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The Ultimate Super-Awesome New-Fangled Crazy Cool Role-playing Guide
(Or, to put it simply, the new Official RP Guide for Animation Source)
Written by Wolflux and Aniu Caelestis
Introduction (intro):
What you are about to read is going to be a bit long, so you should prepare yourself. This was created because some new role-players do not have a clear concept of what exactly they should and shouldn't do in a role-play. Some may have read MayaHuskee's guide to role-playing and the other topics about this, some may have not, but either way, we’re going to clear up some cloudy issues as well as list common rules, terms, and etiquette you should ALWAYS use when rping. If you read carefully and pay attention, you may even learn some helpful tips along the way that will help you become a better role-player. So buckle-up and let’s get ready to ride towards better role-playing!
To make it easier to navigate (and to find where you left off if you take a break in reading) we’ve added codes to help you find certain sections. By using the CTRL+F function, you’ll be able to quickly go where you need to go. To use it, simply hit the CTRL key and the F key at the same time. A little bar will pop up at the bottom of the window and there will be a text box. Simply type in the code word (which will be in the parentheses following the titles to the sections in the directory below) or the word you want to search for. Since each code will be on here twice, once in the directory and then after each section title, you may have to hit the NEXT button to find the right one.
Directory
1. Introduction: (intro)
2. What Is Role-playing?: (rpwth)
3. RP Forum Rules: (rprules)
4. Character Development: (chardev)
5. RP Terms And Etiquette: (termsmanners)
6. Proper Posting Technique: (rppost)
7. Hints And Tips (tradesecrets)
8. Closing And Last Thoughts: (closingthoughts)
What Is Role-playing? (rpwth)
What exactly is role-playing? By definition, role-playing (sometimes spelled roleplaying for those who don’t like dashes) is to "adopt and act out the role of characters, or parts, that may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own." Role-playing, also known as RP to some, is like being in an improvisational drama or free-form theater, in which the participants are the actors who are playing parts, and the audience. This is the general definition of role-playing.
Role-playing indeed has its roots in the theater, but it also takes characteristics from writing, or at least Internet role-playing, and forum role-playing especially, does. For many, it is not only a fun pastime, but also a good way to vent and create, like drawing is for an artist or composing is for a musician. In essence, it is pretty much several writers who come together as players of characters to collectively create a story about their characters. All of the writers/players have a responsibility to the story once they start, and to each other. But we’ll get more into responsibility and manners later. Let’s move onto the rules here on the rp section of Animation Source.
RP Forum Rules (rprules)
***These rules are subject to change, so please check them often! More about these are also covered in the Terms and Etiquette section.
1. Post Length: Posts should be a minimum of four sentences or at least two lines of text on the normal forum window. This is reasonable enough, especially as this is not the rp shout box.
2. Controlling Characters: You may only control your own characters in a role-play. Do not attempt to dictate the actions of another person’s character. If you need another character to do something in order to progress your character’s story or some such, send them a PM or use OOC. Nobody likes to have somebody else controlling their character’s actions or speech, so don’t do it without first consulting the person in question.
3. Role-play Ownership: When a person starts a role-play, they usually have an idea of what they want to happen throughout the course of the story and it’s ending. They have the right to decide where their role-play is going, so if the starter of a role-play asks the participant to do something to progress the story the way he wants it, then do it. A role-play belongs to the person who started it, so they get power over what happens in it.
4. Keep Track of the Storyline: Actually read other people’s posts in a roleplay. It’s just plain annoying when somebody doesn’t pay attention to what others are saying, because it can disrupt the flow of the story or cause confusion when posts clash with each other.
5. Out of Character Discussion: Out of Character Discussion is an acceptable and useful way of deciding things that need to happen in a role-play. A good story needs at least some discussion in order to work properly, otherwise nobody is sure where exactly the role-play is heading or what is meant to be happening. However, lots of out of character chat is unsightly and detrimental to the role-play. Use OOC sparingly and/or PMs to work out what needs to be done to get the role-play going successfully.
