HOW TO ROLE PLAY !

I was messing around with the role play administration section and I noticed there was nothing saying how to role play, and yet I know users sometimes join who don't know this, so I created these instructions. I was also bored so I couldn't help writing them instructional video style for fun. I hope experianced users enjoy reading them as much as new ones.

Step 1, Preparation:

Role playing is a simple concept. Start by deciding on a setting. On this website, the main settings are Twilight, Real Life and Harry Potter. It is advisable to read through all the posts in your chosen setting to learn what characters and relationships exist, where within the setting they are (for example, at the mall or at school) and if anything has recently happened that you should know about. You can get some of this information by reading the plotting threads but you won't get as much detail from these.

Now you're ready to make your character. You have to write a profile thread for them in the registration section for your chosen setting. A profile basically must include gender, name, age, personality and appearance. Other information, for example race (i.e. vampire or human) or why they are in town, may be required specific to the setting or just because that particular website requests it. On this forum, the coding you need to register a character will be at the top of the appropriate registration section. Let's take a look at two very basic profiles written by our model users, Jane and John, for the Real Life section here on Messing With Life.

Jane's character's profile:

Name: Emily Heller
Age: 21
Appearance: Emily is medium height, 5'6", thin and has long brown hair. Her eyes are also brown and she is generally tanned.
Picture: Click to see Emily
Personality: Emily is a live wire who loves to live life on the edge. She's not one to back down and is very outgoing and fun.
Bio: Emily has lived in the city all her life. She finished school as soon as she could with OK grades and has been working as a model since then. She's had a few boyfriends, but has never really found a person she likes who can keep up with her.

This is too short, but it is tidy, easy to read and well written.

John's character's profile:

name - Russel Carter
age - 22
look - he's tall and blonde and strng like this.
personality - hes an active person who's always on the lookout fora god girl
bio - he's had a normal life

Oh dear, jane and John need to work on their profiles. They need more detail and in Johm's case, some work on spelling and grammar. I'm sure yours will be much better. Once you have posted your character in the right registration thread, you have to wait for someone with the authority to confirm it. You are not allowed to start role playing with your new character before this happens. For an example of a good profile, have a glance at any of the ones that have been approved in the registration sections. We're going to assume that Jane and John fix their profiles.

Twirls: Great, activated, you're good to go John and Jane.

Step 2, Role Playing:

OK, now you're allowed to begin. In role playing, you write short sections of story from the perspective of your character. On this site, you have to write in 3rd person (i.e. Emily said "Hi!" NOT "Hi" I said). You and other people who's characters are at the same location as yours take it in turns to write short sections. Your characters are allowed to talk to each other, ignore each other, hit each other, fall in love, fall over, whatever, as long as it is within reason for that setting and not being silly. For example, it's OK for a character to suck the blood of another in the Twilight universe, but not in the real life universe. Let's take a look at a short section written by John and Jane's where their characters meet.

Emily walked through the park admiring the beautiful colours of the autumn leaves falling to the ground and covering the green of the grass and the gry of the tarmack she walked on. A gut of wind blew through the trees and she shivvered in the cold.

Russel saw a pretty girl across the grass shivvering in the cold. Being the gentleman that he was, he rushed over to her.

"Hello, I'm Russel. I think you need this more than me," he said, taking off his jacket and handing it to her. "let me call you a taxi to take you home."

Emily felt Russel's coat until she found a bulge, pulling his wallet from one pocket and a gun from another, she shot him in the foot, then ran away, laughing maniacally at all the screaming people dodging out of her way.

Uh oh, Jane's being silly. She'd better change her last post before...

Bree: JANE! STOP MESSING UP MY RP! CHANGE IT NOW!!!

Emily looked up at the tall man handing her his jacket and smiled. A part of her told her it probably wasn't wise to accept gifts from and be led away by a stranger in the park...but he was a very good looking stranger and that part of her had long ago been drowned out by the louder "DO IT!" part of her.

"Thankyou. I'm Emily," she replied.

Much better. That's the basics covered. Like with character profiles, role playing posts can be as long or short as you like within reason. Now, there are a few more things you need to remember and they are summed up in these 5 simple sections:

1. Continuity must be maintained. If your character is at the same location as another, but at a different time, obviously, they cannot talk. You should try not to get too far behind or ahead of the other characters in time. Your character cannot be in two places at once. Similarly, neither can they be nowhere.

2. Make it easy to track your characters. Other users cannot be expected to remember where our character is as well. When your character moves to a new location, say so like this:
***To the taxi station***
...and when they arrive, say here they came from like this:
***From the park***

3. Only control your character. You can make other people's characters do minor things like sumble or say "yes please" on occasion, but you cannot take control of their character to any major extent.

4. Do not harm other characters without permission. Just as you cannot control someone else's character without permission, neither can you force them into circumstances that the controlling user does not agree with. You are not allowed to make your character physically harm another character without the permission of the user controlling that character.

5. Respect other people. This is most critical. Other people are no less important than you. If they ask you to leave their character alone or stop telling them what to do with their character, then you must. It is every user's right to do as they wish with their character within the given rules. Also, administrators and moderators have authority. If they give an order, it must be followed, even if you believe that doing so breaches another rule. Moderators and administrators are trusted not to abuse their power, but if you think they are (by for example ordering you to make your character kill itself), contact another administrator or moderator immediately.

Step 3, Expansion:

Well, now you know what you're doing, go join in and get some practice. When you are ready, feel free to create more characters. You are allowed to use more than one character at a time, but each new one must follow the same rules for registering and role playing. They do not have to be in the same or a different setting as your first. They may already know your first character (be it related, love, hate, etc) or they may not. Each character is a whole new world of possibilities open to you and your imagination. The potential is all but limitless so get out there and have fun. You never know what could happen.

Name: Saphire Emily Carter
Gender: Female
Age: 15
Appearance: Saphire is a tall girl with long brown hair like her mother's
Picture:

Step 4, Ask:

If there's anything you didn't understand or don't think wasn't covered, ask in this thread and someone will get back to you. If you have a question, please check that it hasn't already been asked before posting it. Don't be afraid to ask. It's better to ask a stupid question than make a stupid mistake and feel the wrath of Twirls and Bree...

Haha, nice.

By the way, when Ben said 'it's better to ask a stupid question than make a stupid mistake and feel the wrath of bree and twirls' he was misleading you, because you'll feel my wrath either way. It'll just be a different wrath, because instead of yelling at you i'll be making fun of your idiocy.

And you all thought I was joking about them...

There's a reason why our usergroup is called 'the bitches', dear.

amen to that twirls.