[ichijin]

Well, I'd actually like to make sure we all know these things before we continue RPing, as one of them, no sorry, two of them have annoyed me for quite some time... One I gave up on as I tried to ignore it, which actually worked, but the other one is something I'm still having a large issue with, in these giant pacing RPs.

Sorry if I offend anyone who knows these basics, but I want to make sure I cover all fields I know of.

  Spoiler: Grammar, Speech and Punctuation 

It's clear we're all competent or satisfactory in this field, of course the use of the apostrophe marks, full stops and comas are used correctly. Though I'll just say it's common courtesy to use the apostrophe, as some of us have probably skipped it once or twice. But enough of Grammar and whatnot, I'll move onto something I'm kinda bugged about.

Speech.. Speech in RPs, well, yea, that's what I'm bugged about. Now, we've all gone novel-mode and went into a dialogue somewhat like this.

He stepped into the room as the people, seated on the plastic chairs stared at him, as if expecting something from him. "Come, sit down Ben", said one person, this person seemed to be the one who led this, meeting of some kind. After a moment of silence as Ben seated himself into the offered chair, the meeting began. "Well, I believe we should take this offer", said the lady across the room, "no, I don't think so, it seems a little... Risky", said the man seated a few seats away from her. It was only a few moments, until the man next to Ben began to speak, "I agree it seems risky, but I believe we should take the risk", he said.

A little hard to find the speech yes? Since that's basically all most people need to post, now why don't we try a CLEAR, new line?

He stepped into the room as the people, seated on the plastic chairs stared at him, as if expecting something from him.

"Come, sit down Ben", said one person, this person seemed to be the one who led this, meeting of some kind. After a moment of silence as Ben seated himself into the offered chair, the meeting began.

"Well, I believe we should take this offer", said the lady across the room,

"no, I don't think so, it seems a little... Risky", said the man seated a few seats away from her. It was only a few moments, until the man next to Ben began to speak,

"I agree it seems risky, but I believe we should take the risk", he said.

Easier to read isn't it? There's also the use of coloring and BOLDING. But, do NOT use Italics and Underline, no one uses Underline and Italics are better for when the character in question is experiencing a flashback, dream, or if used in just one line, to express the character's thought.

  Spoiler: First and Third person view 

Well, we often use the third person don't we? No one here uses first do they? Well, the effect of each view is pretty well off. When it's third person, no one bothers to read the large descriptions people post up right? Well, that wouldn't matter unless it was a fighting scene, then they'd need to.

Either of the two views are easy to use of course, but there is also the Third Person Limited, Third Person "God" view. The first one is the one we always use, playing from the character alone, while the "God" view is, well, you know everything that is to happen, the "God" view is best for narrating, though limited has a better effect of involving the reader, First person is better at involving the reader, as words such as, "I", "me", "mine", words referring to yourself, involves the reader, they'll feel like it's them they're reading through.

  Spoiler: Actions 

We know this, we've done it, but I've still seen (not on this forum) people using these, "*". Horrible ain't it? Well, the key to actions is to pace it, so that you're not too far ahead of the other character, or so that you're not behind obviously. Pace it to give them a chance, there have also been RPs that give a limit of actions to characters, but that's a little different from what we're used to.

  Spoiler: Characters 

Now, we know how to make our characters right? Give them a name, age, gender, appearance, weapons or magic, or skills, and whatnot... No, this is all people think about, but this is only half of what they should be thinking about.

Personality-
Is something people sometimes morph into an opposite, though some people don't notice it, but it happens. It's happened to me once before, so I've taken note, that I should consolidate the personality, often into a single word. One of my characters was, "insane". But, personality plays a big role in interaction, which I'm not quite good at I admit.

Limitations-
We know our limi-, on second thought, sometimes it's hard to grasp it yes? Well, I'll just say this. All GMs SHOULD (not saying you will) put a scale, so that in a normal, martial arts RP without anime-like references doesn't end up with someone who's capable of beating Ichigo's Bankai in a race. No we don't want that, nor do we want people blowing up the planet with a giant blue beam either. That would end the RP... But, it's best to have a scale, this is something I've found trifling with most RPs, you feel "left out" if you find your character is too weak, or if you're too strong, you'll have to go and edit and feel some regret and whatnot. Seriously, a scale would do well.

Backstory-
Something we've always feared for some reason... Well, this is integral to a character, without it, they wouldn't be who they are. Basically if you can't think of anything interesting, like "love interest died", or "brother is out to kill you", or even, "escaped from mental asylum and at the same time, blew up the asylum", yea, that last one was crazy. But, this is something people have had trouble on, actually if someone took half an hour (this thread is taking hours), to make a character, 20 minutes of it would be in the Backstory. Yep, it's quite frustrating isn't it?

