RolePlayGateway?

As threatened, I'm posting my thoughts, opinions and observations on RP here, written in a friendly and approachable Guideline format.
Of course, this is just my take on it and naturally you can take it or leave it, they aren't rules!
I hope it is useful and interesting!

Plenty of craziness to share,
- Saaki.

Character creation

Stereotype vs. Original

The characters we role-players love to create seem to be an extension of ourselves. We take bits of ourselves, from our own characteristics, our own experiences, our own wants and wishes, and with these things we create.

From my own experience creating characters, I?ve found a great way to start and things to keep in mind while creating. These are my opinions, not laws or rules, they might not even be the best ways, take from this what you want and I hope it?s interesting.

The beginning of character creation for me is finding what I want to express through the character. I never start with the skin I put my character in.

The skin you zip your character in has nothing to do with who they are.

Stereotype Example:
* A red-haired girl with glasses is a bookworm and a nerd, she gets bullied at school. She?s shy and intelligent.
* A big brute of a lad with muscles and a tendency to get into fights is thick and makes a fool of himself.

This hasn?t told you a great deal about their character.

My Example:
* Kor is anger at injustice, she wouldn?t stay quiet, she would speak up when normally people stay silent. She wouldn?t take things lying down, if push came to shove, she?d shove first and make sure they didn?t get up again.
* Raiden is insanity, not the innocent, harmless insanity, but a murderous, ?I will kill you? kind. A bestial, primitive person who cared only for survival.
* Lilin is innocence, nurture. She would do anything for anyone, even if it meant she?d get hurt. She?d help because she could, not for what she?d get in return.

In these three examples, I?ve not said a word what they look like, but already, you can tell they?re people. I could give them any skin I wanted, Lilin could be a short red haired geek, a tall beautiful willowy girl or a muscular, brutish troll.
Where as, the first examples, you could forget them easily.

Once you have a basic form, ?a male, alcoholic, trickster? you can start fleshing them out.
Pose your character basic questions and make sure they can answer it.
* Why is he an alcoholic? - Maybe he got in with the wrong crowd when he was a youth. Maybe he drowns a hidden misery in the numbness of alcohol. Maybe he doesn?t see the point in life without drink.
* Why does he trick people? - Maybe he got badly hurt once. Maybe he doesn?t feel safe. Maybe he doesn?t know how to be truthful.
Who knows, you as the creator definitely should have at least an idea!
Any of these maybes create new questions.
* If he doesn?t know how to be truthful, Why?
*If he drowns a hidden misery, What misery?
I?m sure the answers will create more questions. The more answers, the firmer and more solid your character will be, without grey areas.

Never, ever, ever do something with your character that is Out Of Character.
* Kor would never run back to pick someone up who had fallen while fleeing. She believes in survival of the fittest.
* Raiden would never willingly go into a bright light, because it triggers his mania episodes. (unless, of course, his love was going to die if he didn?t.)
* Lilin would never kill anyone. (unless it was dire self defence and she had no other choice, or an accident.)

After you know your character a little better, normally you already know their name, it just leaps out at you, often.
But, sometimes, names can be trick some, elusive things.

Think about the character and try picking out letters that suit their temperament.
Think about smooth, sharp, hard and soft letters.
It?s up to you what letters feel like, what you associate them with and what they mean to you.

Tips for character History:

Birth (How and Location)
Upbringing (How and Location)
Parents (Who? Why?)
Siblings (Who? When? Why?)

Child Characteristics and Turning Points:
Tutored / schooled (How, Location and Who?)
First time of event (Who, How, and many more questions.)
First partner, first pet, first experience of death, etc.
Occupation
Living Circumstance
Romance
Likes and Dislikes
Objectives
Motivation
Alignment (good or bad)
Attitude - Behaviour
State in Society (wealthy or poor)
Security
Family
Abilities
Mental state (positive or negative)
Physical state (Well, Ill, Fit, Unfit, Disabled, Able.)
Personality
and finally
Appearance.

