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Cosmic Wolven :: Essential Knowledge :: Tutorials :: Role Playing 101 Author Topic: Role Playing 101 (Read 278 times) †° Dracowulf °† Administrator Dream... It may be the only thing you ever accomplish... member is offline In this cold, dark sea of forsaken dreams; I must walk alone...[ss:Ebony Abyss] Joined: Dec 2006 Gender: Female Posts: 123 Location: My Imagination...[A:3] Karma: 11 Role Playing 101 « Thread Started on Dec 30, 2006, 5:22pm » This guide, like so many that I have made in the past, took a long time to make. Please, if you wish to use this for your own site or other purposes, please link back to either my e-mail or this site and make it clear that it was not your work. Thank you. Ah, the wonderful Art of the Role Play. My fingers are tingling just thinking about it! So, you think you're ready to dive head first into the Art? GREAT! But let's get our feet wet first! This light-hearted, comical guide should be a help to you. And if it's not... well, that's no fault of mine. Role Playing 101: A Guide for the Bored, the Bad, and the Forgetful Chapters: ---Beginnings: How to Use This Guide--- ---Introduction: Shake Hands!--- -Conventions- -Playing Ball- -Interaction and Etiquette- ---Know Your Role: Fit the Bill--- -Subject Matter- -Standard of Literacy- ---Get Your Feet Wet: Meet Kinkou!--- -Be the Judge of Kinkou- ---Shine Your Shoes: Perfect the Art With Kinkou--- -Explode!- ---Branch Out: Start Your Own Journey--- -Subject Matter- -Plot Design- -Keeping It Going- ---Closing: I Salute Thee!-- ---Meet the Terms: Get to Know the Lingo--- __________¤° Beginnings: How to Use This Guide °¤__________ This Role Playing Tutorial is meant to be enjoyable, informative, and downright funny. Above, if you haven't noticed already, is a color-coded table of contents. Under each colored heading, you will find information on that topic, that way, if you only need help in a certain area, you can find it easier! Any and all terms and "Lingo" will be underlined, and can be found in the Meet the Terms: Get to Know the Lingo glossary section. If you've never role played before, I suggest starting at the beginning, and taking your time. If you try to sit down and read this whole thing at once you'll find yourself bogged down by too much information and you won't remember a sentence of it! So take your time, learn, and pay attention in English class. I'm sure you'll do fine! __________¤° Introduction: Shake Hands! °¤__________ I'm proud of you already! You've taken an interest in role playing, and you're here - reading this, wanting to learn more! You deserve a pat on the back! A hug even! Well, I'm sure you came here to learn more about the wonderful Art of Role Playing and not to hear me rant on and on about how proud I am of you for reading this and hugging you every two minutes. Although I might just do that anyway - but I'm getting ahead of myself! Let's get the ball rolling! All right. A good review (or first-time introduction!) is due. So then - what is Role Playing? Well, you should know that, if you don't apply yourself in English and Writing class, don't enjoy it, or are terrible at it - this might not be for you. Role Playing is writing! Think of it as writing a novel - where a bunch of different people are writing it, and each one writes the part of a certain character or group of characters. It's much like the "Storyteller" game (if you've played it) - where several people sit in a circle, each telling a portion of a made-up story in turns. The turn-taking aspect of Role playing is very important; but not nearly as important as the actual Conventions - or basic aspects - of writing. __________¤° Conventions °¤__________ Writing has several Conventions: Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation, Capitalization, Voice, Perspective, and Vocabulary. Seeing as this is a Role Playing tutorial and not an English class, I won't delve too deeply into these areas. But I will describe them - so that you can pay more attention in school or study up on the areas you need to perfect! Grammar, sometimes referred to as "syntax", is mostly the order in which words should or can go in so that they make sense. Such as subject-verb agreement, participles, adjectives (a Master Role Player's best friend!), nouns, verbs, articles, conjunctions - the list goes on. Grammar, although perhaps not the most pleasant of Conventions, is, in my opinion, the most important. Without it, nothing - I repeat - nothing makes sense. Spelling is another important aspect of Role Playing. If you can't or refuse to spell correctly, you'll have to change your ways before joining the world of Role Play. We all can understand the occational typos, but none of us want to see sentences like this: "she wus