires and Belgians, for example. Keep the size and breed of your horse in mind when engaging in certain activities with them.

Your horse is an extension of your character in so many ways, your traveling companion, maybe even a pet you deeply care for. Horses add to your roleplay when you treat them like more than just a mechanic.

There's a myriad of ways that players can express emotion and intention without ever speaking. This is useful when wanting to add to a scenario without interrupting ongoing dialogue. These emotes can change the way you stand and move, the way you choose to sit, and more. Some emotes can even be used in combination with each other, however, you should take care never to create a situation where emote combinations cause your character to move or bend in unrealistic or unnatural ways.

The /me function adds even more by expressing things we might otherwise not have seen, like a smirk or blushing. You should never use a /me to express what you may be thinking about or using emojis. 

Here are some examples:
✘ /me Thinking about how delicious apple pie is.
✘ /me :O (yes, we have seen people do this.)

 ✔ /me sees the apples in the basket and smiles hungrily
✔ /me jaw hangs slack, a surprised expression on his face

You should never use a /me as a substitute for speaking out loud. Mute Characters will have a resource they can 'speak' with, such as a /write command. Players who are medically mute outside the game will have access to a /say command once a discussion is had with staff. There is a separate guide available for approved mute characters.

It is important to remember that this is a Historical Fiction setting.

Free Spirit exists in the fictional state of New Arlington, in the South West in 1895, and while we wish to roleplay in the spirit of the untamed west, certain things from history may not be acted out. These things can be found in our rules.

We acknowledge that wars, enslavement, and other atrocities happened in history, but they are not a part of our server's future.

You also have a responsibility of care to keep modern terms and slang out of your character's vocabulary, be careful not to directly reference things that have not happened, been invented, written, or discovered yet. A simple google search will spare you a lot of confusion or frustration in this regard.

Having a regard for your personal safety was paramount to staying alive in the late 1800's.

Most medicines and medical procedures we have and know today didn't exist in the time period we are playing in. The simplest injuries could turn fatal or life altering. Because of those factors, characters should always take precautions in regards to heights, dealing with wildlife, dressing appropriately for hot or cold climates, avoiding gunfights, etc.

Roughhousing with your friends can be fun from time to time, but Staff and Admins have seen this done to unrealistic excess in the past on other servers.

Think about the actions of your character and place them in a real world scenario. Randomly shoving people over, tackling people to the ground, grappling them from behind and shoving them to the side, lassoing and tying people up, or even walking up to punch them in the face. These are unrealistic actions to exchange with friends, and let's be frank, they hurt and aren't as enjoyable for the recipient.

These things are fine in the occasional small dose, (Or if participating in a fair fight or fighting tournament) but when it becomes a constant and you have a character that just runs around shoving people over, or doing any of the other aforementioned actions, your character just comes across as immature and a nuisance. Admins have a firm stance against 'Gremlin' trope characters.

We expect players to take the roleplay they engage with seriously, and this includes any injuries they might incur. Animal Maulings, Knife of Gun Shot Wounds, Falls from Substantial Heights, anything that could result in the incapacitation of your character, especially with others around who witnessed the injury, you shouldn't play them off as a scratch. Your injuries don't have to be life threatening, but you should never treat it like nothing happened.

HOWEVER!! If no one was around or witnessed the injury, You do not have to act it out. Here's a few example:
- Accidental falls down a cliff
- Animal Attacks
- NPC shooting (This excludes Bounty Hunting Missions)

If no other player witnessed your injury or downing and you are not found by another and revived by a player doctor, you don't have to force yourself to take on an injury. BUT if there witnesses, honor the scene and play out your injuries for the day.

So, in this topic, we are going to reveal something about U.S. Southern Culture. We understand that in certain parts of the world, people don't greet random strangers or even people they know unless they're looking to engage in active conversation.

However, in southern places like Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama, greeting a stranger was a way of presenting a welcoming community. Most Southern Americans thrive on offering hospitality, even if it's just in the form of giving a pleasant hello to brighten someone's day.

You don't have to be a social butterfly and give a cheerful hello to everyone you come across, but you shouldn't just outright ignore other characters, either. If your character isn't in a chatty mood, a simple grunt or '/me nods' of acknowledgement goes a long way. It also helps the other player confirm that their mic is working.

Sometimes, a player is new and nervous to get started. When you ignore folks, you risk discouraging the newcomer from wanting to RP.

The things you wear should make sense for the character you are trying to portray. Characters from well-to-do backgrounds would be cleanly dressed, characters on hard times might have tattered clothing. 

Something to keep in mind is that our server has access to a Colorways Script, meaning you can customize the colors on almost any article of clothing you can wear. While certain colors and palette types will be available, you should avoid overly bright or neon colors as a primary color scheme for your attire. Brightly colored dyes in this time period were expensive, and certain colors were very difficult to obtain. This should be something you keep in mind while designing your outfits. We also do not want characters looking like they just escaped a carnival.

You should also take the environment your character is in into account. A full coat and hat while in Lemoyne or New Austin would be unbearably hot and might lead to heat stroke. However, forgetting your hat and coat while traveling through Ambarino could lead to hypothermia.

The NPCs should never be treated like they aren't real people. While their AI programing limits the ways in which they respond to certain situations, they are still a part of the world we roleplay in, and should be treated with the same regard afforded to another player.

You should be mindful of where you are standing as some NPCs can be defensive of their personal space. You shouldn't carelessly wave your gun around as some NPCs may feel the need to defend themselves and may start shooting.

You should leave the musicians and buskers of St. Denis alone. They are simply providing entertainment and trying to earn a living, and have just as much a right to be there as your character. If you find the trumpet or violin annoying, move to another location.

Needlessly harassing or attacking NPCs to goad them into a fight would be seen as FailRP, and there would both In and Out of Character consequences.