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Sara's Roleplays
Welcome to Sara's forums! If you haven't done so already, please register using the button on the top right corner (or at the bottom of this message) in order to continue. Also remember to read the rules, and if you have any questions, ask a question in the FAQs section, or read previous asked questions. After that, post in the Introductory forum to introduce yourself and say 'hi' to all the other members. Thanks for joining!

If you're not sure if you want to join or not, feel free to post on the "Guest House" forum. Our members would be glad to talk with you.

If you're already a member, welcome back! But you should probably log in so you're not posting as a guest.

Thanks!

-Sara and the staff
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 How to Roleplay -- The Guide

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bakagamine
The Flying Monkey
The Flying Monkey
bakagamine


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Join date : 2012-01-04
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How to Roleplay -- The Guide  Empty
PostSubject: How to Roleplay -- The Guide    How to Roleplay -- The Guide  EmptySun Sep 02, 2012 3:19 am

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What IS Roleplay? ::
Simple. You can look at Role Playing as writing a story, almost. You are creating a character, and acting it out using literary strategies. For example, this is a role play post:

Quote :
Stacia said:
Coal dodged a swift attack, countering it with a series of shots aimed carefully at the Kishin's vital points. If shot at any normal person, they would have been gone instantly. The issue with this guy was that he wasn't normal; he was pure evil. And pure evil tended to be just a little superhuman.
Korou's concerned holler broke the clamor of howls, grunts, and shots, reaching Coal's eardrums right at the moment the enemy nicked his arm. The battle had been raging for nearly 2 minutes now, but Coal had somehow remained a step ahead of the strategy the entire time.
He had concluded that this Egg in particular was rather dumb.

Soul Eater reference

Now, of course, there are several different ways to role play. If you're a writer, you'll know what I mean when I say there's first person, second person, and third person. They're also past and present tense. The choices are endless, but it all come down to which fancies you best.

So let's go into depth about each one, and decide which fits you topmost.


First Person ;;

First person is role playing as if you yourself is telling the story. You will use words like "I" and "me" and your role playing with look something like this.

Quote :
Sara said:
As I walked up the hill, I realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal who was nearly always singing from the top of the maple tree. I thought I saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when I looked again it was gone. Still, I shuddered as I felt a silent threat pass over me like a cloud over the sun. Something wasn't right.


I like this point of view because it gives the other role players a feel for just what exactly your character is feeling. However, this can be just as easily pursued in other persons, so we will continue on.
The one thing you have to be careful about when using first person narrative is that your readers only know as much as your character does. You cannot go out of character, and say something along the lines of,


Quote :
As I walked up the hill, I realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal who was nearly always singing from the top of the maple tree. I thought I saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when I looked again it was gone. Still, I shuddered as I felt a silent threat pass over me like a cloud over the sun. Something wasn't right, but soon I'd find out that it really was a lion.


Or something of that order.
That is what makes first person difficult -- that, and getting deep into your character. However, that is also what makes first person so cool.


Second Person ;;

I, for one, am not fond of second person and am banning users from using it. It is simply confusing, and normally only used for introductions and such. You will not see it very often, but when you do, it will look something like this:

Quote :
Ally said:
As you walk up the hill, you realize that the atmosphere's just too quiet. There's no sound from the cardinal you know is almost always singing from the top of the maple tree. You think you see a shadow move high up on the slope, but when you look again it's gone. You shudder as you feel a silent threat pass over you. You feel cold, like a cloud just passed over the sun.


Again, I am not a fan of this tense, and will warn anyone who uses it during role play. It's confusing.


Third Person ;;

This is the most frequently used tense during role play. This is a narrative style, and tends to be the easiest.

Here is an example of third person role play.


Quote :
Claire said:
As she walked up the hill, she realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal who she so often heard singing from the top of the maple tree. She thought she saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when she looked again it was gone. Nevertheless, she shuddered as she felt a silent threat pass over her. It felt like a cloud creeping over the sun.

Also, the role play post with the character Coal is in third person. This is another good way to get deep in your character, but you have to know how to.


