Post by Alice Cullen on Nov 29, 2008 1:49:15 GMT -6
New to roleplaying? Not sure of what to do? Or just want to know how we run The Lions and The Lambs? (yes I did borrow this from another site. No it doesn't matter which.)
Here's how we work around here:
Common Terms In An RPG
Handler/Puppetmaster - The person who controls the character, ie. the person at the keyboard -you.
Character Face (aka Celeb) - The celebrity face you have chosen to represent your character.
Avatar - An image (usually of your character's face) that will appear below your name on the left side of your post.
Signature- A block of text or a graphic that usually shows the celebrity you've chosen for your character face. This appears at the bottom of all you're posts.
RP - The act of playing your character.
RPG- A game in which you play a character other then yourself.
Spamming - Posting off-topic, non essential material in posts. This can also be considered creating topics that are in a similar nature to pre-existing topics.
IC - In character ; something that your character is doing or saying.
OOC - Out of character ; this is you, the handler. May you be leaving an OOC message at the end of your post that you have to leave or receiving a warning from the staff for an infraction on the rules.
What Is A Text-Based RPG?
A text-based RPG is where you tell a story from your character's point of view. Other characters will contribute to your posts and plots may form. You will be provided with a back story, in this case on the Twilight universe, provided for you by the admin here at The Lions and The Lambs.
If ever you have any questions do not hesitate to pm the staff here at BL. We'll be more then happy to answer any questions. As a member, you should try and be helpful and kindly point new members in the right direction as we all make mistakes sometimes, don't jump down their throats immediately. If you are unsure of the answer to another members question, do not answer it, plain and simple.
Posting
Developing a character is only half of roleplaying. You should be aware of what you are posting. There are so many mistakes that are made by new members and even older ones some times.
Tense
Past, present, and future are all tenses that writing can be done in. Posts should be written in the past tense, using verbs such as bit, ran, slept, jumped, beheaded, bludgeoned, This is what most stories are written in and is not such a big issue because post people write in this tense anyway.
P.O.V
This refers to the point of view you write from. First person, third person, and omniscient are all points of view that one can use when writing. However, Third person is the P.O.V that should be used to avoid confusion. Here at BL you can write from any, though most people tend to use the third person.
Capitalization/Spelling/Punctuation
I'm sure most of us know the basics like spelling and punctuation, but from what can be seen in a lot of posts I'm going to mention it in this guide anyway.
Things to capitalize:
* When used as a pronoun, I is always capitalized.
* Every letter in the beginning of a sentence
* A name ie. Bella, Edward, Blondie
* A title ie. Twilight, Breaking Dawn, One Coin In the Lake
* Names of places ie. Forks, Port Angeles, First Beach, Phoenix
Excessive capitalization is not very nice to read, and there are ways to better get across what you want your character to say. For example, instead of " I HATE YOU!" Said Bella. Try saying. "I hate you!" Bella cried out, voice full of anger and eyes glazing with tears.
Punctuation:
Just as capitalization can be used excessively, so can punctuation. One exclamation mark or one question mark will do the job just as well as three or four. Try to sue words to convey your characters feelings instead of the excessive punctuation.
Sentences always need to be closed off with a period after them. When using abbreviations like Mr. and Mrs. we put a period after them as well. Quotations (" ") Are used to encase your characters spoken words while apostrophes (' ') are used for thoughts.
Spacing:
There should always be a space after each sentence, as well as a space between paragraphs. This goes without saying, as otherwise things get very difficult to read and messy looking.
Spelling:
While even I make a mistake or two, the spelling in some posts have no excuses. Saying you are a bad speller is no excuse at all. Use a spell check. If you are unsure of how to spell a word, ask. There is an edit button you know! If you notice spelling errors after you post, go through and correct them. Most browsers have a built in spell check, but mostly it only works under advanced reply. Is it too much trouble to run your posts through a spell check?
The First Post
The first post of a thread is the most important. It describes where the characters are, what they are doing there, why they are there, and how they got there as well as the conditions they are in. (weather, time of day, etc.) It should be well written and thought out, clear and concise, and more then a few lines long. At minimum three paragraphs (of four or five sentences each usually) is a good goal to aim for.
The first post of your character in a thread is also important, even if you didn't make the thread. It should explain the reason why you are there and how you got there. It should probably be two paragraphs in length, or matched to the post length above you.
