Before i post this guide i would like to add that, due to my friend creating his forum and coming up with this guide i wouldn't be able to roleplay well at all really except for the odd okay roleplay here and there.

Therefore i have posted this guide on my own site to help you.....


This Guide is for those who are unsure of how to RP. I will try to explain as best as I can how you can better your writing skills. I have also taken some, if not most of the information here from an outside source, however I have written some of it myself. Please read this carefully, and if you are unable to fully understand, please do not hesitate to contact me on the chatbox or on this forum. Any help from others is greatly appreciated, especially any extra tips to add in. I will thank all of those that have helped in the creation of this thread.

Thats right. For those of you who wish to better yourself in Skill with RPing, Look here for advice.


The Basics......

In this section we will be covering the basics of Rping. Ok so this part of it may not include the content of your Rping however it does play a small part in your Rping. This section will basically state how to make your post to be more understandable for other Rpers as Having a post all jammed together in one big section of words, just makes people look and think, what?


For example:

Jinkai ran around in a group wondering what it was he was doing wrong. He wondered where all his teammates were. Cain decided to follow Jinkai, looking at him, thoughts playing through his mind. “How are you Cain” Jinkai asked, “I’m Fine” replied Cain. Kuroumaru was unsure of what it was the others were talkiing about so he decided to sit back watching them. I wish I knew where I was going, it would be a lot more helpful, Cain thought to himself.

OK... That is a terrible post. There are almost 3 characters in this, Jammed into 1 section. *I can’t believe I lowered my standards for an example, but oh well.*


Let us see what we can do to make this post LOOK better and more readable. Here is what I am going to be covering:

• Different Fonts/Colour
  
• Italics/Bold etc..
  
• Writing Styles
  
• Paragraph Format (Must read this)
  
• OOC/IC during posts
  

At the end of these Points, I will place an example of the above passage again.


1. Different Fonts/Colours.....

Ok, Different fonts and colours can be ok to use but is not essential. Persoanlly I prefer to keep the font the same on all posts, however, I believe it may be a lot better if each character used within a post was assigned a different colour. I am not saying, go and create HUGE font sizes with blinding colours so that the reader cannot read it properly, I am saying for perhaps more than one character, maybe you should consider assigning different colours.


2. Italics/Bold etc.....

One way of making a post better is to use Bold and Italics. Bold and Italics can be used to demonstrate character thoughts and actions, and can also be seen as speech. Using Bold and Italic writing helps to separate these from the rest of your writing, and believe me, when you have a long descriptive post, these can be rather useful.

Here’s what each can be used for.

Italics: Italics are used mainly for a character’s thoughts. This is commonly seen in RP’s by good Rpers, however it is also used by those who aren’t considered as good.

Bold: Some people like to use bold font for when they’re characters are speaking. This is a good idea, but most people just put in “speech marks “ to define a character’s speech. “” Speech marks can also be used for other things, however i will explain that later.

Normal: Normal font should be used whenever your character is performing any action, or whenever you are writing in the third person view.


3. Writing Styles.....

There are three basic writing styles seen in roleplaying. 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person.

1st person: This is when a writer is talking or writing a story from their own perspective. This is where the words “I” and “Me” are used.

2nd Person: This is when the writer shows that he/she is talking to another person. The words “You” and “your” are used here.

3rd Person: This is a narrative perspective, where the writer is the Narrator. Words such as “I” are replaced by “He” or “she”.

You are most likely wondering which style you should RP in right? Well 99% of the time, RPer’s write in 3rd person as it is the most suited for roleplaying. In this case, you are able to Narrate what your character is doing and be more descriptive.

Using 1st Person within an RP can be considered as annoying when you continuously see “I saw this” and “I can see that”, because in an RP it is not you that is seeing this, it is your character.

By writing in 3rd Person, not only can you give the character’s perspective but you can also give the perspective of someone watching it from above, almost as if it were a movie. A character might not notice every little detail, but in an RP it is important to include these as they are the image that the reader gets. Details are power, because you chose everything about the RP.

The only time you wouldn’t use 3rd person writing is when your character is thinking. 1st person is good for a character’s thoughts, since you are quoting the exact thoughts.


4. Paragraph Format.....

I stated that this is definitely one of the things you must read... because it is. You have no idea how many people I see completely botching (I love that word, can you tell?) their perfectly acceptable RP's because their formats are terrible. It really does hurt the eyes, in all seriousness, and although there is no RIGHT way to do it, I can guarantee by following my guidelines your RP's will look a LOT better. Well, on first glance anyway...

1. HAVE PARAGRAPHS! Don't just blurb it on into one huge block of writing. By including paragraphs it gives the reader time to breath, and it’s a lot easier to keep a hold of their spot.

2. When starting a new paragraph, ALWAYS have a space in-between them. This way there is a clear break, instead of the words being pushed up against each other. Correct way:

Paragraph

Next paragraph

See the space? Wow, you're getting smarter already. Not that it's saying much...

3. Whenever your character says something out loud, START A NEW PARAGRAPH!!! This is correct, both in my eyes and the eyes of literature's genius'.


5. OOC/IC during posts.....

I don’t see people putting OOC posts in the middle of their posts too often however I can’t rule out the possibility that some people may do this. This is considered rather bad. After all you wouldn’t post what you think in brackets whilst describing something would you? No that just throws people off track.

OOC posts are best posted at the top or bottom of a post, pretty much before you post IC or after you post IC.

For those of you who are unsure of what OOC and IC is... let me just explain.

OOC: Out of Character. This is where you yourself say what you wish to out of character. This has absolutely nothing to do with your character whatsoever.

IC: In Character. This is the actual post or RP itself, not what you yourself think.

Pretty straightforward really.

Now to adjust my example above to make it look a bit better. I shall keep the wording the same, as I am only demonstrating how it would LOOK.


Example:

Jinkai ran around in a group wondering what it was he was doing wrong. He wondered where all his teammates were.

Cain decided to follow Jinkai, looking at him, thoughts playing through his mind.

“How are you Cain” Jinkai asked.

“I’m Fine” replied Cain.

Kuroumaru was unsure of what it was the others were talkiing about so he decided to sit back watching them.

I wish I knew where I was going, it would be a lot more helpful, Cain thought to himself.


There I think that looks a little better. You can clearly see that Cain is Red, Jinkai is Blue and Kuroumaru is Green. You can also see each paragraph clearly and you can justify Cain’s thought at the bottom.

It may be a bad written example, and it may make no sense, but that shall be changed throughout this guide.