These are the Guild rules when you are roleplaying in this guild. All of these rules are considered basic etiquette when roleplaying in Barton Town, the official forum for roleplaying on Gaia Online. Following these rules would put you at a semi-literate level, which is the level of literacy we encourage in roleplays within this guild.
Examples have been provided because we accept those with minimal roleplaying experience. If you already know what I'm talking about, you are more than welcome to gloss over the information.
}-General Rules-{
[1] Always write in third person. This is an academic style of writing and the one usually specified by other roleplayers. When you write in first or second person many other writers will look down on you as illiterate. Not a good thing.
For those who don't remember:
As a side note, because you are using third person you don't need to use asterisks (*) when describing actions your character is making. Just say what they are doing instead.
Yes-Kimiko walked out of the dark building and blinked as the bright sunlight hit her eyes before continuing to her car.
No-*Kimiko walked to her car from the building*
[2] No chatspeak, meaning no writing 'u' for 'you' and abbreviating phrases like 'brb' or 'gtg' when speaking. Also, remember to capitalize things like 'I' and the beginning letter of your sentences to add to your literacy.
Yes-Nikki jumped into the air, screaming, "We did it Kimiko, we won!"
No-wats going on nikki said. she looked at kimiko and said why r u crying?
A good thing to do if you have a lot of issues with spelling and/or grammar is to open up a window in Microsoft Word or another word processor program with an automatic spell check. That way the computer can catch most spelling errors for you, along with most punctuation errors. Some browsers such as Firefox have this feature too, and on Internet Explorer you can download a spell check feature to your tool bar.
[3] Show when you are in OOC! OOC stands for Out Of Character, when you, the person behind the screen, are talking to your fellow guild members. The most common ways to do this are to put (()) {{}} or [[]] around the words that are being said by you, and not your characters.
Ex:
Examples have been provided because we accept those with minimal roleplaying experience. If you already know what I'm talking about, you are more than welcome to gloss over the information.
}-General Rules-{
[1] Always write in third person. This is an academic style of writing and the one usually specified by other roleplayers. When you write in first or second person many other writers will look down on you as illiterate. Not a good thing.
For those who don't remember:
1st: "I went to the kitchen to make some tea."
2nd: "You should have brought sugar."
3rd: "He must not like it black." *This is the one you need to use*
As a side note, because you are using third person you don't need to use asterisks (*) when describing actions your character is making. Just say what they are doing instead.
Yes-Kimiko walked out of the dark building and blinked as the bright sunlight hit her eyes before continuing to her car.
No-*Kimiko walked to her car from the building*
[2] No chatspeak, meaning no writing 'u' for 'you' and abbreviating phrases like 'brb' or 'gtg' when speaking. Also, remember to capitalize things like 'I' and the beginning letter of your sentences to add to your literacy.
Yes-Nikki jumped into the air, screaming, "We did it Kimiko, we won!"
No-wats going on nikki said. she looked at kimiko and said why r u crying?
A good thing to do if you have a lot of issues with spelling and/or grammar is to open up a window in Microsoft Word or another word processor program with an automatic spell check. That way the computer can catch most spelling errors for you, along with most punctuation errors. Some browsers such as Firefox have this feature too, and on Internet Explorer you can download a spell check feature to your tool bar.
[3] Show when you are in OOC! OOC stands for Out Of Character, when you, the person behind the screen, are talking to your fellow guild members. The most common ways to do this are to put (()) {{}} or [[]] around the words that are being said by you, and not your characters.
Ex:
kinetic-cataclysm
((Hey guys, this is my last post for a few days. Sorry.)) *OOC*
Kamiko looked over at Rei and blushed, embarrassed... *Actual Roleplaying*
Kamiko looked over at Rei and blushed, embarrassed... *Actual Roleplaying*
[4] No godmoding or powerplaying. Godmoding means making a character that is invincible and without a weakness. Powerplaying refers to taking control of someone else's character. Also be sure your character isn't a Mary Sue or Gary-Stu.
The best policy for avoiding godmoding is the +1-1 policy. For every strength you give your character there is a weakness to balance it out. For example, my character Garin in our own Academy rp is very rich. Great, right? But, he's also very stuck-up and so most people hate his guts. Not so good. For every good thing there is a bad to balance him out.
However, sometimes the +1 -1 policy just doesn't apply. You can never give your character any powers that would obliterate (destroy) the world and/or everyone else in a few seconds. You can never make your character move so fast that they easily dodge whatever is aimed at them. And never give your character hidden powers that you don't mention in your profile but will miraculously pop up in the roleplay and give you the upper hand over any situation.
Powerplaying, on the other hand can be easier to avoid and yet harder in some situations. For the most part, it should easy enough to follow: I can move my character Garin, but I can't make Alcide4Were's character Kamina move around too. That's rude, and many roleplayers will ignore you and even kick you out of their roleplay if you take control of their character without permission.
When in the midst of a battle however this can become more difficult. How do you say you hit your enemy without controlling him/her? Look at the Rules for Battle a few posts down for our rules on this.