Actions
Actions are written out and not described with asterisks. (* *)
Common Mistakes In Roleplaying
Now that we are all clear on what exactly roleplaying is, I'm going to list and explain some of the big 'no nos' when it comes to RPing.
Ignorance
No, I'm not talking about your character's own ignorance or naivety, but your own. When entering a thread, especially a longer one, be sure to read it through. You don't want to enter an thread where Bella and Alice have met up and already left before you have posted. Be sure to read things through carefully before you post. Also think, would your character really be in a thread with the people who are in it? Put yourself in your character's shoes.
Clairvoyance
On the flip side of ignorance. No character should be able to know things that they are not told. This is knowing too much. Now, vampires that have the ability are obviously not included, but thing about this. Does your character really want to know everything about someone else? And they are not going to walk up to someone and act as if they know their thoughts are they? Perhaps this character's mind cannot be read, as Bella's. This should be taken up with the handler of said character before hand.
God-Moding
God-moding can be broken up into two categories, Personal and General god-moding, but in both cases, god-moding is the controlling of someone else that is not your character.
Personal God-Moding
Personal god-moding is the controlling of another person’s character specifically. Personal god-moding is saying that you threw a punch at someone and hit them square in the jaw, knocking them out. You should instead have given them the ability to dodge or counter the attack. The same goes for duels, pranks, thrown objects. There are some points where this particular rule can be stretched. If you are rounding a corner at a run and suddenly collide with someone, you can say who you collided with, but don’t say what happened to them. Whether they fell and scattered their things all over is their choice, just make sure that you deal with yourself. You also want to make sure that you always let a person speak for and act for themselves. The person controlling the other character knows very well how to make their own choices. In some cases you may need to god-mod and always pm the handler and ask permission first.
General God-Moding
General god-moding is very much like personal god-moding, except that it is the controlling or a general group of people, not a specific one or two people. An example since that definition isn’t really clear:
QUOTE
Bella walked into the cafeteria with all eyes on her. The room fell silent and she could feel eyes burning into the back of her head. Hushed whispers and insults were flung her way form every single person as she made her way over to the Cullen table.
It is not Bella’s choice as to what the rest of the room does and says and she was general god-moding by controlling what everyone else did upon her appearance. Let everyone else make their own choices on what to do.
Mary Sue/Gary Stu
A personal pet peeve of mine. Mary Sues or Gary Stus are characters who are perfect. They are drop-dead gorgeous, have all the money in the world, absolutely no faults or flaws, and are loved by everyone. Basically, they were boring, one-dimensional characters who are extremely annoying to rp with. I'm not saying a character can't be pretty or smart, or even both, but a character needs to have faults. No one is perfect, and flawed characters are all the more fun. If you don't have a good balance of strengths and weaknesses, your character will get boring, fast.
Drama
Ah. Drama. What thread or plot is complete without a little bit of this? But you know what they say about too much of a good thing. The Drama Royalty often times run hand in hand with Mary Sue/Larry Stu characters. Basically, everything always happens to a Drama Queen/King. Their parents are usually dead or dying, that or their parents are completely evil to them. If they do not live with their parents, they then live in an orphanage or with cruel relatives. They are also constantly having bad things happen to them and are generally seen crying a lot, and a warning, Drama Queens and Kings rarely want to be comforted or offered advice on how to fix their problems because that could remove them from the center of attention.
Tips
Here a few pointers for successful and fun rping. smile.gif
Respect
First off, there is a difference between respect for a character and respect for the player behind the character. In character, I may hate your character and will always be saying mean things to them and putting them down. Out of character, I will do no such thing. We have to remember that there’s a line between pretend and real life and that we cannot cross that line. People are not going to get along in character, that’s part of what makes roleplaying fun and realistic, but out of character, you had better respect your fellow players. If you have a problem with someone’s roleplaying style, deal with it. If they’re style is breaking the rules, maybe inform this of them in a nice, polite pm. Burning is rude and not to be tolerated. Or, if you have tried to tell them or don’t feel comfortable, take it up with a staff member via pm.
The staff work hard to ensure that BL is a fun place to be and if you cannot respect them, you will not find your time here enjoyable.
