How to Role Play

[Dr. Horrible]

Disclaimer: I am not perfect. I am human. My experience and writing level is unique to me and no other. This is not a “you must do this” kind of how-to. Every person has a style that is theirs alone. However, in the interest of having longer posts, with body to them for other people to build off of, I have made this. And I do think I have some credit: role play for over eight years, journalist, role play teacher on several forums, English major… there might be some acclaim to what I say. Enjoy.

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On making a new thread:

Start with a place. See it to yourself. Are you inside, outside, somewhere between? Are you in a building, on a building, in a park, WHERE ARE YOU?! This is the best place to start. Yes, we have boards with titles. So what? Re-state it. Confirm where you are. In big bold huge blatant words. Why? This creates a habit. You won’t always have a board that’s spelled out for you. There are normally “random” areas, or “miscellaneous” areas for those that want to post in a place not provided.

It also helps when you’re in a kind of mall. Malls are subjective, always changing and building. The admins cannot make every store and food-shop in existence for you to post in. So set your character in a specific place to make setting easy. Once you tell us where we are, describe it. Is it night time? Morning? Cloudy, sunny? Is the area full of people, is there no one around?

Example:

Erik looked around the south end of the park, sitting contently on one of the many benches that lined the pond. There was a metal play-ground behind him; empty and devoid of the fun it could provide to children. That happened in the middle of winter, with the ground covered in snow. But the water before him wasn’t thick enough to skate on, leaven the park utterly lifeless. It was cold, and late, the sun having set ten minutes ago. The streetlights reached his face, showing just how tired he really was. It had been a horribly long day, far too long for him to want to remember.

Describe how your character looks. Tall, short, thick, small… how are they feeling? Does it show on their face? The more description, the better.

On describing characters:

Tell us more and more! We have these characters for a reason. Face-claims can only go so far. Your character doesn’t look the same all the time, life happens. Rather than resorting to pictures, tell us details. Tell us their flaws, I can guarantee your character has them. Also, try not to use the same words over and over again. They get boring to those reading, and stop being an accurate description. Their features change with their emotions. One great example of this is a person’s eyes. Even better, the color eye of “hazel.” I say this because the eyes are the most expressive part of your face. And hazel is amazing because hazel eyes change colors. Not Mary-Sue “my eyes are RAINBOW!” kind of changing.

Hazel eyes are a weapon that can hurt you. Because of how they change. You have to make their changing make sense, or people will snark at you. They have a very specific way of changing, due to what color hazel they are. There is blue hazel which look a very silvery-blue to a dark brownish-blue. Based on what is being worn. There is green hazel, which turn from jade green to a dark kind of murky mossy brown.

Another is a brown hazel. This color change is mostly from a light milk-chocolate brown to a very dark almost black Asian-eye brown. I am only giving the example of “Asian” because many Asians that I have met have very very dark eyes. This is by no means fully true! Not all Asians have dark brown eyes.

Now, most hazel changes color with clothing. If you’re wearing dark clothes, they will be a darker color. Lighter colors they will be light. If wearing the color that matches, they will hit it right on. Blue to blue, green to green, brown to brown. If wearing other colors; blue wears a brown or green, they will look darker. They also change with emotion. NOT like a mood-ring. It has to do with light refraction and angle.

When you’re sad, you tend to look down. This adds shade over your eyes, making them darker. When you cry, your eyes are covered in a thick layer of water. Again, this will change how the light hits your eyes, changing the color and looking almost murky. This applies to all colors, not just hazel.

Example:

Erik’s world had just ended. Completely. He had cancer, again. “Third time’s a charm” his mother used to say… so, did that mean he was going to… too…

He couldn’t lift his head. His feet were just so stupidly interesting at the moment he couldn’t look away from them. Even when he couldn’t see them for the tears in his muddy eyes he kept watching them.

“Hey, hey now, Erik look at me.” Shaking his head the boy kept his head down, only to have it forced up by the kind fingers that had held his just moments before. Saddened mossy brown met the clear blue above him, and found he couldn’t hold back anymore.

Describing colors can be hard. Coming up with name for eyes is harder. Here’s some ideas.

• Orbs. Good, but use in moderation. Tends to sound like a huge ball.
  
• Globes/globs. Great for wet eyes like when overly emotional. But sounds like a mass of goo.
  
• Peeper. Very good for perky characters.
  
• Their color. Let’s face it. looking into someone’s blues, or greens, or browns, classic.
  
• Eye. Can’t get over the original.

As important as eyes are, do NOT over-do them. Or they get corny and boring. And try not to do double words. Like putting their colors and then put a synonym to the word “color” right after it. Hazel hues, green tint, blue shade, etc. It’s redundant. To help, compare them. “Kitty’s eyes are like almonds.” That gives shape and color, as well as size. One sentence takes the place of three, and gets the point across.

More character description:

Clothes are great. But you don’t have to have to provide a perfect account or an image. The great thing about role play is that you use your imagination, and you let the other person come up with their own. Now, if it’s something specific like a wedding dress, then of course show an image. It’s very specific and special. If you’re doing the Pink sweets from Victoria Secrets, not so much so. Just say what it is; give a color, length, if it’s loose or fitting, dry or wet, whole or torn. This can be a lot on what’s going on in the thread as well as your character’s personality.