lyk relly pr3tty and new a lot abot evryting an evry1 thot she wuz gr8." That is an abomination beyond description. Don't talk like that - okay? Punctuation is another important thing that, I have found, very few people take the time to really understand. Punctuation is your friend, people! Bow before the awesome power of the quotation mark! Cower in the face of the exclamation point! Fear the almighty question mark! Take pause in the presence of the hyphen! List the mighty benefits of the semicolon! *Cough* Erm... So anyways. Yes - Punctuation is very important. Quotation marks let readers know when a character is speaking, or even when the writer, as an objective third-person observer, is adding a bit of "commentary" (don't you just love my examples?!). I also consider font changes to be part of Punctuation. Font changes, such as underlining, bolding, or italicizing add character and depth to your writing. Italicized words may be a character's thoughts, or, when within quotation marks, a word said with more stress than the rest. Bolding may be something yelled - or used to distinguish between different "thought voices" in a character's mind. Underlining can be used to denote a title, or a stressed syllable or word. Punctuation ROCKS - baby! Capitalization is an often-ignored Convention. Capitals denote names, the beginnings of sentences, titles, abbriviations, or yelled statements or words. I find that, when people neglect to capitalize, it makes their writing harder to read than one might think. When names aren't capitalized, you can never really be sure if a writer or character is addressing a character by name - or calling them something nasty! It makes it hard to judge sentences, and plus - a lack of capitalization just makes things look weird! Voice is one of the more "artistic Conventions" that most writing teachers place under its own category - although I place all aspects of writing under a heading of Conventions. Voice is your writing style - and it is phabulous. What - don't believe me? I'll prove it. Does your writing sound like your mother's? Your little brother's? Your next door neighbor's? Your newspaper editor's? Edgar Allan Poe's? Heck no! (If it does, well, you're either a plaigiarist or someone who has been trained to write like someone else and that's just plain weird either way.) Your writing style, perhaps not when you look at it super closely, but on the whole - is perfectly unique. It's a masterpiece in its own right! No one will ever write exactly like you, and you don't write exactly like anyone else. So, your writing is your signature. Your name. The only person who will ever write like you is you - and once you're gone, no one will ever be able to match it! Cling to it - it's yours. Don't be discouraged; perhaps your style is still in its fledgeling years. Give it time to strengthen its wings, and it will fly eventually. Perspective is an important aspect of Role Playing. There are three types: First, Second, and Third Person. First-Person writing is written in an "Me, My, I, Myself" format. Meaning it is telling events as you saw them. It does not include the thoughts of others, and only things that the "I" (not necesarily you, but who you are pretending to be) experiences and sees. Second-Person is another in the form of "Me, My, I, Myself" - but the "I" is not the main character experiencing things; he/she is more of a bistander. Third-Person is completely objective, and usually the easiest way to write. It is in a "He, She, It" format - a narrator telling the story from a completely omnipresent position where all thoughts and actions are known. Third-Person is usually the format used in Role Playing; mainly because of readability. Vocabulary is very important to your style or Voice. Vocabulary, just like in English class, is the collection of words that you know and understand how to use correctly. The bigger your vocabulary, the more flavorful your writing! Adjectives - describing words - are perhaps the most useful vocabulary words. To work your vocabulary and make it bigger, try to find a website that offers "daily word" services, an audio CD or computer game designed to stretch and grow vocabulary, or even just try thumbing through a dictionary every once in a while, and pick a random word to learn! A Thesaurus, a book of synonyms, is very handy - just look up a word you know, and it will show you a myriad of words that mean the same thing, just in a fancier way! __________¤° Playing Ball °¤__________ Like I said earlier, Role Playing is not just writing a story - it's writing a story in turns. I've heard this termed (and I like it) "Playing Ball" by a couple of my role playing buddies. Imagine playing catch with just one friend and one ball first. It's easy enough - your friend tosses the