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Roleplay Tutorials [Various Subjectmatter] 7/1/2014
FaintSilhouette:
ROLEPLAY TUTORIALS
Hey guys. I decided to import these over from the old forum as I will most likely will continue to update this from time to time. No, I'm not here to complain about the grammatically incorrect so much as try to help those who struggle with certain subject matter and frustrations in written roleplays. Opinions differ, if you don't like what I have to say here, you're more than welcome to ignore this thread. In fact, I encourage it as I don't like to deal with senseless whining.
Now that we have THAT out of the way, lets move on. You'll notice there isn't very much written on this first post and there is a reason for that: a letter/character limit. That said, before you scurry off thinking this thread is unfinished, you will have to scroll down to find the actual tutorial which is finished, but likely to be updated from time to time. The table of contents below will help you determine what posts contain what content. This is a LOT to look at and it was gathered over time so if you're just looking for something specific, I recommend searching for it this way unless of course you like to read a lot in which case more power to you. O.o
And now the table of contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS (By post number going down)
1. Table of contents
2. General RP Do's and Dont's (Part 1)
3. General RP Do's and Dont's (Part 2)
4. General RP Do's and Dont's (Part 3)
5. How to Keep Group Roleplays from Dying in a week
6. Evil Character Roleplay Tutorial (Part 1)
7. Evil Character Roleplay Tutorial (Part 2)
8. Cub Character Tutorial
9. RESERVED for future updates
10. RESERVED for future updates.
FaintSilhouette:
General RP Do's and Dont'sHow to make RP easier on yourself and others
So far for the most part my experiences in roleplays on this game have been good, but as we all know there will always be those sour apples who either purposefully or accidentally (most of the time) spoil the bushel. So here is a list of the top most common and annoying roleplay bad habits. Notice I said “bad habits.” We all know godmodders, power players, auto-hitters, mary sues/gary stus are irritating but these are things that are “in between the lines” and just general "do's and don'ts"
1. Stay in the general vicinity of the people you are RPing with!
This isn’t such a big deal when it’s a group spread out across a map. That’s fine. Or if you stray from the group, that’s fine too. But keep in mind when you’re doing a 1 x 1 roleplay that when you move your character out a considerable distance, there is no one else for them to interact with while “you’re gone.” That can get extremely dull for BOTH of you because your RP partner is forced to read monologues about your character as well as make up posts involving only their own character when they most likely would prefer to be interacting with you. Its not a roleplay if you don’t let everyone contribute a part that /fits/ with yours. If you’re in one part of the map and the other character isn’t even remotely aware what’s over there for the entire RP, its not a roleplay. Its just you gabbing about how your character did this and that while blowing off your RP partner’s attempts to do something
This also includes being aware of Local-chat’s range. If you’re RPing in local chat, let your partner know you are moving out of local range so that either you two can decide to switch to something with a bigger range [like general] or give them time to adjust their position. Its extremely irritating to other people when they type a whole post only to find that you moved out of local range, didn’t tell them, and so you didn’t see it.
2. If you’re RPing with someone, TELL them in OOC before you move a map, or better yet ASK before you move maps. This kind of goes with number 1. Keep people aware of where you are, don’t just portal hop. Your RP partner will want a heads up. If you’re in a pack, Im sure they’d at least like to know OOC because honestly, if it were me leading I’d tell everyone else not to worry about looking for you and continue the RP. If you can’t be bothered to tell me of your intentions to leave the map, I can’t be bothered to have the “pack/clan/pride go search for you.”
3. Constant character swaps aren’t appreciated. When you switch characters in the middle of a RP abruptly, you are forcing the other person to adapt to that change. It’s fine if your character ends the conversation or you say “He/she ran off” that’s fine. That gives the other person something to work with when you return with your other character.
4. If you’re growing bored with the RP, think about what’s making it boring and for goodness sake, TELL (noticing a trend yet?) the person(s) you’re RPing with that you’re bored/why you’re bored. You never know, your friend just might have an idea to make it better. Or if they don’t, in the very least it gives them a heads up to try to end it rather than you randomly going “I’m bored” and abandoning them. That’s not cool.
5. Realize that there’s nothing that says you can’t RP two different species together, be it peacefully or not. I was telling some others earlier that it seems that the “I HAVE to switch characters and be the same species as your character in order to roleplay” idea that originated in other games *cough* Feral-heart *cough* is trying to make its way over here and it needs to curl up, die, and burn. Don’t feel like you HAVE to switch from your favorite, I don’t know, fox character just because someone else has a lion, wolf, deer, bear, cat, etc. If it’s something realistic you’re shooting for, that is one thing but if you’re already playing something unrealistic, like a fan-character or a fantasy-based character, don’t close yourself inside of a box. (And even so some real animals of different species do interact anyway.)
6. If your first post or two is going to be overly dramatic (and I’m not saying that is a bad thing, it can be good if done correctly), warn your RP partner. Like tell them. Its more than startling when someone starts RP and the FIRST thing someone does is nearly commit suicide. That’s a little…sudden. Too sudden. If you’re going to do something dramatic, at least warn your RP partner and give it some dramatic buildup for a few posts. Otherwise its not drama, its just abrupt and difficult to react to, not fun.
7. PAY ATTENTION to what’s being told to you in your RP partner(s) posts. They may be hinting at something they’re trying to do but if you’re allowing yourself to have the attention span of a rodent and never read very deep into it, you’re probably going to not only miss something, but frustrate them as well.