Chat-Speak
Chat-speak is what many of us use online when talking on instant messenger or something similar. It is the use of word abbreviations such as lol, rofl, brb, ttyl, w/e, w/o, and u. Don’t be lazy, write the entire word out. It is not something that needs to be present on this site. Also, something that goes along with chat-speak, is wRiTiNg WoRdS lIkE tHiS. Don’t! It’s annoying and becomes very difficult to read. Also, there’s no real need to. If you are trying to emphasize something, use better descriptive words and if you want to make something stand out a bit more in, let’s say, a signature, there is a reason that we have so many different font color choices.
Fonts and Font Colours
There is an enormous amount of fonts and font colours you can choose from. Mind you, you don't want something hard to read. Would you rather read this? Or something like this?
The colour you should use is the default colour for posting, however there are about a billion different ones to choose from, so as long as you don't have your readers straining their eyes, go nuts. You should also use the default size or one bigger, anything smaller is difficult to read, anything bigger is kind of an annoyance.
Pinned Colour List
Colour Blender
The Pm System
You should see in your control panel and at the top of your screen, your inbox. Here is where you can send and receive pms. This cuts down on board clutter and spamming, and annoying purely OOC posts in threads. USE THE PM SYSTEM!
Preview Posts
Always, always, always read through your post before you post it. Running it through a spelling/grammar check is a good idea as well. One helpful idea for this is to type your post in a word document before actually posting it. That way, you have them saved and you can also use Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar check to help edit your posts.
* I would like to add it goes without saying you should not mention the actual books in your IC posts! Your character is IN the Twilight universe. That would be like Bella demanding roaylties upon discovering someone wrote about her life and published it within the Twilight universe.
The Plots Thread
I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!
You get one thread in the Roleplay Requests forum. This is where you can request relationships and whatnot. The Plots forum is by no means used for anything but bigger plots that need more organization, such as a Phoenix trip or getting locked in a hospital room! Breakers of this law will be cracked down upon as we have stressed it numerous times!
Closed Topics
When a topic is closed to someone or certain people, do not post in it unless you are one of those people or you have been invited by a member of the topic. Nothing is more annoying then someone barging in on a roleplay that was not intended for more then a few people. Always read the title, description, and the start of the first post because that is where the author of the topic will post any restrictions on who can enter. Read them, listen to them, show some respect.
Here's how we work around here:
Common Terms In An RPG
Handler/Puppetmaster - The person who controls the character, ie. the person at the keyboard -you.
Character Face (aka Celeb) - The celebrity face you have chosen to represent your character.
Avatar - An image (usually of your character's face) that will appear below your name on the left side of your post.
Signature- A block of text or a graphic that usually shows the celebrity you've chosen for your character face. This appears at the bottom of all you're posts.
RP - The act of playing your character.
RPG- A game in which you play a character other then yourself.
Spamming - Posting off-topic, non essential material in posts. This can also be considered creating topics that are in a similar nature to pre-existing topics.
IC - In character ; something that your character is doing or saying.
OOC - Out of character ; this is you, the handler. May you be leaving an OOC message at the end of your post that you have to leave or receiving a warning from the staff for an infraction on the rules.
What Is A Text-Based RPG?
A text-based RPG is where you tell a story from your character's point of view. Other characters will contribute to your posts and plots may form. You will be provided with a back story, in this case on the Twilight universe, provided for you by the admin here at The Lions and The Lambs.
If ever you have any questions do not hesitate to pm the staff here at BL. We'll be more then happy to answer any questions. As a member, you should try and be helpful and kindly point new members in the right direction as we all make mistakes sometimes, don't jump down their throats immediately. If you are unsure of the answer to another members question, do not answer it, plain and simple.
Posting
Developing a character is only half of roleplaying. You should be aware of what you are posting. There are so many mistakes that are made by new members and even older ones some times.
Tense
Past, present, and future are all tenses that writing can be done in. Posts should be written in the past tense, using verbs such as bit, ran, slept, jumped, beheaded, bludgeoned, This is what most stories are written in and is not such a big issue because post people write in this tense anyway.
P.O.V
This refers to the point of view you write from. First person, third person, and omniscient are all points of view that one can use when writing. However, Third person is the P.O.V that should be used to avoid confusion. Here at BL you can write from any, though most people tend to use the third person.
