Conflict in Roleplay Guide

Conflict for conflict’s sake is the bane of many stories. Stirring up drama for boredom offers little to the wider story. Conflict roleplay can be passionate, high-paced, and sim moving, if done right. If done incorrectly it can lead to fizzled stories, burned character arcs, and little resolution as a whole.

This guide will offer the types of conflict RP that can arise, and points to be cautious of when engaging and being a part of it. This is by no means an all encompassing list, rather it is a guide to assist further and give ideas for healthy conflict roleplay within Eclipse Ridge. We go over the roleplay, from outcomes that may come to blows, to common social engagements, to the bigger picture of roleplays that affect the sim as a whole.

  1. Conflict types
    1. Combat
    2. Micro: Interpersonal
    3. Macro: Simwide

Things to know:

Key Notes

We have placed Key Notes at the end of every section, these are core points to keep in mind when pursuing and participating in these types of Conflict Roleplay.This by no way is an exhaustive list, rather it is an etiquette guide points to assist with balancing roleplay.

Tickets

If anything in this guide is confusing, or you have a question on a storyline, individual, or certain scene and its regard to Conflict RP and the standard we hold, please engage our ticketing system. Tickets allow us to advise next steps and ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. Whether it is the way we turn on the sim

Conflict types

Combat

Whether it be martial, magical, or a mix of the two, combat RP can be the ending (or sometimes the beginning) of vital and intense conflict RP. Due to the nature of mechanics, we have a full combat guide separated from this one. We highly encourage you to look over this guide to ensure you know how Eclipse Ridge engaged in Combat Roleplay COMBAT GUIDE. Down below is an etiquette take that is to work weaved in with the combat guide.

With such intense conflicts of energies, from the normal every day life, to the balance between such and the veil, all the way to the most primal supernatural, there is bound to be some fights in between. These are key ideas to keep in mind as you navigate through the delicacy of roleplay combat within Eclipse Ridge. All of these feed into one another at different moments, but we have separated it as best to get the concepts specified.

Combat Key Notes

It’s a stage, not a spotlight.

  • You will not always be on the stage, and that is alright. The sound technician has just as much a key in the part as the one belting the song. Just ensure you make room for others to have a spot on the stage, and know when to step back.
  • We are not always the strongest, and not always the weakest. Embrace your strengths – but do not always be the one to be the lead in combat. Embrace your weakness – but do not always be the one that needs to be saved.
  • Writing is about cohesion and engaging with others. Against your enemy, but even more importantly with your allies. You are not a one person army, lean into those differences and build up what you can do as a unit.

Your character wants it to end quickly, you shouldn’t.

  • Your character doesn’t want to lose, your character doesn’t want to be wounded, but as the player, you should be pushing for the story. Whether win or lose, wounded or not, both sides continue the story and should be rewarded.
  • Do NOT do scene-ending moves at the beginning. It is supposed to be a fight, not an anti-climatic three post fight. Don’t stake vampires on the first hit. Don’t go straight for the heart or arteries. Your character wants to end it, you don’t. Aim in general areas, give grace to players the same you’d want to do them to you.
  • The information on the website is for OOC minds, not for your character to instantly know the best way to kill a species. Make it realistic to your character’s knowledge. Will they try garlic against a vampire? A chew toy with a werewolf? Salt against a Revenant? Do not rely on OOC information for something that could add genuine moments of discovery for your character.

Resolutions to Scenes

  • Death is RARELY the end, and shouldn’t be the expected end unless discussing with the other parties. That is a very extreme side of the bar, find the good spots in between that will both move forward the story, and move it towards an end of the current chapter of the story.
  • Cycles of revenge does not offer a cohesive story. An endless cycle can quickly turn monotonous. Ensure there is an expected end to the revenge, and that it is beneficial to each player, and makes sense for all characters.
  • Understanding that there will be times you find that a player doesn’t have the same view of balance with you. That is alright! There is no issue recognizing different roleplay styles and no longer wishing to engage in roleplay with that player in the future. HOWEVER, ensure that all current stories have their resolutions before doing so.