8. Don’t walk off in the middle of a conversation in RP unless its…well, sensible. If the conversation is about families, it is not going to make much sense to have your character go “I’m going hunting!” and run off without giving the other person so much as a chance to respond, let alone “come along” at least. Like 6, its abrupt. I mean have you ever in your life spoken to someone and had them suddenly turn mid-conversation and walk out the door and go “I’m going grocery shopping!” and disappear? No. Just no.
9. Don’t assume you know someone else’s character and understand not everyone’s ideals and morals are like yours. Not all characters will sympathize with yours. It doesn’t make them “evil” in the traditional sense, it just means they don’t see a reason to give pity and that can come from /anything./ Perhaps they think its /your/ character’s fault for their own circumstances or maybe they’ve been through the same thing and got through it and just think yours needs to “suck it up and get over it.” It doesn’t make them evil, they just don’t have the same ideals.
10. COMMUNICATE. If you look through a lot of these, a good number of the problems are caused by a lack of communication. You need to TELL people what you’re doing, ASK things, and DON’T just run off and do stuff
11. Contributed by Nitrobug: One of my big things is contradictory character traits...i.e when someones like " They're the queen of all evil, but they're really nice and kind once you get to know them. And they just adore cubs and want to snuggle them" -whatever. Thats kind of an extreme example, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
I get having a misunderstood "baddie", or maybe being a more neutral character, or loving their family or something like that, but come on people, unless your character has multiple personality disorder (which I knew someone who did, and it was rather interesting when done right) dont have two personality traits that are completely on the opposite ends of the spectrum.
12. Contributed by Haruki: When starting a quick group roleplay, don't be that guy who's all "can I be leader pls???"
Or "im biggest male so i lead". Especially if its established there's no group. There's always that guy. Don't be that guy.
just start the RP, enjoy yourself, and be on your merry way. Getting hung up on the details isn't the way to go.
13. Your character, nine times out of ten, will never be as interesting to everyone else as they are to you, REMEMBER that. Its one thing if your character is rather cocky and full of him/herself in dialogue, but if you’re flaunting how “beautiful” they are in the context down to the tiniest detail, please realize that no one cares. Yeah, you read that correctly, no one cares. Your character will only be liked by players and other characters who like them and you can’t force it on them either way. He/she may seem very interesting to you but to others, it doesn’t mean much. Sorry. Long story short, if its not in the dialogue, thoughts of the character, or context pertaining to the thoughts of the character, cut out the self-adoring garbage.
14. Your character’s authority IC does NOT related to your authority OOC.
I will keep this anonymous but I was on a cub character recently and someone pointed out my dishing out orders, thoughts, and ideas about the RP I was starting. Now keep in mind, I’m the one who arranged this RP and was in charge and they joined me and the other person I already had. Also keep in mind, I was on a wolf cub character while they were on an adult and particularly large animal.
They said I was acting like an adult male of their species of character, seeming to suggest it was strange that I had the authority that I did. And this kind of goes back to 12, that Haruki mentioned. There was no IC leader of this roleplay but I was the one who started it. So in other words, if you hop on some big powerful animal, and the person who starts the roleplay has a character who is less than…well, awe-inspiring, realize that by making the RP, they ARE in still in charge OOC regardless of character size/strength. You’re a human behind a screen, not the animal on the screen.
15. “Evil” can go both directions. Depending on what side you’re on, the opposing side can look evil even if their goals or intentions aren’t necessarily malicious. Meaning your character may be fighting for the “good guys” but in who’s eyes are they the good guys? Yours, and only yours.
[Please Scroll to the next post to continue]
FaintSilhouette:
General RP Do's and Dont's CONTINUED PART 2 Making RP Easier on Yourself and Others
16. Don’t ever, EVER assume that any character mentioned in a post that is not present in the RP is an NPC that you can take control of, manipulate, etc. For all you know, the name you don’t recognize could be a character of another player that the poster ran into earlier that day.
Heres an example:
Lets say someone makes a post with a character mentioning that she saw a dog named “Smokey” earlier that afternoon. It wouldn’t really be fair if your character “ran off toward a dog scent and came back with Smokey’s dead body.” Why? If it turned out that “Smokey” was a REAL character that belonged to another player who was absent, they won’t be happy that you “killed” their character while they weren’t on the game. They also will probably disregard the fact you “killed” them (since they weren’t even there to have a say in the matter, let alone allow their character to at least defend itself) and they probably won’t want to RP with you anymore, as neither will the person who made the post to begin with, because now they know you’ll assume stuff and that is not good at all.
17. Don’t do a cliché unless you can put a twist on it or pull it off well and I mean REALLY pull it off well. You know who you are. If you don’t know, you’re probably one of the ones that should try something else.
In all of the years I’ve been roleplaying, I’ve only seen ONE person who can pull off the half normal, half demon with self-control issues cliché without it being horribly predictable, boring, overdone, and dull, despite having seen the cliché itself hundreds of times.
