The Basic Guide To Role Playing
By Co-Z, Haru, Sryen, Silavor, Old Ben, and Gingerdog.

What Is Role Playing?
By Co-Z
Role playing is much like story writing. The main difference is that multiple people write the story together. Each person controls a character, and combined they make one really good story. Unlike regular story writing, this is entertaining because you can see how other people change the plot, and the story can go on. As an added bonus, you'll probably gain more readers. If story writing bores you to death, role playing is definitely the thing for you.

How Do I Role Play?
By Co-Z
It's pretty simple. All you have to do is continue the story that the poster above wrote. Try to make it about a paragraph, because you don't want to get too carried away writing nor make a one page conversation.

An Example Of Role Playing
By Co-Z
Poster One: (Controls Tendelius)
Tendelius dismounted his horse. He arrived at the mansion, ready to aim for his target. (The post will go on, and probably be about a paragraph in length)....... Tendelius found the Vampire, and pulled out his large blade.
"You've only been a pest of a man, terrorizing this magnificent town. Begone!" said Tendelius.
Poster Two: (Controls Count Dulnen)
"Ah, so my meal has arrived." threatened Count Dulnen. He showed his sharp teeth to Tendelius. "I'm not doing bad, I'm just... hungry!" (The post will go one)

An Example of Good And Bad Role Playing
By Co-Z, special thanks to Sryen and Haru.
Good Role playing
By Haru in Kingdom Of Element RPG

Good points about it:
+Not too short nor too long, but at a length other players can easily continue to.
+Follows role play rules
+Good grammer and spelling
+Sticks to the storyline

Bad Roleplaying
Not in any RP, just a sample.

Bad points about it:
-Terrible grammar and spelling
-No quotatations or italics
-Killed another role-player


How Do I Join a Role Play?
By Co-Z
First, you'll need a role play to join. If the role play says something along the lines of "No more characters", don't bother to join, because they probably already have enough people. If applications are open, however, you're eligible to join in on the fun. The first thing to do is read the background story and plot to the role play. After that, you'll know whether or not you're going to like it. Now read the rules the topic starter has created. Finally, copy and paste the application form into a reply, fill it out, and you'll now be able to post! If the role play is too active, you'll need to find a way to make your character fit in with the situation.

A Typical Application Sheet
By Sryen, editted by Co-Z
Name: Put your characters name
Age: Characters Age
Looks/Appearance: Very general, some people will divide this up into different sections
Personality: The personality of your character. No one likes a flawless character, remember to give them some faults as well.
Weapons: If the type of roleplay has weapons, this may be added
Armor: The typical defensive wear of the character, often merged with looks.
Spells/abilities: This too depends on the type of roleplay but often shows up.
Race: Human, elf, orc, etc.
History: Your characters backround, family, and how they are where they are today.
Other information: Anything that doesn't fit in elsewhere.

This is just a typical form, but it can be editted to fit the role play. Remember, you want to make your characters interesting. First off, look at some of the other characters, there's a chance someone else has a character a lot like what you want. If this is true, you should probably think of something different. Be as creative and different as possible. It's good to create a few characters in advance so you can use one depending on the roleplay, but obviously this isn't required.

A Typical Filled Application
By Sryen, editted by Co-Z
Name: Bob
Age: 33
Looks/Appearance: completely bald, old worn jeans and a white t-shirt. Missing his front tooth. He has no shoes but has tough soles that protect his feet well.
Personality: Strong but too brave for his own good and has recieved many injuries because of his actions. Cares deeply for his friends but doens't trust new people much, takes awhile to get on his good side.
Weapons: None, he lost his only weapon, a small dagger, during his last battle, which he lostt but somehow lived to tell the tale.
Armor: None other than his clothing.
Spells/abilities: None yet, but will develop the ability to fly later on in life.
Race: Human
History: Both parents were killed in a car accident. He joined the arm because he had nothing esle to do with his life. When all his teammates were killed during a mission he gave up on military life. Is now being hunted by the same people who killed his men, they want to finish the job.
Other information: Is skilled at healing small wounds with limited materials.

The Basic Rules Of Role Playing
By Silavor, extended by Co-Z

1. Don't control other characters. You can, however, make them do something minor, as long as it follows the character's personality. Never do anything major, leave those decisions to the character's writer. In some role plays, you won't be able to have even minor control, however.
2. Don't kill off other players, just like rule one. You can fight another role player, but you cannot cause them a serious wound or death. This may apply to NPC's, so the topic starter will have to point that out in their first post.
3. No invincibility. Your character must occasionally fail or get hurt.
4. "When your character is speaking, put quotation marks around the talking, like this".
5. When your character thinks, put the thought in italics, like this. To italicize text, highlight it and click the I above the reply box.
6. Refrain from foul languages, and be kind to other role players. They're people too, and it's not logical to feud with someone over some literature.
7. GRAMMAR IS YOUR FRIEND! Avoid using internet shortcuts, mispellings, and grammatical errors. It's much easier to understand the story when it's easy to read. Even if you're a slow typer, use good grammar. You'll quickly become a speed typer if you apply grammar to all of your posts.
8. When you want to quit, don't leave other hanging! Either have your character die or have your character leave the player. Add a note to that post saying you're quitting the RP.
9. Have fun!