Guidelines:

Fairness, Trust and Understanding.

RPing is to do with preference, how you introduce your character, how you describe them and their surroundings, if you start a scene in the fray or casual. It is based on your character, who will define everything you write:

Basics:

Speech, what character says. "Hail, friend."
Action, what character does, movement, big or small.
Emotion, what character feels.
Setting/Surrounding, what character notices, or becomes apparent in background/story line.
Thought, character thoughts. 'Why did I say that?'
- also used in telepathic-speech, 'Hey, watch out!'
Atmosphere, of character, and/or surroundings.
Cause and Effect, something happens, so what happens as a result.

The reason for these categories is that having a block of Information is often just too hard to digest and picture, our minds and imagination will always work in its proffered way. Imagination will always fill in the blanks, only needing a hint to build a picture.

I will use an example:
Flinn put the glass on his table as he sat, running his palm over the well varnished, yet scarred wood. His fingers brushed over the most recent indentation, where his knife had struck in anger last night.
He didn't exactly remember what had happened, there had been too much drink, one too many girls trying to get to him. His woman had become angry and challenged him in this room.
He didn't remember where she was, either, couldn't remember if she had left in a flood of tears, as she had so many times before, or if she lay in his bed asleep, as she did most other times.
Waking up on the sofa did have advantages, but the sore neck was bothering him greatly.
He rubbed the crick in his spine as he held the glass to his throbbing head.
'Must cut down on the drink..'
-
In that completely off the top of my head scene, I am partially describing the Surroundings, but mostly the Emotion, the Character.
A vague history and small incident has been hinted, also vaguely suggesting that this has happened before. You also see he might have a problem with drink.
As one of the things I've read about stories, the key part in a scene, is something has to Change, and that is the Catch that snags the attention of the reader. In this, you are instantly thrown into a slight dilemma, given reason to Catch, a history that also can suggest a Future, whether dark or light. Do tell me if I am wrong!
I could go into more depth about the room, thus explaining it. But, as always, the readers imagination will always fill in the blanks. So rather than specifics of where things are and how they're placed, Hint at it, make it important to the Character, because if they don't notice it, why is it even important? It can always be added later, broadening the Surroundings, clearing the Blanks in the image you build.
-
His eyes opened slowly, still hazy from his brain pounding headache. The plaster wall across the room spun out of focus, forcing his eyes to close briefly. He would have to repaint at some point, it was peeling and chipping away, with the constant violation the walls got.
"Hm." He did remember shoving her against the wall, with his body, but he couldn't remember if it had been in anger, or lust, or even both..
A chair was on its back on the crinkled carpet, he remembered falling over that, as well. But other than that, the room was sparse, only a sofa and a wash basin in the small room, beside the fridge.
He groaned in pain, closing his eyes against the afternoon light and pressing the cold glass to his head again.
'Let the hang over go soon, please..'
-
I never introduce a character with their Appearance first, because its just not interesting unless you have a feel for the characteristics inside, if you're not Caught, then it's just tedious to read 'He looked like this, and this, and this' same as 'The room looked like this, and this, and this.'


Cause and Effect
Advantage and Disadvantage:
Alternatively, RP fighting without dice.

In what I?ll call close interaction scenes I use a thing I call ?surprise calculation? or ?advantage percentages.?
The element of surprise can have a massive impact on fights, or romance scenes. The better calculated things are, the more realistic and smooth things run, often with interesting and unexpected outcomes.

Example:
A masculine male naturally have more strength than a female, making his advantage higher than hers.
Lilin 50% Eric 60%
However, taking into account the thousands of different varieties of characters, traits and the multitude of combinations created, it might not be as simple as ?he?s stronger than her.?
For instance, if he?s wounded, that puts him equal to her, or, depending how serious his wounds are, he could be at a disadvantage to her.
What if we have a barbarian woman and a thin, peaceful priest?
The more complicated the character and the situation, the more things to take into account and calculate.
However, normally it is straight forward and simple, and when thought about often enough, becomes natural, a way of assessing an RP situation.
(I expect most RPers do it naturally without realising it.)

