Post by Pogue Parry on Jun 26, 2008 22:17:17 GMT -5
Hello ladies and gentlemen,
I have collected this great body of work from a good friend of mine. Her thoughts on what makes rp'ing enjoyable are magnificent to say the least. All thanks and credit goes to Ms Jayme for her brilliant mind and words. Remember, this is only a guideline that can help you along the way when rp'ing on this forum. Thanks for your time. -- Tracie~
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have decided to post a comprehensive list of the things I think should be involved in a good roleplay post. Note that this is my opinion and others might disagree with me. Also note that this applies strictly to roleplaying. I am not telling you how to be a good writer, because that is not what UnC is about. We're a roleplaying community. And that's what I'm going to discuss here. This thread will detail basic roleplaying rules to you. Things that should be considered when you're RPing, perhaps before you even hit submit on a post.
*Thoughts and words of Jayme**
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01.) Make sure that your posts can be replied to.
Before you hit submit, reread your post. If you can't think of a way to reply to it, add more, change things, something. Whoever is posting with you needs something to work with. The best possible way to do this is to include mood and tone in your roleplay post. Tell us what your character's body language is. Are they fidgeting? How are they saying something? You don't have to always include this, but body language is a major player in your posts. If someone is bouncing in front of you, you're going to notice that. So is your character. Likewise, one person can come in and say, "How are you?" and sound cheery. Another sounds sarcastic. People need to know how your character is saying it in order to reply. If your character is tense, that needs to be included. You don't have to harp on it, but fit it into your post somewhere. Fit in their facial expressions. Characters can see and hear what others say. That's the only part of your post that the other character is actively seeing anyway - the body language. They can't read minds. Dialogue helps with repliability, too, but it isn't major, not in comparison to other things. Make sure to consider these things before you hit submit.
02.) Don't godmode or metaplay.
In other words, the other character(s)'s introspect is none of your character's business. That is there for you to get an idea of what the character is like, a peek in their head if you will. Not for your character. So do not respond to introspect in your post. You can respond with your characters' interpretation of body language/tone/wording/etc, but not the other character's thoughts. This is metaplaying. Likewise, if both characters seem cheery on the outside, and the other one thinks something negative about yours, you are not entitled to have your character suddenly be snotty with them. This is metaplaying and is infuriating. And your character wouldn't know that anyone. Don't play your character knowing anything they have no logical way of knowing. A student who has never been to Spenser or met anyone there is not going to know who the current Provost is or recognize him/her on the streets. By proxy, your character can't beat up on someone else's without their driver's permission. And they can't be good at everything, so please refrain from playing your character as such. Even the ones who are arrogant will be bad at something. They might think they're not, but if your character is bad at a subject, you should not RP them as being good at it.
03.) Don't have your character be too tough or talented.
This ties into rule #2, but even smart characters will not be good at everything. Whether it is sucking at a subject due to lack of talent or stubborn lack of interest, they're going to be bad at something. This isn't just school subjects, either. If your character is bad at Chemistry, they can lie and say they're good at it, but don't deliberately avoid your character ever getting into a situation where it comes up. Eventually, they're going to be out of their element. Play it as such. Likewise, your character is going to be afraid of something, they're going to get into a situation where they're uncomfortable. Play it. This builds depth.
04.) Don't protect your character.
No one goes through life without suffering in some way. They get hurt. Play it to some extent. Let your character get hurt. Not every love is requited. If your character forms a crush on a character who is seeing someone, play that; don't change them just to protect them. Likewise, if they are being teased, don't abandon the thread just to avoid their feelings being hurt. This builds depth to the character and they'll survive it, eventually. You can't protect them from every kind of hurt just like you can't protect yourself. Characters get hurt, they recover. Play this aspect of them. Physical, emotional, psychological, magical - every character is going to get hurt eventually.
05.) Set the mood.