6. Asterisks: Also known as, those little stars that float near the top of the words (i.e. These: ***) In the rp shout box, using asterisks to denote actions is acceptable. However, this is not the rp shout box, and therefore you need to use proper English grammar and punctuation to the best of your ability.
7. Grammar and Punctuation: Try to write it as if you’re writing a book like Harry Potter, or Twilight, or some other book that you love. This helps people understand what you’re writing so that they can respond in the correct manner. L33t speak, chat speak, and sms of any form are not allowed here. Periods should always be used at the end of a sentence. Exclamation points, (!) should be used at the end of a sentence instead of a period to show excitement/anger/surprise, or other extreme emotion. Quotation marks (“At either end of these words”) should always be used to denote that a character is speaking and a comma should be placed before the quotation marks, and after if you plan to continue the sentence. An example: Dacia padded over to Zenny, tilting her head to the side and saying, “Zenny, are you sure about this? What if the Ancients don’t like me?” She whined quietly before the white male moved over to her and buried his muzzle into her neck fur. “Dacia, they won’t hurt you. And of course they’ll like you,” she reassured her, twitching his nose under her fur causing a tickling sensation to travel up her neck. If you need help you can always write your post in a word processing program like Microsoft Word. It will spell check and grammar check for you!
8. Check the Section!: Be sure you’re in the right section for the kind of role-playing you want! Remember: Role-plays in Balto/TLK Role-playing are required to be Balto or The Lion King-related. If not, it must be wolf or lion related, at least! Any kind of role-play is allowed in the Other Roleplaying Section.
9. Advanced Role-playing: Advanced role-plays must have [Advanced] in its title, and the beginning post of the topic must have a plot on two paragraphs or more, and the post itself should have a pre-made bio form, and a list of joined characters. This is a general guideline. Advanced role-playing typically has posts from every player involved that are at least a good paragraph (anywhere from 6-10 sentences, though this varies from person to person) with well-thought out description, actions, etc. which keep the role-play going and give the other players something constructive to respond to.
Now onto an essential part of role-playing; creating and developing your character(s).
Character Development (chardev)
Having a well-developed character to play in your role-play is essential. If you don’t have a good character, there could be problems in the storyline later on. If you’re using a character that has already been created, also called “cannon characters” (for example, Balto, Steele, or Simba) you should already have a good idea of what the character should look and act like. And if you don’t know about the character, you should do research to figure it out. Find out what act like, how they would react, about their history, etc.
Cannon Character/Non-owned Character Role-play:
In this case, if you’re going to play a cannon character, you need to remain in character (IC). You can’t just mold them to your will. They have an identity and personality all their own that their creators gave them. You should respect it. For example, you wouldn’t do this:
Steele skipped into Nome, a grin on his face and rainbows dancing in his heart. As he skipped, it was as if pixie dust was falling off him and passersby could hear him humming a tune, which sounded a good deal like, I Feel Pretty. As he made his way up the street, suddenly he saw Balto. “Ahh, Balto! You old half-breed, you! How are you and Jenna doing? By the way, heard you had kids and I wouldn’t mind meeting them. Tell them their unky Steele said howdy!” And with that he was off again to spread joy to the world.
See? Try to keep cannon characters in character, unless of course the plot specifies that the character should have a change of heart. Even so, that change should come gradually and due to events that alter the character’s perspective and thoughts. Drastic changes usually aren’t sudden for anyone in real life, so remember this and make any changes like that as realistic as possible!
If you didn’t create the character, DO NOT claim that you own it, obviously. And also obviously enough, do not role-play with a character that was created by someone else unless you have their permission. For instance, I wouldn’t suddenly start role-playing as Kiona just because I felt like it. I don’t own Kiona, so I’d have to ask catwhohas14tails for her permission.
Your Character Role-play:
If you want to role-play with your own character, it’s even more essential to figure out how the character should look and act. Sometimes when you’re creating a new character, it’s helpful to fill out a form with categories to start describing your new character. Here’s one of the common forms used around the forums, and it is also used to help introduce your character to other players and give some quick, useful background info without bogging them down with too many details:
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Species:
Rank:
Clan:
Mate:
Pups:
Personality:
Physical Description:
History:
Picture(s):
Extra:
There are alternates, but this seems to be the most common version right now. Fill it out to help create your new character and familiarize yourself. That way, you won’t have to sit and think too terribly long about what your character should do when you post, because you’ll already know what kind of personality he/she has. And give him/her some flair that really makes them stand out and be “yours” not just another face in the crowd.
