About a year ago I wrote a roleplaying guide for this website I used to go on, TeenInk, where the roleplayers were simply godawful.

It’s a handy, short, and to the point guide, and anyone confused about roleplaying should look through it if they have any questions.

A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Roleplay

If you are a serious roleplayer, or even just doing it for the heck of it, there are some rules that should be followed in all roleplays.

Some of the basic rules are…

No Godmodding

No One-liners

Be Literate

And

Stick to the Plot.

Godmodding

“Godmodding” is in essence when someone’s character has the ability to do practically anything without limits or boundaries. An example is when they simply cannot be harmed by any and all means other Roleplayers try.

-It can be killing or injuring a character without the player’s express permission.
-It can be when they simply can’t be hit and dodge all attacks or anything for this matter aimed at them.
-It can also be using other characters that other people RP with. In other words, if you do not RP as
Legolas, then you cannot have Legolas say anything, or do anything, without the player’s express permission.

The absolute worst is when they make out another character to be what they’re not, just to make their own character seem superior. They make others seem weak, screaming for help, when they’ve made it quite clear about their advantages and strengths. This is called power-play. It’s a strain of Godmodding, but instead of just being irritating, it’s offensive to boot.

This is a prime example of Godmodding:

Player A: Punches Player B
Player B: Dodges attack,  grabs Player A and throws him. Player A flies at Player B, who warps behind him and slashes Player A in the back.

One-Liners

One-liners are posts that consist purely of one sentence. This can be annoying, and make the Roleplay boring.

An example of a one-liner is

Player A: Smiles nicely.

Or

Player A: “We need help.”

There’s nothing there that helps move the Roleplay along, really.

A good post consists of at least three sentences or more.

Example

Player A: Slim smiles a nice, dentist friendly smile in her direction. He wanted to be friends with her, and his mom always said “A smile goes a long way.”

Or

Player A: Slim looks to the left and to the right. He starts to chitter nervously, and turns to face her. “We need help,” He says worriedly, still glancing in all directions.

Try to make use of your adjectives.

Literacy

Literacy means spelling correctly, using proper punctuation, and making your posts look nice and neat.

The most common law broken is literacy. Some people use Chat Speak when Roleplaying, some don’t use commas or quotation marks, and it makes it hard to read and understand what your putting out there.

For example, “Slim smles ncely, putin a hnd on hre sholedr.” Is definitely NOT allowed.

If you think you’ve spelt a word wrong, simply put in parentheses (SP) next to the word. Someone might tell you the correct spelling then. Or type it in Microsoft Word, and try to find the correct spelling there.

If you think you’ve got a MAJOR literacy problem, try typing your whole post in Word, and fix all mistakes before posting.

Stick to the Plot

Possibly one of the most important things to remember is to STICK TO THE MAIN PLOT.

The main plot is usually posted on the original post. It could be you’re at a school, you’re in a war, whatever. But the fact is YOU can’t change it. You can only move it along.

Some Roleplays, however, don’t have a designated plot. They just go wherever they go, and if that’s more your style, then I suggest trying one of those.

I must also note that you are aloud to change some LITTLE things. A Roleplay is a team effort, isn’t it?

But you cannot change the main premise of the Roleplay. It’s pretty rude.

—-

A couple more things to mention on the subject of Roleplay, would be

Be respective of your fellow Roleplayers. You’re not better than them, we are all equal. That means  don’t insult their Roleplay skill, don’t flame them, don’t be mean at all. If you catch a Roleplayer breaking a rule, politely tell them in OOC.

Which brings us to OOC. OOC stands for Out of Character. Usually you can spot OOC when it’s in parentheses. But some Roleplayers don’t put it in parentheses, and it gets hard to tell when you’re in character, and when you’re out.

An example would be “My dog ate trash. Slim smiled nicely in her direction…”

See?

The right way to put this would be..

“(My dog ate trash)

Slim smiled nicely…”

OR

“OOC: My dog ate trash.

BIC:

Slim smiled…”

BIC stands for back in Character.

Different Types of Roleplay

There are three main types of Roleplays.

Normal Roleplays-

This means anyone and everyone can join. Most Roleplays are Normal.

Literate Roleplays-

This means that you should only join this Roleplay if you spell correctly, and have no grammatical mistakes in your posts. People tend to get kicked out of Literate Roleplays often because they are not, in fact, Literate. To mark your Roleplay as a Literate Roleplay, simply put (Lit.) at the end of the title.

1x1 Roleplays-

This means that only one person and the creator are allowed to participate in this Roleplay. Usually the two people are already chosen, but if you don’t have a person in mind the first person to post their character usually gets the spot. Unless the Creator doesn’t want to Roleplay with that person, obviously. To mark your Roleplay as a 1x1 Roleplay, simply put (1x1) at the end of the title.

Any further questions you have about Roleplay, feel free to message me!