A loss is never a loss in storytelling.

  • Gloating or grumping OOC for an in character win or loss offers little to anyone. You are not your character, being a sore winner or loser offers little benefit than seeing a bleed. You can enjoy a scene without dragging yourself or your scene partner through the mud.
  • We mention winning and losing, but only in regards to a character. There is no true win or loss in a scene. If it progresses a story, which every scene should, it will be a win for the player. 
  • All wins and losses for a character always are ‘net’ and not ‘absolute’. You won a fight? You’re still wounded, exhausted, or distressed. You lost a fight? You still wounded them, helped another, or moved the story. It shall always be bittersweet for your character.

Know your character, their strengths and weaknesses.

  • You are not the biggest and baddest. You’re also not the weakest of the bunch. Where is that balance? Reading off an ability off the website is not what makes a character. It is how they embrace it, how they wish to be witnessed, and all the things that lead up to them wielding it.
  • We understand the want to get a specified exact number of who hits what the hardest. However, we are not a combat sim, we’re a story sim. An exact number doesn’t account for the character’s stories. A werewolf hits rather hard, but if he is old and his joints ache, how soft is he hitting? A witch may not, but with empowered wind behind the swing and a good physique, how much harder are they hitting? We want people to be true to their characters rather than attach to a number.
  • We all have the natural strengths and weaknesses in the lore, down below are a few questions for you to embrace and assist with building your character’s combat style with more depth.
    • What are the ways you flavour it?
    • Why is that your character’s preferred ability?
    • What ability is something they have the ability to do, but avoids at all cost?
    • What is your character’s fear and how would they manifest if met with them on the battlefield?
    • What strengths and weaknesses as a person do you character have that helps them on a battlefield? Which ones hinder them?

Micro: Interpersonal

Interpersonal conflict is the most common conflict you will come across in roleplay. It is the micro interactions you will have throughout the day. In the mundane way, someone passing in front of your car not on a cross walk, cutting in line for morning coffee, or yelling out that your lawn looks untidy. In a supernatural way, a pair of werewolves fighting over a hammock, two vampires clashing over hierarchy, or a fae and witch bickering over whose magic is best for an occasion. All of these are examples of Interpersonal conflict that can have momentarily or lasting impacts on communities within Eclipse Ridge. There are also good things to keep in mind when these occur to ensure all are balanced and that each person is handing the torch over for resolutions.

Playing the Outlier

Outliers are typically the ones that step out of society’s expectations. We are all unique, and have personal acknowledgement and rebellions against the greater society. But playing an outlier, whether from society, from a certain part of the community, or from the community as a whole has a greater degree of stigma. It comes with distance, often a bit lonelier of an existence, but also a rich engagement of fighting against the norm. Mainly, it is what hills are the community vs. the individual is willing to die on, and how those clashes are engaged.

Key Notes
  • Balance: Playing an outlier in a sole area, typically leads to rich roleplay and a pushing of society’s boundaries. But if your character is the embodiment of difference. That they are created to go fully against the grain with no compromise, no alteration, no balance, their life will naturally be lonely. There is no issue with such a life, but it comes with less roleplay overall as avenues are blocked by parts of the community that are not adhered to. Balancing the certain places your character rejects assists on the deep roleplay without avenues fully being blocked.
  • Ostracization: Ostracization is the heavy toll of an outlier and the natural outcome. There is a difference between refusing to wear a fancy outfit to a fancy dining place, and your whole character consistently refusing to adhere to dress guidelines at every venue and every event. The first is a rebellion against the concept, whether for attention, to fight bougie behavior, or whatever your character is fighting. The second is actively fighting community, event holders, and disrespecting spaces. That will call for an IC reaction, and often that is to simply bar your character. Find what snippet is able to be pushed, do not attack the whole idea, else you may be left out of it.

