RolePlaying Tips (Sonic Rapid Board)

Okay, firstly, this isn't really for you guys. But I figure we should have these up... especially if The Big Surprise gets us a few more members... :3
Meh, look through it anyway. Why not?

RolePlaying Tips
The Purpose of RolePlay
In my opinion, RolePlaying is not a contest or challenge. It's more like an interactive fanfic, the more complex and exciting the better. You work with people, not against people.

Godmodding
TWO 'd's. Yeah, that's right. TWO.
Godmodding is when you try to *win*, basically, or just try to center things around your character... or try to *control* everything. Yeah.

This site lists six types of godmodding. Because that site could (for all I know) randomly crash within the next three and a half seconds, let me copy/paste the info here.

QUOTE

Version One: Standard Godmoding -- Ash summed up this type by describing this type godmoder as; "Super Duper Unbeatable Unkillable Omnipotent Being. They shit fireballs and cast devastating attacks in their sleep. They will always dodge or survive any attack thrown at them, no matter what their opponent says." In other words, this person never misses, never gets injured/hit, never has a bad hair day, et cetera. Other godmoding skills might be incorporated into this persona: an infinite supply of items; possession of vast amounts of money, training, or experience; well developed skills in all areas. For the latter, see also version three.
Version Two: Badly Disguised Standard Godmoding -- Basically the same as version one, only watered down in an attempt to not appear godmodey -- they may allow themselves to be hit once or twice, for instance. These players still have the problem of outclassing the other RPers, drastically changing and/or ruining plot with their god-like mad skillz, and overall taking all the challenge/fun out of an RP, while also having the added annoyance of pissing off everyone else with their constant cry of "I'm not a godmoder!"
Version Three: Twinkage -- These are characters with enough flaws of skill and personality to potentially make a good character, but they have too many, well developed, all-encompassing powers (like the person who's a Master Martial Artist Summoning Hair Stylist Librarian).
Version Four: Perfect Team -- This godmoder, instead of bringing in an excessively powerful character, prefers to bring in a team of weaker characters. When one member of this group is faced with danger, the others all work together to form an unbeatable team which overcomes a great deal of, if not all, adversity.
Version Five: Gazel Ministry -- Instead of directly overpowering a character or group of them, this type godmoder prefers to snipe at them from behind their great wall, be it a high social status, or an inaccessable location. What this results in is that they can do whatever they want as far as making another character's life hell without any consequence whatsoever. Named after the Gazel Ministry from Xenogears, as they did *spoiler* and *spoiler*.
Version Six: Charisma Godmoding -- This is the art of creating a character who is so persuasive, so suave, and so smooth, that he could convince any enemy he "doesn't really want to fight." Charisma godmoders hack and slash through RPs using a social sword rather than conventional weapons, making themselves impossible to hurt by preventing confrontation altogether. Furthermore, some charisma godmoding takes place when characters make themselves completely untouchable -- the character simply cannot be hurt or threatened because the backlash would be too great, or because others simply cannot bring themselves to hurt the character.

And here's a definition I once gave for it:

QUOTE

Well, to start, what I always say is, “It’s not the character, it’s how you use it.” Meaning, you can play an extremely powerful character and still not god-mod. (For example, I once played Washu, a TV character who was self-proclaimed the most geniusy genius of all geniusness… but she ended up playing comic releif in my cruel hands. XD) It’s important to not only consider what the character would do but also what’s prudent for the RP; if it’s in the character’s nature to know or do something that could be considered godmodding, I say don’t do it, and in extreme cases change your character. Of course, I’m not given to hugely powerful characters either, though I do like plot twists. :3 Just saying, godmodding is not just making ridiculously powerful characters, it’s how you RP.
Oh, and no saying things like “I know your whole scheme but I’m not going to do anything about it because that would be godmodding” because that’s godmodding too.
Oh, and while I’m rambling, for your enjoyment here’s a person’s ACTUAL, SERIOUS first post in an RP, in its entirety.

