Sarn's Role Playing 101

[§arinon]

[glow=purple,2,300]Sarn's Guide to Role Playing
Introduction[/glow]

Let us start with the basics. What is Role Playing? Well, its a simple concept to grasp. You create or re-use a character, or characters, and write their thoughts and actions in collaboration with other role players' characters. It can be as simple or as complicated as you like, but the general idea is that you participate with other Role Players and interact with their characters to form a plotline. By the time you've read everything in this guide, you'll have the skills needed to participate in any beginner or intermediate leverl RP online. This course, however, doesn't cover tabletop RPGs, though I may modify it in the future.

Before you think about joining an RP, there are some things you should know, and some general rules common to most, if not all RPs.

Terminology
Some RPers use slang or terminology that beginners may be unaware of.

RP: Role Play
OoC: Out of Character. This is a term used when you post as yourself and not as your character. I will cover this further on in the guide.
NPC: Non-player Character. These are created mainly for narrative purposes and they are the only characters who can be controlled by anyone within the RP. More on this later.
Godmode: The greatest RPing sin.

General Rules
Most of these will be covered in much more detail further on, but if you just want a quick idea of some generic rules, these are a good guide.

• Be polite. There is nothing worse than RPing with a snob or someone who has an ego that can't fit through the door.
  
• Don't control other people's characters. They belong to the person who introduced them and you should never make them act unless you are given permission to do so. (Godmoding)
  
• Never make your characters too strong/too weak. (Mary Sue/Gary Stu)
  
• Be literate. Spellcheck your posts and make sure your grammar is decent.
  
• Post something substantial. Don't just blurt out a few lines or say something random just because you can't think of anything to say. If you can't work in with what is happening, it is better to not post until later.
  
• Think about where your actions take the plotline before you make them. You may be leading the RP to a dead end and you don't want to be the one to kill it.
  
• Don't always be looking for a way to advance the plot. 80% of your posts will be as a support or background to the plotline rather than an advancement and this is ok.

[glow=purple,2,300]Coarse Outline[/glow]

Part One - Character Creation

• Introduction
  
• Name
  
• Age, Gender and Species
  
• Apperance and Personality
  
• Abilities and Traits
  
• History
  
• Putting the Puzzle Together
  
• Likes and Dislikes
  
• Development

Part Two - Posting: Part One

• Introduction
  
• Basics: Action and Reaction
  
• Courtesy
  
• Post Length
  
• OoC

Part Three - Posting: Part Two

• Bad Habits
  
• Plot
  
• Response
  
• Involvement
  
• Game Master or Leader

Part Four - Equipment, Magic and Fighting

• Research
  
• Realism
  
• Winning and Losing

[§arinon]

[glow=purple,2,300]Character Creation[/glow]

Introduction

One of the most difficult parts of Role Playing, before you even get to posting, is creating a character. What makes a good RP is a combination of many things, but one of the most important parts that result in success is starting with good, and appropriate characters. Something that beginners often do, and I did it as well, is to jump into a role play without first considering character development. They end up making things up as they go along, which is a very bad thing to do, and could almost constitute Godmoding. Because your character is your window into the world in which you are role playing, it is essential to have a good character to work with and you must do all of this before you even type one word.

Some RPs will give you guidelines on character creation that are specific to that game and it would be best if you followed those, since this is only a rough guide. It should be noted that this is how I create my characters. It is not, however, the only way to do so. There are plenty of other methods which work just as well, though the one detailed here is one which I have found to work best for me. You may wish to modify it to your own liking and that's just fine.

The first thing you should do is decide if you want to create a completely new character, use an old character, or even use another character that isn't your own. In the case of the third option, you should always, ALWAYS, ask the express permission of the owner of said character, and respect their right to refuse. It is, after all, their intellectual property.