When you start a thread, you need to set the mood. This includes giving a vague time of day (day/night/morning/afternoon) and the weather, first of all. If it's raining and cold in the evening, that has to be considered. As thread starter that is your responsibility. You also should include the location. The person replying needs to know when it is, where they're going and what kind of weather is taking place as they reply. These are utterly essential. You can span them out, but in order for someone to reply to your thread, you must include this information. In addition to that, it is necessary to state what kind of state your character is in if applicable and what they are doing. If they're dirty and gardening, this needs to be stated. You should try to include what kind of mood they are in, too. This helps to create atmosphere, which is utterly important to the response the person will reply. Additionally, the person replying needs to see rule #1 and it is helpful to include small events leading up to the post, too.
06.) Keep it interesting.
Some characters are boring. This is understandable. Your prose and introspect shouldn't be. Even boring characters are interesting to read the introspect of; most people like to read the interpretations, how your character came to such conclusions. You can write novel after novel and if you don't write it in an interesting manner, you're no better of a roleplayer than someone who writes a one-liner. You don't have to include dialogue, but you should make sure what you write can hold someone's interest.
07.) Don't try to "out-length" the person before you.
Length is utterly ridiculous to obsess over. Those 20 paragraph posts may look impressive on first glance, but read them. If they're restating something fifty times, they're impossible to reply to and boring to read most likely. Long posts aren't half as wonderful as they're cracked up to be. Not saying to post only two paragraphs, but you shouldn't try to make sure your length is longer than the person before yours. If they post ten paragraphs and your best reply is five, there is no shame in that if it has a good deal of repliability. Quality over quantity. Rambling doesn't impress most people. Introspective characters by nature will have longer posts as they sit and mull things over, but try to avoid rambling on and on about their childhood and how a bee stung them in the toenail when they were eight, forever making them terrified of insects --- unless you can do so without putting people to sleep. No one likes threads that are so boring they can't read, they have to skim. Long posts get boring very quickly.
08.) Spell-check and grammar-check. Always.
One or two typos is okay. We all do it. Sometimes you'll type "to" for "too" and this is okay, it's to be expected. Don't do it over and over. If you're someone who frequently misspells words, use the spellcheck function. Keep your fifty million commas to yourself. This is minor but it distracts the reader if the grammatical errors and spelling problems are prominent in every other word or sentence.
09.) Don't restate something three different ways.
This is irritating and obviously going for length. If you write a post and say, "She had her hair in a ponytail," you do not need to write it that way over and over again. We only need to hear it once. Thirty five thousand times is irritating to read, downright distracting and probably not repliable anyway. So don't do it often, unless it is for emphasis. If you restate, "her eyes were green" nine times, it makes people wonder if they're smack-you-in-the-face green. So stop.
10.) Be clear and precise.
If you're not trapped in introspect, do not be vague in what you're posting. If your character is speaking to someone, make sure you make it clear they're speaking. Don't mix dialogue up in a huge 12 line paragraph unless it's mostly dialogue. Paragraph breaks are good. Don't conveniently forget to put little details. The more you leave out, the more you confuse people and leave room for error. If your character grabs a book, state which book, unless they're covering a title. If they're drinking something, state what it is unless it can't be seen. If they're giving "a look" state what kind. People can't read each others' minds. They don't know what you mean exactly. Tell us. Likewise, if you're posting in a foreign language, state the translation, and don't over-do it. If your character is speaking a language not normally spoken in their school/area, state this. Don't try to write their whole dialogue in that language, though. It's alienating to the person replying.
11.) Don't over-emphasize or over detail.
This is especially true in character sheets. So your character has toenails. No one cares or needs to know. The little details like cracks in the walls, the material of a curtain in the room they just left -- unless it is something important to the mood, don't bother. No one cares. It's boring. This doesn't apply to the material of an outfit or the details of something characters are discussing. It's unnecessary details I mean. Like telling someone your character has five fingers. The administration (or just me and Sarah) call this "the toenail brigade." It is not a compliment. Over detailing becomes boring.
12.) It isn't personal. Remember that.
If a character insults your character, it isn't an insult about you. If they pick on yours, it doesn't mean their RPer doesn't like you or your character. It is not some huge hatefest on you, no matter how it might seem. Sit back. Relax. Your character's bound to get hurt eventually and so is theirs. Enjoy it. Conflict builds character.
