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Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
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Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:56 PM
Post #1
2-in-1 Guide to RPs AND RPGs
WIP. However, you may post to ask me questions or give suggestions.
A big thank you to Orca2whale, my fellow roleplayer and roleplay gamer for helping me with this guide!
As well as GoldenNautilus for writing like a ton of the RP part xD
I could've sworn I left my sanity here...
Note: I have been RPG-ing a lot longer than RPing, so the second section is likely to be more accurate, lol.
Xedite's RPer Directory
Edited By Larkien on 6/19/2020 at 5:01 PM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:56 PM
Post #2
Table of Contents
~ So you don't have to go scrolling through that mess ~
Whoops. I broke something.
Link doesn't want to work :(
Edited By Canawlia on 11/5/2019 at 2:32 PM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:56 PM
Post #3
FAQ's
~ So you can get your questions answered first thing ~
Q: What's the difference between an RP and an RPG?
A: Well, there's a lot of them but I'd say the biggest is that in an RP, players control what happens to their characters and the host only guides the storyline slightly to keep things moving, while in an RPG, the players can only control their characters' actions and the narrator decides the outcome and how that affects the plot.
Q: What do RP and RPG stand for again?
A: RP - Roleplay. RPG - Roleplay (Role-Playing) Game. For the sake of convenience I will be using the abbreviations in this guide because I do not feel like repeatedly typing 'Role-Playing Game'.
Q: How do I join one?
A: Well, all you have to do is first ping the host or narrator with your completed sign-up form, no introductions needed! If you'd like to join the RP or RPG but don't have the time to fill out the form that instant and there's only a limited amount of spots, just ask them to save you a spot, most narrators/hosts will gladly do so. Just remember to come back later and properly sign up!
Q: What if it's my first time?
A: If it's your first time, don't be afraid to hop right in, there's no experience needed. If you let the host/narrator know, they might pass on some helpful tips to point you in the right direction, and tell you if you're doing anything wrong.
Q: Which one is better to start with?
A: Well, there isn't one that is easier than the other to begin with, because they're very different things. However RPs tend to be fast-paced and hectic to if you really want my opinion on that I'd say RPGs are a little easier to keep up with than RPs. But if you want to host one or the other, hosting an RP is easier.
Q: Why are people randomly pinging me on signups? Did I forget something?
A: Nope! Most likely this is an interest ping. More commonly found in RPs, people like to ping people they think might be interested in signing up for it.
Edited By Larkien on 3/8/2020 at 8:50 PM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:56 PM
Post #4
RP's
~ A summary of what they are ~
Well, I'm guessing you probably want to read this first if you have no idea what they are xD
An RP, short for roleplay, is a sort of text-based 'game' played with two or more people. In an RP, there is no concrete storyline, only a general outline of the story, and sometimes not even that. The players themselves drive the storyline with their characters' actions.
The host of an RP is the person who starts the RP and creates the outline. Their job is to keep things moving from time to time, as well as enforce the rules and tell players if they're doing something wrong. They are also playing the RP, like the other players.
The players of the RP do not have the power to kick other players or say that something should be done a certain way, but they do have power over what happens to their character and only their character. Players' characters can interact with other players' characters.
Roleplayers can have one or more characters in the RP, depending on the host's rules.
There are two different kinds of roleplaying, one is written like a script (Ex: Bob: *eats food* Yummy!) and the other is written like a story (Ex: Bob, eating the food, declared, "Yummy!" ).
Edited By Canawlia on 10/14/2019 at 4:47 PM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:56 PM
Post #5
General RP Rules and Stuff
~ What to do and not to do ~
These are basic things the host and players should do to keep the RP alive and fun.
For the Host 1. Move the RP along from time to time and make things happen, or it will die off pretty fast. If nothing interesting happens, people will tend to get bored with the roleplay and leave.
2. Enforce the rules. There's no point in telling people not to do or to do something if they don't actually do it. Tell people if they're making their characters OP or anything else.
3/ Don't tell the players what they can or cannot do if it is within the boundaries of the roleplay. I mean, of course this is totally fine if you want a non-magical RP so you ban magic use or something like that, but don't say something like "Well, Johnny isn't allowed to break the window because I said so and I'm the all-powerful host!" if Johnny is strong enough to break the window, the window is normal glass, and no one is stopping him.
For the Players 1. Do. Not. Control. Any. Characters. That. Are. Not. Your. Own. This is called godmodding and is very annoying to the person you're controlling and everyone else.
2. Much like the first rule, please do not make your character overpowered. Especially in fights, no one likes it when your character is magically invulnerable to 10 different people attacking them at once and being able to kill everyone by looking at them while summoning twenty lions out of nowhere.
Edited By Canawlia on 10/22/2019 at 12:12 AM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:57 PM
Post #6
How to Start/Run an RP
~ If you want to make your own ~
Congratulations! You've decided you have a great story idea and want to start a roleplay. But how do you go about doing that?
First things first, you'll have to find people to RP with. Go to the Find Roleplayers Forum and make a new thread.
