RP Guide/Tips (Work In Progress)
This is a post I'm making to help people understand how to get more CR and more tags in game. These aren't rules or anything. They are just helpful tips to keep in mind. :) If any other long time RPer has something to add, let me know! If you have any questions or comments, please, feel free to leave a comment here.
1. Post with Substance When making a post (or tag), remember that there are very few characters who will approach a stranger on the street. It's why it's important to give other muns something interesting for their characters to respond to. It is an easy task with the Rifts around. The possibilities with the Rift are limitless, and the more interesting/compelling the situation, the more people who will be able to tag your post. There is a rule in BTR that all of your comments have to be at least FIVE sentences. Please, be sure that you're meeting this rule.
2. Mono-Focused Sometimes one character is louder than another. This is understandable. However, there's no reason to always drop threads entirely with the characters who aren't as loud. There's no reason to favor tags with one characters over another in several different posts consistently. If you're making a post, don't include every character if it's only the one that you want to tag with. People may feel that their threads are less important to you if they see you abandoning their threads for others.
3. Tag Around We are a small game, which means there are less people to play. It also means that it's easier for people to feel overwhelmed by the tags they do have. Instead of only making new posts, please tag into other posts as well. You can even tag a post multiple times. If you make a post and it receives few tags despite having an interesting premise, it's probably because many members are still overwhelmed by their current tag load. Look at the last 3-5 posts. Can you tag into one of those in addition to making a new post? This shows that you're willing to put in an equal effort to gain CR with others, which encourages them to tag yours as well. Plus, you're definitely going to get a thread out of it.
I understand that it's easier to have other people tag you, but I cannot stress this enough, we are a small game. If there are only a small amount of people who tag others, they will get burnt out and then there will be many posts without tags. If you're worried this applies to you, look back at your own tagging/posting history. How many posts have you made and how many times have you commented to other people's posts?
The times that you've commented to other people's post should always be more proportionally (and quite a bit more) than the number of times that you've made a post for your character(s).
4. Tag Consecutively The best way to generate CR is to do many threads with the same two characters. Try to have your character tag them in a party thread and in their posts. RP is often so organic that their relationship (friendship, enemy-ship, or whatever else) will develop on its own, and it will be lovely to watch. I know this one is obvious, but... Don't worry about overwhelming someone with too much of your one character, because that's how CR happens. New CR is always shiny too so don't devote the existence of your characters to the existence of another.
5. OOC Communication is often vital Chat is not required. However, it is important to keep communication lines open OOC-ly. If you have any problems with a tag, it's vital to contact the other mun (or contact the mods), instead of dropping the thread, doing something that you don't want to do, or forcing your character to be OOC. It's possible that the mun is unaware of the problem. The monthly meme opens up a channel for OOC communication. It's a great way to find potential CR and create plots. Again, it's good to tag around in the meme instead of making one tag for your own characters.
6. IC Does Not Equal OOC Just because someone's character does not like your character, it doesn't mean that the person who plays them does not like you. Additionally, you shouldn't let your OOC feelings or knowledge bleed into your character. I don't think there is a rule about this, because it's hard to pinpoint, but keep it in mind.
7. Embrace All CR BTR is not a game that's main focus is shipping so if you go into this game looking for that, you'll likely be disappointed. In fact, in the two years that we've been kicking, we've had maybe ten official couples and three breakups. Shipping characters is awesome when it happens. However, there are multiple kinds of CR that characters can have, which should all be embraced. Negative CR can be fun too.
How awesome is it to play out mortal enemies or two people that can't stand each other? It's equally fun to generate friendships, mentor/student relationships, and so much more. Don't limit yourself only to the romance or the sex, and don't let shipping be the only or main reason that you play your character, especially if you only want to play them shipped with a specific character. There's no way to tell for certain that the ship will happen.
8. Collaboration One of the most important things to remember when RPing is that RP is a collaboration of different writing styles. Sometimes characters will need to say more. Sometimes they don't need to say as much. Try to find a good balance in your thread with others or the thread could be overwhelming if they either feel they have nothing to work with or too much to work with.