Well, if you can't think of anything, just explain or summarize the character's history, his ambitions or goals or dreams if any, why that is so and there you have it. No one's fussy about how long the Backstory is either, so who cares if it's one paragraph.

Appearance-
This is something that's sometimes trifling, as I've become exceptionally well at description, it's well, satisfactory in other people's cases. Well, people usually provide a picture, good on you, now we can imagine you in anime style... Well, it'd be nice if you described your character, unless you drew the picture yourself. If you can't describe your character, then how are you going to present that character in words, in the RP?

Difficult huh? To begin with, know the clothing, then the hair, and often people have used the eyes to create an effect during an RP. I've seen Exalt use it, and it's pretty impressive, however, other people haven't even described one detail of their character... In the RP, and expect people to go and look at the template. Yea you can expect them to do that, but what if the RP required, and enforced no templates? What would happen then? Yes, you can't have the others visualize your characters can you?

  Spoiler: Setting 

This is actually something I'm also a little annoyed about, no one describes the area they're in, at least give one sentence to describe the area a bit, or summarize it. I find it especially annoying when I try to catch up, it's like this.

For the first posts I see, all I know is that a helicopter is landing (yes I'm referring to The World is Yours RP in it's early stages), but no description, all I got was that the setting was across the road.... How the hell? Isn't there usually a building there? Or is it on the building? THEN AGAIN! I see the word "tree"... So now it's in a park? Wait, they had a park? And isn't this in the city, wouldn't people be crowding around to stare at the noisy wonder? SERIOUSLY, I don't even know where and when it's happening and people continue to leave out the all important setting. Sure people include the setting in mono-posts, meaning posts that refer to ONLY the character they're using, but that's not enough, if it's something that opens up to socializing and interaction, the use of describing setting is INTEGRAL, I mean, okay.

So we have some people fighting in a giant room, now we could come to heaps of conclusions. The room is a temple-like structure, like in those epic fantasy games. It could also be a dojo, and we're there for training. Hell it could even be your abnormally large bathroom or bedroom. Seriously, describe it, is it made of stone? Wood? Are there any details we can use to our advantage? How the hell are we meant to fight each other in an RP, if we can't even try and use our intellect and use what the room or field has to offer?

I mean, come on, we've all had this problem before yes? If not, then you can read minds over the internet

[ichijin]

  Spoiler: Fights 

Well, here we have our lovely, giant golem, slow as hell, and controlled by our little friend, Bob. And next we have the balanced warrior wielding a long sword and a shield, controlled by the other guy named, Mike. The giant golem goes in for a strike, but before Mike could make a post, Bob made that one post, HIT the balanced fighter, despite the golem's immense snail-ness. Sickening isn't it? When people do this, hitting you before you can react.

But that's only half of it, as some people often do something, out of the question, like making the giant golem dodge every single attack... It's okay if the giant golem were a fifth of it's size, and was able to outrun Sonic while it was asleep, but if it's a giant target, and is as slow as the table that your computer sits on, yes, it'd be quite unbelievable right? It's not just actually hitting them, but it's also damage dealt. Some people try to avoid damage as fairly as possible, or avoid fatality, overall, that's quite fine, but after awhile, you should take a direct hit or two. One should know how to take damage before dealing it, if you deal it and you can't take it, then quit your warrior work and start farming like a good peasant. In other words, fight fairly, this isn't something I know you guys know, but of course, I'm saying it again in case. Take hits when necessary, and if the person, despite their stats, keep dodging, I will say, if you are of good judgment, force a hit on them, and after that, explain to them why you did so. Just be sure not to piss them off with a fatality. But if you doubt your judgment, get the GM to look to it, and decide what should be done.

  Spoiler: Etiquette 

Now THIS, is the biggest issue of this RPing forum. Okay, we may be fine with the giant pace you're all going at, you can adapt to it and whatnot, but has anyone noticed that I'm the only one, who's most active when you're all asleep? Why, no you guys haven't, or haven't shown any signs of that at least. Really, most of you disregard the other players, if it's a few or a couple posts ahead of their last, SLOW DOWN! Okay, doing so may ruin your fun right? But I have two things to say, "What about the guy you're leaving behind? How does he feel?", and something I'd like to say to all the RPers, "Now, why exactly are there only 2-3 active RPs?", and the answer is... You're all going at such an abnormal pace, there isn't even any space to start a new RP, which has abruptly left me out of the entire thing.

Etiquette, is something that lacks (this is a personal view, but now moving onto normality).

Etiquette lies within fights as well, give the other guy a chance to react, though if they're reacting wrongly, let it slide, if they go over-kill, give them a nice whack of reality, forced upon them by annoyance.