RP Terms And Etiquette (termsmanners)
First of all, what is Etiquette? Etiquette is defined as:
1. conventional requirements as to social behavior; proprieties of conduct as established in any class or community or for any occasion.
2. a prescribed or accepted code of usage in matters of ceremony, as at a court or in official or other formal observances.
3. the code of ethical behavior regarding professional practice or action among the members of a profession in their dealings with each other: medical etiquette.
A synonym for it is manners. All role-players must follow proper role-playing etiquette and manners.
Autoing (aka: auto-hitting, God-moding, God-playing, power-playing, tweaking): Taking control of another person’s character without permission for whatever reason. It can also be defined as any attack that automatically hits another roleplayer’s character without giving said character a chance to dodge it. This is more commonly referred to as auto-hitting.
Ex: Marz snarled, hurtling straight for the she-wolf Kaera. His massive paws slammed into her frail body, rolling her over onto her side. Kaera couldn’t even move with Marz on top of her. Marz leaned down and closed his jaws around her throat, forcing her into submission.
If two different people play Marz and Kaera, then this is considered autoing. Please note that both types of autoing were shown in the example. Auto-hitting is not accepted, EVER. However, this doesn’t mean that you can dodge every single attack that comes your way. Never being hit by an attack is also a form of autoing and will not be tolerated.
OOC: This stands for Out of Character, and should only be used as a drop at the top of a post to inform another of things going on outside of the RPing world. Dropping OOCs between sentences in a post can be very difficult to understand, and it is not recommended.
IC: In Character. Basically everything done with the roleplaying world, while a person is writing for their character, is in character. You can also use BIC, which means Back In Character, if you need to post a quick OOC note at the beginning of your post.
NPC: An NPC is a ‘non-player character’. Typically they can be controlled by any roleplayer who so wishes to take control of them and are only used to help move things along if the plot happens to be moving slowly. Since many players control them at the same time and since they are not truly important to the plot, they can be auto-hit and killed, however, if a specific player creates the NPC, it is always polite to ask if they have finished with the NPC and if you can kill it off.
Tweaks/Tweaking or God characters: A big no-no in the roleplaying world. These are the perfect characters of myth and legend. Handsome, intelligent, perfect manners, can't be harmed, an expert fighter, leader of his old pack etc. Known some? Yeah, don't do it. Good traits should never out number bad ones. They should always at least even out, to give a character depth. These are also known as Godly Characters. Other related terms include: God-moding, God-playing, and power-playing
One-Liners: This should be self-explanatory with the number of times we’ve complained about it over the years. But to clarify once again, these are either one-sentence (or one line) long posts that don’t really contribute to the plot of the role-play and leave other role-players with nothing to respond to. Let’s face it, you can’t really make anything interesting happen successfully in one sentence (unless it’s a run-on sentence, but that’s just bad grammar). The more detail the better. Try to describe as much as you can in your posts. Describe feelings, facial expressions, the land around you, and interaction with other wolves. Make it so the reader can see the scene before them. Even if you're not the best at this, try because the more practice you get at it, the better you will become at it. One-liners are not tolerated.
Frosts/Frosting: This is when you leave a role-play hanging, effectively 'freezing' or 'frosting' everything that is going on. It is understandable if you cannot, for some reason or other, gain access to the internet all the time, but please don't leave other RPers waiting for long periods of time for your reply. Not only is it discourteous, but it is also rather irritating.
In relation to this, don’t drop out of a role-play without letting the other role-players know that you’re leaving. It gets very frustrating when you’re waiting on someone to reply and you don’t find out until two weeks later that they’ve dropped the rp.
