Escapist role-playing and you. Pages 1 2 3 4 NEXT | |
A general advice thread about role-playing and its terms being on demand, I will admit to having planned such a thing for a rather long time. This is a joint effort with several members. This OP (original/opening post) will be updated based on questions asked and suggestions given, so ask away either in the thread or by PM! Common termsIn this section, we will strive to explain some of the most commonly used terms in the world of role-playing. RP: Role-play. A common term for an RP is a "game", but it is not very widely used in forum role-playing. We call them role-plays, or RP's, partially also so as not to confuse it with the term RPG. Role-playing can be seen as unstructured drama. Zemalac comments: "An RP (Role-Play) is a game where the players take on the roles of various characters and act as though they are those characters, with all the abilities, personality, and background that goes along with them. On the forums, the players write from the perspective of the characters, narrating their actions, speech, and interactions with the environment. It's basically writing a story, but you only have control over one of the characters. From this basis come many different games, all varying in complexity and skill level." Role-playing one character at a time is the most common practice, but once in a while, we will see one player controlling several. Original character: Abbreviated OC. An original character created by a role player, as opposed to using an already existing character. Game Master/Dungeon Master: Abbreviated GM/DM. the creator and designer of the role-play. They will normally set the rules and decide how the plot progresses. Do not mess with the GM in their own RP. Out of character/Out of context: Chatting as the user of the forum, not as the character or narrator in the RP. On the Escapist, this is usually done with the help of the spoiler tags and not by writing "OOC:". Consult the forum markup for the tags or the BBcode thread by the ravishing and manly wilsonscrazybed. Spoiler tags are: <*spoiler=label>[/spoiler], omitting the *. The label is what it will say before you click it and is not a prerequisite to make a spoiler. There is another side to OOC, however. A player might interfere with the psychology and actions of their character to produce a desirable OOC effect. This can be part of the problem when a player treats the role-play as a game to win, rather than as storytelling. Free-form RP: What we role-play here on the forums is normally free-form role-playing, with a minimal set of rules with focus set on character or plot development. Example Lyncher RP: A lyncher is basically based on the popular game of Mafia, or the variation Werewolf, where the players go through the storyline voting each other out of it. For instance, placing the blame of a murder on one of them. The GM normally appoints one of the players to be the perpetrator(s), and the rest are to try to figure out who they are. The GM can also perform the dastardly tasks himself, and it is thus up to the players to solve the puzzle. This is the most commonly performed type of Lyncher here on the Escapist. Along the way, you role-play realistically as the character. Makes for a lot of suspense, and requires a lot of planning. Example. True RPG: The GM lays out the plot, character and the available options. Anyone on the forum can vote for one of the options given on what to do next, and so the plot progresses. Example. Let's Play: Normally, one user plays through a game and posts images and text to show the experience, whereas other users can participate in the story of the game, creating a collective piece of fiction. Example. --- Note: Practise of the three following behaviours is generally frowned upon and prohibited in role-plays. Avoid them. Trenchcoating/Trenching: Refers to the badass long coat wearers that probably began appearing in Westerns or Film Noir and became especially popular in public with The Matrix. In roleplaying, it covers a number of factors, a long, concealing trenchoat obviously being one of them. A character who is a trenchcoater rarely has any kind of characterisation to speak of, and will often pull out some kind of weaponry out from his long, dark, mysterious coat. They are often plagued with a dark, mysterious past they will allude to now and then. Mary Sue/Marty Stu/Gary Stu/Marty Sam: There are several traits associated with a Mary Sue character, but the most important factor is that the character in question has qualities that are put there only to make her special. If the qualities are explained and serve a purpose, a Mary Sue label should not be issued too swiftly. Godmoding/Autoing: Not "godmodding". This is possible in a active and a passive way. The passive sense deals with how a player has designed their character. It will often solve problems far too quickly and effortlessly, and often results in a character forcing their will upon the RP rather than working with the events. The passive sense also encompasses the creation of an invincible character or indestructible or overpowered equipment. Player A kicks out at player B's mid-section. Not very fun to role-play with. You can not decide what definitely happens. You can only try to invoke your influence on others. It is up to the other player and/or the GM to decide the success, depending on the RP and situation. An RP depends on good writing. It is not a game; it is storytelling. Player A states: "Player B misses player A and hits player C instead." Munchkin: Another undesired behaviour. A player who always plays to "win", regardless of the context. This can be the most subtle of behaviours, and connects with the OOC part. The player fails to understand the RP is about telling a good story rather than "winning" in some arbitrary way, and all their actions are affected by it. General adviceIn this section, we will list some general advice on specific elements in role-playing. If you feel we need to add