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User:WhiteWizard/Roleplay Guide

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(Language)
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==Language==
==Language==
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''Purpose of language, to communicate clearly... How this is important to roleplaying... present tense,''
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The purpose of the language you use is to communicate what your character is doing in the role-play. It needs to be clear to the other players involved, and any audience, what it is your character is doing. It also must be able to deliver this information in a timely fashion.
 +
 
 +
===Quality, Quantity, and Speed===
 +
These three factors have to be considered when you are writing for RP. The requirements vary considerably from person to person how elaborate the descriptions of your characters actions they want, how long they are willing to wait between poses, and how accurate the language needs to be for them to not be distracted by errors in it.
 +
 
 +
Sometimes a person's profile information will give clues about what is important to them. Sometimes you can only find this out by experimentation.
 +
 
 +
===Internet Slang===
 +
'L33t' speech and other internet slang is generally frowned on in most online role-playing environments. It should be used sparingly, if at all. In serious role-play it should only be used in speech where your character would actually say it, such as saying, "lol" or "lulz", or if describing written material or the internet as part of the role-play.
 +
 
 +
Excessive use is also frowned on in OOC chat, and often gives people the impression (true or not) that you have a poor grasp on the written language. This may impact their willingness to role-play with you.
 +
 
===Imperfect Language===
===Imperfect Language===
-
''Typoes, sloppy sentence structure, why it is common and when it is appropriate...''
+
It is normal for real time language on the internet to be a bit more sloppy than normal written language. This is caused by things like people not correcting typos for the sake of communicating faster, a lack of spell checkers in some clients, and other factors. Because it is one-use and throw-away writing for a small audience many people consider this acceptable.
-
===Internet Speech===
+
 
-
''What this is, why it is frowned on... include references...''
+
Some people however find typos and lose sentence structure to be highly irritating and may require slower more thought out writing.
 +
 
===Language of Choice===
===Language of Choice===
''Pick clearest language for you and partner... public play should be in english (for Tapestries)...''
''Pick clearest language for you and partner... public play should be in english (for Tapestries)...''

Revision as of 21:06, 4 March 2008

This guide is meant as an introduction to online Role-play (RP). While some parts may be specific to Tapestries Muck, most of it should be applicable to almost any online roleplay environment such as Second Life, IRC and others.

Work In Progress

Contents

Introduction

Online role-playing involves acting out or playing the role of a fictional character that the person has developed. This character may range from a fairly close personification of the player, or it may have a personality, motivations and background wildly different from the player's own and thus act very differently than the player might in the same situation.

People role-play online for a variety of different reasons. It can be looked at as a game that you play with others to socialize. It can be an exercise to explore personalities or situations that the person otherwise would not outside of role-play. It can be used to virtually live out fantasies.

In and Out of Character

In Character (IC) refers to playing out the role of your character. When you are IC you are reacting as your character would, not as you would yourself. Being Out of Character (OOC) refers to speaking for your real self with out the biases that your character may have.

It is often important to make it clear when you are speaking as your character and when you are speaking as yourself. For example, when negotiating the type of role-play that you and another player want to engage in it is done OOC. When your character is acting in an antisocial fashion it is important that people understand that this is IC, and not necessarily representing your own views or how you would act.

Grey Areas

There are times online where people are socializing and blurring the line between IC and OOC behavior. Most commonly this is seen in social areas online where role-playing commonly happens but is not strictly enforced. People may be there to socialize while waiting for someone to arrive that they may wish to role-play with at the same time that people are engaged in actually role-playing.

People who play characters that are very close to themselves can often make it hard to tell if they are talking IC or OOC, and in some cases they are doing both.

Prediscussion and Common Ground

Because of the wide range of personal goals that people can have for their role-playing, and because of different tolerances to some subject matter that people may have, it is important that you establish if you and another player have a common ground for your characters to role-play.

The most obvious way to deal with this is to ask someone if they are interested in role-playing, and discuss specific subject mater or directions that you may wish the role-play to go to see if you and the other player can find something compatible for your characters to do. However, there are many other ways to go about this first.

Environment

The environment that a player chooses for their character to hang out at may say a great deal about what the character or player is interested in. Seeing a character at a shooting range for example would lead to very different assumptions than if you saw them at a gay leather bar.

Profiles

Most systems that support role-playing have some sort of profile system for characters. Often times this will be filled out with a wealth of information about a character and what their player wants to do with that character.

On Tapestries MUCK those tools are: look character, cinfo and wixxx.

Please keep in mind the information that you find in these is something you as the player would know, not necessarily something your character would know.

IC Discussion

If the activities you seek to engage in are something the characters would do consensually, you can often approach the possibility of the activity in question with IC role-play. This often has the advantage of setting the mood and making the resulting role-play more natural and fun.

OOC Discussion

In cases where none of the above make you absolutely certain that the role-play you wish to involve the person in is something they do or do not want, you should speak with them OOC. It is usually best to do this in private communications.

On Tapestries MUCK you can communicate privately with someone using the page and whisper commands.

Language

The purpose of the language you use is to communicate what your character is doing in the role-play. It needs to be clear to the other players involved, and any audience, what it is your character is doing. It also must be able to deliver this information in a timely fashion.

Quality, Quantity, and Speed

These three factors have to be considered when you are writing for RP. The requirements vary considerably from person to person how elaborate the descriptions of your characters actions they want, how long they are willing to wait between poses, and how accurate the language needs to be for them to not be distracted by errors in it.

Sometimes a person's profile information will give clues about what is important to them. Sometimes you can only find this out by experimentation.

Internet Slang

'L33t' speech and other internet slang is generally frowned on in most online role-playing environments. It should be used sparingly, if at all. In serious role-play it should only be used in speech where your character would actually say it, such as saying, "lol" or "lulz", or if describing written material or the internet as part of the role-play.

Excessive use is also frowned on in OOC chat, and often gives people the impression (true or not) that you have a poor grasp on the written language. This may impact their willingness to role-play with you.

Imperfect Language

It is normal for real time language on the internet to be a bit more sloppy than normal written language. This is caused by things like people not correcting typos for the sake of communicating faster, a lack of spell checkers in some clients, and other factors. Because it is one-use and throw-away writing for a small audience many people consider this acceptable.

Some people however find typos and lose sentence structure to be highly irritating and may require slower more thought out writing.

Language of Choice

Pick clearest language for you and partner... public play should be in english (for Tapestries)...

Posing

What the term means, alternate terms (posting).. sentances, etc.

Flow

Flow of the RP, how to trade off poses, how to order them with multiple people, etc.

Length

What length should poses be?

Say

How to use the say program, when...

Pose

How to use the pose program, when, and how to include spoken text in a pose...

Powergaming (and not doing it)

What is Powergaming

Why you should not Powergame

How Not to Powergame

Public and Private

Differences between public and private play, use of explicit references in public...

Public

Other people's RP, how to respect it... street performer example...

Non Player Characters (NPCs)

How to involve additional characters in a scene.

Spoofing

For NPCs

See Also

Other related stuff on this site...

Resources

Useful guides on other sites...

References

Stuff referenced...

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