Still adding and editing.

.: Introduction :.

Hey, this is your friendly neighborhood Devking, with a few tips on Role Playing. First of all, I'm not really friendly. Second, this may be the worst opening you have ever heard in your life, so forget about it.

Alright, now down to the point. My quick guide will be divided into sections, of which will be headed by underlined and colored words. You can easily scroll down to each section with Ctrl+F and then typing in the section's name. As of now, my guide is divided into various posts.

So read on!

1 = {Introduction}
2 = {ToC}
3 = {How To Use}
4 = {Role Playing Guides}
5 = {Tips For The Shiz}
6 = {FAQs}
7 = {Conclusion & Credits}
8v = {Open Discussion}

Here's some quick things about my guide that you should know before you read.

1. Everything is color coded.

What does this mean? You'll see a lot of different guide colors as you pass by my guide. The only reason that I'm using these is to separate different tips from each other. They really serve no purpose other than this. So don't worry over how if got everything set up.

2. Lists mean nothing.

If I ever have lists, tend to ignore them. All of my guides will be straightforward with the exception of a few examples and that will be all. As past my quick guides, my answers will all be short and concise. They will be literate and mainly formed in paragraphs of information. Finally, it's pretty funny that you read all the way down here. If I have a list selection that says, "Lists mean nothing", and you're still reading this, then my guide is right for you.

As for how to use my guide, it's simple. Just read along, and hopefully my explanations will be enough. Otherwise, you can personally post at the end of my guide with any questions you may have. Remember, Ctrl+F is god here.

How To Role Play

There really isn't a right way to role play, but there are styles of role playing. Everyone (hopefully)has their own method to role playing, and you'll eventually develop it the longer you've stayed. The below guides tell you the different aspects about the "game", and others. For tips regarding getting into the role play area and everything else, check out the Tips section. As for things within your own posting and stories, this is the section to be checking out.

An Example

First off, you can get a taste of role playing by reading other role plays. This always helps out when you've just started, or if you're just bored. I recommend this only if you don't start making copies of other people's work and have already decided a style of role playing for yourself. The reason why is because people who read other's role play without knowing how to write a story at all tend to fix themselves to a style different from their own.
Anyways, an example of a role play between two people (chosen just because) can be found here: http://z1.invisionfree.com/forums/roleplay...wtopic=291&st=0

Ratings and Genres

This forum is split both depending on the genre of a role play and by the rating level. It is really up to you on what style you like to play in. For now, here's a quick run down on each genre and rating and more about it. Fantasy. Expect some action and violence here, along with a more unrealistic taste to things. Although it is not completely sci-fi, fantasy will hold such things you would find in a Lord of the Rings or Warcraft plane. Futuristic. No need to explain -- just expect some action and violence, along with the common Star Wars/Star Trek epidemic. Realism. Don't expect too much action and violence here, for realism is where High School role plays and things like that to take place. Note that romance usually can be found most here. Fandom Only. It is for role plays based on storylines of other sorts. If it's not original as far as story goes, it will be found here. Adult Only. This brings us to the side of ratings. As you know, there are the basic P, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 divisions. P and PG will be mainly more peaceful, with little or no violence, sexuality, and language. PG-13 starts to have more violence and language, but still little sexuality. In a rated R role play, expect a lot of violence and language, and some sexuality. It is usually regarded with a role play where things are more adult. Finally, the Adult Only section refers to role plays that are NC-17. That means anything goes. As for the other two sections in the forum, one is for advanced role players, so don't expect to come here too soon, and the other is for storyline role playing. You can join, but there will be a story behind it, so not just anything goes. Now I have a separate section for each of these, so that's the end to this rant.

Two Tenses; Two Perspectives

If you haven't caught on yet, this guide is about the past and present tense, and first- and third-person perspectives. These are very important aspects to role playing, as it announces when something is happening and in who's eyes it's being seen in. Ever since there was role playing, there have been the different ways to put up a post, and I'll start picking them apart with this trivial guide. First, perspectives.

If your here at this forum, chances are that you actually do know about the first- and third- person perspectives. If you don't, don't worry about it. With this quick guide, you'll learn in no time. When someone writes a story using the word, "I", you can quickly pick it out to be in a first-person style. This style talks about certain things from the point of the person themselves, and usually adds a sense of mystery to the reader, if used correctly. It can also be used for the character themselves to interact with the reader, to inform them of what the person believes, instead of what may really be going on. Sometimes this can be used to tell something without the use of proper grammar. Very few role players these days will try using this style, although it may be dropped in simply as a teaser post.

