So yea, the break meister is going to teach you all how to RP. I’d like pro RPers to suggest sections I can go over or make ther own, the new RPers can just sit back and enjoy the show.

 

Here’s the lesson line up so far:

 

Playing in a RP

 

1: Creating a character

 

You can’t RP without a character silly! I’ll show you how to make a unique RP character for original and fan RPs

 

2: Writing a chapter

 

After you got your character, you gotta know the limbo homie! There’s more to it than good spelling and a huge vocabulary.

 

3: Interacting with the world

 

The dos and don’ts of the RP world. 

 

4: Interacting with other players

 

Ok, so your character fights another guy, who should win? This how-to shows you what to do when you’re dealing with fellow RPers.

 

Playing with a RP

 

1:  Creating a RP/ before you start

 

Don’t hit create thread just yet buster! You might wanna consider a few things before you start your own RP.

 

2:  Set up/organization

 

Not much sense having an RP without RPers, here’s the low-down on how to have em’ begging to get into your RP!

 

3: Governing your RP/keeping everyone happy

 

You got people, but now you gotta keep em in the RP. Here’s a guide to decide when you should progress the story, add a plot twist, or getting mid-evil with a rowdy god-modder!

 

Ok, that’s the line up for lessons, I may throw a few bonus ones in there, but today, let’s go over character creation.

Part 1:  Creating a character

 

Well, there are actually many ways to go about doing this, most people just go down the list of things that the dungeon master (this will be the name of the person who hosts the RP, but I’ll call him/her DM for short) has specified on the rules page. Most people will usually have the basic stuff…

 

Name

Sex (to those of you that say yes please are going to get a kick to the nards, or vago if you don’t have nards.)

Race

Appearance

Powers

Bio

 

…And sometimes there’s more, but that’s basically it.

 

The temptation is like I said to just go down the list and fill it out, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I find that that usually makes a rather bland character compared to one you make in this order…

 

Why

What

Who

 

You’re probably all like, wtf aren’t you? Here, let me literate a bit better.

 

Why? Why are you joining this RP? What will your character offer to it? Well, your character could be many things. Comic relief, action based, romantic, all sorts of things. I love to join RPs with a character that actually has a job to do. Even the most serious RPs can use a little comic relief to change the tempo every now and then. But the choice is entirely yours.

 

What? What is it? What can it do? Now you have to decide what your characters powers are going to be. I’ve decided that I’m going to join a DMC RP, and I’m going to be a comic relief character, so I guess my person will be a demon that’s very vitalic, and he’ll be magnetic too, because that will create a lot of interesting instances when he has to walk around in this metallic world.

 

Who? Who is this character? What is he/she exactly? In short, you now start going down the list and start filling out all those fields.

 

Name: Deboblose

Sex: Male (I’ve decided a huge bulky male demon would be more believable and humorus than a skinny female demon)

Race: demon

Appearance: Deboblose has purple skin. His head is goat shaped and has amber eyes. The rest of his body is shaped like a genie, but no lamp. (I’m not very descriptive with my characters, I’d rather do all that describing in the RP itself)

Powers: (almost) invincible, has magnetic skin, and is very strong.

Bio: (I'm too lazy to write a bio for a character I’ll never use)

 

I think you’ll find that if you just jetted down the list, you’d never be able to create a character that’s quite what you want it to be. But weather you use my method or your own, remember that the character you create is yours and yours alone. Pour your heart and soul into it and really make it something special. Of course you don’t have to spend 2 ½ days writing out a good-looking character template, because it’s what’s in the RP itself that really matters.

 

…And I’ll show you all about that in the next exiting episode of BRZ!!!!

 

(Break Role-playing Z, I have no idea what the Z’s there for, and if you don’t get the pun, you suck.)

 

 

 

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So are you starting an RP here, or just teaching?

---

Just teaching.

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Now that I think of it, I'm a little surprised nobody's slapped up an RP tutorial before. Keep up the good work, Breakster.

