KitC’s Roleplaying 101 course

[KitClairvoyance]

Version 1.2

This is a guide for roleplayers, new and experienced alike. No, it wasn't created for GW2. It's just a coincidence that GW2 happened to come around when I was ready to release the first module. It's for roleplaying in general, really.

The course is divided into six modules as follows. Each module contains a tutorial explaining different aspects of roleplaying, and by the time everything is up and complete, it should be comprehensive enough to turn anyone into a decent roleplayer. Hopefully.

Along with the modules, I'll be willing to take a few roleplayers under my wing for guidance. This is partly to help me with writing the later parts of the course. Anyone who's interested just needs to PM me, along with at least 3 roleplay post samples. If you don't have that, a sample of writing will do. If there's a fair response, I'll probably make it a regular thing. Roleplayers under my guidance will pretty much have me to guide them through the process of roleplaying effectively. The guidance given really depends on the roleplayer's level. I'll be content to get the basics down with new roleplayers, and for the more developed roleplayers, I'll try to get the finer points of roleplaying across. Selection will not be a first-come, first-serve basis, but dependant upon the posts you submit. I'll want to take in a range of levels, not all new roleplayers or all advanced. And yes, this is open to all guilds. Knights just have a slight preference, that's all.


Module 1: Character creation - part 1

• Description.
  
• Personality – part 1
  
• Abilities
  
• Backstory
  
• General do’s and don’ts
  

Module 2: Character creation – part 2

• The little details
  
• Personality – part 2
  
• Likes/Dislikes
  
• Development
  

Module 3: Roleplay posting – part 1

• Basics
  
• Courtesy
  
• Length – part 1
  
• OOC
  

Module 4: Roleplay posting – part 2

• Bad habits
  
• Plot – part 1
  
• Response
  

Module 5: Roleplay posting – part 3

• Details – part 2
  
• Plot – part 2
  
• Involvement
  

Module 6: Weapons, magic, and fighting

• Research
  
• Realism
  
• Parallelism
  
• Winning/Losing
  

[KitClairvoyance]

Module 1: Character Creation – part 1

Introduction:

There are different opinions as to where a roleplay starts. Some people say that a roleplay starts with a plot, some people say that a roleplay starts with a character. I’m personally of the latter opinion. Still, regardless of which school of thought you subscribe to; good, well-developed characters are essential for a successful roleplay to happen. A mistake novice roleplayers often make is to jump into a roleplay with an undeveloped character. A roleplayer’s character is his/her interface to the roleplay, and the strength of a character determines how big a role the roleplayer will play in the roleplay.

A character’s strength does not refer to his/her actual physical/magical/intellectual strength (in fact; quite often it is the very powerful characters that are the weakest character-wise), but rather, to the extent that the character has been developed.

One of the more influential aspects of a character development is the amount of effort put in to the creation of a character. A poorly created character is much harder to develop than a well-crafted one, quite simply because a poorly created character often doesn’t have much chance for development.

Also, character creation isn’t only for new characters, even existing characters can benefit from revisions made to their originals.

The easiest way of creating a good character is by drawing up a character sheet for him/her. Most roleplays even request that you submit a character sheet before joining, and even if one doesn’t, it is always a good idea to create one. After all, character sheets provides coherency and consistiency to a character, and is rather vital to characters that you plan to use for a long time .The details contained in a character sheet vary from roleplayer to roleplayer, but there are a few more common fields:

• Description/Personality
  
• Abilities/Traits
  
• Backstory
  

Description and Personality:

A good description should accomplish two things: it should give other roleplayers a good mental image of what your character is like, and it should establish a strong feel for your character.

The first is very important when joining a roleplay; quite often the description of your character is what other roleplayers draw from when their characters first meet yours. How a roleplayer’s character might react to your character depends on your character’s description. It’s not uncommon for me to spend a good half of an hour poring over another roleplayer’s character’s description to decide how my character might react to him/her, or what features my character might find interesting. The more well-written a character’s description is, the more I have to work with, and the more I have to work with, the easier it is for me to respond to you, and to include you in the roleplay.

The second is more important for you yourself as a roleplayer than it is for other roleplayers. To be able to successfully roleplay as a character, you must first know your character. A common mistake new roleplayers make when writing their character’s description is to focus solely on their character’s physical appearance, and overlook their character’s personality, which really is what defines a character. A character without personality tends to be incoherent and rather uninteresting.

Writing a character’s description is pretty much like writing a roleplay post, except that the focus is on the character, rather than the character’s actions. One of the easiest ways to start a description would be to start from the top of your character and describe him/her all the way down to the feet. While writing the description, treat it like any piece of writing. Vary your sentence structure, show and don’t tell, and try to blend the character’s personality into their physical description.

So, let’s say we want to create a character for no specific roleplay. The physical description of the character is where I would begin, because often, a character’s personality will begin to take shape during this phase.

An example of a good, basic description:

Soft and straight, Arcia’s light hazel hair reaches down to spill over her shoulders and onto her midnight-blue dress, framing her thin face with a touch of elegance. Small, lightly set golden eyes sit evenly apart, her eyelashes short and neatly curled away from her. The painting of a butterfly adorns her face, the body starting at the bridge of her nose and the wings flaring out in a display of blues, purples, greens and reds; her eyes as part of the wings.

