I don't know about everyone else, but I love to roleplay. It's a good escape from reality, because, let's face it; reality kind of sucks, but it can sometimes also leave آپ in the dumps if آپ do it badly.
Of course, 'badly' isn't a definite term, there is a lot that can be 'bad' یا 'good' roleplaying. Hence, this guide will be opinionated سے طرف کی yours truly and backed up with about 5 years of experience. This will be addressing the most common 'bad' things I stumble across when roleplaying.
TYPES OF ROLEPLAY
There's script and paragraph. Both have their ups and downs.
Paragraph roleplays are my personal favorite, because آپ can get so much مزید detail into them. I'm a nitpick when it comes to all that emotional and psychological bullshit, and I can be pretty extensive in my responses especially when paragraphing. I find it much easier to express characters in this style. It's also great, because it makes it much easier to adapt into a story later on.
Script roleplaying, however, is generally easier to do due to it being مزید direct, straight-out, and not as embellished with pretty words and descriptions. It's very straight-to-the-point.
Really, آپ should just talk to your roleplay partners (or mod) about it, because mixing the two doesn't always work.
PUBLIC VS PRIVATE
A pet peeve of mine is also 'out-of-control' roleplays that involve too many people. This is the main problem I have with فورم roleplays and the reason I don't get involved with them. I will roleplay with a tops of four people at once. When مزید than that come in and do things, it gets confusing, and characters can get lost in the onrushing swarm of updates. Especially when one member doesn't have net access for a few days. Things get left behind and forgotten, and when that's you? It really sucks.
As a side note on that, there are also a lot of dumbasses (who are hopefully reading this and learning) in some roleplay forums. Yes, we can ignore them, but it's still annoying to have them posting stuff; especially when they start putting in OOC notes like "Why is no-1 pay attntion to Mary-Sue? :'("
And again, hence why I prefer to stick to مزید private roleplays, in private messaging, instant messaging, یا controlled, password-protected chat rooms like Chatzy.
CHARACTERS AND CAST
Arguably, the most important thing about roleplaying is the characters involved. Having an awesome plotline is also key and all that rot, but what's the point if all the characters are emotionless, dead husks?
Figure out good combinations of characters before آپ start roleplaying. Sure, an emotionless dead husk can sometimes actually be a really interesting character, but only when they're standing اگلے to characters with مزید personality.
Don't just go with random characters. Look at the other ones involved and think what character of yours would compliment and work with the rest of the cast. Each character can't be copy-pasted یا roleplays get really boring really fast.
Also on the character note, make sure آپ have a damn character sheet! If the roleplay is built on a plot, then the mod may create a custom one to that roleplay, but generally, they're fairly universal. Unless you're familiar with the other person's characters and concepts already, آپ really need to share these things.
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Species:
Abilities: [ANYTHING unusual should go here, especially things uncommon to their species. For example, if your vampire character can manipulate blood, then note it here, because that's not a universally accepted trait. If your human can grow wings and fly, share it. Even things that ARE universal to the species should be noted here to clarify.]
Personality: [Includes likes and dislikes.]
Backstory: [Regardless of how 'mysterious' your character is, this needs to be filled out. The other characters don't need to know right off the bat, but the people you're roleplaying with do. The other characters don't ever have to find this out, but not filling this in just makes your character seem shallow, with no depth behind their personality. Backstory and personality should go hand-in-hand.]
تفصیل یا picture:
PLOT
Very rarely is plotless roleplaying fun. Especially when it's an entire group of people having a plotless roleplay. The only person I can do plotless roleplays with is Black-Knight77 because while each little roleplay we have doesn't always have a set 'plot,' they all arch together eventually into one nice big glob of gelatinous story-fuel no matter how seemingly insignificant they are.