13.) Get over yourself.
RPing is for fun. When you start taking it to an obsessive level where you are insulting others who pick on your character, or disliking people because they don't think your character is perfect, or getting mad at drivers for their characters picking on yours, it's time to take a step back and take a deep breath. We all have done it. But you need to remember that not everyone is going to like all the same characters. You also need to remember it isn't about you. And critiquing -- stop taking it personally. If someone tells you they feel you need to improve something, stop and consider it. Don't make excuses for yourself unless it's a stylistic thing. If it is something you like about your posts, then fine, don't change it. But consider why they said what they told you needed improving. Likewise, don't have some big love fest about yourself. No one on UnC is a perfect RPer. Don't prattle on about how amazing you are. It's annoying. If you can't take critique, then don't post in Rate the RPer; no one forces you to post there, ever. If you take it personally, it's a mark of a bad roleplayer. The OOC aspect does count.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can probably think of more, but these are THE most important rules I can think of, ordered in importance [to me]. Jayme``
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Other minor things to look out for****
Ask
If in doubt ask the other person. Nobody is going to mind "Hey, I am having trouble replying, can you tell me blah". Don't just assume if it involves a character that is not your own. MSN, PM and so on are at your disposal, so make use of it as appropriate.
Make Things Happen
There is more to roleplaying than two characters encountering each other. Give them something to do together. Don't just make your characters run into each other in a cafe and talk. Sure, occasionally that is a fun thing to do, but it's going to get repetitive if you do it all the time. Give your characters missions to accomplish. Let them find a lost pet together, watch a baseball game, race on cars/bikes and explore dark passageways in a castle. Don't limit yourself to harmless social outings.
Don't paraphrase the previous post
Unless you are in some big topic (10 players and more at events) please don't paraphrase the post of the person you are replying to. Chances are the person reading your post will have this information already and it adds nothing to the post that is meaningful. You do not have introspect on every tiny detail that is being said. Introspect on things that are interesting. The point of writing introspect is to show where your character exhibits unusual thoughts or behavior. It does not exist to increase your word count.
Regards,
Staff**
I have collected this great body of work from a good friend of mine. Her thoughts on what makes rp'ing enjoyable are magnificent to say the least. All thanks and credit goes to Ms Jayme for her brilliant mind and words. Remember, this is only a guideline that can help you along the way when rp'ing on this forum. Thanks for your time. -- Tracie~
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have decided to post a comprehensive list of the things I think should be involved in a good roleplay post. Note that this is my opinion and others might disagree with me. Also note that this applies strictly to roleplaying. I am not telling you how to be a good writer, because that is not what UnC is about. We're a roleplaying community. And that's what I'm going to discuss here. This thread will detail basic roleplaying rules to you. Things that should be considered when you're RPing, perhaps before you even hit submit on a post.
*Thoughts and words of Jayme**
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01.) Make sure that your posts can be replied to.
Before you hit submit, reread your post. If you can't think of a way to reply to it, add more, change things, something. Whoever is posting with you needs something to work with. The best possible way to do this is to include mood and tone in your roleplay post. Tell us what your character's body language is. Are they fidgeting? How are they saying something? You don't have to always include this, but body language is a major player in your posts. If someone is bouncing in front of you, you're going to notice that. So is your character. Likewise, one person can come in and say, "How are you?" and sound cheery. Another sounds sarcastic. People need to know how your character is saying it in order to reply. If your character is tense, that needs to be included. You don't have to harp on it, but fit it into your post somewhere. Fit in their facial expressions. Characters can see and hear what others say. That's the only part of your post that the other character is actively seeing anyway - the body language. They can't read minds. Dialogue helps with repliability, too, but it isn't major, not in comparison to other things. Make sure to consider these things before you hit submit.
02.) Don't godmode or metaplay.
