Roleplay Guide

This guide is for people who are new to roleplay, or who would like a refresher on good roleplay basics. 

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Step 1: Character Creation

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This is the first, and most important step of roleplay. Your character will define how you interact with others, and the depth of the stories you create with them. As such, it is important to put a lot of thought into who you want them to be. Here is a helpful checklist to start building your character (this is a basic list and you are more than welcome to expand your character past these details):

• Personality Creation Checklist

  • General demeanor

    • Someone greets your character kindly. How do they respond? Do they greet them back cheerfully, reservedly, grumpily, ignore the person entirely, ... ?

  • Happiness

    •  Your character achieves a life goal. How do they respond? Do they celebrate and cheer, smile quietly yet proudly, boast about it to people, act like its unsurprising and continue working towards a new one, ... ?

  • Sadness

    • Your character has just received news that someone close to them has died. How do they respond? ​Do they hide and bottle up their grief, cry openly, act shocked and unable to respond, take out their grief on others through anger or violence, ... ?

  • Anger​

    • Someone yells at your character and pushes them, looking for a fight. How do they respond? Do they push back and fight, brush the person off and walk away calmly, glare but walk away, tackle them, ... ?

  • Fear​

    • What is your character afraid of? When faced with that fear, how do they respond to it? Do they cower in fear, ​shakily try to face it, pretend like nothing is wrong, run away, ... ?

  • Flaws​

    • Everyone has flaws, including your character. Do they have a short temper, a stutter, anxiety, shaky hands, poor vision, bad memory, ... ?

• Backstory Creation Checklist​​

  • Family​

    • Do/Did they have a good relationship with their parents?​

    • Are their parents still alive?

    • Were they raised by someone else?

    • Do they have any siblings?

    • How did their family shape them as a person?

  • Job​

    • What is their job?​

    • Have they always had this job or did they go through a few to get to this one?

    • Did they choose this job or inherit it?

    • Do they like their job? Does it annoy or haunt them?

  • Trauma​

    • Have they ever experienced a traumatic event? This can be anything including the death of a loved one, a harsh breakup, the onset of a mental or physical illness, an injury, the witnessing of a disturbing event, and etc. 

    • How does this effect them? How do they respond to triggers of this trauma? Do they ignore it, shut down, have a panic attack, take it out on others, try to get away from them, ... ?

• Appearance ​​Creation Checklist

  • Weight​

    • Are they average, fat, skinny, malnourished?​​

    • Does their weight show in any obvious places? (ie: gaunt face, large hips, visible rib cage, double chin, etc.)​​

  • Hair​

    • What color is it?​

    • What length is it?

    • Does your character prefer to wear it in a particular style?

  • Eyes​

    • What color are they?​

    • How good is their vision?

  • Extras

    • Does your character have any physical imperfections or notable features such as scars, moles, ​freckles, acne, birthmarks, tattoos, ... ?​​

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Step 2: Make a Post

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To start roleplaying, you need to make a post. This can mean creating a new thread or posting on an existing one. 

• Creating a thread

  • Set the scene​

    • Make sure to describe things like your character's appearance and attitude as well as the setting. Describe the scenery, weather, and anything that makes it feel more real to you. ​

  • Leave it open for someone to join​

    • Don't set unreasonable expectations or rules for other participants or no one will want to join. ​

• Formatting your post

  • Generally, you will format your post the same way you would format a story, so keep dialogue in quotations, and use basic grammar rules. ​

• Joining a thread​​

  • Follow the scene​

    • Don't just ​randomly change the setting of a scene, it's rude and will make people not want to roleplay with you.

  • Be polite​

    • Make sure to add your character into the scene in a way that isn't intrusive. This is especially important when talking about threads that already have multiple participants. No one wants to roleplay with the person that makes a mockery of their carefully crafted scene. 

  • Read the previous posts!​

    • Don't post on a thread without reading the previous posts first​, otherwise you won't have any idea what's going on. 

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Step 3: Follow the Rules!

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You must always follow the website rules, especially on the forums! The two main rules to keep in mind when roleplaying on the forum are:

• No Godmodding

  • Godmodding is when you force another player to do something. The most common form of Godmodding is seen in roleplay fighting. "I fire an arrow at your chest and it pierces through your armor, mortally wounding you". This is an example of godmodding because you aren't letting the other person choose the result of your action on them. To avoid this, simply make actions open ended. "I fire an arrow at your chest, hoping to pierce your armor and mortally wound you" is the correct way to write the previous a​ction. 

• No metagaming​

  • Metagaming is when you use information that you gained out of character in roleplay. For example, if your friend tells you while you aren't roleplaying (or when marking the text as out of character) that their character has a weakness of mistletoe, you can't use that information in roleplay in any way. You can't even "stumble upon" it and try to use it against them. It's rude, annoying, and no fun.

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