Reading Posts: Please, read everyone else’s posts before you respond. If you haven’t read, then there’s a good chance that you’re missing critical details and that your post will not make sense! For example:
Role-player 1: Tala stared downward, horrorstruck at what had just happened. She blinked a few times before leaning down to the cold, limp body before her. Tears began to well up in her eyes and she closed them quickly, gritting her teeth. “Mika? Please speak to me. Please don’t be…” Before she could finish the sentence, the exhaustion made her legs give way and she crumpled on top of Mika’s body. The flood of tears released itself and spilled over, onto her cheeks.
Role-player 2: Bella padded over to Tala, smiling widely. Around her neck was a bright green ribbon, which had been given to her by her owner. She looked at Tala, standing there with Mika and said, “Hey, what’s up, you guys?”
See how the second person’s post makes absolutely no sense? This is why it’s important to read everything the other players post, even if it takes a little extra time. It’ll be worth it in the end. Also, make your characters as real as possible. For example, if you’re role-playing a wolf, be as wolf-like as possible. Do not act like a human and say something that a human would interact with or say something like "Hey, let’s go grab some Burger King!" Wolves don't go to Burger King and certainly don’t eat cheeseburgers. They are not lolcats. So make your character go out and get a deer or something to satisfy its hunger.
Always Be Polite:]/b] Role-playing is about having fun, not about starting flame wars. What people do IC is completely separate to how they are OOC. If your character hates another player’s character, and they have a reason for it, that’s fine and dandy. If you start disliking another player because of something his/her character did, that’s not fine. Leave IC issues IC and leave OOC issues OOC. If you have issues with someone OOC, this doesn’t mean that your characters have issues with each other necessarily, so role-play accordingly. And even if you two do have issues, be courteous and polite anyways, otherwise the host of the role-play will likely tell you both to leave.
[b]Forum RPs Aren’t In Real-time: What this basically means is that, though the other players are waiting for a response form you, you don’t have to respond the very first second that you see a reply has been made. Take a few moments to carefully read the post that has been made and then write a thoughtful reply back. You don’t need to constantly stake out the topic you’re role-playing in, just try and reply when you’re able to. Also, obviously, double posting is a no-no. It wastes space and is annoying and distracting.
Never Assume Anything: If you aren’t sure what another person means, just ask them to clarify it. They won’t get mad at you for not understanding; they’ll be happy that you took the time to ask and that you didn’t just role-play around it and possibly miss a huge point in the plot.
Keep Your Posts Readable: That means, no funky colors like light blue on a white background, or anything of that nature. Computers already cause enough eyestrain and nobody needs anymore. In addition to this, try and use good grammar and spelling. People can’t reply to your posts very well if they can’t understand anything you’re trying to say. Wehn yuo tpye lal lyke tihz, it's hard to read, isn't it? (tip: some people write their entry in Microsoft Word first before they post it on the site, it not a must, but it's something to think about. I personally don't, but if I'm unsure about a word, I do spell check on MS Word.) No Chatspeak/leetspeak/1337speak/sms! It’s hard to read, annoying, an eyesore, and just plain inconsiderate. Not to mention against the rules here. Don’t do it. This is in conjunction with the above note. If others can’t read it, then they can’t reply to it successfully. Also, don’t overuse punctuation. One example is the spammage of apostrophes:
Sh' padded o'er to th' brute, smile 'pon 'er maw.
It’s uncool and annoying. Another one is overuse of commas/periods:
She, padded over, to the brute, smile, upon her, maw.
She.padded.over.to.the.brute.smile.upon.her.maw.
These don’t even make sense! So, don’t post stuff like that. If you have a question about spelling, punctuation, or grammar, don’t be afraid to ask someone about it. The worst they can say to you is that they don’t know much themselves, and even then they can probably point you to someone who will know.
First Person Point Of View Narration: When a role-player uses things like: "I walked towards the alpha, my eyes meeting his in defiance." Please don't use this in any role-play. It's rather annoying, sometimes hard to understand, and even harder to reply to. Role-plays need to flow like a story from a book, and they should. The only difference should be that there are many writers instead of just one.
Third Person Point Of View Narration: When a role-player typically uses things like: "Kanag stalked up to the alpha, head raised, eyes blazing angrily." This is recommended in every instance of role-play, as it’s much easier to read and reply to.
