Making a Roleplay? Here's Some Advice!

[Arrinae Tsuki]

These guidelines will help you in not only making your own role play thread, but dealing with possible issues you may come to face in the challenge of keeping your role play alive.

Those who have experience in making role plays are free to post in here as well to share and help future role play creators. Those who have questions can post their questions and anyone or everyone can answer them to the best of their abilities.But before I can allow for any posting I need to lay down a few ground rules.

 

[Arrinae Tsuki]

1. Follow the Gaia ToS.

2. Everyone is welcome to post here. All I ask is that you be polite. There is no need to cuss anyone out or be rude.

3. When talking about others who have caused issues in role plays do not give their gaia names.Simply type the events in a way that will not give away who they are. We don't want to ruin others, who may have changed their ways, chances to join new role plays.

4. Have fun!

 

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Plots
Settings
Rules/Guidelines
Out of Character/Recruitment Threads
Combat System, Health and Magic System, and the differences between Abilities and Powers
School Systems
Time Skips
Announcements/Events
Profile Threads
Character Skeletons/Character Limits/Restrictions
Banners and Advertising
Blacklist/Whitelist
Formats

 

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Plots are a very important part of not only role playing, but storytelling in general. Lets start with how the word 'plot' is defined in the literary sense.

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wikipedia

Plot is a skill term defined as the events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence, through cause and effect, how the reader views the story, or simply by coincidence. One is generally interested in how well this pattern of events accomplishes some artistic or emotional effect.

Before you can decide on anything about the roleplay, besides what you are basing the roleplay off of or if it is completely original, you have to decide on what main conflict you want your roleplayers to have to deal with. Lets take a look at conflicts in the literary sense.

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wikipedia

Conflict in literature refers to the different drives of the characters or forces involved. Conflict may be internal or external—that is, it may occur within a character's mind or between a character and exterior forces. Conflict is most visible between two or more characters, usually a protagonist and an antagonist/enemy/villain, but can occur in many different forms. A character may as easily find himself or herself in conflict with a natural force, such as an animal or a weather event, like a hurricane. The literary purpose of conflict is to create tension in the story, making readers more interested by leaving them uncertain which of the characters or forces will prevail.

There may be multiple points of conflict in a single story, as characters may have more than one desire or may struggle against more than one opposing force. When a conflict is resolved and the reader discovers which force or character succeeds, it creates a sense of closure. Conflicts may resolve at any point in a story, particularly where more than one conflict exists, but stories do not always resolve every conflict. If a story ends without resolving the main or major conflict(s), it is said to have an "open" ending. Open endings, which can serve to ask the reader to consider the conflict more personally, may not satisfy them, but obvious conflict resolution may also leave readers disappointed in the story.

The basic types of conflict in fiction have been commonly codified as "man against man", "man against nature", and "man against self." In each case, "man" is the universal and refers to women as well.

"Man against man" conflict involves stories where characters are against each other. This is an external conflict. The conflict may be direct opposition, as in a gunfight or a robbery, or it may be a more subtle conflict between the desires of two or more characters, as in a romance or a family epic. This type of conflict is very common in traditional literature, fairy tales and myths.

Where man stands against a man-made institution (such as slavery or bullying), "man against man" conflict may shade into "man against society". In such stories, characters are forced to make moral choices or frustrated by social rules in meeting their own goals

"Man against nature" conflict is an external struggle positioning the hero against an animal or a force of nature, such as a storm or tornado or snow.

With "man against self" conflict, the struggle is internal. This is a conflict that is usually associated with an external conflict. A character must overcome his own nature or make a choice between two or more paths - good and evil; logic and emotion.

Now that you know about plots and conflicts you can put together a plot for your roleplay to use as a goal to write and post towards.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Now lets talk about the setting of the roleplay. In what location will the roleplay begin? What is the culture in this location? Are there other locations? Other cultures? Races? Religions? Languages? Traditions? What Sexual Preferences are accepted and which are frowned upon in these cultures? All of these things you need to have an answer for. It sets both the tone and the mood of your roleplay. Will it be an exciting adventure to explore the world? Or perhaps it could be the grim effects and aftereffects of war, murder, death, and hardship? There are many routes you can choose to take to make your roleplay come to life.

