Post by Kuma on Jul 8, 2015 22:43:01 GMT
The Do’s and Don’t of RPG
DO
CHECK YOUR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR:
This is of utmost importance as bad grammar can (and will) change the meaning of a sentence, making it quite difficult to understand. And if that happens the flow of the thread will be broken. Same goes for bios that must be as clear as possible. The best way to do this fast is a combination of attention and extensive usage of Microsoft Word (or similar software) with the Grammar Correction Function. So be careful what you write and how you write it.
BE ORIGINAL:
Originality is a must in this forum, you can’t take powers and skills from already established franchises to make your character, and neither you can take characters from series or create a character that would only fit on a series. The Forum Setting allows great amplitude of options to make a character so copying stuff from other places isn’t necessary or wanted. You will never create something 100% original, but try do “Homages” instead of “Copies” Let’s do a quick example.
• Doing a Pirate Captain with Elastic Limbs is copying and that’s bad…
• Doing a Space Pirate with some kind of lightwhip could be a rare homage and works…
The most important thing is to avoid flat out copying stuff, like names, powers, skills, personalities and all the rest. Originality isn’t as hard as people think.
BE DESCRIPTIVE:
“A picture is worth a thousand words” Old and wise words that will logical point out that if you want to describe something you would need a thousand words… The point I’m going is that you need to describe the actions, look and decisions of your character. If you don’t tell us what your character does who will. But always take in account that too much of a good thing might be bad, as excessive description might get confusing. Plainly put you need to express the actions of your characters, or the aspect of the locations in enough words to allow others fully grasp them, but not too many that would confuse them. Is a matter of practice.
WORK WITH OTHER PLAYERS:
This is a group activity and as such you need to know how to work as a group. Never put yourself or your ideas in front of the group. Your stuff isn’t better than the others, all the players have different styles and ideas and the objective of the forum is that we all play along and have fun, so don’t try to step other ideas and your ideas will be respected. Listen to what the other players say, read the rules and be a good boy/gal. If you were hit then take it like a champ…
SPEAK IN THIRD PERSON:
This one is simple. You aren’t your character, you are just writing about him/her. Thus you don’t write “I hit the clown with my fist” you say “*Insert Character Name* hits the clown with his fist”. Is a rule quite easy to grasp. The objective is to keep a distance from the character, that everybody repeat with me, is not yourself or your avatar but a different person to A. Allow you write the character to behave as his bio stipulates. B. Maintain a certain distance from your character to avoid identity confusion and taking things too personally.
FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS:
Like in Pen and Paper RPG the word of the DM (in this case the one who creates the thread) is law. But as he is also participating in the thread and all the characters and players have free will, more than laws are directives… that must be followed, they can be bent, twisted and turned, but never can be broken by anybody except the thread creator. Still you can always ask before writing something if you aren’t 100% sure about it.
KEEP THE PLACE CLEAN:
There are many sub forums with specific functions and they are there for that purposes alone. Always think before posting, trying to keep the OOC posts to their correct position (New Games) and the Off-Topic in the proper sub forum as well. Thanks!
CHECK OTHER BIOS:
The other bios can help you learn how high is the power around the forum and can give you examples about creativity. This is also important if you plan to create a thread so you know the powers of the other character that might enter to better prepare the thread. Also when you’re playing with other players so you can know what they can do and is easy to understand when you read it.
WEAKNESSES:
Your character needs a weakness, singular or plural. There is no character development if the character doesn’t have flaws to fight against and fall into from time to time. There is no struggle if your character is an unstoppable death god that can’t be defeated. The goal of RPG isn’t winning… is telling a story, a logical, coherent, awesome and fun story and that cannot be accomplished if your character never dies, never gets hurt or never trips.
Not only physical weakness, but also weaknesses in character. Like arrogance, laziness, anger or more, this elements give the character depth and spice, making them more relatable and easier to interact with, both for other players and for yourself, as you need to understand your own character to write about him, and making him the inmortal ubermensch would make that hard.
DON’T
GODMOD:
What’s Godmodding? Is when you ignore logic, physics and common sense to make your character succeed in something that he shouldn’t. Or when you are the game creator and you alter the rules without any concern for others mid-story, that’s wrong. If your character can lift 1 ton don’t make him lift 100 without explanation, if he can move at sound speed don’t say he outruns a lighting… and so on.