Capitalization/Spelling/Punctuation
I'm sure most of us know the basics like spelling and punctuation, but from what can be seen in a lot of posts I'm going to mention it in this guide anyway.
Things to capitalize:
* When used as a pronoun, I is always capitalized.
* Every letter in the beginning of a sentence
* A name ie. Bella, Edward, Blondie
* A title ie. Twilight, Breaking Dawn, One Coin In the Lake
* Names of places ie. Forks, Port Angeles, First Beach, Phoenix
Excessive capitalization is not very nice to read, and there are ways to better get across what you want your character to say. For example, instead of " I HATE YOU!" Said Bella. Try saying. "I hate you!" Bella cried out, voice full of anger and eyes glazing with tears.
Punctuation:
Just as capitalization can be used excessively, so can punctuation. One exclamation mark or one question mark will do the job just as well as three or four. Try to sue words to convey your characters feelings instead of the excessive punctuation.
Sentences always need to be closed off with a period after them. When using abbreviations like Mr. and Mrs. we put a period after them as well. Quotations (" ") Are used to encase your characters spoken words while apostrophes (' ') are used for thoughts.
Spacing:
There should always be a space after each sentence, as well as a space between paragraphs. This goes without saying, as otherwise things get very difficult to read and messy looking.
Spelling:
While even I make a mistake or two, the spelling in some posts have no excuses. Saying you are a bad speller is no excuse at all. Use a spell check. If you are unsure of how to spell a word, ask. There is an edit button you know! If you notice spelling errors after you post, go through and correct them. Most browsers have a built in spell check, but mostly it only works under advanced reply. Is it too much trouble to run your posts through a spell check?
The First Post
The first post of a thread is the most important. It describes where the characters are, what they are doing there, why they are there, and how they got there as well as the conditions they are in. (weather, time of day, etc.) It should be well written and thought out, clear and concise, and more then a few lines long. At minimum three paragraphs (of four or five sentences each usually) is a good goal to aim for.
The first post of your character in a thread is also important, even if you didn't make the thread. It should explain the reason why you are there and how you got there. It should probably be two paragraphs in length, or matched to the post length above you.
Actions
Actions are written out and not described with asterisks. (* *)
Common Mistakes In Roleplaying
Now that we are all clear on what exactly roleplaying is, I'm going to list and explain some of the big 'no nos' when it comes to RPing.
Ignorance
No, I'm not talking about your character's own ignorance or naivety, but your own. When entering a thread, especially a longer one, be sure to read it through. You don't want to enter an thread where Bella and Alice have met up and already left before you have posted. Be sure to read things through carefully before you post. Also think, would your character really be in a thread with the people who are in it? Put yourself in your character's shoes.
Clairvoyance
On the flip side of ignorance. No character should be able to know things that they are not told. This is knowing too much. Now, vampires that have the ability are obviously not included, but thing about this. Does your character really want to know everything about someone else? And they are not going to walk up to someone and act as if they know their thoughts are they? Perhaps this character's mind cannot be read, as Bella's. This should be taken up with the handler of said character before hand.
God-Moding
God-moding can be broken up into two categories, Personal and General god-moding, but in both cases, god-moding is the controlling of someone else that is not your character.
Personal God-Moding
Personal god-moding is the controlling of another person’s character specifically. Personal god-moding is saying that you threw a punch at someone and hit them square in the jaw, knocking them out. You should instead have given them the ability to dodge or counter the attack. The same goes for duels, pranks, thrown objects. There are some points where this particular rule can be stretched. If you are rounding a corner at a run and suddenly collide with someone, you can say who you collided with, but don’t say what happened to them. Whether they fell and scattered their things all over is their choice, just make sure that you deal with yourself. You also want to make sure that you always let a person speak for and act for themselves. The person controlling the other character knows very well how to make their own choices. In some cases you may need to god-mod and always pm the handler and ask permission first.
General God-Moding
General god-moding is very much like personal god-moding, except that it is the controlling or a general group of people, not a specific one or two people. An example since that definition isn’t really clear:
QUOTE
Bella walked into the cafeteria with all eyes on her. The room fell silent and she could feel eyes burning into the back of her head. Hushed whispers and insults were flung her way form every single person as she made her way over to the Cullen table.
It is not Bella’s choice as to what the rest of the room does and says and she was general god-moding by controlling what everyone else did upon her appearance. Let everyone else make their own choices on what to do.
