Basic Info
Role Playing (rp) is for those of you who don't already know, basically a story you and your friends and or a group of people make up as you go. The story is basically dealing with a certain topic, depending on which rp topic you choose. The only thing is you can only control one character (meaning you cannot tell other people how to role play and tell them what to do, and you cannot control other people's rpc= role playing character).
Role Playing (rp) is for those of you who don't already know, basically a story you and your friends and or a group of people make up as you go. The story is basically dealing with a certain topic, depending on which rp topic you choose. The only thing is you can only control one character (meaning you cannot tell other people how to role play and tell them what to do, and you cannot control other people's rpc= role playing character).
Types:
Literate: If you join a literate role play, you are expected to have decent typing skills (ie: if u type lyk dis, u dun wanna join) and are expected to type things out in paragraph form. You can't come in and just say one sentence. You are expected to describe your character and his/her surroundings and interact with the scenery/other characters in every post. These posts should be well thought out.
Example:
Thomas walked into the bar, there went many people there at the moment. There were tables with chairs all around and stools to sit at. He was a tall slim man, with long brown hair and teal eyes. He had long bony fingers and a strong chin. His eyes were very focused and strong. He went and sat down at one of the stools and say to the bar tender, "May I please have a glass of rum?", he said, his voice was deep and a bit crackly, "Sure thing Sir, would you like ice?", The Bar tender replied politely, "Yeah, sure", He replied a bit Distracted
Semi-literate: For these types of role plays, there isn't as much of an emphasis on grammar, however, your posts should still be well thought out. Additionally, these posts are usually not required to be in paragraph form, which means that you can designate actions as follows:
::Jayme enters the Bar and sits down at a stool::
Hello! May I please have a glass of tea? Ice please!
::twiddles her thumbs as she waits::
Non-literate: If a role play does not specify literate or semi-literate, it is usually safe to assume that it is of this variety, however, you should still look through a few posts to get a feel of what other people are doing. You don't want to be the only one posting like this while everyone else writes a short novel with every post!! It's tre embarrassing. Anyway, for a non-literate RP, the main intention is to have fun! Nobody cares how you type or how well thought out your posts are, so feel free to be as random or as serious as you want and emoticons are allowed where as they are usually frowned upon in other ones.
Here's an example:
*Sees an Avalanche*
OMG IM GONNA DIEEEEE!!! eek gonk
*runs off, and avoids it*
omg that was a close one stressed
Basic Rules:
1. Do NOT try to control someone else's character or actions. This will make people angry and you will most likely be asked to leave.
2. Do NOT make your character invincible! This is often referred to as God-modding. For example, if you are in a sword fight and someone lunges at you from really close up, unless you specified that your character's power is lightning fast movement, you can't magically launch yourself into the air, whip a bazooka out of your shorts and blow them up all while making a sandwich. This will not make people happy and you will not make friends doing this!
3. Respect the fundamental rules of Gaia and the all mighty TOS! (Terms Of Service, for those that didn't know) This means that you probably shouldn't start a roleplay that's all about sex and drugs. You can get banned for this, so just don't do it!
4 - Respect the rules of whatever role play you're in. If they say that your character has to be human to join, then don't come in expecting to be half lizard or something. If you want to be a lizard, join a different RP or make your own!
5. ALWAYS READ THE FIRST POST(S)!! This is super important!! Often times the first few posts will have important information like what the RP is about, the rules of the RP, and people's biographies so you know the characters you're going to be playing with.
RP Profiles:
Your character profile is one of the most important aspects of roleplaying. This is the only thing you have to show people what your character is like, so it is vitally important that you use the profile to its fullest potential.
Important: FOLLOW THE THREAD’S RULES CONCERNING PROFILES! Most threads will not only have a specific form that they would like you to fill out, but many times they ask that you PM the profile to them instead of posting it. This keeps the thread cleaner and makes it so it is only for role playing instead of all the “paperwork” that goes along with making a role playing thread. Also, make sure you read the RULES for anything that you should include in your profile – many times people will have something in the rules that says “Include this word somewhere in your profile so I know you read the rules.”
Basic rpc Profile:
Most profiles should include some if not all of these things. Some threads will require you to answer fewer or more questions, but these are good things to think about when making a character.
Username: Put your Gaia username here so people can keep everyone straight.
Character name: Depending on what the norm is for the thread you’re in is, this can either be just a first name or a first and last name. You should also specify any nicknames your character might have in this section.
Gender: People don’t always role play as the same sex as their avatar and sometimes names can be a bit ambiguous, so this is a good thing to put.
Age: This is pretty self explanatory, but sometimes certain threads will have rules about what age you can be, so you should make sure to read those rules.
Race: This section is more for specifying if you’re a human, demon, angel, vampire, neko, whatever. Generally it’s more broad than specifying Caucasian vs. Hispanic or something, unless everyone is human and/or you’d like to specify.
Sexuality: Pretty self-explanatory too. Your options are pretty much straight, bisexual, gay/lesbian, transsexual, asexual, pansexual. This makes it easier for people in role plays with potential romance to figure out who they can pair off with.
Appearance: For this section, many people use and sometimes even require pictures instead of a description. However, if you do a description, it should be more than just saying “red hair, green eyes.” Since this is what everyone will refer to in order to figure out what you look like, you should spend a fair amount of time and effort on this section if you don’t just use a picture instead.
Brief bio/history: This is the section where you should write a paragraph or two about where your character came from. If you’re a werewolf, maybe you’ll say how long it’s been since you got bit. Tell a little bit about your family – are your parents still alive? Did you run away from home? Were you banished from your hometown for something you did? Write about anything that might be important to why your character behaves the way he/she does.
Personality: Is your character bubbly and nice all the time or cold hearted and cruel? What should the other characters expect when they talk to you? You should try to be fairly specific here and try to stick to it during the role play. It’s really annoying to play with someone who completely changes their personality every other post, unless they specify that their character is very fickle and has mood swings in this section.
This thread is for those of you 'New' to role playing can practice and become the best you can be at role playing! Good luck!
If you want any more information please contact one of the staff
Thank you,
Love
