Post by Takkiko on Feb 6, 2010 21:09:29 GMT -5
I personally love to roleplay, and thought I'd expand on what the other person's thread started. The actually thread for this forum, describe roleplay fairly well: "Active dynamic stories that you play a part in and shape as you go." However, generally, you can only control characters that you create, or have claimed for use. Since the rules, covered before were rather vague, I decided to include a widely accepted set of them, that govern roleplay as a whole.
General Stuff:
Freeform games is a challenging form of play by post gaming for some. Mostly given a bad rap for unfairness, it is my opinion that if done correctly free form opens a door to practice characterization and other writing skills important to any play by post game.
In these games, everyone is welcome to join and take a turn in directing the story.
When you are considering joining a game, please read the first couple posts if not the first page of a game. Post your interest to join in the OOC. While there isn't a player limit to each game (unless specified by the game creator), some game creators may feel they have a good range of characters and any more may disturb the balance at that time. Other players in the OOC can also give a summary of events, and let you know how far it's recommended you read to get a feel for what's been happening and the current setting.
Above all, don't be daunted by large page counts. More often than not, you won't have to read the whole thread.
Common Rules, and Courtesies:
No god modding.
No one hit kills. Make sure to provide ample opportunity for the other person to figure out a defense for the attack, unless agreed upon prior to the attack.
Creator of a thread/game would be the GM when disputes arise. If a resolution is not found then the parties may contact the section moderator.
If inactive for over a week it is at the other players' discretion that the character is removed from the game in any fashion they see fit.
Be as descriptive as possible in your posts. Even if you are just responding, people have a certain inflection to their tone, perform certain actions or cues. A person is never just standing there, even in conversation. The more detail you provide, the better a fellow's post will be as they will also have more to work with.
-----------------
Gaw's Laws of Roleplaying
This is something that must be remembered and upheld through all RPG's as the key to surviving to become a classic like the GameFAQs RPG. NO CHEEZ WIZZING. (Named after the king of overpowered.) Cheez Whizzing is making your character an immortal God who can blow anything away in one hit and have absolutely no limitations. That is Cheese Whizzing. There are 2 classifications, really. Overpowering, and Cheese Whizzing. Avoid Cheese Whizzing at all costs, and try to do the same with overpowering. I've noticed some people in magic schools that are creating a little bit of ice at first, but are creating a glacier in a few hours. Overpowering is making your character stronger than all the others, but not 80,000 times stronger than the other characters like Cheese Wizz. That is law number one! [And honestly, any form of this makes people have to overpower...then you overpower back...and it's just ugly]
The biggest RPG killer, in my opinion, is people who don't know the difference between what the poster knows, and what the character knows. Just because someone posts something doesn't always mean your character learns it. The poster learns it, but not the character. Such as, if someone on the other side of the world were destroying a village, how would your character know? He wouldn't. I mean, you never hear this in an RPG.
Main Character: ''I know who the big bad guy is, what he looks like, and what he's planning, because I watched the intro!''
No, the main character has no clue what's going to happen, doesn't know that their is a big bad guy, and much less knows what he looks like, until the main character sees him. But then he doesn't necessarily know what he's planning.
A lesser form of this, and a less noticeable one, is irregular behavior. Like making a character go adventuring in an old castle in the middle of nowhere, because it was revealed in an earlier post that it's the hideout of some evil person. (Revealed to the poster, not the character, mind you.)
The smallest form of this is coincidence. Coincidence is having your character do something else because of a post, but it not being irregular to what the character would do. A coincidence would be, the person is wandering in a field, and then a post reveals a battle going on somewhere in a field. (Once again, to the poster.) You could have the character coincidentally end up heading towards the battle and seeing it. That is a small coincidence, to me. Not irregular at all, just a chance encounters. A bigger coincidence would be, a person is sneaking through a castle, then a conversation in the castle is revealed by someone else, which has some very big plot revealers. But the character just happened to be in front of the door to the place where the conversation was going, and heard it perfectly. That is a very large coincidence.
Of all of these, I can take a few large coincidences, (Not very large, but large) And a lot of small coincidences. But I've seen too many times now the ''Poster knows, so character knows'' incidents. Please tell me if you agree, disagree, or agree with some of it. My ears are wide open for your comments on my beliefs.
Always seek to improve your RPG playing abilities. This doesn't mean get yourself some cool new fire spell. This means improving the quality of your posts. This can be aided by trying to make the post easier to understand, punctuate and capitalize properly, and develop your own style of organizing your posts. I try to make my RPG post style defined, but it seems to go under a few small changes every once and a while.
