Ollie's School of RP

[River Song]

A-herm. *riffles papers* Hullo everyone.

I'm gonna start out by saying that this little thread thing here? Yeah, this is in no way aimed at any one player, character, or incident. Really. I've just noticed a few things poping up in admin-y type chats and thought, wouldn't it be nice if we were all on the same page?

And yes, yes it would. For everyone involved, old players, new players, and admin types alike.

So. A quick primer on etiquette, terminology, and how to generally be an awesome player. And for the love of all things noodley, ask questions and add your own input! That's part of improving, after all. But please leave your weapons at the door. The Doctor get tetchy about those sorts of things.

Now, firstlies, so y'all don't think I'm just blowing smoke, a bit about me. Y'all know me as Ollie, or Oleander, and I'm playing River here, an subbing for Ten until someone else wants him. Mouse conscripted me from RPG Collection and she is awesome for it. Before this, I had been on a bit of an RP hiatus, but I've been both player and mod. I know where both groups are coming from.

I'm not up on all the current trends, but those core skills and what? I promise, they never change, and that's what I want to talk about. And yes, there will be wee green deer wandering everywhere. No need to read everything at once, or even at all. Woo, references! <3 <3

[River Song]

Terminology!
Or What the heck is God Mode?

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Like all culture groups, role players have managed to develop their own lingo and phrases that can leave new players in the dark. Old ones too. Took me forever to figure out what the difference between elite and literate was ,and I'm still not terribly sanguine on it. Anyhow! The important bits!

Canon -- A cannon is a gun. Canon is the Word of God. In this case, it's canon that Rose Tyler had blonde hair and brown eyes, because we see it in the show, and yes, it may be dyed or it may be natural, but that, is fanon.

Canon characters are those taken from a fandom's source material: Doctor Who, Torchwood, SJA, and K9, in this case. Original characters are original to the player.

Fanon -- Fanon is generally accepted fan canon. Such as Rose dying her hair. Or that the Doctor's pockets are bigger on the inside. Also called head!canon, it's things we don't have any proof of, but everyone assumes is true.

Fanon characters are those that we see little of in canon-sometimes just a name-and get fleshed out by players.

Paragraph Style -- Or para RP. This is what we are! It's writing things out, in paragraph form, like a book. Typically, it's also third person, past tense-Sarah Jane crouched behind a bush, not, I am hiding behind a plant.

Chat Style -- MUSH, MUD, or IRC style and about a million other names. Not seen so much on forums lately, it comes from chat room style RPs, where characters' actions are put in splats or brackets or some other symbol to set them off, such as *hugs* or *pounces on the noob*.

God Mode -- Comes from old school first person shooters (Duke Nukem, in particular) where you could enter a code, and become invincible. And boring. A god moding character is one who cannot be hurt, killed, or really, effected in any way, by any other character. Superman is a prime example, and our current Clark is doing a pretty brilliant job of avoiding the God Mode by using a younger, less confident Kal-El.

God Moded characters are difficult to play with, because they quite often walk all over the other characters.

Power Playing -- Power playing, on the other hand, has less to do with the character and more with the player. It's pretty simply controlling another character, through your own. Example? Yes please.

Character A, lets call him Jack (Hello, Jack!) and Character B, lets call her Sally. (Hi, Sally!) have gotten in a bit of a fight. Jack's player could write that he takes a swing at Sally, breaks her jaw, and knocks her out cold. And it may be believable, but it's still power playing. A better post would be Jack taking his swing, and waiting for Sally's player to decide what damage, if any, it does, because each player is controlling their own character.

Power playing isn't always bad! In fact, if both players agree to it, it can be a great way of moving a thread along, or add suspense.

Mary-Sue -- And/or the self insert. Love em or hate em, Mary-Sues and self inserts are here to stay. In fact, they've been around from the infancy of fanfiction, where the term comes from. Mary Sue is the character that's smarter than the Doctor, stronger than Jack, prettier than any companion, ever, has a painful past that makes everyone pity her, never has a hair out of place, and cries one perfect tear for the fall of Arcadia.

Self inserts are Mary-Sue's big sister; s/he is you, pure and simple. Or maybe the you you wish you were-a little skinnier, a little prettier, whatever. They aren't always horrible, either, though, and properly played, they can be just as fun as a canon character. But badly played, they'll make you want to pound your head on the table. In my personal opinion, Bella Swan is a pretty stellar example of a popular Mary-Sue.

