Fishy's Guide to Role Playing

by The Rumour Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:16 pm

Why hello there all of you!

So, as you all probably know, I am Fishy. As you all also probably know, I have never once posted in the RP section of this site. Yes, yes, very sad, but there is a reason for this, and that reason is that not many people on here seem to know how to role play in a more professional way, which is the way that most people use. So, here I am to help you with that!

So, now, introducing you to...

Fishy's Guide to Roleplaying!

Length:

Now, many members on this site don't put much thought into their posts (or, it seems like that to me, due to the shortness of posts). Now, this is very agitating to someone like me who will post a paragraph for when my character enters, and then somebody will respond with simply, "I walk in." It's just like, "What the heck is this? I just put a ton of effort into my post, it's a paragraph long, and you responded with 'I walk in'? Honestly, how am I supposed to work with that?" On most RP sites, the members will make very long and detailed posts, and one of my friends is a member of a website where the roleplay example and biography of a character has to be five hundred words long. Think about that. How many members of this site could manage that? Hardly any, to be completely honest. Your posts don't have to be a paragraph long, just at least three sentences or so, and not three very short sentences.

Grammar:

Grammar is a key element to roleplaying. If someone doesn't use grammar, it may not be clear what they mean, or it may be difficult or annoying to read. Many members on this website don't put spaces after their periods, commas, or any type of punctuation mark. This is one of the most annoying things, in my opinion. When I try to read a post, but it's clearly lacking spaces after punctuation marks, I immediately think of the person as a first grader. You may object with something like, "But I get good grades in school, and I'm in *blank* grade!" Well, it doesn't matter to me how old you are, what grade you're in, or if you get all A's, if you don't use grammar, I will think of you as either an illiterate fool or a first grader, and so will most of the grammar world.

Practicality:

So, I know that there are members who cannot view the M section, but there are some who can, and they use it. Now, some of these people have used it in a completely impractical way, so this section is dedicated to that.
First of all, if something just happened to your character that will cause a life changing event for them, most of the time the results aren't immediate. If your character has s**, the girl will not know she is pregnant until about three weeks to a month AFTER having s**. The baby won't be born for nine more months, but if you're impatient and want your character's child to be born, make it obvious that you've decided to do a time skip by saying 'time skip' in OOC.
If you want your character to start dating someone, it won't happen immediately. In real life, when you ask the person who you've been crushing on for ages, but you've never actually gotten the chance to get to know them, they most likely won't jump into a long explanation of how they've been crushing on you and have been meaning to ask you out, too. Face it, that just isn't, well, practical. If it's not something that won't happen in real life, (excluding if the RP is for something fictional) it shouldn't happen in an RP. Your characters should get to know each other before they date, and it shouldn't take two days for them to start going out. If you make a character with someone and they were dating before they got to camp, that's fine. But if they just met, it should at least take a month before they start going out.
If your character does end up dating someone, they shouldn't spend all of their time with someone. As stated before, if it's not going to happen in real life, it shouldn't happen in an RP. Your character most likely won't ditch all of their friends for their boyfriend or girlfriend, so this isn't something you want to do. If you're doing a plot with this, like the girlfriend's best friend gets jealous because her best friend only hangs out with her boyfriend, and when she gets angry she does insanely irrational things, like tries to injure people, then that's fine. But if your character just spends all of their time with their boyfriend or girlfriend with no sign of a plot, that tends to annoy people who have characters who are friends with the boyfriend or girlfriend.

Power Playing and Mary/Gary Sues/stus:

[font=kaiti]Nobody enjoys posting with someone who controls their character in a completely unfair way. An example of this would be that they say in their post, "I slash at them with my sword, and they fall to the ground, writhing in pain from the giant cut I just gave them." I've never seen anyone on here doing this, but it's still something that needs to be put in any roleplaying guide. If you want the person you're roleplaying with to respond a certain way, kindly ask them if they'd mind doing that, but don't throw a fit when they say no. If you throw a fit, they'll probably never want to post with you again. If someone told you that their character will respond a certain way, you can say that they respond in that way, but put in OOC that they asked you to do that.
Another thing that no one enjoys posting with are Mary/Gary Sues. Mary/Gary Sues are characters who are almost godlike they have so much power. They never tire and can always avoid attacks, and they seem to be able to do everything. A lot of admins tend to make characters like this because, well, they're admins. They can do what they want, right? Wrong. If it includes characters who never tire, have an unlimited amount of power, and can basically seem to do everything without flaw, which no one is really allowed to do if you follow the rules, then no. If an admin can make a character who is like this, then everyone else should be allowed to. It's simply not fair for one character to always dodge every attack, never tire, and be able to do everything if no one else is allowed to do this. To be honest, I wouldn't mind having a flawless character, so if I can't have one, then you shouldn't be able to have one.