The base of her neck is ringed by a floral design; inked in blue, each detail of the design of leaves and small flowers accurately painted, from the veins of the leaves to the individual petals of the flowers, all joined by a single vine.

Long white gloves cover her arms, leaving only the bare skin of her shoulders visible. Her fingers are long and delicate, their movements precise from years of playing the piano. Her dress itself begins with a keyhole neckline, the fabric flowing gently over her body to her ankles. Small diamonds adorn the neckline of her dress, a Chrysanthemum threaded in gold along the hip of the dress.

Her feet are left bare, a statement of her love towards the natural, along with an anklet made from a chain of buttercups, strung around her right ankle.

When I started this description, I had very few things in mind for Arcia. I wanted her to be of the upper class, elegant, and refined. Other than that, I just wanted to see where the description took me. This is where paying attention to details pays off. The more details you add to their physical description, the more likely it is that your character will come out with his or her personality. By the time I had reached the description of the decoration on her neck, Arcia’s personality had begun to take hold.

It’s the same for most of my other characters. Kit’s insomnia and constant tiredness came when I wrote his description for the Knight’s guild; taken from my decision to make him pale skinned. Kya’s affinity for nature came during her description write-up. In essence, the more effort you place in getting the details down, the more interesting a personality you will get.

A point to make here is that when writing descriptions, try to stay away from the overused character types. Examples of which are expert swordsmen, spellcasting prodigies, and vampires that do nothing but try to look badass all day long. It’s not to say that they make bad characters, I’ve seen wonderful roleplays using them, but more often that not, they lead to generic, stereotyped characters which tend to be terribly bland and uninteresting.

Now, back to Arcia. From the description above, we can already pick out several distinct points of her personality. The most obvious is that she would have the polite, refined mannerisms of one from the upper class. She would most certainly own a garden, and she might be of the reclusive type. Her rather unique adornments would mean that she is of a very high social standing, or perhaps an outcast. All these details will be fleshed out more and explored in the next little section, a character’s abilities and traits; but from them alone it’s already possible to see her character developing.


Abilities and Traits:

A character’s abilities and traits refer to the skills that he or she has, and to the aspects of his or her character that sets that character apart from the rest. Some roleplayers separate this from their character’s description; while others tend to mix it in. Either way, having a good idea of what your character is like, and what he or she can do makes that character so much more interesting and fun to roleplay as.

When deciding on what abilities to give a character, it’s important to stick close to your description. Quite often, novice roleplayers give their characters abilities that doesn’t make much sense based on the character’s given description for the sole reason that it works for them at that particular point in the roleplay, or because it’s just cool. Yes, it makes sense for a pirate to be able to swim strongly for a long period of time, or to be able to fish for food. No, it doesn’t make sense for a pirate to be able to track an animal through a jungle unless he or she had been trained to do so. Give reason for your character’s abilities, and make it as realistic as possible. Also, do some research into the abilities your character will have. More often than not, you’ll find a more suitable alternative to what you had in mind in the first place. It also gives you a grasp of how long it takes to acquire that ability, and the effort needed to maintain it.

For example: Any form of fighting takes years to learn, and requires constant practice to stay sharp. It would make sense for a character to be able to use certain weapons with a good proficiency level. It might make sense for a character to be able to use all weapons with a good proficiency level, as long as he or she is devoted to the craft. It makes no sense however, that a character can pick up any weapon at any given moment and wield it effectively unless he or she has had training in its usage. Neither does it make sense to have a character be a weapons master and still manage to use lots of magic. Yes, you can argue that magic is an innate skill, and is given almost from birth. But so is running, and it takes a sprinter years and years of practice to hone that particular skill to be able to run as fast as he or she can.

In short, try not to give your character too many abilities. I find it best to give a character one area of expertise, and a few side areas that are related to the character. Like having a mage who is adept at Earth-based spells, and who also can perform Geomancy and/or has a good knowledge of geology.

A character’s traits, on the other hand, are derived from that character’s background. It could be a birth defect, hatred towards a particular subject, a limp in that character’s walk; stuff that in general is not part of the character’s active training, but is picked up passively from life. These give colour to a character, separating them from the generic mould. It’s also something that is commonly overlooked by most new roleplayers.

Now, taking Arcia’s description, we can begin to flesh out her character more with abilities and traits.

Firstly, it’s obvious that she isn’t the kind of character to be involved in a fight, so we can rule out any combat abilities altogether. It has been said in the description that she plays the piano, so it’s plausible that she’s an excellent pianist.

Diving a little deeper into her personality, we’ve already said that she’s either a person of high social standing or an outcast. I’m more inclined to go with the latter, because it gives an interesting path for development. So we say she’s an outcast, but for what reason? It has to be something that makes her incapable of interacting socially with other people, so I’m going to say that she is mute from birth.

A note of caution, when giving your characters disabilities, be absolutely sure that you can roleplay them effectively. More often than not, I like to compensate the loss of one sense with the gain of another, to retain the character’s flexibility.

Now her character is coming out wonderfully. Her liking for nature would be derived from her social exclusion. She would most certainly end up spending a lot of time in her garden, whereby she’d gain knowledge in botany and herbology. This leads me to consider an interesting ability, which is to empathise with plants. It would add an interesting dimension to her character and compensate for her loss of speech.

