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| New to RPing? |
| Yes, but I want to learn! |
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39% |
[ 101 ] |
| Eh...I've done a few...I could use some help though. |
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24% |
[ 64 ] |
| Pfft. Of course not! I do it all the time, yo! |
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28% |
[ 73 ] |
| Poll whore option. <.< |
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7% |
[ 19 ] |
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| Total Votes : 257 |
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 Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 4:12 pm
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Alright, so, roleplaying. For those of you that don't know, it's basically like writing a story with a group of other people, but you can only control one character. Roleplaying is a way to break out of the ordinary and create something extraordinary with a group of friends. Make them exciting!! Do something that you've never done before - pretend your a vampire, be an angel, whatever you want!! That's the beauty of it! Nobody can tell you who you should be, so this is your chance to break out of your safety zone and do something exciting!
So, now that you have a bit of a biased opinion of what roleplaying is, here are a few more things you should know about it:
Types of roleplays
Literate: If you join a literate roleplay, you are expected to have decent typing skills (ie: if u type lyk dis, u dun wanna join) and are expected to type things out in paragraph form. For example, you can't come in and just say one sentence. You are expected to describe your character and his/her surroundings and interact with the scenery/other characters in every post. These posts should be well thought out.
Example:
Clad in a crimson blazer, Anochaa strolls casually into the bar, keeping her hat tilted down to cover her stormy grey eyes. She took inventory of the people around her, cautiously. Every so often her slender hand moved up to the small horns poking out of her hat, self concious about people seeing them. What would they think? Her tail swished gently behind her and she carefully moved it to the side as she took to nearest barstool. "I'd like an iced tea, please," she said quietly, keeping her eyes down. "No sugar."
Semi-literate: For these types of roleplays, there isn't as much of an emphasis on grammar, however, your posts should still be well thought out. Additionally, these posts are usually not required to be in paragraph form, which means that you can designate actions as follows:
::Anochaa walks into a bar and orders a glass of iced tea::
Hello barkeep! How's it going? I would like some tea please!
::twiddles her thumbs as she waits::
Non-literate: If a roleplay does not specify literate or semi-literate, it is usually safe to assume that it is of this variety, however, you should still look through a few posts to get a feel of what other people are doing. You don't want to be the only one posting like this while everyone else writes a short novel with every post!! It's tre embarrassing. Anyway, for a non-literate RP, the main intention is to have fun! Nobody cares how you type or how well thought out your posts are, so feel free to be as random or as serious as you want and emoticons are allowed where as they are usually frowned upon in other ones.
Here's an example:
*rides in on magical unicorn*
HEEEEEEEELLLPPPP!!!! RUN AWAY UNICORN!! GIMME AN ICED TEA TO MAKE HIM STOP!! gonk
*gets bucked off and lands on floor*
Whew. That wuz close!! sweatdrop
A few rules to abide by in all RPs
1. Do NOT try to control someone else's character or actions. This will make people angry and you will most likely be asked to leave.
2. Do NOT make your character invincible! This is often referred to as God-modding. For example, if you are in a sword fight and someone lunges at you from really close up, unless you specified that your character's power is lightning fast movement, you can't magically launch yourself into the air, whip a bazooka out of your shorts and blow them up all while making a sandwich. This will not make people happy and you will not make friends doing this!
3. Respect the fundamental rules of Gaia and the all mighty TOS! (Terms Of Service, for those that didn't know) This means that you probably shouldn't start a roleplay that's all about sex and drugs. You can get banned for this, so just don't do it!
4. Respect the rules of whatever roleplay you're in. If they say that your character has to be human to join, then don't come in expecting to be half lizard or something. If you want to be a lizard, join a different RP or make your own!
5. ALWAYS READ THE FIRST POST(S)!! This is super important!! Often times the first few posts will have important information like what the RP is about, the rules of the RP, and people's biographies so you know the characters you're going to be playing with.
That's all I can think of at the moment, so that should start you off nicely ^^ Later I might post some other pointers as I think of them, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them ^^ I'll be prompt in my replies!
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Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 10:57 pm
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Role Playing Views
there are three view points you can take Role Playing into. There is First Person, Second Person, and Third Person. These views are also commonly used in stories, but the most common are First and Third person.
