How To: Roleplay #1
Now, because there's only so long you can rant at the wall/computer screen/partner/well-meaning-yet-frightened-pet before they decide to start offering you tranquilizers, I thought I would start to write these quick literary geek 'How To' guides to help the newbs out there. My partner/friends/population-of-twitter agreed that this was a positive step that might help me balance out my karma. So, here's the first instalment for your edification.
Contextual Note: When I refer to Role-play I mean text-based role playing as you might find on a forum, blog, social networking site or via IM. I might occasionally make reference to table top and LARP, but mostly we'll be concerning ourselves with text based RPGs (Advice for MMORPGs, console based games and tips on spicing up your sex life should be sought in places that are not here.)
How to: Roleplay #1
+ Character Creation +
Do you want to be a powerful swordsman, riding across the lands on a quest for adventure? A cunning female tactician that runs rings around your opponents? Perhaps you want to play a teenager thrust into the midst of a mystery? The good news is that once you've found people to play without can do it. The bad news is that you're going to have to through the process of Character Creation first, even if you're using and already established character (Draco in a Harry Potter RPG for example). It’s a fact of roleplaying. There are people who enjoy the process of developing a character into a playable persona almost as much as playing the game itself; I am not one of them but I have moderated enough games to appreciate how important it is that someone goes through the process. If you do it well enough it could open the way for higher level characters in the future, since no good Mod is going to let you play a massively powerful character right out the gate unless you prove you can handle them. So, your first step would be -
1) FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE UNIVERSE
Obvious step? Yes, but it deserves a mention. You wouldn't believe how many people drop into a game without any idea of how the world works. So if you're joining a pre-war Lord of the Rings game read the books and posts or in the case of an original world look around the forum/discuss it in detail with your RP partner. Familiarize yourself with locations, religions, races, customs... this will help give you a better idea of what kind of character you would like to play, and help out when you get to that pesky 'history' section later on.
2) READ THE GAME RULES
One-to-one games (email, IM, passing a notebook back and forth) won't have a set of rules as such, but other games will have rules that you are expected to abide by. Read them fully and carefully. Some rules like 'don't kill another person's character without permission' should go without saying but it never hurts to be clear on the game's policy. You don't want to be the player who posts explicit sexual content on a board filled with young teens do you?
3) FILL OUT YOUR CHARACTER
i) Character Bios
Hopefully you'll have some kind of idea what sort of character you'd like to play already; if you don't then discuss it with the other player(s) in the OOC section. They might have spaces in the plot they need to fill, and you might be able to do that. But now it's time to fill out your character a little. Most original RPGs will want at least a character bio with a basic physical description, and often this will be what your acceptance into the game will be based on. Keep that in mind when you're filling out your bio - this is the first time the mods are going to meet your character so keep it to the point, keep it interesting and keep it relevant. I can't speak for other mods out there but I have always used the character bio as a chance to assess the creative abilities of the player if the game didn't use an additional audition post, so if the bio was bad I didn't want that player near the game.
If your game has a character bio sheet, use that and fill it out. If not, and you're like me, finding yourself rambling pointlessly without a structure to keep you on track you can use my character creation sheet below.
Name: (Seventh Sanctum or babynames.com are excellent resources for names)
Height: (Self explanatory really)
Weight:* (If i could remove this section I would, but it’s become a requirement)
Gender:* (Boy? Girl? Intersexed? Trans? Choose your character's gender here)
Race: (This one applies to RPGs where 'human' is an optional extra)
Age: (Again, self explanatory)
Hair: (Colour doesn't cut it. Give us a brief description)
Eyes: (More than just the colour if there's anything else distinctive please)
Body: (Body type that would be. Is your character slim? Willowy? Stocky? Built like tank?)
Scars: (Does your character have any scars? What are they like? Tell us here)
Clothes: (General description of the types of clothes worn by your character)
Other: (Any piercings? Tattoos? Masks? Anything about their description that's distinctive to them, this is where it goes)
Talents: (What is your character really good at?)
Flaws:* (What're the bad things about your character? If this space or 'Talents' are blank, then you're in trouble)
Attitude: (How does your character approach their life? What is their reaction to people? Are they friendly? Introverted? Pessimistic? Predatory?)
You should not: (Things other players should avoid doing. One of my characters has this section filled with 'ask him to sing' because he is tone deaf, while another has 'touch him' because the character's paranoia might result in broken limbs.)
You should: (Things other players should do/things your character wants others to do)
Family Members: (Their living family members. Who are they?)
Trade(s): (How does your character make a living?)
Weapon Training:* (If your character can use a weapon or has been trained in hand to hand combat, put it here and tell us how good they are too)
What happened: (AKA the History bit. This is where the bulk of your writing will go. In the history bit you want to tell us how your character got to this point in their lives, what happened to make them the way they are and very briefly where they're going next. For the sanity of mods everywhere write at least 2 paragraphs here, but less than about 800 words; we want the character's story, not a blow by blow account of their childhood. You should also use this chance to show off your writing abilities a little too.)
* denotes sections I don't normally include but felt might be useful
ii) Character Auditions
These are usually applied to games taking place in an established universe, using canon characters (e.g. Applying to join a 'Fruits Basket' game as Sohma Hatori or a 'Doctor Who' game as Donna Noble) because the mods need to know that you understand the character, have the skill to play them convincingly and that your interpretation of the character fits in with the world. It’s also an excellent way to weed out bad roleplayers, so please remember your common sense if you're writing one of these posts. If I had to offer guidelines to someone writing one of these for the first time I would suggest that you write 2 - 3 good sized paragraphs in the same form as the other players, with your character mentally and physically where you would like to start the game. Aside from that just remember your basic rules of roleplaying and spell check your post before hitting enter and you'll be just fine.