In other words, the other character(s)'s introspect is none of your character's business. That is there for you to get an idea of what the character is like, a peek in their head if you will. Not for your character. So do not respond to introspect in your post. You can respond with your characters' interpretation of body language/tone/wording/etc, but not the other character's thoughts. This is metaplaying. Likewise, if both characters seem cheery on the outside, and the other one thinks something negative about yours, you are not entitled to have your character suddenly be snotty with them. This is metaplaying and is infuriating. And your character wouldn't know that anyone. Don't play your character knowing anything they have no logical way of knowing. A student who has never been to Spenser or met anyone there is not going to know who the current Provost is or recognize him/her on the streets. By proxy, your character can't beat up on someone else's without their driver's permission. And they can't be good at everything, so please refrain from playing your character as such. Even the ones who are arrogant will be bad at something. They might think they're not, but if your character is bad at a subject, you should not RP them as being good at it.
03.) Don't have your character be too tough or talented.
This ties into rule #2, but even smart characters will not be good at everything. Whether it is sucking at a subject due to lack of talent or stubborn lack of interest, they're going to be bad at something. This isn't just school subjects, either. If your character is bad at Chemistry, they can lie and say they're good at it, but don't deliberately avoid your character ever getting into a situation where it comes up. Eventually, they're going to be out of their element. Play it as such. Likewise, your character is going to be afraid of something, they're going to get into a situation where they're uncomfortable. Play it. This builds depth.
04.) Don't protect your character.
No one goes through life without suffering in some way. They get hurt. Play it to some extent. Let your character get hurt. Not every love is requited. If your character forms a crush on a character who is seeing someone, play that; don't change them just to protect them. Likewise, if they are being teased, don't abandon the thread just to avoid their feelings being hurt. This builds depth to the character and they'll survive it, eventually. You can't protect them from every kind of hurt just like you can't protect yourself. Characters get hurt, they recover. Play this aspect of them. Physical, emotional, psychological, magical - every character is going to get hurt eventually.
05.) Set the mood.
When you start a thread, you need to set the mood. This includes giving a vague time of day (day/night/morning/afternoon) and the weather, first of all. If it's raining and cold in the evening, that has to be considered. As thread starter that is your responsibility. You also should include the location. The person replying needs to know when it is, where they're going and what kind of weather is taking place as they reply. These are utterly essential. You can span them out, but in order for someone to reply to your thread, you must include this information. In addition to that, it is necessary to state what kind of state your character is in if applicable and what they are doing. If they're dirty and gardening, this needs to be stated. You should try to include what kind of mood they are in, too. This helps to create atmosphere, which is utterly important to the response the person will reply. Additionally, the person replying needs to see rule #1 and it is helpful to include small events leading up to the post, too.
06.) Keep it interesting.
Some characters are boring. This is understandable. Your prose and introspect shouldn't be. Even boring characters are interesting to read the introspect of; most people like to read the interpretations, how your character came to such conclusions. You can write novel after novel and if you don't write it in an interesting manner, you're no better of a roleplayer than someone who writes a one-liner. You don't have to include dialogue, but you should make sure what you write can hold someone's interest.
07.) Don't try to "out-length" the person before you.
Length is utterly ridiculous to obsess over. Those 20 paragraph posts may look impressive on first glance, but read them. If they're restating something fifty times, they're impossible to reply to and boring to read most likely. Long posts aren't half as wonderful as they're cracked up to be. Not saying to post only two paragraphs, but you shouldn't try to make sure your length is longer than the person before yours. If they post ten paragraphs and your best reply is five, there is no shame in that if it has a good deal of repliability. Quality over quantity. Rambling doesn't impress most people. Introspective characters by nature will have longer posts as they sit and mull things over, but try to avoid rambling on and on about their childhood and how a bee stung them in the toenail when they were eight, forever making them terrified of insects --- unless you can do so without putting people to sleep. No one likes threads that are so boring they can't read, they have to skim. Long posts get boring very quickly.
08.) Spell-check and grammar-check. Always.
One or two typos is okay. We all do it. Sometimes you'll type "to" for "too" and this is okay, it's to be expected. Don't do it over and over. If you're someone who frequently misspells words, use the spellcheck function. Keep your fifty million commas to yourself. This is minor but it distracts the reader if the grammatical errors and spelling problems are prominent in every other word or sentence.
09.) Don't restate something three different ways.