[5] Post more than just one sentence. For more experienced roleplayers this is easy, but for those just starting out this can be as daunting as writing a novel. But just so you know, "one-liners" are the bane of roleplayers. Because roleplaying depends upon the interactions of the characters to progress, just one sentence that says you are walking down a hallway gives other writers nothing to work with. You have to include an action, some dialogue, maybe even a little thinking to develop your character. Use descriptions; paint the world around you so that we can see what you do in your head.
Before you know it, you'll have typed up a whole paragraph! But if you just don't want to type that much then in general I would advise at least three sentences, and make sure these sentences are typed up nicely. There are really no limits as far as post length goes, but for semi-literate roleplays like the ones in this guild I try to cut it back to four-five paragraphs, or about thirty sentences, tops.
[6] Follow Gaia's TOS (Terms of Service). I should have put this as number one, but hopefully you're still reading. Gaia has basic prohibitions when roleplaying, some of these conditions being:
Pretty much keep it at about a "PG-13" rating and below as you never know who is reading or participating in these roleplays. A more detailed account of accepted Gaia content can be found here.
[7] Don't timeskip without warning! If everyone else is saying that they are wandering around the school during the afternoon on a Tuesday, don't go and say you're going to class on Wednesday morning. It shows that you are not paying attention to what is going on.
Instead, go find somebody who is lonely after school on that Tuesday afternoon and talk to them! Interactions make the roleplay!
And that's it! These are some basic starting points to make sure that you and those around you have fun roleplaying and look semi-literate doing it.
~KC
Edited 1-30-10: Changed wording in #6.
Edited 2-20-10: Changed Poll.
Edited 2-26-10: Added examples to #2.
Edited 4-19-10: Changed coloring so it was more appealing.
Edited 5-1-10: Added a few things to various rules.
Edited 6-18-10: Changed coloring again because it hurts my eyes.
Edited 2-3-11: Changed coloring, added mention of new Battle Rules.
The best policy for avoiding godmoding is the +1-1 policy. For every strength you give your character there is a weakness to balance it out. For example, my character Garin in our own Academy rp is very rich. Great, right? But, he's also very stuck-up and so most people hate his guts. Not so good. For every good thing there is a bad to balance him out.
However, sometimes the +1 -1 policy just doesn't apply. You can never give your character any powers that would obliterate (destroy) the world and/or everyone else in a few seconds. You can never make your character move so fast that they easily dodge whatever is aimed at them. And never give your character hidden powers that you don't mention in your profile but will miraculously pop up in the roleplay and give you the upper hand over any situation.
Powerplaying, on the other hand can be easier to avoid and yet harder in some situations. For the most part, it should easy enough to follow: I can move my character Garin, but I can't make Alcide4Were's character Kamina move around too. That's rude, and many roleplayers will ignore you and even kick you out of their roleplay if you take control of their character without permission.
When in the midst of a battle however this can become more difficult. How do you say you hit your enemy without controlling him/her? Look at the Rules for Battle a few posts down for our rules on this.
[5] Post more than just one sentence. For more experienced roleplayers this is easy, but for those just starting out this can be as daunting as writing a novel. But just so you know, "one-liners" are the bane of roleplayers. Because roleplaying depends upon the interactions of the characters to progress, just one sentence that says you are walking down a hallway gives other writers nothing to work with. You have to include an action, some dialogue, maybe even a little thinking to develop your character. Use descriptions; paint the world around you so that we can see what you do in your head.
Before you know it, you'll have typed up a whole paragraph! But if you just don't want to type that much then in general I would advise at least three sentences, and make sure these sentences are typed up nicely. There are really no limits as far as post length goes, but for semi-literate roleplays like the ones in this guild I try to cut it back to four-five paragraphs, or about thirty sentences, tops.
[6] Follow Gaia's TOS (Terms of Service). I should have put this as number one, but hopefully you're still reading. Gaia has basic prohibitions when roleplaying, some of these conditions being:
- Cybering- anything that is sexually explicit or rated "R"
Abusive comments towards other users- this means play nice kiddies.
Anything explicitly violent- going into detail about intestines spilling onto floors and such.
Spamming or trolling- random nonsense that has nothing to do with Gaia, the roleplay, or the guild.
Pretty much keep it at about a "PG-13" rating and below as you never know who is reading or participating in these roleplays. A more detailed account of accepted Gaia content can be found here.
[7] Don't timeskip without warning! If everyone else is saying that they are wandering around the school during the afternoon on a Tuesday, don't go and say you're going to class on Wednesday morning. It shows that you are not paying attention to what is going on.
Instead, go find somebody who is lonely after school on that Tuesday afternoon and talk to them! Interactions make the roleplay!
And that's it! These are some basic starting points to make sure that you and those around you have fun roleplaying and look semi-literate doing it.
~KC
Edited 1-30-10: Changed wording in #6.
Edited 2-20-10: Changed Poll.
Edited 2-26-10: Added examples to #2.
Edited 4-19-10: Changed coloring so it was more appealing.
Edited 5-1-10: Added a few things to various rules.
Edited 6-18-10: Changed coloring again because it hurts my eyes.
Edited 2-3-11: Changed coloring, added mention of new Battle Rules.