QUOTE

Name: N/A.
Age: Infinite.
Gender: male (ish).
Animal: God.
Color: whatever it wants.
Eye color: Totally white (even pulps).
Powers: Can phase through dimensions, walk through walls, very strong telekinesis, shape shifting, flying, sees all knows all.
Dislikes: all life.
Personality: short temper (causes black holes when mad) (last time
he failed at something he made the big bang happen).
Family: Cousin Jesus Father Satan.
Loves Creams mum (reason for not destroying our solar system).
Interests: Destroying stars.
Occupation: X Assassin.

Appears in egg mans office one day and says, "I Don't mind you so I'll help you out."

Watch out, Bill Gates! Someone’s coming for your job!

Like I say, this isn't really for y'all.... but we DO have standards here, unwritten ones... and now I'm writing them. ;)

Hmm... we got anything to add?

This is a good idea to have this here, BR-san, because you never know when new members will show up and they may or may not be as familiar with RPing as we all are. :D

Only thing I have to add is pinning this topic, so it stays here forever. ;D

Sure i'll add something ^_^

Detail

Just think of an RP as a book, full of excitement, humor, even some subtle romance :3. But out of everything in a RP detail is the thing that can make or break it.

Nobody wants to read a boring book so why would people want to play a boring RP?

It's really easy to add some awesome details to make your posts totally pop! You do not have to be a sesoned pro to make your characters come alive.

For Example:
You can change:

Celest waited patiently for her father to come retrieve her. She sat quietly ignoring the others in the tavern.

"Celest we're leaving" Her father appeared beside her

Into:

(Im just going to borrow something I wrote a while back on another fourm)

Perhaps something is wrong with her?

Two Pureblood parents...What a shame...

I wouldnt be surprised if she ended up abandomed or something.

A tiny ten year old girl sat at a tavern table quietly taking in all of the current gossip about herself from the other tables. She did not say a word though, she even pretended not to pay attention to the women's creul words. She was just there to wait for her father.

"Celest we're leaving" a loud voice boomed from the back of the crowded tavern. The comotion caused a few people to turn around and alot more to start wispering. Celest shuddered jumping from her seat to the hard ground with a small thump. She then stood on her tippy toes to try to spot her father. "Papa-

"Get over here" A large man with dirty black hair and piercing gray eyes growled grabbing her tiny wrist and pulling her towards the door.

And even more details could be added to add to the dismal feel of a crowded bar to make people sympathsize with the main character.

Ooh! Good idea CR. That reminds me of something I can add. :D

QUOTE

Writing Style.
Now I'm not saying everyone has to be a perfect writer; because God knows I'm not! However, RPs are more enjoyable for all if we can understand what you're trying to say in your post, ya? So use proper english!

Example: *walks up 2 u and says watz ^*
That is a baaaaaaaaaad post. bad bad bad! However, a much more suitable one would be:
Sama walked over to the group, ran a hand through his hair, and nervously said "Hello."

You see the difference in the two? It's easier to understand if you keep internet lingo in chat rooms and NOT in RPs. Also, it's much better if you act as if you were writing a book or story, and actually do things in the third or first person and write our actions, rather than just using little *'s to signify actions. Also, what a character says should be in quotation marks (") and not just left alone.

Typing in a proper style makes it easier to read. :D Also, you should space things out. Use the tab key, or just make a space between paragraphs. Don't just write everything in one huge sentence. It makes it easier to read. ;D

And I'm sure I'll think of some more later.

Also, I have something to add, if you don't mind.

When you create a good character, you must BE the character. This is something that I taught Cojo how to do. Once you create a character, you must become him. You must think like him, feel like him, act like him. You must imagine being that character and post with that in mind.

Too many a time I have seen RPs interrupted by personal dilemmas. Like a character turning evil, but his best friend staying good, and now they are pitted against each other in a show-down. In this case, the evil character is not the caring goody-two-shoes anymore. He doesn't give a DAMN about anything else. Too many a time I have seen players try to be evil, but turn to the good path when in such, thus ruining the very background they set up.