You may be thinking it is easier to take an old character and then jump right in, but you'd be wrong. Old characters, in theory, should be well developed which means they're not adaptable to a situational RP. And always remember that old characters are old. I'm not saying don't use them, I'm saying that the same principles of character creation which I am going to teach you can also be used to polish the ancient ones in order to make them fit the appropriate role.

Let us now work under the assumption that you are creating a character from scratch. What you should do is make a character sheet. This can be a handy point of reference for both you and the other RPers and many RPs require that you submit one before joining. Even if they don't, it is best to make one for your own use.

There are guidelines to character sheets all over the place, some are specific to a type of Role play, like those of Dungeons and Dragons, and some are much more generic. Below is a generic character sheet with the points that are ESSENTIAL to a character.

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Species:
Appearance:
Personality:
Abilities and Traits:
History:

And here, a character sheet with more specific information that you may or may not need.

Name:
Nickname:
Gender:
Age:
Species:
Height:
Appearance:
Personality:
Clothing and Armour:
Weapons:
Magical Capabilities:
History:

As you can see, there are a few more categories to fill, but there are others I've left off there. Things like eye colour, hair colour/style, complexion and suchlike. These all fall into the description category and it is silly to break them up further. I will go through each of the categories listed and point out some details and give some examples.

Name
People will say there is much in a name, but for me, the name is simply a title for convenience and nothing more. There are few guidelines for the name side of things, but you should pay attention nonetheless. The first thing to note is that the name must be pronounceable. This means that you must have a decent number of vowels. The other thing to note, is that if the name is too long or too hard to remember, other RPers may get annoyed.

Gender, Age and Species
Again, there are only a few guidelines. The age and gender are pretty much up to you, but they should be in fitting with your character. If you are creating a Dragon that supposedly lives for thousands of years, you should take that into account, the same goes for gender.

Species is a little more complicated. You can either use a species that already exists, in which case you must pick one that is appropriate to the style of the RP and the character itself. If you're joining an RP set in space, don't create an anthropomorphic animal character. If the RP is set in the realistic past, don't go all stereotype and have a perfect knight in shining armour. Be real and use your common sense.

Appearance and Personality
These are perhaps the most important parts of your character. Not only what they look like so that others can picture him/her, but also what they're like, how they act and what they would do in any given situation. My personal opinion is that you should know your character like you know your close friends. You should be able to be in touch with your character enough to know what they would do, and then make them do it.

The description is important, not only for yourself, but for other RPers too. It should be detailed enough to give them a strong mental image, but it should also allow others to further interact with your character. Certain descriptive aspects give them an indication of how their character might react upon meeting yours. It is a good idea to spend some time, maybe half an hour, reading and re-reading other character descriptions to give yourself a good idea of what they're like. You should know them well enough to picture them, and a little of what they're like.

The more detailed the description, the more you can develop your character, and the easier other RPers will find it to interact with and include you into the role play.

Another mistake often made by beginners is to focus only on a character's physical description and ignore their personality. This is an awful mistake because a personality is essential for you to be able to accurately control your character. It is also far less interesting and dull when there is a character involved with no personality. Your character needs to be deep and detailed, you need to know them like a real person in order to make them realistic. Otherwise, you will find yourself with contradictions.

The easiest way of describing a character's physical attributes is to start from the head and work your way down. It is also a good idea to structure your description like you would a normal RP post, except with the focus on the character's attributes, rather than their actions. Treat it like any piece of creative writing. Vary your sentence structure and try to blend the personality with the description as you go.

So, you've read the character sheets for everyone else in the RP and now you want to make your own. Start with a physical description because the personality often forms during the phase.

Short and squat, Alice's light brown hair tumbles down in a mass of curls to her shoulders and brushes the collar of her crisp white shirt, framing her round face. Her pale green eyes are wide and staring, while her ruddy features make her appear dour.

Her posture is one of slumped and crooked spine. Aice keeps her head bent forward and her eyes downcast, a testament to her poor eye sight. She wears pearly round glasses that magnify her eyes and give them a clouded, inferior look while her bushy eyebrows and lashes are etched in close detail by the lenses.

