This is an informational post(s) on how what a Role Playing Game is, how to pick your character, how to write your character, how to post, about Storylines and also some Role Playing Game term’s, general rules on player interaction and etiquette.
Some of this is for newer player’s, but it’s a great review for the older one’s as well. Even I was reminded to do certain things.
What is a Role Playing Game?
“A
role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game where players assume the roles of fictional characters via role playing. In fact, many non- games involve some aspect of role-playing; however, role-playing games tend to focus on this aspect of behavior.” en.wikapedia.org
There are several different variations on RPG’s, this one is a play-by-post RPG, or a Message Board RPG.
Basically you are writing a story in conjunction with other people, each of which has their own character, this is also sometimes called ‘interactive fiction’
“The first message posted onto a thread of that nature is usually one person laying down the scenario, starting a story about their character, and inviting others. If successful, the thread then becomes an ongoing story in which players periodically advance the plot by reading the latest reply, and typing a short paragraph or two about what their character does and how the environment changes in response. These replies are often open-ended so that other players can continue.
Depending on the rules set down by the Message Board Administrator, role-playing and story can be pushed forward through moderation by a Game Master, by mutual agreement between players, or by 'free-form' writing which normally erupts in flaming and disagreements between players. Role-playing of this type does not rely on statistics or visible die, and this can sometimes render combat situations difficult for players used to such props. Any combat is usually written in entirety by one or two players; and in some systems will be allowed to include the actions of another player in their post. Commonly this practice is considered cheating in more established games.”
- en.wikapedia.org
So, there are several variations within the Message Board RPG variation, which one is this?
This one is a Mutual Agreement one. It’s a check and balance situation, so far we haven’t had a need for an in-thread moderator, because we watch ourselves, and many people know their characters inside and out.
Some Message Board RPG’s are a ‘create your own’ character ones, this one isn’t,. In this one you choose your characters from characters in the DC Comic book Universe.
*What is this Gamemaster mentioned?
In role-playing games, the game master or GM is the organizer, storyteller, and arbitrator. He or she prepares the game session for the players and the characters they play (known as player characters or PCs).
- en.wikapedia.org
The description is longer, but just that much is what
our Gamemasters do. Our Gamemaster’s never get involved in shaping the arcs of individual characters. Towards the end of the season the Gamemasters will be more involved in the way the story is heading, but only so the season ends in a way that it can be followed easily by the next season of play.
*
As in most Message Board RPG’s there are two kinds of characters.-
PC’s = Player Characters, which is what you are if you take and play a character.
NPC’s = None Player Characters, characters that no one is playing. NPC’s can be played by someone if that particular character is important in the arc. When you used them, use them SPARINGLY, because someone might want to play that character sometime. I’ve used the NPC’s Speedy (Mia Dearden), and the Green Arrow in my arc’s with the Black Canary, because they are closely connected to her. But more on them later…
The actual game play of this RPG is normally a few different arcs with a few main ones, this is DC comic based, so an example would be the Justice League, made up of the characters that were in the JL in the comics. The Justice League has one big storyline or ‘arc.’ With the members of the JL having their own little storylines.
So now you know what a RPG is, and little bit about what kind of RPG this is, let’s get into the Character choosing and character writing/development.
How to pick a character.
Most people don’t need help with this, but a few suggestions if you do are to, pick a character you love. A character you know the in’s and out’s of, if you don’t, research on line, or through Graphic Novels at the yes..Library. Turn the Internet off and go out in public. Believe me, the sunlight doesn’t hurt as much as people say it does.
Research will help you understand your characters History and personality, which will become important in how you write your character.
Which, is our next topic, imagine that.
How to write a post for your character.
This is for fun! Not only for you, but for the other players to read. It’s like a great big story! With YOU as the character, don’t you want the perfect character? Yes of course! You want to do them justice and ‘be’ the character.
The perfect portrayal for the perfect character.
The ground work of a perfect character is it’s development, and the groundwork for development is a perfect post, and the ground work for a perfect post is...perfect grammar.
Let’s face it, correct grammar, capitalization and punctuation are easier to read, and holds people interests.
But let’s face it, no one is perfect, we all make mistakes. But a suggest– Write out your post in a word processor, like Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher and spell check it. Then all it takes is a simple copy and paste into the thread.
Also, Hype is know for it’s glitches….okay maybe not ‘known’ But they do happen, and there is nothing worse than to spend an hour pouring out your character only to have it vanish irretrievable because the site crashed during the process of posting it. So typing it up on a word processor and saving it is a good precaution.
Punctuation is a MUST! Don’t overdo it and don’t under do it.
CAPITOLIZATION! It’s a powerful...powerful concept. Use it wisely.
Another thing which isn’t ‘technically’ grammar, is spacing.
Use spaces between paragraph’s, it just makes the post’s easier to read.
*When you write dialog, give the dialog it’s own paragraph! This makes it easy for people to read.[ COLOR=red]*[/COLOR]
Okay, now we know the basic’s of the basic’s.
The second ground work is the perfect post and character development, the two go hand in hand...like Babs and Dick, or Ollie and Dinah..The ‘perfect post’ is what carries the perfect character development. So let’s go through the do’s and don’t’s.