Too many a time I have seen someone going out of character because they were not into the mood, not in character, or just plain too lazy. Believe me, a character that is based on your own personality is not as interesting as a radical personality. Trust me on this one. In life, I personally am VERY much boring, but I am proud of the fact (and hate to brag... Sorry guys...) that I have one of the more interesting characters on this site.

Compare this: which would be more interesting to play? A homely houseboy with a mild attitude or a radical anarchist mercenary who wouldn't care about his own life for cash and profit? Although I admit that homely houseboys are sometimes very interesting characters, the best ones come from radical personalities.

So get in character! When you are spoken to, imagine yourself in the shoes of the character with HIS personality, HIS thoughts, HIS past, HIS deeds (Or hers: Whatever).

That, combined with some weaknesses, some strengths, a good past, a good, solid personality and a lot of thought into appearance and other distinguishing marks, and you have set yourself up a perfect character.

These are good hint though. Considering I KNOW that I have my best character currently in the "Twinkage" and the "Perfect Team" category, I need to work on things a bit myself. In this respect, I am very much like a newbie, and still have a lot to learn about roleplaying.

Ahhh..L337 speak, the bane of the internet. The advice to do an RP as though you were doing a book is excellent advice, and I have a tip to add.

Write. A lot. Write Fan Fics, regular stories, involving your OC would be even better. You would have a definate backround and story to your character as well. You don't have to put your story up for everyone to see it, I have dones of stuff have will never leave the confines of my Documents sections on the computer. I've had characters which, I'm sad to say, we're darn close to being God Modders, but after actually writing a lot, reading a lot, and a few chat rooms which actually shunned the L337, helped me remodel my characters, so they are much more real life, though of course, the whole part of RP is to lead away from real life.

Anyways, that's all I have to say on that subject.

I feel we need this definition at this point.

Autoing- controlling other people's characters.
For instance, attacking and saying what effect your attack has on the other person's character. Ex: "She shot out a ray of ice and he got frozen."
Other ways of autoing include moving people from place to place. For instance, teleporting people or blowing up the entire clearing.

Quoted from the RP wisdom of MRPF:

QUOTE

Do not "Auto". This means don't just hit a person without giving them the chance to react to it, and dodge the blow. However since this isn't a chat, you might say that your character got off several hits, but in the response of the person you were hitting, they may post that they dodged several of the blows, and then make a come back that puts YOUR character in a bad position.

Meh turn! :D

Good grammar. Please, please, PLEASE use this tool of teh RPing trade. It is MONDO improtante. Typo-s are OK (and can be funneh, as long as their fixed when caught), but bad spellers make Chibi Naruto cry.

we're= we are
were= past subjuntion to "be"

Ex: We wish you were gone. We're sick of you.

you're= you are
your= the possesive form of "you"

Ex: Your comment sucks. You're a moron.

Script Form. No. Not in RPs, anyway. It isn't smart, it doesn't look good, and it destroys a lot of teh depth (unless it's Super Kimi and Wonder Sama, which was originally written in script form and is meant to be that way. Dat makes it funneh.).

That's all for me, though I may think of more at a later time...

Ummm...BlueRush, who's entry was that....?(The godmoding one)

Hyper-bump, for future reference (as this has come up quite recently, and probobly should be mentioned in the tips here):

It would be considered against common RP etiquette to, in an RP solely based on OCs, to basically monopolize one entire corner of the market by barreling out a ton of OCs for ones self, UNLESS you are the only one around who likes that 'corner'. Such as, if I joined a multi-universe rp (where you'd have multiple shows/games/whatever combined into one RP, like Secret Wars was), I could prbobly make as many OCs from the s-CRY-ed style world as I'd want, without asking others first, as I'm the only s-CRY-ed fan here. But if I wanted to make an FMA person, it'd be best to ask everyone else before just going out and creating a ton of FMA characters, as there are other FMA fans here, who may have ideas that I creating another FMA-style OC could mess up. A similar example of what not to do in a single-universe RP would be making OC kids of pre-existing characters without asking others if that's OK.

And also, overall, if you don't know for sure about something, it's best to ask than to not ask at all and just assume.

