RP Guide - By Kristina

[Kristina Riddle]

I am here to help with anything you may need with RP. I have noticed a bit of small posts that lack some detail, and also not a lot of reading!

If you enter a thread, read what is going on, it is important that everyone is on the same page.

This site allows third person so for my examples I will be doing third person only

On this thread will show you some ideas on how to make your posts shine. And how we can all work together on the same page.

This is only a suggestion, and not a requirement.

[Kristina Riddle]

First off a few rules, and things to keep in mind when creating or designing a character:

• Perfect characters are utterly impossible, you can not know everything, and especially if you are a student you will not have great powers. We all have weaknesses. This type of character is often referred to a Gary Sue or Mary Sue.
  
  
• Pity characters are also frowned on. There are too much, and get very irritation. Now a mishap here and there but don’t make your characters life miserable.
  
  
• GOD-Mod is very bad, and not allowed on this site. This is inserting the actions of someone else into your post without consent. When Role-playing it is only fair to let the other person react. Now with such, if someone is in a duel you can not say, “Nearly got me” or “just missed” for every thing. You simply can not dodge everything.
  
  
• One liners are so irritating for a lot of reasons. First if someone has created a good long post with fine detail they need something to work off of, and you should add more the simple, responses.

First tip
Don’t say:
“I am fine.” Said May.

Be more to it then that.
“I am fine” May said looking at the new student. She was nervous about meeting the …(emotions, actions, and setting)

[Kristina Riddle]

Step one - A
Starting a thread.

When you start a thread you are the setter of the scene you determine what day, time, atmosphere the rest of the thread will follow. The first post is very important so that everyone knows where he or she are, when it is and everything else.

So here is a good starting point.

Day and Time.

It was Monday afternoon and Janet had just left her second class of the day. The clock chimed as noon came to pass and students rushed about the noisy halls when Janet moved closer to her destination.[/color]

Now add the place.

It was Monday afternoon and Janet had just left her second class of the day. The clock chimed as noon came to pass and students rushed about the noisy halls when Janet moved closer to her destination. She turned the corner to the library, she often went in there at this time, to think and go over what she had done in the classes before.

Great, but what about action/ emotion?

It was Monday afternoon and Janet had just left her second class of the day. The clock chimed as noon came to pass and students rushed about the noisy halls when Janet moved closer to her destination. She turned the corner to the library, she often went in there at this time, to think and go over what she had done in the classes before.

Janet was having a hard time adjusting to the new school year, everything was going so fast. She was worried, and in such dismay that she would never be able to finish the term without failing.

Okay, that is good, but what does Janet look like?

It was Monday afternoon and Janet had just left her second class of the day. The clock chimed as noon came to pass and students rushed about the noisy halls when Janet moved closer to her destination. She turned the corner to the library, she often went in there at this time, to think and go over what she had done in the classes before.

Janet was having a hard time adjusting to the new school year, everything was going so fast. She was worried, and in such dismay that she would never be able to finish the term without failing. Her long brown hair was flowing to her waist as she pushed it behind her ears. Her Slytherin robes danced in the rush as she turned to take a seat. She placed on her oval reading glasses that covered her sky blue eyes and began to look over her notes from Muggle Studies.

Wonderful. What is missing? A description of the surroundings.

It was Monday afternoon and Janet had just left her second class of the day. The clock chimed as noon came to pass and students rushed about the noisy halls when Janet moved closer to her destination. She turned the corner to the library, she often went in there at this time, to think and go over what she had done in the classes before.

Janet was having a hard time adjusting to the new school year, everything was going so fast. She was worried, and in such dismay that she would never be able to finish the term without failing. Her long brown hair was flowing to her waist as she pushed it behind her ears. Her Slytherin robes danced in the rush as she turned to take a seat. She placed on her oval reading glasses that covered her sky blue eyes and began to look over her notes from Muggle Studies.

The library was dark as the windows were all shut tight for the storming rain pounded on them hard. There were only a few students that were in the library, chatting quietly about who knows what as Janet tried to concentrate. She was sitting behind a long bookshelf where three tables rested at the end; she had taken the open table in the middle. The high ceiling was dark from cloud cover outside made the room a bit musty, but Janet did not mind, it was like in the Slytherin Common room a bit.

Here is the basic outline for you. The order is not important what is important is having all the elements in the post.

So here is what the post looks like when done:

It was Monday afternoon and Janet had just left her second class of the day. The clock chimed as noon came to pass and students rushed about the noisy halls when Janet moved closer to her destination. She turned the corner to the library, she often went in there at this time, to think and go over what she had done in the classes before.

Janet was having a hard time adjusting to the new school year, everything was going so fast. She was worried, and in such dismay that she would never be able to finish the term without failing. Her long brown hair was flowing to her waist as she pushed it behind her ears. Her Slytherin robes danced in the rush as she turned to take a seat. She placed on her oval reading glasses that covered her sky blue eyes and began to look over her notes from Muggle Studies.

The library was dark as the windows were all shut tight for the storming rain pounded on them hard. There were only a few students that were in the library, chatting quietly about who knows what as Janet tried to concentrate. She was sitting behind a long bookshelf where three tables rested at the end; she had taken the open table in the middle. The high ceiling was dark from cloud cover outside made the room a bit musty, but Janet did not mind, it was like in the Slytherin Common room a bit.