Third-person. Very commonly used for the story writing world. In the third-person perspective, the announcing of characters using, "he", "she", "they", and a certain character's name will be found. The reason this is used is mainly if there are more than one characters that you have control over, as in, you are writing a story with two characters, and you choose to use third-person so that they may perform actions without confusion of the reader. When it comes to an one-person story, this format is still used because it announces the most accurate and literal thing that has happened or is happening to the character. It's also much easier to use.

Next, I'll be talking about the tenses. There's past and present, of which both are equally used within role playing, each with their own attributes. The past tense, more liked throughout forum style role plays, tells about what has happened to the character already. The present tense telling what is currently happening to character(s). People who are writing stories tend to use the past to tell actions, so that it sounds more fluid when you have a whole bunch of other people also within the story, each writing what happens to everyone. This is because in past, something has happened, and the next guy can simply work off that. In present, all "players" must work it so that the actions will co-operate with each other. Still, though, the present tense is used as much as the past. Personally, I prefer if people all use a past tense, if not a third-person view.

Literacy

Role playing is usually divided through theme/genre and rating. But past that, there are two kinds of base role players. The ones who are literate and the one who aren't. Now what does this mean? Although both types of role players are commonly accepted in the majority of threads, people still prefer if everyone were literate. Now there is no clear-cut way to determine if you are literate or not, but some of the signs are evident. All I can say right now is that literacy depends on how you post in a role play. If you do so with care, proper use of grammar and spelling, and keep everything neat and organized, you will be regarded as literate. If do keep many abbreviations like "OMG" or "lol" in your posts and start breaking off of proper story writing, it will be annoying for others, and that's when you will be considered as illiterate. Some people really have a problem with this, and you will find many threads which are sealed only to those that are literate. So my answer: Post well.

Literate.
The highest class of role players. These guys will usually be the ones you find in the most advanced and complicated of threads. One fast and quick way to tell if someone if literate or not is to check how they abide by the rules of a forum. Usually, the ones who follow it very strictly are the literate ones.

Illiterate.
Scum of forums, yada-yada-etc-etc. Really, most people are fine with the fact that there are illiterate role players, as it brings an extra feel to threads. Illiterates will tend to post care-freely, while ignoring most rules--mainly the grammar ones, posting with bad spelling and punctuation mistakes. Some people very much dislike illiterates, and for the reason that they usually will post without making everything in order.

Semi-literate.
Although there's literate and illiterate, there is a small (actually big) space in between. While the literate users will always go strictly with the rules and the mannerisms to posting and the illiterate users will void from proper neatness, the semi-literates tend to do things at an average style. If you just want to role play because you enjoy putting up your wild tales and just want to have a good time without causing any problems, chances are that you're semi-literate. Basically, if you post neatly enough while you're not completely obsessed with the rules of the trade, you belong to this grouping.

Italics

If you've studied proper grammar, you should already know when to use and when not to use italics. But in role playing (and sometimes in literature), you will find italics in very odd places. For instance, when a more odd emphasis is put on a word, people tend to use italics to reference it. This you may see in regular writing. But what's special about role playing is that a commonly chosen task for italics is thinking. When a sentence or chain of text is in italics, you may have to believe that it is in fact what a character is thinking at that point in time.

Godmodding: A Problem In Modern-Day RPs

If you've read the description of this topic, you'll notice that it says "Godmodding" within it. Well, here's the little guide about it and how to spot it. First of all, godmodding is one of the few things that's not allowed in role playing. Simply put, it's really not "not allowed", just that people dislike it when a godmodder is spotted, and that because of it's existence, Godmodding is usually banned in all role playing forums.

Next up to bat: How to find and avoid Godmodding.

-Adding-

First Things First

I know you are already reading my post and all excited about role playing. But before we can start on my guides and tips for the nooblets out there, there are a few things to start out by doing. First, obviously, you would register to this forum by clicking the link above, below the annoying Google Ads, which is simply titled "Register". Next, you would sign-up, filling out the required fields to gain access to the member's list. When you are done, you will be brought back to the main page of the forums, where you can quickly post and whatnot. Now what I recommend most of you to first do is to customize your profile!!! It gets annoying when people don't have avatars and personalization going on!!! You can check out my tips section below for more information on this. Next, I say create a character, and then finally, post. Creating A Character will be my next topic, and you can view it if you like.