Pick a name for your roleplay and enter the introduction/description of the roleplay. Things you should add in the introduction:
- Setting of the RP
- What roles the characters can be
- Whatever backstory or further explanation is needed.
- If it fits, you can also add a short 'prologue' stating what happened to the characters that made them end up here.
Then you'll want to add a sign-up form. If the characters can be in different roles, make multiple sign-up forms with adjustments as needed. Some basic things you should add in your sign-up form are:
- Name
- Age (possibly with boundaries)
- Gender
- Sexuality
- Personality
- Backstory (sometimes optional, depending on your preference)
- Image/Description
- Other (for anything else).
These are things usually found in sign-up forms, however below are some extra things you may add if you'd like (these can also be optional to fill out if you want):
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Crush (if you want some romance)
- Allies/Friends
- Enemies
And remember to change the form according to your RP and what fits it!
Now that you've done this, you can set some rules! Of course, you don't have to have rules, most roleplayers already know the basic rules in the above post. However, you can add rules to specify certain things, like:
- Number of characters a player can have
- Number of players this RP can have
- What your characters can or cannot be (ex: animal-human hybrid, mythical animals, over 18, etc.)
And a thing some hosts like to do to make sure people have read the rules is to tell the players to include something in their sign-up form, like their favorite food, a phrase, or a picture.
Now you've gotta do some waiting. For what? For people to sign up, of course! It shouldn't take very long, especially if you have a really interesting idea, around a day or two here, depending on how active everyone is. When someone signs up, look through their form. If everything looks good to you, let them know they're accepted. When you have a good amount (how many people you want is up to you usually at least five is good), you can get started with the fun stuff. And don't forget to make your own character to RP with yourself!
Make another thread for the actual RP. This time, it's going to be in the Roleplaying Forum.
First you'll want to copy and paste that same introduction you wrote in the other thread. Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to, but it's nice for reference.
Make a pinglist! This is practically a must for any RP. The pinglist is every player's usernames written out and separated with a comma, like this: Canawlia, Orca2whale, Lalalanmao, Icewing2 . This is used mostly in the beginning of a roleplay to ping every player in case some missed the starting off the RP thread. This can also be used if a player is looking for someone to interact with their character, if someone has an announcement to make, or every once in a while to remind inactive players that the RP is still there. Keep in mind that it is not meant to be used every single post, as getting a ton of pings from every time someone posts on that thread, whether it's relevant to you or not, is annoying.
And it's helpful to list who's who. It's nice to have a reference list of who is playing which character, and other important stuff like the character's role, age, etc, and as always, whatever is relevant to the RP.
Now it's time to actually do the roleplaying. You can do the first post yourself or let anyone start when they want to. Just say what your character is doing to begin with and it'll get going by itself.
But don't forget that you have to keep things going. As the host of an RP rather than an RPG, you have less work, but you still have to keep it alive. Make things happen to move the plot along. I'll admit that I'm guilty of forgetting to do this xD. The players will get bored if nothing interesting happens. Throw in a bad guy, make something unexpected happen. At the very least, you have to make time pass. There's a limit to how much can happen in a day.
And here's some other stuff you should keep in mind.
- Your RP will die eventually. There are some pretty long-running ones out there, but inevitably people will get bored and leave eventually, so there's no point obsessing over it and trying to make everyone stay. If you really want to, wait a bit and reboot it later. People will probably join again if they liked it.
- You don't have to worry about not being there all the time. If you leave to go to sleep, it's not going to automatically die. It will still be there in the morning so put your irl things first.
...
...
I wrote all of that on a tiny tablet...
Edited By Canawlia on 11/7/2019 at 7:56 PM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:57 PM
Post #7
How to do the RP Itself
~ Probably the most important ~
- When you're actually doing the roleplay, it's important to try and keep up. (Again, me being hypocritical.) If you can, at least post once a day. If no one in the roleplay ever posted, then, well, I'm sure you can see what would happen.
- Using the pinglist: Most RPs should have a pinglist consisting of all the users in the roleplay. However, you should NOT use this all the time. Waking up to 53 pings is not ideal for the other roleplayers. The times when you should use the pinglist are: in the beginning of the roleplay, when everyone is getting used to the situation, or if you are not currently interacting with any other roleplayers.
- That brings us to another important part: interaction! Interaction is one of the main parts of the roleplay, when characters interact with each other, of course. After all, what's the fun if all you do is walk around alone? You might as well be roleplaying with yourself. While not everything is interaction, such as if your character is doing something shady behind everyone else's backs, you'll have to make interactions eventually, as you would in real life.
- It's always good to write more than one sentence at a time when you roleplay, especially at the beginning. The more detail and things you can pour in to make it more realistic, the better! Obviously, don't go overboard and make every single post a novel, but 2-3 paragraphs is still perfectly reasonable. Of course, you don't have to write 2-3 paragraphs every post, but if your character is not answer a question or holding a conversation, describing their feelings and surroundings makes up for it.