One Liner -- A one line, or one word, reply in a thread. Sometimes they're just peachy keen, sometimes infuriating. Generally frowned on in paragraph style RPing.

Hooks -- Those lovely little hooks. They're what RPers live for! They're the things, be it dialog, or descriptions, or anything really, that another player gives you, for your character to respond to. Or not.

App / App Skeleton -- That thingie you fill out to describe your character, and show what sort of writer you are. Sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes non-existent. Also called bios, biographies, and any number of other things.

Face Claim / Play-By -- Actors, actresses, models, musicians or drawing that a player uses as a reference for their character's appearance. Some Play Bys are canon (David Tennat is a canon PB for Cassanova and Ten) and some are original, even for canon characters.

[River Song]

Etiquette!
Or, What do you mean In Character Consequences?

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Etiquette, the grease that makes society run smoothly. It's what keeps us from wanting to strangle each other. Or flounce off and never RP again. A few social niceties to keep in mind when RPing:

• In Character actions should have In Character Consequences.
  
  • Jack (hello, again!) is free to knock Sally (poor girl) out if he likes, but there will be consequences if he does. Maybe an arrest. Maybe a lecture from the Doctor. Maybe something worse. But he should not be expecting to get away with the action unhindered.
    
  
  
• In Character actions do not equal Out of Character Opinions.
  
  • River may be an obnoxious flirt, but that dosen't mean her player is. Her teasing with your character does not mean her player wants shenanigans.
    
  
  
• Canon, pls.
  
  • Because it's a canon game, it's generally expected that you know the basics of said canon. Players should know what Time Lords are, and that the TARDIS looks like a Police Box. That said, asking questions if you don't know the canon? Brilliant. Please do. That's what me and the other admin types are here for, among other things.
    
  
  
• Play your character as you applied for them.
  
  • Rose should behave like Rose, not The Master, and an original character that's applied as shy and intellectual should not be an uuber violent tank or vamp without reason. Sally is free to dodge Jack's punch, but her player should take note of their comparative combat skills.
    
  
  
• Real life trumps RP every time.
  
  • People have jobs. And kids. Or classes. And other things, that should all really come before a game. Regular posting is good, but insisting on posting? Not so much.
    
  
  
• Keep ratings in mind!
  
  • A-herm. Some players have kids. Some players are kids. Heavy gore and shenanigans should have a warning. Things that will make your Gran blush? Need to fade to black.
    
  
  
• Formatting.
  
  • Some of us are kids, yes, but some of us are old farts, too. We don't want to have to clamor for our specs every time we read a post, because of excessively small fonts, or colors that blend too much with the background. Others may have disabilities that make reading difficult, or not speak English as a first language.
    
  
  
• Spoilers!
  
  • Especially in a canon game, and especially when different countries run different TV schedules, a spoiler warning is a brilliant thing. <3
    
  
  

[River Song]

How to be an awesome Role Player!
Or,how to put it all into play.

---

So whats it all mean in the end?

Well, foremost is that it's all just guidelines, here, and if everyone agrees, toss em out the window. Whatever y'all work out. But the big thing is honor and respect, and keeping things fun for everyone.

On the other hand, you don't need to be Shakespeare to be a good, or even amazing, RPer. You don't need to write 1,000+ words, or kill the thesaurus looking for just the right five syllable word. If you give your partners some nice hooks, and post with some regularity, then you've already got a great game.

But how do you be awesome? You ask? Yeah, sort of subjective, but there are ways to up your skills, just like with anything else you do.

Keep in communication with your partners. Eleven has already power played River in one thread, but Mouse and I were chatting while we wrote, we both agreed on it, and it made for a brilliant post.

Write as you would have others write for you. Reply as others have written before you. If a three page thread has been written in first person past tense paragraphs, it's poor sport to reply in first person, present, with chat form. It's also usually frowned on to reply to a three paragraph post with one word, but exceptions do exist.

Spell check. Grammar check. Know your homophones. It's absurdly easy to find spelling and grammar checkers these days-Firefox even has one built in, so there's no excuse for posts that are unreadable. If you have problems with they're/their/there or two/too/to, be on the look out for slip ups and type-os.