9. Character Squatting You do not have to stick around if you've lost interest in the game or you're too busy to play. Castmates and people who have CR with your characters will understand. They'll want you to focus on your life or to move on to other things. It's much more difficult to live with a castmate that's only around enough to pass activity checks.
10. God-Modding This is a toughie. It's in the rules, but it's sometimes difficult to establish the difference between god-modding and filling in details. If you're going to write in something that could potentially change a lot about the setting or action of someone else's thread, do not do it without asking their permission first. For instance, don't throw in a perfect solution that's been there all along to the problem the character has been having without running it by that mun first.
Post: This is what you make in the main community itself, and it creates a setting for the RP to take place in. It can contain one character or multiple characters.
Tag: When someone makes a post, you hit reply comment. This is a tag. Tag is also a term used in LJ. It can be attached to a post to indicate the subject matter. In RP, we use tags to indicate which characters are involved in a post. This makes it easier for when you want to reread posts later.
Thread: What results from commenting someone, you both tag (or comment) each other back and forth. This is a thread. It can be turned into a verb. We are threading. or Can we thread this out?
CR: It stands for Character Relationship. You can develop CR between your character and another, and it can be anything from romance to hatred.
PB: It stands for Played By. This is the actor or actress (singer, model, etc) who is representing your character in icons.
Mun: This is the player aka you! It stands for Mundane. I'm not sure how it came about or what it means.
Pup/Muse/Headvoice: These are terms that people often use to talk about their characters. It gets more complicated than that, but that is the gist. Pup stands for puppet!
IC: In Character. This refers to action or comments that are in character.
OOC: Out of Character. This refers to anything that you, the mun, are saying, instead of the muse. People will sometimes make a note in their comment that looks similar to, ((OOC: He really wants to kill her, and it'd be out of character for him to not do so. Can we invent a distraction so I don't have to alter my muse for this?))
I will alphabetize this later.
If you're ever feeling bad about your RP or the response you get to tags/posts, I (Rizzy) would be happy to go over the issues with you. I can give you suggestions. Please, feel free to send me an e-mail. We all need help sometimes, and I'd be happy to help as best I can.
1. Post with Substance When making a post (or tag), remember that there are very few characters who will approach a stranger on the street. It's why it's important to give other muns something interesting for their characters to respond to. It is an easy task with the Rifts around. The possibilities with the Rift are limitless, and the more interesting/compelling the situation, the more people who will be able to tag your post. There is a rule in BTR that all of your comments have to be at least FIVE sentences. Please, be sure that you're meeting this rule.
2. Mono-Focused Sometimes one character is louder than another. This is understandable. However, there's no reason to always drop threads entirely with the characters who aren't as loud. There's no reason to favor tags with one characters over another in several different posts consistently. If you're making a post, don't include every character if it's only the one that you want to tag with. People may feel that their threads are less important to you if they see you abandoning their threads for others.
3. Tag Around We are a small game, which means there are less people to play. It also means that it's easier for people to feel overwhelmed by the tags they do have. Instead of only making new posts, please tag into other posts as well. You can even tag a post multiple times. If you make a post and it receives few tags despite having an interesting premise, it's probably because many members are still overwhelmed by their current tag load. Look at the last 3-5 posts. Can you tag into one of those in addition to making a new post? This shows that you're willing to put in an equal effort to gain CR with others, which encourages them to tag yours as well. Plus, you're definitely going to get a thread out of it.
I understand that it's easier to have other people tag you, but I cannot stress this enough, we are a small game. If there are only a small amount of people who tag others, they will get burnt out and then there will be many posts without tags. If you're worried this applies to you, look back at your own tagging/posting history. How many posts have you made and how many times have you commented to other people's posts?
The times that you've commented to other people's post should always be more proportionally (and quite a bit more) than the number of times that you've made a post for your character(s).