18. Your character’s “mysteriousness” is judged by the people you RP with, NOT you. There are numbers of things you can do to provoke this, but in the end, if you’re intentionally trying to gear someone to think your character is mysterious by blatantly telling them, putting it in the name (ex: “Mystery” or “Mysterious”), or otherwise making it obvious you’re trying to draw them into thinking so, it will not work. And this goes for nearly all RP traits but “mysteriousness” I think, is among one of the hardest to pull off. More often than not, it happens on accident or by majority’s opinion of those you RP with. Because if you’re trying to be unpredictable and mysterious on purpose, the more predictable and boring you will be, because people can tell. Don’t try too hard.
19. Realize the consequences of your character’s actions. Even if you go as far as to (albeit this is going on the edge of ridiculousness) say that your character is strong enough to break through something, their body is STILL just as vulnerable as anyone elses. Meaning if they go through plowing through glass, trees, and underbrush, they still WILL be sliced up, scraped by bark, and caught in the thorns. Likewise, if your character falls off a cliff, pain won’t be the only consequence of their fall. Fractures, scrapes, and concussions galore. Yes, you can manipulate things to avoid your character having as much bodily injury but remember that regardless, your character (usually on Last moon) is an animal, not a tank!
20. You can’t be in two places at once. If you just said your character went up the hill after character A, they can’t be attacking character B down in the valley at the same time. Even if it’s a two on one fight, or even simple non-violent interactions, you’re still only one character (unless you ask your fellow players and they don’t mind you bringing in an extra char) and you have to deal with it on your own.
21. Winning isn’t everything! You can’t win them all. In the end, you don’t earn anything at all and better character development most often comes through losing rather than winning anyway.
22. Ignorance and hatred does an evil character not make! [Thank you Haruki for the inspiration for that one]
23. “Only noobs do that!” Only trolls give a rat’s tail what others do, be it “newbish” or not. [Ive heard more than enough tales from friends about people doing this. x.x]
24. If you or your character constantly contradict yourself/themselves, people probably won’t want to RP with you. No one likes being confused and having to decipher what you’re trying to say.
Additionally if you’re constantly contradicting yourself or your character just to win an argument or be “in the right” people won’t want to RP with you either. It makes absolutely no sense. Don’t suddenly “change your mind” to look cool and don’t think people don’t notice when you do it. If you ask someone to RP and they tell you “no” don’t turn around and say you didn’t feel like RPing. Why would you have asked then? Its pretty obvious and makes you look rather foolish.
25. Not all RPs will let you jump right in, RP for five minutes and leave. Respect that. The owners and players of this RP don’t want people who are constantly hopping in and out because that makes crafting an interesting plot VERY hard. What’s going to happen if they come up with a great idea involving you but oh, you just disappeared and never came back! Congrats, you just ruined the whole dang thing. If you want to RP for five minutes, join a RP that falls apart in five minutes. If you join a RP that requires you to apply on the forum its /probably/ long term and they probably want some effort put into it. These people aren’t being “mean” to you. They’re just trying to keep people on the same page.
26. SPEAK. For the love of goodness if your character has the capacity to talk, SHOW IT. Now I understand there are quiet people in the world but even they will carry on a conversation if they have to and that includes answering questions. If you notice you’re in a RP where the other person is having to ask all of the questions and carry the weight of the conversation while your character is just “nodding, smiling, growling (with no dialogue), shaking their head, etc” and giving them virtually NOTHING to work with, you need to rethink your character, regardless of how “quiet and giggling and shy” they are.
I have seen a large number of very well written role-players still do this and this is one of my personal pet peeves and it drives me /crazy./ If a character asks yours a question, either answer it or at LEAST acknowledge it was asked and don’t just acknowledge the /last/ question that was asked. Yes, I understand no one realistically would answer every question shot at them especially at once but your character doesn’t have the memory of a goldfish. Essentially what you are doing is making your character "mute" (without them REALLY being mute) and only talking when it conveniences you. That is IRRITATING.
Let me give an example:
WRONG:
<Tabby> Tabby wrinkled her nose as she gazed up at the sky and watched the clouds roll in. A drop of water hit her on the nose and after a moment it all started coming down. Glancing to Susan she said “Didn’t mom say there was a rock shelter somewhere around here? I have a feeling this rain is going to stop anytime soon.” Shaking her pelt, which was quickly becoming drenched, she tried to find something familiar in the backdrop that might show her the way back home. Noticing the smile on Susan’s face, she tilted her head. “How can you be so happy when this weather is so disgusting!? And do you know where I left our stuff? I thought it was over here somewhere.”
<Susan> Susan smiled at Tabby, “I like the rain!”
Now, disregarding how short the reply is in comparison to what its for (because THAT is not the problem. Short replies, so long as they acknowledge what’s been said are perfectly okay . The problem with this one is that it DOES NOT acknowledge enough) it should be pretty obvious what’s wrong here. “Susan” answered one thing and it suggests she only read the tail-ends of her RP partner’s post. That is /incredibly/ annoying to people who know you because then they know in order to make the RP move forward they have to try twice as hard not ONLY to carry the conversation but ALSO to shape their posts around YOUR bad habits (as in they have to make sure to put the most important questions at the end of their post) because you only respond to the last thing said.
