How To Roleplay

Welcome ladies and gentle men to the wonderful world of Roleplaying. You are here because you wish to interact with others in a deeper level. This sort of level could be, friendship both in character, out of character, showing skill within the art of writing, and just to pursue the wonderful creation expanding the mind where your imagination runs wild and free. What you will read further on is the how to. These are guidelines for most places so try to remember this whenever Roleplaying at other places. This means that you can take almost all of these rules and apply it into almost any other site unless it is stated otherwise. With that saying, remember to read all rules for any site before moving around. Remember to read all fighting rules as well because there can always be changes here and there.

Now since you are taking the time to read this you are taking the time to improve yourself in skill, you are taking the time to enjoy the world of Roleplaying in the Purest sense. You are taking the time to just figure out how Roleplaying works and how to do this fun little game.

There are two things you must always remember, and please try to take these two things into heart. Even the veterans forget these, the most experienced Roleplayers forget these types of notions. That is why these two things will be stated.

• One: Do not take anything serious. What does this mean? Do not take anything serious. Why? Because this is the internet. No one can touch you. No one can harm you in any way, so don't take anything serious. So be good, don't start fights, and please do your best to try and not take anything serious.
  
  
• Two: Try to have fun. Do your best to have fun, this is a type of creation to allow someone to relax and do what they wish in the world of Roleplay. If someone gets upset with you, try to have fun with your character. If someone attacks you, hey try to make another character, or just try to survive with your character. If someone does something that you do not like, ask them out of character by sending them a PM. Tell them, hey I have something else planned with my character. Just remember to try and have fun.

Now allow me to first introduce you to my little friend here . He is going to help us out from time to time asking certain questions if needed and well this little tutorial will better him as well. So everyone say hi to Hulk Buster . Hulk Buster say hello to everyone.

Now that we taken care of that lets get down to business. First a quick overview of what is Roleplaying, then we will take it off from there. There is multiple sections within this guide here, so please you can skip certain parts to get to the parts that you want. These Parts are Listed Below here, all you have to do is either A) Look for the part that you want, or B) Ctrl-F and put in the coding that you want to find. Remember, to try to have fun, don't let things bring you down to where you become depressed because Roleplaying and the Internet should not be taken serious. This is the first advise that anyone should give to any Roleplayer.


~~Table of Content~~

• Roleplaying - Basics - [RP1]
  
• Role Playing Terms - [RP2]
  
• Role Playing Threads - [RP3]
  
• How to Battle - [RP5]

:::Roleplaying - Basics - [RP1]:::

RPing, or RolePlaying is basically when the user (That is You) takes the time to create character, plays the character that you have created in a world of Make Believe. You the user will be bringing your character to life through crazy styles of actions and words, by creating interaction with other users (Other People) characters.

RP or RPG is an abbreviation for Role Play or Role Playing Game. There are many variations of what a Role Playing Game May be. In many cases Role Play is done in a real life situation, with a group of friends. The most popular of these types of Roleplays are the creations of what is known as Dungeons and Dragons where you play as Orcs, Elves, Dwarfs, Halflings, or any other monster that is capable of being created. There is also Vampire the Masquerade where you are capable of becoming an epic vampire, going around harming or helping others to your own content. This is the type of Role Playing Game that we Play. A Type of game that enables people to interact by written action, and not in verbal action.

Online Roleplay has a wide variety as well when it comes to interactions. There are variations where there are picture based games, Nexus and others, that would use different types of graphis such as Nintendo style graphics, and there is also what most sites are known for, which is called Text Based.

Varieties of Role-Play
Internet forums are the most common medium for Play-by-Post gaming. Some online forums provide benefits such as online dice rolling, character profiling and game history. Others, such as Alleria in the fantasy genre, Gaia Online, and New Worlds Project in the science-fiction genre emphasise the use of free-hand and the absence of dice and chance. Thanks to online forums, players can easily keep track of all aspects of the game, can see what is happening elsewhere and can re-read anything they have previously written. Many online services provide free game hosting for gamemasters.

Message-board role-playing is faster than play-by-email, but as all players can see all the posts there can possibly be problems on forums that do not support private messages. Another benefit is that most of the forum software in widespread use today supports the editing of posts, so when an error is made it can be masked over.

• Play-by-email
  Play-by-email games are played as other play-by-mail games, using email as the postal medium. Players email their moves to the gamemaster, who collates them and replies to them, again via email. Play-by-email games are often slow, since the gamemaster must wait for each post before replying, but have the advantage that replies may be tailored to the players, allowing the gamemaster to keep information secret from the other players.
  
  
• Play-by-chat
  Using an Instant Messenger or a chatroom, two or more people role-play in third or first person. While technically the fastest method of play-by-post RPing, it can also be considered the most difficult,many people also consider it to be the most fun, it is often referred to as rping with CCs [custom characters] as it requires both the ability to type fast, and think quickly and in character. Sometimes it may require people to play multiple parts. It is also necessary that all players be online at the same time.
  
  It is possible to hide information from other players only if the chatroom has an option that allows chatters to send information only to certain people.
  
  
• Play-by-internet
  Play-by-internet (PBI) refers to fully automated games which take place using server-based software. Play-by-internet games differ from other play-by-post games in that, for most computerized multiplayer games, the players have to be online at the same time, and players can make their moves anytime independent of any other players in the game. The turn-time is usually fixed. A server updates the game after the turn-time has elapsed evaluating all the player's moves sent to the server. The turn-time duration can be hours, days, weeks or even months.
  