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[Kristina Riddle]

Step one - B
Entering A Thread

Okay, now your not going to always start off a thread and replying to a thread is just as important. When you enter into a thread you should introduce yourself, and stay in the setting that the previous person had set. You can add to the surroundings as well. Lets take the above sample as the starting post. When you enter into the thread, you should never ignore the person who started it, and acknowledge what she /he has said in the first post.

First you should introduce your character to the reader, keeping in mind all the elements that were mentioned above. I will use the same colors to show where each step can be. Remember this is only a guide.

Day and Time.

[/u][/b]
Location.
Action/ Emotion
Appearance
Surroundings.[/center]


Jon had been up all night thinking about what classes would bring this year. He was nervous, and simply could not eat lunch today so headed off to the library. His Hufflepuff Robes swayed behind him as he opened the large doors and headed to the back. He noticed another student sitting reading. He had never met her, but she looked to be in the same position he was; nervous about schoolwork.

“Do you mind if I sit here? I am Jon, Jon Hatshaw, of Hufflepuff.” The blue eyes boy asked extending his hand to the girl. A clash of lightning struck after he had introduced himself, “Eerie.” He said in comical light of the loud ban that followed. His face was pale, with the black hair on his head brushed and shining.

Notice that the post has all the elements but does not have to be a huge, wordy mess. When you ask a question it is polite to wait for the other character to respond. Since GOD MODing is completely against the rules you really do have to wait. Even the simplest thing can get someone upset, so if there is any problem talk first. Don’t yell at anyone for a mistake, we all do it. Simply request to change something if it offends you. If the problem can not be solved then contact an admin of the site.

Also notice Dialog. This is big in stories and Role-Playing sites, but not the main focus. Never have a post comprised of mostly dialog unless you can explain it well. When you read stories it is what is happening outside the words spoken that catch your interest, same with Role-Playing.

Okay so here is the complete post:

Jon had been up all night thinking about what classes would bring this year. He was nervous, and simply could not eat lunch today so headed off to the library. His Hufflepuff Robes swayed behind him as he opened the large doors and headed to the back. He noticed another student sitting reading. He had never met her, but she looked to be in the same position he was; nervous about schoolwork.

"Do you mind if I sit here? I am Jon, Jon Hatshaw, of Hufflepuff.” The blue eyes boy asked extending his hand to the girl. A clash of lightning struck after he had introduced himself, “Eerie.” He said in comical light of the loud ban that followed. His face was pale, with the black hair on his head brushed and shining.

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[Kristina Riddle]

Step Two –
Continuing a thread
^{Two characters}

So we have two posts so far in a thread. Now threads can have as many characters in them as desired, two to two hundred. Lets assume both Janet and Jon are online and can respond together without anyone else at the moment.

Now there are things that we can assume, like the day and time have not changed. So you don’t need to repeat that in each post. Location does not change (unless the characters are on the move). However like in Jon’s post you can add to the surroundings.

Second tip:
Open threads means that anyone can join in at anytime the thread is still active

Day and Time.

[/u][/b]
Location.
Action/ Emotion
Appearance
Surroundings.
Dialog.[/center]

Janet was not paying much attention at first until she heard the boy say his name. ’Should I ignore him and maybe he will go away?’ she thought keeping her head down until the lightning struck. She made eye contact and could not ignore him now. “Janet.” She said shaking his hand.

She looked at him, ‘what on earth does he want? I mean seriously he picks the one person reading.’ her thoughts wondered once more. She looked back down at her pages, and considered her next step. “Did you need something?” she said, possibly being a little rude, more then she had wanted to. She decided to apologize none the less before he had the chance to respond. “Sorry, just having a hard time with lessons.” She said looking back up to him, his black hair did made her smile on the inside.

The rain started to pound on the windows blowing one of them open. Janet did not even flinch as she raised her wand to it, with a flick she slammed it back shut. ’I love wordless magic.' she thought to herself with a little smile on her face.

Now that location, character appearances, date and time are established your posting will change a lot. They will have a lot more action and emotion in them. Remember in real life we can see the small body movements that give away emotions, but in role playing you have to put them to words. Each post gives another piece of your character's story, you don't want to give it all away at once, but you also don't want to leave them clueless either.

Also Janet has included thoughts that fall under action and emotion too because they are the unsaid feelings the character has. They are in italics and are there to give the reader more information about the character. They are not meant to be used as dialog, so keep that in mind.

If your character is a vampire, or has telepathy or Legilimency has abilities is when they are able to used thoughts like dialog, because they can hear them. With that in mind if a character has Occlumency or uses another form of mind block (like a magical item) then no one can hear the thoughts.

I know it can be confusing, and it is a lot to get down just right, but most people understand that we forget or make mistakes. So always talk things thru if you have any questions.

Okay so here is the complete post:

Janet was not paying much attention at first until she heard the boy say his name. ’Should I ignore him and maybe he will go away?’ she thought keeping her head down until the lightning struck. She made eye contact and could not ignore him now. “Janet.” She said shaking his hand.

She looked at him, ‘what on earth does he want? I mean seriously he picks the one person reading.’ her thoughts wondered once more. She looked back down at her pages, and considered her next step. “Did you need something?” she said, possibly being a little rude, more then she had wanted to. She decided to apologize none the less before he had the chance to respond. “Sorry, just having a hard time with lessons.” She said looking back up to him, his black hair did made her smile on the inside.

The rain started to pound on the windows blowing one of them open. Janet did not even flinch as she raised her wand to it, with a flick she slammed it back shut. ’I love wordless magic.' she thought to herself with a little smile on her face.


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