Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is a role playing Guide I wrote for another site, and I am posting it here for members that have never role played before in the hopes that they will join in! I have put headlines on each topic to make this Guide easier to browse, enjoy!

Basic
In this section, you will learn the basic rules to role play, including dialog and actions. In most role plays, you should write everything as if you were writing a story. This way other players can "see" what is going on, and what sort of environment they are in. Actions should not be written in stars ( * ) , and all dialog should be written in between quotation marks (" Hello ").Also, you should try to spell everything as best as you can to keep from confusing other members. Using "4" when meaning to say the word "for" should not be done. All numbers up to 100 should be completely written out, i.e. - one, five, twenty seven, fifty three, eighty seven, ninety two, 100. Also, writing in 733t is okay for chatting, but not in role plays

Here is a bad example of basic role playing:
*Walk in the room*
Hi, I am George, I am teh uber 733t and U R stoopid.
*sits down*

Can you see what this person did wrong here? Here is how it could be better written to suit a forum role play:

George walked into the room, and glanced at the other people.
"Hello, I am George",he paused and then said, " I am cool, and you are not."He sat down and began to laugh at the stupidity of the other students.

That might have been a bit long, but you get the point.

Starting a Role Play
In this section you will learn how to creatively start a fun role play that others will enjoy. First, you will need to decide where your role play will take place, and what you will be doing. The story can start in the woods, and your characters can be hunting the elusive white tailed deer. Sounds cool, right? Also, start it off with a few sentences showing the players where you are and what your common goals are.

Bad example of starting a role play:
People chasing you in the woods and trying to kill you!

Sorry Steph, I had to put this here. But no worries, this is how it could be spiced up a little:

In the middle of the Harriet Forest, four friends sat around a camp fire. One of the guys had been teasing the girls all night about the news that they had heard; a psycho killer was on the loose and possibly in this very forest!

That is better, the amount of characters can be changed depending on how many people want to join in on the rp. Note that new characters can join later, and this will not effect the number of people sitting around the campfire in the beginning.

Introducing Characters to the Story
When introducing your character to the story, it is best not to put your character in the first post. Instead, you should make a second post to introduce your character. I will write a scenario, and then I will show a character being introduced.

Post 1:
At a taverna in the middle of the downtown area, citizens are finding refuge from the heavy rain after a long day of work. Most of the people here were men that were not yet ready to go home for the day, but some were adventures stopping in for a drink before they went back on the road again.

Post 2:
Kojiro sat on the other side of the bar flipping through the menu. He was having a hard time finding what he wanted after realizing this little taverna only served seafood.

OOC Comments and Misc
Yes, these are helpful in a story, but should be used as little as possible. The more out of character comments there are, the less fun the role play becomes. Instead, try to put OOC comments in the General board or in the chat feature at the bottom of the page. Also try not to &god mode&. This is when you make your character so powerful that they can not be beat in a battle. This is okay if you are playing a bad guy that can not be beaten until the end of the role player, and they should probably be played by a staff member. Also, if doing a fight scene with another PC (or player character) please note that it is no fun for either person if they keep dodging and cannot hit a blow. It doesn't matter who gets hit, someone needs to or the battle will be never ending. Also, you can not control someone else's character. Bad example:

Charizard used his flamethrower attack. It was a direct hit on Mudkip.

Instead, you should right this:

Charizard used his flamethrower attack, and it appeared that it would be a direct hit on Mudkip.

This way the other player can decide if it hits, or if they dodge before it can hit them.

Conclusion
I hope my guide has been helpful. Please critique here in any way possible, and you can put any other tips you have here on this page. Most of all, when you are role playing, have fun I first posted this on another role playing site, but I thought people here would also benefit from it.