Alright, so since our lovely Dy was on vacay and I’ve been busy with school, we were sort of not meeting our set goals. We’ll be back soon though, and I know that Dy has a lovely post for you, but I’m keeping secret. I’ll be writing up my own probably tonight as soon as I’ve finished my homework so be looking for a post from us soon!

Alright so a few days ago (a week now I think? I can’t remember straight) I asked if y’all would help me to pick the next topic for discussion. Well, since no one’s made any, I thought I’d give you some options.

1. Personalities and Roleplaying
2. How to get more RP
3. One on One v Forum
4. None of the above (tell me what you want to hear about)

What do you guys think?

It’s good to see that we have so many followers already! I think that our main contributor has taken a sick, so I’ll be posting in her stead as often as I can. My only problem is is that I’m not all that sure what to post about :/

So, I have a question for you guys who are watching. What would y’all like to hear our take on? What kind of things do you find you’re having problems with or would you like some advice one? Any questions or suggestions will be responded too!

Hope to hear from y’all soon!

I think that anyone new to the Rping scene has come into situation where, while looking for a place to start, they’ve come across a term they didn’t know. PotC, HP:DH, DRoP. These acronyms of course all mean something, and as you explore your options, you’ll eventually learn to associate the names with the acronyms. But there’s always the problem of coming across a new acronym and finding that, for the life of you, you just don’t know what it means or anything about it. It could be something like WoW (which we all know of the game but what does the rp look like?) or D&D (same situation), or even something that’s an entirely new creation of the owner of whatever site you find yourself on (sometimes even one-on-one rps over AIM, YIM, etc).

So what do you do?

Well, if you’re lucky enough to find yourself in a one-on-one, it’s easy enough to ask the person you’re rping with to explain better what’s happening, especially if it’s an original idea. But with an entire world at the disposal of some forum creators, it can be a little more complicated. How, in fact, do you compress the entirety of Dungeons and Dragons into a cohesive, understandable explanation for a new member? Or, for instance, how do you explain the world of Pern and all of it’s ins and outs and Anne-consistencies. And even then, most forum owners will add their own twists to the plot, add things and subtract other things from the author’s setting. It can be overwhelming, and perhaps even a little discouraging to jump into a game when you don’t know the setting. But not to worry, here’s what to do:

1. When in doubt, do some reading. It seems like such a simple solution, but sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. It should be a given that you need to read the site’s rules to begin with, but also make sure you read the history and any other information they might provide to you. This can be more enlightening than asking someone questions as they pop into your head.
2. Still in doubt? Do some research. I often find that doing my own personal research is very helpful, and not just for becoming used to a genre. I often do research for simple rps like simple “Friends next door” rps I do one-on-one. But researching a specific genre like Lord of the Rings, if you haven’t read the books, can help a lot in the long run. There are so many fan sites out there that if you have a question that someone on the site you’re interested in can’t answer, you’re likely to find it on your own with just a little bit of googling.
3. Read the books/watch the movie/watch the tv show. I know I know - you’re saying “wait a minute, I thought the whole point of this was to not have to have read the books or whatever to be able to fit in?”. Well yes, this is true, but sometimes you just don’t really get something until you’ve read it in the author’s words. It might take you a while to read an entire series, but of course that’s what the supplemental research and forum-rules and history reading is supposed to fill in so you can enjoy yourself in the meantime. If you want to keep rping in the setting, chances are you will enjoy the media that provided that setting.
4. Ask for help.  Yes, I know I just said that sometimes asking questions doesn’t help. But if you want to fit in you need to get involved in the community. Nine out of ten times if you ask for help, you’re going to get an overwhelming response from fans of the series who are more than willing to indoctrinate you into their society or what not.
5. Jump right in. Know the expression “thrown to the lions”? Well, sometimes that’s the best way to learn. Making mistakes allows for other people to correct you, and as long as you’re willing to take some constructive criticism (and some not so constructive criticism with a grain of salt) you’ll be golden to start learning the more intricate ins and outs of roleplaying in a certain theme.
6. Don’t be afraid of canon fanatics. Most fan roleplays have that one player who insists everyone follow the story’s canonical rules. If you don’t know all of the rules, you should be aware that this particular player may both be snide with you or not want to play with you. Don’t sweat it. There are plenty of people more than willing to convert you to their fandom. If they don’t mind you messing up once in awhile,you’ll be fine. Besides, you can pick up the rules of the setting from those rpers. It helps to read the canon-only fan’s threads as well to learn setting specific things as well.