First Person: When you take the 'story' into the view of the writer themselves and place 'I' statements in your posts/books. They do not really place their name in their posts/books unless someone refers to them or they introduce themselves. It is recommended that if you use this style for Role Playing that you at least have your characters name in your User Name.
Example: I take off my jacket as I walk inside the dojo.
Second Person: When you take the 'story' into the eyes of everyone around you. this is very helpful if you use a technique and there are certain smells, feelings(like heat) and sounds that the other person would receive.
Example: They would be able to smell the barbecue in the back as the wind blew by their face.
Third Person: When you take the 'story' into the view of a character played by you. You never use 'I' statements unless they are talking or thinking about themselves. You use their names, preferably, at the beginning of posts, and every other time you want to refer to your character but not use their name you would put 'He/She' or 'His/Her.'
Example: Fenris looked through her drawer until she found a shirt she liked.
Big No Noes It's so funny, you WANT to read it, yes you do:
God Modding unless you have permission to is against the rules in nearly all Role Playing guilds. There are different kinds of it to, not just auto-hitting.
Aimbotter: Especially annoying when using NPCs, as NPCs don't get to argue about munch.
A: Three hundred seventy of my trained assassin gymnasts crest the hill, sight you, and rush toward you.
B: Luckily, I have three hundred sixty-nine bullets in my chain gun! I quickly mow them all down, each taking a single bullet to the head, and peg the last one with a rock in the sternum.
Augustine: Far, far too prevalent.
A: Given that this RP's technology base is medieval, I happily drive my cart to the market to buy some maggot-ridden meat.
B: Too late! I already got there in my Gundam and blew up everything with my insanely overpowered weapons! And don't start whining, because my Gundam's already pre-approved in the "This Is Not a Medieval Technology Base RP" thread.
Baghdad Bobbit: An advanced (or is that "degraded"?) form of Puppetmaster and Aimbotter combined.
A: I fire at the stationary target, hitting twice but missing with my remaining four rounds.
B: I get tired of your realistic RPing style and poke you in the neck, collapsing your trachea. You die writhing in torment.
Boa Constrictor: Threads that have a long list of rules that prevent any characters except their own from roleplaying in that thread. No example will be given here, since that would be suggesting rules that shouldn't be used at all, and used separately these rules would be fine.
Boa Constrictors most commonly like to ban most forms of magic, guns, NPCs, technology, 'special' abilities etc. The result is, as I said, a thread in which very few characters can venture.
I do emphasize that threads should have whichever rules they want, within fairness to other role players. Lists of rules which prevent too much are too, let's face it, n00bish.
Daydreamer: Not exactly munch, per se, but it does get annoying.
A: In the middle of the intense shootout, I dash across the narrow alley, ducking and weaving in hopes to avoid getting hit. I'm unsuccessful; two bullets peg me in the shoulder, throwing me back into a Dumpster.
B: The bullets make me think back to my days as a youth, when I had to melt down tin soldiers to use as musket balls against the Redcoats... or was it redskins? I can't remember. Anyway, I had to walk uphill all three ways to school and back, running from glaciers all the while. It was torture, lemme tell ya. And then there's the story of how I met my first wife...
Gaseous Snake: An advanced (or is that "dumb"?) form of McFlys.
A: I walk to the door and open it.
B: Being a fellow with a bit of foresight, I hooked that doorknob to a car battery an hour ago. You're thrown across the room.
Godmoder: A rather broad term, basically covering a character/roleplayer who can overcome any situation.
A: Now that you're strapped to the end of a naval cannon, I fire it.
B: Whoosh! I nimbly dodge, somehow forgetting the fact that I'm restrained by three-hundred-pound chain!
Hi-jacker: These are intensely annoying for thread creators. They are often members of that thread, also.
A: Ok! Our base is under attack and we have to defend it!
B: *Goes and activates the base's self destruct* Everybody run you have three minutes!
Hive: So named after such things as the xenomorphs from Aliens, the Klendathu bugs from Starship Troopers, and the teeming hoards they generally are. These hoards are always fearless, will battle until dead, and quite often have some excessive weapons and/or armor.
Basically, it's the guys who have too many NPCs.
A: *He sat alone in his one-man fighter ship, quickly scanning the radar for hostiles*
B: *He sat aboard his giant flagship, with his other 1000 ships around him. He ordered them all to attack the tiny fighter in front of them*
IDKFA: Most likely people attempting to emulate Solid Snake or some other cheesy spy-novel hero.