Example:

Mitsu loved bar fights. He loved how they smelled, how they worked… more importantly, he like that he could throw a punch and get hit by someone else. However, he hated what it did to his wardrobe. He hated the beer-stains on his shirt. He hated the rip his tight black shirt got when someone broke bottles on him. He hated how there was blood on his baggy jeans from the nose he had kneed. Or how someone had pulled on the sleeve of his dark leather jacket and almost popped the seam. Tossing his head back he shook his long red/black hair out of his eyes and clamped a half-gloved hand over his nose, trying to make it stop bleeding. Now that he thought about it, bar-fights weren’t all that fun…

On replying to threads:

First rule of role playing is to work WITH people, not against them. Now, that doesn’t mean your characters all have to get along. That’d be tedious and drawn out. And perfect… anyone smell a Sue? Make your characters have friends and enemies. Not everyone is going to like you, deal with it. However, you do have to work with them. This means that you don’t make yourself something new. If someone makes their thread in the park, doing something specific, don’t post in the thread making yourself on the other side of the park, or with a different weather, or at a different time… make it make sense.

Don’t ignore the other person. That’s just rude. If your character doesn’t know them, then yes, don’t go up to them and just start hitting it off. But don’t just write them out of their own thread. If you’re going to post in someone’s thread, then please, saw something about them. Do something with them. If you don’t like what the person wrote, or can’t do anything with what they wrote, then don’t post there. Make a new thread. If someone doesn’t give you anything to go off of, and you want to post with them, a polite note asking for a slight edit, or a question as to what direction they had wanted the thread to go into. It might give you ideas.

Just, you know, don’t change everything around. Also, major. DO read the post three times before posting. Why? Because you might have missed something. You may think the first time that there’s nothing to build on. Come back to it, and suddenly there was something you could go off of, and there was no editing involved. It can be subtle, but there. Take it, run with it, use it, abuse it. Use their character’s description. If there’s a six-foot-eight girl hanging from a street light, you’re going to notice it. Don’t just ignore it.

On making characters:

Characters are the reason we’re here, is it not? They are the life of role play. So they become very very important. Now the fun thing about them is that they are what we aren’t. Saying that, that doesn’t mean that they can be perfect. Not only is it annoying, but it’s dull. Not everyone can be popular, with perfect hair, flawless skin, amazing eyes, and great grades.

Make characters that are fun to play. Make one with autism. Make one that’s fat. Here are a few of the character either that I have made or have interacted with:

• Blind
  
• Voiceless (the rude word would be mute.)
  
• Paralyzed
  
• Deaf
  
• Has a limp
  
• Stutters
  
• Memory loss
  
• Adopted (divorced parents, be CAREFUL with this. See below for more details.)

Don’t make your characters all the same.

• Elu is a run-away, with autism. He loves music, hates math and English. He likes to hear stories. He doesn’t always understand what is being said to him. Elu is very innocent, and reminds people of a child though he is very much so a teen-ager in a teen-age body.
  
• Erik was very popular, until he no longer looked the part in an accident/medical problem. Now he is shunned by popular and unpopular alike. He has turned very shy, a great writer that can express anything but himself through writing. He hates being put on the spot, but is willing to do what he can. He likes to cook, and loves politer times like renaissance and Victorian times.
  
• Mitsu is a murderer. He’s seventeen, and has already had jail time, a pregnant girl friend, the loss of a child, and the loss of love. He hates people, but will get along with the people that don’t think that the world revolves around them. Very practical, if something doesn’t fit common sense, it doesn’t work.

These are by far not the limit you can go. You can go and make characters with more problems, less problems, the sky is the boundary that none can reach.

On Mary Sue/Gary Stue:

These are the plague of the role-play world. In the furry life, they are known as Sparkle Dogs. They are the people that idiots make and inexperienced people post with. They are the blight of our world and corrupt even the best role players. They fit into one category: perfect.

They come in a wide array of styles. Here are a few of the, well… I can’t say over done as that is what they are. But they are the standard items of a Sue.

• They come from broken homes but still managed to be raised just right.
  
• They have amazing morals, and never do anything wrong.
  
• Manage to have enough money to make them popular and give them what they want, but not enough to make them a “snob.”
  
• Their grades are great. They either get straight A’s or one or two B’s. Hand in hand with this, they aren’t only book-smart but able to “think outside the box.”
  
• Their eyes are the most dazzling thing ever.
  
• Nothing could be wrong with them. A pimple is blasphemy and a scar is un-heard off. Unless it’s a scar from their broken home that they managed to beat without any moral or mental scaring.
  
• They are the last of their family/species.
  
• Always the star hitter/kicker/main character of a play.
  
• Teacher’s pet, but also surrounded by friends.

I’ll stop there. I’ll keep your eyes from bleeding any more, but if you are curious as to what else a Sue/Stue can entail, there are plenty of rants informational sources on the internet. Just google it, LiveJournal is a great place to find some.

On other things:

Have fun! This is by no means a perfect how-to on everything you must include. The point is to have fun. It’s just a way to help you make your characters and posts longer and better. Ending notes from me would be to read for little hints of ideas in every sentence, add small quarks to your writings such as finger wringing or a particular talent your character has. It’s not always the big things that make a good character/post, but the small things that make the writing true from the heart and mind.

On that note, however, there are some notes on writing. It’s not required normally, but some sites do make a note of it. It’s common to use Third Person Perspective when role playing. “He, She, They.”

Example:

Mitsu walked into a bar.

Example of first person (a point of view that tends to be frowned on):

I walked into a bar.

It’s just some help. It’s a great way to make sure you’re all on the same page, and not confuse the person you’re posting with.