ball to you, you catch it, you throw it back, your friend catches it, and throws it back to you. This is like a "One on One" Role Play - one person and one other person. The first person, known as the "Host", posts - them tossing the ball. Then you read it - you catching it. Then, you respond with a post of your own - you tossing the ball back. The cycle continues on and on until the Role Play draws to a close (although, some seem never to!). It's when a few more people join that things sometimes get interesting. Now immagine you are playing ball with three other people; with still one ball. Now, the Host tosses the ball, someone catches it, and tosses it to you. You catch it, and toss it to the next person; who catches it and promptly throws it back to the Host. This is what I call a "Loop" - players take turns evenly, so that the role play continues in an ABCD-ABCD pattern and is not interrupted. It is whith multiple characters - or multiple balls - per person when the game play gets interesting! Now, you have the same group of four people; only now there are more balls involved! The Host, A, tosses their first ball to B, who catches it. A also tosses their seccond ball in the same throw, only to You - C. So now, both B and C are holding balls (this is like the host having two different characters, and each one is addressing another person's character). Now, B is holding A's ball and one of their own. B tosses A's ball back, and takes the other ball and tosses it to D. C only has A's ball in their hands, so C tosses A's ball back to A, who tosses it to D; and D tosses B's and A's balls back to them. Now, if that second part didn't totally confuse you, here's a more simple version of it. Basically, there are two types of Ball-Playing patterns: Loop and Criss-Cross. Loop is a repeating pattern that works with any number of players, though is usually only used with a few - up to around five, typically. Criss-Cross does not really have a pattern, and invlolves multiple players playing multiple characters having multiple conversations/interactions at once; resulting in posts that may or may not address everyone else in the Role Play! __________¤° Interaction and Etiquette °¤__________ Etiquette is a very important feature of Role Playing, and it encompasses many different aspects of it. It can apply to your interactions between yourself and other players, yourself and other characters, and even yourself and your character! There are many bullet-points under the heading of Etiquette, and I'll go over them one by one. The first thing you should understand about Role Play etiquette is the common Standard of Literacy. There are three "rungs" on the ladder of role playing literacy: Non-Literate, Semi-Literate, and Literate. The Host of a Role Play sets the Standard of Literacy, and it is up to you to know what rung of literacy you stand on (Know Your Role: Fit the Bill has more information on how to gague yourself). It is considered rude of you to join a Role Play that is too far above or below your Standard of Literacy; especially if you are too low. If you attempt to join a Role Play with a Standard of Literacy too high for you, do not get angry with the Host if he/she asks you to leave - it would have been you who was in the wrong. This is a very uncomfortable situation for both Host and player. There is also the sometimes added feature of "Advanced" - which has to do with reading and writing comprehension, creativity, and skill level. Tied within the Standard of Literacy is an omission of Chatspeak - my personal bane. It is an unwritten rule among Semi-Literates and Literates that there is no Chatspeak whatsoever when you are In-Character and limited ammounts of it Out-of-Character. Another common Etiquette rule is in regards to arguments and interaction between characters and players. You have to keep your Objectivity in all situations. Any arguments between players must remain outside the Role Play - no one else needs to know about your problems with the person. Even if you absolutely hate a person - you can still have an enjoyable Role Play with them so long as you both maintain your status of Objectivity. You are also expected to keep your Objectivity when it comes to other's character's relationship(s) with your character(s). If someone else's character perfectly and completely despises your character, that's part of the story! It's not a judgement call on you. Don't take it that way and turn all your character's against that person's characters. That's just mean. __________¤° Know Your Role: Fit the Bill °¤__________ All right, now that you understand the basic definitions of the Art of Role Playing, it's time to figure out where you stand in it. Before you join any role play, you want to know if you'll fit in or not - and it