Your character doesn't always have to be special and different from everything else. Though that can be very interesting, if you are careful on how your character is different. Mine, for example, is just a Gaw. An unusually strong Gaw, but just a Gaw. That doesn't keep me from doing good posts, though, does it?
Role-play! It makes your posts more interesting to read. I mean, in an RPG in medieval times, you wouldn't have a person who talks like this. ''Yo, wassup dude!'' Also, you wouldn't be able to get rocket launchers and such in medieval times. That's something that should go under realism, though. Well, also try to give your character a personality. A flat, boring personality isn't good. Also, try to have the way your character acts affected by his past. [But don't make them emo or cliche!] That can be a very good thing.
When you want to join an RPG or battle with a story, just don't jump in without a clue of what's happening. There are normally 2 good ways to get in.
1: Read all the posts to get familiar with the story.
2: Ask someone who's been in since the beginning or someone who knows what's going on for a summary of the story. Knowing the story will make your posts much better.
Always know the description of your enemy. If you do not know, ask someone who does, preferably the maker of the enemy. Let's take Doura for example. If you didn't know his description, you might say does a horizontal slash to the chest!'' But, Doura was over 10 feet tall. A horizontal slash from a human that's a little over five feet tall would not hit its chest. Also, you might be fighting a very mutated enemy. Let's say it was a sandworm. Sandworms have no arms or legs, just a long body and its head. So, you could not do a ''Quick jab to the arm!'
Well, one thing is this. NEVER limit the player's abilities to be creative. in Anwnn's RPG, he would not allow the other people to describe enemies. Bad move. That RPG is very dead now. Also, try and make the RPG become deeper. Also, remember that sometimes luck is what the RPG's fate is decided by. GameFAQs RPG survived long enough to become interesting.
Do NOT talk for other people, or do actions for them, or describe how they feel for them. There are VERY few people who don't mind beings talked for and even less people who like their actions or how they feel described for them. I hate each one. No one else can make Gaw speak the exact way I want him to, or the exact way I want him to act or say the exact way he would feel under certain circumstances. This doesn't just apply to a person's main character; it can apply to other characters a person has made.
When fighting an enemy, don't have the enemy do something inconsistent with its character traits. (I.e., the aforementioned sandworm casting a spell, or trash talking.) Conversely, Try to stay within your own character's personality traits as well. If you're character's not a friendly person, don't all of a sudden throw a party for all of the people that they don't like, and start serving food. (Granted, this is perfectly acceptable if you're trying to poison the characters...)
Before posting, make sure you know what type of RPG it is. If it's a serious RPG, then don't make a post that would make the RPG very unrealistic and odd. Now, if it was an insane RPG, then you could probably do a lot of things without angering other posters. Such as, you wouldn't be able to smash through a brick wall in a serious and realistic RPG, but in an unrealistic and silly RPG you could.
Here is one specific way NOT to introduce your character and a related subject as well! I doubt anyone likes the ominous ultra-powerful guy who magically appears and grants everyone strength/healing/etc. One of the most important things in RPG's to remember is that you are NOT the main character. I say this meaning that you are NOT supposed to be the strongest person. No one is. All of the characters should have equal powers, but in their own ways. I, for example, have a lot of weak magic. But, because of how diverse they are, the effects of combining the spells can make up for it. Also, I am a little bit weaker than most others in hand to hand combat, but several advantages such as flying, swimming, and a very powerful (But limited) fire breath. My character has weak points, but if I use all his abilities, he's as strong as any other person is. Isn't that much more fun to play as than Mr. ominous magically appearing guy who is stronger than everyone in every single way? I think so.
Here's something I strongly suggest you NOT do. Kills people for basically no reason. (Remember, I said NO reason, so an evil person who benefits from their death somehow wouldn't break this rule, and accidentally killing innocent people in the confusion of combat also wouldn't break this, etc.) How many times on the street do you hear this?
Character: ''Hello.''
NPC: ''Leave me alone, I've had a rough day.''
Character: ''DIE!''
And that's more or less Gaw's Laws, with a little bit removed because the info's dated and we don't write RPs in script format. Thank you for reading, and feel free to ask me anything, as I've been doing this for seven years now. I'm not the best at it, but I have experience and I'm willing to learn and be humble. ^^ Really, as long as you find someone who knows what they're doing and let them teach you everything, coupled with keeping your head out of the clouds, you'll do fine.
