Post by wolfrysk on Apr 17, 2013 15:47:53 GMT -5
Tips and hints for Roleplaying for the New and Experienced Alike!
[/u][/center]With the Heb~Bastet only a few days away, I've decided to put together a little guide for those of you who might not be familiar with RPing or even those who have been doing it for years and might just want a little refresher! The Heb is always full of fun RP and everyone is encouraged to join in the fun if they so wish.
Basic "Rules" of RP:[/u]
These are accepted as just flat out general rules of roleplaying and are not confined to Sphinxes in general.
1. Do not god-mode/power play.
These will be explained in detail immediately after the list of basic rules however a very general is if it is not your character, you do not control it. If it would change the RP plotline, don't do it. - PLEASE read the full explanation of this if you are new. This is the thing that has for decades now irritated roleplayers more than anything else.
2. Use proper spelling and grammar.
This is the second thing that will either make or break your roleplay with others. No one expects you to have a PHD in English and know the inner workings of every grammatical facet of the language, but at the same time no one wants to read a post that is riddled with misspellings and run on sentences. Spelling is generally the worst culprit though.
Most internet browsers today have a built in spell check (Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera) but if for some reason your browser does not, I highly suggest typing it out in a Word document to use the spell check there. If you for some reason don't have Word or something like it, then here is a handy site that you can visit: www.spellcheck.net/
Common grammatical mistakes to watch out for:
to, two, too:
-"to" is a preposition - to the deli, to the park, to go
- "two" is a number
- "too" means also/as well/in addition
there/their/they're:
-"there" is a place
-"their" designates ownership of something that is not yours - their house
-"they're" - a contraction of they are
your/you're:
-"your" is something that belongs to another person you are addressing - your father
-"you're" is a contraction for you are
its/it's
-"its" designates ownership of something that is not yours and is usually used with inanimate objects - its ruffles, its color
-"it's" the contraction of it is or it has
3. Do not use excessive amounts of colors for fonts - and when you do need to use color, do not pick extremely bright colors.
Reading rainbows of posts gets tedious after a while. When writing, differentiate your characters by paragraph and name them somewhere in each. Think about it as if you were writing a book, you wouldn't be able to use 6 different colors to differentiate characters, you'd have to use their names. Considering using color as an accent. Possibly just for the character's name or perhaps their dialogue.
4. Do not quote multiple/long posts.
This one is pretty self explanatory. Large quote towers will stretch the thread and are a general eyesore.
5. Do not critique other people's characters.
You might not like that so-and-so plays their character as a cynical, proud, evil bunny eater, but that is how the other person chooses to play that particular character. You have the choice of pulling your characters away from that situation if you do not like it. (If for some reason it continues, kindly and PRIVATELY ask the owner of that character to not interact with your character anymore)
6. Do not take anything personally.
Not everyone's characters are going to get along. That does not mean that the owner of the character doesn't like you!
God-moding/Power playing
This is something you must simply not do. The only people who have any license to do this (and even then it is limited) are those leading the RP. What is god-moding/power playing you ask? Well, I'll give you a few examples.
We have two characters:
Odjit - my character
Bob - "player 2"'s character - I don't know player 2 at all, this is my first time RPing with them.
Now say Odjit and Bob are being played together. Odjit is mean, so she decides she would like to smack Bob's face. This is not proper:
-Odjit slapped Bob's on the face, her claws tearing the flesh and drawing blood. She triumphantly watched it trickle down his face.
I cannot automatically say that Odjit's attack hit and that it drew blood. This is power playing.
But Odjit still wants to smack him. What do I do? What is acceptable? Something more along these lines is much better:
-In her rage, Odjit lifted her paw, swinging it toward Bob's face with her claws extended in hopes to feel the flesh of his cheek tear.
This way, Bob's player can choose whether or not they want Bob to be hit and if so, what kind of damage is done.
Realistically though, in a full out fight, there is no way that Bob would be able to dodge all of Odjit's attacks or vice versa. Your characters are not invincible and you must be a fair judge of your fights. Sometimes, fighting might be decided by the roll of the dice. Then it is out of your hands. But generally, you need to be fair. In a completely Sphinx-centric example, your peasant is probably not going to last long in a fight with an assassin and the RP should reflect that.
Something else you cannot do is do something that might potentially change the plot of an RP. For example, the person leading the RP has the setting in a temple and there is a hooded figure sitting behind a pillar. As a player, you cannot, say, send your character over to this figure and say that "the hooded figure hands my character a magical dagger" or randomly have some character that has no basis in the plot come in and give your character something (ie. "an old lady comes in and hands my character a mysterious scroll"). You are there to play, not to lead or draw specific attentions to your character. And trust me, playing can be just as fun! :3
Do whatever you like in your own RP, but if you join someone else's, you need to let them lead! XD
All of this said though, minor things can happen with characters. You can have some random NPC bump into your Sphinx or something to the like. And even on occasion if you have built up a trust and understanding with someone and their characters, you might be able to take more liberties such as picking them up for a hug or kiss or somesuch.
Some Sphinx-centric RP tips!
The number of characters you can play varies from RP to RP.
Usually, names of characters you want to address or interact with are put in bold.
Interact with people you might not usually play with! It's good to make new friends.
Have fun! Really!