Abreviations
By Gingerdog and Silavor
In your rp post, be sure to use these terms:

OoC: It means out of character, which is when you type something outside of the story.
IC: It means in character, which is when you type something in the story. If your post only consists of IC actions, you won't need these tags.
RP: This is the standard abbreviation for roleplay.
NPC: A non-player character, meaning it is not controlled by an RPer.

Dungeon Masters
By Haru
A dungeon master is the creator of the Roleplay. He/she controlls the storyline, and basically just keeps the roleplay together. As a player, you should NEVER controll the storyline! Only the Dungeon Master can. As a dungeon master, you should always have a clear objective for your players. Thats means, not to log off for the night, and leave your characters unable to continue through the storyline, just because you didn't give them an objective to do! As a dungeon master, you should always be fair to your players. That means even YOU cannot kill your own players without permission!

Sometimes, an RP will not use a dungeon master. It's good to state whether or not this system will work if you're the topic starter.

I Want To Start My Own Role Play!
By Co-Z
This is a great thing to do when all the role plays are either accepting no more characters or too in depth to join, because it gives other people a chance to play. Before you start your own, be active in other RP's. It's great to have experience before you start. After you become an active RPer, you're ready to start your own! It can be about anything, either based on real entertainment, or it can have a completely new plotline!

If you want to create your own story, make sure it's original, and not to cliche. Don't make an RP too similar to one that already exists either. If it's based on already existing entertainment, make sure there isn't another RP based on the same thing. However, if the two aredifferent, it's okay. An example of this is creating a Star Wars RP based on episodes 1-3, while the existing one is based on episodes 4-6.

In your first post, be sure to include:

• Background information about the plot
• Whether or not it follows the dungeon master rule
• Additional rules that aren't in the basic rule list.
• An application form

Get Playing!
Now that you've read the guide to RPing, you're ready to get playing! Be sure to remember basic rules, and make your posts the best that you can! Have fun role playing!

Sentence Structure
~By Old Ben~
Let us just say that you post this sentence in a role-play, Rex woke up.

Let us change it a little; add as many adjectives as possible.

Rex reluctantly woke up on a bright, shinning, summer day.

See, now does not that sound better to you.
You can understand how he woke up; it makes sense.

Now make it a relevant post, do not just say, Josh stopped because he
felt like it.
Tell why he stopped.
Josh stopped; an old man was blocking his path.
The man was interesting to Josh.

See how much better that sounds?

Now let us move on to sentences.
We all cannot be pro role-players, but this might help your sentence
structure.
"Tom, I will die."
Let us say that sentence with strong emotion, have some 'unquoted' text.
Jet burst into tears, he had looked like he had been weeping all night.
His friend walked up to his room, and noticed that his eyes were red.
Jet saw Tom. Jet started to talk, “Tom, I will die.”
Jet finally burst into tears again.
That sounds a lot better than the first one did.

Can I make a roleplaying situation wherin players just go into an arena and fool around? Anyone can drop in at any time, you can pretty much do whatever you want, but the basic rules of roleplaying still apply (I'm trying to make this as much as possible like the Arena of RPD on the actual RuneScape forms), and you can be anybody? Unless somebody else is being somebody, of course. You can even have your name on the regular sal's forums. Is this a good idea?

Yeah, it's possible you could do it. I created a roleplay a long time ago, kind of like that.

Just be sure to make it so it's not perfect for the Fun n' Games section.

You spelled grammar wrong after the good RP post example.
Yes, I'm perfect.

-Kaknos

Are these still the current rules? They haven't been updated or anything for 3 years that means?

Well, usually people have the rules in the rp, and these are just common sence.

... OK. Well I'm sorry, forgive me you mightyness. I didn't realise...

Anyway, don't worry, I was just wondering, but obviously it was a stupid question.

Mr. Brownstone said;



I object. That post was way to short and added nothing much to the story. Long posts are better.

Not to mention the example post looks like it was cut off. It ends abruptly, and it doesn't do much, if anything for the story. Not to mention it gave no other characters anything to feed off of.

Mmm....-eats other people's posts- Hehehe.....Blah.

But, it did add to the story, that's what's important. He accomplished an action and intoduced the setting all in the same post.
I personally like posts that are very deep and have much thought impleminted into them. A post doesn't have to be long to display an idea.
Say, you went on a trip; everyone in the role-play prefered posts that run just about as long as Co-Z's topic post. (which is way too long, but just imagine it as an exaple, for a lack anything else to compare it to) Pages aren't measured by post length, but by the number of posts. Now image three pages of that after you get back. You would easily get lost in the amount of content, and would probably quit the role-play.

Edit:
I just had to play the odd ball in this one. >_<

You have a point, but he could of added more so in his next post he could add a little bit of action, such as meeting other characters.

Is any of this excessive blah blahing necessary?

Do keep in mind that this was made nearly 3 years ago. It's obviously out of date. Even I can tell.

You obviously don't get the concept of "joke" well, do you?

I wasn't joking.

Well, it's honestly too late to change it and the moderators probably don't even care.

Two things,

1. hlow, I once said that and got a warn for it.

2. Someone needs to clean up this thread. It's getting to messy. Probably update it while they're at it.

Well, the, uh, topic maker has been banned, so I guess one of the moderators will have to be PMed.

Higher powers are currently rewriting this guide.