These are just a few forms your setting can take:

Alternate history
Campaign setting
Constructed world
Dystopia
Fantasy world
Fictional city
Fictional country
Fictional crossover
Fictional location
Fictional universe
Future history
Imaginary world
Mythical place
Parallel universe
Planets in science fiction
Simulated reality
Virtual reality
Utopia

 

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Now lets take a moment to discuss rules. Every roleplay has some form of rules, or guidelines, to keep their roleplayers in check so that the roleplay runs smoothly. You must remember that you are not exempt from the rules you place. Withouts rules your roleplay is doomed to fall into chaos and fall to pieces very abruptly.

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runescape roleplay wiki

The common rules of role-play are the essential rules that all public role-playing groups employ to keep things in order. These include things like godmodding, metagaming, and autohitting. One of the fundamental skills that every good role-player has is the ability to follow and abide by these rules. Even though everybody has the occasional slip-up, disregarding for these common rules is frowned upon amongst the community.

To follow is the list of common role-play rules that every role-player should understand and follow:

Do Not God-mode

Godmodding is when a character features god-like abilities, such as invincibility or mind control, or other unrealistic powers that don't fit with lore. It's also considered godmodding to refuse death in fights or ignore role-players in scenarios in which said role-players are attempting to attack you. Nobody's good at everything; try and keep yourself in check.

Do Not Metagame

Metagaming is when a player applies OOC-retrieved information to their IC character, such as participating in a war that you only saw was stated to be happening on a clan's thread on the forums, or hearing whispering because you saw the text, and knowing a character's name because you saw their username. This is the most commonly broken rule of role-play and most infuriating for many.

Do Not Mix IC and OOC

Related to metagaming, it is considered taboo to "mix ic and ooc." That is, players are generally encouraged not to associate information and events that occurred between active, playing characters and events that occur between the role-players themselves. Most often, when players associate OOC information with their IC behavior, whether it be how they perceive another character or actually acting on information they wouldn't otherwise have, it's called metagaming.

However, it's also considered poor form to take IC information and apply it OOC. That is, if character A insults character B, and player B takes character A's insult as a personal attack from player A rather than exclusively an IC attack on character B, that is mixing IC and OOC. Any instance of holding against a player what his/her character said or did violates this rule (not to be confused with holding against the player any rule violations he made while controlling his character).

Another instance which is less inflammatory but still technically a violation of this rule is if character A says something, character B doesn't understand or takes it the wrong way, and player A deigns to explain himself OOC to player B. This is especially the case when player B already understood but was intentionally allowing his character to mis-react for the sake of adding interest to the game or being true to character B's nature. This cramps the flow of role-play and can sometimes be insulting to a player, since it suggests that player B's character is a Mary Sue who player B can't separate himself from.

Do Not Auto (Autohit, Autowalk, etc)

Autohitting is when a player performs an action without giving the affected players a chance to respond. For example, running up to somebody and saying *Stabs in the heart* then running off would be autohitting. Auto also applies to non-combative actions to which another player might have a reaction. Saying, *The black knight slips past the guards and into the castle,* while white knights are guarding the entrance to the white knight's castle would be autowalking on the premise that, in all likelihood, those knights would stop you before you got past them. This can easily be fixed with a simple rewording. Add "tries to" or "attempts to" to clarify that your character intends to perform said action, but his success depends on the responses of those around him. More advanced role-players will go into detail with their actions and emphasize their attempts. This is a frequently broken rule by newer role-players.

Do Not Lorebreak

Lorebreaking is when a character breaks lore, which is anything that likely affects a character or scenario. The basis for these commonalities is origin, culture, and known historical events. For example, a vampyre that is unaffected when crossing the holy salve barrier is a lorebreak because vampyres are weakened outside of Morytania where the sun shines. Lorebending, a similar term, is when existing lore is lightly modified (Hence the term lorebending), but not significantly or in a way that detracts from the role-playing experience. Often this has to do with ideas that are neither supported nor contradicted by existing lore; for example, one never comes across a goblin who excells with traditional magic in-game, but it is never explicitly stated that this can't ever be done - only that you rarely come across it.

Do Not Powerplay

Powerplaying occurs when a player operates someone else's character without the other player's consent. The most blatant example of this would be a player writing, "Your character falls off the cliff when he walks up to it." As you can see, you take active control of what the other character does. Not only is this not fair to the other player, but it's also discouraged because often players will misconstrue the behaviors and personalities of characters they didn't design. Powerplaying goes into more subtle situations, however. Saying, "Sally charges Jack so fast that he wouldn't be able to react enough to avoid it," can also be considered a violation of this rule since Sally's player has controlled Jack's abilities, possibly in a way that doesn't accurately represent his character. The appropriate way to word Sally's attack would be, "Sally charges Jack so fast that it's unlikely he could totally dodge it without equally inhuman speed." This leaves it up to Jack's player whether or not Jack is actually capable of avoiding Sally.

