SarahEnyo's RP Lessons

Hello everyone!

Some of you know me from the Big Sister minecraft server and have seen me running about Wonderland working on my house there. I'm here on the forums today to offer up RP Lessons for one and all! Anything from tips, brushing up on skills, advice, or questions to do with anything rp related. But! I do have a couple rules to keep things open and honest with everyone here so we are all on the same page.

1. Be polite to others and myself!
This is a thread where people will come to me with questions they want answered or who seek out help. I want understanding or at least manners from those who wait for me to get to them.

2. Keep this thread PG.
Not only does this mean no swears, cursing, or use of profanity but it also means that I will not help others with any type of non PG roleplays. This is a thread for all ages and because of that, there are lines I will not cross. In here or in PMs.

3. This thread is not for actual roleplay.
There might be examples of RP here for I may ask to see an RP example from someone who has come to me for help but this is not a thread to carry out a full fledged RP session.

4. Intolerance will not be tolerated.
This means that if I think that someone is poking fun at others who come here for help and understanding, I will let Cia or one of the admins know and let them pass judgement on the matter.

Now that the rules have been laid out and we are all on the same page, feel free to reply to the thread here and let me know if you need help with your RP at all. Anything from brushing up on your skills, ideas for RP, tricks to help write the starter [first RP post], or to bring a new perspective on approaching an RP you have in mind. Post it here and I'll reply in the order that I receive them.

-Sarah

Thank you Sarah for this lovely post.

First question... Can you offer people some tips on RP planning, as that seems to be a major stumbling block for my players?  ^^

Very good question indeed!

Things to keep in mind when planning a rp no matter the length of it.

1. Setting and time. Setting is usually pretty simple but keep in mind, your character has to have a reason to be there or the rp won't make sense for anyone. The time can be something vague like morning, noon, evening, and night.

2. You are not the main character of the story. If this was something you were typing out on your own that would be one thing but you are dealing with characters other people have made and put thought into. It takes at least two to do an RP. Remember that.

3. Put yourself into the shoes of your character. If you were that character, how would you think or react to something? Type it all out! Things like that give your character personality and people will be able to relate to them more. It brings the story to life for everyone involved.

4. No matter how into a rp you get, remember that it is a rp and not real. A character may grow to love or hate another character but that should NOT reflect on the owner of the character. They are playing a part in the story for fun. Keep the feelings in the rp and don't take it out on the people behind them.

These are the most basic tips that people who roleplay should keep in mind. If you follow these, it should make things easier for everyone to relax and have a good time. It may be tough to remember at first but the more you put it to practice the more it becomes second nature and you will be doing it without having to think about it.

This is absolutely going in my watched threads list.

I have a few questions, if that's alright with you.

1. What are some general principles to abide by when crafting a character?
   
2. Is there any standard format for separating speech, actions, and OOC on a forum RP?
   
3. When playing as a giant in a real-time roleplay, there is often a proportionally larger number of normal-sized and tiny characters. How do you go about "distributing" attention to them? That is, how do you make sure that you can act towards/in response to them all - especially when several of them will be performing unique actions simultaneously or are waiting on you to do something for them to each personally respond to?
   

Ooh very good questions! I'm loving this so far.

1. Some general principals to keep in mind when making a character is that some of the best characters you can make for yourself usually have a bit of you in them. Also it helps if you keep things balanced. If they are good at one thing, make them bad at something else. Not one person can be good at everything.

2. As for standard format for forum RP, the most common way is to use free form writing such as you see in any chapter book or novel. The meat of the story are done in paragraphs that have about four sentences minimum in them. When switching to speech, leave a space between paragraph and the line of speech that will be in quotations. This bit if dialog will sometimes start with a small action or end with one. [Ex: She smiled shyly, peering up at him through her long lashes, "I really do like you. I find you funny and you always make me smile."] As for OOC talk, it's normally kept out of the rp thread altogether so that it won't break up the flow of the story. OOC should be sent through PMs or if you must added to the bottom of a post in brackets or double parenthesis with the label of OOC: in front of it.

3. When dealing with more than two RP'ers the best way to go about it is to take turns posting. This way everyone gets a chance to post. When replying to a post when there have been several before yours, take it in order in which it was done. Think of it as a timeline. Char 1 spoke, Char 2 replies then comments on what was said, Char 3 listens to what both said and adds their thought to the matter. So on and so fourth. If it's happening all at once, put yourself in your character's shoes and think on what they would have been able to notice at the time. This doesn't mean to ignore the characters that yours didn't notice though. [Ex: He didn't catch the movement in time to see David hide under the table but he did see Chrissy dart behind the salt and pepper shakers.] This way you acknowledge the character yours didn't see and you let them know what you did in fact see. All you can do is take it one moment at a time and see what becomes of the story.

I hope I was able to help you out Ishida.

Very much so; thank you for the assistance - especially with #3!

I should probably clarify a little bit on my first question. A piece of advice that someone has given me in the past is, "If you can define the character in one word, what would be? Find it out then go from there." In that regard, what is a good "starting place" to think about when making a character? A skill, a personality trait, a situation, or something else completely? Or is it more context-dependent?

Ohh I see what you mean now. It all depends on the person and how they think. For me, I think of the character's personality first then how they would look. I then give them a back story that would help shape who my character is now. A friend of mine starts with the history first when he makes a character then how it looks and then the personality. It really does vary. All you can do is find a character bio set up that works best for you and go from there. Your friend's advice is a good one but may not work for everyone.

I see characters being as complex as a real person so what I do will be different than say what you or your friend may do. If you ever get an idea for a character, hold on to it and build it from that idea. Use it to flesh it out and make it a complete character. If you ever need help on a specific character you're working on I can help with that but it's hard to set out finer guidelines for making a character that will help everyone since, as I said before, everyone thinks differently.

Hmm...alright, fair enough! Getting started and having that first thought tends to be what trips me up. I guess I'll find out the answer for myself once I get that inspiration. Thanks again!