So, to summarise all that, we have:

Abilities

• Botanical empathy
  
• Botanical knowledge
  
• Pianist
  

Traits

• Mute
  
• Upper class citizen
  
• Refined manners
  

Now, to take a step back and look at what just happened. The details that were written into Arcia’s description gave hints as to her general personality, and from there we came up with some plausible abilities that she might have. As those details built up, we began to see different possibilities in her character, each giving us different paths for development.

In general, the more details that you have in your character’s description, the deeper you’ll be able to go into developing his or her personality, which makes for a more interesting character. Another importance of a detailed description is that it provides coherency in a character. Each of Arcia’s abilities and traits clicked together nicely with each other and with her character in general. Take time to explore the different possibilities with your character’s description, and you’ll find a good character at the end of the road.

Once you have decided on your character’s abilities and traits, you can work it into the description to make the description more interesting, or you can leave it aside for your own reference. If you have time, I do recommend that you work it into your character’s description, because an interesting description goes a long way in helping other roleplayers interact with your character.


Backstory:

A character’s backstory, or history, is an important part of any profile. It gives them a reason for being the way they are, and quite often you can pick up more interesting parts of a character’s personality from his or her backstory. Never skimp out on this part of the profile and say that your character’s history is unknown. It is plausible that other characters do not know about your character’s history, but your character should know his or her history. The only exception I can think of is if your character is an amnesiac. Have fun trying to roleplay that.

The backstory should link everything about the character together, from his or her description, personality to that character’s abilities. It should explain how they got to where they are. If your character is a rogue ninja, then the backstory should explain why he or she went rogue. If your character is a kitten-collecting nun, then the backstory should explain why your character is a nun, and why kittens.

When writing a character’s backstory, I find it best to move in chronological order forward from when the character was very young. As with the description, try to steer away from overused character backgrounds. Like having parents killed when he or she was a small kid. Please don’t do that. Please? Be imaginative with this.

An example of a good backstory:

Ever since birth, Arcia couldn’t speak. The doctors knew something was wrong when she didn’t cry not long after being born. At first they put it down to a late development in her vocal chords, but after a year of silence, the truth sank in. Acceptance came hard to her father, who owned an extensive diamond mining company. At first he sent her to the best surgeons money could find, only to have her turned away at each one. She’s too young, they said, too young for such a major operation.

Little Arcia herself didn’t see what the whole fuss was about. She learned early on that the plants around her responded to her touch, and often her father would watch sadly as she played with a leaf, her mouth smiling in a silent giggle.

Eventually, he decided that if he couldn’t give her speech, he would give her the one thing she seemed to love the most. He built a large garden for her and filled it with all the plants that would grow in it. Roses, buttercups, daisies, coconut trees, lavender, thyme, and more. He raised his daughter in that garden, away from the world that would cruelly exclude her.

Like the plants around her, she flourished and grew quickly, but never left the garden. She knew each plant, and could identify a plant from a single leaf. She also discovered a liking for the piano, sparked one day when one of her father played it for her. When her father left to attend to his business and family during the day, she would content herself by playing the piano, finding that the plants around her would sing in tune with her melodies.

As the years passed by, her father never forgot her. He would drop by each week to visit her, play with her and bring her supplies. Still, she often wondered where her father went to after each visit, where the birds came from, and what was beyond the large hedge wall.

I find it amusing how ideas change themselves during the transfer from mind to paper. Initially I thought I’d have her father be ashamed of her, and seal her in the garden so the world would never find out about her. In the end, he ended up being a nice guy. Ah well.

Anyway, the point of this is that the backstory gives us an insight into what Arcia’s perception of the world will be like. For one, most of the world would be unfamiliar and strange to her, but she will be able to relate through music and nature. This in turn will affect how she interacts with other characters, an important aspect in roleplaying.

I cannot stress how important a character’s backstory is, really. Even if it’s just a brief concept, it goes a long way in adding an extra dimension to a character. After all, a lot of us are shaped in some way or another by events in our past, and the same holds true for roleplay characters.

And at the end of the whole thing, I now have a new roleplay character that is fairly well developed, and is ready to go into any roleplay.


General do’s and don’ts:

To summarise all that:

Do:

• Be generous on detail when writing a character’s description.
  
• Take time to research different aspects of a character.
  
• Be creative.
  
• Have reasons for giving characters certain abilities and traits.
  
• Be reasonable with the amount of abilities you give your characters.
  
• Write a backstory.
  

Don’t:

• Be generic with description
  
• Leave out a character’s abilities for later. More often than not, you’ll end up creating them when the need arises, which is technically godmoding.
  
• Dismiss a backstory as unimportant. Please don’t.
  

[KitClairvoyance]

Reserved for Module 2

[KitClairvoyance]

Module 3: Roleplay Posting – part 1

Introduction:

There’s no use having a wonderful roleplaying character if you’re not going to use him or her in a roleplay. And to use him or her in a roleplay effectively, there needs to be an understanding of the basic principles that underlie any roleplay. It doesn’t matter if you’re roleplaying on a forum, in a chatroom, or on a MUD; the principles still apply. A good roleplayer can take a poorly created character and still manage to pull off a wonderful roleplay, and likewise, a poor roleplayer can take an excellent character and manage to somehow ruin a roleplay. Which annoys everyone. Or me, at the very least.

