Welcome to Gaia! ::

This guide was ruthlessly stolen from the fox tails forum who stole it from the real author who is Inuyasha642 at Animegarden.com. Just so you know.


I've noticed throughout almost all of these topics that most of the roleplays are being played out through ... well... spammish posts. That doesn't mean the roleplays are bad, you can have a great roleplay with the most illiterate players (even if they use netspeak) so long as the ideas are good, and while there aren't any official rules at this forum on roleplaying, you can hardly be respected as a roleplayer if your In Character posts look like this :

"hey, whats that?"
*goes over to the-thingy*

"Watch out, it's a ... bad thing!"
*tackles and absorbs explosion, or whatever*

At most forums, that type of post is simply unnaceptable and you will be flamed/banned as punishment. SO, while some of you know how to type up a proper post, and just don't because you don't have to here (it's a sound idea I'll admit, but it frustrates some people *cough* me *cough*), there's also probably a few people here who just don't know how. So allow me to explain.


Part One : Making a Character

Any good roleplay has a good foundation, and any good foundation has three strong parts to it. They are :

- Plot
- Setting
- Characters

The GM, or Game Master is in charge of the first two parts (for most of the roleplay, anyway), but you, the participant are responsible for making sure that you have a good character. That doesn't mean someone who you think is cool, or particularly interesting, it means a well described character that you are able to roleplay with. For instance, a well described character has ALL of the neccesary information in their profile, such as clothing (what are they wearing?), body (what sort of build do they have? How tall are they?), attitude (how do they act? Are they dark and brooding, or bright and cheerful?), backround (where do they come from? how old are they?), and in some cases, motives (what are they doing, and why?). Be sure that if your character is someone who's evil and traitorous, you roleplay them in an evil traitorous manor. Don't have them helping old ladies across the street, unless they're under the influence of mind control!

Part Two : In Character and On Topic

Always remember that if you have something to say that's being said by YOU, not as your character, be it because it's a question about the roleplay or a question to another roleplayer, you need to start a new paragraph (just hit the return/enter key twice) and type Out Of Character (OOC) before the question. That will help other roleplayers not get confused as to whether you, or your character is saying something. And don't forget, if you're going to go from out of character back to In Character (IC), to start a new paragraph and type IC before resuming roleplaying.

During the course of the roleplay, be sure to include how your character feels, not just how he or she acts. From time to time, when interacting with another player's character include a thought statement (written as dialogue, complete with parenthesis but in an italic font.) where the character thinks about how he or she is feeling, such as :

Why is he being so nice to me?

Jeez, she's a stonecold #&*!

What does he think he's doing?!

I never knew she could handle a sword like that! o.o

Or, if you'd rather, you could simply state the feelings as you would any other action, in example :

At that moment Kaori felt great resentment towards Mira. Not only had she stolen her boyfriend, but Mira had teased her ever since she was little, and at that moment, she knew nothing but the need for revenge.

Loki felt utterly confused. His good friend, Akane had just indirectly stated that he had no spine, when he was one of the most spine-ful people in the history of spine-ness! He was wondering whether he should just playfully reply "Heeey, what about Loki?" or act offended.
(Muahahahaha)

When roleplaying, remember to stay on topic and stick to the plot. If the plot is to quest into the forests of Namdoire and find the sacred shoe shining tonic, don't stop halfway there and open a hotel. That only serves to confuse and distract other roleplayers, and would be better suited in the Random Posts or Chatterbox section anyway.

Part Three : Organized Posting

Though this isn't school, it wouldn't hurt to apply some of the basic classroom writing ideas to posting. Such as making a new paragraph for a new idea.

Katatsumuri quickly dashed up the stairs, through the hall, and into Ruri's room. He frantically pulled out dressers, books, overturned chairs and end tables and stripped the sheets off the bed in search of a single piece of paper. A piece of paper that held the passcode to get into Shinji's server so he could access the data tables on his plant project. He had to copy those tables and erase the originals by sunset, or the pollen disease would be unleashed upon the world.
[That is a paragraph about finding the paper and why it must be found. Now that a new idea is being discussed, a new paragraph must be made.]

Katasumuri soon gave up, realizing that he had come all that way for nothing. Ruri had actually said something to him about keeping it in his car. So Katatsumuri dashed back down the stairs and into the parking garage...

And so on and so forth. Also remember that your actions can't be something as simple as '*runs*' and '*chases*'. In a roleplay, those actions would be described more like this :

With that being said, Ginra took off as fast as she could, trying to get away from the monster, with Kira at her heels.

Or, if you only control one of those characters, your post would look like this :

Ginra stared at the monster's eyes, it's cold, red bloodthirsty eyes, and knew nothing but fear. Fear, and the urge to get away, and fast. So she took off running in the only way that wasn't being blocked off, the path back into the forest.

Kira saw Ginra do exactly what she was thinking of doing, running. She without a second thought, she made haste and ran so fast the she not only caught up with Ginra, but passed her, which was pretty amazing since Ginra had been the fastest person on her track team before she had been sent into this other world.

Review And Other Important Rules

1. No God Modding. You control only the character that YOU posted a profile for, unless informed otherwise by another player. Sometimes you will get to control Non Player Characters (NPCs), but only with permission from the Game Master and/or the person who brought the character into play.

2. Out Of Character and In Character. Remember to put IC if you are posting about an action or thought that your character is having, and OOC if it's a question or comment that YOU have.

3 No Flaming. If other players are doing something wrong, kindly and patiently tell them so and let them know what they SHOULD be doing. After all, everyone makes mistakes, and you can edit posts. If someone is intentionally harassing you, don't bother with them. Yelling at them won't do anything, and please probably won't help much either. And the dreaded cApS lOcK isn't going to make them leave you alone. Simply Private Message a Moderator and ask them to ban/warn them, since Moderators are the only ones who have any power over normal users.

4. Don't Spam. If you can't post something useful, don't post at all.

5. Be Informed. If you're away for a while and you just get back to a roleplay to find it has a lot more pages than it did when you last read it, or if you're just joining a roleplay in progress, make sure you read the first post, all the character bios on the first few pages, and the last page or two. That way you'll know who you're roleplaying with, what's going on in the roleplay, and if any plot changes have been made.

6. The RolePlay Doesn't Revolve Around Two People! If you and another person in the roleplay are on at the same time, don't post back and forth between the two of you. Remember that there are other people in the roleplay too, and not only would it be weird if you somehow managed to get a day ahead of them because you over-posted, but it'd be VERY weird if there was some huge battle going on and two people finished it without everyone else.

7. Leave Posts Open-Ended. To avoid any form of god modding, don't FORCE another player to do something. Don't FORCE them to get hit by something or dodge it, leave your posts Open-Ended. In example :

Johnny clutched the gun tightly. He knew he had to make this shot count, or his life would be over. He pulled the trigger and BAM! He hit Dan the Man right between the eyes!

That one is a NO NO!

Johnny clutched the gun tightly. He knew he had to make this shot count or his life would be over. He pulled the trigger, saw the bullet go flying for a brief second, and prayed that it would hit it's target.

ACCEPTABLE! GOOD JOB! =D. That type of post gives the other player a chance to decide whether they'd like to get hit by the bullet or not, and if so, where they'd like to be hit.

8. Real Characters Have Limits. Let's all NOT take a page out of DBZ's book and not make characters that are uber powerful and can destroy an entire world in one hit. Because not only does that make the roleplay extremely boring (imagine a bunch of tiny rodents foing head on against a bulldozer. Not very fun to watch, is it?), it also means that only ANOTHER Uber strong character can defeat the first Uber strong character. And that is how Uber-Character Cycles begin.