Now, another thing that's annoyed me, and out of a bit of normality. When I have someone who joins the RP, soon after makes a key-point action, and then for god knows how long, is absent, the RP goes nearly nowhere, and is bound to die. Now, in RPs (except for The World is Yours), I've made my character nearly insignificant in the event that I need to drop out (due to lack of SOME etiquette), now really. No one wants the RP to die, also, your abnormal pace of RPing is called, "Speed RPing", of course I like a healthy pace, but I do NOT want to leave a person behind until the consult with me about it. It seems to me that only I hold some of this sort of etiquette.

Personally, no offense, BUT I've ranted about this quite a few times, and I hope you guys take it through your head.

I may not be helluva lot as experienced as some of you, but that doesn't mean I may know something you don't. That is if you took this part of the Tutorial to any offense, all I hope is you guys can even give me some chance of catching up, I mean, I have to go read a few pages just to do one post, and only do one post a increasing number of pages later. It's frustrating. Naomi and some people may be fine, but know this. "Anything, or anyone is possible".

  Spoiler: Game Masters, or GMs 

Now this is something I know a lot of theory about.

Right, suppose we compare two people, Bob and Mike again.

Of course, Bob goes opens an RP, Mike also opens an RP.

Bob is just making things up as he goes, but also has a LOT more players than Mike. But Mike has the entire RP completely planned out, events, players set out, shaped the story so that if anyone left, it wouldn't do much difference.

But after awhile, Bob begins to lose players, as the entire RP goes at a good pace, but is awkward due to lack of planning. While Mike, well he's is thriving, new players have joined, and it's all under control.

And as for the ending, Bob didn't reach halfway, supposing he even planned that far, while Mike... Well, the entire story finished, the players still look back on that RP with a sense of liking, and somewhat missing, as RPs usually take awhile to finish.

Alright, now we'll get to the key points. It's better to plan the entire story before opening the RP. The story driven RPs are often pretty intense, especially for the GM, and there would be a LOT of dedication required for these RPs to work, but they're really good fun.

Now we say, the free-form RPs, RPs that have the players make the story, shape the story, make their own, whatever. It's all up to the players, the idea make take appeal to audiences, but if the setting and whatnot isn't interesting, not enough players will join, and the players who remain will begin to get bored with whoever they're RPing with. I myself have added trying to input "updates", so that the players have something to think about. Why? I remember trying to write a short story without a topic... It took me more than half the time to decide what I'm going to do.

There has also been known, that there are Co-leaders, these people are a big help, as they'll manage the RP while you're away, though don't leave all the work to them, otherwise it's not your RP. Usually the roles are, the GM revises the story, setting and whatnot, while the Co, does all the posting and managing of characters, it takes a giant workload off of you, but it could be a little difficult. Try to choose someone who's from a timezone with a giant gap, that way there won't be that much of a gap in RP activity if you're not participating. Especially that, that way you only have to come in, post an update of happenings and then, just go and do something else. Easy? Try it, it might be a good idea to use.

Now about the rule breakers... Well, there are ways to get rid of them, consistence in their rule breaking. There are two things, do something in the RP, like shoving a nuke up the far end of their behind and letting them die, unnoticed, that is if you feel uncreative. But if you don't want to be mean, you can give them a reasonable death, though definitely not heroic. Consistency in annoying you afterwards, bring it to a mod, simple as that.

Oh yes, and one tip, think of RPing as a novel, and everyone is contributing to it. It's easier that way, and I've always thought of it that way. As far as I can see, all you people think about is just having fun, disregard perhaps, think of it as a novel. With EVERYONE contributing to it, imagine it like this, and everyone may just have more fun than before.

This was how I first RP'd, maximum etiquette, and that etiquette, lay within the word, "Everybody".

Well, I'll just give the credits.... Uh, Credit

Credits to Onemanga Forum, RP Tutorial Guide, for both, the inspiration to make this, and the information gained from it

Personal Note: I began my RPing days, with maximum etiquette, and I think etiquette is the core to RPing

[Thunderbox]

Well... You could use your imaginagon. I imagen that the tree stands in the middle of a square betweens some buildings. You know? With 2 or 3 benches around it. And it's a place where not much people come. Voila! Problem solved. ( For most of the part then)

And it's good that someone cares about this stuf. But remember: most of the people here aren't award-for-best-literature-of-the-year winners. Maybe some people never ever wrote some stories down.

Maybe this thread could be part of the Guide to the Roleplaying. It's very interesting

[ichijin]

Well, in those literature aw-

Know what I think? I think your literature will improve as you go along with your RPing days, of course no one here is best or worst at their grammar, but RPing is not only a means of fun, but also, a means of improving your literature.

I mean, I used to say, "u noe I dont like ur attitude". Well, not exactly that, but net talk and whatnot.

Also, I've finished it, took me an hour and a half about.

[moreramenplease]

It takes about a quater of that time just to read

Never RP'd before, might go somewhere specifically for newbies before trying it on TF, but I'm quite literate and eloquent, so I'm sure I'll feel experienced enough to join you guys in no time.