Yes RP is meant to be fun but it does take a little effort and if you aren’t putting forth your end of the deal, you’re making it harder on everyone else and it’s not as much fun for them while you get to be “lazy.” Don’t be a lazy Susan! [Pun intended]
RIGHT:
<Tabby> Tabby wrinkled her nose as she gazed up at the sky and watched the clouds roll in. A drop of water hit her on the nose and after a moment it all started coming down. Glancing to Susan she said “Didn’t mom say there was a rock shelter somewhere around here? I have a feeling this rain is going to stop anytime soon.” Shaking her pelt, which was quickly becoming drenched, she tried to find something familiar in the backdrop that might show her the way back home. Noticing the smile on Susan’s face, she tilted her head. “How can you be so happy when this weather is so disgusting!? And do you know where I left our stuff? I thought it was over here somewhere.”
<Susan> Susan smiled at Tabby, “Easy. I like the rain. It is just water after all.” Susan answered simply. “What is the difference between water coming out of the sky or sitting in a lake in the ground?” She asked and shrugged her shoulders at her sister, still rather soft-spoken. “I wasn’t listening when mom was talking and I don’t know.” Reclining back against the rock wall she placed her hands behind her head and sighed contently.
Notice while the reply remains short, and again that is perfectly OK, it acknowledges what is going on and what was said. Even better, it does not require the other person to come up with EVERYTHING for the next post/part of the RP because Susan asked a question back. Answer a question, ask a question. It’s like tennis. Not only that but we can still see that Susan is a very to-the-point, soft-spoken, and laid back person but it is subtle and smooth rather than obnoxious and choppy
27. If you are in a group/pack/pride/clan or whatever, don’t acknowledge ONLY the leaders, ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR PEERS. It’s one thing to have a character who bucks up at slightly less-than-highest authority but even if your character does not answer someone elses or does not do what they’re told, at least acknowledge it. Even if it’s something as simple as a thought like
‘Who does she think she is? She can’t tell me what to do.’ Margie thought.
Otherwise if you just straight up ignore what the other posts of other players say and only what the “leaders” posts say, you are forcing your group-mates to RP by themselves essentially. The leading characters may not actually know everything about whats going on [Even though their players do!] Just because they are the leading character doesn’t necessarily mean they will /always/ be the one dropping the hint about what will happen next. [Though they ARE a good place to look] You should also read/acknowledge what other players are doing, otherwise you will be the ONE guy who pops their head up like “Whut’s going on!? :B” and not “get it” when everyone else who was paying attention to everyone else’s posts and the hints managed to put 2 and 2 together and got 4.
People WILL get tired of explaining it to you if it’s obvious it’s because you were not paying attention to anyone’s post but the leaders. I have seen this EVERYWHERE. You are in a GROUP. You are not a trio [You + 2 leaders]. You are not a duo. [You + 1 leader]. You are a group. [You + the leader + everyone else]
28. In a long-term RP, there is not drama and excitement EVERY day. Don’t become fussy just because you landed in a part of it that “isn’t that exciting at the moment”. Every story has moments of calm and moments of drama and so does every RP.
29. Time your entrances properly. If something obviously important is happening, don’t bring someone in to “Crash the party” or otherwise draw a great deal of attention WITHOUT asking first. You could be disrupting something critical and more likely than not that behavior will probably end with you ending up bored and ignored and a good deal of folks irritated at you. What you may think is exciting may end up being a drag for everyone else.
FaintSilhouette:
General RP Do's and Dont's (CONTINUED, PART 3)
Making RP Easier on Yourself and Others
30. In some other games/forums this is a rarely encountered problem but let’s face it, sooner or later your carnivore or herbivore character is going to run into its opposite, respectively and it begs a question. How is that supposed to work? Well, that really depends on who you are versus who you’re RPing with. Just because you have the predator character and a prey animal in a RP does NOT mean it HAS to suddenly turn into a lunch break! Here are some things to consider.
When you’re the predator and communication is possible: First off, if you are in the seat of the predator, does the prey talk/capable of intelligent speech? This is what usually draws the line between one’s decision to eat something or not. Think about it, if you could hear someone screaming for mercy as you tore their throat out….most would probably lose their appetite but arguably there are those who are quite sadistic and that small factor might actually tempt them into doing it.
When you’re the predator and communication is NOT possible: If your RP partner’s character is /not/ capable of intelligent speech or otherwise just can’t communicate across the species threshold, it still doesn’t have to turn into an all buffet RP. Make it easy for yourself. Say your character already ate, too tired to make the chase, or simply dislikes that variety of prey as a food source. Have them tap into a different food source. Your character could also be omnivorous (I’m especially looking at you, bear characters!) or go fishing rather than take off after that deer that, lets face it, a single animal most likely could not take down by its lonesome without a great deal of difficulty or great injury.
When you’re the prey and communication is possible: The more timid of herbivores can really lay it on thick. You’re pretty much able to do whatever you want within the limits of the bravery and timid nature in your character’s personality be it something bold and outlandish, or the typical running away and being fretful. Secondly, be willing to give less aggressive predators a chance [again, dependent on personality/experiences]. If your two characters have been there a while, it should become obvious to your herbivore that if said predator /wanted/ to try to kill them, they [probably] would have done it by now
When you’re the prey and communication is NOT possible: …Realize if they’re not really watching you or otherwise disinterested, don’t TRY to make them interested. You’ll end up looking like a fool as will your character. The same mentioned above about acknowledging if they really wanted to eat your character, they probably would have done it by now. And please realize there are more things to do than just “graze”. Go for a dip, play with something, rub antlers on a nearby tree, or simply do the same things you would with a predator character that DON’T involve hunting/stalking/other behaviors uncharacteristic of a herbivore. (Unless that’s your plan of course)
When you’re the predator and /another/ but traditional predator becomes involved OR if you’re an herbivore and another traditional herbivore becomes involved: Realize what they might think of your character, particularly if you’ve taken the route of befriending an herbivore/predator. Will your character be defensive of said predator/herbivore? Or will they just pretend like nothing happened for the sake of their own reputation? Theres SO much you can do here.
