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Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

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An organized archive of roleplaying guides, including step-by-step, how-to, and general essays on theory.

Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Remæus on Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:51 am

Alright! So you're just getting started with forum roleplay? Have no fear, help is here! Follow this guide step by step, and in no time you'll be writing great forum posts that consistently earn five star ratings.

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Step 1: Download Firefox. (and use it!)
Firefox is an alternative to Internet Explorer that will help you in many ways as you move along on the road to epic forum roleplay.Image
Don't Use Me!


It will fix your spelling mistakes.
Yep, that's right - automatically! Any time you're writing a post, it will underline any spelling boo-boos in red for you. You can right click the word and it will suggest the correct spelling, before you click "Submit" so you don't look illiterate.

It's less distracting.
There's only a couple bars on Firefox - so you'll be able to focus on and spend quality time with each of your posts. In fact, that brings me to one of the coolest features of Firefox...

ImageIt has search built in.
You can search for things without any extra toolbars! Which means you can even get definitions for words you don't understand, just by doing quick searches. Or you could even search for pictures to include in your posts, or maybe even research something that you're writing about so you look like a smarty pants. 8)

And as an added bonus, Firefox will help prevent your computer from getting viruses! Doesn't that make you want to cuddle it? *pets cute little Firefox*

Image
Step 2: Slow down!
You've typed out the most-awesome reply to your favorite roleplay, and you're getting ready to click the submit button. Stop!

Did you proofread the post at least once?
Sometimes you can make a mistake and not even notice! Hit that Preview button to make sure your post looks good. You might have forgotten to capitalize a name, or you might have made a typing mistake. You'll want to correct these before anyone else sees your post!

Is it too short?
Holy cow! Make sure your post takes up more space than your signature - if you see that your post is shorter than this, try writing just a bit more. Remember, this is a forum and not a chat - if you find that you are making really short posts, suggest to your fellow friends that you move to the chat to continue roleplaying.

Remember, forum posts are available for everyone to see. Forever.
Any time someone searches for you, they will find your posts! Think about what your parents (or potential employer!) would think if they read your post. Are you posting something that you would be proud of, or are you posting something that you wouldn't want your grandparents to see? Think carefully, posts on forums are permanent, but chat posts go away quickly.

Image
Step 3: Collaborate.
Remember, forum topics involve more than one person. If you're going to be posting, you're going to need to work with other people!

Start an OOC (Out Of Character) discussion with the other players.
If you don't know where to go next, go ahead and start a discussion with the other players using PM (private message) or start a new OOC thread to have a public discussion about the roleplay! This really helps when you're not sure what you need to be doing, and it keeps the roleplay clean and easy to read. :)

Respect the other players!
Don't forget how much time you put into your character, and remember that other people do the same for their characters! Don't ever do something to another player's character without asking them first. Remember to work with (collaborate!) your fellow players, even when you're fighting one another.

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Step 4: Listen.
Other people have some great ideas and suggestions, especially if you ask for them! You can learn a lot from other players who are more experienced than you.

Sometimes it helps to look around.
Flip through a couple pages of someone else's successful roleplay, and ask yourself "What made this roleplay so good?" -- then identify how you can learn from what they did. Don't hesitate to ask questions!

You can learn a lot from everyone.
All other players have their own experiences to share, even other beginners like yourself. Sit down and listen to their story, too - you could gain some valuable pointers.

That's all, folks!
Have anything to add? Have a suggestion for other beginners to forum roleplay? Discuss here.

Otherwise, get out there and start playing!
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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby MEGAcya on Sun Jun 22, 2008 6:17 am

Wow, I just downloaded firefox like 2 minutes ago and you're right Remaeus. It's amazing!
Just thought I'd say that.. heh.
Oh and also, great advice. I should probably start taking more care about the length of my posts. Thinking back I've written a LOT of one liners...
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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby BSX on Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:26 pm

*For the love of all that is good and decent, try not to make a Mary Sue character! They are perfect at EVERYTHING, have good looks, a hot body, popular, artistic, have godlike fighting skills, etc etc. Having a character with some flaws will help make them more realistic. Make them have a hot body with a substance problem (don't over do it), a psychopathic musician,or a cowardly fighter.

