So, some of you have been complaining for a while about the lack of objectivity and consistency in the awarding of RP points, especially in light of the new RP leveling system discussion.  Some of you have been complaining you weren't getting enough points, or that some imms were awarding a higher average than others, or that you didn't understand why your RPs were awarded the way they were, or that you generally felt that the guidelines we used to award points were too subjective, or any number of other complaints people have had in the past several years.

Well, I'm here to tell you that we heard you.  And we listened.  It may have taken a bit for anything to come of it, but change is here, and I hope that this will lay to rest all the complaints that have been had - on both the player side and the imm side - regarding RP logs and awards for them.  To make fully transparent the process we go through in awarding these points, here follows a brief summary of the guidelines that we will use for the awarding of points.  You can download the exact guidelines in full, as presented to and referenced by our RP staff, in pdf format and microsoft word format.  These downloadable copies contain an elaboration on the summary presented below, as well as tables containing exact descriptions of what we will be looking for in each category to obtain the maximum possible score.  With this information, you will always be aware of what we are looking for in an RP, and able to make a reasonable estimate as to what your award will be by examining your RP under the very same guidelines we will use to award them.

Of course, it's impossible to be 100% objective in something like this, but my hope is that these guidelines will be clear enough that the inconsistencies between one person's opinion and another will be kept to an absolute minimum, keeping objectivity and consistency as high as possible.

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To help keep subjectivity and inconsistency to a minimum, ensure transparency of our processes, and in an attempt to address some concerns that have been made by both players an imms, we have developed a new, more objective system of RP awards.  This system is based on the following three mantras:

"Crap RP garners Crap Awards"

We all know what crap RP looks like.  I don't even have to define it.  Fortunately, we don't see much of it, but some of it does come through.  If your RP is obviously crap (by which we mean the quality, not the content, is crap - say it's just a string of five says that are entirely unrelated and accomplish nothing, for example, or an RP that's completely unrelated to Star Wars, etc), you'll get 1 point for it stock.  This is the absolute minimum award and any RP will gain at least 1 point so long as it's *actually* an RP and not just a bunch of randomness.  All the same, please don't RP crap.

"Stock RP garners Stock Awards"

By "stock," here, I mean any RP that you do multiple times without any great variance.  This includes buying equipment, getting a clone, inducting a new member into your clan, or any RP that is done entirely over a channel with no physical interaction.  This also includes RPs that use nothing but socials and the 'say' command.  These RPs will be awarded a stock 2 points.

Note that stock RPs do NOT, however, include RPs in the same contexts mentioned above that have a clear effort to make them something unique and enjoyable.  If, for example, you buy equipment, but your purchase RP includes several long emotes or rechos, is a few pages long, and entails considerable IC interaction between the two characters beyond placing the order and picking it up, your RP will not be considered stock, but will be moved into the next category, which is...

"Unique RP garners Unique Awards"

Any RP that doesn't fall into the above two categories falls into this one.  These RPs will be read in their entirety and evaluated, rather than being given stock awards as mentioned above.  RPs will be evaluated based on four aspects: Language Proficiency, Depth, Character Development, and Length.  Each of these will be ranked on a scale from 1-4 based on the criteria laid out in the guideline documents.  Once these scores have all been tallied, an average will be made and rounded down.  To this result, we will add a base score of 2, making all RPs in this category score a minimum of 3 points and a maximum of 6.  Since we're rounding down, a score of 6 represents a perfect 4 in all four RP aspects, making it a very rare award and something to brag about if you should happen to receive it.  The average reward will be a 4, with 5 representing above-average work and 6 representing outstanding work.

This scale can and will be adjusted based on extenuating circumstances.  A foreign player, for example, will likely be graded one point higher in language proficiency to cover for his or her "disability" in that area.

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Once again, if you would like to download the full guidelines as they have been presented to the imms, including the grading criteria for all four RP aspects, they are available here in pdf format and microsoft word format.

And now with the website moved over to the new server, the server upgrade is completely finished.  Yay!  Now I can finally get some sleep...

Of note to anyone interested, the mud and the site are now on the same server, so you can now connect to the mud with simply "swkod.com" rather than "mud.swkod.com."  They'll both get you the same schtick now.