something, just let me know by PM. Taking control: Taking control of someone else's character depends entirely on the context and instructions of the owner. If you have not received any, do as little as possible with them, but keep them along for the story advancement. Do not use them for autoing, obviously. Language usage: Posting guidelines naturally apply when role-playing here as well, but more than that, if you want to achieve an effect with your role-playing, you need to use the language correctly. The entire effect of immersion depends on correct language usage, and the same applies if you want to be taken seriously. A great creative piece will be heavily pulled down if the language usage is not adequate. Do not let this happen. Timing your posts: This is naturally a small, but frequent, problem in forum role-playing. The only real way to avoid time paradoxes is to have good communication with your fellow role-players and the Game Master, real-time communicating in the form of Instant Messaging being the best method and bookmarking the RP's you are in being obvious. I recommend IRC for IM, since you can create channels for every RP, or just use #escapistrp, a sister-channel of #escapist on ChatSpike. Avoid taking a lot of time to type up a large post if the pace seems fast, and vice versa. RP etiquette: Exercise common sense and good manners. Nothing new when it comes to internet forums. Heed the word of the GM, and if you have ideas for him/her, PM them. Do not post in the thread if you want to join or have ideas. Use the PM system. "I'd also like to stress the concept that RP's are a house of cards. If everyone performs to the best they can be, and does their job, nobody ever need do it for them. That is the lowest level of effort required to sustain an RP, and should it fall below that then it shall fail. It's when people start doing their own job and then helping everyone else (who are also doing their job) that an RP becomes Ultra. You're only as strong as your weakest joint, after all." Have fun: Role-playing is a bit of work, that will not be denied. But if you plan on maintaining your motivation for a longer time, you need to have fun and feel that it is a rewarding experience. Whether it be through interesting plot, character development or the improvement of your own writing, you need to have an incentive to post. If you do not, the overall quality of your posts will inevitably suffer, and you might find yourself dropping out. This factor naturally involves the GM as well, but most of the work lies with you. Saving your work: In forum role-playing, there is a large chance you will write long posts. Therefore, I advice you to get some form of auto-save text function for your browser. Writing outside of the site works, but there is also the matter of how the format will look on-site. To that end, I recommend auto-save text add-ons in Firefox. Starting an RP: When you plan on starting an RP, make sure you have sufficient experience with role-playing on the specific forum. Knowing some role-players is a plus, but knowing how role-playing generally works on the Escapist is an even larger part of the planning. Text formatting: Here on the Escapist, we have some widely used ways of utilising text in different ways. Descriptive text is the bread text, italics are used for inner monologue (thoughts), "quotation marks" for speech and bold for emphasised words. Do not abuse any formatting, as it will hurt the ol' eye. [h1] and [h2] also work if you exempli gratia want to write a big note (letter) or ostentatious titles to poems, literary works, et alia. Just, please, don't use this too much. --- If you want to contribute to this guide, keep in mind that the advice has to be general and relevant to the Escapist role-play stage. Sporky111's two cents: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/540.116378-Escapist-role-playing-and-you?page=2#4915965 Lost In The Void's guide to character creation and posting habits: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/362.174743-The-Walkthrough-to-Role-Playing-Character-Creation-and-Posting-Habits | |
Yay! Its finally up! Great job! This should definitely be a permanent thread. One piece of advice I would give, is if an RP is really moving along, and 5 people are constantly posting, Placeholds can save a whole lot of ninjaing. A placehold means that any post after yours is void, this really makes it less frustrating. Nothing worse than writing out a 5 paragraph post only to be Ninja'd! You write placehold, post it, then edit the placehold and write what you need to. | |
I'd also like to stress the concept that RP's are a house of cards. If everyone performs to the best they can be, and does their job, nobody ever need do it for them. That is the lowest level of effort required to sustain an RP, and should it fall below that then it shall fail. It's when people start doing their own job and then helping everyone else (who are also doing their job) that an RP becomes Ultra. You're only as strong as your weakest joint, after all. | |
Somebody finally released a decent guide for those who are new to RP'ing. Maybe now GM problems won't be so frequent...maybe. EDIT: This thread needs to be stuck down. | |
This thread needs to be stickied. Anyone got the glue? Anyway. I would add in a more detailed definition of an RP, for anyone who has found themselves in unfamiliar territory and has no idea what a role-play is (I will admit, this will be a rare person I am speaking of). For example: "An RP (Role-Play) is a game where the players take on the roles of various characters and act as though they are those characters, with all the abilities, personality, and background that goes along with them. On the forums, the players write from the perspective of the characters, narrating their actions, speech, and interactions with the environment. It's basically writing a story, but you only have control over one of the characters. From this basis come many different games, all varying in complexity and skill level." Something like that. Also, some definitions of RP types might be useful. The definition of a lyncher, for instance. Whenever one of those comes up I always see a couple people asking what it is. | |