Avoid Mary-Sues

A Mary-Sue is a specific kind of character that is usually considered literarily reprehensible and otherwise unpleasant for others to play alongside. A Mary-Sue is any character (of any gender, age, race, or species) who fits one or more of these descriptions:

A character who’s too perfect, lacking realistic or logical flaws, or whose flaws do not affect them in real ways.

A character who’s exactly like their creator, except idealized or made “better”. (E.g. more attractive, smarter, given skills, abilities & powers the creator wishes they could have.)

Essentially, the creator is inserting themselves into the story, but without the flaws, quirks & limits that make them interesting and real. Users are often discouraged from creating characters who would be described as, "He's based off me," especially since that comes with the extra risk of violating the avoid mixing ic and ooc rule.

A character who’s far too powerful, especially whose abilities exceed that which is possible for his/her race in the setting of the story. Particularly if said character has abilities that do not exist within the boundaries of the story’s world. Often these characters are technically legitimate, but are very, "Look at how unique and cool I am!"

A character who’s cliched, having qualities or characteristics that are overused by people trying to have a powerful/perfect/cool character. This includes but is not limited to the traits listed as Popular Role-Play Trends.

One way to test if you character is Mary Sue is by taking this test.

Exceptions

Role-play is about creativity and while these rules are not just needed they can at times during very deep and important role-play points be a bit constricting. That being said, like many things in life the rules of role-play are not the be-all and end-all. It takes skill and knowledge to know when one can bend one of the above rules to affect a role-play in a positive manner, this is usually done in small groups where the people involved know what they are getting into and are okay with it. This takes a long time to understand and should only be attempted by advanced role-players.

Always keep in mind that the purpose of role-playing online is to have fun.

Now that you are aware of the most commonly known and followed roleplay rules/guidelines you have a general idea of the rules you will be putting in place.

So lets talk about Post requirements. There is nothing wrong with decorating your posts. You generally do not want images in every post that stretch the screen considerably. Therefore you must make sure to include that in your rules.

You also have to watch out for people posting in bright colors. Bright colors on white background are not only hard to read but straining on the eyes. Many people will appreciate a rule to keep bright colors from being used, most especially if they are slightly color blind.

You will also want to establish a posting requirement, be is a paragraph of 5-7 sentences as a minimum in order for everyone to have something to work with for those who are not very literate. Be aware that not everyone can post numerous paragraphs of details, needed or not in every post. So you will have to decide on the length and quality of posts. The longer the post requirement, the more you may find post filled with detail that is not only unneeded, but repetitive. That can cause people to skim posts, which will lead to many miscommunications.

It may also be a good idea to include something to be submitted with the profiles as proof that the rules have indeed been read.

Remember there is more than one way to run a roleplay, always ask others for advice if you need help.

Always make sure to go over the Gaia Terms of Service and List their rules or a link to the ToS to refer your roleplayers to if they break the rule so they can fix their post or risk being banned.

It might be a good idea to have your roleplayers include at least one action of their own per post since, as you get up in word lengths, for some reason people feel the need to write 800 word posts of pure reaction and inner-dialogue which contributes nothing to the role-play.

It's also important to set a pace for the roleplay (e.g. a post a day vs a post a week) but you can also be lenient should the majority slow down when school season starts or whatnot.

Some people like to have posting orders in their roleplays to give everyone a chance to react and respond to all the other posts. This can be both good and bad for the roleplay. Some characters won't have much to work with besides simply responding to other posts. These characters will eventually have to be skipped until there is more they can contribute to the roleplay of their own accord. Sometimes the wait for someone else to psot can hold up the roelplay and you don't want it held up for long or you may begin to lose people and not even know until you pm them.

