㜘HOW TO ROLE PLAY㜘

[Sautana]

How to Role Play (RP)

So for those who are new to Role Play….. Its good that you read This ^^


㜘TABLE OF CONTENTS㜘
What is Role Play?
Terms/Glossary
Joining a Role Play/Filling out a Profile
How to Play in Role Play
How to Make your own Role Play

Disclaimer:Original thread written by Yumitoko
Tweaked by Diabolica-III

 

[Sautana]

㜘SO...What is a Role Play?㜘

The act of role playing, for all intensive purposes, is acting out the actions of another. Its Self Expalanatory- you are playing the role of another. Have you ever played through a video game in story mode, that’s Role Play. Have you ever dressed up as a character from a series on Halloween or for a convention, that’s Role Play in real life.

What we do here is forum role playing, which is commonly shortened to 'RP'. Someone creates a story, and the members of that thread create their own characters. Then everyone starts posting, telling what their character does and says. Key is the character interaction and progression of the story.

 

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㜘Terms commonly used/Glossary㜘

Bio- Short for biography. In general terms, this means the profile skeleton you have to fill out and return to the thread owner. If it is listed in the things you need to answer in your profile skeleton, it means your character's story.

Bumping- Its posting in a thread for the sole purpose of getting the thread back up to the top of the forum. It isn't allowed in this guild in the role play subforums and should not be done unless the role play has been inactive for more than one month.

Character- The person being played. In a role play, each person should have one or more characters.

Cybering- when one or more characters are doing sexually explicit things. Gaia is a PG-13 site; this is not allowed on the the site or in the guild.

God modding- this is controlling any other character, the weather, the plot, or surroundings. Your characters aren't all powerful- don't make it so they can hit every shot they're aiming at, or can never be hit by someone. EVERY character has a weakness.

Newbies- People who are new to Gaia or to role playing. These people are willing to learn and become active, positive contributers to Gaia. These are often confused with Noobs.

N00bs/Noobs- People who act foolishly, whether out of ignorance or arrogance. These are the people who commonly make a role play unenjoyable. Signs of a noob include, but are not limited to- chat or leet speak; blatant disregard for rules, other players and mods; spamming

OOC- Means 'out of character'. When someone types 'OOC' before whatever it is they have typed, it means that what they are about to say is not what their character is saying or doing. This is usually to ask and answer plot questions or the need for clarification on what is happening in the thread. These are commonly surrounded by parentheses or brackets to differentiate it from their character's action text.

Profile- A filled out profile skeleton of a character. These commonly include the character's name, age, appearance, bio and race. Sometimes Weapon, height, weight, and affiliation are also asked for.

RP- Role Play

Skeleton- Another way to say Profile, or profile skeleton. These commonly include the character's name, age, appearance, bio and race. Sometimes Weapon, height, weight, and affiliation are also asked for.

Subforum- The smaller, more specific sections of the forum, listed at the top of the page. The name indicates what it is for.  

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㜘Joining a Role Play/Filling out a Profile㜘

Joining a Role Play

Step one:

Read everything the front page of the thread has to offer- Rules, Story, Requirements, etc. EVERYTHING.

Step Two:

Note what the thread owner wants- sometimes they want you to PM them your profile. Otherwise, you post it. Occasionally they will also require that you type something or include a particular emote. If their instructions are unclear, ask.

Copy and paste their profile skeleton, then fill it out.

Step Three:

Post your profile or send it to the thread owner according to their instructions.

Filling Out a Profile Skeleton

This seems to be really hard for people sometimes. I will cover all of the common ones and a few of the uncommon ones, as well as a few tips.

On a role play, you should see something like this-

Name: The name of your character
Age: How old your character is
Bio: The story of your character- what is his/her past like? Family, significant events, reasons why he/she is the way he/she is
Appearance: This can be a description or a picture. Some Thread owners require one or the other.

These are the most common, and I personally think are the most necessary. No role play should really be without these absolute basic ones. Occasionally, one or two of those aren't there, but for our purposes, we have them.

Other ones that sometimes show up-

Gaia name: Your user name. The reason for this one is because your profile is going on a big list. Its a lot easer if you can quickly link a user to their profile, rather than having to dig through posts and link your character name to one of your posts.

