Basic and Advanced Training In RP

[Doaj]

NOTE: No matter how long it has been since the last post, you are always welcome to post in here. Don't think that because it's been months since I put up the thread that the offer doesn't still stand. I'm here to help.


So, for anybody who wants to get into RPing, or for anybody who would like to practice, take lessons, get new perspectives, or whatever else your motivation may be. I'd like to help out for whoever wants it. Post here if you'd like assistance, and I can supply with you tips designated for where you want help. We can also do practice battles, make characters, etc. As a note, please don't post saying you'd also like to help- at sites that I've seen large systems designed for helping, there are always more people willing to help than need it. If more people post than I can handle, then I'll seek out those who I know are the most capable.

Queue:

[Meg]

Are you still doing this?

Is so, I could use a refresher in RP. xD
I used to RP a few years ago but it's been so long and I'm afraid I've forgotten the basics. :P
I'd like to get back into this though.
I really did enjoy RPing in the past.

[Aleister Black]

Doaj seems to have gone for a while now, but I am more than willing to step in and do the job.

So, tell me, what area of Rp'ing would you like to improve in? What do you feel are your current 'weak' points and what do you feel unfamiliar/inconfident about?

Your post implies you're after the basics for the time being which I think I'm qualified to teach you

[Meg]

Well, I've kind of forgotten the format that is generally used to RP.
Like when to use quotations, and what you're supposed to do when you go in/out of character. o3o

I'm once again a nooblet of RPing. xD

[Aleister Black]

The Basics - format

Well, some parts of the format used in RPing depends on the RP you join, but when you talk punctuation it's pretty safe to say that common sense and proper grammar is the way to go. You generally don't have to quote in an RP either, unless you want to show who you are responding to after a few non-related posts are seperating your reponse from the respondee.

When it comes to quotation marks, again proper grammar/punctuation is key. One question you can ask yourself is: "could I put this in a book?" (see what I did there? )

If I misunderstood the quotations-question, please elaborate and tell me what you would like to know.


IC - OOC

Regarding IC and OOC (In Character and Out of Character), there's usually an OOC RP thread and an RP thread of each and every RP. The normal RP thread is where the posts go, where you do the actual RolePlaying. The OOC RP thread is where you put all information, ask questions, discuss the RP, discuss possible paths to take in the RP, announce your absence and so on. All light banter goes to the OOC RP thread as well.

Sometimes, you want to add a short remark on the top or the bottom of your posts in the normal RP thread. Normally, you would mark these comments like this:

[OOC: Sorry I'm a bit late posting, I was really busy this week]

Usually, though, you can put this in the OOC RP thread as well.


Practise?

These are pretty much the answers to what you asked about, but if you would like some training, we could do a bit one-on-one RPing to get you back in shape. The best way to get your RP skills in working order is by doing it, and then doing it some more. If you want to practise, just drop me a line and I'll try and organise a small practise RP to go through things you want to improve in (starting, perhaps, by basic RPing? )

As long as you're familiar with the basic concepts like no godmodding (making your character overpowered or controlling other players' characters), though, I'm sure you'll do fine!

[Meg]

The Basics - format

Well, some parts of the format used in RPing depends on the RP you join, but when you talk punctuation it's pretty safe to say that common sense and proper grammar is the way to go. You generally don't have to quote in an RP either, unless you want to show who you are responding to after a few non-related posts are seperating your reponse from the respondee.

When it comes to quotation marks, again proper grammar/punctuation is key. One question you can ask yourself is: "could I put this in a book?" (see what I did there? )

If I misunderstood the quotations-question, please elaborate and tell me what you would like to know.


IC - OOC

Regarding IC and OOC (In Character and Out of Character), there's usually an OOC RP thread and an RP thread of each and every RP. The normal RP thread is where the posts go, where you do the actual RolePlaying. The OOC RP thread is where you put all information, ask questions, discuss the RP, discuss possible paths to take in the RP, announce your absence and so on. All light banter goes to the OOC RP thread as well.

Sometimes, you want to add a short remark on the top or the bottom of your posts in the normal RP thread. Normally, you would mark these comments like this:

Usually, though, you can put this in the OOC RP thread as well.


Practise?

These are pretty much the answers to what you asked about, but if you would like some training, we could do a bit one-on-one RPing to get you back in shape. The best way to get your RP skills in working order is by doing it, and then doing it some more. If you want to practise, just drop me a line and I'll try and organise a small practise RP to go through things you want to improve in (starting, perhaps, by basic RPing? )

As long as you're familiar with the basic concepts like no godmodding (making your character overpowered or controlling other players' characters), though, I'm sure you'll do fine!

Explained a lot, thank you!

I'll probably mail you in the near future when I've got more time for a little basic RPing for a refresher.
Thanks again for helping. ^^

[Viorahn Ehllenfort]

I... Don't know how to RP, as no one has bothered to teach me and I have been to timid to ask, thinking that not knowing would get me shunned, can someone teach me how please?

