I am the proprieter and owner of the Footman Industries electric eel plant, the Babbage Square Historic Memorial Cemetary, and the seaboud shop, Antarctic Imports.
I'm a big RPer, that, and my interest in steampunk are what brought me to the steamlands in the first place. All the steamlands have their quirks when it comes to RP, some enforced it, some encourage it but don;t require it, and others seem to have a strange bi-polar relationship with it; half enjoying it and loving the plots and stories that spawn across all the assorted NING sites and blogs, others seem to treat it as the worst possible thing imagineable. in these cases, it almost always falls into an uneasy balance, RPers having to be careful who they approach in case said avi flies into a tizzy because they're spoken to in character, hide their meters and only bring them out for heels to the ground combat when certian types are in bed (though with the naval battles, this has improved greatly, I just need to get my RL under control so I can enjoy being a part of them again) , and an almost underground culture of those of us who occasionally enjoy shooting things (a meter will not automatically make a sim a combat sim).
My RP style, I enjoy a more freeform RP as opposed to a scripted out play, characters react based on previous events, not what the script says, I also, having been to a few RP sims, that hav actually worked and managed to stay successful for years, beleive that you can have combat in an RP, meters and the weapons designed for them are so you don't hit innocent bystanders shopping, at least the good ones.
dragging others into your RP....I'm sorry, but that is a rediculous concept, if someone comes up yelling the martians are attacking, or pirates are at the port, if you don't want to be involved and just want to keep oohing over shoes, then ignre them. If someone is getting real pushy, there's a magic word to prevent being 'pulled in'...no. Most Rper's beleive it or not, are not greifers, and are smart enough to take a hint. Yelling and screaming because they dared mention the pirate attack in earshot of you, or speaking IC around you is NOT 'pulling you in'
and another disclaimer, if you have no actual rules or guidelines in place for RP in a sim, then there is no 'way we do it here' I've been proud in the fact that during those days, I never once 'did it their way' as there was no 'their way'. I almost always am in character, even when building, the only exception is occasional late nights when people are hanging out and noone's really IC, I shoot guns, even worn meters, and am currently working out a way for land battles, sort of to coincide with the naval battles, and it's caused no issues.
Now, things have improved since, people have grown up and stopped sniping at others over it. Some people I would not even expect have started to dabble in RP even. And no fires erupted, the earth did not swallow the grid whole, dogs and cats did not live together, no mass hysteria. It seems to be generally accepted now.
Footman Industries, and the Airship Rama before that, were built as places for free RP, where people can go, RP whatever plot they need a decent wierd lab/warehouse setting, or a cemetary for. it's my home, but also free for RP. Any land I aquire in the future, will be likewise.
The land the plant and cemetary are on, I allow shooting, as long as you take care who you are shooting, I don't ban people from my land unless they are a douchebag. I do have damage enabled for now, but feel free if you want, to wear a meter, as I possibly will be turning it off after a current RP ends
I also have flight turned off, as myself, I hate flying without vehicles as it's very wonky in SL, the flight animations look stupid frankly, and I have been annoyed by people choosing to 'fly' at 1 meter off the ground, through my sitting room, you want to be in the plant, walk or ride an airship.
Currently there is autoreturn, at about 60 min, primarily due to all the tardises I've had to clean up, but if you need an item rezzed longer for an RP, send me a message and I'll be glad to invite you to the land group, Ordo Absconditus, it's a steamland RP group, that allows you to keep items rezzed in my land, set your home there, and even has an OOC tag if you feel the need for one (some people are very militantly against them for some reason, but I like to have the option rather than go 'we don't like it, so NOONE can have it!)
My recent shop, Antarctic Imports, is a business yes, but I allow RP there, though I'm not so sure what sort of RP would call for a leaky barge full of odd gadgets for sale.
I also have an alt, Zombie Ohare, who is my general NPC, Monster, Baddie, and when a badger, groundskeeper. If you see him as a monster or ghost, be wary, if you see a badger, meh, he's probably cleaning up the place and handeling my tier
Aside from my own quirks, my land follows the Babbage Covenant, don't leave modern articles parked there, don't greif, don't be a douche