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Please, for the love of God. Try your best.
Firstly, I'll set up my expectations for grammar. Number one; sentences. I expect modifiers in those babies, hon! I wanna know every last detail of how she laughed, or the color of the blood as it streamed down her dirty face. Every sentence contains a subject and a verb, but I don't want posts like this:


Quote :
"Astrid walked. She turned to Jaye. "Hello." She greeted."


Yeaaaa no.
Next, I see this a lot. CHILDREN! What did we learn in the third grade?! Proper nouns are CAPITALIZED! "Sam; I; Empire State Building". Your sentences start with a CAPITAL letter and end with a PERIOD. This brings up the next thing; punctuation. Commas. Use them. CORRECTLY. If you still can't do this, then hell, go back and pass third grade English. Another thing is those pesky sound-alikes. Know your "to"s, "theirs" etc. "To" is a direction, "Too" means 'also', and "Two" is a number. "There" is a direction, "Their" is possessive, and "They're" is the compound for "They are". This is a massive pet-peeve of mine. Get it down. One last thing is spelling. If you aren't sure, check it with a dictionary, the Internet, etc. I understand slips sometimes; typos and such. But at least TRY.
Now, secondly...literacy. I can't stress it enough. I am expecting at the very LEAST four sentences in every role play post. I want deep writing, full of thought and passion. I don't want novels, but I DO want intelligence. I will warn you if you are not meeting my expectations!

Here is an example of good role playing.

Quote :
Oceanna's feet ached, arms pumping at her sides, chest heaving. Her lungs seemed to be having a difficult time inhaling, as if rocks were lodged inside them. Dammit! she spat to herself, teeth gritting down to the core of her gums, determination blazing in her blue eyes. I can't let them catch me! But her commands seemed useless. Time was running out, and the darkness cast off of the surrounding buildings was closing in. If only they would give her enough time to stop, then maybe she could draw some form of Transmutation Circle...but that hope seemed lost; lost within that cruel mass of ebony that chased her like a raving pack of wolves.

Not only does this give you a good feeling of how the character feels, but it also puts you in the scene, and gives you a glimpse into her thoughts and personal feelings.

This is an example of bad role playing.

Quote :
Oceanna gasped. She kept running but was getting tired hopefully they didn't catch her. She kept telling herself 2 run but the enemy was to close. She was gooing to get caught.

Not only is the grammar and spelling terrible, but the role playing is just seriously bad-quality.

I also don't want any of this.


Quote :
*walks over to Tate* Hey. *laughs*

Just no.
K?
No.


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This is also referred to as "God-modding". It is where a role player takes over the other role players character, predicting and/or playing out how the other character will react. In the most common cases, it will look something like this:

Quote :

Patricia gritted her teeth, blue eyes blazing with anger. That was the last straw; no one called her stupid and got away with it. She raised the blade of her knife and brought it down on Aaron's throat, grinning triumphantly at her killing blow.


Do you see how you just controlled the other person's character? What if the other person had decided to make their character dodge? Hm? This is the case of powerplaying, and it will not be tolerated.

To avoid powerplaying, use OOC to consult with the other role player and plot the outcome of the event.
Here is an example of how the previous role player could have handled the situation.


Quote :
Patricia gritted her teeth, blue eyes blazing with anger. That was the last straw; no one called her stupid and got away with it. She raised the blade of her knife, readying herself to bring it down upon Aaron's throat.
OOC: Do you want Patricia to end up stabbing him? Or do you want him to dodge?


And then the other role player,
Quote :
OOC: Let's have her miss.
Aaron snarled, rolling several times to get away from her and that fatal blade.


OOC is a good way to communicate with others, but I want it used correctly.
Firstly,
OOC MUST be defined. If you're role playing, and just randomly begin talking about how your dog looks funny, people will get confused.
So that being said, use brackets or "OOC". Acceptable OOC would be (), [], {}, ||, ~~, ::, <>, /\, --, etc.
But nothing confusing, like $$, @@, or ##. Keep it simple, and easy. You can also, again, simply say "OOC:".
However, once you jump back into role play, remember to define it using "BIC" (Back in Character).

If you have anymore questions concerning Role Play, please contact either myself, or any of the other staff members.


Keep it Cool,
-- Stacia

This topic was copied and pasted from my own forum, which is based on Fullmetal Alchemist. If there's any FMA references in here, I'm sorry I didn't catch them. It should be beneficial anyways ^^
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