This is irritating and obviously going for length. If you write a post and say, "She had her hair in a ponytail," you do not need to write it that way over and over again. We only need to hear it once. Thirty five thousand times is irritating to read, downright distracting and probably not repliable anyway. So don't do it often, unless it is for emphasis. If you restate, "her eyes were green" nine times, it makes people wonder if they're smack-you-in-the-face green. So stop.
10.) Be clear and precise.
If you're not trapped in introspect, do not be vague in what you're posting. If your character is speaking to someone, make sure you make it clear they're speaking. Don't mix dialogue up in a huge 12 line paragraph unless it's mostly dialogue. Paragraph breaks are good. Don't conveniently forget to put little details. The more you leave out, the more you confuse people and leave room for error. If your character grabs a book, state which book, unless they're covering a title. If they're drinking something, state what it is unless it can't be seen. If they're giving "a look" state what kind. People can't read each others' minds. They don't know what you mean exactly. Tell us. Likewise, if you're posting in a foreign language, state the translation, and don't over-do it. If your character is speaking a language not normally spoken in their school/area, state this. Don't try to write their whole dialogue in that language, though. It's alienating to the person replying.
11.) Don't over-emphasize or over detail.
This is especially true in character sheets. So your character has toenails. No one cares or needs to know. The little details like cracks in the walls, the material of a curtain in the room they just left -- unless it is something important to the mood, don't bother. No one cares. It's boring. This doesn't apply to the material of an outfit or the details of something characters are discussing. It's unnecessary details I mean. Like telling someone your character has five fingers. The administration (or just me and Sarah) call this "the toenail brigade." It is not a compliment. Over detailing becomes boring.
12.) It isn't personal. Remember that.
If a character insults your character, it isn't an insult about you. If they pick on yours, it doesn't mean their RPer doesn't like you or your character. It is not some huge hatefest on you, no matter how it might seem. Sit back. Relax. Your character's bound to get hurt eventually and so is theirs. Enjoy it. Conflict builds character.
13.) Get over yourself.
RPing is for fun. When you start taking it to an obsessive level where you are insulting others who pick on your character, or disliking people because they don't think your character is perfect, or getting mad at drivers for their characters picking on yours, it's time to take a step back and take a deep breath. We all have done it. But you need to remember that not everyone is going to like all the same characters. You also need to remember it isn't about you. And critiquing -- stop taking it personally. If someone tells you they feel you need to improve something, stop and consider it. Don't make excuses for yourself unless it's a stylistic thing. If it is something you like about your posts, then fine, don't change it. But consider why they said what they told you needed improving. Likewise, don't have some big love fest about yourself. No one on UnC is a perfect RPer. Don't prattle on about how amazing you are. It's annoying. If you can't take critique, then don't post in Rate the RPer; no one forces you to post there, ever. If you take it personally, it's a mark of a bad roleplayer. The OOC aspect does count.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can probably think of more, but these are THE most important rules I can think of, ordered in importance [to me]. Jayme``
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Other minor things to look out for****
Ask
If in doubt ask the other person. Nobody is going to mind "Hey, I am having trouble replying, can you tell me blah". Don't just assume if it involves a character that is not your own. MSN, PM and so on are at your disposal, so make use of it as appropriate.
Make Things Happen
There is more to roleplaying than two characters encountering each other. Give them something to do together. Don't just make your characters run into each other in a cafe and talk. Sure, occasionally that is a fun thing to do, but it's going to get repetitive if you do it all the time. Give your characters missions to accomplish. Let them find a lost pet together, watch a baseball game, race on cars/bikes and explore dark passageways in a castle. Don't limit yourself to harmless social outings.
Don't paraphrase the previous post
Unless you are in some big topic (10 players and more at events) please don't paraphrase the post of the person you are replying to. Chances are the person reading your post will have this information already and it adds nothing to the post that is meaningful. You do not have introspect on every tiny detail that is being said. Introspect on things that are interesting. The point of writing introspect is to show where your character exhibits unusual thoughts or behavior. It does not exist to increase your word count.
Regards,
Staff**
