Roleplaying Guide

What is RPing, And how do you RP?[/center]

RPing is when you make a character and play him, or her, out in a story. This can be Pen and Paper, or on a online game, normally a forum. RP stands for Role Play. RPing stands for Role Playing. RPG Stands for Role Play Game.

How do you RP on a Forum?

To RP on a Forum, you create a character in one topic (normally the person creating the RPG has a separate sub-forum, or a topic, to post your character). Once it is approved, you make posts on the Forum describing what your character is doing.


You can make RPGs by going to certain Forum sites, and making one there. One that I recommend is Forumotion.com.

What should I do to make my Forum great?

Keep reading!


Sign-Ups

Sign-ups are REQUIRED places. Not by administrators of the forum maker you use, but by RPing itself! How can you RP with out a character?

Most Sign-Up sections use a template. Regular parts for forums are:

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance:
Personality:
History:

Other things that you may want to add are:

For Pokemon Forums:

Pokemon:
Badges:

For Naruto Forums:

Rank:
Jutsu:
Village:

As you can see, there are many other selections.

Off-Topic

Off-Topic places are good, because it gives RPers a place to relax when they are not RPing. These places normally include:

• Spam
  
• Videos
  
• Artwork
  
• etc.

General Announcement area

General Announcement areas are good. It’s a place to post Rules, Announcements, Introductions, etc.


RP Areas:

No RPG Forum is complete without actual places to RP! You can just add everything that there is in the show, books, etc. in different forums. Like, for a Naruto one you would have “Konohagakure, Sunagakure, Amegakure, Kirigakure, etc.”

Sub-Forums

Sub-Forums add a bit more organization to forums. These are forums, inside forums. For example:

In an RPG forum called Konoha, you might have sub-forums like “Palace, Training grounds, Ramen Bar, etc.”


Ok. So you’ve read all this, you’ve joined some forums, maybe made one. And the next thing you know people are yelling at you for posting nothing but one-liners.

One-Liners are RPers worst nightmare, They are RPG posts, with only one line. Most RPG posts should be at least one paragraph (unless rules say otherwise)

Not sure how to expand your RPing? Check out this guide!

We are going to pretend that we are RPing an eevee, from pokemon.

Quote :

hi

That is probably THE WORST POST ANYONE CAN EVER POST! First: One-liner! Ahhh! Second: Just one word. Remember the four-word rule. Third: Nobody will be able to tell who you are, what you are, or what you are doing. Fourth: It is not at least one paragraph. Fifth: Bad grammar! Let's see if we can improve this.

Quote :

hi said evee walkin up to da dito

Ok. That is still pretty bad, but it has improved a bit. How did it improve?
One: You now know what pokemon it is.
Two: You actually posted what it is doing.
Three: More then one word.
Four: The four word rule has not been broken.
Why is it still bad:
One: Bad grammar.
Two: Bad spelling.
Three: One liner.
Four: Not one paragraph.
Five: Not discriptive enough.

Let's improve this.

Quote :

"Hi." Said Eevee walking up to the DItto. She sort of liked him.

Better! How did it improve?
One: Better Grammar.
Two: Better spelling.
Three: More disccriptive. We now know the Eevee is a girl, and the Ditto is a boy.

Let's try and improve.

Quote :

"Hi." Said Eevee walking up to the DItto. "He is kind of cute." She thought to herself.

Ok that was better.

I'm not gonna put up all the steps, instead. I will put up what is should look like at the end.

Quote :

Eevee stared at the Ditto. "He is kind of cute..." She though. She admired the way he had taken down that Vulpix. The DItto walked up to the Vulpix, and shooke it's paw. "And he is honorable too." He thought. She blushed a bit. "Maybe I should say Hi..." She sighed. Once she though that, he seemed so far away. A cold breeze blew between them both, making him seem even more far away. She gulped, and felt her legs move themselves up to the DItto. THe dry leaves crunched under her feet as she padded towards him on her soft, delicate feet. Finally she reached him. "H-Hi..." She said shyly, blushing a bit.

Now THAT is a good post! You all should aim for something like that when you post!

Remember, aim for these goals when posting:
One: No one-liners at all.
Two: At least one paragraph.
Three: Good spelling and grammar.
Four: Be very descriptive.
Five: Specify certain things.
Six: Have fun!


Now that you have read this, your RPing skill should be a lot better! Great Job!


[Try to put it into Superhero context]
For those unaware of what the term means when applied to a RP context it is used to describe a players acting in manner where they are not bound or limited by anything (such as their Characters inability to do something) and show no regard for the actions of other people.

Here are a few random examples (they are not taken from anywhere on site, this is not an exercise to point out peoples RP skills, which take time to develop after all):

In a Standard RP Context

-A character runs in to an enemy he cannot hope to defeat. Next post he claims to kill the enemy in a blink of an eye without even losing a heart beat.

-Your character is taken captive and thrown in prison. Next they go claim to have walked out of the prison after beating the guards with nary a scratch

In a Naruto RP Context

Dodging every attack thrown at you in a fight whatever the likelihood of you being able to do this
Not just saying you threw a kunai at his heart but then say which you subsequently struck killing your foe when fighting a PC
Some how being immune to lethal poison you have never come into contact with before and you app mentions nothing about being poison resistant

God Modding is often simpler to do then you might realise. Every time you post the actions of another without their consent or the results of your attacks such as your fireball striking your foe your God Modding whether you realise this or not. The easy way to avoid this is to never post for other PC’s without their explicit permission and never post for the results of your attacks. Its fine to throw a fireball towards someone quite another thing to say it hits them.

