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Beginners Guide to Role Playing
Topic Started: Jan 30 2009, 12:57 PM (289 Views)
Loopy Legend
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Welcome to The Beginners Guide to Role Playing


Ok for all those of you who are new to Role Playing (Rp for short) this guide is just what you need to get you started, it will help with everything you need from making a character to play with to how to post in the role playing games. Just a quick note if you know the basics I recommend The Intermediate Guide to Role Playing, or for good players The Advanced Guide to Role Playing. Ok lets move on now this guide will show you all the basics and by the end of it you will be able to make your own character, join in an Rp and be able to posts great storylines and have a load of fun role playing as that what it is all about.

Now for example and so you can get a good idea I will be using The Haven Rp as an example so by the end of this you can join the haven Rp, this guide will teach you how to do any Rp so don’t worry you can join all the Rp's you like. The contents below will get you started and on your way, I hope you’re ready for some real fun and some serious role playing.


Contents

1) Finding the Rp for you
2) Rp Setup
3) Making your Character Profile
4) The Basics to Role Playing
a - Making your Storyline
b - Content in the Rp
5) Your Style of Rping
6) Simple Rp Concepts
7) Putting it all into Play


Finding the Rp for You

The whole point to an Rp is to have as much fun as possible, so what we need to do is find the Rp (or Rps if you want more then 1) that suits you. A good way about doing this is to take your time and search the Rp forums and find something you like, heres a few things to check for. Look at some of the current Rps in that section read a few pages of the Rp to get the storyline and how the players in it act, check to see if its on a subject you like. Having a look at the Rp rules and other features is also a good idea. Make sure you like what you see before you start so you don’t get started and leave because its not for you, not only will it be a waste of your time it will spoil the Rp for others in it. So the simple thing to remember here is to go for what you enjoy the most, not every Rp appeals to every person that’s why we have variety.

Rp Setup

Ok this section will take you through what you need and might want to consider and do before you join an Rp or even make a character. First as stated above find an Rp that suits you, you think ya so I have done that what now. Well let me tell you loads of things you can do to get ya really setup for an Rp.

First is the Rp just starting or is it already underway, it’s normally a good idea to join an Rp that’s being made and hasn’t started yet. Normally you can find 1 such Rp in the main section of the Rp forum, normally a setup or advertisement forum will be listed there stating there’s and Rp about to start. If your having trouble finding some new Rps to join then please pm me (Loopy Legend), and I will help you find the right Rp that’s best for you to join. But if you see an Rp that’s looks like its for you and its already underway, don’t fear there is still hope all you got to do is ask the person running the Rp if you can join. This is done by sending them a pm please don’t post in there Rp as its for the Rp only, you could also use the Rp’s OOC (Out Of Context) thread to leave a message stating you would like to join.

Ok once you find the Rp your in the next question is who else is playing in it and what are they playing, it would be pretty silly if all 5 people in the 1 Rp all made swordsmen. There would be no varity what so ever, a good thing to do is to use the advertisement or what ever thread the Rp is being organized in to work out who is going to play what. It will making writing up your character a lot easier, and will help to ensure there’s plenty of varity and fun for all in the Rp. If you’re joining an Rp that is part way through check out what characters are already in it and make something different, so that once you are ready to join you will be adding more varity and fun to the Rp.
Edited by Loopy Legend, Feb 19 2009, 04:55 PM.
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Making Your Character Profile

Now you have found an Rp you want to play you have to make a character for it, so how exactly do you build a character. Well if your asking that your in the right place I am going to run you through whats required in most Rp's to make yourself a character. This profile is also what you will need to make a character for the Haven Rp as we will use the Haven Rp as our example.

I am going to go through each point with you as we go down the list so simply put, all you really have to do in order to make a character is fill in the blanks. As every Rp you will play will have what they require you to make for a character, so to help you out I will first explain the sections to you then under it give an example as I build a sample character for you.

Name - Your character has to have a name normally a good idea is to make the name fit the theme of your character and the Rp. For example if you have read the plot to the Haven Rp you will know that there isn’t any humans in the Haven Rp world, just animals that walk and talk like humans so you might make a fox thats a spy so calling him something like Silver would be cool. All though a normal name like Bruce Brokmen or Scott Castle is fine to, its up to you for which style of name you choose. Also if your character has a cool nickname put it in brackets after your real name.