has to do with more than just whether or not you know who the heck Naruto is or the diference between a horse's withers and cannons! __________¤° Subject Matter °¤__________ Okay, so it is perhaps the most important thing for you to know who Naruto is or the difference between withers and cannons! I think this may be one thing that we all can agree on. The Subject Matter of a Role Play is very essential to the plot and setting of it. The Subject Matter is a general lead-in to the Plot and Setting and can sometimes be very vague, such as "Horse RP", or "Naruto RP." They don't give you much information. It is the job of the Host to clarify the meaning of the Subject Matter through the Plot and Setting. When you join a role play, make sure you understand where the Host is suggesting for the Role Play to travel, otherwise you might find yourself deep in some uncomfortable Etiquette situation. And that is in no way cool. __________¤° Standard of Literacy °¤__________ The Standard of Literacy the Host has set and your own personal Standard of Literacy should line up closely. Some people have a hard time figuring out what label they wear, and most Players are reluctant to hand them out to others. It is highly important for you to know where you stand on the ladder of literacy, and I hope I can help you find out. In the next three paragraphs, I'll describe simply the features of each Standard of Literacy. Non-Literate or No Standard: lax conventions, few restrictions, mostly early beginner players, hectic plot/setting, riddled with perfects, despies, GM, and PP. Semi-Literate: good conventions, more, logical restrictions, moderately experienced players, fair plot/setting design, few if any perfects or despies, no GM or PP, sometimes with advanced skill. Literate, High Level, or Advanced: solid conventions, logical restrictions, highly experienced players, flexible, creative plot/setting design, no blaring perfects or despies, no GM or PP, often with advanced skill and good flavor of voice and vocabulary. You may have caught a few new terms in there, such as "GM, PP, Despies, and Perfects." I hope you noticed them. These are all bad things. Stay away from them! RUN LIKE THE PLAGUE! Godmodding, also known as GM, involves characters which are overpowering of others, unnaturally loud, always attracting attention to themselves, and quite bluntly: annoying. Such characters have "godlike" skills, and are generally indestructable, and are often subject to PP (next paragraph). PowerPlaying, also known as PP, involves characters/players who quite literally take control of other Player's characters. Such characters often have powers such as mind control, premonisions, or "take-away" powers (powers that void the powers of others). Such abilities and behavior is rude and downright mean. It leaves the other Players helpless, and even if they are the most Objective players in the world, they'll hate you for powerplaying them. Perfects are godmodders. They're godlike and irritating, always showing off and standing out just for the love of attention. They're akin to Despies, but aren't necessarily. Stay away from them! Despies. Their name comes from the word, "desperate." The absolute bane of my existence. These are characters, almost always female, that are constantly searching for a boy/girlfriend or mate, always flaunting unecessary beauty and prowess, and constantly being the "drama queen" of the bunch. Anyone who constantly creates Despie characters needs to be thwacked with a gigantic book of modesty. That's my final position on the subject. End of story. Bweh. __________¤° Get Your Feet Wet: Meet Kinkou! °¤__________ Wow! I'm really impressed! You've come far. Now that you have learned to classify yourself, you can learn to classify others. I think you're ready to meet Kinkou - my guinea pig for role playing tutorials. I've been picking on her ever since my first tutorial; and now, here she is again, ready to help me teach yet another generation of Players! __________¤° Be the Judge of Kinkou °¤__________ Kinkou has been many things - from a wolf to a dragon to a gryphon. Today, she'll play the role of a human highschool student. She's been through some big improvements, but if you'll just give me a moment I can dig up some ancient history for you to view so that you can learn to classify her Role Play skills...... Ah! Here they are. Now, take a look at this and then we'll dissect it together. Kinkou walkd into the room and sat down. she saw a cute boy next to her and said hi. She looked gr8 in her lo cut jeans and skimpi tshirt. Now, analize away! I'm sure you noticed the capitalization, spelling, chatspeak, and other numerous errors - not to mention the utter lack of colorful descriptive words. If you look carefully, you can also see that this