4. Tag Consecutively The best way to generate CR is to do many threads with the same two characters. Try to have your character tag them in a party thread and in their posts. RP is often so organic that their relationship (friendship, enemy-ship, or whatever else) will develop on its own, and it will be lovely to watch. I know this one is obvious, but... Don't worry about overwhelming someone with too much of your one character, because that's how CR happens. New CR is always shiny too so don't devote the existence of your characters to the existence of another.
5. OOC Communication is often vital Chat is not required. However, it is important to keep communication lines open OOC-ly. If you have any problems with a tag, it's vital to contact the other mun (or contact the mods), instead of dropping the thread, doing something that you don't want to do, or forcing your character to be OOC. It's possible that the mun is unaware of the problem. The monthly meme opens up a channel for OOC communication. It's a great way to find potential CR and create plots. Again, it's good to tag around in the meme instead of making one tag for your own characters.
6. IC Does Not Equal OOC Just because someone's character does not like your character, it doesn't mean that the person who plays them does not like you. Additionally, you shouldn't let your OOC feelings or knowledge bleed into your character. I don't think there is a rule about this, because it's hard to pinpoint, but keep it in mind.
7. Embrace All CR BTR is not a game that's main focus is shipping so if you go into this game looking for that, you'll likely be disappointed. In fact, in the two years that we've been kicking, we've had maybe ten official couples and three breakups. Shipping characters is awesome when it happens. However, there are multiple kinds of CR that characters can have, which should all be embraced. Negative CR can be fun too.
How awesome is it to play out mortal enemies or two people that can't stand each other? It's equally fun to generate friendships, mentor/student relationships, and so much more. Don't limit yourself only to the romance or the sex, and don't let shipping be the only or main reason that you play your character, especially if you only want to play them shipped with a specific character. There's no way to tell for certain that the ship will happen.
8. Collaboration One of the most important things to remember when RPing is that RP is a collaboration of different writing styles. Sometimes characters will need to say more. Sometimes they don't need to say as much. Try to find a good balance in your thread with others or the thread could be overwhelming if they either feel they have nothing to work with or too much to work with.
9. Character Squatting You do not have to stick around if you've lost interest in the game or you're too busy to play. Castmates and people who have CR with your characters will understand. They'll want you to focus on your life or to move on to other things. It's much more difficult to live with a castmate that's only around enough to pass activity checks.
10. God-Modding This is a toughie. It's in the rules, but it's sometimes difficult to establish the difference between god-modding and filling in details. If you're going to write in something that could potentially change a lot about the setting or action of someone else's thread, do not do it without asking their permission first. For instance, don't throw in a perfect solution that's been there all along to the problem the character has been having without running it by that mun first.
Post: This is what you make in the main community itself, and it creates a setting for the RP to take place in. It can contain one character or multiple characters.
Tag: When someone makes a post, you hit reply comment. This is a tag. Tag is also a term used in LJ. It can be attached to a post to indicate the subject matter. In RP, we use tags to indicate which characters are involved in a post. This makes it easier for when you want to reread posts later.
Thread: What results from commenting someone, you both tag (or comment) each other back and forth. This is a thread. It can be turned into a verb. We are threading. or Can we thread this out?
CR: It stands for Character Relationship. You can develop CR between your character and another, and it can be anything from romance to hatred.
PB: It stands for Played By. This is the actor or actress (singer, model, etc) who is representing your character in icons.
Mun: This is the player aka you! It stands for Mundane. I'm not sure how it came about or what it means.
Pup/Muse/Headvoice: These are terms that people often use to talk about their characters. It gets more complicated than that, but that is the gist. Pup stands for puppet!
IC: In Character. This refers to action or comments that are in character.
OOC: Out of Character. This refers to anything that you, the mun, are saying, instead of the muse. People will sometimes make a note in their comment that looks similar to, ((OOC: He really wants to kill her, and it'd be out of character for him to not do so. Can we invent a distraction so I don't have to alter my muse for this?))
I will alphabetize this later.
If you're ever feeling bad about your RP or the response you get to tags/posts, I (Rizzy) would be happy to go over the issues with you. I can give you suggestions. Please, feel free to send me an e-mail. We all need help sometimes, and I'd be happy to help as best I can.