Things can get heated in Battlemaster, especially when it comes to intrigue. This is expected, up to a point. Characters can and should develop complex relationships with each other that lead to friendships, betrayals and rivalries. However, it is important to note that there is and should always be a clear dividing line between players and their characters. When friends play a board game they compete, and there are winners and losers. What happens in the game though should not affect their real-life friendship. After all, it's only a game.
OOC communications in particular should be polite and civil at a bare minimum, regardless of how intensely the characters of the players involved are competing. In our last case, we saw a situation where OOC and IC rivalries became tangled up and led to bad blood between several players, leading to a highly toxic atmosphere in the realm they share. This isn't good for the game or the players, and it is in part the kind of situation that the Social Contract exists to prevent. If, in the course of playing the game, you find yourself becoming stressed out, unhappy, hurt, or otherwise feeling negatively, then something is very wrong. In some cases, where you have taken on too many responsibilities or become too emotionally invested in something (be it a character, realm or something else) this means that you should consider stepping back a bit, whether it be cutting back on your play time, changing realms, pausing characters, stepping down from positions, or even taking a break from playing entirely, as I recently did. In others, there may be things going on that should be reported to the Magistrates or the Titans because someone else is violating the Social Contract or the IRs and taking away your fun in the process.
There, that was my general commentary on this subject. In this case I'm inclined to see elements of both scenarios at play, but I'll be curious to see what the other party has to say.