To roleplay well is to roleplay effectively. To roleplay effectively is to accomplish several things. A good roleplayer first of all drives the roleplay forward. It’s very possible to spend 12 pages of roleplaying and accomplish nothing. It’s also possible to have a wonderful roleplay completed in less than 10 pages. It all depends on how good the roleplayers are. A good roleplayer also actively involves his or her character in the roleplay, and makes other roleplayers feel involved. There is nothing more frustrating than a roleplayer who only cares about his or her character. Not only does it make driving the roleplay forward much more difficult, it makes responding to him or her terribly hard. Finally, a good roleplayer knows how to keep the roleplay interesting. As long as there are good roleplayers, there is no need to worry about a roleplay dying. Assuming external factors like life don’t come into play.

Before going on, I’d like to dispel the notion that roleplaying is just like writing a story. There is a difference between a massively collaborated story, and a true roleplay. Stories are ultimately plot-centric, whereas roleplays are character-centric. There are different techniques and conventions when it comes to roleplaying, and I do hope to cover at least the more important ones throughout the rest of this course.

Having said that, there are similarities between story writing and roleplaying. I like to think of roleplaying as a subset or specialisation of writing. All good roleplayers make excellent writers, and all good writers have a solid potential to become great roleplayers. And it goes without saying that if you’re horrible at writing, you’ll make a terrible roleplayer. I’m sorry, but you will. Roleplaying is a craft that’s highly dependant on writing, and if you don’t get the basic writing skills down first, you just can’t roleplay. Think of it as trying to run before you can walk.

Now, on with the basics.


Basics:

At the most fundamental level, a roleplay post does two things. One, it provides a response; and two, it provides material for the next roleplayer to respond to. Every roleplay post must have these two things. Without the former, you can’t really have a post, or at least, not one that is relevant to the roleplay; and the latter comes naturally if you’ve got the former down anyway. Even your first post is some sort of response to the setting your character is in.

Let’s look at both these different aspects separately first. Makes things easier.

Providing a response is essentially how your character responds to the environment and other characters. The environment refers to the setting your character is in, the general atmosphere of the moment, any impending event, and well, any other factors that aren’t under the control of any one character. Responding to other characters is responding to their actions, be it speech, provocation, or even picking up an apple from the floor; or maybe it’s just their mere presence in the scene.

I find it useful to go through the past few posts of a roleplay and mentally make a list of different things that I can respond to in that post before actually writing the post itself. This gives me a clear mental plan of what my post is going to address, and how I can use those points to push the roleplay further forward. Naturally, the better the previous posts are, the more I can get from them, and the better my post will be. This holds true for all roleplayers.

Once you know what you’re going to respond to, it’s just a matter of figuring out how your character responds to them. This depends mostly on your character’s personality. He or she might hate a particular character at first sight, or maybe fall in love. Maybe your character will engage in dialogue, maybe your character will turn around and walk away really fast. Whatever your response, please do make sure that your character has a reason for acting in that manner. If your character doesn’t like another, explain why. Maybe it’s a predisposed racial bias; maybe it’s their attitude. If your character responds to another character favourbly, give a reason. Maybe it’s out of loyalty, maybe it’s sarcasm, or maybe it’s out of affection. If you don’t give a reason, your actions will come across as superficial, they will have very little impact on the roleplay, and your character just won’t develop.

There are several ways to bring across your character’s response and reasons for said responses. It all depends on the situation, really. Your character might perform an action in response, like helping another character to carry items, or maybe he or she will do nothing. Even if your character does nothing, you still need to give a reason for not doing anything. One indispensable tool for getting responses and reasons across is your character’s thoughts. Exploring what your character thinks can bring across wonderfully how your character feels about a situation, another character or perhaps a setting. It also provides a rich environment for character development; because within thoughts your character can relate one event to another, reminisce or have a flashback about his or her past, provide a basis for or response to feelings and so much more.

Once you provide a response, you technically already have provided material for other roleplayers to work off. Your responses will probably be the main source of material, really, which is why they’re so important. Please do not cram all your responses into a one-paragraph post. For one, it probably means that you haven’t given a reason to those responses, which makes them weak; and for another, it makes it hard for another roleplayer to respond to you well because there’s just so little to work on.

In addition to good responses, the amount of detail in a post helps immensely in providing material for another roleplayer to work with. The more precise the description in your post, the easier it is to respond to. Now, I’m not talking about dumping bucketloads of description into your post. That’s silly, any writer will know not to do that. I’m saying that you shouldn’t be ambiguous with your description. If your character is a healer, and uses certain plants, it would be nice if you told us what plants they were. If your character sees a bird, tell us what kind of bird it is. This may seem unnecessary, but it really does help. After all, my character could have an allergy towards arrowroot. Or maybe my character has had a traumatic experience with sparrows. You can’t tell, really. So don’t skimp on details.