Action Example:
Eric is sat at a desk. To grab Lilin?s hand to stop her from leaving, as he wants to do, he would have to push out of the chair and reach for her.
He is at a disadvantage. Lilin would spot his intention before he?d even begun to get out of his chair. It would give her time to react, to back away, out of his grasp.
She?s at a high advantage, she could run out the door before he?d even got around the desk.

- In any and every situation, be aware of God Emoting (also known as Power Emoting.)
God emoting is when players describe an action that takes away the ability of another player to respond or prevent it from happening.
Examples of GE:
* Tom cuts Lily?s fingers off.
* Ray stabbed and killed Mo.
Correction:
* Tom grabbed Lily?s hand and pressed it down onto the table, pulling up his knife to cleave her fingers off.
* Ray attacked Mo, stabbing at him with a knife, trying to kill him.

The difference is large, the outcome has completely and utterly changed. No player likes to be given no choice in the situation.

* Tom grabbed Lily?s hand and pressed it down onto the table, pulling up his knife to cleave her fingers off.
Lily jerked out of Tom?s grip and threw a punch at his face.
Tom?s face burst with pain as Lily?s fist connected, throwing him off balance, his knife clattered to the floor.

However, in my examples, I also gave a way around the elaborate dance of attempting and trying. With fairness, trust and understanding, you don?t have to never ever touch another character without asking. Tom did grab Lily, but that?s alright as long as it?s not changing Lily in some irreparable way.
Example:
* Jack took Sara?s jaw by his fingers and kissed her.
Rather than:
* Jack tried to take Sara?s jaw.
Sara didn?t stop him.
Jack kissed her.

The constant asking for permission sometimes gets monotonous and takes the joy out of it. It diffuses the excitement. A little surprise is always exciting! Just be cautious and know the player is okay with it. When you?re friends it doesn?t seem to matter as much, because a good punch in the arm is warning enough, but with strangers it is good to be wary.

Calculation of Advantage:
Back to calculations, to make sure it is clear and understandable.
Example:
* Damien rose from his chair as an intruder burst through into his chamber doors, brandishing a sword. He unsheathed his own and readied himself for a fight.
= Equal terms, they can both see each other, there isn?t a great element of surprise, as Damien already had his sword handy. The threat is clear, though maybe the person has a bone to pick and is using the sword as emphasis to show he means no non-sense.
* The stranger hovered at the door, light streaming in from behind, obscuring his face. With intent to kill as a hired assassin, he leapt to attack.
= Dependant on the characteristics of the characters, especially the assassin in motivations, ego and skill, this can influence the balance. There could be a dance of verbal battle before the real battle begins, perhaps to flesh out the storyline, the intent, or maybe it?s just time for business. Kill first ask later.
* Damien parried the attack, the opponents circled, looking for openings. Damien struck with an upward swing.
= The underlined selection shows a safe use of character influencing. It?s not interfering with the player?s assassin character, it is only predicting an action the assassin would probably have made anyway. Since we should know each others characters, it is safe to assume an action like that, just don?t do something out of character! If Damien?s player had made the assassin trip over the carpet, it would be a God Emote.
*The assassin blocked the attack, deflecting it with his sword. With an opening he attacked again, a slice aimed at the chest.
= Another thing to be aware of, when the attack has been attempted it is in the other players hands to decide what happens to his or her own character, especially if the hit lands and how much damage it does. If the other player does something you don?t think is fair, it should be fine to bring it to attention, like miraculously dodging a blow that should land.
With the right calculations, it shouldn?t be unfair. Although, there is always a possibility you?ve not taken something into account, like, perhaps is Damien had ghostly powers and the sword could pass straight through him.

Hope this has been interesting and helpful!
If there are any questions or requests on more information, you know where to find me!

- Saaki.

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