Name - Barkly Tagger (Tags)

Age - This is pretty strait forward how old or young is your character

Age - 22

Race - Now most Rp's you can be different Races, don’t wipe humans out just yet as we are pretty cool. But for the Haven Rp your like a human but your an animal race, so you walk, talk, wear cloths, learn so on just like a human does but you might be a dog or a bunny (like Bugs Bunny lol) or even a lion. It depends on the Rp you play which races are available so make sure you read the Rp and find out, but for The Haven Rp simply pick an animal race.

Race - Dog (Don’t forget I get all the abilities of a Dog so good scent and smelling, great tracking skills and I would drool a bit to lol)

Gender - You really only have 2 options here male or female, if the Rp your playing has more then 2 genders I would probably be asking some questions as it sounds fishy lol.

Gender – Male

Home Town – This is pretty simple where was your character born, for the Haven Rp look at the map and choose a location or simply make up your own town. Don’t forget to tell us a little about the town.

Home Town – Barkly was born in Port Douglas, a small fishing town well known for its huge range of fish. People come from all over to sample and buy the fish at the fish markets here in Port Douglas.

Profession – What exactly are you by trade a skilled cook, a tough bounty hunter, skilled navigator, a great carpenter. All you got to do is state your professions here so we know what it is your good at.

Profession – Engineer, Inventor, Demolitions Expert

Faction - Here is where you display which faction you are fighting for, depending on the Rp you play it could be anything from a crew or pirates to a member of a secret organization or a whole empire. In the Haven Rp you have 3 choices either the Freedom Fighters, The Imperial Empire or a simple Adventurer read more about these factions in the faction section.

Faction - Freedom Fighters

Appearance - Now we start to get some detailing going, in this section you tell us how your character looks so we got a good idea of who we are looking at. A picture here is always good but you don’t have to have 1, normally most Rp's will simply ask you to describe your character. So what does this include well lets see height, build, eyes, hair and skin colour, the cloths your wearing, also any interesting features you must have like if your rhino a nice sharp horn, or do you have a tattoo. What ever you make your character look like is up to you so have some fun and experiment a bit with this section.

Appearance - Barkly is an engineer so he wears bright blue shirt with dark blue overalls over them, he has brown fur and nice long ears. Barkly is about 1.3m to 1.4m tall and has very brown eyes, to complement his cool look off he has a big wagging brown tail and a nice big blue engineer’s hat on him.

Personality - Just who is your character and how to they act or react to different people or different events, heres your chance to tell us all about your character. They the strong silent type, always playing jokes on people, at the center of attention, like to keep to them selves. Also are they happy, sad, grumpy, cheerful all these types of things, the more you tell people about your character the easier it is for them to interact with you in the Rp.

Personality - Barkly is a happy go lucky guy always in the mood for some excitement, he will jump at the chance for a little fun as Barkly can’t stand being bored. Barkly is always in a cheerful mood making most of his friends laugh all the time with his great taste in comedy. Barkly enjoys to be challenged and cant stand staying at the same level for to long its either push on or quit while your ahead for Barkly.

Likes and Dislikes + Strengths and weaknesses - In most Rp's this section is covered as part of the personality or history but I like to do this section separately. So what does your character like and dislike, what are there strengths and weakness.

Likes – Being Excited, Joking around, Building and fixing things, tinkering with anything he can find, playing pranks on his friends and a good laugh.

Dislikes – Being bored, Being Hungary, Being called a nerd, when his tools go missing and Barkly really hates hot spicy food.

Strengths – Building and fixing things, inventing new and useful items and improvising on the spare of the moment.

Weaknesses – Getting too excited and getting in over his head, causing trouble for his friends, his sense of direction Barkly cant tell north from south, Barkly is sometimes a little absent minded and causing explosions when some of his work blows up in his face.

Combat Style – Here is where we get to talk about how you kick everyone’s butt, if you don’t do any fighting with your character that’s fine to just say you don’t fight. But for all those of you that just have to kick someone’s butt this is how we go about doing it. The things we cover here are your combat style, any weapons and equipment you use, some of your combat maneuvers and your future combat style. Combat style simply put is what you do in combat, you a sharp shooter, melee fist fighter, use animal friends to help you in combat, weapons expert or anything else for that matter. Weapons and equipment is anything you use in combat that isn’t a natural attack, so any weapons, rope, smoke bombs, bullets, cannon balls anything that isn’t your hands feet or part of your body. Combat maneuvers is some of the moves and abilities you’re really good at in combat, or simply put named moves that you use quite often. Future combat style is a rough idea how you will advance through the Rp, I will say this about this section its not a must. Its perfectly ok to say your not sure how and what you will be doing as you improve, but if you got an idea either include it here or pm it to me (Loopy Legend) if you want to keep it a surprise for your friends.