Drama:

Now, there are two types of drama that can happen on a forum. There's the drama where you have something insanely dramatic going on in the RP, and then there's the drama between the members. While the former may be fun, the latter is something you want to lower the amount of so there isn't any. If the solution is something that seems like it will make people angry, do not do it. If an admin isn't being fair, confront them about it and convince them to say they won't do it again. If the do end up doing it again, demote them. Don't just do it for a short amount of time; do it for as long as it takes for them to understand the rules. This is what should be done for any staff member, because, coming from a former staff member on a different site, having power on an RP can be fun. People listen and look up to you. You can do cool and different things. If they're an ordinary member, think of another punishment. Can they view the M rated area? If they can, take away that privilege. It's just that, a privilege. If they can't ban them from the chatbox or PMing for a few day. But an important thing to remember is that banning people from the website isn't the first punishment. That punishment comes last.
If you're a normal member trying to deal with drama, simply log off of the site for a little bit, until you feel better-slash-cooled down, because I know I get angry when people start arguing in the chatbox. Once you've calmed down, PM an admin about the situation, if it was that serious. If it wasn't, PM the person or people you were arguing with in the chatbox, and try to work out the argument then, once you're calm. You always should wait until you've calmed down before doing this, because you might say some things you will later regret if you're still upset. Once you calm down, then you're safe to start talking to the person or people. If there are signs of the argument heating back up, simply tell the person you don't want to fight, you just want to know why you angered them.

[size=20]Character pictures:

So, one thing I've noticed is that a bunch of people tend to make their characters look insanely gothic, and that goes for all of the pictures belonging to the person who uses gothic pictures. Now, I know making your characters look goth can be fun, but where's the variety in that? If you've made all of your characters have a dark appearance, wear mainly dark coloured clothes, and their bangs cover their eyes, then you know it's time for a change. Try making a character who has hair that stays away from their eyes. Make them wear different clothes, maybe things that are a bit more popular. Just because your character wears more popular clothes doesn't mean they have to act like a prep, which leads us to our next topic:

Character personalities:

Many people will give their characters personalities that reflect their own personality, which results in making their characters awfully boring, due to the fact that they're all the same. Instead of doing this, try something else. You could try making a character that still likes the same stuff as you, but they have a lighter personality. If you make characters based off of yourself, change some things. If you're somewhat of a loner, make them a little bit more outgoing. If you're insanely outgoing, make them a bit more timid and shy.
For the love of God, don't make a ton of characters who want to kill people for no reason. In fact, you shouldn't even have one character who wants to kill people for no reason. These are some of the most annoying characters ever, because all they want to do is kill with no reason. If you're going to make a character who kills people, give it some background instead of making them randomly kill people. In most horror movies, the killers have a reason. In Friday the Thirteenth, Jason kills people because he was drowning, but no one saved him. He had a disability, yet people made fun of him. He killed people because they had been torturing him his entire life. Jason's mother kills people because they let her son die. In Scream, the killers want attention, and they're both slightly psychotic. The killers from Scream kill the girl's mother because one of the killers found out that his dad was cheating on his mom with the other girl's mother. Take some advice from the writers of horror movies and horror books, and give your killer some background.
Lastly, don't give in to stereotypes! I cannot emphasize this enough. So many people will make a character who is goth or 'emo', and they'll make these characters do self harm, want to kill themselves, and hate everybody. These characters are right up there on the top of 'The Most Annoying Characters List', right up there with the mindless killers. If someone decides to make a popular character, they are always stuck up and snobbie, although these characters are rarely made. So, if you want to make a character who would normally fit into a stereotype, do something like this instead:

If they're an 'emo' or goth character, give them more friends. Make them have the look, the likes and dislikes, give them some of the personality, but also give them friends. With having the personality, the character can be well guarded at first, but once you get to know them, they're like a teddy bear. They're nice, friendly, and will help their friends with anything, but if you mess with them, it's lights out.
If they're popular, make them nice. Now, this only makes logical sense if you think about it. For someone to be popular, they'd have to have a lot of people looking up to them. Yes, sometimes the reason is that they're rich, they're pretty, or they have the coolest clothes ever, but that's not always the case. A lot of the time, someone's popular because they're genuinely nice, although people only seem to see the fact that they're a downright b***.
If they're well guarded, let them take their walls down every now and then. Instead of making your character always be guarded and on the tip of their toes, give them some time to rest. Being on guard all the time is awfully tiring, and even the most paranoid person in the world will get lonely sometimes. It doesn't matter if they could be killed at any second, all this person really needs is a friend who will show them that not everyone is going to hurt them.
If you want to make a rebel, make their intentions good at heart. Yes, there are characters who will rebel for the simple fact that they want to rebel, and some people are like this in real life. Even though this is the case, having too many characters like this will get boring. Instead of making them all rebels without cause, give your rebel a reason. This reason doesn't have to be that they're rebelling against the idea of normal, but that they're rebelling against something that is unjust. They can be rebelling against a law that they don't think is fair, or they could be rebelling to save an endangered species. Maybe they're rebelling because they want to get something approved. It doesn't matter what the reason is, but give at least two rebels a cause.