The most important rule about having rules, though, is enforcing them and that means you, as a role play owner, also have to follow your own rules.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Now I really do not have much to say on OoC threads or recruitment threads. Usually they are best when they are one and the same, but they do not have to be. It is good to have them so that your roleplayers can get to know each other and discuss ideas to further the roleplay. It also serves to help advertise your roleplay to others in the hopes of getting more people to join.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Creating an effective combat system, if your roleplay requires it, can be very difficult, or very simple. It all really depends on how you want to do it. Dice rolling can be rather easy and simple, you just have to chose the number of dice and the number of sides. The down side is that it is very easy for someone to repeatedly alter their roll until they get the number they want. You might want to do research and come up with some basic classes to help bring balance to your roleplay.

Some people simply discuss how the battle will end before they begin the fight and plan it out amongst themselves to entertain everyone else. This is actually my prefered method, but everyone has their own.

One of the best ways to come up with your own is to follow the advice I found listed here: Creating your own turn-based combat system.

Now, onto health Health and Magic systems. It is easiest to choose a set number for everyone for both magic and health regardless of their class. You can have the experience and stats remain the same throughout each class and have them get the same amount when it comes to leveling. You can alter is and make it different for each class as well. That is all up to you. This system can be very complex and take quite a while to make so make the one that makes the most sense to you.

Now, the Difference between Ability and Power. The simplest way to explain this is Powers you are born with, or get through a once in a lifetime opportunity with will never result the same way for another person, a fluke if you will. Abilities you learn, earn, through hard work, practice, and training.

For example: I have the ABILITY to draw very well. I wasn't born with the POWER to do so. It took many years or practice to get as good at it as I am, though there are still very many people who can draw far better than I can.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Time skips are in the simplest terms a scene transition.

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The Editor's Blog

A scene transition takes characters and readers to a new location, a new time, or a new point of view. Transitions can also be used to show a character’s change in heart or frame of mind.

Transitions are important in fiction because the writer can’t possibly portray or account for every moment in a character’s day, week, or life. A story may stretch over years—readers don’t need to know what happened every minute of those years.

So, we use scene transitions to skip periods of time or to change to a new location in the story, glossing over events that happen between the new and old times or locations.

Scene Change

Scene transitions can be seamlessly inserted anywhere. In fact, you don’t need to write a detailed transition if you ended the previous chapter with a teaser of what’s to come.


Scene transitions need to identify place, time, and viewpoint character, especially if there’s been a change in any of the three. If the new scene has a change in mood or tone, that should also be established right away.

If the viewpoint character has changed, identify the new viewpoint character right off by naming him.

Time and place can be established in any number of ways. By:

naming the place
describing the place
describing the event
mentioning the time or day or date
showing a character doing something we already knew he’d be doing at a set time or in a particular place
Scene changes


Use the techniques mentioned above to identify the scene change. If it’s only point of view that’s changing, be sure to identify the new viewpoint character immediately. (A change in point of view qualifies as a change in scene because the reader is in the head of a different character—different thoughts and emotions. There’s probably a different tone to this section as well, as you’d expect with a different character’s personality both coloring and filtering the reader’s perceptions.)

Unless you’re a famous author who makes a bundle of money for your publisher, do not change point of view in the middle of a scene. Never change POV within a paragraph.

You want your readers to flow with the fiction; you never want them stuttering or getting lost. You certainly don’t want any of them to have to reread because you failed to provide enough scene markers. Each time a reader stops reading because he doesn’t understand or has gotten lost or has to reread a passage, he is pulled out of the fiction you’ve crafted. You lose the reader’s trust when he is repeatedly yanked from the fantasy world he’s trying to become lost in.

Changing POV without notice and within scenes causes two major problems. First, it confuses the reader. He has to halt the fiction to figure out why Eugene is putting on perfume when the author hasn’t clearly indicated we’re now in Francine’s head. The reader has to change from enjoying the imaginary—using his creative side—to figuring out why something is so—using his analytical side.

And second, the reader loses the connection he had with the viewpoint character. You work to create connections for your reader, so he can step into the mind and heart and life of a character. If you’ve done it well, the reader will read as if he’s experiencing the events on the page.

Each time you change POV, however, the reader is pulled out of one character’s head and dumped into another’s. He must reorient himself, and this can take time. It can also be enough of a distraction that he puts down the book, no longer lost in the fictional world.

You can change point of view—readers are used to it. But do it well. Give the reader warning. And don’t jump POV from character to character to character within the same scene.

*******

Transitions can be short. A two-word scene transition? That night…

They can be as long as a couple of paragraphs. (But shouldn’t extend much beyond that. If they’re too long, they become info dumps and/or long stretches of telling when instead the story should have moved to showing.)