Kinkou character has some despie bloodlines. Did you notice that? The very short post makes it very clear that she likes to wear really skimpy clothing that shows of her apparent beauty. Not the best of ideas if you ask me. This would be classified as a very non-literate post/player indeed. Poor Kinkou. But things got better! Look... A girl of sixteen opened the door and entered the room. Her name was Kinkou. She wore a black tshirt that clung to her frail form, and loose, dark jeans with dark paint stains on the legs. Her black hair hung loosely at her back, and her gray-blue eyes flitted across the cafeteria before she took an open seat and sat down. SO much better now - yes?! Much more descriptive, nearly non-existant conventional errors, nearly all of the "despie action" we saw earlier is gone, and the post has much more flavor than the last. I'd mark this as a semi-literate post. Big difference between semi and non-literate, isn't there? And now for one final example... "Oh... not again," Kinkou thought as she entered the crowded cafeteria. Her pale, quiet face was downcast as she heaved a quiet sigh and slowly made her way across the room toward the most uncluttered seat she saw. Her dark, raven-black hair hung loosely down her back and over her shoulders, contrasting with her fair skin. Her peircing, sad, gray-blue eyes dodged every face as she wove between laughing, joyous people. She wore a black, close-fitting t-shirt and baggy dark blue jeans - in which her hands were firmly thrust. Kinkou dodged a football player and his cheerleader girlfriend before sliding into an empty seat." Ah, finally. A post that can be called, Literate. No despie-ness, good descriptions, excellent conventions. Ah. Heaven. « Last Edit: Dec 30, 2006, 10:33pm by †° Dracowulf °† » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged [MpB:http://www.boomspeed.com/tickle_trunk/bgs/purple33.gif] †° Dracowulf °† Administrator Dream... It may be the only thing you ever accomplish... member is offline In this cold, dark sea of forsaken dreams; I must walk alone...[ss:Ebony Abyss] Joined: Dec 2006 Gender: Female Posts: 123 Location: My Imagination...[A:3] Karma: 11 Re: Role Playing 101 « Reply #1 on Dec 30, 2006, 5:23pm » __________¤° Shine Your Shoes: Perfect the Art With Kinkou °¤__________ Great! You should now understand most of the termology and concepts of role playing, as well as where you stand on the ladder of literacy. Now, Kinkou and I are going to show you how - surprisingly easily I might add - to raise the literacy level and overall appeal of your posting. It's really not all that hard, and it's quite fun too! For this part, I'll have Kinkou be a wolf (one of my favorite Role Play genres). Why a wolf? Well, for one, wolves have a lot about them to describe - as do other animals such as horses, although wolves are slightly simpler than horses and require a lot less physiological knowledge to understand them. So now, without further ado, we shall now - EXPLODE! __________¤° Explode! °¤__________ Can you feel the tingle? Aren't you excited? We're actually going to EXPLODE A ROLE PLAY POST! All right, don't look at me like that... Oh fine, down to business. What I like to call "exploding" is really just "editing" or "revising" in a cooler jacket. Before I can really show you what the true wonders of Exploding can do, we need a starting point. Now, it is in the beggings of explosion that it differs from editing and revising. Editing involves conventions only in my world - meaning you take a gramatically incorrect, spelling error riddled, despie, godmodding, powerplaying post and make it just a simple, logical statement of action. We are going to start with a single, simple sentence of action; and turn it into - drum roll please - a full, descriptive, flowing paragraph of Role Play goodness! Don't believe me? Well, then let's get started. I'll begin with the original, non-literate post - then we will edit it so that it will fit into the first stage of Explosion! a wolf waked out of teh den and sat dwn. her name was Kinkou. adn she was sad. Okay. Now, we can easily spot the capitalization errors, as well as various typos and spelling and punctuation errors; and some subtle grammar and syntax errors. Now, let's spiff this up into a legible sentence or two. A wolf walked out of the den and sat down. Her name was Kinkou; and she was sad. Here, although it is a fairly decent couple sentences with fair conventions, this would still be clasified as a non-lit post (no duh, it's only two sentences!) Now we are ready to enter the first stage of explosion: Non-Lit to Semi-Lit! The key to making it Semi-Lit is adding more descriptive words - words that describe the atmosphere, the appearance of Kinkou, the den, and anything else we feel like throwing in