---

Which side of the divide do you stand on? Find out in this Harry Potter/Star Wars crossover, Divided Worlds

Wow. I've been here for over a year. :]

i aint not a role playing master baster but... doesnt everybody have their right to role their own way????

---

life´s a piece of *** when you look at it.
life´s a laught and death´s a joke it´s true
you´ll see it´s all a show.
keep´em laughting as you go just remember that the last laught is on you and...

ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF DEATH!

JUST BEFORE YOU DRAW YOUR TERMINAL BREATH!

@devil's blade: Thanks for the comment, I hope you critique my other sections as well. *bows*

@Puolakanaho: of course they do, but not everyone knows how to RP, so that's kinda who this FAQ is aimed at. of course I think if people RPed the way I do, I don't think the world would be a bad place. I've been in quite a few RPs, and I've been writing for 8-10 years, so I know my way around character creation and story telling. of course, I stated several times in part 1 that there was more than 1 way to RP, so I'm thinking you just read the label on this thread and decided I was a know it all, so this goes no further.

Part 2: Writing a Chapter

 

            Dudes, babes, if you’ve gotten this far than you probably have all the knowledge required creating a wicked sick RP character. But now we gotta keep up the pace, and by that I mean write page after page of RP posts, that are good. That is what this part is all about.

 

            First off, if you don’t have good grammar, RPing is going to frustrate you a lot. People will misunderstand you, think your less intelligent, and ultimately not enjoy there time with you. Good grammar is important to successful RPing. I will give some examples later…

 

            But onto how your character behaves in the RP, that also affects your progress as an RPer too. Too often have I seen the Half-demon-human-dragon-zombi-vampire-who-has-epic-gear-and-epic-powers-lolz to the super-beutifull-princess-angel-who-is-the-ritchest-and-fastest-in-the-entire-world-despite-being-raised-by-demons-that-slaughtered-her-parents-wtf. Nobody likes a “perfect” RP character, 99999999 times out of 100000000 your just making an ass out of yourself trying to make someone who can trump anything it goes up against. Don’t do it, it’s almost as annoying as god-modding.

 

God-modding.

 

What is it?

 

It’s BAD that’s what it is. God-modding has many forms, but all god-modders deserve (in Pandamonium66’s opinion:

 

Deserve to be thrown off a cliff into a boiling pool of mcdonalds grease, then be brought back to life, then killed again, then used as sex toys by the gods.

 

It’s seriously rude man, it’s so insulting and devious, and I have yet to make a character more evil than a god-modder! The sad part is sometimes it’s accidental! Now, let’s address these so-called-god-modders, and there forms…

 

Character controlling:

Plain and simple, they control other people’s characters without permission. This is a big no-no, and is the worst kind imo.

 

Godly strength:

You can’t kill with one hit, it’s just boring, and not very artistic as an RPer imo. It ruins the fun, and can hurt feelings too.

 

Aim-botters:

Ok, so I have a 1365 musket, I'm in a snow storm with 50 MPH winds, it’s night out, I’ve got sunglasses on, and my target is a ninja dressed in black a mile away. If I fire I’m going to miss right? OF COURSE NOT! I’m Aim-botting! But that’s just it, you can’t hit someone 100% of the time, you are going to miss every once and a while.

 

Auto-dodgers:

On the flip side of the coin, you can’t avoid every attack that’s hurled at you. If you’re a massive griffon and you fly over 100 devil hunters with fully automatic shotguns (aka jack hammer) you’re going to get hit quite a bit, and then you’ll make a nice pillow for your assassins. You phail.

 

Item spawners:

Ok, so how the hell did you get that potion that allows you to see ghosts? I mean, It’s not like you’re an alchemist, and your bio doesn’t say anything about such a potion, nor does any of your chapters. Plain and simple, you can’t get whatever you need to help you out of a pinch, again, it’s boring and not fun for your buddies.