A NOTICE FOR BOTH PREDATOR /AND/ HERBIVORE PLAYERS: Do NOT ever make an assumption as a player (now as a character, this is PERFECTLY OK but DON’T do this as a player/RPer) about the “other side” of the fence. Not all canines/felines/bears/Merlions are out to eat your little herbivore. They’re not bloodthirsty monsters. They have to eat just like anyone else. Likewise, their personalities may not align with the “typical” at all. You’d be feeling pretty stupid if you made these assumptions and then discovered one of those guys is really timid and shys away at the slightest aggressive motion. It can happen and it does happen. Predator-character players, the herbivores are neither weak nor slow. The reason they’re even alive on in adulthood to carry on their genes is because they already dodged about a thousand hurdles in life. Prey animals have the ability to run, bite, kick, claw, gore (with antlers/horns), throw (antlers/horns) and various other defenses. Your predator is NOT invincible. If your predator was /so/ powerful, prey animals would have been eradicated from existence entirely a LONG time ago. These herbivores may also may be a LOT braver and bolder than you anticipate. They’re not all going to run and scream “ohnoes!.” Realize that. And lastly and important NEVER under ANY circumstances kill someone elses character WITHOUT their players permission. I cannot stress this enough! Kill-counts on your character don’t mean anything. It doesn’t make them any more “powerful” or “Evil” either.
31. Camouflage. It works… but you need think about how. Do your character’s see in color? If they do, your tiger’s bright orange body and black stripes…don’t blend NEARLY as well than if the characters present see in black and white. You’re a big orange beacon. Yet on the same note, depending on where you are and /what/ colors you use, some patterns/colors regardless of how “natural” or “unnatural” they are can blend very well. My character May, for example is arguably unnatural. She is tawny with dark rosettes and spots and a pale green back mane. That stands out REALLY bad /until/ you plant her in a woodland scene with green plants and dappled light. She’d practically vanish. So just keep the environment and whether or not your player’s characters can see in color or not.
32.Don’t get hung up in the childhood, teenager, sex, 2.5 kids and the minivan routine. There is SO much more to a character than trying to pair them up with everything of the opposite (or some cases, same) sex in site! Try your hand at working with characters who goals OTHER than finding that “special someone.” Believe it or not, not everyone “gets lonely.” But that said if your character is not seeking out these things you need to give them some kind of motive or ambition (although to be truthful they should have this regardless). This can make both your character and a RP a thousand times more interesting. Do you remember when you were a kid and you wanted to grow up to be something? A firefighter? A doctor? Whatever? You kind of want the same concept for you character. Give your character the same kind of dream. It doesn’t JUST have to be an occupation, perhaps it’s a position of power, trying to find how to do some great good for the world, improving one’s physical strength to a certain degree, or whatever. Your character doesn’t NEED a mate and cubs and quite frankly, most of the time, you don’t either. What I mean by that is people get caught up in this rinse-wash-repeat business that it gets boring REALLY fast.
33. Teenagers can do more than “fall in love.” Seriously. Let them finally venture out to that forbidden place their parents told them not to go. (Assuming you didn’t RP them as a little pain-in-the-hind-end cub who did this already, in which case you’re probably already making a mistake and should do just the opposite. BEHAVE DANG IT.) Or have them try to practice a new skill that’s…not quite what their parents wanted them to do. For example, the pride’s heir might be expected to express the traits of a leader and prepare for combat and yet….he’s too busy experimenting with herbs/medicine. That’s what teenagers do. They experiment. They test their limits in ways OTHER than being a drama llama about romance and misbehaving. It’ll take an active imagination to figure this one out.
34. Let your character make mistakes! Let them be in the wrong! Even benevolent and well-meaning people make errors, let your characters make them as well! People CAN be hypocrites [Ex: My character Candela despises most dogs and stereotypical dog-like behavior despite being half border collie herself, the reason being she sees herself as starkly different when that’s far from the truth. She’s a hypocrite.] As I said in an earlier bullet, no one will ever like your character as much as you do so don’t TRY to make them likable. To be truthful, the more likable you try to make them, the more likely they are to be hated by other players. Why? They’re usually mundane, overdone, and BORING. And yes I admit this does touch on the Mary Sue end of things about not being perfect but seriously, SO many people try to write their character up with physical flaws/abnormalities and thinks that saves them from being a Mary Sue. NO. It’s in the personality too!
35. Anger management. Don’t give your character aggressive outbursts unless it’s a core part of their personality or that teensy weensy ONE (not a ONE THOUSAND. Your character has NO business having a thousand triggers) thing is set off. Just because someone spits a single-word insult doesn’t mean your character should be “IM GONNA KILL YOU.” …No. Just no. The last time someone called you “Stupid” did YOU bring a knife to their throat? Im assuming not. Your character should be the same way. Starting a fight does put your own self [or in this case, the character]’s self at risk, meaning it better be REALLY worth it to get THAT pissed off over. And lets face it, theres only so many things that tick us off that bad compared to the MASSIVE number of things that are petty and just “get on our nerves.”
