RP 101 - Tips and Terms of Roleplay

[Ronin]

Below you’ll find some basic tips for roleplaying, as well as definitions for some commonly used terms. This is more for those new to roleplay, but even veterans may pick up a thing or two by skimming over this guide.

Terminology

• IC / OOC
  
  Short for ‘In Character’ and ‘Out Of Character’ respectively. All posts that you make with your character are considered ‘In Character.’ OOC can be used to refer to things that happened outside of the storyline (“Did you see that thread in OOC chat?”) and can also be used in IC posts to point out something that may have been unclear, or to add some kind of commentary. For example:
  
  (OOC: Sorry I didn’t post yesterday. I had to work!)
  
  Sally ran through the hall…
  
  Or
  
  (OOC: By ‘a few’ shuriken, I meant three. Sorry)
  
  And then post as normal.
  
  
• IIC – Inactive In Character
  
  This isn’t used often, but for those that want to keep a thread moving and don’t want to wait three or four days for a post, they may set what is called an ‘Inactive In Character’ limit. This is a set amount of time you have to post before your turn is simply skipped, and really only serves a purpose if there are multiple people in a single thread.
  
  
• God-Modding
  
  This is something to avoid, as I can promise you, people will not roleplay with you if you make a habit of this. God-Modding is the act of controlling another person’s character without their consent, whether it be their actions, or something affecting them directly. For example, if you play Character A, you can’t post “Character B ran away in fear” nor you can say “Character A threw a rock at Character B, hitting them in the forehead.” You need to give the other player a chance to react and respond appropriately.
  
  
• Firewalling
  
  Though the name might not sound great, this is something you want to try and do all the time. Firewalling is the ability to separate IC and OOC information. Meaning, just because you, the player, are aware that Character B is lying when he says there’s valuable treasure at the middle of the maze, it does NOT mean your character will know that as well (unless you can find evidence in game of course)
  
  
• Mary Sue / Gary Stu
  
  This is a term coined for characters that are extremely cliché, or ‘perfect.’ They’re usually very overdone on details in an attempt to be unique, and have a very predictable past. It’s something to be avoided, as honestly, flaws are what make characters interesting. If one has a character with no flaws and is perfect in every way, other players get really bored, really fast.
  
  For a better understanding on what makes a character a Sue/ Stu, please read the article this link provides.
  
  
• Canon
  
  Canon is used to refer to characters or facts that are true to a fandom. For example, “Harry Potter” is a Canon character, and him being in Gryffindor is a Canon fact. Putting Harry in Slytherin would automatically prove that the RP is not canonically correct.
  

[Ronin]

Tips and Tricks

• Grammar and Punctuation
  
  It’s very hard to follow and understand a huge series of run on sentences, a huge wall of text, or if a character is talking in the absence of quotation marks. Please, remember to use commas and periods, and to capitalize when needed. Also, every few sentences, make a break in your text. It’s much easier on the eyes to break a post down into multiple paragraphs, as opposed to one huge 30 line wall of text.
  
  
• Synonyms and Replacement
  
  Let’s look at the following sentences:
  
  Bobby went outside. He saw a cat. He pet the cat. “Meow” the cat said. The cat jumped over a fence. Bobby was bored.
  
  It feels kind of robotic and dull, doesn’t it? There’s a lot that can be done with these lines to paint a better picture in our head. This doesn’t tell us how old Bobby is, what he did between the choppy action breaks, what the cat looked like, or why Bobby even decided to go outside. Also, the word ‘cat’ was used four times in this bit of text. There are other words we could use instead of that, such as ‘kitten’ if the cat is young ’feline,’ and even ‘animal.’ With better description and more diverse verbiage, let’s rewrite this:
  
  Bobby went outside one morning to play. Shutting the door behind him, he saw a young cat. Excited to have a playmate, the boy approached the grey-striped kitten, and stroked it along its back. Happy with the child’s actions, but not enough to stay, the feline meowed, then leapt over a nearby fence. With a long sigh, the youth slouched against that very barricade. He was bored…
  
  Not only is that much more interesting to read, but it’s almost three times as long! Keep these details in mind to both beef up your posts, and make them more enjoyable for others.