 

Ok, I think you get the idea…

 

Now, about good grammar, as I said I’d give you some examples. But first I’d like to say that it’s all about using verbs, adjectives, subjects, and all that good stuff. Here, let’s look at this post:

 

Gail ran to the later. Gail climbed up it 40 feet. Gail ran over to a wall. Gail jumped over it. Gail saw a demon. The demon saw Gail. Gail stabbed the demon. Gail was happy.

 

WTF!?!?!??!?!?!?!

 

Ok, we know Gail did a lot, but there’s no flavor! It’s what pandamonium66 likes to call “sub-literate”. We want to be “full-literate”. So here’s a better way to write that same post.

 

Gail brushed his hair back as he dashed towards the latter on the side of his neighbor’s house. He knew that if he didn’t hurry, his neighbor would be devoured by that demon. The mercenary grabbed onto the latter and climbed it as fast as he could, knowing that every second counts. It was a long climb, but his will power prevented him from stopping. “Where is it?” Gail uttered as he pulled himself onto the roof. He could hear it now, the demon let out a battle cry as a woman screamed. “Alicia!” the mercenary screamed the name of his neighbor as he vaulted up into the air and over the house’s wall, threw the sky light. “There you are…” Gail whispered as he pulled out his trusty sword. The demon turned towards him as he dashed at the horned beast and stabbed it. With a twist, the creature’s fate was sealed. The mercenary looked up at his neighbor with a smile. “So Alicia, how are you doing?”

 

That’s better. It’s a little longer, and I’ll admit I could probably do better if it wasn’t so close to nighty-night time, but that’s more what your posts should look like. You could add more detail, but too much detail will make the post look long-winded, and it could actually become boring, so I’d stick with something like that.

 

If you look I did several things there to make the writing more interesting, so look closely for them. A few things I did were I refer to Gail as Gail, him, and the mercenary. The variety of titles gives more flavor when I use the same character multiple times in a row.

 

I guess that’s it for writing a chapter, in the next part I’ll talk about interacting with the world, and then interacting with other RPers. So stay tuned!

 EDIT: oh yea, and there are also these weird people who are constantly throwing there characters into dangerous situations, and they need other characters to bail them out. theses "damsels in distress" are fun to play with for a little wile, but they get daunting after a wile, and even kill of there characters and leave the rp. it's annoying needles to say, at least when it happens so often.
 

 

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Y'know what? I think the mods ought to sticky this thread. I've seen some really bad RPers in my time, and they're all so bad because they fail to adhere to these simple rules. This is very valuable advice which a lot of our RPers can learn from.

---

Which side of the divide do you stand on? Find out in this Harry Potter/Star Wars crossover, Divided Worlds

Wow. I've been here for over a year. :]

@DB : Thank you again for checking up on my little project! and I already requested to have this stickied, but apparently normal mods can't sticky, so I'll have to wait till Steven gets on. 'Till then, here's part 3 & 4.

 

Part 3: Interacting With The World

 

            Ok, so you’ve got your character bio, and your ready to start writing. But what should we write about?

 

            As an RPer, you’ll have a few things to keep an eye on during your adventures:

 

            The plot:

 

            Needles to say, the DM will likely have a plot going that he’d like you to stick with. We’ll pretend that in this scenario, my character (part 1) is in a story where a bunch of devil hunters enter a haunted mansion, and my character is one of the hunters (don’t ask me why a full demon has dedicated his life to wiping out his own kind). So I’m probably going to introduce my character with my first post, showing how he hates cars because he keeps getting stuck to them, and then I’ll have him enter the mansion, where I’ll further develop him as a character. What I won’t do is make him get out of the car and aimlessly walk down to a train station headed to china because his master was killed there and that’s where he’s gotta go to avenge his death. However, I could give my character a flash back to show that he’s actually doing this for money so that he can get to china. Sub-plots are essential to making your character interesting, but make sure to go with the flow of the story, rather than re-directing it.