there. ((*Tip: when exploding, describe everything that may - or may not - effect the character's words/actions. Don't be affraid of adjectives and artistic verbs!!)) A tawny-pelted wolf padded out of the rocky cave that was her den. Her long fur tossed gently in the winter wind as she gazed tentatively around her. The she-wolf's name was Kinkou, a young wolf without a past. She sat down sadly, her thick tail wrapped tightly around her haunches, head hanging between her shoulders. This post can now be called semi-lit! Congratulations. Can you see what I did? I described Kinkou where the first post did not describe her at all; I did the same with the cave, weather, and even a little bit with her mood. Most people stop here, which is perfectly fine in some cases. But others strive for that golden Literate post, which I will teach you about next before we carry on to the second stage of Explosion. Things that characterize a literate post include a plethora (great, varied amount) of descriptive adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These words can add more flavor - not to mention preciseness - to your writing. Such as the difference between "walked" and "padded" in the posts above. Literate posts also include, briefly (and enticingly) interesting glimpses of the character's history, thoughts, and reasons behind his/her actions. Literate players are highly descriptive in everything they do; so the key to it is to describe everything you can think of. And now, for a literate paragraph! A slate-gray cave, its mouth dark and foreboding, stood silently amid the sea of chilling winter air and the howl of the wind through the pines. Two golden eyes peered out from the cave's depths, and the soft sound of breathing could be heard if one dared to bring their ear so close to the place. A few moments of stillness passed, a distant howl sounded, and the owner of the golden eyes padded from her den. The she-wolf's lengthy copper coat tossed in the winds of early winter and raised her head toward the sky, tears collecting in her eyes. She went by the name of Kinkou; a sad, wandering loner too affraid or too guilt-ridden to show her face amidst the world of the living. She bowed her head sorrowfully, and pressed her eyes shut. Curls of foggy breath wafted away from her dark nose as she sat, contemplating the decisions she had made that had led her down this life-road. "I'll never be anything but a loner," she thought, a single crystal tear threading down her maw to fall at her paws. The wind blew more feircely, and Kinkou clutched her tail around her haunches; her fur tossing in the cold air like the tempestuous sea of her soul... I smile at thee. Can you see the difference? It's really not all that much work. If you take your time and turn each decent sentence of action or speaking into a paragraph of descriptive goodness, you'll be greatly rewarded. In the beginning, you will probably find that it does take a good deal of time to do, but if you keep it up, nose to the grindstone, you'll be surprised one day by how well you role play. __________¤° Branch Out: Start Your Own Journey °¤__________ You know what? I'm proud of you. You've stuck it out through this whole thing, and here you are - still wanting to know more. This final official section of the tutorial is meant to help guide you in Hosting your own role play. Consider it carefully, and then you'll have all you need! __________¤° Subject Matter °¤__________ The first step you should take when Hosting a role play is the subject matter of it. You have to decide: will you have a Naruto role play? Horses? Wolves? Fantasy? Modern? There's a whole world out there for you to choose from - or pluck your own out of the sky and make it yours. But what you must remember when choosing the subject matter is this: do you know it well enough? As the Host, it will be your job to be prepared to answer any questions the joining players might have. You have to know who Naruto is to start a Naruto role play (I'm not one of those people). You have to know the difference between a horse's hocks and its cannons to have a good horse role play. So when you're choosing subject matter, I don't suggest basing it on a book you've never read, a subject in history you've never studied, a bunch of animals you barely know exist, or a TV series that you've only seen once or twice. The more you know about it, the better it will turn out for everyone. __________¤° Plot Design °¤__________ Designing a plot for your role play is just as important as the subject matter. Without a good solid or flexible plot, the role play has no direction, and everyone - including you - will lose interest. The most classic plot of all is good vs. evil. It catches us all! It's a no-fail thing in the role play world. Inevitably, every