Combat Style – Barkly uses a combo of explosions and some custom made weapons to bring down his foes. Barkly also combines it all with great timing for maximum effect, and a great big bang.

Weapons and Equipment – Barkly always has a few custom made weapons on him, including a portable cannon launcher, plenty of small bombs and loads of gunpowder.

Combat Maneuvers – Some of Barkly’s main moves include Fuel Fire Bomb (Barkly sparks a huge ball of fuel to make it go BANG just at the right time) Bombardier (Barkly rains down fire like artillery shells to cause multiple explosions in a big area.

Future Combat – Here is where you tell us just what your character will be capable of in the future, weather he get stronger faster or even more weapons who knows lol. No don’t worry if you don’t have an idea, as this section is completely voluntary, so if you don’t know just simply say you don’t know. Also if you would rather keep a secret from your fellow Rp players please pm it to me (Loopy Legend).

Future Combat – OO I’m not to sure yet who knows what the future holds.

History – This is where you give us a detailed past of who and what your character is, from the main events that effected who they are today to how they got some of the nice abilities and sparkling personality. Plus anything else you think that’s need to be covered for your character. Your characters history can be as long or short as you need it to be, but the more info you put into it the better it is for you and others who are in the Rp. Also at least try and make your history a couple of paragraphs long, as that’s normally the minimum when it comes to a characters history. Anything less and you will normally be asked to add more history before your character is approved.

History – Barkly was born and raised in Port Douglas, Barkly from a young age always just loved to pull things apart and see how they work. Fixing or making or taking apart anything he got his hands on, which wasn’t half bad as Barkly’s father ran a boat building business. Barkly grew up learning the ins and outs of building boats, but it wasn’t until Barkly accidentally found some gun powder did his mind really open up. Learning how to use gun powder to its full extent he became obsessed with wanting to blow things up, and he turned explosions into a fine art.

Several years later Port Douglas was overrun by the Imperial Empire, and during the chaos Barkly managed to escape. But not before he saw his father murdered in front of his eyes, by a harsh military captain whom he found out later was called Iron Axe Hector. He vowed he would bring down the Imperial Empire and in particular Hector for what he done.

Dreams and Goals – This is where you briefly state what your characters dreams and goals in life is. Pretty straight forward isn’t it, so you might want to rule the world or simply become the best at something.

Dreams and Goals – Barkly wants to gain revenge on Iron Axe Hector for killing his father, and become 1 of the worlds greatest inventors.

Rp Sample – Here is where you give us a short sample of your Rping Style and Skills, this isn’t going to be a bad thing in any way. Its there to help me and the people running the Rp to determine your Rp skill and Style so we can make it the best outcome for you.

Rp Sample - Barkly walks out of his workshop looking round to see what’s going on today in Port Douglas, he spots his friend walking down the street and waves to him. Barkly’s friend Thomas waves back to Barkly as he walks down to Barkly’s workshop, “Hi Thomas how are you today is your job still hard on your back”. “Ya my back is still saw all that lifting really takes it out of me, say whats going on in that workshop of yours”. “Nothing much just a little work for the mayor is all”, with that Barkly waves good bye to Thomas as he walks off. Wow that was close so glad he didn’t see the big surprise that I’m making for him inside the workshop, Barkly walks back into the work shop and closes the door.

Extra - Feel that we have missed anything then feel free to include it here, if it doesn't come under any other section then it goes here

Extra - None i can think of for Barkly
Edited by Loopy Legend, Feb 19 2009, 05:14 PM.
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The Basics of Role Playing

Making Your Storyline

Well now your finally into the Rp what is next, well thats easy your characters storyline. To put this simply your storyline is a rough idea of what your character sticks to during the Rp, so from start to finish just what kind of story are you going to develop. So from the above example of our friend Barkly we know he is an engineer and an inventor, the last thing you would expect him to do is pull out a sword and start slashing people like he was a great swordsman. And from what we know of Barkly’s personality we know he wouldn’t all of a suddenly out of the blue betray all his friends and start to kill everyone.

