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A guide to role-playing by Jiraiya

(carried over from Sannin)

I. Definition of terms

Roleplaying (RPing) - to roleplay is to take on the part of a fictional character (created by you) in a plot formed by the interaction of many roleplayers. It's like taking part in writing a story with many writers. You dictate the actions and reactions of your character as you interact with other participants and move the plot forward together with them. RPing involves a lot of descriptive writing and working together with other RPers.

God-moding - you'll find that this term is used often by mods and admins. God-moding is not just a breach of RPing rules but a show of bad forum manners in general. I will expound on this later. Just remember for now that this is something you shouldn't do.

DM - DM actually stands for Dungeon Master. This is an adopted term from the Dungeons and Dragons game. A DM acts like the umpire in a particular thread. He/she makes all the decisions when the RPers are confused as to what exactly should happen. If you compare a Roleplay to a story, while the players act as the characters, the DM takes on the role of all the plot devices. Not all RP threads will have a DM.

Social RP - this is an RP where the characters mostly talk with each other. While threats and violent innuendoes are part of talking, do not actively seek battles in these kinds of threads. Examples of Social RPs include meetings in a bar or bumping to each other in a busy street.

Sparring RP - this is an RP where the characters attack each other. Talking to each other is still possible but, unlike social RPs, is limited to brief conversations, battle-cries and death threats. This is the thread where you should use all your fighting techniques, Examples of Sparring RPs include duels, skirmishes and sudden attacks on a village.

Mission RP - this is a combination of Social RPing and Sparring RPing. A mission RP is the equivalent of a quest in an RPG. This thread always requires a DM. It usually pits a three-man cell of ninjas against a situation created by the DM.

NPC - a non-player character. This involves every character not being role-played by an RP-participant. DMs usually control the NPCs.

Closed thread - a closed role-playing thread is an RPing thread where only specific characters are requested to join in. If you are not invited, do not post in a closed thread.


II. The way of the RPer



Your post's contents

Your post contains all the actions of your character. It also contains how your character sees his/her environment as of now. When placing a post in a thread be sure to include the following.

Your character's POV- describe what your character sees, hears, smells, feels and tastes. This will give other RPers an inkling as to how to interact with you. It will also tell them if their actions are having their desired effects. If someone punches you, describe how the punch feels like. If someone uses a technique to become invisible, don't describe seeing that character unless you have a way to see invisible people. Never completely ignore a character who is trying to interact with you. Even if you are invulnerable to punching, when someone punches you, at least acknowledge that the punch was made by describing how your character sees the punch.

Your character's actions - describe everything that your character does. When he/she talks, describe how his/her voice sounds like. When he/she moves, describe the movement. If your actions involve interacting with other RPers, DO NOT describe their effects on them. Leave the effects to the POV part of that person's post.

Your post's quality

When posting, be sure to check the quality of the following.

Check your grammar - Remember your punctuations, capitalizations, tenses and forms. You don't have to have the skills of an english professor but do the best you can anyway.

Check your spelling - Spell words correctly and avoid l33t $p34k!ng.

Make sure that your descriptions are enough - Do not leave out important details as your post is the only basis other RPers will have on what your character is actually doing. The length of your post is not so much of an issue as this is. Don't be too flowery with your descriptions as to put anyone reading it to sleep but don't be too laconic as well. Your post should be in the middle of these two extremes.

Your character

The template for character sheets have already been posted. Provide all the necessary information about your character. Here are some other reminders about your character. Avoid placing "Unknown" in your character sheet.

Your character is not you. - Do not take anything done to your character personally. If someone wants to beat up your character it doesn't mean he/she hates you in real life. Roleplay your character well by trying to think and feel as your character would but don' t be afraid to let him/her get hurt or beaten.

Player knowledge vs. Character knowledge - What you know as a member of the forum is different from what your character knows as a fictional part of the RPing world. It's a good idea to read the profiles of your fellow RPers but if your character is meeting another character for the first time, he/she should know next to nothing about that character. Do not refer to events that your character did not see or know about personally. Do not read other characters' thoughts unless you are using some technique that does that.

God-moding

God-moding is to be invincible in an RP. There are many ways to do this. If a fellow RPer is suspicious that you are god-moding explain yourself. DO NOT question the authority of an admin or a mod if one decides that you are guilty of god-moding. Edit your post as they see fit. They will, of course, explain why they believe that your are god-moding.

God-moding can be done by...

- Neglecting to put any weaknesses for your character. A weakness should be a tangible flaw that can be exploited in combat if found out.

- Placing too many powerful techniques in your character's arsenal.

- Dictating the reactions of another RPer to your attack so that he/she is always hit and always suffers the full effect of the attack.

- Having too many actions in a single post in reaction to a single action of an RPer. In general react only once per move of an opponent. After the reaction, make one move. Here is a violation of that rule.

Poster #1

QUOTE
He grabbed a pair of shuriken and hurled them at his opponent.


Poster#2

QUOTE
He sidestepped the shuriken and grabbed them from the air. Then he pulled out a pair of his own and disappeared only to reappear behind his opponent. After that he kicked him in the face, backflipped and hurled all four shuriken at his foe.


- Completely ignoring the attacks of another RPer as if they never occured.

- Inventing new abilities on the fly to counter the existing abilities of your opponent.

- Using "finisher" techniques without suffering any ill effect.

Roleplaying etiquette

- NEVER abandon an RP. If you doubt your ability to be online for a period of time, inform those whom you are already RPing with and don't join any new ones.

- Follow all the rules of normal forum etiquette. Don't troll, flame...etc.

- Roleplaying is a social thing. Even if your character is a lone wolf type, find some other means to interact with fellow RPers. No one wants to RP with a person who keeps ignoring them. Closed threads are fine but learn to interact with other RPers other than your close friends. Participate in open threads as well.

- Have fun. Never roleplay in a bad mood and don't roleplay with someone you don't like.

RPing and Saiyuki

Of course, since this site is a Saiyuki RPing site, I'll have to talk about mixing the two together. How do you RP in a Saiyuki-themed RPing site.

Versimilitude - Fancy word isn't it? It simply means how well (or how bad) is the reality of the fictional world being presented. Versimilitude is the overall state of the Saiyuki world as it is role-played out in the site. It means that every RP occurs in a single world. If one RP plays out a huge fight in the west and another RP in Changan refers to "that big fight in the west" as two characters have a chat, that's versimilitude working.

To maintain good versimilitude, it's important that you realize that your actions can affect a lot of things in the world. If you attack a village, that village's defenders will fight back. Also understand that maintaining versimilitude means operating on a fictional reality. Sometimes, mods/admins will make decisions based on that assumed reality, even though nothing in the actual anime/manga says anything about it. For example, would be the fact the Kougaiji’s party almost always fights with the Sanzo-ikko, but it takes the Sanzo-ikko forever just to get to the west. Nothing in the canons shows why but there should be a logical reason for it.

Maintaining versimilitude also means that a timeline of sorts must be established. Don't just start posting threads with no hints of how they happened in order. It doesn't have to be strict as to require dates but you should be able to pinpoint which even happened first.

Further versimilitude must be maintained when you set about when you create a character. Take in to consideration the whole of Saiyuki world when you make a character. Remember that demons, gods and humans aren't very friendly with each other thus if your character has techniques that come from two different sides, you had better come up with an explanation how he/she learned them.