In group roleplays, a big bad plot is great. Have some major problem that requires the characters to get together to help fix it, deal with it, etc. It gives them something to work towards. Nothing is مزید rewarding than signing off after a big دن of roleplaying, just after you've collected the fantastic powerful X of Y, and slain the evil villain after months of working to that point through کڑوا, تلخ hardships and disagreements between characters. (Just make sure your Mod knows what's going on!)
However, in smaller roleplay groups, the plot can be much مزید subtle. A big bad and only two characters to go against it can be overwhelming for both roleplayers.
FIGHTS AND GODMODING
I suppose stats would also come into this too, huh? I would never even touch a stat-based roleplay, seeing as it just becomes a great big penis-measuring contest. "My character has +2 speed as compared to yours that means I'm better than آپ and آپ suck."
Don't get me wrong, basic stats are good for a general idea of where your characters skills are, but basing an entire roleplay on stats just goes way the fuck too far.
When doing a fight scene, actually TALK to the person you're roleplaying with. It gets boring, otherwise, when آپ resort to circles of;
"*attacks*
*blocks and attacks*
*dodges*"
Also, if your character gets hurt, MAKE IT SEEM LIKE IT. If your character just got shot, make them dizzy with bloodloss. If they fell from a three-story-building, I doubt they could walk anymore as account of their kneecaps being shattered. Their attacks wouldn't be as good if they can't walk, now can they?
And actually look into fighting styles. That's helpful too; and nothing is مزید awesome in a roleplay fight scene than when the characters start using the environment around them to help them win. Figure out the location and get them to USE IT.
FLIRTING AND SEX
Flirting, yeah, that's okay in roleplays. Just keep the sex out of public eye, yeah? Keep that to the bedroom, we don't need to know who's fucking who.
Also, until آپ come of age, creating pornography is kind of illegal, especially on US-based sites. Please, for the love of god, just do it in a private roleplay?
SWEARING
This really depends on who your Mod is if you're in a group یا who you're roleplaying with in general. If the Mod says no swearing, THEN DON'T DO IT, BRAH.
Talk to your partner and ask them if swearing is okay with them. But even then, آپ don't need to swear every سیکنڈ fucking word just to fucking make yourself look like a fucking badass because it doesn't fucking work it just makes آپ loom fucking stupid so fucking knock it of okay!? Fuck's sakes.
THIS ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE
Sometimes roleplays just die. آپ can't always extend their life, this just happens.
Don't try and revive a dead roleplay. Start afresh with a new idea.
LANGUAGE BARRIERS AND FOREIGN STUFF
If your foreign character speaks their own native tongue, then don't use google translate to figure out what they're saying because google translate is terrible. Find some people who are actually FROM that country and ask them.
Also, if you're saying your character is from, say, Australia actually FIND a place in Australia from them to be from, because Hobart is very, very different to Sydney, which in turn shares nothing in common with the ACT. New York and Washington D.C aren't the same, are they? I doubt Helsinki and Rovaniemi are the same thing either.
ROMANCE
Romance can be subtle. It doesn't need to be slap-bang in-your-face all of the time. Generally, I think romance should be kept on the down-low anyway, as it's a genre not many can do well. آپ wouldn't go and have sex with someone you've only known for ten minutes, would you?
CLICHES
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. آپ don't want to fall down the hole of cliche 'fuck you.'
ORIGINALITY
Make your roleplay, especially group ones, something special. If it's been done to death before (I'm looking at you, High School) then it won't stand out from the crowd.
GRAMMAR AND TYPOS
If آپ make a typo, fair enough. 'I clay guitar' obviously means the character plays guitar, clearly just a typo. When people OOC point this out, یا even مزید annoyingly, IC, it pisses everyone off and disrupts the flow of the roleplay. So stop it.
That having been said, don't use text talk. Please, have some class when آپ roleplay. Honest mistakes and typos are one thing, laziness when typing is another.
THE NO. 1 RULE
Roleplays are not real. Roleplaying is not a job, roleplaying is a hobby. Enjoy yourself, یا there is no point to any of this!