Height: how tall your character is standing up straight

Weight: how heavy your character is

Weapon: Pops up in threads that will have violence in them- if your character carries around a weapon, provide either a description of it or a picture. If your character does not have a weapon, put -no weapon-

Affiliation: This usually comes up when there are two or more factions in a role play.

Race/Species: Since we are dealing with fantasy, some people are going to be something not human. This is where you let people know if you are human or something else

Gender: Obviously Male/Female

Personality: What is your character like?

Powers: Any special abilites your character has. Can he/she fly? Does he/she naturally heal quickly? ETC.

So heres some examples ^^

Name: Ramune Jr.
Age: 17
Appearance: Short dark red hair, blue eyes, tall. Wearing a pleated knee-length skirt, white peasant shirt, dark corset and a patched messenger bag
Race: Half Human Half Sheep
Personality: Quiet, happy, dependable
Powers: Able to talk to animals. Has strength of 100 humans

TIPS-

To put a picture in your post, find a picture you like. Photobucket.com and Deviantart.com are good places. You can either paste the raw link, or you can post the picture itself. To do that, you need to host it on photobucket(so the link does not break or get deleted) and copy paste the IMG code it gives you. Alternate options are using tektek.org to create a gaia character that looks how your character looks, or you can draw one(This would require either a scanner or a really good shot with a camera. Posting it is the same as if it was a regular picture- photobucket to host).

Also note, that if the picture is bigger than the forum page, DON'T POST THE IMAGE. It stretches the page and is annoying. Post a link to it instead. To do that, copy the DIRECT LINK and post it in this code-

[url=directurlhere]Image[/url]

The Challenge of making your character is to be unique. Don’t take something so common or cliché like DARK AND MYSTERIOUS type. LET YOUR IMAGINATION FLY >0< >3<
heart  

[Sautana]

㜘How to play in a Role Play㜘

ALRIGHTY! Your profile has been approved and the role play has now begun. What now ?.? T^T

All the posts you make from now on are about your character. This site requires that you be 13 or older... it also entails that you know how to read and have read things before. Most people have read stories and know what a paragraph is. GREAT! You know how to role play and you didn't even know it. You're going to type what your character does and says like a story. You don't have to be a perfect speller and you don't have to write a novel per post. However, I highly recommend you write in what is called past tense and in third person. Third person means that you are the narrator. Past tense means you write about something that has happened and you relating the story after the fact.

An example of Past tense third person-

Ramune Jr. walked over to Rolia. "What are you up to?"

There is nothing wrong with writing in present tense; it just difficult as you write more complicated sentences. Past tense is easier because it flows better, like a story.  

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㜘How to make your own Role Play㜘

If you can role play, you can make a role play. YES. It is that EASY.

So? What do you need?.?

A title.
A story.
A statement.
A skeleton for players to fill out.
Rules.
Your own profile.

You can do a bunch of things with this. You can separate these sections out into individual posts, or you can have them all together in the first post.

You're probably going to want to type these sections up in a word document so you can tweak it how you want and make sure you have everything you need before you post. You don't want to look silly to your fellow role players!

So... Lets have a closer look at each of those sections.

Title- This is your initial catch. Think of the role plays that have caught your attention in the past. What did you like about them? Remember, try to keep your title related to your story.

The Story- This is the premise to your whole role play. Here you will talk about the world you and your fellow role players will be in. What is it like? Why is it significant? Is there something happening there? Will something bad happen soon? Its like that paragraph or two on the back of a book that is supposed to capture your interest.

The Statement- Very important! This lets role players know what you want. If you want a certain amount of boys and girls, say so. If you want those profiles sent to you, say so.

The Skeleton- This is all of the information you want from the role players. Things like name, age, appearance and race are important to you and anyone else who is joining.

The rules- Its usually pretty straight forward and restating forum rules isn't always necessary, but its common. This is a good place to put special rules if you want to make sure you avoid certain mishaps. BE SURE TO ENFORCE THEM.

Your own Profile- You want to play too! So fill out the skeleton you provided and post your own profile in the thread.