Annalas
Admin
Posts : 153
Join date : 2010-09-07
Age : 34
Location : Ohio, USA
 | | Subject: Roleplaying 101 Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:48 pm | |
| ROLE PLAYING TIPS What Is Godmodding?
This is the practice of forcing another character into a thought, or behavior, against their will. An example of this is:
"The new guitarist appeared in the room, drawing everyone's eyes towards him. He was so hot, so attractive, that everyone in the room had to have him..." This is a no-no, people. Your character can be as amazingly hot as they are in real life, but you can't control other people's characters. If you see someone Godmodding, be patient, explain why it doesn’t work and give them a do-over. For more information on Godmodding, see http://wttrp.com/2010/01/28/godmodding-and-you/.
What Can A Character Reasonably Do?
Skills and abilities should be reasonable as well. Based on which Roleplay you join, your character may be able to have more skills than common sense allows in the real world. For instance, a muse has the skills that are set down in the story it came from, but an actual band member is human and human only.
There are still limits to the skill, however, even for a muse. For example, your character shouldn't be a werewolf who is a 10th degree black belt in karate and can speak 10 languages fluently. Your character can be a werewolf. Your character can be a black belt. Your character can speak a few languages fluently. But they cannot do all three. Pick one talent and go with it. Also, be careful about your character's abilities. They can be pretty powerful, but there has to be a limit to their power. Even Superman has his limits. If your character is a teenager, they can have a certain amount of power, but they shouldn't be as powerful as an adult, and they probably shouldn't have as much control over their power since they're rather young.
Rule of thumb: for every good trait, have a bad one, too. Example: A stupid cannibal. An smart abusive boyfriend.
MARY - SUES / GARY STUS--Kill them!
A Mary Sue/Gary Stu (sometimes just Sue/Stu) is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the creator seems to favor the character too highly. The creator may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
The easiest and safest way to tell if your character is a Mary-Sue is to take a Mary-Sue Litmus test. We suggest http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm. Some of the Roleplays here have a clause concerning Mary-Sues; this is the test we use to verify complaints.
EXAMPLE OF A MARY - SUE
Raven is the hottest thing in the school. Everyone wants a piece of him, but of course he's not a lut. He has everyone wrapped around his little finger. He always gets an A without studying (school is easy anyway!). Secretly, he can also grow wings and fly around town when he feels like it, because his great-great-grandmother was an angel that came from heaven. Oh, and he's always right.
OR "Poor, poor Amy. She was sold into slavery at the young age of three, and has been beaten all the time. Then the young master of the house began to come to her at night and touch her!She managed to kill him, however, and escaped with the man that was raised as her brother, yet isn't related to her at all. Before long, they fall in love, and everyone knows he'll do ANYTHING for her...if only she wasn't cursed, as well." --This isn't a typical Sue, but it still is. Watch out for the Anti-Sue, which has TOO much bad in his/her life.
DO'S and DON'T'S
DO'S
- Include lots of description and comparisons in your posts.
- Use dialogue that other people can understand.
- Include movement such as walking, drinking, smelling, etc.
- Use your character's five senses.
- Describe the surrounding environment.
- Follow the guidelines of the universe in which you are posting.
- Remember to use good grammar, punctuation, and spelling. It is appreciated.
- Think of creative titles for your threads...they are more likely to attract others to come post.
- Be realistic.
- Use links to pictures rather than including the images in your post. People appreciate not having to wait for them to load.
DON'T'S
- Take an insult to your character personally. It is just a character, insulting another character...that is all.
- Use less than 2 good quality paragraph's per post. While they don't have to be novels, less than that and you border the "one-liner" category once more.
- Break the rules of Parallel Worlds or the specific roleplay in which you are role playing.
- Think your character is invincible. If they are, then they aren't a very good character. No one wants to role play with a god, especially if they always have to be right.
- Post song lyrics unless your character (as in ~you~) wrote them. It chews up space and drives others nuts. And in most cases, they don't even read them, just skip over them to the other parts.
- Get mad if you don’t get a boyfriend/girlfriend right away. The boards aren't meant as a dating service. RP romance is more than acceptable, but it takes more than 5 minutes of talking for people to fall in love.
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