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| Before Posting A New Rp...; Read this first! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 13 2009, 03:06 PM (416 Views) | |
| Miranda | Nov 13 2009, 03:06 PM Post #1 |
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The Godmother
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1. All New RPs Must Abide By The Rules. No exceptions. You can find the rules in the other sticky at the top of the forum. 2. Don't go mad posting loads of new RPs every day. Just stick to posting a few at a time; quality is better than quantity! 3. All RPs must be original. Do not, under any circumstances, post endless variations of the same RP. Each RP must be different or else there's no point in playing. You can post spin offs or splinter off shoots of an existing RP, just as long as the plot follows a different storyline. 4. If you post a rulebreaking RP, it will be locked. Don't think that just cuz your rulebreaking RP reaches over ten pages that it will be allowed to stay; it won't. It's not fair on the other RPers who are abiding by the rules to allow an RP that breaks the rules to stay, even if it is over ten pages long. Notes On Characters. OK, this is something that obviously needs to be done now, as some people don't seem to get how to make an RP character. Here is the checklist of what we will be covering in this section: 1. Name, rank, and number. 2. Context, background and other important things. 3. Mary Sue and other character atrocities. Name, Rank And Number. Let's take a look at the first item on the list; Name, rank, and number. A lot of RPs will expect you to fill out a character form which usually looks something like this: Name: Age: Race: Appearence: Bio: Let's break this down bit by bit. Now, the name might be a problem for some people; I know I find it a pain to try and think up a name to fit a character. That's why I tend to look round baby name sites for names. Also, book character names are a good bet. As for surnames, pick out either baby names that could suit a surname, or take surnames off TV characters and the like. Make the name sound realistic, like a name that could appear in real life. Even long winded real life names generally are chosen for a reason, for example, naming the child after several relatives. They rarely are given names that pertain to physical appearence, due to the fact that all babies look pretty much alike when given names. So none of that, or you'll be heading into dangerous, Mary Sue infested waters. Age; shouldn't be a problem. Just look at the RP; is it a teenage one? Or are there lots of different ages? Even if there are, please make the character realistic as per his or her age group. For example, an eight year old is not going to go around with a group of sixteen year olds. Even an eight year old progidy isn't; most teens will refuse to have a little kid tagging along with them. Even the most profound, mature, intelligent eight year old is never going to be on the same wavelength as a bunch of teens. So scrap the idea right now and make your character around the same age as the others. Race and appearance are easy; if the RP allows other races besides human, then pick one... and stick to it. Even if you slightly alter the characteristics in some way, you can't make it all good. There has to be some bad points involved. To show this, I will drag forward one of my RP characters, that of Zack, otherwise known as Zackie in an RP that has another character with the same name. Zack: "And who's fault was that?" Me: Shut up. I happen to like that name. Anyway, tell the people here exactly what's wrong with being a werewolf and a vampire." "It su'cks cuz I have to hunt for blood and flesh. Plus I have that involuntary change at full moon and end up stuck as a wolf for three nights." Get the picture? Yeah, Zack might have the powers of being a were and vampire, but he has a lot of annoyances to go along with it. As for appearence; we'll cover the goods and bads of that later, when we *gulp* meet Mary Sue. For your bio, be brief. Don't go into vastly detail about what happened to your character, that can be brought out later in the RP. Just put down a few key points, and leave it. No excruciating detail, please. That too is a Sueish characteristic. Context, Background And Other Important Things. We will assume that the person starting the RP is a regular RPer, with common sense and intelligence. First, they will give a potted history of the RP, giving out some basic information about the RP like what time it's set in, where it's set, and the situation the players will be RPing. Then, there's some information about context. Then will be a character description and form for the other players to fill in, but not always; some RPers prefer for you to describe your character in your opening paragraph. Finally, will come the opening paragraph the RP owner writes to start the whole shebang off. Context. Remember me saying that in the paragraph above? Well, here's the meaning of context in a nutshell: The context is the issues and trends that surround the time that the RP is set in, ie an RP set in the flapper period would reflect many issues and trends from its context of the 1920s. Got that? So, if the RP is a spaceage one, yes you can use warpspeed or travel to distant planets. However, doing either in the aforementioned 1920s RP would be grossly out of context and therefore disrupting the RP for the players who are playing it properly. Also, if rules are laid down, then please follow them. They are at the owner's discretion as to how far in either direction you can go, but if they say you are breaking a rule with your character, then you withdraw or modify your character. Don't like it? Then get out, and start your own RP. Make sure you read this section very carefully. This is very important, as an out of context character can, and will, kill an RP dead. Particularly if the character is also a Mary Sue. The same goes for background. Make sure the character's background fits in with the RP. If the RP consists of normal high school kids, do not have a character who's the daughter of a Prince. That is unrealistic, and Sueish. Make your character ordinary; that's not boring, except in the hands of a boring person. The other things you need to remember are not to whine if your character is disliked by other characters; that is normal. No-one is liked by everyone; also have your character dislike someone. Also, if the RP owner has put down conditions that have to be met, or orders in the RP, then follow them. Sometimes the owner will insist on all posts to be at least a full paragraph; for only experienced RPers; for a particular plot detail to be decided by him/her only. Do not just steam ahead and break these rules, or you will be kicked out. If you don't like the conditions, then don't join. Simple as that. Mary Sue and other character atrocities. Before we move on to Mary Sue, first let me list a few more character atrocities. 1. A thin character. No, that does not mean a skinny character, just one that has no detail whatsoever. For example, just name, age and a power description. A character bio must contain a personality description, listing both good and bad points. 2. A character with just a picture as a description. If you use a picture as an appearence reference, then that's fine; just remember that you must also include a paragraph on personality. I cannot stress this enough. 3. A character that doesn't interact. There is no point whatsoever in joining an RP if you're just going to go your own sweet way and not interact with the other players. Finally, we get on to Mary Sue. If you are unsure about whether your character is a Mary Sue or not, then PM me your character form and I will tell you. The main characteristics of a Mary Sue are listed below: 1. Pointlessly flowery description. For example; "Her hair was golden like the sun shining on ripening wheat." Completely unnecessary. 2. Perfect in every way. Only Mary Poppins is "practically perfect in every way." Anyone else who has no faults is a Mary Sue. Faults are things like bad temper, laziness, greed, clumsiness. NOT "she was so beautiful all the girls were jealous." X_x Also, do not list a character's strengths as "everything." They must have power or school weaknesses, cuz everyone does. 3. Being the girlf of a canon character. This applies to RPs that are based on TV, anime, or books. Just don't. If in the canon two characters are boyf and girlf, you stick to that. You can play the girlf, but don't change her character to fit your own. Which leads us on to... 4. Makes canon characters behave out of character. Don't do this. If you can't do this, then make an original RP instead. 5. Constantly bangs on about her tragic past. No-one's saying you can't have a character with past tragedy, just don't have them constantly bring it up, unless it pertains to the RP. Also, your character can not be the focus of the RP, or be the main character. Edited by Miranda, Jan 30 2017, 07:42 PM.
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3:53 AM Jul 11