Guide to Roleplaying

[Cayden Thomas Murphy]

A Simple Guide to Role Playing
Written to help you become the best possible writer you can be.



Character Creation and Development

Basics

The stats of your character may not seem important at first, but the simple things such as the name, age, and face will determine how other characters receive your own. More importantly, it will determine whether or not the administrators want to accept you or not.

[/b] Choosing a name can be a daunting task. You want the name to be original, something that stands out, something that will make others want to write with you. So you choose something like Rain Marie Starshine. Please avoid names like this; people will just shake their heads at you thinking that you just want attention. Also avoid names with crazy, modified spelling such as Breyawnah Mystyck Fynnleigh. That was exaggerated, but I’m sure you get the point. Also try to avoid names with bland simplicity like Mary Lou Smith, and avoid names with numerous repeating letters such as Kerry Katrina Kaliko. Can someone say, overkill?

- Face: Finding a play by, probably one of the most important things to creating your character. I have run into a lot of writers who will only join a site if their preferred celebrity is open. They normally run into problems because they are unwilling to compromise. Now there is nothing wrong with wanting a particular face, but you should try and keep your options open. Try to have a few different and diverse celebrities in the back of your mind. Don’t pick the entire cast of High School Musical only. Mix it up a bit.

- Other Stats: The most important thing about the other stats ( age, height, weight, appearance, etc ) is be realistic! A 13 year old girl would not be 5’10” and weight 100lbs. Firstly, because thirteen year olds are just beginning puberty at this time; they wouldn’t be at their peak height yet. Secondly, because someone who is 5’10” could not be 100lbs or they would be dead. There are numerous resources on the web to calculate healthy heights and weights according to age and sex. Also be sure to be true to your play by. Try finding out the celebrity’s true stats and just using them. IMDB is very helpful along with other fan sites.
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Writing Histories

When thinking up and writing out your character’s history, you must be as realistic as possible. If a significant event happens in their childhood, be sure that it affects their later life. It is better to have one or two major events or a few smaller events, instead of a ton of dramatic events. This may attract the wrong kind of negative attention to your character. To get ideas about your character’s history, try to think of your own history or a friend’s history. Now I’m not saying copy it, but just take notice to significance in your early life and how it affected you. For example, a son who lost his mother when he was young may have later issues of attachment, loneliness, problems with women. He would not be walking around unaffected, happy as can be without a care in the world. Don’t be afraid to contact the administrator for help if you are stuck.

Personality

The cornerstone of character creation. The most important part of development. Your character needs to be real. There is no such thing as a person who runs around happily ever after. Everyone has skeletons in the closet. Everyone has issues. If there were no problems in life… well, it would be ridiculously boring.

[/b] The easiest of them all. What is your character good at? What makes others like him or her? Normally this doesn’t require a lot of effort, because most people go into character making with a general idea in mind. If an application has a requirement (ex: list five) , don’t just fire off the first five things that come to your mind. Really think about it, and if you want, go over the requirement. Write as many strengths as you need to. The more the better!

- Weaknesses: Okay, now its getting more difficult. A weakness is something that causes a character’s strengths to falter. It can be a personality trait or an outside stimulus, either will work. It can also be something the person dislikes or even something they fear, either of which would potentially cause them discomfort. You can virtually use anything as a weakness. The only catch is that it must make sense to the character and their personality. For example, one of your character’s weaknesses is being shy. But then you have her be the most popular girl in school with lots of friends. Doesn’t really make sense does it? What would work better in this situation is that perhaps she is insecure, and therefore makes it a priority to be friends with everyone so she feels better about herself. Then you can expand that to maybe saying she is a totally different person socially. Maybe she is shy deep down, but is too afraid to show it because of her insecurities. See? Now we already have a great developing character.

- Faults: The hardest part. A lot of people skim over this because of its difficulties. You need to really think about what is wrong with your character. Like I said before, no one is perfect. Everything that happens in your life, makes you who you are today. So this should be the same for your character. Consider the way that your character was raised. What were the parents like? How did any significant event negatively affect your character? There are such things as ‘fake faults.’ Its as if you are afraid that no one will like your character if they have something bad in their personality. In reality, they won’t like your character if they are perfect. Its just plain boring to be perfect. A fake fault would include something like: a little bit shy, doesn’t feel like they fit in, nervous about the future. All of these things are really basic, vague, and something that pretty much everyone goes through in their life. A few real faults are: indecisive, rash, bitter, resentful, insecure, spiteful. These are faults that the character has to deal with every day. They should affect almost every single decision your character makes, always in the back of their minds.

- Secrets: Every character has their secrets, whether it be something from their past or a piece of the personality that they feel the need to hide. The important thing here is knowing how to incorporate them into your role playing. Something that is profound enough to hide, is always going to be in the back of your character’s mind. This needs to affect their choices, making them feel anxious if they are in a situation that might reveal this secret to others. I know a way of bonding is by sharing secrets with other characters, but a word of warning, don’t give it up so easily. You might give up some interesting role playing if you start out like this: “Hi my name is Mary Sue and my mommy died.”
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Creatively Writing

Show vs. Tell

You may or may not have heard this phrase before, but it is extremely important in writing. When writing a post, especially a lengthy one, it might get really boring to the reader. And if your post gets boring, your role playing partner isn’t going to really feel like replying. What makes a post interesting is when a writer knows how to show what is happening instead of telling. Here are some examples.

[/b] “Joe was afraid when he heard the gunshots.”[/ul]


This first example was a bland statement. Boring and matter of fact. There is no detail or development, and it is hard to figure out just what is going on in the situation. Readers would definitely get bored if the entire post sounded like this.