Present Tense: He walks, he runs, she stands, etc.
Past Tense: He was walking, he walked, he ran, she was standing, she stood, etc.
(*Note* Most roleplays use only past tense, or only present tense. It gets confusing if multiple tenses are used between posts, and even more confusing if both tenses are used in the same post. Usually it’s better to just use the past tense.)
Proper Posting Techniques (rppost)
I figured you might need a good example of a proper post. Not all posts need to measure up to this, but it is a good role model and should be taken seriously. I understand that sometimes you just can’t get the right inspiration for a good post – it happens to us all sometimes. But this is what you need to try to work toward.
Here's an example of correct posting:
Nexxus lay on his side, the snow slowly covering his still form. Evidence of his struggle to move was evident in the mounds of snow and earth that he'd formed with his legs. They weren't large, just enough to show that he'd made an effort before exhaustion and blood loss had forced him to be still. His head swam with visions of his surroundings.
'I'm going to die out here anyway. He planned it that way all along. And I played right into his grand design, delivering Jenna to her doom. Balto would never suspect me to have done this. And even if he makes it here, I'll be long gone when he does. He won't understand why I'm here, or how I'm connected. All is lost!'
As he despaired, his breathing seemed to get shallower. The blood flowing out of his veins was slow, but unstoppable at this point. He'd lost so much of it already that there was no hope for him. The thought was haunting, but strangely, comforting for him. He was getting what he deserved for helping the malicious beast. But it did sadden him that he couldn't try and redeem himself. His nose dipped down and colors swirled before him as his own mind tried to knock him out. But then, white took up most of his vision. At first he thought that he must have moved on to the other world, but his vision seemed to clear a bit. The forest was still around him, but what appeared to be a snow white female wolf stood before him. He couldn't tell if it was a dream or not, everything was far too fuzzy to be certain.
"Aah..." The syllable was all that he had the strength to utter. He tried to lift his head further, but as soon as the muscles contracted, pain rocketed through him again, forcing his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he knew that he was conscious, but the ethereal figure was gone.
'Did I just see...' he thought in fragments. Could it really have been true? Or had he just imagined it to give himself comfort in his last moments? Either way, he felt a little more awake now from his effort at movement and the pain focused his attention. 'I won't make it. But maybe, if I can just hang on a little longer...'
See? It doesn't have to be a novel. It’s well-thought out with good description, and it tells you exactly what my character is thinking, doing, and what kind of situation he is in. In this case, he’s dying, but trying to hold on and redeem himself for the wicked deeds he’s helped commit. This was just posted recently in the rp topic In The Name of Aniu (Sequel to Balto: Alternate Ending).
Hints And Tips (tradesecrets)
Just out of generosity and to help you guys out, here are some of our trade secrets and tips when it comes to rping!
1. Write your post/reply in Microsoft Word or some other word processing program to check for spelling and grammar, or use dictionary.com.
2. Think deeply about your post and what direction you want your character and story to move in before you respond.
3. Never be afraid to ask for help if you’re unsure about anything!
4. Take all rping advice when it is given to you.
5. Always try to make yourself a better role-player.
6. Always read over your post before you submit it to check for errors, and make sure it doesn’t sound funny. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked through a post and realized it didn’t make sense in a couple of areas before I sent it in.
7. Change up your characters every now and then. Don’t make all wolves, all vampires, all heroes, or all villains. Change is your friend and it will expand your horizons and force you to learn and better yourself.
8. Take your time when posting on a forum. You have all the time you need to come up with a good reply, so use it to your advantage! Just try not to leave it for a month at a time.
9. Play fair IC and OOC
10. Make yourself memorable! Go in to have fun and help others have fun in return. Role-playing is a game of writing a story together. Enjoy it and make it a wonderful memory!
Closing And Last Thoughts (closingthoughts)
In closing, we hope this helped you guys learn a little more about role-playing and helped you at least a little. The rules will be enforced much more strictly soon, so if nothing else, please read those carefully! As always, we are here to help you guys, and if you have any questions, just ask away.
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