Why it’s not just about action.
As much as it may hurt some people. I’ll say it again. It’s
not about action. Yes, Comics have action in them, but you can’t have action without a reason. What are they thinking while their fighting? How do they feel? Peter Parker would be nothing without his backstory, or all the things he’s been through. There would be no ’reason’ for him to fight. You have to have a back story to all of this and you have to tell it! Why? Well, I’ll tell ya!
While action is an important element in Comic Book Characters lives. Action should be secondary, ‘grow’ your character and the action will follow. Make your character feel, bleed, hurt, cry, yearn, long, lust, make yourself the character. I was Black Canary, last Season, I made myself her, I loved the same people she loved, I was the one who’s mother disliked her choices, I was the one who’d been cheated on and dumped, but still had feelings for the man. Sounds crazy, it’s not. Because for all intensive purposes, to the reader you are that character. If you can’t do that then think of how you felt in similar situations. Use your own experiences for the tough scenes, remember when you’re dog died? That car crash years ago? You finally got promoted? Got an A+ on the math test? Passed College Exams?
Use your Characters established history.
You also have to take into account your characters history, since this isn’t a create you own character RPG you need to take into account your characters personality and history. I can’t stress this enough. Remember what I said about picking your character?
“Research will help you understand your characters History and personality, which will become important in how you write your character.”
You have to remember who your character loves, who they hate, who are their friends, who aren’t.
The lesson from this? Know your character so you can, be your character and make it come ’alive’, make it ‘feel.’
Explain it.
If you don’t explain it, then no one knows, you can have your character swear, which is slightly out of character, but they swore because they had a bad day. No one’s going to know that’s why they swore unless you explain or describe the characters feelings about having a bad day and why she had a bad day. Explain and describe EVERYTHING, right down to the pimple which started her bad day, to the Villain who smashed into her classroom.
Okay, so you have a character, you know you need to make it ‘live and breath’ build it’s character. It’s easy to write now, let’s see…
Dinah looked at Ollie, she’d loved him so much. It had never changed, and neither had he. She thought back to Roy. Yes, Ollie was distant, but it hadn’t changed anything. It had never changed anything. She’d changed though. She’d gone from an impulsive young woman, to a strong lover and fighter, to finally a broken down mess. Since she’d been with Babs she’d changed again. This time into a woman who know what she wanted.
Bravo! The perfect back story, right? It comments on her feeling’s now, a little about her past..but..something’s missing. It’s kind of ‘blah’
How do you fight Bad Language And Handling?
Be descriptive.
“Well, haven’t I been” you’ll ask. Yes, you have you described her feelings and history, but what about where she is? Is she just in a non descript room painted in olive green? Or outside? Is there a breeze?
Be descriptive, describe the air, sun, clouds, dirt, grass, the little girl standing in the distance picking her nose, the Ice Cream man’s truck.
Why is this important? Because it’s not a movie. People can only ‘see’ what you tell them to see, what you show them.
If the air brushes her hair across her face, tell it. If you want people to see how your character feels or exactly what it looks like you have to describe it vividly. You don’t have to use big word’s, just use the word’s you know and the writing style you like. The sentences can be short and too the point, reflecting either the character, or just the way you write.
Be suspenseful.
Think of this as YOUR comic..your writing, not only are other people playing character’s their reading the RPG. It’s pleasurable to see what people playing as their favorite characters do with them. Keep secret’s, I have a few of my own planned. *Season 4 anyone?* Don’t tip your hand too quickly if you don’t want to, even if it’ll cross over the Seasons. But never keep secret’s at the cost of compromising someone else’s characters. More on this in Storytelling.
Let’s try it now:
Dinah looked at Ollie, the soft breeze tugged at her hair causing it to flutter across her face. She pushed it back, letting it flame up behind her in golden waves.
The sunlight reflected off of Ollie’s own blonde hair turning it tones of gold, and the green of his costume blended with the park’s green grass. Children ran and played in the background. Their giggles and shouts wafted on the wind, finding their way to Dinah’s ears.
Flitting around the playground and tree’s in various games, their bright clothes caught Dinah’s eye for a while as she watched them, before turning back to Ollie, Her heart tugging a little bit, she loved him so much. That hadn’t changed, and neither had he, the same man with the same outfit and piercing blue eyes. Maybe a few more wrinkles than before, but in essence the same. She thought back to Roy’s drug problem, and how Ollie had reacted to it. Ollie had always been distant, it had never changed. She’d changed though.
Dinah looked away gazing at a tree in the distance, it’s green leaves shivered in the breeze, She’d gone from an impulsive young woman, to a strong lover and fighter, to a broken down mess. Since she’d been with Babs she’d metamorphed again, this time into a woman who knew what she wanted.
Much better, I kept all of the same element’s of history and personal feelings, but I’ve added a description of the surroundings and a little bit of a hanging ending...is she going to kiss him? Hate him? Remember we all have distinctive writing style’s so while we all use the same guideline’s we’ll write them differently’
Not everyone uses as much description, some use more, some use less, some not at all in certain situations.