This has been Soda, your fuming, angry Dingo, and I THINK that's all I have to say about that.
*shot سے طرف کی 2*
Of course, 'badly' isn't a definite term, there is a lot that can be 'bad' یا 'good' roleplaying. Hence, this guide will be opinionated سے طرف کی yours truly and backed up with about 5 years of experience. This will be addressing the most common 'bad' things I stumble across when roleplaying.
TYPES OF ROLEPLAY
There's script and paragraph. Both have their ups and downs.
Paragraph roleplays are my personal favorite, because آپ can get so much مزید detail into them. I'm a nitpick when it comes to all that emotional and psychological bullshit, and I can be pretty extensive in my responses especially when paragraphing. I find it much easier to express characters in this style. It's also great, because it makes it much easier to adapt into a story later on.
Script roleplaying, however, is generally easier to do due to it being مزید direct, straight-out, and not as embellished with pretty words and descriptions. It's very straight-to-the-point.
Really, آپ should just talk to your roleplay partners (or mod) about it, because mixing the two doesn't always work.
PUBLIC VS PRIVATE
A pet peeve of mine is also 'out-of-control' roleplays that involve too many people. This is the main problem I have with فورم roleplays and the reason I don't get involved with them. I will roleplay with a tops of four people at once. When مزید than that come in and do things, it gets confusing, and characters can get lost in the onrushing swarm of updates. Especially when one member doesn't have net access for a few days. Things get left behind and forgotten, and when that's you? It really sucks.
As a side note on that, there are also a lot of dumbasses (who are hopefully reading this and learning) in some roleplay forums. Yes, we can ignore them, but it's still annoying to have them posting stuff; especially when they start putting in OOC notes like "Why is no-1 pay attntion to Mary-Sue? :'("
And again, hence why I prefer to stick to مزید private roleplays, in private messaging, instant messaging, یا controlled, password-protected chat rooms like Chatzy.
CHARACTERS AND CAST
Arguably, the most important thing about roleplaying is the characters involved. Having an awesome plotline is also key and all that rot, but what's the point if all the characters are emotionless, dead husks?
Figure out good combinations of characters before آپ start roleplaying. Sure, an emotionless dead husk can sometimes actually be a really interesting character, but only when they're standing اگلے to characters with مزید personality.
Don't just go with random characters. Look at the other ones involved and think what character of yours would compliment and work with the rest of the cast. Each character can't be copy-pasted یا roleplays get really boring really fast.
Also on the character note, make sure آپ have a damn character sheet! If the roleplay is built on a plot, then the mod may create a custom one to that roleplay, but generally, they're fairly universal. Unless you're familiar with the other person's characters and concepts already, آپ really need to share these things.
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Species:
Abilities: [ANYTHING unusual should go here, especially things uncommon to their species. For example, if your vampire character can manipulate blood, then note it here, because that's not a universally accepted trait. If your human can grow wings and fly, share it. Even things that ARE universal to the species should be noted here to clarify.]
Personality: [Includes likes and dislikes.]
Backstory: [Regardless of how 'mysterious' your character is, this needs to be filled out. The other characters don't need to know right off the bat, but the people you're roleplaying with do. The other characters don't ever have to find this out, but not filling this in just makes your character seem shallow, with no depth behind their personality. Backstory and personality should go hand-in-hand.]
تفصیل یا picture:
PLOT
Very rarely is plotless roleplaying fun. Especially when it's an entire group of people having a plotless roleplay. The only person I can do plotless roleplays with is Black-Knight77 because while each little roleplay we have doesn't always have a set 'plot,' they all arch together eventually into one nice big glob of gelatinous story-fuel no matter how seemingly insignificant they are.
In group roleplays, a big bad plot is great. Have some major problem that requires the characters to get together to help fix it, deal with it, etc. It gives them something to work towards. Nothing is مزید rewarding than signing off after a big دن of roleplaying, just after you've collected the fantastic powerful X of Y, and slain the evil villain after months of working to that point through کڑوا, تلخ hardships and disagreements between characters. (Just make sure your Mod knows what's going on!)