Keeping your storyline is kind of like giving your character there own set of rules to follow, because would you expect yourself or close friends and family you know to simply do a 180 turn and do the complete opposite for no reason at all. No not really so why would it happen in an Rp as well, a simple way to keep tabs on yourself is to act just as you made your character no mater what the situation. For example Barkly requires some kind of equipment to fight with weather it be a bazooka to fire his weapons or a small bomb he has hidden on him, if he was disarmed of all his weapons and equipment Barkly wouldn’t all of a sudden start fighting in hand to hand combat like he was a pro at it. Yes he might throw a punch to try and escape but with out his equipment and being totally surrounded Barkly is as good as caught, but don’t worry Barkly’s allies will come to his rescue … probably …. Maybe err yup they should lol.

Content in The Rp

When I say content here I mean exactly what your typing, let me explain in an Rp game there is 3 different kinds of content you can have. The first is when your character is talking, the second is when your character is thinking and the third is when your character is doing any kind of action. So down below I will tell you about each section separately, after which you should have a great idea of how to type up your Rp adventure. After I finish explaining what each section of content is, there will be an example involving Barkly. I will do the exact same example in each section so you can clearly see how each section is in the effected area, the content that is being explained at the time will be coloured dark red to show where it is.

Talking Content

This happens anytime your character opens there mouth and says something, so when ever Barkly talks in the Rp this is called Talking Content. Weather he talks to others himself, yells or whispers it’s the same thing Talking Content, now here is a quick example or a scene all the talking will be displayed in dark red to show you when Barkly is talking and blue to show when Thomas is talking.

Barkly walks out of his workshop looking round to see what’s going on today in Port Douglas, he spots his friend walking down the street and waves to him. Barkly’s friend Thomas waves back to Barkly as he walks down to Barkly’s workshop, “Hi Thomas how are you today is your job still hard on your back”. “Ya my back is still saw all that lifting really takes it out of me, say whats going on in that workshop of yours”. “Nothing much just a little work for the mayor is all”, with that Barkly waves good bye to Thomas as he walks off. Wow that was close so glad he didn’t see the big surprise that I’m making for him inside the workshop, Barkly walks back into the work shop and closes the door.

Now as you can see where Barkly and Thomas were talking to each other was clearly marked out in the Rp sample there, Barkly as dark red and Thomas as blue. Note that when ever anyone uses Talking Content that’s its in present time, so you type it like it was present time not past or future time. An easy way to picture present time is to present I was talking to you right now, I wasn’t talking to you 5 minutes ago, or I am not going to talk to you in 10 minutes. I am talking to you right now, that’s how Talking Content is done in a Rp in present time. See its simple anytime your character opens there mouth they are doing Talking Content, right onto the next section of Rp content.

Thinking Content

Ok its time to do some series thinking about this next section, as we will now cover what goes on inside your characters head during the Rp. Anytime your character visits there head to think of something its classes as Thinking Content, so when ever you want to reveal some storyline to everyone or make some kind of funny statement in your head now is when you do it. The best way to show you exactly how this works if with a example, below is the same example from above with the thinking section of the Rp sample coloured blue for you.

Barkly walks out of his workshop looking round to see what’s going on today in Port Douglas, he spots his friend walking down the street and waves to him. Barkly’s friend Thomas waves back to Barkly as he walks down to Barkly’s workshop, “Hi Thomas how are you today is your job still hard on your back”. “Ya my back is still saw all that lifting really takes it out of me, say whats going on in that workshop of yours”. “Nothing much just a little work for the mayor is all”, with that Barkly waves good bye to Thomas as he walks off. Wow that was close so glad he didn’t see the big surprise that I’m making for him inside the workshop, Barkly walks back into the work shop and closes the door.

As you can see from the Rp sample that to show everyone OOC (Out Of Character), Barkly was thinking about the present in his workshop. This gave us a great example of using Thinking Content in a Rp, its great for pointing out important information or having a little fun. All though Thinking Content is probably the least used Content in an Rp, don’t wipe it out as it can come in real handy for your situation to get your point across. We can also note that just like Talking Content that Thinking Content is in present time, so when your using Thinking Content in the Rp do it now in present time.

Action Content

Now its action time Action content to be exact, the action content in a Rp is anytime your not thinking or talking. So anytime your character moves does some kind of action like sitting, walking, fighting or even laughing at a friend, anytime your either not thinking or talking your in Action Content. Have a look at our example of Barkly and Thomas again down below, all the action content will be done in blue for you so you can clearly see where all the Action Content is.