36. Figure out your RP’s “Definitions” of realistic, semi-realistic, and unrealistic. They may seem easy and set in stone for you but you’ll quickly find that they’re really not. For example, /most/ people would argue that a canine (in this case, my canine character Joule) that produces electricity is grossly unrealistic and wouldn’t be permitted in a semi-realistic RP….or would it? If our definition of semi-realistic is taking realistic elements and mixing them with slight unrealistic elements, I can tell you I can /easily/ get this sort of canine into a semi-realistic RP. How?
Loopholes. As the name suggests, electrical eels are capable of producing electricity. They’ve evolved to do that. So what if said this particular canine is of its own species that has evolved the same adaptation? We’ve already established its VERY realistic (realistic element) to have this ability despite the fact it is never found in canines/anything other than the electric eel (slightly unrealistic). There’s no way to gauge just how “realistic” or “unrealistic” it would be to think that a canine could have taken a similar evolutionary route as an eel as convergent evolution happens all the time in nature (again, realistic.) According to this, Joule fits all of our criteria as a semi-realistic character DESPITE the “typical” notion that she would otherwise have “powers” and be unrealistic. Figure out where your RP character draws the lines between these three but don’t be a stickler for realism. No one likes those type of folks. A little error in detail WONT ruin your RP. Face it, go on and have fun.
If someone has anything to add to this list, feel free. *Flops into a hammock.*
FaintSilhouette:
Tips for Keeping Group Roleplays AliveTrying to keep a RP from dying in a week
So if anyone around here has taken a look at Last Moon lately, it’s pretty obvious the game is lacking in the long-lived roleplay department. Sure, there’s plenty of roleplays but most of them die as fast as they appear and I have a suspicion as to what might be the blame. There has been a series of what I will call “trends” in roleplay that began popping up in the Impressive Title/Last Moon/Feral Heart community around mid to late 2010, in line with the end of the original Impressive Title being available and the start of Feral Heart. This is a tutorial made for group and/or roleplay leaders.
Now before anyone jumps down my throat, read the entire thread and hear me out. I /know/ I don’t have any roleplay groups going here, I’m only a member of one BUT that is only because I am in college and do not have time to run one of my own at the current moment. Before that though, I’ve managed to run several roleplays from start to finish and one of which lasted nearly 3 years and another that finished out after a year.
I’ll start with the “bad trend” list aand why you should avoid them when making your group/roleplay.
1. Isolation. This means that your roleplay group, be it a pack or not is completely cut off from the rest of the world. You don’t interact with outsiders or other groups and the only time you will is if someone intends to join your group. Otherwise, you’re just not interested in them and to be quite frank, this is bad, very very bad. Why?
For starters, lets say I stumbled across you in-game with your RP group. If the only interest you have in me is whether or not I join, and I say I’m not sure, or do not wish to yet, and you walk away and mostly ignore me….how does that reflect on you? My impression is that you don’t take a genuine interest not just in me but in those around me. You give off the air that you only care about numbers in your group, not the people in it.
Another issue with this trend is that it’s a behavior that is very restrictive. You are forcing your group members to ONLY interact with each other. In other words, they’re forced to live the “daily life of the pack” or “daily life of the forest.” To be frank, after a while this gets VERY boring. Eat. Sleep. Fall in love. Have a few kids. Get old. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. There are FAR less chances for conflict between group members as there is between group members and outside forces. In roleplay, conflict [usually] is good. It’s interesting IF you can make it about something other than “being evil cause we can” or “fighting the wolves on the other side of the river.”
SOME group-only RP’s is nice. Builds some bonds within the group not just between characters but also between members but for the most part you should be open to outsiders roleplaying with you [assuming they also meet your requirements]. Even if it means letting a player who already has a character in the group to pull out another character who is not in the group and roleplay with everyone else, it’s a good thing. It’s a new face in terms of a character and it again, maintains interest.
So to recap, isolation also known as only roleplaying with your group and its members all of the time is bad because it suggests you only care about numbers, forces members to play out “Daily life” which is both boring and restrictive, prevents conflict [which you actually want], and prevents your group from seeing new faces. On to number two!
2. One species only. In other words, its all wolves, all lions, all cheetahs, all hyenas, etc. This too, is a pretty detrimental trend.
Now I will make a special exception for things like “Warrior Cats” ONLY because they are a fan-roleplay and if done properly, will fall into the laws of the fandom’s universe which does in fact only include cats with FEW exceptions [As would be with Midnight the badger and others. Yes, I did a little homework on this. No, I am not a Warrior Cat fan anymore.] Roleplaying Warrior Cats is no different than making a “Naruto” or “Pokemon” roleplay.
You stick to the laws of the universe. Naruto or pokemon will almost always [with exceptions] involve people or pokemon, respectively. It’s a different universe. But with this in mind we must also remember, Last Moon is also a different “universe” from our own and because of that we /don’t/ have to stick to the laws of nature nor do we have to stick to having ONE single species in a roleplay.
So with that in mind, /yes/ we have the option to still stick to our realism universe but is sticking to one species /actually/ realistic?