Here is another example:
Rudy raised the gun, tilted his head and smiled
“Good-Bye Lex” BANG!
With more description:
Rudy raised the gun, the afternoon sun glinting off the barrel, and aimed it at Lex. He tilted his head and smiled, his eyes gleamed enjoying the moment, savoring the fear he could see coming from Luthor’s eyes.
The city noises echoed in the background, car’s, sirens, cell phone ring’s, the bustle of the city though right at their side sounded distant and far away as the situation enveloping the two men like a bubble, separating them from the world.
Rudy’s voice broke through the silence causing the bubble to burst.
“Good-Bye Lex”
The city noises rushed back into his ears as he pulled the trigger, caressing it gently till it fired.
The gun recoiled in his hands like a snake as the report from the gun echoed in his ears, causing them to ring slightly,
Notice that in both of my posts I never ‘move’ or make the other people say or do anything, why? Because it’s not my character. I can’t make a character do something if it’s not mine.
RPGing is a fine balance between being reactive and proactive. You need to react to other peoples posts, and then you need to be proactive in how you act.
What about pictures?
So you noticed that huh? Some people in the RPG use picture’s, this is something fun to do and adds an extra bit of ‘spice’ to the post they are in. IF they are used correctly. There IS too much of a good thing.
Make sure that the picture you want to use match’s what’s going on in the post. A Picture of Hal Jordan kissing Carol is a really bad idea if Hal is turning into Parallax in that post.
Make sure the picture isn’t so large that you have to scroll more than three clicks over.
And the most important? Don’t let the Picture tell the story. A picture is NOT a cop out for a good, descriptive post.
Okay, We know what the RPG is, we have a character, we know how to write a post for our character with good grammar, lot’s of feeling, description, history, we know all about pictures in posts and how to NEVER move another person’s character, without expressed permission from the person.
We also know that people are more likely to join a storyline with you if you write well.
What is a Storyline or ‘Arc’?
So basically...we’ve learned how to write a good post for our character. But what about this character development thing? Sure, we can develop our character by how we describe things, but how do we ’grow’ a character?
THAT comes with interacting with other player’s and their characters.
Which you aren't going to get by isolating your character in one spot. You need interaction with other player. Thus, enters the Storyline.
Storylines or since this is a Comic based RPG, we call them ‘Arcs’ are important in developing your character, so far we have a character, and we’ve gone over how to write them, wonderful.
How do we ‘use’ them?
There are two kinds, of arcs, I’m not sure about the technical terms for them, but I’m calling them Multi-Player Arcs and Self-Involved Arcs.
A self involved arc – One in which it is just you or with permission an NPC. These are pretty boring if that’s ALL you do. Most people start out in a Self involved arc before joining another arc someone planned, or as a setup for going into their multi-player arc, a ‘back-story’ so to speak. They spend a few posts building a back story and their characters…well, character before launching into a Multi-Player Arc.
Multi-player arcs – these can be large scale, or tiny. Most of the time there is one large arc involving from 4 - 10 player’s, and then several tiny ones, involving 2- 4 player’s.
Refer back to the Structure of the RPG. Now you can start a Multi-Player arc by creating a storyline and then asking people to become involved with you. Most of the time if one or two people start an arc, other people join in, hardly any large multi-player arc’s are ‘exclusive’ though the smaller ones are ‘exclusive.’
*‘Exclusive’ meaning two or more players are working in tandem with their characters. Most of the time this means they have it all planned out. Their characters are going to do this...and then this…in this timeframe.
*
If this is you’re very first time RPGing, or you have no ideas for an arc. No problem, just tag along with someone your character knows, or an association your character is involved in. This applies more towards people playing heroes than Villains. In the Hero’s case, there is always more than enough Justice Leaguers and Justice Society Member’s running around to team up with.
In the Villain cases, well, takes someone devious to be a villain, and normally they forge their own arcs.
BUT always ask before you join an arc, don’t just ‘jump in’ to a fight. Because it might be an important plot point in the player’s involved arcs, remember what I said earlier? “But never keep secret’s at the cost of compromising someone else’s characters.”
Never keep a secret involving someone else’s character from them.
*If you’re going to join an arc or a fight ASK in the OOC thread FIRST! It might and most likely is an Exclusive Arc. Those people have worked up to that fight, don’t ruin it for them.
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If you are creating an arc, then you understand the value of ‘secret’s and suspense, Comic Book empires were build on suspense. Why do you think we buy comics every week? To see what happens! Why do you think people who are playing are going to read posts that don’t effect them? To get a story, what will make them keep reading? Suspense.
Bottom line? A good arc will last a season if it’s well thought about and can actually ‘end’ a season.
What’s so great about arcs?
The arc’s are storylines that pressure you to move you’re character, your character is going to have to deal with personal issues, death and pain, because of other character’s decision’s. How you write your posts and character in reaction and pro-action to these things is character development.
THAT is the key.
Happy RPing!
UPDATED on 9-15-05. New additions are between * .
However, this is a 'community' what you say to someone is not easily forgotten and you'll probably be around that person for day's, weeks, months and years too come as well as having too play with them.