4) FINALLY...
... Have fun! Creating a character is a lot of work, but well worth the effort when you finally get in on the game and play!
Contextual Note: When I refer to Role-play I mean text-based role playing as you might find on a forum, blog, social networking site or via IM. I might occasionally make reference to table top and LARP, but mostly we'll be concerning ourselves with text based RPGs (Advice for MMORPGs, console based games and tips on spicing up your sex life should be sought in places that are not here.)
How to: Roleplay #1
+ Character Creation +
Do you want to be a powerful swordsman, riding across the lands on a quest for adventure? A cunning female tactician that runs rings around your opponents? Perhaps you want to play a teenager thrust into the midst of a mystery? The good news is that once you've found people to play without can do it. The bad news is that you're going to have to through the process of Character Creation first, even if you're using and already established character (Draco in a Harry Potter RPG for example). It’s a fact of roleplaying. There are people who enjoy the process of developing a character into a playable persona almost as much as playing the game itself; I am not one of them but I have moderated enough games to appreciate how important it is that someone goes through the process. If you do it well enough it could open the way for higher level characters in the future, since no good Mod is going to let you play a massively powerful character right out the gate unless you prove you can handle them. So, your first step would be -
1) FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE UNIVERSE
Obvious step? Yes, but it deserves a mention. You wouldn't believe how many people drop into a game without any idea of how the world works. So if you're joining a pre-war Lord of the Rings game read the books and posts or in the case of an original world look around the forum/discuss it in detail with your RP partner. Familiarize yourself with locations, religions, races, customs... this will help give you a better idea of what kind of character you would like to play, and help out when you get to that pesky 'history' section later on.
2) READ THE GAME RULES
One-to-one games (email, IM, passing a notebook back and forth) won't have a set of rules as such, but other games will have rules that you are expected to abide by. Read them fully and carefully. Some rules like 'don't kill another person's character without permission' should go without saying but it never hurts to be clear on the game's policy. You don't want to be the player who posts explicit sexual content on a board filled with young teens do you?
3) FILL OUT YOUR CHARACTER
i) Character Bios
Hopefully you'll have some kind of idea what sort of character you'd like to play already; if you don't then discuss it with the other player(s) in the OOC section. They might have spaces in the plot they need to fill, and you might be able to do that. But now it's time to fill out your character a little. Most original RPGs will want at least a character bio with a basic physical description, and often this will be what your acceptance into the game will be based on. Keep that in mind when you're filling out your bio - this is the first time the mods are going to meet your character so keep it to the point, keep it interesting and keep it relevant. I can't speak for other mods out there but I have always used the character bio as a chance to assess the creative abilities of the player if the game didn't use an additional audition post, so if the bio was bad I didn't want that player near the game.
If your game has a character bio sheet, use that and fill it out. If not, and you're like me, finding yourself rambling pointlessly without a structure to keep you on track you can use my character creation sheet below.
Name: (Seventh Sanctum or babynames.com are excellent resources for names)
Height: (Self explanatory really)
Weight:* (If i could remove this section I would, but it’s become a requirement)
Gender:* (Boy? Girl? Intersexed? Trans? Choose your character's gender here)
Race: (This one applies to RPGs where 'human' is an optional extra)
Age: (Again, self explanatory)
Hair: (Colour doesn't cut it. Give us a brief description)
Eyes: (More than just the colour if there's anything else distinctive please)
Body: (Body type that would be. Is your character slim? Willowy? Stocky? Built like tank?)
Scars: (Does your character have any scars? What are they like? Tell us here)
Clothes: (General description of the types of clothes worn by your character)
Other: (Any piercings? Tattoos? Masks? Anything about their description that's distinctive to them, this is where it goes)
Talents: (What is your character really good at?)
Flaws:* (What're the bad things about your character? If this space or 'Talents' are blank, then you're in trouble)
Attitude: (How does your character approach their life? What is their reaction to people? Are they friendly? Introverted? Pessimistic? Predatory?)
You should not: (Things other players should avoid doing. One of my characters has this section filled with 'ask him to sing' because he is tone deaf, while another has 'touch him' because the character's paranoia might result in broken limbs.)
You should: (Things other players should do/things your character wants others to do)
Family Members: (Their living family members. Who are they?)
Trade(s): (How does your character make a living?)
Weapon Training:* (If your character can use a weapon or has been trained in hand to hand combat, put it here and tell us how good they are too)
What happened: (AKA the History bit. This is where the bulk of your writing will go. In the history bit you want to tell us how your character got to this point in their lives, what happened to make them the way they are and very briefly where they're going next. For the sanity of mods everywhere write at least 2 paragraphs here, but less than about 800 words; we want the character's story, not a blow by blow account of their childhood. You should also use this chance to show off your writing abilities a little too.)
* denotes sections I don't normally include but felt might be useful
ii) Character Auditions
These are usually applied to games taking place in an established universe, using canon characters (e.g. Applying to join a 'Fruits Basket' game as Sohma Hatori or a 'Doctor Who' game as Donna Noble) because the mods need to know that you understand the character, have the skill to play them convincingly and that your interpretation of the character fits in with the world. It’s also an excellent way to weed out bad roleplayers, so please remember your common sense if you're writing one of these posts. If I had to offer guidelines to someone writing one of these for the first time I would suggest that you write 2 - 3 good sized paragraphs in the same form as the other players, with your character mentally and physically where you would like to start the game. Aside from that just remember your basic rules of roleplaying and spell check your post before hitting enter and you'll be just fine.
4) FINALLY...
... Have fun! Creating a character is a lot of work, but well worth the effort when you finally get in on the game and play!