Within Species

Species conflict can be exceptionally rich and bring a community closer after the resolution. It can be a fight between the ways of old to the ways of new. It can be a fight between staying within for help or reaching out. It can even be about leadership the way one would want to be governed. But species are a core connection away from the veil, it is an identity, to some family, but also a way for much information to be offered at a precise point. Even if you wish to be an outlier of the species, you are still subject to your species as a whole. It is important to know that conflict within species should have a goal to bring it closer at the end.

Key Notes
  • Species Meetings: These are often a way to funnel sim hooks to species to bring them as a whole into larger sim-wide stories. Personal stories happen within it, but they are not the core. Ensure the conflict matters to the species as a whole if bringing it up at events.
  • Understanding Lore: Lore is vital to shape conflicts as it allows us to know where one’s character stands within the supernatural world. Knowing the lore of the region is just as important as your character history.

Relationships and other Bonds

Relationships are very common within roleplay, and the fluidity of them is much like real life. They are typically passionate, all encompassing, and can fully absorb one’s story. And in all aspects, break a story if the ending or conflict within a roleplay spreads farther than intended. Additionally, there are supernatural bonds, for example a sire and progeny, thralls, werewolf mates, and cinnidh unions. All of these hold great weight in stories and their beginning, middle, and ends should be acknowledged and respected within roleplay.

Key Notes
  • Head First: The joke of roleplay sims being moreso dating sims holds relatively true to what many people value within roleplay. There is a want to embrace relationships and have intimate connections with characters, however, they are often done very, very fast. Slow burn is good, for both natural conflicts and to not leap into supernatural bonds too quickly. Many supernatural bonds can truly destroy one’s character when broken, thus should not be done lightly.
  • Dirty Laundry: Relationships coming and going are normal in roleplay just as in real life. Rarely do they work out and it’s often a diamond in the rough that mesh with both character and player limitations. However, when these end they are as any other interaction – they do not need vitriol and hatred in every aspect. And if there is, it does not need to be brought up each engagement after the fact. Your relationship ending should be as any other roleplay, do not force the community as a whole to engage with it consistently, IC nor OOC. Let it affect your character, and move on reasonably.

Social Ramifications

Social ramifications are the consequences that follow after a conflict decision resolves itself in the public forum. They are the palatable effect of one’s existence, action, and reaction on the social circle of our small town. These are very delicate as there needs to be balance between the person to person, group to group, and even heavier, group to person. Social ramifications can expand to disbalance if a massive group decides to alienate someone for a singular, small issue. However, it can offer the same disbalance if a singular person pushes all limits but demands a seat at the table. There is give and take in every social situation, and someone will never fit in with all of them.

Key Notes
  • Nosy, Nosy Neighbors: Small town means gossip travels very quickly. There are interlaces between people that are quiet, a small slight to one person can be weaved into a rather big deal depending on who speaks with who. If you don’t want a reputation, engage many, engage well, or be ready to how the perceptions twist and alter towards your character.
  • Cliques: There is a difference between a group and a clique in this context, and it is how they engage the world. A group is a collection of people that enjoy their roleplay, but are open to others engaging and wanting to grow with others. Cliques are a group of people that simply wish to continue their story with themselves and are only interested in engaging people that focus on them. Avoid a clique, push to be a group.

Crimes

Crimes are rarely a part of everyday life for many people. However, they are a small part of engagement amongst people in select moments. Crimes can be reasoned amongst miscommunications, to maliciousness, to industry. We are speaking to the specific engagement of pettier crimes, or crimes solely between small collections of people rather than a bigger criminal operation. Crimes should be well thought out of the ‘why’ rather than it simply being done impulsively. Though it can be engaged with a select few, it can very much become a bigger picture as it becomes more intense and more aspects of community are wrapped in. Intentionally or unintentionally.