plot has elements of the G vs. E plotline. The key is Conflict - something that the characters will be forced to overcome; be it man-technology, man-nature, man-man, or even man-self. You'll learn about these in English class when you study Narrative writing. Be creative and flexible with plotlines - if you're too strict, it leaves no room for creativity with everyone else. If you want a super strict plot, write a book - don't start a role play. __________¤° Keeping It Going °¤__________ Keeping a role play going can be a difficult task. You never really know who will be joining it, if they'll follow the rules you set up, if they're "flaky" join and run types, or anything! It will be up to you to keep things rolling. Having a flexible plotline will help this, because it allows everyone to be engaged within the plot, allowing them to alter it and change the course of the role play. Sometimes, although it is not a pleasant ideal, you will have to deny, turn away, or kick out members of a role play. It's inevitable that there are party poopers and people who inadvertently cause trouble within a role play - whether they realize it or not. I've seem people who poerplay and godmode and they don't even know what the terms mean. Hey - if you come across any of them, either kindly inform them of the lingo or direct them to this tutorial. You may save the life of a role player or two! Although, you must also keep in mind that all role plays will eventually end. Don't get discouraged! Some are meant to be, others aren't. You just got to keep plugging away. Don't give up! __________¤° Closing: I Salute Thee! °¤__________ You should be very proud of yourself, I know I am! You've come a long way, I'm sure. Now, if you'll be brave enough to read on, I have a closing message for you. Don't be affraid of sappiness. I've enjoyed the art of role playing for some time now, and I've had the joy of turning some people on to it, teaching people how to do it, and watching them - and myself - grow in it. Some people may think that role playing is some pathetic waste of time, but I beg to differ, and I hope you do as well. Keep going, player. Don't give up the chase for it. Expode the heck out of your posts until you can explode no more; until you no longer need to, and the great flow of description pours out of your fingers, into the keyboard, onto the screen, and into the eyes of readers. Apply what you learned here to your writing; and practice daily. Then, there will come a day when you look up, surprised. Suprised, a long time after resting your eyes on this meager tutorial. You'll be posting something into a role play - what of, I can't be sure. But your post will be long and wonderful; eye-catching and interesting to read. You'll find yourself reading over it mere moments after you typed it, realizing that it just flowed out of you; no editing involved. And you'll think of something. You'll wonder when it was any different; how your skills could ever have been less - they've been this good for so long. And with any luck, you will never make the connection to me or this tutorial. You'll look up and smile, the words "I did that" on your lips. And you know what? I'll be smiling. __________¤° Meet the Terms: Get to Know the Lingo °¤__________ Below, in alphabetical order, you can find all the terms that I have that apply to Role Playing and their definitions! All of them are referenced somewhere in this tutorial - so if I don't fully define them in the text itself, you can find a clearer, simpler definition here! Terms are bolded and underlined, any abbriviations can be found at the end of the definition in italics. Advanced: the ability of a Player to actively participate, imagine, create, comprehend, and understand the plot and setting of a role play; usually only associated with Semi-Literate and Literate Role Plays. Adv. Art, the: Role Play - the art of creating an epic story in turns with other Players involving writing. RP Capitalization: the correct uppercase letters used to denote titles, names, abbriviations, and other characteristics of writing such as yelling. Caps. Chatspeak: an abbriviated, Non-Literate form of communication, involving the general destruction of perfectly innocent English words and turning them into uninteligible abbriviations and shortened forms. CS Conventions: the basic aspects of writing (and Role Playing): Grammar (also known as "Syntax"), Spelling, Punctuation, Capitalization, Voice, Perspective, and Vocabulary. Conv. Criss-Cross Pattern: a more complex Playing Ball pattern, involving multiple characters, actions, and conversations between multiple Players. CCP Desperates: characters with overly-described and expressed beauty, strength, prowess, and or popularity. BAD. Despies Explode: to take a small amount of