[Orion]

On MUD's involving roleplay, such as RPI MUD's, there is often the problem of players discussing sensitive roleplay with one another on OOC channels. Numerous times, something has happened in an IC plot, and then one of the players involves blabs about it to someone via MSN messenger or by some other means and suddenly everyone knows what's going on. This results in the plot losing it's mystery and character actions in roleplay inevitably being affected.

It's all very well saying don't let OOC knowledge of IC events affect your roleplay, but in reality that's not always easy, especially if your character is at risk. A player can have their character come up with reasons to find something out, that they otherwise would not have thought of, for instance:

Character A is concealed in a cloak and attempts to kill Character B.

Character A bungles the job, and character B survives, but doesn't know who it was who tried to kill him.

Then some player who had chatted to the player of character A tells the player of character B who it was. This leads to character B being suspicious of character A, in game, following him around (if they even have that patience,) and eventually to him being arrested and questioned, and before you know it he's on trial, based on some vague or concocted clue.

I'm curious to know what measures, if any, other MUD's have taken to prevent this from happening. I think the removal of all OOC channels, and not allowing MSN/skype details to be shared on the MUD would probably stop it, however, I like chatting to the players sometimes, and have made some good friends on MUD's who I now have on MSN. So I think it would be a shame not to allow that. But at the same time, OOC communication damages roleplay.

Sometimes RP may also need to be arranged over OOC channels, or something in roleplay clarified for someone who doesn't understand it, or an action disputed if someone breaks the rules, so the use of OOC channels in these instances is probably unavoidable.

I have added one rule on my MUD, which may help curb something I have, in the past, found particularly annoying though, and that is when a player whose character is in distress tells someone via OOC means that they are being attacked and to bring their character along and help.

In rooms that are not public places, I have made it against the rules to enter a fight that has already started without permission of the two people involved. I think this is fair, since in private rooms it's unlikely you'll just happen upon a fight, so it gives players the opportunity to fight in private, knowing no one is going to interfere, while still allowing fights in public places to be interfered with - with it being more reasonable to assume another character would happen upon a fight in those rooms.

So,what methods have you found helpful or detrimental in dealing with the problem of sharing IC information via OOC channels?