- More than one character? No problem! In fact, it's pretty common to have 2 characters or even more than that in an RP, that way, you can be interacting with multiple people at once. In fact, at one point I believe I had five... If you're new to roleplaying, one might be better so you can get the hang of things, but it isn't very difficult to control more than one - just try not to ignore one of them.
- First or third person? Well, this really depends on your preferences and situation. If you're doing a PRP (or private roleplay), you can work the details out with your group. However, most open RPs recommend third person, as it can be difficult to keep track of who you are (especially if there are a lot of people) if you only refer to your character as "I". And obviously, never use first person if you're playing more than one character.
Speaking of PRPs...
Q: What is a PRP?
A: Well, PRP stands for 'Private Roleplay'. It's usually an exclusive roleplay between you and only a few other people, maybe even only one other person.
Q: How do I start one?
A: Well, all you have to do is ask the other people you want to RP with if they'd like to do a private roleplay. Most of them will say yes, because us roleplayers have nothing better to do (yes, I'm kidding :D). Then you (usually) make a forum thread, label it "PRP" or something like that, and work out the details on the thread.
Q: Do PRPs have to have sign-up forms?
A: Since it's usually just two or three people, there's no need for formalities such as forms that you'd usually need in a normal RP, and most PRPers will be playing more than one character, as well as the side characters. So if it's a main character, then I would suggest doing a sign-up form for each one just to make things easier to keep track of, but there's no need to use a sign-up form for a random side character that only appears in the PRP for a short time.
Q: Do PRPs have a set storyline?
A: As I said earlier, PRPs are usually less formal and the storyline tends to be a bit more flexible. However, most PRPers decide on a basic outline before actually beginning the PRP, as well as deciding what happens next.
Edited By Canawlia on 11/16/2019 at 1:59 PM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:57 PM
Post #8
RP Etiquette
~ Be courteous! ~
Written by GoldenNautilus
- Don't godmod. As mentioned above, it's unfair and annoying to other players. You control your character and no one else's
- Don't use powerplay. This is similar to godmodding and is when you, for example, say, "I kick you and you can't dodge." Again, very unfair to other players.
- Follow any guidelines given by the host. They're in place to keep the roleplay fun for everyone. If they say no to something, it means no.
- Try not to post more than once in a row when replying to one person. Just edit the original post instead. Getting repeated pings from the same person is pretty annoying, especially in more active RPs.
- Check with other players before you time skip. No one wants to wake up and find out 10 RP days passed without them. This is partly why many people drop out.
- Ideally, type a little more than a five letter sentence when replying. There are exceptions (ex. yes or no questions or possibly dialogue), but give the other player something to work with, especially when you're walking around or something interesting is happening. Of course, everyone gets writer's block now and then, so it's alright once in a while.
- Use proper grammar and spelling to the best of your ability. Mistakes are okay, but don't make it a habit. Roleplays are stories, so keep them readable!
- Don't talk in "text slang" (i.e. "tfw you hear a bad pun lmao btw do you like jokes irl?") Again, readability! Especially in dialogue, no one talks like that.
- When you play a character, try to stay true to what you submitted in the form. Characters do change and develop gradually over time, but avoid abrupt personality swings. It's a bit confusing when the shy person abruptly socks the bully in the nose and struts away like a peacock.
- Keep secrets secret for a while. It's very annoying when your character has a secret and somebody instantly finds you out. (ex. Albert has hidden just treasure, and Tom instantly stumbles upon it several posts later, or Bob has a secret hideout in a forgotten closet but whaddya know, someone finds it 10 RP minutes later!) Ideally, let the other player reveal their own secrets.
- Keep personal arguments off of roleplay threads. If you and another player must argue, take it to either the sign-ups or the PM inbox. It tends to clog up the RP thread and people don't want to see that.
- Not all roleplayers are fond of more mature content (swearing, dirty humor, excessive gore, etc.). Please respect these people by keeping swearing and injury descriptions mild, and omitting NSFW content entirely. At least put a warning at the top of your post if the RP absolutely calls for that.
- Hate the character, not the player. It's always fun to play an antagonistic character, and just because the character is mean and spiteful doesn't mean the person playing them is.
- Please don't make all of your OCs have the most dark, edgy stories in existence. Sure, life isn't all happy and it wouldn't be realistic for everyone to have a perfect life, espeially if the RP is a dark one, but it gets annoying VERY quickly if everyone has some super traumatic backstory. (Sorry, that's a pet peeve of mine - Lark)
Thank you to GoldenNautilus for coming up with all of that ^^, it's much better than I could've written
Edited By Larkien on 6/19/2020 at 4:59 PM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:57 PM
Post #9
Other Lovely Stuff
~ Tips and tricks ~
- Murdering your OCs is more fun than it sounds.
- Don't take that seriously, but yea. Depends on the OC, really.
Edited By Canawlia on 10/17/2019 at 8:41 PM.
Larkian
Level 75
The Tactician
Joined: 5/15/2018
Threads: 104
Posts: 16,999
Posted: 10/13/2019 at 9:57 PM
Post #10
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