 

            RP characters:

 

            Needles to say, there are more people in this RP than just you. It’s important to keep up to date with the other RPers characters so that you know what’s been going on in the story. If someone bolts the door to the mansion shut, with me inside, it wouldn’t be very good for my character to just casually swing it open when he realizes he forgot his toy bunny, especially if the door was bolted shut with no witnesses.

 

            Important non-RP characters

 

            Some people like to use sub-characters. These guys aren’t the main attraction, but they play a part in the story. It’s essential to pay attention to whom the sub character belongs to, and there actual importance to the characters sub-plot. It would be a shame to kill off a character that actually held significance to the story. You could screw up the RP by doing that, and then have to re-write your post all over again, or worse, the DM decides to kick you from the RP for not paying attention.

 

            In short, it’s very important to read and understand what everybody’s saying.

 

            Wow, that was short, ready for another?

 

Part 4: Interacting with other players

 

            Congratulations, you have all you need to know to actually participate in a RP, but I still have a few tips for actually interacting with the RPers themselves.

 

            Needless to say, it wouldn’t be much of a role-play if you where the only one posting. And we all know it’s just a matter of time before your character bumps into somebody else’s. In some cases you don’t need someone’s permission to do stuff with them like…

 

            If your observing what another character has already done (In my previous post, I describe my character talking with his mother on a mic, it would be ok in your next post to show my character talking on his mic without my permission)

 

            If you are performing an action that doesn’t directly affect the character. (In a post, my character walks over to yours and says “hey, wuzzup?” it’s ok, as long as I don’t control your character.)

 

 

            However, in many cases, especially during long fight scenes and large dialog, it’s better to just do it Via PM.

 

            Basically, you both decide what’s going to happen via PM, and then write what will happen next inside a PM.

 

            Why do all this? Because you can avoid a lot of trouble that way. For one, you can make sure that what’s going to happen is something you both like, once everyone sees it, and responds to it, it will get very messy if you or your buddy doesn’t like it. However, in a pm, you can always edit it and get it right the first time.

 

            Bu what if you can’t decide on something? Maybe you both feel that in this situation, your own character would win the fight. I have been in such a situation, and I must say, there’s never a pretty way to end things like this, but the worst thing you can do is post “your own version” in the RP. Talk it over with the DM, that’s what he’s there for. If you and your fellow RPer can’t decide, than it is his choice. But try to avoid instances like this whenever possible.

 

I guess that’s it! Congratulations! You now have your RP diploma! : D

 

 

 

 

I will go over running your own RP in the next few parts, so stay tuned Darkslayer! (And the rest of you RP runnin’ people)

 

           

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I refuse to styay tuned!....jk, any how, Add oln as to what rules to add and what not to add for your RP!. also include to only make rules you know you youreself can keep! *sniker sniker* >_>.....plz continue, kthnx bai.

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Theres a hole in the world like a Great black pit and ists filled with people who are filled with ***!.

^Thanks to Eva ^__^ <3

Hey, this is really interesting ^_^ Can't say I'll be making my own RP anytime soon but it's still good knowledge to have if you always participate in them. I'm interested in reading the rest of the 'lecture'. (Hey this might be the only thing I've been taught that I would actually remember XP)

---

Many thanx to blackhealer for drawing me this ^_^

Blackness covers all I see and all I touch
No feeling of pain just sorrow
My hand loses grip of the sword I held
And I turn to become a true shadow.

(\-M-/) Muah ha ha...Fear the Bunny King!!!
(='.'=)
(")_(")

Lol & Oric & Blue, and thanks for the advice.

 

Part 1:  Creating a RP/ before you start

 

            The normal RP FAQ is over, from this point forward we will be looking at what it takes to run your own RP. Well, I may ad an advanced portion after the 3 part RP maker series, but any who, don’t create that topic yet! We have a lot of preparations to do.

 

            I highly recommend playing in a few RPs before making your own…

 

            We need to decide on what the RP will be about, and more importantly, make sure members will come to it. No sense in having an empty RP, might as well write a fan-fic!

