Three Words Nobody Explains
Almost every roleplay community bans godmodding, metagaming, and powerplaying in its rules channel, and almost none of them explain what those words mean. New writers then either freeze up or break a rule they never understood.
Here is what each one is, with the version that is genuinely fine sitting next to the version that is not.
Godmodding: Controlling What You Do Not Own
Godmodding is writing outcomes for someone else's character. It is the most common friction point in collaborative writing, and it is usually accidental.
- Not okay — "She swings and her blade opens a gash across his shoulder."
- Okay — "She swings hard, aiming for the gap above his shoulder guard."
The rule is simple: you write the attempt, they write the result. This applies to more than combat. Deciding that another character believes you, feels afraid, or agrees to a plan is the same error in a quieter costume.
Metagaming: Using What Your Character Cannot Know
Metagaming is letting information from outside the story leak into it. You read in the character's profile that they are secretly a spy, and your character starts acting suspicious of them — despite never having met.
The test: could my character have learned this inside the story? If the answer is no, the knowledge is yours, not theirs.
Playing this well is one of the real pleasures of roleplay. Letting your character walk into danger you can see coming, because they cannot, is where tension lives.
Powerplaying: Removing the Other Person's Choices
Powerplaying is writing a character so capable, so prepared, or so invulnerable that the other writer has nothing to respond with. It overlaps with godmodding but is broader — it includes the character who always has exactly the right item, always predicted the ambush, and never loses.
The tell is not in your writing. It is in theirs: replies get shorter, then slower, then stop.
The fix is to write in openings deliberately. Let your character be surprised. Let a plan half-fail. Every gap you leave is somewhere your partner can put a scene.
The Fourth One Nobody Names
There is a fourth habit that damages roleplay as much as the other three and rarely appears in rule lists: closing the scene. Ending your post with your character leaving the room, falling asleep, or resolving the conflict entirely leaves your partner with nothing to write. Always hand something back.
How to Recover When You Get It Wrong
You will get it wrong. Everyone does. The recovery is short and it works:
- Say so plainly, out of character, once.
- Offer to rewrite the post rather than argue for it.
- Do not apologise three times — it makes the other person manage your feelings.
Most partners will barely remember it a week later. What they remember is whether you were easy to write with.
Setting Expectations Before the First Post
Most of these problems are prevented by a five-minute conversation before the roleplay starts: how graphic can conflict get, is character death on the table, how fast do we expect replies. Writing that into a shared character profile or a pinned message saves the awkward correction later.