When dealing with Jutsu bare in mind that any Jutsu has the possibility of being reversed and absolutely no Jutsu has so much power that it is impossible for any opponent to counter it. It may extremely hard for a academy student to avoid dying at the hands of a S Rank technique but it may be possible. That said it is just as bad to constantly completely avoid your opponent's attack's. Most battles especially between similarly ranked Nins are close and bloody affairs and avoiding injury or where it is clearly bound to happen death

Similarly all Jutsu used must be mentioned at the time of use. Claiming to have used a Jutsu at later point when no evidence exists in the former posts is God Modding

Spamming attack's that would normally cost you an insane amount of chakra is also another form of God Modding. Using Jutsu costs chakra which is a finite resource after all. Over using Jutsu will deplete ones reserves and lead to Charka exhaustion.

The topic of today is that infamous bugbear: METAGAMING

For those unaware of what the term means when applied to a RP context it is used to describe a players' use of assumed characteristics of the game. In particular, metagaming often refers to having a character act on knowledge that only the player has access to.

Here are a few random examples (they are not taken from anywhere on site, this is not an exercise to point out peoples RP skills, which take time to develop after all):

In a Standard RP Context:

• A character tricking a medusa to stare at a mirror when the character has never even heard of medusas and should not be aware of their petrifying stare

In a Naruto RP Context:

1. Having your character avoid eye contact with an Uchiha possessing MS when there is no logical in game reason they would know about the abilities and thus know to avoid it.
   
2. You find character mourning at the memorial stone and who is currently questioning whether she has what it takes to be a ninja. She lost her mother when she was just two. You character is unaware of this but you have read her character sheet and so know. Your character walks up to her to reassure her she’s a great Ninja and that her mother would be proud of her.
   
3. Your character knowing about a secret Anbu mission in progress when he is just a genin.

Metagaming makes the RP less immersing and your characters actions less believable, in extreme cases it can be as bad as god-modding, being used to evade things your character wouldn’t have or acquire things he wouldn’t logically have access too.

It’s not the worse problem out there or even totally unacceptable it’s just nice to be aware of. Most metagaming is incidental and as such completely understandable but its best to try and avoid it wear possible. Here are a few pointers:

1. It’s always a good idea to read the character sheets of individuals you meet in because people generally work hard to produce them, they tend to be interesting and enjoyable and you will connect with the characters more easily and enjoy the RP all the more. However with regard to what your character knows about them the base assumption is absolutely nothing. Much like when you meet someone in real life for the first time you know next to nothing about them. From this base you take into account your characters rank, country, prior social interaction and what he has learned in RP to form what you know.
   
2. Always bare you rank in mind when considering what your character would know of others or on matters. A genin’s knowledge would be limited to some basic jutsu, whatever he has picked up on mission, knowledge on his own clan relative to his rank, non sensitive info on the academy and his country and knowledge of his fellow peers (though not specific). The Hokage on the other hand will know or have access to a great many things on a wide range of matters, from who the cleans the toilets at the hospital to the true nature of Konoha’s Kekkai Genkai and who the present holders of the villages summoning contracts.
   
3. Your country/village should likewise be bared in mind. Villages are by nature very secretive and anything more then common knowledge would be hard for outsiders to come by.
   
4. Personal histories should nearly always be considered unknown to anyone but the parties involved unless revealed by the character in question during RP. Bare in mind though that anything done in an official capacity is likely to be recorded and known to ones superiors. Also you may have been watched, though this is very unlikely unless there is good grounds for it
   
5. Clan knowledge, Jutsu, Special abilities and Kekkai Genkai fall into an interesting category. On the one hand many Clans are quite famous and basic information about the abilities and techs is widely spread. Unless your clan is particularly obscure or has very few members it should be assumed that the chances are that some basics concerning you clan’s tech is known. However at the same time the techs themselves especially high level techs are very closely guarded secrets and their true nature is likely to be known by a few people. A good example would be the Uchiha Clan. Most people in Konoha and even beyond are probably aware of their red eyes and some of its basic functions but MS itself will only be known to a select group of people. Not even an Uchiha Genin is likely to be aware of techniques like Sansuno.
   
6. Remember that the RP does not follow Cannon and that none of the Cannon characters are existed with relation to it. What we know about rare techs, kkg and special abilities that came out over it may not be known. Using Deidara as an example if someone was to create an Akatsuki character with his abilities and a similar profile, then any Konoha Nin who encountered him would be unaware of his capabilities even though we know them all. In a RP sense his abilities would be new and unheard of.
   
7. Never forget that certain characters may be adopting a cover identity, hiding something or lying to you, be it the Hokage or an Academy student. If your character has been given no reason to suspect this then he/she should act as if he remains ignorant of the fact. A good example of this would be if Hailstorm’s Character Hayate actually introduced himself as Bob to whomever he met. Unless you have recourse to doubt him which unless you know his real name seems unlikely, your character would think of him as Bob and should call him such until the point they know better. Similarly if your superior tells you to meet up one but intends much like Kakashi to turn up 3 hours late a diligent genin will turn up on time. The more skilled the Nin and the more practice they have the more believable the lie. Consider this in light of a Jounin Sensei being deliberately late its highly unbelievable that one of his genin students would expect him to be lying and know to arrive 3 hours late. Keeping something known OOC that is in IC secret requires certain amount forethought. Much like an assumption of ignorance, one should always assume that someone is telling the truth unless you have good reason to suspect otherwise or your character possess a suspicious nature.