Know your strengths, and your weaknesses. I know I have a hard time playing guys, so I take extra care with male characters. I make stupid amounts of type-os, so I double check. Other people can't write technobabble, or are new to the fandom. Accept it, work on it if you want, or ask someone for help. Who knows, maybe they happen to need help writing dialog and you can both work together.

Your character doesn't sparkle. Twilight jokes aside, playing with a perfect character is perfectly boring. Weaknesses and faults and all those other human things are what makes gaming fun. On the other side of the coin-you're not always going to be able to save the universe by yourself. You won't always have the Magical Thing-a-ma-bob that saves the day (even the Doctor loses or breaks his sonic on occasion). Let your character fail. Let them be ugly. Let them be real.

Be proactive. Be descriptive. Show, not tell.

Which is better:

Pax walked into the library. She was so angry. So worried. She sat down at a desk and sighed.

Alone again.

or

The girl paced in a flurry of green and brown, her robes fluttering in her wake. She was sure, absolutely sure, her sister had promised to meet her here, now, this very second, in the fifth floor of the stacks. But no, no black hair so very like her own, no other Arcalians at all-just a few atrocious Prydonains in their scarlets.

Had she missed her? Should she ask? She was very nearly a full Time Lady, she shouldn't be this emotional, this nervous, about anything, but Rassilon knew what had happens to Pol this time.

Fine. So be it. She shoved her shoulders back and tossed her braid out of the way, sparking with pride and pig-headed will-every inch a proper young woman and marched up to the tallest of the lot.

The first is grammatically correct, and OK as far as general RP etiquette, but a bit boring, very short, and its passive. Other characters would have to come to her to reply. It tells you she's angry, but doesn't show it.

The second is better because it gives us a bit of a setting-not just the library stacks, but by mentioning chapter houses, robes, time ladies and rassilon, it suggests Gallifrey and the academy-and show's us a girl pacing with nervous energy, shows a girl using arrogance and pride to cover fear, and shows us who by way of her sister, and a the description of her hair and robes, without making a bullet list for her outfit. It also takes the post to the other characters-it's active instead of passive-and all the extra detail made for a longer post.

[River Song]

How to Be a Crappy Role Player!
Or, Please Stop. Please?

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Alright, so, if an awesome RPer is subjective, then a crappy RPer is to, yeah? Yeah. And we all have our own styles and ways of doing things, and that is just how the world is, and it's wonderful that way. Yay, diversity! That said, there are some things out there that are guaranteed to annoy most of your partners.

Plagiarism -- Theft is theft is theft, no matter how you look at it, even if it's "just" borrowing someone's drawing, or copying their application, or blatantly stealing original characters.

Disregarding game and board rules -- Breaking Proboard's rules endangers the game-why risk it for everyone?

Disregarding stated squicks and limits -- Squicks, limits, and their big scary sister, triggers, when people state them, it's for a reason, and they need to be abided, worked around, or faded to black-from everything as innocent as no smut, or no romance, to no pregnancy, or no abuse. (Of course, if someone fails to mention their squicks and limits, it's a whole different kettle of fish.)

Rule Lawyers -- AKA Thread Counters and Rule Nazis-trying to wiggle your way out of consequences through some obscure rule or little know canon factoid. Discussing problems with mods-great. Arguing over a rule to the point of dead horses or dredging up something one fan in a hundred might known to combat a rule-not so much.

Mini-Mods -- Imitating board staff, intentional or otherwise, is not just not cricket, it's confusing for new players.

Irritating Graphics -- No, I don't mean mixing hot pink with red and orange and glitter and little animated kittens, I mean those images and sigs that stretch the board, break your scroll wheel, or take two hours to load. In fact, if you have to scroll to see any portion of a sig or icon image, it's probably too big.

*straightens papers*

And that, folks, its the long of it. Definitely not the short of it. I did warn you, Teal Deer everywhere. ;P

Questions, comments and suggestions, are, of course, welcome and encouraged! Come share your experiences, good bad or otherwise, or ask that burning question.

[River Song]

Addendum!
Or, Ollie Forgets Crap.

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Yeah. It happens, I forget, or brain fart or someone points something out that I missed entirely. Here it is.

-Taking turns, aka posting order. Just like in kindergarten, we need to queue up and take turns. If a thread's posting order goes Vitalia, Akira, Eleven, then The Monk, it needs to say in that order. Wait your turn. Unless, say, Akira tells everyone involved that they're going to be gone for a day, and their next turn can be skipped.