Read First: A Guide to the RP Section (AKA How to stop your RP from being Closed)

[Marill]

Read First: A Guide to the Role-Play Section

Hints and Tips for Role-Playing

Below is a guide to help better a role play. People may refer to this thread while creating a role play, and may add on to the hints and tips!

1) Limit Your Character’s Power

While engaging in a Role Play, be sure that your character(s) are mortal and human, not “Gods.” If one is injured, let them be injured, not healed automatically. Unless specified, notice that one should not “teleport” to and fro, and must journey to the desired area(s). If capturing a pocket monster, one may try to make the battle scenario believable, and not just merely walk up to the creature and tossing a Poké-Ball. (Unless for ironic or comedic purposes.) Unless indicated by the fellow role-player, do not “bunny” another persons character. This means, you take over there character for a slight period of time, and play that character without consent. Furthermore, if absent for a lengthy time period, you may desire to contact the RP official and ask to be put on auto-follow. This is a form of approved “bunnying“. Indirectly, this leads to another point.

2) Leaving

Do not join if you intend to leave, may leave, or are unsure of your commitment to the game. This puts everyone else in a predicament, and makes the creator write your character off, even if your character is extremely influential. The only time to quit an RP is when it is completed, or the game master verifies your request to leave.

3) Entries

Be sure that each post is descriptive, and helps move the plot along. Whenever an RP is in a bind, help it by posting. Also, enable yourself to not be ‘stuck’, and try not to slow down the Role Play, unless otherwise directed. Be sure that each post has a point, and will ultimately better the game.

4) Professionalism

Numerous role play authors wish for their participants to write in a professional manner. This being said, do not incorporate “smilies” into a post, as it distracts from the game. Write according to PE2K rules and regulations, as seen here: PE2K Rules.

Furthermore, do not center role play games around inappropriate subjects. These will be locked immediately, as they are not suitable for all PE2K members. In addition, please do not create a game that takes ideas from other role-plays, unless you have direct permission from the author. This includes role plays that are loosely based upon another, as they still are modeled after an original. Therefore, in essence, be original.

4) Have Fun!

Even though there are guidelines, the most important rule is to have fun! Be creative, invent new situations, and become the character. The fun aspect is the life force of an Role Play…help sustain it!

[Lord Celebi]

Introduction

Role Playing; its a wonderful experience and pastime. One of my favorites, actually, which is why I was selected to be moderator of the RPing forum (heh heh, my name is green). RPing tests your knowledge of realism, spelling, grammar, and writing, the Ultimate Test if you will. Unfortunately, this isn't known to many, and this is why RPs have to be closed. Let's start off with the basic rules of the forum.

Basic Rules

-One RP at a time. Multiple RPs will end up being crappy for both the players and the creator.
-Don't create RPs until you've joined several. This gives you experience in the RPing field so you can come up with awesome plotlines.
-Don't create the Discussion until after your roleplay has been launched, so we don't have tons of Roleplays that end up failing cluttering up the Discussion board.
-If you RP Plot is under 3 good-sized Paragraphs (At least 3 nice sentences per paragraph) your plotline is bad. Just saying 'There are some kids and they found this magic power. So umm... Sign-Up pl0x cuz I want all the power!' is a poor RP plot.
-One Liners are bad. This will be explained later.

Those are the basic rules of the RP forum, and I check for these things when I'm looking at RPs. If you break one of these rules (Not necessarily the last, unless the creator is posting in one-liners) the RP will be closed. Its as simple as that really. As long as you follow these four things when creating RolePlays, you're in the clear.

About The Critiquers

For The Critiquers
-Must have adequate experience in RPing (both owning and participating).
-If a mod tells you you're not ready to give advice because you don't seem to be doing a good job at it, just stop and gain experience.
-What a mod says goes on the issues.
-Focus on those stories that won't get through a mod check, help those who need it before moving on ;P.
-CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ONLY. That means that you can't diss other members, throw your weight around, etc. We thank you for helping, but doing this does NOT make you a mini-mod, does NOT make you better, etc. Thinking this will likely get a mod on your back.
-If they start fighting your help, don't argue back. This will make the fight go longer, make you look rude, and might get you in trouble as well. Ignore them.

For Those Critiqued
-Keep what they say in mind and try to fix up your RP using their advice; they don't have to help out, and are just trying to prevent you from a lock.
-If you think they are being over-harsh or flaming, contact a mod, don't try to argue with them.

Basic RPing Rules

Most RPs have the same basic rules. They're generally accepted in pretty much every RP for the enjoyment of all. Follow these rules when participating in the RP and you won't be kicked out of the RP.

-No God-Moding. God-Moding is doing impossible things like running faster than the speed of light, ignoring other RPer's posts, seeing lasers come out of the sky and quickly get your mirrors. These kind of things are bad, and detract from everyone's RP experience.
-No Bunnying. Bunnying is taking control of other RPers' characters. This will make other RPers mad.
-Instantaneous Transportation. If you're going from one place to another, don't just appear there. Make a nice good long travel post explaining your travel. It adds to the realism. (No, using Fly won't get you there instantly. You have to RP out your Pokemon taking you from place to place).

Why One Liners Are Bad

If you're going to take ANYTHING from this guide, take this. One Liners (and Subdequently, anything below three paragraphs) are terrible for the RP. It shows that you're not going to put any effort at all into the RP and just have your character chatting and crap. Detail is important. Trust me, I used to post one-liners. Hell, I used to post in script format, but I improved. Yes, it is hard, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes all the much easier. Furthermore, You're not really RPing if you just post One-Liners.

Here's two examples of posts:

Originally Posted by One-Liner

"I think I'll go to teh ilex forest to catch a pogeymon!"

That was bad. Using speech to describe what your character is going to do is not all that great, hell it makes your character look a bit crazy if they talk to themselves. From this post, if this was your first post, you'd assume that there was a naked kid with a Pokeball who tries to escape from the asylum to catch a Wurmple. Here's a better way to do it:

Originally Posted by Good

I heard my cell phone ring. I quickly picked it up to hear it was my best friend, Bill. He began to talk to me about Pokemon and then asked me how many I had. I looked down at my belt, with Pokeballs strapped onto it and sadly replied, "One."

"Wow. Well, here's a tip," Bill said, "The Ilex Forest is full of easy to catch Pokemon. If you go there, you're sure to catch some cool Pokemon to beef up your collection."

"Okay," I said to Bill, "Thanks. I'll do that." I pressed the off button and put my phone back into my pocket. I pulled out my map to see the Ilex Forest wasn't that far from here. I quickly put my map back and began to run in the direction of the Ilex Forest... To new Pokemon.

While that's not a solid post, that is the kind of thing you want in your posts. That looks better than the above. Now, you ask, 'How do I detail?' That's quite simple actually. If you need help, see Neo Pikachu's (a great friend of mine, actually) Into Your Character's Skin RPing guide.

Links

Role Player's Academy