 

            Ok, so ultimately, you can make 2 kinds of RPs: OS RP(original story) or a fan RP. The difference is obvious. In a fan RP, it caters to a particular fan base of an existing series (devil may cry, guilty gear, metal gear solid, sonic, etc), where a OS RP is totally yours so to speak, it isn’t based off a series. Now, there pros and cons please:

 

Fan RP:

 

Pros: some people will join it because they love the series it’s based after, the world needs little introduction because the setting is familiar to most fans of the series.

 

Cons: it is seldom people who aren’t fans will join, or understand what’s going on, most if not all non fans will avoid your RP.

 

OS RP:

 

Pros: No limit to your potential RPers, maximum creativity can be used.

 

Cons: World must be flushed out for RPers, because the atmosphere is nothing that they’ve ever experienced before, RP may not appeal to forum RPers.

 

You have to be very careful about your choice of RP, whether it’s OS or fan. On a DMC forum, you probably aren’t going to find many Melty blood fans, so you won’t get many players for something like that, and likewise, nobody’s going to join a OS RP that has to do with stuff nobody’s interested in.

 

If your going to make a fan RP, I’d suggest making a topic about your series to see how many fans of it are on the site. And if it’s a OS RP your after, I’d base the RP after things on the site (for instance, my OS RP has demons and other stuff that’s DMC like in it, so the RP is accessible to everyone.)  

 

Now, think of a good story with the data you’ve collected. Don’t get too complicated, if you get 9 RPers, you wouldn’t want to have to keep track of them, and your 17 plot characters. Write a short outline of what’s going to happen, and do it in a way that allows flexibility.

 

So, you got your RP, wanna calculate how many people will join? Well, I can’t calculate an exact number, but here are some factors that will decide weather people will be lined up to get into your RP, or it’ll be carrion in the dessert. : >

 

DM credibility: That’s you hot stuff! How you’ve behaved in and out of RPs has a HUGE impact on how well your RP will do. I can tell you for damn sure I’ll go to a RP run by someone with good grammar, whom happens to also be a nice individual that is easy to RP with over the new guy that doesn’t know a lick of English and hates everyone. And also, you can count on your beloved RPing friends to join. They will be a valuable asset to your RP.

 

RP’s running: Ok, think of RPers as vultures, and RP’s as carrion meat. If I toss a carrion meat loaf into a dessert with 100 hungry vultures, there going to be all over that loaf! Now, what happens if I toss 300 loafs in with 100 hungry vultures? We know they can only eat 1 loaf at most. As you can see, the more RP’s are running, the less RPers there are to fill them all.

 

Story: nobody can tell how good your story is from a glance, but you should do your best to make the beginning sound good in a small paragraph. Also, if your making a OS RP, make sure everyone understands the kind of world it is and such. Nobody’s going to ask questions, they’ll do something you won’t like before they question it!

 

Now, if you’re a good member, there are fewer RPs running, and your story sounds interesting, you’ll get plenty of RPers. I now close the curtain on this part of the RP maker series. I do regret not being able to make it funny like I usually can, I’ll try harder next time.

 

 

 

          

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Woo! Thank you for this! I'm new to RPing on forums ^^;;

A lot of useful tips and info here!

I hope I´m not intruding in this thread by doing this, but there´s a very important point I´d like to make mention of. This point is the main reason why most RPs fail and are left half-way through, and it´s not only addressed at players, but at the creators as well.

It´s called COMMITMENT

Yeah, yeah, you don´t have to devote yourself in body and soul or sign a blood contract in order to participate in an RP, after all, RPs are supposed to be a relaxing fun activity, not an obligated duty. But, there´s a few things RPers should take into account for an enjoyable experience that doesn´t end bitterly and in complete abandonment, so I´ll explain this from both a normal player´s and a creator´s point of view.

SO...

