How To RP: A Tutorial On The Fine Art Of RP’ing
NOTE! THESE ARE NOT RULES BUT GUIDELINES TO HELP YOU BE A BETTER RP PLAYERNote! This article concerns itself with forum based text role plays. Though other types of role plays exist; they are beyond the scope of this article.
What is RP’ing?RP’ing stands for
Role
Playing. You assume the role of a character from a videogame, movie, book, anime, or their own character (known as an OC, short for
Original
Character) and you interact with the other posters who have done the same via forum posts. The interactions build a story around a basic framework set by the creator of that RP, who is known as the Gamemaster (GM for short).
Your first RP:
To find an RP that appeals to you, look through the forum. It is best to look in the actual RP topic to best get the “feel” of it.
To join, first make sure that the RP is still open for registration. If it is, sign up with your character using a character profile. GMs may have varying formats for their character profiles, so check carefully before signing up. Note that some GMs may require your character to be approved by them before you can post.
Once you have been approved or once you have made your character profile if approval is not needed you may now post your first in-character (IC for short) post.
In-Character Posting:Remember, when you post IC,
you are no longer yourself but that character. When you react to something in game, you should react as your character would,
notas you would.
Example: If you are a lighthearted person but your character is unfriendly.
Your IC posts should reflect this. You shouldn’t be posting about your character having a friendly conversation with another character but you should be posting about your character ignoring other characters or insulting them.
Bear in mind that you (as the player) may know something that your character doesn’t.
Example: Your character passes by another character. You know from the latest post that the character has a pistol concealed in his jacket. But your character
does not know that.
Without a good reason to find out (the other character draws his pistol and starts shooting or it falls out of his jacket); your character doesn’t know that the character he passed is armed.
Another thing is: BE AWARE of your character's physical limits and be realistic (to the RP's setting).
General posting guidelines:Post in the third person. First and second person should be restricted to IC dialogue.
Type out your actions instead of setting them off with asterisks or some other punctuation mark.
Example: He kicked down the door vs. *kicks down the door*
You should ALWAYS leave your interactions with other characters open ended. This allows the other players to respond as they please.
Out of Character Posting:This refers to you posting as
yourself. Generally, this is restricted to communicating with the other players. It is usually set off from IC posts with the tag OOC (short for
Out
Of
Character) and by parenthesis.
Etiquette:The most important thing to remember is that
GMs have supreme authority in their RP. If they tell you something is disallowed,
do not argue with them. It is disrespectful and you can get in trouble if they report you to the staff.
Also,
GMs can eject unruly or disruptive players. If you have been ejected from an RP,
do not post in it. If you do post in it, the GM can report you to the staff and you can get in trouble.
Regarding posting, do not hurl your character into an action sequence and leave them there. If you must take a break isolate your character from the rest of the others.
Godmoding (also but incorrectly called godmodding) – this covers a wide variety of behaviors. This behavior is usually considered to be very rude.
Passive godmoding: this consists of warping events to your benefit when the RP doesn’t go the way you like it. It can also refer to the creation of an extremely strong or downright invulnerable character or gifting a character with perfect equipment or abilities.
Arbitrarily giving your character new powers is a form of passive godmoding.
Active godmoding: this is broken into 2 types:
Autoing: This refers to interacting with another player’s character or an interactive object and deciding the outcome. Although this mostly appears in combat, it can show up in dialogue in the form of one player “putting words in the mouth” of another player’s character.
Example: Character A throws a knife at Character B, killing him.
This phrasing does not allow the player who plays Character B to do anything.
The appropriate phrasing is: Character A threw a knife at Character B.
This phrasing allows the player who plays Character B to dodge or take the hit.
Character-Jacking: This refers to taking control of another player’s character. (NOTE: This maybe done if consented to by the player who's character is being taken control of.
However, it is extremely rude if done without consent.)
Note: Godmoding may not be prohibited by the GM's rules. Remember, GMs set the rules for their RP.________________________________________________________________________________________
Update log:12/20/08 (20:01 - 8:01 PM) - Added extra info on "Character-Jacking" [
(NOTE: This maybe done if consented to by the player who's character is being taken control of. However, it is extremely rude if done without consent.)]
5/7/09 (21:31) - Added extra info.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Let me know if something needs to be added or if you have any questions.