The sleeves of her starched shirt end in chubby hands which make clumsy, halting movements born of her years of study at the college and her plain black skirt and stockings, with polished black shoes complete the all over plain look.

I started this description with very little idea of what I wanted Alice to be. I just picked a hair style and went from there, slowly developing a very basic idea of what she looks like and, thus, a little of her personality. Already we can tell from this that she is, or was a student at some point, is plain and rather sour and probably boring to most people.

This is where details count, because the more detail you put in the initial description, the more the personality emerges and the easier your future tasks will be. You can always go back and add finer points like a closer description of Alice's eyes, but for now, we'll work with this very simple idea.

Here is where I must point out the danger of a cliché character. There are so many stereotypes around that it is easy to fall into one. Things like the expert swordsman, the wise old mage and the the werewolf who does nothing but look badass all day long. I’m not saying they're bad, but they must be done very well if they're to stay away from the generic and bland character type that they so easily fit.

Back to Alice, we can already see parts of her personality emerge. From these little points, we can then begin to flesh out what she is really like and decide who she will ultimately become.

Abilities and Traits

A character's abilities and traits are skills that he or she has, and the things that set them apart from others. These can be merged with the description and personality stage, or they can be their own entity, but either way, a well defined set of abilities and traits can make or break a character.

Some mistakes in this phase are to give a trait to a character that just doesn't make sense. Your description is a good guideline to what your character is, and it is also a good way of fleshing out who your character is, so stick close to it. It makes sense that a knight can fight well with a sword, but it doesn't follow that he can do awesome ninja moves or that a pirate can track an animal through the jungle. It must make sense or you must give a reason for that ability that is better than "It sounds cool." You must also avoid adding abilities as they are 'needed' during an RP. Don't just say that your character can do something because that ability is needed, it makes the whole thing difficult to keep up with.

It also pays to research the abilities your character has or needs to give yourself an idea of how long it takes to acquire that skill set and what is actually required of them. You may also find alternative abilities that fit better with your character and, thus, you can make the whole thing more realistic.

An example would be a pirate character. Lets say he can fight fairly well with his cutlass, but he would have spent a good few years learning this skill, and he would need to practice on a regular basis in order to maintain it. It makes sense for him to be able to use that weapon, or even others that are similar. It does not make sense, however, for him to be able to pick up another weapon and use it effectively without having first been trained in its usage. Further to this, if your character is proficient in many types of weapon, they must then have devoted themselves to study in order to do so.

It is also important to strike a happy medium between physical weapons and magic but I will cover this in more detail later on. Just remember that everything requires some balance. If your character is too powerful, others will not enjoy RPing with you as you will likely dominate the whole plot and spoil it. Moderation is the key here.

Think of it like university (or college if you're on the other side of the world). You hava a major, the subject in which you devote yourself. It is your main skill and most often you will have only one; some will have two. Then, if you're that way inclined, you'll have your minor(s). Subjects in which you are devoted, but not quite to the extent of your major, and then you may have other subjects that fall at, or below the level of your minor. In this way, you have a select few skills with a few supporting skills and a few more minor skills in which your character may dabble.

Remember the old saying, "Jack of all trades, master of none."

Now, back to Alice. We can see from her description that she is short and fairly plump. This indicates that she is not a fighting character, she has no muscle or physical strength to her, so we can rule out any combat skills right away.

We also see that she has a curved spine, perhaps from bending over books too often with her bad eyesight, so she is a book worm, probably very smart and a bit of a social outcast, taking to books instead of people. Perhaps she even has an aversion to people, difficulty in communicating, so I'll give her a stutter.

Note that giving your character a disability isn't a bad thing, but it should be used sparingly because it makes for a difficult RP. If your character is deaf/mute, then interaction is limited. Try compensating with another sense, but not too much.