Now, let’s dissect a roleplay post to see if I got all that across nicely. Here’s one from one of my older roleplays:

Guercio chuckled to himself as he watched the adepts. They reminded him of his youth, so energetic and carefree. Already he could see the bonds of friendship, and perhaps love, forming between them. At least within this place they could still get along. He paused at the thought and sighed, the villagers were wrong, these adepts were still young, they should be given a chance to live a normal life, like all the other children out there.

A screech from above pulled Guercio back from the realm of thought. A messenger owl was arriving, slowly descending in a spiral towards his hut. He opened a small container, took out a piece of meat and placed it upon a wooden perch. The owl came in, settled itself on the perch and began to devour the meat. Guercio unhooked the message from the owl’s left foot and left the owl to its meal. He placed his staff against the wall of his hut and opened the container.

Guercio tilted the container, but instead of the roll of paper he was accustomed to receiving, several scraps of paper came fluttering out, some of them flying away. He grimaced; a torn letter was a bad omen, a very bad omen. Whether it was shredded on purpose or accidentally he didn’t know. He poured the scraps that he had caught back into the container; he’d have to reassemble it later, when the adepts weren’t around.

He stretched his shoulders a little and grabbed his staff. There was much to do. He looked out again, Raiden had entered Kia’s hut already, and Aaron apparently was about to be dragged into Gaea’s. At least their powers didn’t stop them from the joys of youth yet. Fubuki and Talia were alone as usual, their personalities reflecting their powers. Sometimes he wondered if the children were chosen because of their personality makeup or if the powers had changed their personalities. He shook his head a little and tapped his staff firmly on the floor of the hut several times, sending a signal to the adepts that the day’s classes would begin shortly.

He watched silently as a dragonfly buzzed past. He had a feeling this would be a long day indeed.

It sort of speaks for itself, doesn’t it? I probably could have crammed all my responses into one paragraph and left it at that, but it wouldn’t have been the same. Each action has a reason behind it, the feelings and thoughts of the character come across nicely, and it provides a lot for the other roleplayers to work with.

If I were to respond to that post, here is what I’d probably have noted as something to respond to:

• The screech of the owl
  
• The owl itself maybe.
  
• The tensing atmosphere of the setting
  
• The tapping of the staff
  
• Guercio’s presence
  

This is all alongside the other posts that the other roleplayers have and will make. What I’m trying to get at here is that it’s not hard to make a good post. And the better your post, the better the subsequent posts will hopefully be.

Now that we’ve gone through what a post should be, I’d like to spend some time on what a post shouldn’t be.

A post shouldn’t be irrelevant. Which means it should always have some effect on other characters, or at least your own. There is no use in a post that describes what is happening in the stables when no character can conceivably know of it, even your own. There is no use in a post that describes a war happening a world away, not unless your character is there. Yes, you can have reports of that war coming in, but how a particular person is gunned down really does nothing to any of the characters.

A post shouldn’t be irreverent. Please do not ignore another roleplayer’s post because it didn’t go the way you wanted it to. Please do not intentionally pass over a post. It’s not good for interaction. At the same time, respect another person’s character. Do not degrade that character, please? I like all my characters, and if you insult them, I won’t like you. I don’t mind you attacking the character’s personality, if your character has reason to do so. I do mind however if you start calling my character bad names, just because he or she is my character.

A post shouldn’t be inconsistent. If you said you’re wearing a red dress, keep wearing that dress. Don’t decide to change it to blue along the way. That goes for your character too. If your character is predisposed to evil, be evil. Don’t suddenly have a benevolent moment unless it’s plausible.

A post shouldn’t be ambiguous. Do not leave other roleplayers guessing. If they have to ask you to clarify your post, it means you’re doing something terribly wrong. Be direct and precise, we will love you all the more for that.


Courtesy:

The quality of roleplaying is highly dependant on roleplaying courtesy because there are no hard and fast rules. Because it’s so important, I’m going to devote an entire section to it. There are several areas of courtesy, and I’ll go through them one at a time.

1. Godmoding

The sin of all roleplaying sins. It’s so bad, Wikipedia has an entry on it. Godmoding invokes the wrath of the roleplaying gods and they will smite you down until you’re nothing but an empty shell of text. Do not under any circumstance commit this sin. If you do, you will be sent to OoC jail. You will not pass Go. You will not collect $200.

If the Wikipedia entry wasn’t clear enough, I’ll explain it for you. Godmoding comes in several forms. The most unforgivable of which is when you take control of another person’s character. This includes automatically hitting someone, automatically dodging a blow, forcing that character to respond in a certain way, being totally undetectable, mind reading and well, anything that doesn’t allow a character to respond.

Godmoding also encompasses extraordinary circumstances happening in favour of your character. I like the Wiki example best. Go read that.

Another form of Godmoding is deriving unexplained and impossible actions from ambiguity. Like drawing a sword when you had never stated that you had a sword on you. Or not being clear on what your character is doing on purpose, just so you can use it to your advantage for later. Examples include “Character goes into the room for a while and does something secretly before slipping back out again,”

The final form of Godmoding is having a ridiculously powerful character. Refer to Module 1 on how to not commit this sin.

2. Posting intervals

This refers to when you don’t wait your turn before posting. The amount of time you should wait varies from roleplay to roleplay, but there are some basic guidelines that should be followed. If the roleplay has five or less people, it’s normally custom to wait for everyone to post before posting again. In fact, most roleplays will instate a posting order, which is essentially a listing of who posts after whom.

