📜 Text Chat and Emoting

➡️ Using Other Languages

➡️ How to Learn a New Language

💻 How to do Text RP

Wasteland is a fully text-based RP server, meaning there is no VOIP. Dialogue for your character is similar to how you read dialogue in a book. The two primary methods of communication are "saying" things and "emoting" things, often in conjunction.

• /say I don't think this is a good idea.

  • Will appear in-game as: [Character Name] says "I don't think this is a good idea."

• /me frowns, backing up a step from Jane. "I don't think this is a good idea," she says, concern in her voice.

  • Will appear in-game as: [Character Name] frowns, backing up a step from Jane. "I don't think this is a good idea," she says, concern in her voice.

Emotes are good for describing what other players see, since a lot of roleplay takes place in the mind's eye. When emoting, you should take care not to show your character's thoughts (how would the other characters know what your character is thinking?), or force another character to do a thing (godmodding):

• 🚫 /me frowns. "I don't think this is a good idea," she says, thinking about the time when she was three and this exact thing happened. She feels worried about it.

  • Instead, use emotes to suggest things. She looks concerned. Perhaps she is thinking of a past experience.

• 🚫 /me frowns. "I don't think this is a good idea," she says, and Bill shoots at the ground instead of the infected.

  • You can't control what Bill does. Instead, try /me reaches for Bill's gun to try and get him to lower it. Leaving him the opportunity to refuse is important.

It's also possible to change the volume at which you emote. Using something like /meloud or /w will cause the range others can hear your character at to increase or decrease.

• /w I don't think this is a good idea.

  • Will appear in-game as: [Name] whispers "I don't think this is a good idea." It will only be heard by players up to 1 square away.

• /meshout throws her fist into the air. "For the revolution!" she cries.

  • Will appear in-game as: [Name] throws her first into the air. "For the revolution!" she cries. It will be heard by players up to fifty squares away.

When emoting, remember that even if you're mentally visualizing what your character is doing, other players can't see it. They won't know the nuance of what you're saying if you don't spell it out. For example, you might conclude a tense scene by saying:

• /me walks away.

But this doesn't actually tell anybody what your character is feeling or why they walked away. Additionally, it has a problem that is unique to roleplay, which is that you haven't given people any time to respond to what you just did, the way they would be able to in a split second in real life. People can't type that fast!

Instead, consider:

• /me sets his jaw, anger burning in his eyes, but he says nothing. After a tense moment, he turns on his heel and moves to leave.

And then you walk like four paces away and wait for a second, to see if they're going to respond or not. You've given them more to work with! RP is always better when it's collaborative.

A more detailed list of RP chat commands and their combinations can be found in the WL Wiki. You can also type /help while in-game to see the commands.

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Using Other Languages

WL is an English-based server so you are expected to RP in English-- but what if your character knows other languages? That's where the language system comes into play.

• When you are creating your character, you can detail the languages they know in their backstory. Something as simple as "he was born and raised in Germany" or "she grew up in a bilingual household that spoke both English and Spanish" are usually enough to get your character that second language.

  • If you try for a third (or more), you are expected to devote more and more of your character's backstory to why they know that language-- a montage of learning, a background in linguistics, etc.

• Once your character is approved, you can open a general ticket to request the language. You will need to be online at the same time as a mod, who will grant your character the ability to speak the language. From there, any time you want to use that language, you can navigate to the cogwheel on your chatbox and select Actions > Choose Language > [Language]. Then, you type what you want your character to say, and what your character says will only be understood to other characters who know the language.

  • Some languages, like Spanish and Portuguese, have a built-in overlap in the system that allows you to pick up certain words that are being said. It's not a reliable way to parse out the conversation, but there is still some mutual intelligibility.

But what if you want your character to learn another language while in game? That's where language learning comes into play.

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Learning a Language

You learn new languages through a multi-week RP process with another RPer who already speaks that language. This is mostly player-driven, with just a quick check of your work at the end before you are granted the language. If your character wants to learn a new language, you need to take one in-game year (approx. 2 IRL months) to do it. The exact requirements are:

• At least 1 in-game year of RP screenshots at one screenshot per in-game month (12 total)
• At least six of those screenshots should be with another character who speaks the language (not just book learning)
• All study sessions should be at least three good-sized paragraphs of writing, or some good conversational back-and-forth with another player

Only one language can be learned at a time, so you can't learn German and Japanese and Russian in a one year period.

Here is an example of an acceptable "study session" with another player:

And here is an example of an acceptable solo study session:

Collect 12 of those (minimum 6 with another player teaching), keeping the screenshots in a dedicated folder somewhere until you are ready. Then, open a general ticket and present the screenshots to the mods. You will be granted the language from there.

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