Barkly walks out of his workshop looking round to see what’s going on today in Port Douglas, he spots his friend walking down the street and waves to him. Barkly’s friend Thomas waves back to Barkly as he walks down to Barkly’s workshop, “Hi Thomas how are you today is your job still hard on your back”. “Ya my back is still saw all that lifting really takes it out of me, say whats going on in that workshop of yours”. “Nothing much just a little work for the mayor is all”, with that Barkly waves good bye to Thomas as he walks off. Wow that was close so glad he didn’t see the big surprise that I’m making for him inside the workshop, Barkly walks back into the work shop and closes the door.

As you can see anytime there isn’t any Talking or Thinking Content its Action Content, so when Barkly saw Thomas and waved to him that’s Action Content. When Thomas walked down to meet Barkly or when Barkly shut the workshop up, that’s all Action Content see its plain and simple. And you probably noticed but unlike Thinking and Talking Content, Action Content is done in past time so if you are walking down the street for the Rp you would say you walked down the street.
Edited by Loopy Legend, Feb 19 2009, 05:15 PM.
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Your Style of Rping

Ok now its time to see which style of Rp you use, in plain English this simple means in which way do you type out your Rp.

Do you enjoy doing it this way where you write Action Content as normal but when it comes to Talking Content.

“You start doing this to represent when characters are talking”.

Then back to normal paragraphs when the Action Content is back on.

Do you enjoy doing it this way where you write both all 3 Contents into simple normal paragraphs, “So even Talking Content is within the paragraphs”. Keeping things pretty much into simple groups of paragraphs.

Or do you enjoy colouring your Talking and Thinking Content, so its clear to see when people are talking and thinking. Its easy this way to tell between Action, Thinking and Talking Content.

Here at the Cartoon Club we like to use our style of Rping as a default, but if you enjoy your style more please ask the person running the Rp if its ok to use your style of Rp. As its easy to read a Rp when everyone sticks to the same style.

Here is the default style we love to use here at the Cartoon Club, using the example from the Content in Rp section.

Barkly walks out of his workshop looking round to see what’s going on today in Port Douglas, he spots his friend walking down the street and waves to him. Barkly’s friend Thomas waves back to Barkly as he walks down to Barkly’s workshop, “Hi Thomas how are you today is your job still hard on your back”. “Ya my back is still saw all that lifting really takes it out of me, say whats going on in that workshop of yours”. “Nothing much just a little work for the mayor is all”, with that Barkly waves good bye to Thomas as he walks off. Wow that was close so glad he didn’t see the big surprise that I’m making for him inside the workshop, Barkly walks back into the work shop and closes the door.

As you can see we like to keep it in simple paragraph form, we like to colour all Thinking and Talking Content with a colour. Everyone in the Rp picks there own colour for there character, so its easy to keep track of who is thinking and who is talking. Also when your using Talking Content we like you to use the “Quotation Marks”, and when your using Thinking Content we like to make it Italic. Also when you use Action Content just leave it as normal text, all this is shown in the example above to give you an idea of what we like to use here.

Simple Rp Concepts

Here is a list of Concepts you will see used in Rp’s, check back ever so often as this list is always growing and if you think we have missed a Concept please pm Loopy Legend about it.

Rp – Short for Role Play
PM – This means Personal Message in forums you can send messages to other people in private, this is called a PM.
OOC – Out Of Context simply means the section of writing that is OOC, has nothing to do with the Rp like for example during the Rp you ask the person running it if you can do something. Please post all OOC at the bottom of posts if you have to post then in the Rp Thread, try and use the OOC thread for the Rp if you can please.
Char – Simple means Character

That’s all I can think of at the moment lol, got some more please pm me Concepts you think should be included.

Putting it All Into Play

Ok now you should have all the basics you need to start Rping, all you have to do now is put it all together and start Rping. Never forget the 2 best ways to get the hang of this is to have a read of other Rp posts, and to simply get out there and give it a go.

Just remember to keep your character in line, keep the Rp Contents in right working order, keep your Rp style consistent and have plenty of fun. Remember rule number 1 of any Rp, its not worth playing if you don’t enjoy it. Now using all you have learnt go look at some other character profiles and Rp posts, and see where this guides points have been used. Then take a big brave step and have some fun trying for yourself, that’s all there really is to it. Wasn’t that hard now was it, so get out there and have some fun guys.

Any questions on this guide or still need help with your Rp skills, please refer to the Other Rp guides or PM Loopy Legend or another friendly mod in our team thanks guys and enjoy.
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