In the case of a large roleplay, you should at the very least wait for everyone in your area post before posting again. If that’s not practical, at least let everyone in the immediate vicinity who will be affected by your actions post.

The reason for this is simple. For one, it’s terribly annoying to wake up and find that the roleplay just jumped three pages ahead without you. For another, if you find yourself posting more than twice a day, chances are your posts aren’t as good as they could be. It is much better to have one good post of a decent length, than half a dozen short ones. Also, having a lot of posts in one day means that inevitably there’ll be people misreading some posts, or missing them altogether; which is terrible for a roleplay.

Take your time with your posts. I spend an hour on average working on mine. There really isn’t any rush to get posts up anyway.

3. Hyperperception

The lesser sibling of Godmoding, hyperperception is the uncanny ability of characters to hear or see things they really shouldn’t be able to. If my character whispers something to another character, and we’re on the other side of the room, your character shouldn’t be able to hear what I’m saying. If he or she can, that’s hyperperception.

This little problem arises because roleplaying is very open. You will inevitably know things that your character shouldn’t. Just make sure that your character remains oblivious to it all, and you’ll avoid this sin.

4. Basic literacy

Please make your posts readable. This means correct formatting, grammar and spelling. It doesn’t take much to put your post through a word processor, and it makes a world of difference.


Post Length:

The length that your posts should be is a really subjective area. Each roleplayer has his or her optimum length. Mine, for example, is a 500 minimum with a 700 average. Your own optimum length is determined by the roleplay you’re in, your writing skills and your roleplaying skills. Most roleplayers start out with a relatively short post length, and as they progress their posts get longer naturally. I will advise against using long posts for length’s sake, because that only makes your posts full of air and hard to read.

That however is no excuse for you to fire off short posts because of laziness. If you’re given plenty of material to work with, and you produce a short post, it’s slightly insulting. As a roleplayer, I invest a lot of time in my posts. Now, while I don’t expect you to do the same, it would be nice if you gave me something of decent quality back.

Also, short posts tend to give very little material to work with. Which leads to more short posts. And it goes on, ad infinitum.

For new roleplayers, I would say a decent goal would be to aim for a 250 word absolute minimum with a 350 average. It’s not that hard to do if you follow the pointers given above, and it goes a long way in making the roleplay more enjoyable for everyone. It ensures that your posts are useful, and that your character is given a good role. As you progress, you’ll find that your minimum and average will increase over time, and soon enough you’ll be writing posts of excellent quality.

Another point about post length is that you should be fairly consistent with it. Try not to do something like have a 600 word post followed by a 200 word post. For one, the sudden drop in post length is an indication of a terrible drop in post quality. Take that extra time and see what you can do with that 200 word post. Maybe there’s something you missed out on, maybe there’s a thought you can explore, maybe there’s an action that you can take that will pull the roleplay into a whole new direction.

Oh, and try not to worry about ruining the plot. Roleplays shouldn’t have too much of a set plot anyway. If you have to choose between your character acting abnormally and ruining the apparent plot, choose the latter. Restrictions in your actions will only lead to shorter posts anyway. After all, a roleplay is character-centric.


OoC:

Out of Character chat refers to little notes or discussions that happen between roleplayers and not characters. Now, there’s acceptable OoC, and unacceptable OoC. Most OoC chatter is acceptable, and it’s all good fun, but there are some times when you should not use OoC notes.

The worst use of OoC talk is to explain your roleplay post or to point things out in it. If you ever, ever have to do this, it means your roleplay post is badly written. Rewrite your post and make it clearer on what you’re trying to do. Using OoC to explain your post is a lazy way out of things. So please don’t.

Another use of OoC that I don’t condone is using it to tell another roleplayer what to do with their character. No, you don’t have the right to tell someone act according to what you want them to do. I don’t care how long you spent planning it, just don’t. It defeats the purpose of a roleplay. If he or she doesn’t want to go along with your plan, deal with it. The only time this is acceptable is if he or she is committing a roleplay sin like godmoding, or posting too rapidly.

Apart from those two, basic courtesy applies. No flaming, spamming.. general stuff that you should know already.

[KitClairvoyance]

Module 4: Roleplay posting – part 2

Introduction:

So, you’ve finally found your roleplaying feet and have gotten a good grasp of the basics, but for some reason, your character is being treated like a side player in the story. No matter what you do, you just can’t seem to push your character forward, despite how long you spent planning out a plot for him or her, and quite frankly, it’s frustrating you.

Well, that’s because knowing the basics is hardly enough to carry out a successful roleplay. It certainly allows you to be involved in one, but if you really want your character to have more of an impact on the roleplay, you do need to move beyond the basics. To take an analogy from chess, knowing how the pieces move is one thing, but having knowledge of tactics and strategies is another. You certainly can play a game of chess if you just know the rules, but that doesn’t help you win.

There are basic principles behind every roleplay, without which your roleplay won’t get very far. This module aims to get those principles down, along with the reasoning behind them. Hopefully, by the end of this module, you should find your roleplays moving along at a smoother and quicker pace.