Creating A Character

This step is completely optional, but preferred greatly. The reason is that it gets annoying when you have to type out a new character sheet every time you go to a new thread, for both you and your peers. With that, let's begin. At the main page of the forum, go down to the Topic titled, "Character Sign-Up". Here, go to the thread titled, " Character Sheet Posting; Character Directory". All you need to do is post by clicking "Post Reply". Remember to follow the correct format and to follow all instructions. If you need help on this step, I have an individual thread explaining this process. That's basically it. Once your character is posted and approved, you can start role playing!!! (A tip for now is to sig your character. If you're really that much of a noob that you don't know how, thank me for making an article on that part, under the tips section.)

Finding A Place To Go

After you have registered, made a character, had it approved, and personalized your profile, it is time to go role play. But how do you know where to go and where to post? It's actually quite simple. Because this forum is divided into many sections, you can go to each to find the genre thats right for you. For now, it is best to go to a newly opened role play (I recommend one that's less than 10 posts long) and join. Once you have settled down, you can start going to more and more role plays, choosing the genre thats best for you. Below are pieces of information that will help you choose. As for more advance role plays, I suggest you stay away for now.

Personalization

Personalization is a top-notch key in achieving the sense of professionalism. When one has a well-polished avatar and signature combo, people tend to believe that they are more of the better role players. Although this is not always the case, it is better to set up your own personalization to set yourself apart from other members. This will both individualize you and make things look better. The first step towards so is to join the forum and then log into the User CP. Once there, you will be able to edit information regarded with your username. From an avatar to a signature to even personal information, it's always nice to fill things out. Personal information is simple to explain, as I can do it within this section, but read on for avatar and signature information. It is perfectly optional to do so, and probably you wouldn't, but fill out personal information just so that others can read up to see who you are.

Avatars and Signatures

These two things are very similar in that they will commonly refer to images with boost personalization. First of all, an avatar is an image which can be from 1 pixel by 1 pixel to 100 pixels by 100 pixes long. You can do whatever you want for an avatar. My advice is to make it different from everyone else's and maybe even put your username in there. It is not required to do any of this, but it is better to. Now onto signatures. You can put anything in them that goes within the valid amount of text/space. So that means text, links, and images can be posted up. Many people use this space to put up a small image that they made up (more likely to have their username on it than on an avatar) or to put up a quote that they feel works. Really, it is up to you on what you want to put -- even leaving it blank works! But as I've said, it adds to personalization. In role playing, though, we prefer to put character sheets in our signatures, for its easier that way.

BBCode, Posting, and Signatures

In most online forums, there will be a universal computer language named BBCode. This allows for the making of words bold, underlined, italicized, and etc. It also lets people change fonts, sizes, colors, add images, add links, etc. Basically, it works for the things you want to do to your posts and signatures. It is really up to you on learning how to use this coding, but for starters, you have buttons above posting spaces which insert BBCode for you. Although, it is easier to just type it out. In posting, I imagine that one only needs to bold, italicize, and change color, so below is their codes:

It's not at all a language that takes forever to learn, and it in fact is much easier than any other coding. Above were just simple pieces of coding, and I will not review much more and how they work in this thread. It is up to you to learn yourself or find another place to teach you. As for signatures, I think all you need are image coding and link coding, which is as follows:

These two will help on personalization, and the second will allow you to put your character sheets up. As for changing the color of the link, put the color tags within the url tags.

The below is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs). If I feel that there is something that might be asked a lot or has been asked many times already, I will post it up here.

There's no more to the guide, except for the part where you get to post up what you thought and what you still want to know. Now, if changes are needed or asked for, or if I choose to take one's question and post it up, credit will be given to them underneath this text. Currently, this is like a "Whitelist", although for reason that they somewhat helped with the production of a better guide. Also, small updates and whatnot will be posted here, just for informational purposes.

Alright. So that's my guide. Hope you liked it or it helped you in some ways. Now for the final part of it -- the Open Discussion. This is the section where if you have any further questions, or would just like to chat about the guide, please feel free to post. Now if you want any changes made, you can post here too.

Chat it up.