Basics of Role Playing

Overview

Text-Based Role Playing isn't a hard thing to pick up. At it's most basic level, it is interactive story writing, and is normally geared towards writers (and sometimes, gamers).

There are a few things that are important for any Role Player (shortened to RPer, most of the time) should know.

Role Playing is, bluntly, story writing. As such, grammar is of high importance. There is nothing that takes away from an RPG's realism more than a line of chat or 'leet' speak. Let me assure you that there is nothing elite about leet in a Role Playing environment, and that if you decide to break the rules and use this speak in your Role Playing, you may have posts deleted, can lose your rank if an 'Advanced' RPer, and you will be looked down upon by the people of this board.

Another thing to remember is to stick to your character. While it can be stretched a little, with the lack of good and evil definition on this board, and with some people (including myself) RPing characters in preparation for a writing project, not sticking to a character, while it won't really be noticed by others, will be noticed by yourself and take away your enjoyment. Of course, if it is a fandom character, then people WILL notice and may call you out on it.

The most important thing, however, is to remember that Role Playing, at it's basis, is interactive. Forgetting this can cause many things, such as the dreaded two great banes of Role Playing: Mary Sueism and God Modding. These are both attempts to show that one person's character is somehow 'greater' than another character, and should be avoided at all costs, and not touched with a 39 and 1/2 ft pole.

Methods of Role Playing

There are two main methods of Role Playing: Story Mode and Action Mode.

Story Mode:

Story mode is written like a book, and tends to be geared towards Message Board Style role playing since it is usually written in past tense. Also, story mode is to be written in third person, unless otherwise stated by the creator of the RPG. An example is as follows:

The controller of Grey would type:

Grey slowly walked in, looking around until she saw the young man across the room. "Angrite! Hey, Angrite, over here!" she yelled, jumping in the air and trying to get the man’s attention.

Afterwards, someone could type a response. For this example, the controller of Angrite saw the post and decided to reply with:

He looked over to where the voice was, but could not see the short girl in the crowd. "Damn her height…" he thought, looking around until he finally saw her, walking towards her.

Upon reading a new post, anyone who’d joined the RPG (Most message board style RPGs tend to require people to fill out short applications before posting, which will require approval) could post a reply, having their character do anything they wanted. They could do ANYTHING. Including TRY to stab the poor, defenseless Angrite. ;-;

… Defenseless. Right.

Action Mode:

Action mode is written in a different format, with asterisks (*) typed around actions, and tends to be geared towards instant message (IM) and chat Rping since it is usually written in present tense and things in the RPG happen in real-time. Also, action mode can be written in first person or third person, depending on the RPer. An example is as follows:

The controller of Grey would type:

Grey: *slowly walks in, looking around until she sees the young man across the room* Angrite! Hey, Angrite, over here! *yells, jumping in the air*

Note that action Rping tends to be less written out, but this varies among Rpers. Afterwards, someone could type a response. For this example, the controller of Angrite saw the post and decided to reply with:

Angrite: *looks over to where the voice was, but can’t see the short girl in the crowd* "Damn her height…" *looks around until he finally sees her and walks towards her*

Note the fact that quotations ("") were around Angrite’s text in this part, but were not around the part that Grey yelled. In action RPing, players tend to use quotes or other symbols around thoughts, but no symbols for normal speaking. Makes more sense now, ne?

Upon reading a new post, anyone who’d joined the RPG (IM style RPGs don‘t usually have the short character sheets to fill out, but on occasion, they will.) could post a reply, having their character do anything they wanted. They could do ANYTHING. Including TRY to stab the poor, defensele-*shot*

Alright. I’ll stop with the idiotic repetition. For now.

Role Play Locations

There are three basic types of RPG styles: Message Board RPGs, Instant Message RPGs, and Video Game RPGs.

Message Board RPGs

Message Board RPGs usually require a character sheet being filled in, and then approved before the person is allowed posting rights for the RPG. They can be hosted on Message Boards, LiveJournals, or various other similar places, such as blogs, etc. They usually require third person posts and story mode Rping, but this varies among the RPG.

Instant Message RPGs

Instant Message (IM) RPGs don’t usually require character sheets, but this varies among the RPG. They are usually hosted in IMs and chat rooms and can have first person or third person, and usually have Action Mode Rping since Action Mode is more real-time than Story Mode, which tends to be for the slower Message Board RPGs.

Video Game RPGs

Video Game RPGs are something I won’t go far into detail about, since I only go on Runescape (bad graphics, but a good MMO nonetheless). Video Game RPGs tend to involve more fighting and things like that, and less getting to know other characters. It’s more geared towards gamers than writers, and this is more over a guide on the text styles of RPing. I suggest Runescape for those of you that want to try a simple yet addictive and free MMO.

Running Multiple Characters

Running more than one character at once isn’t nearly as hard as it seems, once you’ve gotten the hang of Role Playing. Instead of thinking for one character, you’ll be thinking for two or three, but the sheer ease of Rping makes this a simple task at best, even in the real time chat Rping. However, with more characters, you’ll become more involved in the RPG (which, trust me, is a good thing)

There are no real rules for running multiple characters, but there are guidelines:

Don’t forget characters. However, you may put them to the side for a bit, for the sake of the plot, and then bring them back to the forefront at a more appropriate time.
If you can’t handle all your characters, return to a lower amount until you are better able to handle multiple characters.