Bad habits:

Before actually starting this module though, I’d like to go through several elements that decrease the effectiveness of roleplaying. This is different from roleplaying courtesies in the sense that you probably won’t be pounced on for doing these things, but it will still affect the quality of your posts.

1. Rapid posting:

Rapid posting speaks for itself, really. It’s when there’s a rapid exchange of posts made by several interacting characters. It’s very easy to slip into this habit during dialogue and fight scenes. The problem with rapid posting is that it makes for an unnecessarily confusing situation, that and it severely reduces the effect any one of your posts has on the actual direction of the roleplay.

There are several reasons as to why rapid posting is bad. For one, rapid posting makes it hard for other roleplayers to follow the actions of the characters involved, because it is all spread out over several posts, rather than in one post which is significantly easier to read, remember and reference. There also will be a reduction in detail, and hence less actual elements that other characters can use to respond to.

As an example, if you’re writing a story about several characters with each character having a separate quest, you would normally devote a chapter or at least half a chapter to one character before changing the focus to another character. This makes it easier to follow and to remember. Rapid posting would be the equivalent of switching the character focus every paragraph, making it messy and confusing.

Be patient, don’t be selfish, and don’t rush the roleplay. Take your time, and as said before, it’s much better to make one good post than half a dozen rushed ones.

2. Resorting to multiple characters:

This is a somewhat of a sore point with me. Never resort to using multiple characters as a way of moving the plot forward. If you ever find yourself thinking: “Nothing’s happening. Maybe if we brought in this character I’ll be able to do this and hopefully move the roleplay forward or create conflict or do something at least,” please stop. Bringing in extra characters is a lazy way of doing things, and makes for even more complicated situations.

Sure, a new character might be able to solve some of your problems, but it also almost always creates new problems for you in the long run. The problem with having too many characters in one roleplay is that roleplays are dependant on character-character interaction. Having lots of characters makes it hard to keep track of everyone, the different forms of interaction taking place between characters, and is just terrible for coherency. Try to keep things as simple as possible, and you’ll be fine.

3. Making filler posts:

There should never be a point in the roleplay when you say that you have nothing to do, and come up with a post for the sake of having a post. If you really can’t think of anything to do, then skip your turn. It’s better to not post than to post something that has little or no impact on the roleplay itself.

The thing with filler posts is that they take up space but do nothing, which only adds to the number of posts other roleplayers have to sift through, which in turn only makes everything much more confusing than it should be.

Now that’s all out of the way, on with the actual module.


Plot:

Before going on, I’d like to say something. Plot when used here is not the equivalent of a storyline. A storyline is something that determines what is written, and should be avoided in a roleplay. A plot on the other hand, is an event or a series of events that happen in order to move a roleplay forward.

For the most part, roleplays need plots. Without a plot, a roleplay is static. It gets nowhere. A plot is what keeps a roleplay going, and it’s what makes it fun. On the other hand, plots are also the main cause of roleplay deaths. Too much plotting is detrimental to a roleplay’s health. Always remember that a roleplay is always character-centric, that is above all, characters come first. Never add more plot than is necessary, and always allow for changes in the plot.

To illustrate the difference between plot events and storylines, an example:

A car crash is a plot event. It provides an opportunity for other characters to respond in their own ways. Character A might grieve over it. Character B might be made paranoid of driving after that. If however, it is determined beforehand that the car crash is made to create conflict, say between characters A and B, then it’s a storyline. It might go against the nature of the characters to have a conflict, and determining beforehand that a conflict should happen forces them into unnatural roles. Not only is it a pain as a roleplayer to write, it takes the flexibility out of a roleplay, which makes it less appealing.

Now, within plots themselves, there are good plots and bad plots. It’s easy to see what makes a good plot. If a plot is good, the roleplay moves by at a fair pace and everyone has an interest in the roleplay. If a plot is bad, the roleplay either dies or gets nowhere. Contrary to popular belief, a long roleplay is not a good one. Anyone who is a writer would be familiar with the term “less is more” and the same holds true for a roleplay. A roleplay that finishes in 15 pages is often better than one that finishes in 100. A roleplay with a good plot will keep moving, and one with a bad plot meanders here and there and doesn’t accomplish much.

So. What makes a good plot or plot event?

A good plot is efficient. If your plot is to be good, it has to happen in the least number of posts. The more posts it takes to set events in motion, the more chance it has of being mucked up, and of other people losing interest in it. Never take more than two posts to set an event in motion. Never resort to saying, “I have a plot, but it won’t happen until somewhere down the road.” That’s a bad plot. Events have to happen now. The roleplay won’t move itself on the promise of a plot happening somewhere down the road. Plots that might happen a hundred posts in the future aren’t relevant to what’s happening at the moment. When it comes to a roleplay, never plan for the future. Always work in the present. After all, hints of something happening aren’t enough to motivate your characters to do anything.

A good plot is involving. The more characters that are impacted by your plot, the better the plot. This doesn’t mean that you have to pull everyone aside and plot everything out, heck, that’s a bad thing. A good plot is something that is open for everyone to have a hand in. An event that only affects two characters is weak, because it does nothing to advance the roleplay for other characters, unless it’s a two-person roleplay. Nobody should feel sidelined by your plot, nor should anyone feel like they’ve been handed the short end of the string. It should provide equal opportunities for every character to respond and to be affected by.