A: You're all out of ammo for all five of your Ingram submachine guns. Since you're buck-naked, I know I can now safely step into the open and begin returning fire.
B: Ha! Little did you know, I have twelve shuriken hidden within my pubic hair!
Ironclad Sentinel: This is fast becoming a problem, and refers to when a thread's subject organization/corporation/military has too many defenses, or defenses that are unrealistically powerful or just plain 'modey.
A: I am attacking with a battalion of thirty tanks, air support of twenty gun-ships, and three submarines off the coast with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
B: Defenses - Forcefield that blocks everything but lets our weapons out, invisibility shield around the base, 100 SAM turrets, 100 machine gun turrets, 1000 guards with machine guns, 200 space fighters, 200 tanks.
Lucky Irishman: A mixture of McFly and Augustine. A person whose character performs an action at chance (with no knowledge of the way it will tip the balance) that turns events to their favor, despite the chances of such a thing happening being incredibly slim.
A: With your character totally surrounded in a section of corridor, my ten skilled ninja prepare to slice him to pieces.
B: My character backs up to the wall, inadvertently tripping the base's alarm.
A: ((If I'm going to be honest and fair here, I have to tell you that the alarm would trigger the corridors to be sealed by blast-proof bulkheads.))
B: ((Oh, oops. Guess my character's safe then.))
McFly: Declining in numbers now, these will alter situations (and usually first posts) to give them an advantage in role play.
A: Ha! Now that the force field is down, I run inside your evil lair!
B: Um... um... there's also a super-secret second force field which causes you to die instantly! I just didn't say anything about it because... um... I had to do my laundry! Not because I just thought of it now! Honestly!
Min-maxer: Not a lot of those running around here, thank goodness... that's more of a DnD-style paper game issue.
A: I've successfully broken into the facility which gave you your incredibly 1337 power armor. Now I pull up the file on it. What does it say about weak points?
B: The metal of my armor is... um... allergic to praying mantis urine.
Miss Cleo: Obvious.
A: ((OOC: There's a secret switch hidden in the lamp.))
B: I suddenly think to myself-- why not check the lamp for hidden switches? Call me now for your free reading!
NIMBY: The people who quite readily attack others' threads, but then stop all attacks on their own thread.
A: They attacked us! Let's go and get them!
B: Our base is protected by three forcefields, giant laser guns, automated robots with plasma guns, and a barrier blocking all weapons and magic!
-OR-
A: They attacked us! Let's go and get them!
B: *Deletes any posts related to an attack*
Oxymoron: Luckily rare.
A: I'm a farmer with a shotgun.
B: I'm a black hole which emits blinding pulses of visible light!
(For those of you not familiar with physics, black holes allow nothing out of their immense gravity. Not even light can escape.)
Prosecutor: People who claim every one else is Munching when they are the only one who is.
A: *I, a fire mage, cast a fireball at you*
B: *Naught but a lowly child, I block the fireball and then deflect it back at you*
A: ((Um, if you're just a kid, how can you deflect a fireball cast by a fire mage?))
B: ((WHAT SHUTUP N00B YOU CAN'T JUST MAKE FIREBALL LIKE THAT!!))
Puppetmaster: Another overly common occurrence.
A: I step carefully into the room, peering around for occupants.
B: Suddenly a dragon pokes you in the eye. You run screaming from the room, where after you go home, make a pickle sandwich, and call your mother to cry about how she ruined your life.
Quaker: They can magically 'spawn' anything.
A: My character is wearing a form of armor only vulnerable to a drop of water from a holy well in South Dakota.
B: *He pulls out the vial of water from a holy well in South Dakota* "I don't know why I always carried this, but I knew it would come in useful one day."
Revisionist: Another prevalent problem.
A: You chose the blue pill? Ooh, tough luck.
B: Red! I said red!
Don't go pulling that "I can read your previous post" mind game crap, either!
Shoe elf: Pretty obvious.
A: ((OOC: Well, gotta go to bed. Big neurosurgery test tomorrow.))
B: Ho, ho, ho! Now that the loser's gone to bed, I can strap his character to a cross and peg him with rotten fruit!
Speedhacker: One of the worst we have to deal with.
A: I walk to the door and step outside.