Feel like signing up for a RP? Cool. But, have you ever stopped to wonder just what you´re getting into? In a RP, not only will you develop your character and narrate the many adventures and situations it will have to go through, but you will also have to interact with other player´s characters as well. This is a MUST in all RPs. If what you´re seeking is to go solo and tell everyone about your character´s development and stories without getting involved with anyone else, then please, by all means, a Fanfiction Section´s doors will always be open for you out there, somewhere.

Moving on. As you´ll be interacting with other players, it is important that you keep this in mind:

PROBLEM: Think of the story as a construction. Each player carries bricks that are piled on another player´s bricks and so on, so it´s up to the creator to survey the project as a whole and make sure it´s proceeding steadily. But what happens if a player suddenly decides to stop building and stands back? The construction slows down. This is important to notice, because if more and more players stop building, the process might just come to a full stop and that´s when the RP dies.

SOLUTION: You don´t have to post a chapter on a daily basis. Hell, you can even post a chapter every five days and it´ll still be acceptable. But when you don´t post for a week or even more than that, the story slows down and it can even get to the point in which EVERYONE has to wait for your post so the plot can move on. It´s always up to the creator to decide what to do under such circumstances, and sometimes they may even have to kill off characters in order to advance the story. This is not a pleasant thing to do, believe me when I tell you, it´s not cool to force a player out of an RP. That´s why, I suggest you post under a 5-day period of time, to avoid annoying other players and preventing the creator from taking drastic measures.

The same problem and solution apply for creators. What if everyone is carrying their bricks efficiently and suddenly the creator goes silly in the head and jumps from the 7th floor of the construction? Panic and chaos will ensue. The poor players will be unguided and lost in a jungle of steel and concrete, eventually abandoning the project as well. That's why, for you creator or future creator who is reading this, don't be a pansy and journey from forum to forum spreading RP's like Johnny RPseed just to abandon your b@astard children in the care of others. Finish what you start or don't start at all.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about COMMITMENT. Hope this was useful and enlightening.

 

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~Gone to the furthest reaches of the Earth to look for answers~

Actually, the Breakster approves of this post. any other prop RPers are welcome to add there 2 cents as well.

 

I love how you described the way a rp is made, brick on top of brick. that was a good analogy, and of course to inject your humor into it was good as well.

 also, if nobody minds, I'm going to go hiatus on the making your own RP tid-bit, seeing as I've never really finished my RP yet. but, I do have some things to say about this part of your post, Nero...

In a RP, not only will you develop your character and narrate the many adventures and situations it will have to go through, but you will also have to interact with other player´s characters as well. This is a MUST in all RPs.

This is true, you will need to interact with someone at one point or the other. but some times... you can interact "too much".

 

in short, let's try to picture ourselves all walking down a tight coridor. if we all walk in a loose formation, we can move around quite well. however, if we all try to walk side by side, we have to walk side ways and slow down, or worse, we get stuck!
 

Sometimes, people like to form small groups in an RP, and then any time one person does something, he'll need the "consent" of another player to make his character do anything. if your partner is reliable, and is online when you are, this is no problem. however, if this individual say... lives in Australia, and you live in America, it could get dicey, especially if there's more than just 2 people in the group. so remember, always leave yourself some room. don't become to dependent on other players, but remember it's imposible to be fully independent.

 

...god that sounded better in my head... 

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Yeah, I agree with the whole 'commitment' thing, I mean there was a point where I was part of about 4 or 5 RP's and one didn't start (hell I think I was the last one to post saying, "Can I join?" lol), one slowed to the extent it stopped, same with another and there's one I'm in now that's moving very slowly. So people really need to commit to there RP's or at least have the decency to say "Look, I've decided to abandon this cuz..." and state there reason, whether thay don't have enough time, or something's come up or whatever, instead of disappearing off the face of the Earth.

That's my 2 cents ^_^

---

Many thanx to blackhealer for drawing me this ^_^

Blackness covers all I see and all I touch
No feeling of pain just sorrow
My hand loses grip of the sword I held
And I turn to become a true shadow.

(\-M-/) Muah ha ha...Fear the Bunny King!!!
(='.'=)
(")_(")