A good plot is creative. If your plot events are predictable, then it’s not a good plot. Never limit your mind when it comes to roleplaying. Try a path that nobody has thought of before. The more creative your plot is, the more interest it will gain.

And above all, a good plot is simple. The more complicated a plot is, the harder it is to follow. This ties in with the first point about a plot being efficient. A sign of a complicated plot is that it requires a lot of posts to actually be set into motion. Again, if it takes more than two posts for a plot event to be set into motion, then it’s too complicated.

When it comes to plot events, try not to have too many running at the same time. A roleplay requires cooperation, and this means no wandering off on character-specific tangents that are irrelevant to everyone else. Character sub-plots are something of a grey area, since they can contribute to plot and character development if done properly. After all, a well-done romance between two characters can take the plot in a whole new direction, as long as the romance itself doesn’t overshadow the actual plot in the first place. I guess it’s a process of trial and error, finding how much you can tie in with a roleplay.


Repsonse:

Now, everyone can’t be making plot events for each post. That would only make a roleplay terribly complicated. The majority of posts you’ll make will often be in response to other posts. If plot events are events that set things in motion, responses are that which actually carry things on. Think of a plot event as a big push, and responses as the momentum that keeps the ball rolling. Eventually another plot event comes along and pushes more, but there will always be that momentum that keeps things going.

Having good responses is probably more important than having a good plot, since good responses can salvage a roleplay from a bad plot. Writing good responses is also probably easier than thinking of a good plot.

Responding to previous posts is essentially just acting out what is most natural to your character. The keyword there is ‘natural’. A bad response is when characters do actions that either don’t fit in with the setting, or actions that don’t make sense in the slightest.

To be able to respond properly, you first must have a good idea of what the situation is like. This means reading posts other than those of characters that are in direct interaction with yours. Keep track of who is where, and who is talking to whom. Often, there have been occasions where a roleplayer doesn’t keep track of what is happening, and does something like talk to a character that is already in conversation with another character. This makes things very awkward and is rather jarring from a roleplayer’s point of view, because it makes it extremely hard to respond to.

Another key to good responses is to actually visualise your character’s actions. Picture the scene in your head, and decide if what your character is doing makes any sense. Never try to do more than one thing in a post. If you’re talking to one character, don’t turn away and talk to another. You would never do that in real life, so don’t. Simple things like that. Another example. If your character is engaged in a fight, please don’t try and talk to another character. The more muddled your actions are, the harder it is for other roleplayers to visualise what is happening, which makes things frustrating for everyone in the end.

Finally, a good response leaves room for other characters to respond to. Always do something in your posts, and never just react. Create a point of interest. It can be anything from seeing something in the distance and running to check what it is, or tripping and falling down a cliff. If nothing happens in your post, and all you do is just reply and react, it means that you’re not doing your part to help advance the roleplay.


Conclusion:

This module was initially designed differently, but because of what I’ve seen, there’s a need to cover those two elements of a roleplay more thoroughly than I first thought. I really can’t stress how important both a good plot and good responses are to a roleplay. It’s possible to write a 1000 word and accomplish nothing. It’s also possible to write a 500 word post and push the roleplay forward tremendously. It all comes down to the elements of good plots and responses.

[KitClairvoyance]

Reserved for Module 5

[KitClairvoyance]

Reserved for Module 6

[Tam]

Wow, Kit. <3 This is lovely. Thanks so much for putting this together; it's going to be really helpful for a lot of people (like me). ^_^ Especially since I'm working on ironing out my persona's backstory right now.

As well, I have to say that Arcia is turning into a fantastic character, despite my longing to see you do something with a kitten-collecting nun. >.>

[Crystal]

Out of curiousity, are you going to post this in the general Guilds/Roleplaying section as well?

[Zylaa]

Excellent tutorial- makes me feel slightly guilty. And as Tamia said, a kitten-collecting nun would be very entertaining.

Please do post this in the general section- I don't think I'm supposed to be here. >_> *plunders a few trinkets from the Knights while she's at it*

[Deleted]

I think we need to install laser turrets.

Anyways, it's great you're doing your trial run of this, Kit. I'm quite excited to read it...but I'm not able to read it immediately. I do hope to get to it as soon as possible, though.

[Zylaa]

Laser turrets would've added an interesting twist to medieval times...

[Deleted]

They're in the Legend of Zelda, so why not?

EDIT :: Anyways, we should really stop spamming Kit's thread.

[KitClairvoyance]

Thanks for the positive feedback. <3

And I do intend to move this to the main Guilds board when I'm finished with it, but not just yet. xD ..I'm pretty happy with it here at the moment, not blatantly apparent, but not too hidden either. It allows for feedback here and there, but doesn't deluge me with a dozen suggestions before it's completed.

Think of it as a Beta version.

*raps Wolf and Zylaa for misbehaving*

[KitClairvoyance]

A notice to all who are interested: Module 3: Roleplay Posting - part 1 is up.

And yes, I'm not going in the order listed. xD .. I'm going in order of skill level. I'll be getting the ones concerning the basics up, and from there progressing to the finer points.

Note:

After talking to Crystal, maybe I should move this to the main board. >>; ..maybe. And I'll have to rewrite the last module a little more.