When people think of things like wolf packs and lion prides, we get a little near-sighted. We think on the population level. Our species only. Yet in reality, things like lion prides interact with other species on a regular basis. They hunt zebra, they’re landed on by flies, they chase off hyenas. And the relationship does not have to be hostile or threatening behavior either. Birds and rhinos have a symbiotic relationship and the birds can often be seen riding on the rhino’s back. If that’s not interaction between species in real life, I don’t know what is. So the argument that having only ONE species is more realistic is null and void in my eyes.
So now it begs the question /why/ do multi-species RP rather than singularly? What is the benefit? Well, for one thing you’re not restricting yourself as a leader to only include people who want to RP THAT species. You’re [in essence] forcing them to be like you if they want to participate. This means while you might be a dog-lover, you’re alienating all of the cat-lovers out there and vice versa.
And the solution to this is NOT to make “another side” In the RP where the other species is the enemy. That has been clichéd to the point it is boring. If you wanted to be unique, you’d let in everybody because as of right now, no one else is. They’ve fallen into the trend of one-species only and therefore, by having multiple species, you would stand out.
And the key is, contrary to popular belief, for the most part you shouldn’t WANT your canines and felines to fight. Yes, I admit I just got through admitting conflict is interesting but the benefit of having your group members ignore the line between species is much more beneficial than acknowledging it. If that’s all your members do is qualm about cats and dogs… [or bears and wolves, or rabbits and deer, etc etc] that’s all they will do and not only is it boring, it has no logical support. “I HATE DOGS.” Why? “I JUST HATE THEM” …..Sounds kind of –cough- silly -cough- don't you agree?
So recap on this one, single species RP is NOT realistic in most cases, single-species RP alienates people who might otherwise RP with you, you DON’T want another species to be “against” you, you’d be more unique if your group allowed multiple species or variety in some shape or form, and ignoring the line of speciation, for RP sake is often better than the petty and often poorly supported in-character “problems” it causes.
3. Not Moving. This is a bad trend because it SEEMS like a good thing but it really is not. While it might be easier for people to “find” your group if you stay in the singular place, the amount of people you gain by moving around will be greater than the number you lose from the others not being able to find you. Add your newly added members to your friends list so when it comes time to RP, you can contact all of them.
What I mean by move is, your group might be stationed somewhere like the “Forest map, dimension 4” but you need to stress to your members to roleplay with their characters not just IN the group but also OUTSIDE the group on their own WITH their group’s character. Let them roam and meet strangers. Don’t just assume they will know to do this because you’d be surprised to find a lot of people don’t think they can do this. It will give them exposure to other places and keep from tiring of seeing the “same old place” and same people.
And if you can, changing territories once in a blue moon is a nice touch too. Let it be an in-character change and something for the characters to adapt to and give REASON for your move. Maybe Ice was too cold, people were getting sick, so your group migrates to Forest. Not enough prey in forest so you move to Hidden Valley several RL months later. It will give flow to everything you do and a sort of “background” conflict.
4. Having the attitude of “If you don’t roleplay with us all, the time, you don’t care!” Don’t ever think this of anyone. Yeah sure if someone doesn’t RP with you hardly ever at all, yeah its probable to think that there might be something going on in their life or that they just don’t care much. However, it doesn’t mean you should suddenly become a blowhard and boot them straight off the bat. If you’re making your group plots correctly, that is to say, they involve everyone, that one person disappearing off the face of the earth won’t do any harm to the plot because you can just as easily fill that space with someone else, or keep it empty without issue. And besides, if it comes down to choosing one’s friends over choosing your group, people will almost always choose their friends.
5. Believing strangeness or lack of realism is a sin. This is probably the most damaging trend because the VERY thing that gives a RP maker freedom and creativity is bashed by it. Realism is, in essence, bland and restrictive. You can stick to it to a point for the sake of preventing utter chaos and disorganization but allow some freedom. Let someone have the ability to make their markings glow or have cats and dogs living together. Let someone else who came from an alien race be part of your group. Be DIFFERENT. Its what will make you stand out. Forcing other people to be realistic and JUST like you is the first way to encourage people to leave. People don’t want to be like you and you shouldn’t try to make them want to be like you. They’re not here to entertain you, they’re here to entertain and enjoy themselves. Let them do that. Restricting their creativity will not allow them to do that.
6. The idea that “I can let people dump apps on a thread and expect it to get bumped.” No. You need group participation and interest to keep a RP thread alive. It will look cluttered and unappealing if you do that AND additionally people will ONLY go on your thread to do just that, dump an app on it and leave. If they’re not actively giving updates about their character’s antics or just chatting and enjoying themselves, the thread will die. Make your first post look good because it’s the first thing someone will see. Even if you don’t know how to make it look good, someone else does and even IF you can’t find someone to do it for you, make it neat.
Even if it’s not a “literate” (for lack of a better term) or paragraph style RP, copy your thread into Microsoft word and do a spell/grammar check and add pictures and banners if you can and then cut and paste it back. Center your titles, make it pretty. It shows you have a devoted interest in what you’re doing because if I saw a solid paragraph of just run-together stuff… my impression of you is that you rush, you don’t know what you’re doing, and you don’t care enough to use tools and people who are readily available to you to make it look better.
