Post by Emily! on Mar 10, 2011 17:34:26 GMT -8
Roleplaying Tips
[/size]the character;;Roleplaying, as you may have surmised, is a large part of this board. Whether you're new or old to roleplaying, here are some handy tips:
01. Skills & Abilities Skills and abilities can be a bit beyond what would make common sense in the real world, but they should be reasonable and there are limits to their skills. For example, your character shouldn't be a wizard who is a 10th degree black belt in karate and can speak 10 languages fluently. Your character can be a wizard. Your character can be a black belt. Your character can speak a few languages fluently. But they cannot do all three. Pick one talent and go with it. Also, be careful about your character's abilities. They can be pretty powerful, but there has to be a limit to their power. Even Superman has his limits.posting;;
02. Mary-Sues & Gary-Stus A Mary-Sue is a character who is too perfect (especially when it comes to appearance) and has little depth. A Gary-Stu is the male equivalent. Often, the profile of a Mary-Sue character focuses on physical appearance and achievements rather than personality and character motivation. It is a form of godmoding, though godmoding tends to focus more on skills, talents, and powers rather than appearance.
EXAMPLE OF MARY - SUE POSTDestiny Love is 5'6 and weighs 100 lbs. She has platinum blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. She is captain of their cheerleading squad at school, as well as school president and she has a 4.0 G.P.A. Right now, she is wearing a pink tank top from Abercrombie and Fitch and a white miniskirt with ruffles. As she walks down the hallway, everyone looks at her. The girls are clearly all jealous of her, and all the boys want to be with her, but she's dating the football quarterback.
03. History There have been many applicants whose characters are orphans, abused by their parents, murderers, runaways, and/or have some kind of overblown, over dramatic past. Although it is true that in real life, people have been abused by their parents, not everyone in the world has had some great trauma in their life. There are other ways to make your character interesting than to add melodramatic event to their past.
01. Length While quality is better than quantity, it's going to take a little bit of quantity to get good quality. Pretty please, no one-liners. A "One-liner" is a post that consists of only one (maybe two or there) line of action and/or dialogue and expects an appropriate reaction to your post.
02. Godmoding Godmoding is the act of taking control of how a scene or character is played out. This is a big no-no in the roleplaying community for, like it is used in video games, it is a form of cheating and leaves the other roleplayer feeling disadvantaged and very offended.
A good example of godmoding is best shown during a fight scene:Character A: He throws a punch at Character B.
Character B: He avoids the punch, grabs Character A's arm and throws him against a wall, breaking his neck and killing him.
Okay, it's a little extreme, but it shows godmoding really well. Character B took control of Character A's actions, and was therefore modifying the scene as if he were god. A better scene would have been as follows:Character A: He throws a punch at Character B.
Character B: He avoids the punch, and tries to grab Character A's arm and throw him against the wall, hopefully killing him.
Character A: Character B grabbed Character A's arm, but Character A was able to escape. He ran out of the room.
In this scene, Character B did not force Character A to do anything.
Exception: The only time that godmoding is okay, is if you are roleplaying with a NPC (non-player character). An instance of this would be in the infirmary, where its okay to play the nurse, because no one plays her.
03. Reactions, Movement, Thoughts, and Words When writing a post, try to make it as realistic as possible. Try to think of what you would do if you were in your character's situation. How would you react to what another character said? Would you be nervous, excited, scared? Say you would be nervous, would you fiddle with your hair or kick a pebble around? What would you be thinking? What would you say? How would you say it? etc.
Some of these questions can help you write out an excellent reply and really bring depth to your character.
dos;;
- Include lots of description and comparisons in your posts.
- Use dialogue that other people can understand.
- Include movement such as walking, drinking, smelling, etc.
- Use your character's five senses.
- Describe the surrounding environment.
- Research before you post. If you are responding to a particular topic, learn about it before you just make something up.
- Follow the guidelines of the universe in which you are posting.
- Remember to use good grammar, punctuation, and spelling. It is appreciated.
- Think of creative titles for your threads...they are more likely to attract others to come post.
- Be realistic.
- Use links to pictures rather than including the images in your post. People appreciate not having to wait for them to load.
don'ts;;
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-Take an insult to your character personally. It is just a character, insulting another character...that is all.
- Use one-liners
- Break the rules of Oceanside in which you are role playing.
- Think your character is invincible. If they are, then they aren't a very good character. No one wants to role play with a god, especially if they always have to be right.
- Get mad if you don’t get a boyfriend/girlfriend right away. The boards aren't meant as a dating service. RP romance is more than acceptable, but it takes more than 5 minutes of talking for people to fall in love.
Feel free to PM us with any questions, comments, additions, or concerns,
your admins,
Emily and Amira