As I’m about to run my first RP event for wider audiences in a loooong time, here’s some principles that apply in places and events I run.
You absolutely do not have to read this wall of text to attend my stuffz, but I want to put this up somewhere just in case I have to refer to it.
Yes, this is a little silly place for these things, but the official forums do not have a proper OOC-RP subforum.
Play to lose
When we fly in pixelated spaceships, EVE is a harsh game and it is - usually - played to win. When we play with things not modeled by the game engine, though, things change. It is easy to write yourself to win, but that is often not the best way to write an interesting story.
Sometimes losing spectacularly is a better story than winning gloriously. Look for those opportunities and embrace them. Make a good story - not a godlike character.
Play to lift
It is not just your story, it is everyone’s story. Look for what stories other people are trying to tell and try to support them in it. As long as no one is godmodding, blatantly breaking lore, or pushing their thing on you, accept their stories and try to help them portray them.
See someone playing a military character make a slip with military protocol or knowledge, because the player is not so familiar with it? Do not call them out on it, play on, try and fix it subtly. See someone playing an explicitly civilian, with a story about trying to fit in among military people do the same? Pay attention, emphasize the difference, make play out of it. Did a newbie just make a lore mistake their character would not? Do not call attention to it IC. If it is big enough to be gamebreaking, let them know OOC and retcon it - if not, save it for after the event. Did an established player do the same? Maybe still consider if you should check with them OOC if it was intentional before jumping on it.
Play to lift also means try and make your story mesh with that of others. Before starting your stuff, see if something is already going on - could you rather join it and support it? What is the organizer of the event going for - does your stuff help or hinder that? Would your intended action require attention that stops everyone else plausibly continuing their already active play, like say a sudden gunfight would - if, then maybe don’t do it. Does everyone seem bored, or is someone not getting responses to their initiatives? Could you provide something for them?
Note that “play to lift” is not a free license to godmod, to demand that others must accept everything you do or say. Godmodding does not lift other people’s stories, it imposes yours. What it does mean is the opposite: do not try and “win RP” by sticking on player mistakes on portrayal of their character; instead try to tell a shared story where everyone’s part is supported.
See also: “This is EVE”.
Signal before engaging
If you want to engage in violent, intimate, or otherwise intense interaction in chat based RP, please signal your intent and let the other party react. Instead of “/me punches Foobar in the face” go “/me approaches Foobar his hand raised, looking like he intends to punch them”, and instead of “/me kisses Foobar on the cheek” go “/me walks over to Foobar, offering a hug and a kiss on the cheek”. This gives the player of Foobar the chance to decide how they react. You do not force an action on them, but they can pick between “/me alerts her security to the approaching threat”, “/me is completely oblivious to the coming attack, engaged in the conversation”, “/me gets up to meet Foobar, ready to fight”, or whether they will meet the kiss attempt with evasion, a slap in the face, or with reciprocation.
Alternatively, you can approach the other person OOC and ask “is it ok with you if I do X”.
Combat resolution: target decides consequence
In the case where violence breaks out in chat RP (as opposed to between actual pixelated spaceships) the consequences of it are decided by the target. This means you cannot say “/me stabs Foobar with her kri’tak knife, drawing blood”. You can say “/me takes a stab at Foobar with her kri’tak knife”, and then the player of Foobar decides if the result is “/me falls down, bleeding profusely from her chest, and loses consciousness”, “/me easily avoids the knife and calls her security to stop the next attack”, or something in between.
Some RP places have the rule that no violence will be played, or that if violence breaks out, local security will win all engagements. Respect that. Do not press engagements after someone indicates their preferred solution is for it to stop (by security detaining the attacker, or whatever). Note that in many cases a burst of violence tends to disrupt the RP of everyone present. Think about whether your story of fights is important enough for that. (See Play to lift.)
This means that you can always godmod yourself out of an attack. This is intentional. However, you should consider whether you always want to (see Play to lose).
This is EVE: whatever happens in the game, happens in the game
(Properly: whatever happens in the game engine, happens in the game world.)
All of the above said, this is EVE, and thus there is no such thing as “just RP”, and there is no such thing as “an OOC spaceship fight”.
EVE is a sandbox, and that means that if anything happens that has a tangible effect on how people behave in space - who they shoot, who they do not shoot, who they give or sell stuff to, who they give intel to, who they fly with, and so forth - that thing also happened, in some shape or form, in the in-character world.
It also means that if you want to RP having won a spaceship fight, you had better actually have won that spaceship fight, or people are quite within their rights to call you a liar and a braggart. And conversely: if there is a killmail between you and someone, then indeed you did shoot that person, and people can bring it up in RP.
All out-of-character entities and people that exist in the game engine also exist in the game world. We can RP about them, even when do not RP with them.