QUOTE (HellAvatar @ Nov 27 2005, 02:37 PM)

Also, I have something to add, if you don't mind.

When you create a good character, you must BE the character. This is something that I taught Cojo how to do. Once you create a character, you must become him. You must think like him, feel like him, act like him. You must imagine being that character and post with that in mind.

Too many a time I have seen RPs interrupted by personal dilemmas. Like a character turning evil, but his best friend staying good, and now they are pitted against each other in a show-down. In this case, the evil character is not the caring goody-two-shoes anymore. He doesn't give a DAMN about anything else. Too many a time I have seen players try to be evil, but turn to the good path when in such, thus ruining the very background they set up.

Too many a time I have seen someone going out of character because they were not into the mood, not in character, or just plain too lazy. Believe me, a character that is based on your own personality is not as interesting as a radical personality. Trust me on this one. In life, I personally am VERY much boring, but I am proud of the fact (and hate to brag... Sorry guys...) that I have one of the more interesting characters on this site.

Compare this: which would be more interesting to play? A homely houseboy with a mild attitude or a radical anarchist mercenary who wouldn't care about his own life for cash and profit? Although I admit that homely houseboys are sometimes very interesting characters, the best ones come from radical personalities.

So get in character! When you are spoken to, imagine yourself in the shoes of the character with HIS personality, HIS thoughts, HIS past, HIS deeds (Or hers: Whatever).

That, combined with some weaknesses, some strengths, a good past, a good, solid personality and a lot of thought into appearance and other distinguishing marks, and you have set yourself up a perfect character.

These are good hint though. Considering I KNOW that I have my best character currently in the "Twinkage" and the "Perfect Team" category, I need to work on things a bit myself. In this respect, I am very much like a newbie, and still have a lot to learn about roleplaying.

I Have to say that this is the Best RP Advice that someone can give....Yes well In fact...My Character "Saibot" that is what I am ( taking out the Powers part because that Is what I wanted to Have ) the Rest is myself....( yeah it has a low word Personality Discription because I cant discribe myself...well..) but I just Loved this and All Advices :p...I think we all have Lots to learn about RP afterall ^_^

Oh, ya, and this is more of an official/unofficial rule than advice, though it IS helpful. Well, okay, it's more like a suggestion than a rule, but I'd greatly appreciate it if this was done from now on...

*ahem* Whenever you start a sign-up thread for an RP, it's helpful to keep track of who has signed up and for what characters, then add that to the starting post of the thread. That way, people won't have to sift through pages upon pages to find out who has what character, and it's also easier to avoid accidentally signing up for a character that's already taken this way. In addition, it'll let a person know if their character has been approved yet or not. :)

Another thing you could do is this: Make a "Cast" Thread in the Sign-Ups page. This thread would be a list of all the characters taken and who is playing them. It will list all the characters who have been reserved or killed off when relevant, and it would be incredibly easy to have up-to-date information about the RP that way. A Staff Member will close the thread to prevent discussion there (discussion is always for the Sign Up thread!) and if the list needs to be edited, you can PM someone on the staff to re-open it or have that person edit it for you.

That's an idea I just came up with...

QUOTE (GoldenSama @ Mar 21 2007, 10:04 PM)

Another thing you could do is this: Make a "Cast" Thread in the Sign-Ups page. This thread would be a list of all the characters taken and who is playing them. It will list all the characters who have been reserved or killed off when relevant, and it would be incredibly easy to have up-to-date information about the RP that way. A Staff Member will close the thread to prevent discussion there (discussion is always for the Sign Up thread!) and if the list needs to be edited, you can PM someone on the staff to re-open it or have that person edit it for you.

That's an idea I just came up with...

Quite an interesting idea... :D

though I don't think you really need to lock it afterwards, as it would be easier and more convenient to edit or post new relevant information in it with it unlocked for those who aren't mods/admins.

what if somebody gets mad at you for doing somthing that they wanna do?

and is it all abut you?

do you meet the otrhers in th rp?

please get back to me on that.

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