Source for Gaw's Laws: members.tripod.com/gamefaqs_rpg_archive/help/gaws_laws.html
General Stuff:
Freeform games is a challenging form of play by post gaming for some. Mostly given a bad rap for unfairness, it is my opinion that if done correctly free form opens a door to practice characterization and other writing skills important to any play by post game.
In these games, everyone is welcome to join and take a turn in directing the story.
When you are considering joining a game, please read the first couple posts if not the first page of a game. Post your interest to join in the OOC. While there isn't a player limit to each game (unless specified by the game creator), some game creators may feel they have a good range of characters and any more may disturb the balance at that time. Other players in the OOC can also give a summary of events, and let you know how far it's recommended you read to get a feel for what's been happening and the current setting.
Above all, don't be daunted by large page counts. More often than not, you won't have to read the whole thread.
Common Rules, and Courtesies:
No god modding.
No one hit kills. Make sure to provide ample opportunity for the other person to figure out a defense for the attack, unless agreed upon prior to the attack.
Creator of a thread/game would be the GM when disputes arise. If a resolution is not found then the parties may contact the section moderator.
If inactive for over a week it is at the other players' discretion that the character is removed from the game in any fashion they see fit.
Be as descriptive as possible in your posts. Even if you are just responding, people have a certain inflection to their tone, perform certain actions or cues. A person is never just standing there, even in conversation. The more detail you provide, the better a fellow's post will be as they will also have more to work with.
-----------------
Gaw's Laws of Roleplaying
This is something that must be remembered and upheld through all RPG's as the key to surviving to become a classic like the GameFAQs RPG. NO CHEEZ WIZZING. (Named after the king of overpowered.) Cheez Whizzing is making your character an immortal God who can blow anything away in one hit and have absolutely no limitations. That is Cheese Whizzing. There are 2 classifications, really. Overpowering, and Cheese Whizzing. Avoid Cheese Whizzing at all costs, and try to do the same with overpowering. I've noticed some people in magic schools that are creating a little bit of ice at first, but are creating a glacier in a few hours. Overpowering is making your character stronger than all the others, but not 80,000 times stronger than the other characters like Cheese Wizz. That is law number one! [And honestly, any form of this makes people have to overpower...then you overpower back...and it's just ugly]
The biggest RPG killer, in my opinion, is people who don't know the difference between what the poster knows, and what the character knows. Just because someone posts something doesn't always mean your character learns it. The poster learns it, but not the character. Such as, if someone on the other side of the world were destroying a village, how would your character know? He wouldn't. I mean, you never hear this in an RPG.
Main Character: ''I know who the big bad guy is, what he looks like, and what he's planning, because I watched the intro!''
No, the main character has no clue what's going to happen, doesn't know that their is a big bad guy, and much less knows what he looks like, until the main character sees him. But then he doesn't necessarily know what he's planning.
A lesser form of this, and a less noticeable one, is irregular behavior. Like making a character go adventuring in an old castle in the middle of nowhere, because it was revealed in an earlier post that it's the hideout of some evil person. (Revealed to the poster, not the character, mind you.)
The smallest form of this is coincidence. Coincidence is having your character do something else because of a post, but it not being irregular to what the character would do. A coincidence would be, the person is wandering in a field, and then a post reveals a battle going on somewhere in a field. (Once again, to the poster.) You could have the character coincidentally end up heading towards the battle and seeing it. That is a small coincidence, to me. Not irregular at all, just a chance encounters. A bigger coincidence would be, a person is sneaking through a castle, then a conversation in the castle is revealed by someone else, which has some very big plot revealers. But the character just happened to be in front of the door to the place where the conversation was going, and heard it perfectly. That is a very large coincidence.
Of all of these, I can take a few large coincidences, (Not very large, but large) And a lot of small coincidences. But I've seen too many times now the ''Poster knows, so character knows'' incidents. Please tell me if you agree, disagree, or agree with some of it. My ears are wide open for your comments on my beliefs.
Always seek to improve your RPG playing abilities. This doesn't mean get yourself some cool new fire spell. This means improving the quality of your posts. This can be aided by trying to make the post easier to understand, punctuate and capitalize properly, and develop your own style of organizing your posts. I try to make my RPG post style defined, but it seems to go under a few small changes every once and a while.