However, in smaller roleplay groups, the plot can be much مزید subtle. A big bad and only two characters to go against it can be overwhelming for both roleplayers.
FIGHTS AND GODMODING
I suppose stats would also come into this too, huh? I would never even touch a stat-based roleplay, seeing as it just becomes a great big penis-measuring contest. "My character has +2 speed as compared to yours that means I'm better than آپ and آپ suck."
Don't get me wrong, basic stats are good for a general idea of where your characters skills are, but basing an entire roleplay on stats just goes way the fuck too far.
When doing a fight scene, actually TALK to the person you're roleplaying with. It gets boring, otherwise, when آپ resort to circles of;
"*attacks*
*blocks and attacks*
*dodges*"
Also, if your character gets hurt, MAKE IT SEEM LIKE IT. If your character just got shot, make them dizzy with bloodloss. If they fell from a three-story-building, I doubt they could walk anymore as account of their kneecaps being shattered. Their attacks wouldn't be as good if they can't walk, now can they?
And actually look into fighting styles. That's helpful too; and nothing is مزید awesome in a roleplay fight scene than when the characters start using the environment around them to help them win. Figure out the location and get them to USE IT.
FLIRTING AND SEX
Flirting, yeah, that's okay in roleplays. Just keep the sex out of public eye, yeah? Keep that to the bedroom, we don't need to know who's fucking who.
Also, until آپ come of age, creating pornography is kind of illegal, especially on US-based sites. Please, for the love of god, just do it in a private roleplay?
SWEARING
This really depends on who your Mod is if you're in a group یا who you're roleplaying with in general. If the Mod says no swearing, THEN DON'T DO IT, BRAH.
Talk to your partner and ask them if swearing is okay with them. But even then, آپ don't need to swear every سیکنڈ fucking word just to fucking make yourself look like a fucking badass because it doesn't fucking work it just makes آپ loom fucking stupid so fucking knock it of okay!? Fuck's sakes.
THIS ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE
Sometimes roleplays just die. آپ can't always extend their life, this just happens.
Don't try and revive a dead roleplay. Start afresh with a new idea.
LANGUAGE BARRIERS AND FOREIGN STUFF
If your foreign character speaks their own native tongue, then don't use google translate to figure out what they're saying because google translate is terrible. Find some people who are actually FROM that country and ask them.
Also, if you're saying your character is from, say, Australia actually FIND a place in Australia from them to be from, because Hobart is very, very different to Sydney, which in turn shares nothing in common with the ACT. New York and Washington D.C aren't the same, are they? I doubt Helsinki and Rovaniemi are the same thing either.
ROMANCE
Romance can be subtle. It doesn't need to be slap-bang in-your-face all of the time. Generally, I think romance should be kept on the down-low anyway, as it's a genre not many can do well. آپ wouldn't go and have sex with someone you've only known for ten minutes, would you?
CLICHES
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. آپ don't want to fall down the hole of cliche 'fuck you.'
ORIGINALITY
Make your roleplay, especially group ones, something special. If it's been done to death before (I'm looking at you, High School) then it won't stand out from the crowd.
GRAMMAR AND TYPOS
If آپ make a typo, fair enough. 'I clay guitar' obviously means the character plays guitar, clearly just a typo. When people OOC point this out, یا even مزید annoyingly, IC, it pisses everyone off and disrupts the flow of the roleplay. So stop it.
That having been said, don't use text talk. Please, have some class when آپ roleplay. Honest mistakes and typos are one thing, laziness when typing is another.
THE NO. 1 RULE
Roleplays are not real. Roleplaying is not a job, roleplaying is a hobby. Enjoy yourself, یا there is no point to any of this!
This has been Soda, your fuming, angry Dingo, and I THINK that's all I have to say about that.
*shot سے طرف کی 2*