Key Notes
  • Respecting LEO Players: Regardless of your OOC takes, understand that the players behind the screen are players too. They wish to RP and they provide a realism to the sim that is needed. Your character can be disrespectful, your roleplay should not. Do not dismiss a player’s time or effort because of the community role they are playing. If you don’t wish to engage any LEO, even within roleplay, do not do anything that causes disorder. Breaking the law or otherwise.
  • Don’t commit if you can’t commit: We do not have a court system on sim, thus our owners are judge, jury, and executioners. They will decide outcomes, realistic to what they have seen. They will take all sides and make a realistic outcome. However, consider this is not LA, this not Denver, this is a small mountain town. By committing the crime, you are subjecting yourself to follow the result that the owners see fit. If you do not want the potential of a charge, to be thrown in a cell, and/or to need to shelve your character – do not engage in things that cause any LEO response.

Macro: Simwide

Big Picture Conflict is the natural escalation, but is far rarer. It requires far more time, both for the ones affecting and the ones affected. It requires debrief after to allow the effects to be fully absorbed, but even more importantly significant planning to cause conflict within. It is not something that should be done impulsively as it not only naturally will affect a far greater group of roleplay, but also possibly disrupt already running sim storylines. Ensure any roleplay in this sphere has good roleplay build up, is courteous to currently going on, and done when one has a solid concept of the sim as a whole to ensure it stays in line with all expectations.

The Setting

A small mountain town, barely on the map for tourists. In the rich mountains of the Rocky Mountains with continuous towns from the mining encampments of years past. Setting is the biggest difference about many sims. It is what shapes what businesses have to offer, what resources public services have, and the clientele. This setting is uncharacteristically small. There is not the ability to ‘blend with the crowd’ as the whole crowd is staring. It offers a nosy and unsettling aspect for outsiders, and a cautious and protective one for locals. Both need to be curated to boost roleplay and not destroy it.

Key Notes
  • Small Town, Big Impact: Every action is met with the impact of it affecting the typical day of people. Gossip is the name of the game and it is very important for your character to know it. Both NPCs and PCs are tight knit, a slight to one may be a slight to a far larger group. Rarely is anything to an extent of total social excommunication. But it is very important to know that due to the close-knit manner of the sim, something that may be brushed off in a massive city may be the talk of the town for months to come.
  • Don’t Sensationalize: Many believe a small town is fantastic until they recognize the downsides. Wonderful air, scenic views, and someone that watches you your whole stroll down the street if they don’t recognize you from three generations back. It is a fiercely protective place that doesn’t enjoy change. If you plan to come as a famous person, you will rarely be known by locals. Find the ‘why’ of your character being here before interacting, wanting the place to be a bigger city than it is.

Cross Species

Species conflict can be exceptionally rich and fulfilling. There have been many stereotypes over the years: fae vs. humans, vampires vs. werewolves, etc. Your character may be very new to their own species, or be well seeped in years of watching all of them interact. But with so much tension, balancing the political, social, and resources in between there is bound to be wars. It is vitally important to keep your species’ lore, the sim’s lore, and balance in mind when exploring these. They are easily out of hand and the effect may be far greater than one intended.

Key Notes
  • Ripple Effect: A Witch attacking a Vocatis can be a simple heated moment. However, the effect may be far, far greater. Species have always had tension, simply due to the supply of magic of the lode, the resources of food and how one acquires food, but also their expectation of stranger species to keep the veil. All of them have how they expect those within their species to act, and even more so opinions on how others should. Be very cautious on how one approaches a species to species interaction, as it may affect the greater whole of the region more than one thinks.
  • Write your Lore, Don’t rewrite Sim’s Lore: Did the region you were in have a massive battle between Humans and Werewolves that caused your character to not trust them? Fantastic. Eclipse Ridge, Colorado didn’t. You are fully able to bring in that lore for your character, but you do not get to dictate the world around you to influence others in the group. There is no ‘yes and’ with the lore. It is as stated. It can be clarified, it can be expanded, and it can even be altered as is needed by the owners. But do not alter it OOCly for your character to push species wars.

Businesses

The backbone of any town is the community resources, supply ability, and luxury markets. It is what brings farm to table groceries to locals and the silly marketing gimmicks that bring in tourist’s money. They clash over markets and goods, have consistent wars with bureaucracy, and teeter on populace approval. Conflict within a business sphere can have a deep impact on sim from supply shortages, transfers of ownerships, and even to business closures. They should be treated delicately with great space in between to feel the general community effect.