B: Suddenly, twelve men grab you, carry you off to my secret lair in Tibet, and torture you for weeks. When you finally die from the agony, we bury you in the frozen wastes. Hundreds of years later, archaeologists discover your frozen body and try to determine if you're another Lucy.
Trinity: The knowledge down loaders, the omniscience wizards. [Also known as Zoicites]
A: My character was raised by a gang leader in the harsh conditions of a slum. From this, he learned to wield small firearms fairly effectively and has limited driving abilities.
B: My character was born on a remote jungle island and can fly or drive anything and use any gun with perfect aim.
Twink: Sometimes allowed in certain RPs. If the RP isn't specifically about invincible deities and such, a simple rule is that if the strengths aren't counterbalanced with relatively equivalent weaknesses (or if the reasoning behind the phenomenal cosmic powers isn't eloquently and appropriately explained), you're dealing with a twink.
A: A punch coming, eh? Well, seeing as you're a seven-year-old child and I'm riding in a twenty-meter mecha, I won't bother dodging.
B: Fooled you! I have the power to DESTROY EVERYTHING when I punch it! I'm just like an X-Man, and therefore require you to suspend all logic when RPing with me! Oh, and I have the power to steal your girlfriend, too.
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Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 11:08 am
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Character Profiles:
Your character profile is one of the most important aspects of roleplaying. This is the only thing you have to show people what your character is like, so it is vitally important that you use the profile to its fullest potential.
Most importantly: FOLLOW THE THREAD’S RULES CONCERNING PROFILES! Most threads will not only have a specific form that they would like you to fill out, but many times they ask that you PM the profile to them instead of posting it. This keeps the thread cleaner and makes it so it is only for roleplaying instead of all the “paperwork” that goes along with making a roleplaying thread. Also, make sure you read the RULES for anything that you should include in your profile – many times people will have something in the rules that says “Include this word somewhere in your profile so I know you read the rules.”
Basic Character Profile: Most profiles should include some if not all of these things. Some threads will require you to answer fewer or more questions, but these are good things to think about when making a character.
Username: Put your Gaia username here so people can keep everyone straight.
Character name: Depending on what the norm is for the thread you’re in is, this can either be just a first name or a first and last name. You should also specify any nicknames your character might have in this section.
Gender: People don’t always roleplay as the same sex as their avatar and sometimes names can be a bit ambiguous, so this is a good thing to put.
Age: This is pretty self explanatory, but sometimes certain threads will have rules about what age you can be, so you should make sure to read those rules.
Race: This section is more for specifying if you’re a human, demon, angel, vampire, neko, whatever. Generally it’s more broad than specifying Caucasian vs. Hispanic or something, unless everyone is human and/or you’d like to specify.
Sexuality: Pretty self-explanatory too. Your options are pretty much straight, bisexual, gay/lesbian, transsexual, asexual, pansexual. This makes it easier for people in roleplays with potential romance to figure out who they can pair off with.
Appearance: For this section, many people use and sometimes even require pictures instead of a description. However, if you do a description, it should be more than just saying “red hair, green eyes.” Since this is what everyone will refer to in order to figure out what you look like, you should spend a fair amount of time and effort on this section if you don’t just use a picture instead.
Brief bio/history: This is the section where you should write a paragraph or two about where your character came from. If you’re a werewolf, maybe you’ll say how long it’s been since you got bit. Tell a little bit about your family – are your parents still alive? Did you run away from home? Were you banished from your hometown for something you did? Write about anything that might be important to why your character behaves the way he/she does.
Personality: Is your character bubbly and nice all the time or cold hearted and cruel? What should the other characters expect when they talk to you? You should try to be fairly specific here and try to stick to it during the roleplay. It’s really annoying to play with someone who completely changes their personality every other post, unless they specify that their character is very fickle and has mood swings in this section.
Those are the essential basics which should help the next time you make a profile. Just remember, your profile is what you make of it, so if you aren’t willing to put much time and effort into it, then that reflects directly on you. Profiles aren’t very much fun to write most of the time, but if you make something you’re proud to use, then it will be very worth it in the long run ^^
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Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 3:06 am
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Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 6:26 pm
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 11:25 am
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 2:20 pm
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 6:36 pm
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 6:41 pm
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Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:26 am
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 9:51 pm
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:11 am
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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:34 pm
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 1:33 pm
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 2:09 pm
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Reply