[Aleister Black]

Well... where would you like me to start? Would you like an explanation on what RPing actually is, or would you like more intermediate training? What is it, specifically, that you would like to know?

I'd be happy to show you the ropes and create one or two training RPs so we can build some basic RPing skills (which is pretty much the same as writing skills save for a few minor details) and make you more fluent and, above all, comfortable at RPing.

[Viorahn Ehllenfort]

Well... where would you like me to start? Would you like an explanation on what RPing actually is, or would you like more intermediate training? What is it, specifically, that you would like to know?

I'd be happy to show you the ropes and create one or two training RPs so we can build some basic RPing skills (which is pretty much the same as writing skills save for a few minor details) and make you more fluent and, above all, comfortable at RPing.

Thanks, if you could start by showing me how to RP that would be great, I mean I know what RPing is but have no idea how to do it myself, if I tried with a lesson or two I'd probably mess it up.

[Aleister Black]

Sure, I'll be glad to give you some basic training to get you started!

I'll be a tad busy tomorrow but the day after that I should be able to cook something up.

[Viorahn Ehllenfort]

Okay, thanks, I appreciate you teaching me.

[Aleister Black]

Just so you know I haven't forgotten about you. I'll try and get a post done tonight or tomorrow, whichever suits me best time-wise. In that post I'll go over the basics, and include some small exercises if I can think of any.

If after that you would like to go into more depth, you could go for more advanced topics and I could get a practise RP going. Alternatively, you could join an actual RP after you have a good basic concept of what RPing entails, to build up experience 'in the field'. It's how I got started; no one told me anything, I just plunged right in. I like to think I did alright.

[Viorahn Ehllenfort]

<laughs> It's okay there's no rush, I'll learn the basics and then decide what to do next, but I will take part and have fun

[Aleister Black]

Well, finally I got round to writing something down. Or rather, I found the time to sit down and I'm starting to write now, which is, admittedly, pretty much the same.

One of the hardest things to determine in this kind of endeavor is where to start. You said you don't need a definition of RolePlay, which is understandable. The concept is very easy to grasp.

On the other hand, there are many different ways to RP, none of which is the 'right' way. Usually it's simply a matter of personal preference or maybe even a proficiency (or lack thereof) in language.

Before I begin, I'll say that I might sometimes gloss over things really quickly, and at other times I might be really, really slow. You'll have to excuse me for that, and if you feel I left out anything, feel free to ask about it.



How Does One RP?

I think I could just leave off writing this whole thing by saying 'It's easy; just do it.' That would be a waste of the nice preface I wrote, though, and you might want some more information anyway. Well boy, you asked for it!

So, I ask myself again: where to start?

• Universal rules to RPing
• Basic skills
• Characters
• Advanced?

Universal Rules to RPing


Godmodding
There are less universal rules than you would think. One rule that is pretty much set in stone (apart from experiments) is No Godmodding. Two flavours of Godmodding can be discerned. One of them is controlling other people's characters. This can be blatantly obvious, but sometimes it's really hard to stop yourself from committing this sin. A very obvious example of controlling other people's characters might be:

Rethel shouldered his rifle and took aim. Even though his hands were shaking as he took his rifle, a dead calm came over him as he picked his target. His index finger squeezed the trigger, and in a burst of sound and flame, the bullet sped out of the rifle's barrel and into his opponent's leg, crippling him.

It's so obvious I don't even have to highlight it, but I did. If the opponent mentioned in the above quote is an NPC, this is not a sin. You are free to control NPCs unless informed to the contrary. However, if the opponent is another player, you just controlled events to such an extent that you took freedom away from the other player. This is godmodding and should be avoided at all costs.

Sometimes, though, Godmodding isn't this obvious. Sometimes, it can be as subtle as in the next example.

As William pulled his knife from the critter's back, he smiled at the relief in his teammate's eyes. "You're lucky I got here just in time, Larsson!" he called out. Kicking at the rapidly decaying beast, he walked over to his teammate and looked over his shoulder. "We need to go, we only have five minutes to get back to the ship!"

Mistakes like this are much easier to make, though they're also more easily forgiven. Still, it's a good rule of thumb never to write anything that might indicate the actions or feelings of another player's character. By leaving out such comments, you give the other player all the freedom to respond to your post, instead of forcing them into a certain direction.

No one-liners
This rule is not as widely enforced as the godmodding rule is, but especially the more serious RPs have this rule. The rule is basically there to avoid posts that only say:

Thomas grinned evilly and lunged at Lucy.

Even if that is all that actually happens, short posts like this are usually not appreciated. You will have to flesh out your post, something we will come to momentarily.

Other rules for RPs are usually RP-specific and will be stated in each RP individually.