Being well read gives one quite a bit of knowledge. From this point, I could give Alice almost any ability that you can read about, but I'm going to go with moths. Her understanding of numbers and her quick learning would logically result in the ability to break codes, so maybe she works for a government, or even treasure hunters. I'll go with the latter because it makes for a more interesting character.

Already we can see abilities and traits emerging.

Abilities

• Understanding of numbers and codes
  
• Pattern recognition
  
• Quick reader

Traits

• Works for treasure hunters
  
• Very smart
  
• Social outcast
  
• Stutters

You can see now how, using her description and a few choices on my part, Alice has begun to emerge as a character with skills and traits that match her personality. Further to this, each of the traits and abilities we gave her matched each other, as well as Alice. The fledgling code breaker character is beginning to take shape. The more details you put into your description, the more you can develop your character and the more interesting he or she will be at the end of the road.

Now you can work your abilities and traits into your description to give other role players an idea of what your character is like.

History

History is important for several reasons, the foremost of which is that it explains why your character is the way he or she is. In the real world, the events that we experience influence the choices we make and the way we are shaped. Don't just say your character's backstory is unknown unless they've lost their memory and that is a hard character to play.

If the description is the meat, and the abilities are the salad items, then the history is the bun that completes the burger. It should tie everything together in a neat little package that you can box. It should explain everything about your character, why they say and do the things they do, how they got their abilities and the reasons behind their traits.

As with the description, when writing a history, it is best to go chronologically through their past and roughly outline some points, but detail those that are important in your character's development. Also, try to stay clear of the common stereotypes like orphaned at a young age by a tragic attack or whatever. It’s dull and unimaginative. Be creative with this part.

Alice had always been a reclusive child, from a very young age her family had seen that she did not interact with others often and even her brother found it difficult to include his younger sister in games and sports. She never said much, but many thoughts were hidden behind her liquid eyes.

Her father noticed early on that she rarely smiled, that her face was always set in the same pert and sour expression which so many of her peers found to be undesirable. She made no friends at school but kept her nose buried in the books that became her best friends, her teachers, her whole world.

Alice progressed through her childhood, becoming even more reclusive and silent. Often she would go for days, even weeks, without uttering a single word.

One night, she was late home after her day of study at the library. Her father began to worry and so went out to seek her. He found her standing and gazing at a wall upon which was scribbled some graffiti. When her father tried to pull her away, Alice shrugged him off, ignoring his protests and simply said that the seemingly random combination of letters was a code, an anagram.

Fostering her newly revealed talent, her father primed Alice in the art of codes and their various forms until she began seeing codes in everything around her. She wondered what each code meant.

Overheard while decoding a pattern of leaves on the pavement, Alice was confronted by a shady character, cloaked and cowled. Her instincts were to run, but logic overpowered the urge to act so foolishly. The man turned out to be a friend of her father's and a treasure hunter. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ok, not a great backstory, quite rushed and I'm tired, but its decent and detailed enough. In the process of writing that, I ruled out several options for Alice and picked some paths of development that would lead to the fateful meeting with the treasure hunter.

The backstory of any character will give an idea of what their perceptions of the world will be. Alice, who is so suited to the task, sees patterns and codes in everything around her, even if there seem to be none to see. This will affect how she interacts with characters, an important aspect of any RP.

And at the end of it all, you have a character. Not complete, but mature and in depth. The backstory adds another dimension to the character, gives him or her some grounding and a way to explain and to shape.

Putting the Puzzle Together

A quick summery of the points I have covered.

Do:

• Be generous on detail when writing a character’s description.
  
• Take time to research different aspects of a character.
  
• Be creative.
  
• Have reasons for giving characters certain abilities and traits.
  
• Be reasonable with the amount of abilities you give your characters.
  
• Write a backstory.

Don't:

• Be generic with description
  
• Create a stereotypical character
  
• Leave out a character’s abilities for later. More often than not, you’ll end up creating them when the need arises, which is technically godmoding.
  
• Dismiss a backstory as unimportant.