words or action and "explode" it - add to it, tweak it, make it big and grand. Genre: the subject matter or style of a role play, such as wolves, fantasy, sci-fi, or modern. Godmodding: a Player who creates characters that have godlike powers which lead to powerplaying. BAD. GM Grammar: the order, placement, and study of words which allows them to make sense in the English language - also known as "Syntax." Gram., Syn. Host: the person who initiates a Role Play, governs it's rules, sets the setting and plot, and helps keep order in the Role Play. In-Character: the actual written body of a Role Play post, in which the description, actions, and words of a Player's character(s) can be found. IC- Literate: the highest and most desirable level of Literacy; consisting of Advanced features, near perfect Conventions, excellent understanding of the Art, good Etiquette, and often a pleasant, flavorful style. Lit Loop Pattern: the simplest Playing Ball pattern, involving the Players taking even turns one after the other in an almost circular fasion - much like taking turns in a board game. LP Non-Literate: the lowest level of Role Playing skill, often associated with short posts, incomplete sentences, chatspeak, Despies, Perfects, otherwise undeveloped Conventions, and other indesirable aspects. Non-Lit Objectivity: the ability of a Player to remain detatched from the actions of his/her characters and those belonging to other Players - always associated with Literate and Advanced Players, rarely ever with Non-Literates. OBJ Out-of-Character: any conversation that takes place outside of the actual Role Play, between Players; usually denoted by symbols such as ||-||, ((-)), or {{-}}. OOC- Perfects: characters with godmodding, powerplaying qualities, overly-expressed beauty and or strength. BAD. Perspective: either First, Second, or Third-Person "storytelling style"; in "Me, My, I, Myself", Me, My, I, Myself - Distant", or "He, She, It" format. Playing Ball: the pattern in which Players post in a Role Play: either Loop or Criss-Cross. Plot: the basic storyline and direction that the Host wishes for the Role Play to go in. PowerPlaying: a Player who will force actions of another Player's characters, or a character with godmodding powers that force actions on other characters. BAD. PP Punctuation: the symbols used in the English language (ex. !, ?, -, ;, :, and -) and their correct usage within writing. Punct. Role Play: See Art, the. RP Semi-Literate: a moderately literate level of role playing in which the Player has fair experience, a decent to good understanding of Conventions and writing, and has fair etiquette and good Objectivity. Semi-Lit Setting: the description of the time, and place in which a role play takes place; in relation to the Subject Matter. Spelling: the correct arrangement of letters to spell words; essential to the understanding of writing. Standard of Literacy: the set level of Literacy put in place by the Host of a Role Play, which all Players must achieve to participate; either Non-Literate, Semi-Literate, or Literate with the sometimes added "Advanced" term. SoL Subject Matter: the basic description of the basis of a Role Play that leads into the Setting and Plot. SM Syntax: another name for Grammar (see "Grammar" for definition). Syn., Gram. Vocabulary: the collection of words a person knows, understands, and is capable of using properly. Vocab. Voice: an individual's style of writing, unique to that person. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged [MpB:http://www.boomspeed.com/tickle_trunk/bgs/purple33.gif] Wolfeh-The Kumquat Administrator The Bestest Pallie Of Erynn member is offline Varc - Maiden of Silent Dismay[ss:~ƒïrê~] Joined: Dec 2006 Gender: Female Posts: 87 Location: Stalking You In The Shadows[A:3] Karma: 11 Re: Role Playing 101 « Reply #2 on Dec 30, 2006, 10:13pm » AHA!!!! AN ERROR!!!! well, one that ive bothered to badger you about- dodged EVER face as she wove hahaha you messed up. sorry lol i love you Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Forum Jump--------------------» Home--------------------» Essential Knowledge--------------------- Code of Kalaskia- Kalaskia FAQ- Affiliation Zone- Tutorials--------------------» Community--------------------- Chat --- Posters' Gallery- Profiles- Fun Stuff--------------------» Cosmic Souls--------------------- Cosmic Spirits- Souls of the Eternal Abyss- Souls of the Eternal Light- Tryouts- Commentary!--------------------» Clan of the Eternal Abyss--------------------- Land of Eternal Darkness- Deception Forest--------------------» Clan of the Eternal Light--------------------- Land of Eternal Light- Crystalline Fields--------------------» Lands of Neutrality--------------------- Apollo's Coliseum of Fire- Realm of Darkness- Celestial Pools