Your character doesn't always have to be special and different from everything else. Though that can be very interesting, if you are careful on how your character is different. Mine, for example, is just a Gaw. An unusually strong Gaw, but just a Gaw. That doesn't keep me from doing good posts, though, does it?
Role-play! It makes your posts more interesting to read. I mean, in an RPG in medieval times, you wouldn't have a person who talks like this. ''Yo, wassup dude!'' Also, you wouldn't be able to get rocket launchers and such in medieval times. That's something that should go under realism, though. Well, also try to give your character a personality. A flat, boring personality isn't good. Also, try to have the way your character acts affected by his past. [But don't make them emo or cliche!] That can be a very good thing.
When you want to join an RPG or battle with a story, just don't jump in without a clue of what's happening. There are normally 2 good ways to get in.
1: Read all the posts to get familiar with the story.
2: Ask someone who's been in since the beginning or someone who knows what's going on for a summary of the story. Knowing the story will make your posts much better.
Always know the description of your enemy. If you do not know, ask someone who does, preferably the maker of the enemy. Let's take Doura for example. If you didn't know his description, you might say does a horizontal slash to the chest!'' But, Doura was over 10 feet tall. A horizontal slash from a human that's a little over five feet tall would not hit its chest. Also, you might be fighting a very mutated enemy. Let's say it was a sandworm. Sandworms have no arms or legs, just a long body and its head. So, you could not do a ''Quick jab to the arm!'
Well, one thing is this. NEVER limit the player's abilities to be creative. in Anwnn's RPG, he would not allow the other people to describe enemies. Bad move. That RPG is very dead now. Also, try and make the RPG become deeper. Also, remember that sometimes luck is what the RPG's fate is decided by. GameFAQs RPG survived long enough to become interesting.
Do NOT talk for other people, or do actions for them, or describe how they feel for them. There are VERY few people who don't mind beings talked for and even less people who like their actions or how they feel described for them. I hate each one. No one else can make Gaw speak the exact way I want him to, or the exact way I want him to act or say the exact way he would feel under certain circumstances. This doesn't just apply to a person's main character; it can apply to other characters a person has made.
When fighting an enemy, don't have the enemy do something inconsistent with its character traits. (I.e., the aforementioned sandworm casting a spell, or trash talking.) Conversely, Try to stay within your own character's personality traits as well. If you're character's not a friendly person, don't all of a sudden throw a party for all of the people that they don't like, and start serving food. (Granted, this is perfectly acceptable if you're trying to poison the characters...)
Before posting, make sure you know what type of RPG it is. If it's a serious RPG, then don't make a post that would make the RPG very unrealistic and odd. Now, if it was an insane RPG, then you could probably do a lot of things without angering other posters. Such as, you wouldn't be able to smash through a brick wall in a serious and realistic RPG, but in an unrealistic and silly RPG you could.
Here is one specific way NOT to introduce your character and a related subject as well! I doubt anyone likes the ominous ultra-powerful guy who magically appears and grants everyone strength/healing/etc. One of the most important things in RPG's to remember is that you are NOT the main character. I say this meaning that you are NOT supposed to be the strongest person. No one is. All of the characters should have equal powers, but in their own ways. I, for example, have a lot of weak magic. But, because of how diverse they are, the effects of combining the spells can make up for it. Also, I am a little bit weaker than most others in hand to hand combat, but several advantages such as flying, swimming, and a very powerful (But limited) fire breath. My character has weak points, but if I use all his abilities, he's as strong as any other person is. Isn't that much more fun to play as than Mr. ominous magically appearing guy who is stronger than everyone in every single way? I think so.
Here's something I strongly suggest you NOT do. Kills people for basically no reason. (Remember, I said NO reason, so an evil person who benefits from their death somehow wouldn't break this rule, and accidentally killing innocent people in the confusion of combat also wouldn't break this, etc.) How many times on the street do you hear this?
Character: ''Hello.''
NPC: ''Leave me alone, I've had a rough day.''
Character: ''DIE!''
And that's more or less Gaw's Laws, with a little bit removed because the info's dated and we don't write RPs in script format. Thank you for reading, and feel free to ask me anything, as I've been doing this for seven years now. I'm not the best at it, but I have experience and I'm willing to learn and be humble. ^^ Really, as long as you find someone who knows what they're doing and let them teach you everything, coupled with keeping your head out of the clouds, you'll do fine.
Source for Gaw's Laws: members.tripod.com/gamefaqs_rpg_archive/help/gaws_laws.html