Mary Sue/Gary Stu
A personal pet peeve of mine. Mary Sues or Gary Stus are characters who are perfect. They are drop-dead gorgeous, have all the money in the world, absolutely no faults or flaws, and are loved by everyone. Basically, they were boring, one-dimensional characters who are extremely annoying to rp with. I'm not saying a character can't be pretty or smart, or even both, but a character needs to have faults. No one is perfect, and flawed characters are all the more fun. If you don't have a good balance of strengths and weaknesses, your character will get boring, fast.
Drama
Ah. Drama. What thread or plot is complete without a little bit of this? But you know what they say about too much of a good thing. The Drama Royalty often times run hand in hand with Mary Sue/Larry Stu characters. Basically, everything always happens to a Drama Queen/King. Their parents are usually dead or dying, that or their parents are completely evil to them. If they do not live with their parents, they then live in an orphanage or with cruel relatives. They are also constantly having bad things happen to them and are generally seen crying a lot, and a warning, Drama Queens and Kings rarely want to be comforted or offered advice on how to fix their problems because that could remove them from the center of attention.
Tips
Here a few pointers for successful and fun rping. smile.gif
Respect
First off, there is a difference between respect for a character and respect for the player behind the character. In character, I may hate your character and will always be saying mean things to them and putting them down. Out of character, I will do no such thing. We have to remember that there’s a line between pretend and real life and that we cannot cross that line. People are not going to get along in character, that’s part of what makes roleplaying fun and realistic, but out of character, you had better respect your fellow players. If you have a problem with someone’s roleplaying style, deal with it. If they’re style is breaking the rules, maybe inform this of them in a nice, polite pm. Burning is rude and not to be tolerated. Or, if you have tried to tell them or don’t feel comfortable, take it up with a staff member via pm.
The staff work hard to ensure that BL is a fun place to be and if you cannot respect them, you will not find your time here enjoyable.
Chat-Speak
Chat-speak is what many of us use online when talking on instant messenger or something similar. It is the use of word abbreviations such as lol, rofl, brb, ttyl, w/e, w/o, and u. Don’t be lazy, write the entire word out. It is not something that needs to be present on this site. Also, something that goes along with chat-speak, is wRiTiNg WoRdS lIkE tHiS. Don’t! It’s annoying and becomes very difficult to read. Also, there’s no real need to. If you are trying to emphasize something, use better descriptive words and if you want to make something stand out a bit more in, let’s say, a signature, there is a reason that we have so many different font color choices.
Fonts and Font Colours
There is an enormous amount of fonts and font colours you can choose from. Mind you, you don't want something hard to read. Would you rather read this? Or something like this?
The colour you should use is the default colour for posting, however there are about a billion different ones to choose from, so as long as you don't have your readers straining their eyes, go nuts. You should also use the default size or one bigger, anything smaller is difficult to read, anything bigger is kind of an annoyance.
Pinned Colour List
Colour Blender
The Pm System
You should see in your control panel and at the top of your screen, your inbox. Here is where you can send and receive pms. This cuts down on board clutter and spamming, and annoying purely OOC posts in threads. USE THE PM SYSTEM!
Preview Posts
Always, always, always read through your post before you post it. Running it through a spelling/grammar check is a good idea as well. One helpful idea for this is to type your post in a word document before actually posting it. That way, you have them saved and you can also use Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar check to help edit your posts.
* I would like to add it goes without saying you should not mention the actual books in your IC posts! Your character is IN the Twilight universe. That would be like Bella demanding roaylties upon discovering someone wrote about her life and published it within the Twilight universe.
The Plots Thread
I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!
You get one thread in the Roleplay Requests forum. This is where you can request relationships and whatnot. The Plots forum is by no means used for anything but bigger plots that need more organization, such as a Phoenix trip or getting locked in a hospital room! Breakers of this law will be cracked down upon as we have stressed it numerous times!
Closed Topics
When a topic is closed to someone or certain people, do not post in it unless you are one of those people or you have been invited by a member of the topic. Nothing is more annoying then someone barging in on a roleplay that was not intended for more then a few people. Always read the title, description, and the start of the first post because that is where the author of the topic will post any restrictions on who can enter. Read them, listen to them, show some respect.