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Online Fantasy Roleplaying, however, does not depend on dice or charts or any "formalized" rules. Instead, it depends entirely on imagination. The only rules are: respect the other players; stay true to the milieu; respect the other players; keep in character (IC) and out of character (OCC) posts separate, and in the appropriate threads; respect the other players; don't do permanent harm to another player without her permission; and, above all else, respect the other players. Actually, when you come right down to it, when rendered down to their most basic purpose, all the rules of Online Fantasy Roleplaying can be stated in a single sentence: "respect the other players."

Notice that does not mean your character always has to respect their characters. For example, if someone puts a character into the game that is a pure slave, too broken to object to her treatment or even contemplate escape, then it is not disrespectful to the player of that character to treat the character in that way: buy her, sell her, use her, abuse her. Presumably, if a player introduces such a character into the game, it's because the player wants to roleplay that happening to her. The one absolute rule, however, is that you never kill another player's character without that player's explicit permission.

A good example of the way this all works can be found in the conversation that's starting out between Sir Stephen and me in the Trader's Tablinum. As you can see, a story can be told through the characters' conversations. In fact, most creative writing classes teach this as the most effective way to present fiction.