Writing like an Intermediate/Advanced RP-er

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Here is a little tutorial on how to roleplay, and how not to roleplay.

Firstly some roleplaying basics, which you need to remember!

If you want to show you are speaking, then do so as if writing dialogue in a story. For instance:

"I hate History" said Bob.

If you want to show your thoughts, you can do so in italics, or like so:

"I hate history," thought Bob.
"I hate hisotry," thought Bob.

To show actions just write as normal,

Bob took out his wand.

DO NOT use ** to make actions more obvious.

To say something out of character, for instance if you want to inform someone on the thread of something, then use double brackets:

((OOC: I won't be on the internet for another two days))

Remeber, posting is always in third person.
What not to do:
I climbed the stairs. "There are far too many," I thought. There at the top I met a black cat, "Hello sweetie," I said.

The above example does follow the basic rule apart from the fact that you are doing it directly from you perspective. That was first person.

This is how it should be: She climbed the stairs. "There are far too many," she thought. There at the top she met a black cat, "Hello sweetie," she said.

The she's or he's you can also replace with the characters name, constanly she, she, she is getting boring to read.

Third person basically means: He said, she said and so forth.

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Also use proper grammar and spelling. Ofcourse not everyone's first language is English. But roleplaying with chat language and loads of shortenings are very annoying. Mostly other members won't reply in a thread if you don't use proper grammar and spelling.

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Now you had the basics, we can start to see how you can use these things in actual roleplaying.

Roleplaying isn't just simple typing a sentence, or have a turned based chat with eachother, like this:

This is how NOT to roleplay:

Doesn't seem wrong? Does it? Well it is wrong. Of course this can be considered roleplaying. But not around intermediate/advanced RPG's.

Mostly intermediate/advanced rp'ing can be compared to writing a book. Describing suroundings, actions of your character, thoughts, what your character says, and combining this all in one post.

So, what is good roleplaying then?

Good roleplaying is 'Describing'.

Describe your surroundings, describe how you are feeling, describe what you are thinking, describe your actions and reactions.

Inbetween the describing you can of course say something, talk with another person. This way, roleplaying doesn't become boring. It does become boring when you're not describing. When you are simply 'roleplaying' the speech of your character, and get an anwser back, continuing like that.

Let me give you a good example. We will use Peter and Bob again.

How TO roleplay:

Look. That's already much better. Do you see how those two react onto the other one's description. If Peter hadn't described he walked over to the Notice board, there was already much less for Bob to react/roleplay to.

If you roleplay like this, you can develop your roleplaying character, you have more fun reacting to another members post, and that member having more fun reacting to your posts.

There is also another way to roleplay, this is a little different, almost the same, but it could make it easier for other member and for yourself to follow the RP's in a thread

Ok, another way to roleplay:

Well, only one little thing is changed. But somehow, if you do this, it is easier to reply to a topic. More when someone describes an action first, and askes something to you last in the post. Then this comes in handy. If you use this, you can describe your feelings,thought,actions,reaction first. Then you put the sentence of the other person your roleplaying with in italics, and then give a reply.

This is also very handy if your roleplaying to more then one member in a thread. This way it much easier to reply to more questions then one.

'How to Roleplay' written by ShinLi of http://rpg-directory.com