Likes and Dislikes

This should, without a doubt, be the last thing you do in the character creation process. It’s like the sesame seeds on top of the burger bun and, although it isn’t essential, it does add considerable dept to your character. Think about your own personality and your likes and dislikes. You’re complicated. You can’t sum up your personality in just a few points, so you’ve got to give it some filler.

It would take ages to create such a character for use in-game, but you can do your best to come close. Part of this is introducing their likes and dislikes. I’m not talking about their favorite dessert; I’m talking about their preference for things that will matter.

The first thing you should note before attempting this is that every like and dislike, as with everything else regarding your character, must make sense within the given framework. If your character has had a violent past, it is natural that they would hate violence or perhaps think that it is normal. The same principle applies for every other like or dislike you may wish to attribute to your character.

When making these lists, try re-reading your character’s description, personality and backstory. These three are what makes the character and from them, you can glean information that you have inadvertently created.

Let us do another example, shall we? We'll use the same example used before.

Short and squat, Alice's light brown hair tumbles down in a mass of curls to her shoulders and brushes the collar of her crisp white shirt, framing her round face. Her pale green eyes are wide and staring, while her ruddy features make her appear dour.

Her posture is one of slumped and crooked spine. Aice keeps her head bent forward and her eyes downcast, a testament to her poor eye sight. She wears pearly round glasses that magnify her eyes and give them a clouded, inferior look while her bushy eyebrows and lashes are etched in close detail by the lenses.

The sleeves of her starched shirt end in chubby hands which make clumsy, halting movements born of her years of study at the college and her plain black skirt and stockings, with polished black shoes complete the all over plain look.

Now here is the fun bit, because so much of this is open to your own interpretation. You can take things from this and reate elaborate notions about your character. Together, on three... 1 ... 2 ...

See the two parts I've bolded? Both give evidence to suggest that Alice likes cleanliness and dressing smartly. She may also, by extension, dislike those who appear unkempt. On the flipside, one could state that, due to her constantly smart state, Alice has grown to dislike such things.

So basically, you can do whatever you like as long as you link it in. A good rule of thumb is to have 3-5 major likes and dislikes respectively. These should, at a glance, sum up your character's main attributes. Don't forget to go through the other descriptions regarding your character to clean stuff from those as well.

Development

Character development is one of the most important parts of a role play in that it allows a whole new dimension to be constructed based off experiences. If you just created a character and they didn’t change at all, they’d be somewhat bland and 2-dimensional. When you allow for the effects of events and the changing of their opinions and goals, then you have truly created something unique.

There are four main parts of character development.

1. Alignment
This is what dictates your character’s moral standing. If they’re evil, good, semi-good or misunderstood evil. Whatever you decide, it must, as always, but in keeping with the way your character is built. There is a lot of scope to be used in this instance since you can have any degree of alignment you wish depending on your character’s moral stance regarding certain things.

Let’s say you’ve created a knight character who follows a code of chivalry. But perhaps his past was less than honourable and he grew up thinking that petty theft was not a crime. There’s nothing in the code of chivalry about petty theft and unless someone in a position of authority explains it to be otherwise, the knight will continue to believe this. It doesn’t by any means make him bad, but you get a supposedly righteous character who pickpockets for extra money.

Notice how his belief is explained by his history. Another example of tying everything together in a nice neat burger-shaped package. Choose what fits your character and, if you’re not happy with the end result, go back and change something to make it fit. Never hesitate to edit your character any way you wish. After all, they are yours.

2. Goals and Intentions
This is the starting point and should technically be included in the creation process, but because it affects development so directly, I figured I’d put it here instead. You will need to figure out your character’s alignment and, with that in mind, decide on some goals for them within the context of the role play. Look at the setting and where your character fits into all of that and then have a think about what that character might want out of life in general.