DOUBLE POST:
Don’t post the same thing two times, or don’t post two times in a row… both are quite simple to do.
WRITE NSFW CONTENT:
You can write light ecchi, or well written romance, but you can’t write smut for the sake of smut. Swearing is okay so is violence, but always on the right measure for the right moment.
WRITE CONFLICTING MESSAGES:
This work both ways (that sounded dirty). If you’re writing don’t write your character doing X action and then make him do Y without any logical progression, is confusing. If he is attacking in one post, don’t say he never attacked in the next one. When others are writing, unless their post are doing stuff against the rules (call and admin and tell them), you can’t ignore or defy it in your next post. That’s wrong.
CONTROL OTHERS:
You only control your own characters and your own NPC, you can’t say what the other character do, think or say. It’s not rocket science, in a MMORPG you can’t make the other characters move and you can’t do it here. You also can’t say your character hits the opponent without their permission, or say their attack failed because they changed their mind.
MAKE SHORT POSTS:
Don’t expect to write 3 words and get done with it. As mentioned earlier you need to do some descriptions and you can’t do them in one line. At the very least write a paragraph as many times the other player needs the details in your post to write his own. Writing a single line after the other player wrote 2-3 paragraphs with a nice description for an attack and your reply is “He dodges the attack and throws a punch” is frustrating for the other players.
Try to fill in with the character inner working. Why is the character dodging instead of blocking? Why is he counter-attacking? You also need to follow the “Sometimes too much of a good thing is too bad” as making every post a 3 pages epic will soon be tiresome and feel full of filler (hurray for alliteration) I would say the standard post length is 2-3 paragraphs.
ABANDON THE RP:
If you can’t play inform the thread creator and think about an excuse for your character to be out of action. If you entered a thread you made a tacit agreement to stick around to the very end and post regularly. If you are having troubles you inform the Thread Creator. If you don’t like the thread and want to leave, tell the Thread Creator and work a way with him to make your character leave without disrupting the story.
EDIT YOUR CHARACTER WHILE PLAYING:
Don’t edit your bio while you are in the middle of a thread. If your character has a weakness or lacks certain power, don’t modify it for your advantage. You never should do this, is cheap, inelegant and flat out cheating the other players.
AUTOHITTING:
Your character can’t hit the other character without the other player accepting the hit. If you attack in your post you can describe the effect of the attack against the enemy in the same post. If my character attacks the other I should write:
“He aims to punch the opponent in the face, putting his whole weight behind the blow, powerful enough to destroy a brick wall”
Then the other user would reply either having his character take the blow or somehow avoid it (or somewhere in-between)
What you shouldn’t say is:
“He punches the opponent in the face, breaking his jaw and making most of his teeth blew of his mouth like blood propelled ivory rockets”
That’s wrong (but a neat description)
NO-SELLING:
No-Selling is the defensive brother of Autohitting, it means ignoring, deflecting or blocking every attack launched by the enemy. Usually players do this as a power fantasy of their characters being the best and most powerful and it’s really, really wrong. You can’t block every attack (under certain circumstances you might but that’s not the point) if you are fighting an opponent of equal strength you can’t ignore the fact just to “win”. Try to sell attacks, make your character mis-read the opponent, make him commit mistakes, have accidents, lower his/her guard when he is winning.
Think dramatically… which one is cooler? The character that dodges every attack ever and never faces danger or the character who survives the odds and even battered and bloodied manages to fulfill his goal
Above all and foremost, as in with every aspect of role playing, use your Goddamn head.
Know your limits, respect others, play your character, work out gaps and problems in a civilized manner in messaging before-hand. Simple as that.
Acronym Key
RP – Rping - RolePlaying: Playing a different role/simulation.
OOC - OutofCharacter: Things that are not said by the character but instead by yourself.
IC – In Character: Things that are said or done by your character.
NPC - Non-player Character: A character created by a user in an RPG other than their main one. Control over this character may vary.
OPEN/CLOSED THREADS:
Open threads are opened to every user, first asking permission in the OOC thread in the “New Games” Sub-Forum
Closed threads are usually arranged between users and have a more personal/private narrative usually between two characters, but not limited to that number.
If you have any troubles contact the Admins
Kuma/Vapovile/Chronowolf