*Please, please please proofread (I know it's already been said). Read what you written out loud, use Microsoft Word and spell check. Preview your post, proofread again before clicking the "submit " button. Read your post after it's submitted and make any changes you see fit. Avoid the one liners! We're not mind readers, so it's good explain how (what and why) a character is feeling and their actions.

"John was upset until Cassy came along."

Instead try:

John was rather sad about the fight with his parents that happened last night. He sighed as he sat on the bench waiting for the bus to pull up. Seeing Cassy, who seem to radiate, made him smile.

"You're seem extra happy today," she said sitting down beside him.

John was more that happy, he was thrilled that Cassy was there to brighten his day.


Though both are short the 2nd example revealed more about what was going with John instead of leaving the reader to guess.

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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Nyxeth on Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:45 am

I can completely agree upon the points that have been raised, Firefox is a amazing tool for forum based roleplay, its worth its weight in gold, assuming it had weight; its other nifty feature, which is completely non-RP related, is that its safer than internet explorer for general browsing.

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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby RandomliHyper on Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:42 am

Woah, Firefox is better.
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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Blindsite on Sun Jan 04, 2009 12:32 am

BSX wrote:*For the love of all that is good and decent, try not to make a Mary Sue character! They are perfect at EVERYTHING, have good looks, a hot body, popular, artistic, have godlike fighting skills, etc etc. Having a character with some flaws will help make them more realistic. Make them have a hot body with a substance problem (don't over do it), a psychopathic musician,or a cowardly fighter.

*Please, please please proofread (I know it's already been said). Read what you written out loud, use Microsoft Word and spell check. Preview your post, proofread again before clicking the "submit " button. Read your post after it's submitted and make any changes you see fit. Avoid the one liners! We're not mind readers, so it's good explain how (what and why) a character is feeling and their actions.

"John was upset until Cassy came along."

Instead try:

John was rather sad about the fight with his parents that happened last night. He sighed as he sat on the bench waiting for the bus to pull up. Seeing Cassy, who seem to radiate, made him smile.

"You're seem extra happy today," she said sitting down beside him.

John was more that happy, he was thrilled that Cassy was there to brighten his day.


Though both are short the 2nd example revealed more about what was going with John instead of leaving the reader to guess.


Good example. Bad grammer.

John was rather sad about the fight with his parents that happened last night. He sighed as he sat on the bench waiting for the bus to pull up. Seeing Cassy, who seem to radiate, made him smile.

"You seem extra happy today," she said sitting down beside him.

John was more than happy, he was thrilled that Cassy was there to brighten his day.


Proofreading is important in tutorials. :D Also one liners aren't nessasarily bad if you get them going fast enough. Length isn't the issue per se, more like the length vs speed issue. If you post long and fast it can get hard for a writer to keep up and if you post short and slow it can become boring to read.

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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby LordSaladin on Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:40 am

Short and fast posts, however, are more annoying. And whilst, yeah, they don't create a whole lot to read, they're just lacking in what an RP post should be.

If you wanna do fast paced one liners, we have a chat. ^_^

That's really all I need to say on the matter.

P.S: -=Whispers=- Blindsite, it's spelled 'grammar.' Proof-reading is awesome.
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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby SoulCandy on Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:06 pm

this was helpfull thank you!

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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby mk3y2424 on Mon Dec 19, 2011 9:32 am

Very Helpful ^^ thanks :)
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Re: Starter's Guide To Forum Roleplay

Tips: 0.00 INK Postby Wicked_lullaby on Sat Apr 13, 2013 2:00 pm

This was very helpful, thank you!
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