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I'll continue with Basic Skills later tonight. I'll first get something to drink.

[BlackJack]

The second type of godmodding has gotten me in trouble in the past.
Once a girl got upset because My character accidentally sat on her, and I mentioned that my character jumped up because of the sound she made when he sat on her.

I assumed, being a teenage girl and a large adult sitting on her, she would make some sort of noise, but NO. Don't ever. And some players are more picky about it than others. There were some players in the same RP that would never have batted an eye at that.

And there's also an in-between stage. For example,

Doug couldn't believe his eyes. The shadowy figure before him seemed to come from nowhere. He stumbled back against the tunnel wall. "STAY BACK!" he yelled as he brought up his pistol and blindly shot, striking the figure in the shoulder.

You may not have crippled him, but you didn't give him a chance to pull a magic dodge out of thin air. Once again, this is the kind of thing that only some players mind, so be careful when performing an action like this.

[Aleister Black]

I have godmodded too, sometimes. Never big infractions, but it was still wrong And thanks for the additional 'in-between' style godmodding example Blackjack.

Basic Skills

RPing is, in some aspects very similar to writing a book. In both cases, you're creatively committing your thoughts to paper. You work with characters, you describe events, your character's thoughts, etc. In fact, I often like to think of RPing as collaborative writing, as that is what you're doing. You're creating a story with other people. It's what keeps RPs interesting; you never know what the other characters are going to do, what kind of events will unfold.

One could almost say that simply reading a lot might help your RP skills, because you'd have a lot of reference points. When you post, ask yourself, "would I find this in a book?". It will also increase your vocabulary. This goes especially for non-native speaker, but even when English is your main language, there is always new words to learn that you could use.

Description
The best way to make your posts more interesting is to describe things. You can describe everything, from your character's dress to the cold night air to the strange shape of the trees to the soft bed that is waiting for you when you get home. To avoid posts like

Lester walked through the ruined city, his gun firmly in hand. When he turned around a corner, he stood face to face with a super mutant. Lester raised his gun and shot the creature three times. It fell dead to the ground.

try to embellish it by adding descriptions. You can easily make this a better post by adding more detail, like this:

Lester walked through the ruined city, his feet slipping ont he rubble and debris that covered what had once been a street. Around him, buildings pointed up to the clouded sky like rotting teeth and groping fingers. He held his gun firmly, fully aware that these regions were far from safe. Better safe than sorry, he kept repeating to himself like a mantra.Yet, even though he had thought himself prepared, nothing could have prepared him for the gruesome sight of a super mutant, the yellow eyes only inches from his own. For a moment, both Lester and the nightmarish creature stood still. Then, coming to his senses, Lester fumbled for his weapon and pointed it roughly to the ghoulish beast. He fired one, two, three times, the sound of the gun echoing through the street, followed by the sickly gurgle of the dying super mutant. The big humanoid monster dropped like a sack of bricks onto the rubble, its life now thoroughly extinguished. Lester leaned to the nearby wall, trying to get his heart to start beating normally again.

You see that by adding all these little desciptive sentences, the setting starts to come alive much more. The first version keeps you at a distance, while the second version draws you in. Of course, you don't have to describe everything. We don't need to know how many stones a house is made of, nor do we need a breakdown of the anatomy of the monsters you meet. You need to leave readers some room to use their own imagination, too.

See? It's pretty much basic writing skills. This is not so different from normal writing. The only difference is that you have to take the other players into account. There's some things I wanted to discuss here, but I think I'd better put those in the Character-part (which, by the way, is going to be considerably larger than this bit) as it is more character-related.


Now, this isn't school. I'm not going to give you homework. But if you're not confident of you descriptive skills, you might want to practise a bit by finding images on google and trying to describe them, or even make a post in an imaginary RP based on those pictures. For example, you could take this picture: http://www.kyleanderson.com/images/m...e_Anderson.jpg and describe your character walking through it. What would it look like from within? Would it be crowded or deserted, would the people be hostile, demure, jolly? What kind of sounds would you hear? What would your character feel, when moving through this city?

If you want to, you can send one of those practise posts to me so I can give some constructive criticism. If you feel you're OK in this area, that's good too.


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Will move on to Character next.

[Aleister Black]

Characters

Now, this is one of the most important, if not the most important, aspects of RPing. Instead of when you're writing a book and have control over all the characters, in RPs you usually have only a limited number of characters under your direct control. I rarely make more than one character in any given RP. Having more than one characters also means that you have to keep track of more characters, and it might lead to one character being forgotten or underplayed, which would be a shame.

