[Hades_Kane]

To copy/paste our roleplay helpfile from End of Time, it sums up my view pretty well:

Roleplay is the act of assuming the role of a character. In the case of End
of Time, when a person creates a character, it is assumed they create an
identity, background, motivations, and a personality. While not everyone who
connects to End of Time is interested in roleplay, a large focus of the MUD
is to cater to the roleplayers.

When a person is roleplaying, they are considered to be acting "In Character".
The "IC" and "say" channels are both considered to be In Character channels,
and are the primary means through which characters interact and roleplay with
one another. In the right context, emotes and socials can be considered in
character, but are not to always be considered such. The Roleplay Board is
also used to roleplay, although is a more effective tool for posting character
backgrounds and summaries of roleplay.

There is an important difference between In Character and Out of Character.
For example, any knowledge gained in an Out of Character manner is to never
be used for any sort of In Character benefit. Character backgrounds posted on
the RP Boards are very often considered OOC information, and anything said over
an OOC channel, or instant message, email, etc. is OOC information. Joining
a clan with one character to act as a spy or gain information for another
clan that you are currently a member of or plan on joining with another character
is another example of abusing OOC information. Any information gained by one
character is to be kept completely separate from any other characters.

Since such an emphasis is placed on roleplay, one of the main rules of End of
Time is to not spoil other people's roleplay, which includes but is not limited
to: Using OOC info for IC benefit, using OOC knowledge to spoil the motives or
plans of someone, revealing other people's alternate characters (alts), or just
being a bad roleplayer in general. There is a difference between being a bad
roleplayer and being an inexperienced roleplayer. Bad RP is mostly just abusing
common sense, being inconsiderate of others, or breaking any of the RP guidelines.

One common practice in many various instances of roleplay is to roleplay an action
but to never dictate its outcome and allow the other person room to have some say
in the outcome. To clarify, if two people decide to roleplay a battle rather
than engage in PK Combat, it is customary for Person A to send a roleplay message
of swinging their sword at Person B, and allow for Person B to have some say in
the outcome of the action. If Person A just roleplayed swinging their sword and
cutting off Person B's arm, this would be an example of bad RP and for many
people would be reason to avoid roleplay with that particular person. Another
example that actually happened involved someone roleplaying firing Midgar's Mako
Cannon toward Baron Castle, and rather than dictating that the blast hit, the
note was sent that the cannon was fired, and one of the heads of Baron posted
a note following that about the cannon actually hitting and taking out a good
portion of the castle. When done properly, this is the preferred method of RP.
It takes a certain amount of trust, but most people will roleplay fairly. On the
other end, if roleplaying the previously mentioned battle, it's not considered
good RP to never RP being hit and only dodging and hitting back.

It is also important to note that we strive very hard to keep roleplay within
a common level of decency and comfort level. Before RPing something with someone
that could make them extremely uncomfortable, such as anything sexual (consenual
or otherwise) or anything more violent than your typical automated mob fight,
discuss it with them in an OOC manner. If at any point anyone involved in an
RP scenario is made to feel uncomfortable with the subject matter, they are
encouraged to take it to an OOC channel to discuss it. If the RP persists in
a manner that is still making someone extremely uncomfortable, anyone involved
has the right to cease the RP immediately.