Key Notes
  • Acknowledge Effort: There are businesses that have been on sim since it started. With multitudes of events, storylines, and meaningful backgrounds built around them. Engage that. Do not place your own bias in how you expect a business to run or be like. Your character can hands down have such – speak those, show those, put your money where your mouth is. But ensure you stay within the rules and do not power game a place into how you expect a place to be or function. Engage with it, then react.
  • Consistence Wins: A business thrives on sim with consistent presence, engaging with events, and being willing to draw others by a community-focused approach. Conflict with them is the same. A random attack on a business can lead to a storyline that easily fizzles out and offers little offer for engagement back. Random attacks offer the same. There should always be a ‘why’ and that can add to the overall story of the business. If you plan on having a conflict on sim with a business, engage the Business Owner, engage in a ticket about limitations, expected ends, and what they are comfortable with storywise.

Criminal Underground

SCriminal Undergrounds are sadly notoriously done poorly, mostly as seen in movies, shows, and games. They are seen as no-nonsense, overly powerful, and consistently winning. But, you are not the mafia, you are not the cartel, you are not the 1% of gangs. As they would not be here. This is not the tiny town that is known for exceptionally large criminal groups to settle in. Ensure your engagement with crime is realistic to the setting. You can still have a thriving underground while not passing around AK-47s or paper boy caps.

Key Notes
  • Victims are not NPCs to the characters: A couple of people die in a big city, rarely people notice. A couple of people die in a small town, it’s labeled as their biggest tragedy. Be cautious on who, why, and how often you are killing. Even more so if it is player characters. Ensure they get rich and story-driving roleplay before, during, and after. It is the expectation of the one committing the crime to ensure the victim has consented and enjoys the roleplay.
  • You’re Getting Caught: The classic game of Cops and Robbers was always fluctuating on who wins or loses, and battles shall be like that. However, war will always sway with order here. It will not be soon, and can lead to long drawn out cat and mouse games, but you need to realize that in the end, you will be caught. Your punishment will be equal to the damage done. No LEO should be playing the Billy Badass, and no criminal the Cartel. In the end, you will be caught, and if you are not comfortable with the thought, do not play a criminal or someone within the underground.

The Shroud

The Shroud is what separates between what mundane humans believe is real, and what is. It is the aspect of balance everyone maintains, even humans that are not aware of it. The Shroud is non-negotiable, as it is what keeps stability between both worlds. If humans were to find out, it would create a more dangerous world. A scare that would spread and cause unchecked claims and death. Even moreso, it would create species instability as those far more violent in each of the factions would try to fill the sudden void of power that the Shroud held. It would be the end of that which we know, and would lead to something far more unstable. It is exceptionally important for you and your character to recognize such to ensure actions stay within it.

Key Notes
  • Hidden in Plain Sight: Assimilation and adaptation is what has allowed supernaturals to live so far in this world. The naive die, the prideful die, and the loud die. Toeing that line of keeping oneself safe, gaining community, and respecting the veil is the only way to survive. The ones that keep their secrets close to their chest and hidden from the everyday are the ones to be made into scary stories and cryptids down the line.
  • Circle of Life: The lode gives you the gifts, you give death the hunt, death gives the lode back your energy. It is the circle of life, and sometimes that death is met by Hunters. Time, other Supernaturals, and Hunters, those are the biggest threat to Supernaturals. Supernaturals will always be prey to the Hunters, and Hunters have just as large and strong of a network as the magical species. You do not have the numbers, you do not have the firepower, and you should not push the boundaries of hunters to see when they give. Especially as, many supernaturals would rather let rowdy ones die then risk bringing in a massive influx of them to clear out all supernaturals in the area. Ensure you play with a respect for the greater looming threat, whether it be want to empower them or want to end them, there needs to be respect for the veil to hold firm.