If we use the example of the pick pocketing knight, his alignment is generally good and honourable, but he’s still a bit of a rat bag to those he steals from. His history indicates that he wasn’t given what we might call a ‘proper’ upbringing but he somehow managed to become a knight. Perhaps it is his goal to escape the shady past of his family, and to right the wrongs they did to the world. It may also them be a short-term goal of his to quite having sticky fingers.

Perhaps your character is a gambler and his or her goal would be to earn back their money or a child whose goals extend only to the next day when she wants to ride a horse. You don’t have to list them all, but at least have one or two long-term, and a few short term goals in your head and try to think about them while composing each post. Remember, your character is trying to achieve these goals and will be looking for opportunities to do so. You should be as well.

3. External Influence
This is a huge one and it may get wordy because I think it important to hammer home the point. Think back to one year ago in your life and think about what happened to you during that year and then think how those events you experienced and the people you met have changed you, even in the most subtle ways. Your character will be exactly the same.

Throughout the role play, your character will associate with other people’s characters. He or she will experience events and work through situations and each one will have an affect your character to some degree. It may only be minute and it really is up to you to decide how the effect changes your character, but there has to be something in order for growth to occur. In the same way that your past has shaped who you are, so your future will shape who you are going to be.

Don’t limit yourself to the typical affects, either. Make sure you think about this logically and decide which direction you should take. It should be both true to your character’s experience, as well as constructive to the plotline. (When I say constructive, I don’t mean that every effect should be positive. Quit a good proportion of effects should be negative since we change for the worse as well as the better.)

Perhaps your character experiences an ambush and loses one of his friends. Your character’s reaction could be utter grief. He could scream and cry, he could get angry and violent, he could be calm but sad, he could become cold and distant because he’s afraid of losing someone he cares about. This is a common effect, the reasoning being that, if he doesn’t let himself care about anyone, he won’t have to go through the pain of loss again.

It doesn’t even have to be a huge event. It could be something as small as a friend telling your character that they’re awesome. Perhaps your character lacks confidence and this would boost that confidence. Anything can happen when you’re playing with other people. Role plays aren’t like computer-generated games that have only a set number of responses to the actions you take. You are playing a real story and you can do what you like (within the rules of the RP) and so can those around you. They could try to kill you, be your friend, ignore you or fall in love with you. No matter what, always remember that events and people change who your character is.

4. Internal Influence

CONT.

[§arinon]

[glow=purple,2,300]Posting: Part One[/glow]

Introduction

So you've got your character, wonderful, now what are you going to do? Post, silly! Every role play, no matter if it is on a forum, IM or chatrooms, has the same basic principles. Any good role player can take an awful character and make a spectacular role play, and likewise, a poor role player can take a great character and manage to ruin everyone's fun.

A good role player knows how to involve others in their interactions; knows how to keep people interested and involved. A bad role player comes in many forms, but one of the worst, is someone who knows all the principles, but is an exclusive role player. They focus so much on their own character and don't care about anything else, that it becomes difficult for others to involve them in the plot. You must always be aware of others' characters, read their posts carefully, perhaps even more than once, and then work with what they've given you.

A role play isn't just like writing a story. Not only do you have to work in with other characters that aren't yours, or even controlled by you, you must also understand that, while a story is centered around the plot, a role play is centered around the story. This isn't to say that the plot isn't important, but the characters are the main focus.

Role playing and writing go hand in hand. If you are good at writing, you have the potential to be a good role player, and if you're a good role player, you'll certainly be a good writer. This is because writing is essential for a good role play. The crafting of words to form a whole is an art that many can do, but few can master. (I certainly haven't) Those who find writing difficult will also find role playing hard. You can still role play, just don't get yourself in with any serious role play where the quality of your posts really matters.

Basics: Action and Reaction

Every role play post consists of two main points, action and reaction. The latter is a response to past posts and action is how you progress after the response period. It most often comes naturally with reaction, as both progress the role play. If there is nothing to react to, a role play will die, because there is nothing to do. There may still be posts, but unless they use action, they will be pointless and rather dull. Even if they do use action, it will have no grounding in the role play itself.