7. The idea that the group can only RP when I, the leader, RP. It’s a BAD attitude to have. Again, encourage your group members frequently to RP their group character ON THEIR OWN not just inside the group but outside as well. If you end up becoming inactive for any period of time your group will suffer greatly. Additionally if people can RP on their own together regardless of who is there and update you when you’ve missed something, it will benefit so much more. The more people can RP at THEIR leisure and not yours, the more likely they will enjoy your group. You don’t want people to think you HAVE to be there for them to RP. For once thing, they won’t think for themselves and it’s not because they’re not smart, they are, but it’s because they’ll be looking for your permission for everything, things become less spontaneous and consequently, boring. TELL your group often they don’t need you around to RP their group characters.
I once left a RP for several months around the same time one of my friends did. You know what happened? Our group members were SO adjusted to not having us there that they took matters into their own hands and came up with their own mini plot. My friend and I returned about the same time, took control of our groups again and they rolled RIGHT back to the previous activity they had, no problem.
8. Rules were not made to be broken. Ooooh yes they were! Now, OOC or Out of Character rules were NOT in fact made to be broken. In-character rules, however ARE made to be broken and let me tell you, you can really make something good out of breaking In-character rules with a character. If someone gets exiled and shows up down the line, I promise things will most likely get interesting
More to come later! Let me know what you guys think, I plan on getting more in-depth and past just avoiding the “bad trends” of group role-play. No, I’m not knocking anyone who may or may not fall into these trends but merely pointing out these trends negative impacts on a group and how they outweigh the benefits, if you will. Don’t take it personally. It’s just kind of sad to recall how there were MANY Roleplay groups, both of expert and novice role-players’ on Impressive Title and how now….there’s probably enough for me to count on one hand. Anyway, again let me know what you think and if anyone has anything to add, let me know.
Quoted From Haruki:
--- Quote ---I've been the administrator for Pyrrhic Passion for the past 6+ months (30-50 characters involved), and served as a moderator for Zeitgeist back in Impressive Title for about a year and a half (80-100 characters involved). Thought I might share some trends I noticed in successful groups.
Like FaintSilhouette said, keep the first post clean and orderly because that's what people (hopefully) look at first. But what exactly does that mean? Its a very flexible term, but I've noticed a few specific things that long term groups always have:
A members list. And I don't mean just a flat list of characters and their users. I mean a small image, basic info, laid-out ranks, and a certain amount of uniformity yet room for individuality. It may not seem like much, but it makes a HUGE impression to really see who is in a group. It makes a potential member think "oh that person looks interesting, I'd like to roleplay with them." Or "wow, there are a lot of people to interact with" Even if there are only 5 members, the list can make those five characters look like quite the group.
Additionally, running with Silh's advice to NOT isolate the group, this means that there will be people befriending members and the group itself without actually BEING members. Allies can play a huge role, too. If you take the time to list the allies and the enemies like you did the members, the thread will start looking official fast.
Another thing that I see in successful groups is that they generally start off with a "seed group." Let me define. Say you want to start a pride, but members don't logically appear out of thin air. Lots of times, leaders-to-be will roleplay with their friends , build relationships between the characters, and THEN start up the pride/pack/clan officially. It gives you a good base to start from. And when people see interactions between other people's characters, they just generally want to get in on the action somehow. Not a requirement, but it does give you one hell of a jumpstart.
Dunno if it's a coincidence, but I've never seen a group without any images in the first post last very long. Like, ever. And I've seen /hundreds/ of them. Yeah, probably not a coincidence now that I think about it. Try to make the heading image match the theme you've got running for the group. When I say theme, I mean color scheme, and just overall "feel" of ypur group. You might have a malevolent geoup, so dark reds, deep violets, dark greens would work in selecting your text. A neutral group might have pastel/hazy blues and greys; warm colors for benevolent groups. These are all suggestions, but you get me. Overall, it has the greatest effect if the banner fits in with the theme of the rest of the thread.
And speaking of "first posts," I guess thats a rather erroneous term. Lots of successful groups actually have 2-5 "first posts" so I guess I should say first FEW posts. Its a protip... if you've taken this advice and example from others, your first post is going to be LONG, if not surpass the character limit. Adding in a new member will be a HASSLE. Post a couple times consecutively. The staff are cool about it and won't give you a hard time about spamming. Trust me on this one.
Groups that mske their own private website almost always die-- WITH a few exceptions. Looking at you, Forbidden Lands. Butyeah, unless the following is astronomically huge and keeping track on just a thread is impossible, don't give in to the temptation to make a separate website. It drops your exposure, isolates your following, and causes confusion. Not to mention its damn annoying to run, speaking from experience.
Be CAREFUL about forum roleplays. They are slow-going and can hinder ingame fun. Sometimes tey are grest, but you need an absolutely phenomenal group of people to make an "okay" forum roleplay. In my experience, they die more than they live.
Have some ceremonies/traditions set up. If there's a lull in fun, they're good to bust out to keep people busy until conflict. Plus, it gives them a little bit of culture, and can add to your group's theme. Can be anything from mate-binding ceremonies to virginal sacrifices to the Sun God. Whatever.
Take screenshots. Lots of screenshots. Whether it be in your first post or shared at random, they always tie the group more the game and show fun things are going on and generates interest.
Give that bitch a picture. Bitches love pictures.
A rule of thumb: There will ALWAYS be someome, somewhere, that does something better than you. Look around; read other threads and learn from what others have done. What works? What doesn't? If you don't like the examples on this one site, check out other servers (wouldn't recommend FeralHeart but hey, to each their own). Learn from others and EMULATE.
--- End quote ---
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