Creating a Character
The essential part of a character is, of course, its creation. At some point, you will need to make a character to join an RP you're interested in. All RPs (I don't think you will find many exceptions) will offer you either a character creation sheet or a pre-created character, the first being the predominant option. A character sheet will usually include things like

Name
Age
Appearance (there may also be seperate things like Eye Colour and Hair Colour and Height and Weight)
Personality
Biography (your character's history)

Sometimes there will be other things like:
Weapons
Clothing/Armour
Magic/Spells
Abilities
First Impression

Which of these sections will be included in a character creation sheet depends on the RP. There are a great many sections that are RP-specific that would be useless to include here.

I usually create my characters specifically for each RP I join. Other people like to work with characters they already know, making adaptations to their backgrounds/biographies to make them fit the background of the RP they join. The advantage of creating new characters is that every character is tailored to the RP it's in. The negative is that you have to create and explore a new character for each and every RP, which can be kind of hard for some. The advantage of having a pre-defined character is that you already know them well and can probably play them well. However, you might eventually get bored of playing the same old character all the time, and it may sometimes be hard to fit them in the background of the current RP.

When creating a character, it is important to consider what kind of character you'd have fun with. Be sure to make a character you can play comfortably with, the writing will go a lot smoother and more naturally if you play something you like.

Another thing that is really important, to me at least, is originality. If you give your character a twist, a weakness, a certain personality or history, it will make them that much more interesting not only for the other players and readers, but also for yourself.

Some people like VERY long bios (biographies) for their characters. I have seen bios of pages upon pages long. I usually try and stay within a certain maximum. I prefer to explore my character as the RP develops, and I also don't want people to know certain things so I can actually surprise them at some point during the RP.

Thoughts
Thoughts are also very important. They give you character a personality. Thoughts give the readers an insight into your character's mind, and it will make him come alive more. Instead of a post like this:

Thomas tried to back down, but found his back to a wall, and he could retreat no further. His eyes darted left and right, but fallen debris and a deep ravine cut off ways of escape. Anxiously, he looked up into her blue eyes, coming closer and closer, almost in slow-motion. Then their lips met.

You could try this:

Thomas tried to back down, but found his back to a wall, and he could retreat no further. What do I do now?! his mind raced, as his eyes darted left and right, in search of an escape route. Rocks to the left, and a ravine to the right... I'm trapped! Anxiously, he looked up into her blue eyes, coming closer and closer, almost in slow-motion. No, I can't... I'm not... But as their lips met, his thoughts went blank.

You see that the twist still works... maybe even better. It also gives more urgency to the scene, as you now see how he thinks about it, how he's looking for a way out.

Interaction
Interaction other characters is what RPs are based on. Interaction will typically consist of either talking or fighting. There's bound to be exceptions, obviously, but these are the most common forms of interaction. In both cases, the godmodding rule applies. Often, when talking, it may be a good idea to meet up with another RPer on MSN or something similar to play out the conversation there and put it in a post. Usually, though, conversations are just held in the RP itself, and posts are fleshed out by thoughts and descriptions to avoid the oneliners.

In battles, you take turns just like in a conversation. Battling is an acquired taste. I'm not very fond of pure RPBs (RPs based solely on a battle), and I prefer story-driven RPs. However, I will not shy away from a good fight if it fits in the story. Much like sex in a movie, really. I could go into more depth but right now the focus is on RPs, not RPBs.



Again, you may want to practise on several things. You may want to create a character, and for that I advise you to find an (old) RP that interests you, read its background, and create a character for it. If you want me to, I'll go over it and see if anything's missing.
For character thoughts, you could try find an image on google (like this one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites...ve_400x300.jpg ) and have your character have an inner monologue about it. Is it a friend's grave? Is it his fault or not? Is it a grave he just coincidentally stumbled upon? Does he respect it or doesn't he care?
For interaction, I'm willing to step up to have either a conversation or a battle (or both) with your character to practise. Interaction is not something you can do on your own.



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This concludes the basic RP training for now. I will answer any questions you may have.

You will notice that I never used the 'Advanced' header yet. If you want to go more in-depth and want to know more about specific subjects, I will put those under the Advanced tab.


I hope this helped! Feel free to ask anything!

[Viorahn Ehllenfort]

No this was enough, thank you, I think I'll give RPing a shot now, I'll have a look at the current open RPs and see what looks fun. Thanks again, this really helped.

[BlackJack]

I'll have a look at the current open RPs and see what looks fun.

I'm thinking about joining the Asylum one, myself.

[Doaj]

Hello.
I suppose I should introduce myself, seeing as I don't know many people on the site anymore, nor do they know me. I am Doaj, and to my own awareness I am the only person on the net who goes by this username. I have been an avid Roleplayer for years now, although on occasion I tend to disappear, as I recently did.
Aleister Black, Senior Lipwig, thank you very much for taking up this role while I was gone. I greatly appreciate the sentiment.

If those who asked questions would like a second answer, one from a different perspective, then I am more than willing to give my own, however I must say that Aleister was more than adequate in his own responses.

And hi.