So I suppose that in passing, it really just comes down to three simple things: research, asking for help, and taking a chance.  Most people who are roleplayers aren’t persnickety toddlers who have to have it their way or the highway, so go out there and have some fun!

It’s what you do with it.

I don’t just mean that as a pun either.

[Picture is of a blue oval with the words “Word count doesn’t matter!” in it. Outside of the oval in large black font it reads “TIP #1”]

No really, I mean that. A lot of text-based rp mediums these days enforce something called a “word count”. Word counts require that a player’s written, in character, response reach a certain number of words.

Where High Word Counts Go Wrong:

1. Fluff. Fluff happens when someone have enough words in their reply to make the word count and yet the player feels as if their characters actions are completed. Filler just bogs down the actual post, making character actions sometimes harder to understand. Clarity and brevity are essential writing tools. If your post has a lot of words that bog down what your character is actually doing, that means the player who will be responding to you is less likely to respond to the part of your text the original post focused on. The intent of your post will no long be clear, and your game session will suffer for it.
2. Unrealistic Expectations. Quite frankly, some characters are not going to react to some actions. People have varied personalities, and characters are, ideally, the most fun to play when they vary. If Player A makes a large post  detailing the actions of Character A, there is always the possibility that Character B will not care. This puts everyone in the thread at a standstill, and Player B may have to make their character behave out of character just to continue a scene with something other than “B continued to not care” stretched out into 600 words.
3. Godmoding. A common pattern in longer posts is to have a character respond to several lines of dialogue without an actual pattern. Character A will talk a lot, though the post will make it seem like they were waiting for Character B to speak. By continuing the conversation without Character B, Player A has just godmoded. If a particular sentence might usually set Character B off into a rage, that has been denied to B by Player A extending the dialogue too early.
4. Too Many Actions. It is generally good to assume that all of the actions combined in a post last for six seconds. If your character is doing a lot of things to fill up word count, they must either move at superspeed or they are not doing enough interacting with the other characters in a thread.
5. Slowing Down Scenes. Sometimes a scene calls for lots of inner dialogue and setting description. Unfortunately, not all of them do. Fight scenes can get boring after five pages in which nothing but a few punches and taunts have gone around. There are times when short posts make scenes flow better. RPing in text is a lot like collaborative writing. Your favorite authors probably wouldn’t be half as interesting if the climax of the plot involved a 20 page fight scene in which almost nothing happens.
6. An Overused Thesaurus. Expanding one’s vocabulary is great! Using so many large and obscure words that a post is hard to understand is bad. Big words doesn’t necessarily make someone a better writer. If you can say something in simple words without getting repetitive, you often should.

I will happily also make a post on how to fill a high word count request without the post getting static, but try and remember these simple rules when writing a reply:

• You don’t have to have give what you get. Not everybody can write the same length, but as long as you respond to what Player A had their character do, Player A will still be happy most of the time.
• Quality does not equal quantity. If you are adding to the story line and interaction, then you are doing just fine with however much you write.
• Do as much as your character would do, not as much as you think looks good. If your character wouldn’t do something, but you need more words: don’t do it.

Hello! Welcome to Fuck Yeah Roleplay Advice! I’m Dyna and my occasional co-author around here is called FA. We all love to laugh at our own past, bad experiences, but there aren’t too many advice columns for rpers in need. So here is what we’re going to do:

• Every single day, Dyna or FA promises to post at least one RPing tip. It can be on any variety of topics, and I’m sure our list of tags will grow quite substantially with time.
• We will answer whatever questions we get in our message box. Whether it be through a personal message back or by writing up an entire post, you will get advice if you ask for it.
• We want to cater to all rping styles and genres. Be you a fandom, tumblr, twitter, facebook, neopets, forum, livejournal, im, pbem, mmo, et cetera rper, we will try and find something to help you. If we can’t give you a direct answer, we will search around and find someone who can.