Roleplay

Not everybody knows how to roleplay, so I've put together a guide on what it's all about and how to go about joining roleplays in the roleplay boards! This can apply to anywhere, not just Wajas.

Roleplaying (or 'RPing') isn't as hard as most people think it is, and the roleplaying boards really aren't that scary. To put it simply, roleplaying is writing a story with more than one person. When roleplaying, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that everybody is happy - remember, it isn't just about your enjoyment, it should be fun for everybody involved and it should definitely not feel like a chore.

- Be polite and curteous. Follow the rules that are provided by the board leader (which is usually what happens) and don't stray from the plot or 'troll'. Really, there's no point at all.

- Learn your acronyms and terms! There's a lot of weird ones involved with roleplaying, some I probably don't even know. The main ones you'll be likely to come across are: PM - Personal Messages

GM - God-moding. This is something that most people detest, where you start to control everything around you and basically act like a 'god', like being in a fight but your character always manages to dodge hits. It's irritating and it makes the battleground unfair.

PP Powerplaying. This is similar to godmoding, so they're generally thrown in together in one rule. Powerplaying is controlling somebody elses character or other characters, like saying 'Fred walked into a room and instantly everybody's eyes were on him and they all thought he was amazing.'

Mary Sue and Gary Stu I'll put these together as they are basically the same thing, perfect characters. Good looking, lots of money, friendly (in most cases) with a large social group and basically every talent you can imagine. They're usually classed as 'amazing and beautiful' with 'gorgeous singing voices'.

Purple Prose This is something you may not come across as often as the others. Purple prose is when you put way too much description into things and create posts that really don't need to be as long as they are. 'Her golden hair spun by moonlight fluttered gently in the warm summer breeze, her soft voice caressing his face like the gentle touch of an angel. She opened her dark red painted lips to speak and uttered three words: "Your breath smells."'

OOC and BIC These are used quite a lot. OOC means out of character - you should indicate when you are in and out of character so that people don't get confused what is roleplay and what is just a comment. BIC means back in character, so... ooc; I just ate chicken.

bic; Fred walked to the canteen and ordered his lunch, waiting for Jess.

- Try to loosen up and have fun. Don't get super angry with somebody because they made a typo or because their character isn't quite up to scratch. It's still a game, above all else, so don't let it consume you and remember: Haters gonna hate.

I believe that's covered them all, so let's get on to the actual act of roleplaying. To start with, it's a good idea to practise writing first and get down the basics of grammar - learn your homophones and your 'their, they're and there' words. It sounds stupid, yeah, but it'll help you get taken a lot more seriously and you'll find it easier to get along with other roleplayers. Chatspeaking and such are frowned upon quite a lot in almost any roleplays, so I would just avoid it completely, in and out of character.

Genres

Now that we've got that down, we'll talk about genres. A genre is basically a type of roleplay, like you get genres with books and films. The main ones you'll see are:

Medieval - in the olden times. Fantasy - What it says on the tin. Anything goes, unicorns, dragons...yeah. Modern - Present times. Futuristic - in the future. Sci-fi - Science Fiction. Horror Romance

You won't usually see things like comedy as they are just attributes TO the roleplay. You don't usually get a whole roleplay based on comedy, but it is possible. There are also Fandoms. Fandoms is where you roleplay characters from a book, tv show, movie, game or even a theatre show. Common ones you'll see around are anime, manga, Warrior Cats, Kingdom Hearts, Doctor Who, anything along the lines of that, you'll probably find it being roleplayed. There's also Bandom, which is less often seen, which is roleplaying real life bands like Green Day or Tokio Hotel, to name some common ones roleplayed.

Character

The next thing you'll need is a character to roleplay with. Now, we're on Wajas, so we'll assume we're doing a wolf roleplay here. Creating a character is very simple in theory but it can get quite complex when you start throwing in character traits, but I'll use a simple example.

I'll do a small example of it in a profile form, but most people will require a paragraph intro as well, which I'll give you an example of next.

Name: Winter

Age: 8

Gender: Male Looks: Large and dominating, Winter has a grey covered coat with a sprinkling of white, which is where he got his name as his coat resembles the snow on the winter ground. He has a longer tail than most wolves and his limbs are slightly elongated too, making him look gangly. He has quite a lot of muscle though so despite being gangly he still has quite a harsh prescence. Personality: Winter is stubborn and easy to anger. He dislikes younger and imcompetent wolves and isn't afraid to snap at them or even go so far as to pin them if they're doing enough to annoy him. He's a strong-headed hunter and likes to only have one objective at any time.

