Post by King Uther Pendragon on Nov 27, 2008 18:34:04 GMT
NB: The following was not written by this admin, but by a very good friend of ours. It is very helpful so please read!
OK, I know these are long, but trust me - reading these will make everyone's time RolePlaying much happier and more interesting!
Roleplay Etiquette is simple.
Don't Powerplay.
Don't Godmode.
Don't be rude in any way shape or form.
Roleplay should be written out in full, so no chatspeak.
What is Roleplay?
A sum-up.
:: You create a character, think of their species, name, gender, clothes they might wear, personality etc.
:: You start a story, explaining and describing their expressions, surroundings, thoughts, actions etc.
:: Somebody replies ::
A [REALLY SIMPLE] Example:
Say you were roleplaying a bunny character (we'll call him Bob ^^), you might start:
The rain poured down over the feilds and the smell of damp grass filled the air. Blossoms from a large cherry tree were scattered over the crops like pink snow.
A male bunny sat in the shade of a small oak tree, grooming his ears. His coat was a rich chestnut and his eyes a dazzeling blue. He yawned and looked about...
[somebody else might reply...]
Out in the rain, a white ball of fuzz lay, two large ears lying back on her neck. The bunny got up, yawning and stretching. She could smell another nearby and started to walk in the direction of the scent, nose twitching..
[and you'd respond...]
The male saw another bunny approaching and bounded over to greet her, ears alert.
"H..hello..."
[Now thats another perculiar technicallity. In roleplay, animals can talk to one another. But this is a humanoid board, so I won't go into that.]
Tense
Roleplaying is almost always directed in past tense. For example: She looked. It rained. He leapt.
Setting the scene in present tense is ok too. Eg: A shady figure sits on the ledge. The wind is howling.
Future tense is a no. (thats not a rule btw, just a fact. People don't usually like it. You're free to test it out and see what happens. It might be rather interesting.) NOTE: On this particular board, all roleplay is directed in the past 3rd person tense.
Powerplaying
Powerplaying is one of the most hated, impolite roleplaying tactics used. It is, basically, when one person controls the other person's character. Powerplaying can also be one character killing or seriously wounding the other. (But I'll cover that in a minute)
A race is extremely difficult to roleplay without powerplaying, as is a fight or any other type of competition.
Lesser PowerPlaying
An attack can also be powerplaying. However in some circumstances it is not.
If One character wounds the other so seriously that it cannot move/speak then that is powerplaying. Obviously if one character kills the other it is also powerplaying.
Just a quick lash-out or one character falling or crashing into another is not powerplaying. Eg: The female slashed the newcomer's tail in a fit of anger / He fell from the tree, landing with a thud on his companion.
Although a lash-out is not usually concidered powerplaying, some people dislike it none-the-less.
God-Moding
God-moding is pretty straight-forward.
Don't do it.
God-moding is creating a perfect character. Seemingly perfect characters are fine, so long as there are blips beneath the surface. Beautiful or Handsome characters are fine, so long as they aren't all-powerful too.
A character who can fly, kill masses of people instantly, create anything, bring people to life and all the rest of it is not allowed.
If you really want something that'll get people's attention, create an old man with a scarlet beard and eyeballs that hang down over his face.
Terms and Abbreviations.
In roleplay there are alot of terms and abbreviations used which mean or stand for one thing or another. Some of these terms are used in ordinary chat as well.
RPG: Roleplaying Game
RP: Roleplay
OOC: Out Of Character (used during roleplay when you want to speak out of character)
IC: In character
NPC: Non-Player Character (A character that exists in the game, but is not played by a specific player.)
(And in the case of RPing an animal):
Femme: Female (eg: The femme = The female)
Mascu: Male (a term I am personally against. It means 'masculine' rather than 'male'. But people still insist on using it)
Brute: Male (Yet another term I am against. It suggests that the male is a 'brute' as in benevolent, bully etc)
Frame: Body. (Usually used to describe a character's body. Eg: Her tail wrapped around her delicate frame.)
Orbs: Eyes or pupils (Eg: Glittering green orbs blinked.)
Auds: Ears. (Eg:Her auds were alert.) (This relates to 'audible', but as with mascu, brute and femme, people insist on using them.)
Crania/Cranium: Forehead.
Self-Rped Monsters
If you want to liven up a roleplay, you can always add a monster. The rules with this are simple. You add it, you roleplay it. In most cases, the other person will roleplay the monster aswell, so it'd be controlled by both of you.
For example, rper1 may use the monster to attack the other character (leaving open to evasion of course) and rper two may later say that their character leapt aside and the monster landed in the mud. Since the monster is a miscellaneous character, this isn't powerplaying.
Races
Racing is perhaps the most difficult match of all. It is near impossible to roleplay a race without powerplaying and therefore it is rarely done.
Racing with a misc. character is easy enough, as you can controll both characters, but otherwise, racing isn't recommended.