  Play-by-internet can be considered an enhanced version of play-by-mail and play-by-post because it doesn't require manual labor to send out moves, or as an enhanced version of message-board role-playing which allows information to be hidden from players.
  
  
• Play-by-wiki
  A play-by-wiki game is played using wiki software instead of a forum. Because players' previous posts are editable, plot holes can be avoided. For this reason, writing skills aren't as important for every writer. The gamemaster takes responsibity as the overall editor of the story.
  
  Wiki space provides not only a means of communication, but also a permanent archive and a designated off-topic discussion area for each page. Players can edit information freely because change records are automatically maintained and changes can be easily undone.
  
  
• Role-playing blog
  The role-playing blog (RPB) is a game which is played out online using posts within a blog. Unlike play-by-post gaming or message board role-playing, a role-playing blog is generally restricted to one gaming group, and the blog contains static files such as maps, archives, and character sheets specific for that group.
  

MUDs and MU*s
Precursor to the now-more popular MMORPGs of today are the branch of text-based games known as MUD, MOO, MUCK, MUSH, MUX, DUM and MUSE, a set of games on similar platforms collectively termed as MU*s within the community by players and aficionados. The main difference in the various platforms lies in their purpose; some, like the myriad codebases for MUDs, are employed in combat-intensive games (either player versus player or against mobs), while MUSH and MUCK are seen in games that focus more on player interaction and role-play. Although interest in these games has suffered from the popularity of MMORPGs, a large number of them still operate. For a more complete history of these games refer to the entry on MUDs.

Real-time human-moderated
Some games rely entirely upon human moderators to dictate events, and physical print books for rules sets. Such games may use code dice-rollers, to generate random results, and may include databases for the purposes of maintaining character records. Interaction between characters is controlled by communication between individual players (with each other) and with moderators (who portray non-player characters). Communication software and database options vary, from the DigiChat front-end / character database back-end pairing pioneered by Conrad Hubbard at White Wolf Publishing, to the numerous AOL and Yahoo chats with hosted character databases. Free-form games may even do away with database integration or dice-rollers entirely and rely upon individual players to keep their own records, with online community reputation dictating how other players react.
There are multiple things that Every Good Role-Player should have. There is something that every person should do within every post that they create. Why? Because this is just logical. This creates character development, and better writing not only for yourself, but as well as the other people you are interacting with. Listed below is a little more of an in-depth of what every Good Role-Player Should Have

• A Beginning - There needs to be a beginning, can't start in the middle. You must take the interaction from the beginning as best as one can possibly can. Most state this by what a character is thinking, or by mimicking a small brief portion of what another character is doing. If you are first starting the post, then you must make the beginning by making the scenery. What is around? What is there? What time of Day is it? These are all must be known. Unless there is a Game Master (Listed later on in the Tutorial) and you are the first one entering a room, you should take the time to explain the way the room looks as well. This however of course does not happen if you have a lead Roleplayer, someone that will take the time to do this himself.
  
  
• A Middle - The Middle is usually the interaction of the post between your character and another, or really the body of the post. This is where you state what your character is doing in a simplistic, or detail like form. Within here, your character usually is doing some sort of action, picking up a book, looking off into the distance, picking flowers, picking his nose. Something.
  
  
• An Ending - The ending is usually ended by the action of the middle, the effect of the middle. Something like this is ended is where you allow something for the other people to interact with. This is also where actions take place from what you were doing in the middle, like you are reading the book that you picked, you see some trees off in the distance, your flowers die as you pick them, you found buried treasure from your nose.
  
  
• Good Spelling and Grammar - Good Spelling and Grammar. Yes this matters most of the time. Reasons why is because speaking in Text form takes the feel away of Roleplaying. Now this does not mean you should be an English Major, just write decently well, with correct punctuation.
  
  
• Relevance - There are three different types of Relevance. One the Post needs to make sense in general. It can not be a bunch of weirdness where it just does not make sense. This type of thing means you are in one place, and two hundred yards away you are at another place. Or you are at two places at once. This type of thing confuses other Roleplayers, and they would not be able to interact very well. Two you have to be in character. Remember if it does not happen in character it does not happen. You can not say Out of character, stating that your character did something but the problem is, it does not happen if it does not happen in character. Another Character can not have something if your character did not give it to him. The Third thing that it would need is, it needs to have a point. A point can be anything, to make interaction, to make humor, or anything else such as that. This type of thing is always needed, there needs to be a point in the post.
  

Role-Playing is a very weird activity to get used to, it is not easy so please do not get discouraged. Remember once you get the hang of it, everything will begin to start rolling in and you are past the rookie level of Roleplaying which is known as the newbies (New People). If it is your first time in in the art of Roleplaying, do your best to try and work it out for at least a week and see how things go. It takes a few times to get the hang of it, so don't get frustrated. Everyone Starts from the beginning, and it takes time to get better. Even the veterans had a beginning even if they don't want to admit it. It just takes a matter of practice. With time comes wisdom, so don't get discouraged, because that will make you upset, and that is the first rule of the Internet, don't take it serious, and don't let anyone else try to tell you anything different. Veterans like to pick on the newbies (New People) but really they have to prove themselves to you as well just like you got to prove to them. No one is above you no matter what they say.