So, let’s take a look at reaction.

This is essentially a response stage. Your character should portray reality in their actions by reacting to things, people or events around them. You can reply using speech, movement, convey their thoughts and generally respond to aspects of the role play that are not specific to any one character.

The best way to get your responses is to read the past few posts, even if you've read them before, and make a mental note of everything that happens. You can omit those things which do not concern your character such as things happening in another place, but everything else should warrant a reaction, even if your character would simply roll his/her eyes and say nothing, at least explain why they would do this within the context of your post.

Something to watch out for is letting your character be overwhelmed by the events around them. Do NOT make your character do something simply because you think it will advance the plot, no matter how clever. You must always have reasons for what your character does which tie in to their personality which you created for them. They must be as complex and multi-faceted as you yourself are and you must be prepared to sacrifice a great reaction that would further the plot for a true reaction which is in keeping with your character.

Something else to include in your post is a reason for the things your character does. If he or she gets angry or sad or says something, show what is going on in their mind, the thought processes that led to them acting the way they did. Not only will this make for great character development and help your fellow role players understand your character, it will also add substance to the plot and give more heart to it.

Once you have a response, you've already given the other role players something to react to in their next post as well. A pitfall often seen is when the responses are crammed into tiny sentences and no detail or reason is given for the actions. It not only looks bad, but it also makes the job of other role players rather difficult. Spread yourself out and write as detailed as you can go without being J.R.R Tolkien.

So let's work through an example.

Tapping his finger on the rough wooden table, Rowen's impatience grew. Hours had passed since the ship had landed itself on the reef. His crew were working hard to patch up the gaping holes in the hull. He could hear them now, shouting at each other to do this or that while their captain couldn’t hold back his frustration. He swept the table clean of everything it had held, cursing in his native tongue with the foulest words he knew.

A small cough from the door made Rowen pause. He clenched his fists, doing his best to redirect his anger away from the innocent crewman. Slowly counting to ten, the captain of the Liegath turned to face the newcomer, breathing deeply.

“What is it?” he snapped, a little more harshly than he had intended.

The swabby gulped and blurted out his message. “You’re needed on deck, sir.”

Without a backwards glance, the young boy sped off, determined to put as much distance between himself and the captain as possible on the small brigantine. Rowen sighed, regretting his gruffness. He pushed open the door again, swing around onto a ladder and made his way up to the deck.

The dark hardwood was sopping wet and slightly slippery from the sea spray that constantly washed over the railings on both sides of the grounded ship. Rowen stumbled slightly as a massive wave struck the side of the ship, but his sea legs were stable and he managed to make his lumbering way over to Evain, his Quartermaster.

“What is it?” he called over the roaring sea.

“Captain Rowen, sir,” replied the squat man, a glimmer of hope in his otherwise dejected voice, ‘there’s a light on the horizon.”

Now, there are several things to note about this post before we pull it apart. First, it is a good length. Not overly long, but detailed enough to give you a good idea of the setting and situation without stating so explicitly. Secondly, there is a lot that you can reply to. If I were going to post a reply to this, there are several points I would note.

• The Captain's outburst. Anyone near would’ve heard it.
  
• The frightened boy.
  
• The person of the Quartermaster or Rowen
  
• The rocking of the ship due to the violent sea
  

So, from the last couple of paragraphs we can glean that the ship is stuck on a reef and there is a storm. From the Captain's frustration, we can glean that there is something else going on. Perhaps a personal reason why this situation frustrates him so much. It could be that the ship is damaged or perhaps the delay in their travel is the reason for his anger. Whatever it is, you can work it in later on in the RP.

When replying to a post, make sure that you keep three things in mind. Firstly, make sure your post is consistent with those before it. I have established that the ship is grounded and that we're likely in a storm. You can't then go and say that we're sailing along nice and smooth. You must keep to the context of previous posts.