A scene transition is not a scene in itself; it’s the narration between scenes. Yet a novel is a series of scenes. Too much narration turns a novel into a report.

Scene transitions can be pure narrative, a recitation of who did what and when. Narration is often discouraged since it’s telling rather than showing, but narration is quite useful for transitions. It’s an efficient way to indicate a change in place or time and provide details without drawing out the information into a scene of its own.

Uses of scene transitions

to provide description
to break tension
to slow the pace
to skip unimportant events or time periods
to create or switch mood or tone
to advance the time
to change location
to change viewpoint character

While scene transitions can be used to change the tone, they could be used just as easily to maintain tone. That is, if your story is humorous, keep your transitions humorous too. If the tone is dry or sarcastic, write dry or sarcastic transitions.

These tips should help to keep your scene transitions on track.

 

[Arrinae Tsuki]

The Announcement section of roleplay threads is where the Thread Owner can place up announcements such as a new person joining the group, someone leaving the group, a notice if someone is unable to post for an undetermined amount of time be it due to travel, illness, or deployment if a member of the roleplay is part of the military. Pretty much self-explanatory.

Now the Event section of your roleplay is where you can list events as they happen as a summary of sorts for newcomers to read so they may understand whats going on and how it got to the point that the roleplay currently is at. You can also list upcoming events, even a small outline of how you want the roleplay to go so that everyone has an outline to help you shape the story to match the ending you may or may not have imagined at the start of your roleplay.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Profile threads are threads where you, your moderators, or even your role players if you prefer, can post the profiles for the role play once they have been accepted.

This way the first page of the role play doesn't get too stretched due to the number of profiles. If you choose to let your role players post their own profiles, this allows them to go back as needed to edit or add to their profiles as needed.

The downside to letting your role players post their own profiles is that someone could post their profile before it has been accepted.

Another downside is having to navigate between your threads.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Character Skeletons

A character skeleton is the basis for creating characters for your role plays. Most people on this site have joined roleplays before and already have an idea of what should be in a character skeleton. Here is an example:

Quote:

Gaia Name:
Character Name:
Race:
Gender:
Age:
Picture:

This is the most basic character skeleton that can be used. Depending on your role play's genre, theme, and setting you might want to have more information in the character skeleton. Like height, weight, hair color, eye color, biography (your character's history), weapons, skills, abilities, powers, parentage, strengths, weaknesses, like, fears, etc...

Character Limits

You will want to limit what each character can to. You don't want each character running around pulling off godlike acts, at least not without your permission. You don't want to have an over powered character in your role play for it will lead to god modding and can ruin your role play.

However you do not want to limit the characters too much, no one like being told how to play their characters.

Restrictions

While a bunch of this is the same as character limits, you can go further by limiting what race has which ability. Yes some of this is very obvious, unless you are creating new races for your role plays.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Banners and advertising go hand in hand. You can make a banner for your role play from scratch in paint or edit a picture. You will want to use banners to help you advertise your role plays. They can be placed in your signatures and even advertising threads.

Here is an example of a banner and the coding for it:

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/barton-ooc/making-a-role-play-here-s-some-advice/t.89295535/][img]http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h454/Arrinae/banner_zps27f4d8b9.png[/img][/url]

Easy and self explanatory, right?

((NOTE razz lease note that the banner listed above does not take you to this page, it takes you to the original thread I made in the normal forums. Feel free to post in either one if you ever need some advice!)))

Now, the reason why we advertise our role plays is to get more people to join. Lets face it, its hard to get people to join role plays with the number of other Gaians who are constantly posting, and therefore bumping, other role plays.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Wikipedia

A blacklist (or black list) is a list or register of entities or people who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle.

Conversely, a whitelist is a list or compilation identifying entities that are accepted, recognized, or privileged. "Whitelist" and "blacklist" are widely considered controversial terms by some[who?] because of how they reinforce an implicit association in language between "black" and "bad" on the one hand, and "white" and "good" on the other.

I see no reason to have either of these lists in your role plays. Any people welcome to post in the thread would already have their profile submitted . Having a blacklist gives other role players a harder time getting into other role plays and can be considered a part of cyber bullying. No one likes cyber bullies, so lets not become one.  

[Arrinae Tsuki]

Formats are used to make your threads, and posts, look nicer and more appealing. You can make your own or commission others to make one for you. You can even make a request thread to find someone willing to make one for you.