[/b] “It was as if his entire world had stopped, and this moment was all that existed. But in this moment he was safe. No pain assaulted his senses, telling him that the bullets had missed. His heart kicked into high gear and the adrenaline that flooded his system told him to move. Move now.”[/ul]


This example has much more substance, and can help the reader feel what Joe is feeling. When it was simply told, one could only guess what he was going through. But here, it is easy for a reader to project themselves into Joe’s shoes, making the reading experience exciting. And in turn, the role playing will be more fun to write.

Another example:

[/b] “She walked into the courtyard and sat on a bench. She opened her book and started to read. She didn‘t like history, but she had an essay due tomorrow and needed to study. She looked up and wished she could just go back to bed.”[/ul]


Notice that every sentence began with ‘she.’ This is the first give away of a weak post. Its boring and only describes what happened. There is no personality and no feeling. You might even feel like yawning at the end.

[/b] “The crowded study hall forced her to find an alternate place to study her least favorite subject. ‘Secrets of American History: Volume 38’ glared up at her as she briskly walked. Her arm swung purposefully and in time with her fast stride which brought her into the frosty courtyard. The chilly wind bit at her face, almost pushing her down into the stone bench. The binding of the pristine looking book fought against being opened, but Lily knew that this essay would determine her final grade in the class.”[/ul]


This is a much better example. It creates a vivid picture in the readers mind, as if they were right there next to Lily. They can see in her annoyed walking her clear despise of history. By using a person’s senses, you can clearly draw a picture of the scene you are trying to describe.[/justify]

Ask “Why?”

When I get stuck writing a post or creating a new character, I ask myself this simple, three letter question. Why? Why does Joe want to go walking in the woods alone? Why does he find himself in the situation he ends up in? Why is this even happening? Even try asking other questions. What makes Lily hate history? Does she react the same way to other things? What subjects does she like instead? Asking questions can really help move your writing along and make your characters seem more developed. Remember, your readers and role playing partners don’t know everything about your character, so it is up to you to properly show them.


In closing, don’t lose sight of who your character is. Remember to use your application as a tool to help you. Things such as secrets, habits, weaknesses, etc will affect your character’s every single move. Use action verbs to help move your writing along, and avoid over usage of he/she did this/that. Don’t say that a character felt angry. Show how their vein pulsed out of their temple, how their ears burned a fiery red, and how their fists trembled with fury trying to escape. Help your readers paint a picture in their minds.

Combat Writing - GM & PP

Combat sequences can be extremely difficult. It's easy to godmod and/or powerplay for the ease of writing and for the simplicity. Or perhaps we just forget and get too wrapped up in the moment. When that is said, my first thought is about making the other character do something. This isn't always the case. There are many forms of godmodding and powerplaying that don't involve putting words into the character's mouth. Here are some examples:

Hit Assumption

[/b] "She punched him in the head as hard as she could, breaking his nose before she dropped to the ground. She swung her leg around, skimming the grass with her foot, knocking him off of his feet."[/ul]


Unfortunately, these mistakes are easy to make. Here is the problem... She assumes that he can't or won't dodge her punch. Then she assumes that he can't or won't jump over her leg instead of getting knocked down. When writing combat posts, you must give the other character a chance to dodge a blow or avoid an attack. While it isn't right of them to dodge every blow sent their way, they need to be given the opportunity to do so. It is their character, and therefore their choice if he gets punched, or what the results of the punch would be. This can be remidied by using this method.

[/b] "She aimed a punch at his head, intending to break his nose before she dropped to the ground. She swung her leg around, skimming the grass with her foot in an attempt to knock him off his feet."[/ul]


This style of writing combat posts is how it should be done. If you notice, she never lands a hit which allows the other member to decide whether or not their character gets punched. Like I said before, no character should dodge every blow, but this gives them the opportunity to let the strike land, to dodge, or to counter the move.

Please keep in mind that every character has flaws, and every character will get caught off guard at some point. When roleplaying a combat scene, you must remember to let your character get injured in some way. A sore jaw, bloody nose, bruised shin... Nobody likes to fight with someone who wins every time. If you don't want your character to get hurt, avoid combat scenarios. Please realize, though, that avoiding every fight can sometimes be just as bad as winning every fight. [/justify]

Too Much Action

Sometimes, we get so focused on the fighting that we lose sight of what our character is going through in other areas. Because we need to keep our movements open-ended, combat posts can become short and simple, making them a little boring to read. Some people will try to make the posts longer, by doing more with their character. This isn't always a good thing, though. Say Dawn threw a punch at Henry's head. Then, two paragraphs later after more fighting, she decides to attack more. This is a more subtle type of godmodding. Here's why:

Dawn isn't giving Henry the chance to react to the punch that may or may not have landed. He might want to let the punch land, then fall backward. He might want to dodge the blow and grab her arm in an attempt to swing her around and throw her off balance. If she does more attacking later in her post, that choice is taken away from him because she assumes that he's still in the same place that he was before she tried to punch him. You must remember to allow the other person reaction time.

Now you might say, "Well, that's all fine well and good, but then my combat posts end up so short! What do I do then?" The answer is simple. Forget that it's a combat post. Go back to the beginning of the post and tell us what the character is going through. Why are they fighting? What are they feeling? If hits have already been landed, where? And does it hurt? Is it impacting their fighting skills? Have the character look around and describe how their environment is effecting them. Are they getting tired? There is plenty to write about without having the character actually do anything that will lengthen your post and make it more interesting and engaging to read.

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Written by Tara