Secondly, relevancy. If your character isn't on the ship, fair enough, but the point of a role play is to tie everything together somehow, otherwise it would just be a series of unrelated events. Not only is this hard to keep track of, it also makes things less fun. Try to work in with other players and don't go off on your own little tangent.

Lastly, ambiguity. This is a huge one to watch out for, as it is easy to slip into such a trap. Often posts that are ambiguous in nature are written by people who don't know what is going on or can't be bothered to read up on the story. This can make things frustrating for others so please, make sure the other players don't have to ask you to clarify your post. If they do, you're being too vague.

Courtesy

The quality of a role play is highly dependant on the courtesy shown by each player and there are several points which you must take note of.

1. Godmoding
The ultimate sin of sins. Cthulhu is to our nightmares as godmoding is to a role play. Devastatingly destructive and mentally abusive. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it's bad enough to have a Wikipedia article dedicated to it. It comes in several forms, the most common (and heinous) of which is taking control of another player's character.

This includes everything from direct control, dictating their responses, forcing a particular action, being undetectable, mind-reading and anything else that takes away the other player's freedom to respond how they wish. Not only is it destructive to the role play, it is also just plain rude and shouldn't be done. Ever. Kapeesh? *snaps fingers*

Godmoding also encompasses extraordinary circumstances happening in favour of your character. A rock suddenly falling on top of your enemies is one example. Same with raising up a mysteriously gathered army to aid you.

The last form of godmoding is the Mary Sue/Gary Stu effect where a character is so strong and powerful that they become godly in their disposition. There are plenty of ways you can avoid this and one of them is to be logical about your character's skills. (See ch 1: Character Creation)

2. Posting Intervals
You know those people who post again and again and again without waiting for the others involved to react? Bad. The point of a role play is for everyone to create the story, not just one or two people who post billions of times.

The rate at which you should post will vary depending upon the RP. Sometimes you'll be required to post twice or more per week, others may only have a few posts each month. It all depends on how busy the other people are.

A good rule of thumb is to wait until everyone in the immediate vicinity has had a chance to post. There are two reasons for this. The first is that it is horribly annoying to wake up and find that the RP has jumped a few pages and left you behind, the second reason being that, if you're posting rapidly, chances are you're not posting quality work.

It is better to have one long-ish post than two or three short, annoyingly vague ones which skimp on details and make it hard on others. I spend around 1 hour just writing my posts which doesn't include the time it takes me to read back, collect information and think about what I want to do. Take your time and produce something lovely to read.

3. Hyperperception
This is where your character is perceiving things they shouldn't be able to. It includes sensory information (seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, tasting) and other 'sixth sense' type powers such as mind-reading or any magical sense. Be logical about this. If my character whispers something and yours is in another room, there's no way that your character would be able to hear what mine said.

The exception to the rule is when you allow for a higher sensing ability within the context of your character, but in order to use this, you must make sure that the hyperperception makes sense within your character's framework (why they have this power) and you must also ensure that it isn't overly powerful. Having keener vision is one thing, but being able to see in detail for miles is another you should avoid.

4. Literacy
For the love of all that is good and holy, write your post in a word processor and SPELLCHECK! It also pays to wait before posting and edit your work to make sure the grammar and reactions are all sound.

Post Length

[§arinon]

[glow=purple,2,300]Posting: Part Two[/glow]

[§arinon]

[glow=purple,2,300]Equipment, Magic and Fighting[/glow]

[§arinon]

[glow=purple,2,300]If you post, I'll abuse my modly powers to 'splode your post 'cause I'm just that awesome. =P

Update: You can now post if ya like. I'm not nearly done with this, but I will find the time later on.[/glow]

[Roxanna]

You use your powers to sticky! :0

I wish i knew all this on my first roleplay... (maybe i did do some godmoding without realizing).

[§arinon]

[glow=purple,2,300]For those who're interested, I have another part of the Posting section complete. I'll be inserting an example as soon as I can.[/glow]