Hello, everybody. Welcome to a new series of articles about this great world that we've all found ourselves in. The main purpose is to help new RPers get used to life here in HA2 – hence the name, "The Newcomer Articles" – but even the veteran characters can probably learn a thing or two from these things.

God-modding. It gets the very best of us at least once in our RPing career, since it was never addressed in the Rules Set. Unfortunately, some people refuse to listen when their fellow RPers say, "you can't do that, it's god-modding," and they continue for quite a while. Then the mods have to get onto him and everything gets messy/complicated...

So this article is being written so that we can avoid all that messy red-tape. From now on, we can just point people here to find out what god-modding is and why it's not allowed.

I suppose we should begin with the following fact:
GOD-MODDING IS NOT ALLOWED!
Though many people will tell you that, I can't remember it having ever been officially stated. It is hereby officially stated. No more of it.

So what is god-modding? It’s a simple concept. After thinking for quite some time (and a bunch of discussions with the other mods), I’ve come up with a fairly good definition:

God-modding occurs whenever someone dictates or insinuates the action or response of a person, place, thing, or idea that they themselves did not create and introduce into the world of HA2, unless the RPer has been granted clear permission by the creator to control it.

Basically, this means that if you don’t create it, you don’t control it. Doesn’t matter what the situation is. As Weien once said:

Weienw wrote:The way I like to put it is: "Don't assume anything." Always leave an out for the narrator, whoever that may be.

The narrator of the topic may have very specific ideas in mind for what should happen next. If, while in a dungeon, you write, "Seeing the door on the other side of the room, he goes over and opens it," that's making a ton of assumptions. What if the door is locked? What if the door has bars covering it that would obviously stop you from opening it? What if there's a trap – such as a pit – in your way? What if a huge monster comes out and blocks your path? What if a mage is currently casting a spell so that no one is supposed to be able to move at all?

As you can see, assuming you do something can drastically alter the way things are supposed to work. At this point, the narrator would have to either spend a long time trying to find some way to stop you from opening the door – even though you just said you did – or completely ignore your post. He might even ask us RG's to delete the post – yes, that has happened before.

At the same time, if you are the narrator, don't assume that an RPer will react the way you want him to. Zeldaforever/Hiro put it this way:

ZF wrote:God-modding is when you say something like, ...You say "Hi" to the fairy...
But you never know, the replier could have wanted to say instead, ..."Shut up, stupid fairy!!!"...
When you say the former, it limits the replier's reaction diversity. The character could have been evil and not wanted to talk to the fairy!

In this example, the narrator dictated the response of the character. Therefore, it is god-modding. Therefore, it is not allowed.

The reasoning behind this? Well, you obviously can't control a character as well as its creator can. You don't know everything about the person. The character you're god-modding may have a fear of heights. If you have him climb a cliff with ease, that messes things up for the creator. It'll be a big hassle for both RPers as they attempt to reconcile the event with the character's nature.

Thus, you should avoid god-modding at all times.

Next time, we'll discuss the exceptions to the rule...because there are always exceptions, right!?!

...I'd kinda like to see the exception to that rule...

Until the next article, happy RPing!

-RG Draug Layor



Next article: You're not a god! L2