Thistle
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Every Rose Has Its Thorns
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Joined: Sept 2007
Gender: Female 
Posts: 23
|  | {Handbook} Thistle's Guide to Roleplay
« Thread Started on Sept 12, 2007, 4:11pm » | |
Thistle's Guide to Better Roleplaying
Part I: Terminology
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[[ Roleplay ]] In a personalized explanation, roleplaying is the use of creative minds and one’s own extent of ideas and vocabulary to construct a plot using characters of any gender, species, color, or element. It is an ongoing story book with multiple authors and plots.
[[ Private; P; Closed ]] Means private Role-play. The only people to be posting in the thread are those involved or with out of character permission.
[[ Open; O; AW ]] Means All Welcome, so the topic is free for anyone to jump in on.
[[ OOC ]] The abbreviation for Out of Character, meaning that no roleplaying is involved, and the character’s creator is speaking to the public on general terms and not with the character. This is often a tag used before or after the actual roleplaying post to designate specific details or make comments.
[[ IC ]] In character, meaning that the character you are using is speaking, acting, or performing all activity that falls under roleplay, excluding conversations of reality.
[[ Powerplay; Godmode ]] Some might describe it as being indestructible or overly powerful. But to break it down as I see it, it might be properly said to be the unfairness of spars, battles, or wars. Immortality is not possible in most wolves, nor is it fair to say that you have no faults. Every character should be somewhat realistic in that it has it’s strengths and weaknesses. A description of a true Power-player’s character might be as follows:
:: Faster than the speed of light with an impenetrable pelt of steel and sinew and top-of-the-line, unbeatable senses. He can see through things, read minds, and control all the elements.
That is... not acceptable. I mean, you have the free will to do such things, but I can assure you, it’s not the popular way to Roleplay or make good first impressions.
An example of a powerplaying post is as such:
:: Wolf 1 hits Wolf 2 in the side, knocking the air out of him and clawing through his tender flesh.
This is controlling how Wolf 2 reacts. No one possesses the right to determine how the opponent responds or moves, especially in battles. The proper way to correct this would be the following:
:: *Wolf 1* He moves toward Wolf 2 swiftly, striking out and attempting to harm him with his claws.
:: *Wolf 2* He dodges the attack, but cannot elude the small scratch along his shoulder.
In this example, it was an even and fair deal. Wolf 2 was able to decide how he would react, and Wolf 1 was polite in allowing that. In any manner, powerplaying is frowned upon in most communities unless both parties agree on some powerplay actions if it aids in the process of furthering the thread.
Part II: Length & Description
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The basics of being a good roleplayer include, first of all, the desire and devotion to actually participate in the plots going on. If you don’t have fun roleplaying, then don’t partake in it. Don’t ever give up. If you’re a beginner, we have absolutely nothing against you! We’re glad you’ve come to perhaps learn and increase your experience. Putting forth the effort to try and learn from mistakes and from other experienced members is a key to becoming successful. For those who find use for it, here are a few guidelines you might use to increase your descriptiveness and length in a post, as well as the potential to get more views.
[x] Use a spell checker to make sure your posts are legible and able to be understood. Always be sure the names of the characters you are interacting with are spelled correctly, as that can sometimes be irksome.
[x] A thesaurus can be helpful, so as not to become literarily redundant with word usage, but don't go over the top or people may not enjoy reading the posts.
[x] Try to create a sense of poetic flowing of the words. This is usually achieved with experience as long as you keep trying.
[x] Look up words you don’t know that you see lingering around. It’ll stick with you, and add to your vocabulary.
[x] Be socially active and helpful when possible. We love to see people willing to lend a helping paw.
[x] Re-read any of your posts to correct grammatical and spelling errors. Double-check words if you’re not sure you have used them correctly in a sentence.
[x] Use punctuation! It’s hard to understand what’s being said and done when the sentences run together. You don't have to correctly punctuate everything as long as you end each sentence, using commas to combine some of the shorter ones if possible.
[x] Avoid slang usage and netspeak in both IC and OOC conversations... It gets rather annoying sometimes. Lol, rofl, stfu, wtf and such are okay, but 'u', 'y', 'r', and 'ur' are abbreviations for three and four letter words. Honestly, is it really that complicated to type a few more letters?
[x] Elaborate! Be descriptive in your posts! What is your character doing, seeing, feeling, thinking, tasting, smelling, hearing? The best way to ensure length and descriptiveness in a post is to, in your mind, actually become the character and see through it’s perspective.
[x] Inspire yourself with music or images, maybe even poetry. Whatever provokes your creativity for a certain character, use it! It helps.
[x] Challenge yourself with a word minimum. If you really want to add length, set a high word minimum for around 800 to 1,000 words, and don't stop writing and describing things until you reach that amount! Use a word processor with Word Count or find one for free online.
[x] When all else fails, use imagination. Not much to describe about your character? Let something totally random happen in your post. If you can't describe yourself, describe something else! Show us how you perceive another person's character, or throw in a random animal/object for it to observe. Detail the frenzied actions of a nearby squirrel searching for acorns. Exercise your mind!
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