Ya, thats a good idea, explain different types, such as completely open, lyncher, dice rolling. Also, the biggest advice, follow the rules set by the OP a good OP will say what kind of RP it is right off the bat. | |
This is very useful, especially with all the new people flooding the Escapist forums; not all of them know what's going on in this forum, but want to participate. I agree that this should be stickied. | |
Someone get the Krazy glue. We've got a sticky. (That last sentence sounds kind of wrong) | |
Very wonderful and informative, Higu. Great job. | |
It's a shame that this has already fallen off the front page. Shall we PM mods for sticky? | |
Well, it mustve taken a while to write all that up higurashi, so first off, Happy days to you. Secondly, You should edit in some extra stuff: Such as, The definition of OP. Im gonna PM a mod now about getting this stuck. Edit: Alright, I asked spinwhiz to do it and should hopefully get feedback pretty soon, as he is currently online. mods scare me... Edit: Ok hes sticking it tommorow. And stuff. | |
disregard | |
It are stickied... Another thing is that players who post more regularly are more likely to have better characterization for their personas, making it more enjoyable to read. | |
Nice job, Higurashi, that was a very good read. I also noticed that you've entered the realm of Sticky... high five, brother! | |
Don't forget munchkins. I'm not sure if they only pertain to D&D, or if they fall into the classification of Mary Sue or Trenchcoating, but here's a good definition:
-One who plays the game solely to "Win", even if that's not the point, and in doing so tries to ensure he is the best, most able and most successful player by whatever definitions of such are relevant. | |
I helped? Yay, I helped! :D But I'm glad to see all this info, and that this got stickied up. As with regards to avoiding time parodoxes, I follow this Creed: Ctrl+C, Crtl+R, Crtl+V: These things three help one avoid the dreaded paradox. Granted, that doesn't seem impressive when you read it... If you could hear me saying it while I was balanced on a lilypad, and a gong rang after I said it, it would sound much cooler. | |
Now we just have to hope that more people read this than the Forum Guidelines. Since, you know, not that many people seem to have read those. | |
I will admit that I didn't, but I kept my head down at the beginning. I am actually having a problem right now with a guy who joined an RP, he didn't fully understand what it was. He didn't realize he had to be the character, and develop him with his writing. Reading these things really do help new RPers get a good idea on what to do. | |
Aaaah, this is interesting. I never really understood this RP milarkey but now I think I get it. Nice one. | |
God, i wish i had this when i first got here, it would have made things a whole lot easier. Nice job by the way. | |
I was gonna say that. Congratulations to you, this was a very useful guide...for newcomers obviously. One like myself already knows these things... *Hangs head in shame.* | |
Something you might want to add regarding players losing interest in the game: If you really do feel that you cannot continue participating in an RP for whatever reason then it's a good idea to resolve your character. For example, you may opt to kill your character off, or simply send them on a looong journey, or any other method that can remove them from the story. This doesn't make such a huge difference to you, but for the other participants it can be important for the immersion. An unresolved character becomes excess baggage for the remaining players, who still have to take the character with them and occasionally take control of them for the sake of continuity. Alternatively they may just choose to forget about your character but this can spoil the continuity and immersion of the story with moments like "Hey, what ever happened to [Billy]?" If you must leave and RP then for the sake of those still participating please tie up all the loose ends.
HAZEANDHALO? :P | |
No, not HAH, another guy. Haze was doing it on purpose, he knew what he was doing was incorrect. | |
COngratulashunz, and stuff, on getting it stickied... with my help... muahahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaGH *Coughs* Do we have any Cough syrup...? | |
Good read I really hope it helps develop my own RPing as it does any one else s you can always do better | |
Does anybody else think RP'ing is a bit like acting out a play that you write as you go along. | |
That is basically what it is, as we're playing different characters to ourselves or, in short, acting. | |
Well, when I find the time I'll start/join an RP. Thanx for the tips. | |
It should also be noted that it is entirely acceptable to have your character wear a long, badass coat, and that making them very, very hard to kill is entirely fine. They should, however maintain a degree of weakness, and thus humanity, else it becomes impossible for people to relate to the character, and they in essence become boring. | |
Read it and it gave some great tips on how you should adequately roleplay, so good work there Higurashi! Only thing I noticed is that the add-on you linked is in..Swedish? That kinda threw me off but it's a minor thing. Great job. ^_^ | |
Thank you. Any help I can provide gives me motivation to continue. Thank you, everyone else, for your kind words and encouragement. They give me motivation and make me smile every time I read them. High-five, Krunky. o/* | |
Glad I could motivate you. ;) | |
Ya, thats a good idea, explain different types....!!!!! | |
Oh, thanks for this ^_^. I'm really new so this helped tons. :) | |
thanks this thread really helped me out now i may actually get into the whole forum rp thing | |
Pages 1 2 3 4 NEXT |