It's simple, but effective. It lets you know enough about Winter without giving too much information about what he likes and dislikes or his past. The past is fine to include in short term roleplays but with long term (roleplays lasting longer than a day or so) it usually is more fun to find out the past through talking.

A paragraph intro is harder but more rewarding to write and read from other people.

Winter stood outside of one of the female's burrows, listening to the snuffles and whimpers of the pups lying inside, probably fighting over who deserved their mother's attention most. He sat down on his haunches and licked his lips, showing off his sharp and dangerous looking teeth, still slightly red along with his muzzle from the kill they had taken down earlier. He was alert and protective, his ears twitching to listen to the signs of the forest while clocking what was going on in the burrow at the same time, constantly listening and smelling to sense a change in the area. He heard a rustling noise from a bush and stood up, raising his hackles and baring his teeth at the apparent intruder. The smell was slightly familiar but outweighed by something new and intrusive, pulling up a snarl from his throat.

"Calm down, Winter. It's just me. I was talking to the other pack, it's true, the forest is being destroyed as we speak. We NEED to move." the female told him and Winter's ears flicked back in distaste as he heard the news, but he lowered his hackles.

"This is bad. We can't move the pups, they're too young..."

"I know." she whispered in reply, lowering her head to the older and wiser wolf in front of her. "What can we do?"

See? It isn't really hard once you get going. Joining a board is simple as well - just read over the rules and ask! If you like it, you'll soon fall into the grove of roleplaying.

Warning: I don't take any responsibility for the addiction to roleplaying that may come from attempting anything said in this article. Side effects may include: Over the top boredom, roleplaying cravings, food cravings and the desire to try and fly once you've created a flying character.

Things to Avoid

One-liners

In a majority of roleplays, people who RP, or RPers, as they are called, like to get involved in the storyline. Avoid posting one-liners, or responses that are only one line of text. Do you know how hard it is for other RPers to respond thoroughly with the inadequate information you have just supplied?

One-liner: Zack nodded and said, "I like the plan."

More Detail: Zack nodded slowly, realizing the capabilities of such an odd plan. As Cloud continued to explain, Zack listened carefully as to not miss a step. He scratched the back of his neck, saying, "That makes sense. It's weird, but I think we could pull it off if we had enough manpower..." The raven haired SOLDIER's blue eyes gleamed thoughtfully, a new idea taking form in his mind. After Cloud had finished outlining his version of the plan, Zack began to elaborate on his suggestion.

Wolfspeak/Horsespeak

Unless you are actually in a Wolf based RP that advocates Wolfspeak, do not use Wolfspeak because other people do not understand it, and many RPers find it awkward and unfitting. Examples of this include referring to body parts with different, more 'posh' words, like orbs for eyes or pillars and columns for legs, and in the case of Horsespeak, likening a horse to a machine.

Purple Prose

As explained above, using Purple Prose is over-stylizing your writing, adding in too much fluff and detail. It looks pretty, but in roleplaying not every post has to flow like poetry. You can imagine that after a few pages with every single post reading like that it would get irritating, as half (or more) of the post you read through is pointless words. Keep your posts concisely written, but do not be afraid to add a reasonable amount of detail and elaboration where necessary.

Mary Sue/Gary Stu

Also as explained above, a Mary Sue or Gary Stu is a perfect character, and is one of the worst mistakes to make when developing a RP character. No one wants to interact with a character who is perfect or overly, overly cliche. Try to veer away from having your character fall under too many categories of this list:

-Orphaned/Doesn't have parents/Was adopted

-Has a traumatic past that haunts him/her

-Is a really, really good fighter/Never loses in a fight

-Eats junk food but remains ever skinny

-Sings well/Is famous

-Is highly attractive/Has lots of admirers

-Rich but gives away lots of money/Doesn't care about money

-Consider her/his beauty/talent/skill/etc. to be a curse

-Unusually accomplished for his/her age/species

There are, of course, lots of characteristics you should not combine lest you create a Mary Sue. The above list just has major examples of what people consider, when combined, traits of a perfect character. One or two of the above are pretty applicable in a normal RP character, but if your character has three or more of the listed qualities, you may want to review your character.