R.P Pointers

Roleplaying is a form of creative writing performed wherein a storyline or setting is proposed, a group of individuals join the role-play and they take turns to write and submit segments of writing where a few things happen each time. The end product appears somewhat like a novel or short shory; but it is conceptually different from either of those.

No one can teach you how to RP. It is something only you can learn by yourself. It is something you practice on, and over time you learn from your mistakes and you develop, improve and grow. Perseverance is very important when it comes to want to become a good role-player; many people have taken years to develop the skills they currently possess. You must be involved and you must try and be ready to make mistakes if you want to grow.

In roleplay, there is a clear difference between action and speech. The former is associated with verbs, or 'doing something', while the latter is 'saying something'. If you are speaking/having a conversation in an RP, it is important that you distinguish between action and speech through use of speech marks.

Some things to keep in mind while RPing are:

- Be Descriptive. This is very important, and as you make progress with role-playing, you will develop a sense of being descriptive. It is the difference between waiting for raiders to turn up and standing on a hill-top, sending a bird, looking at the sun, sighing, glancing around and tapping the tip of your spear in the dirt as you wait. You will find a level of descriptiveness that suits you, and it will come naturally.

- Have structure. It's the basic things like having proper paragraphs, proofreading if you have trouble with syntax, spelling, grammar, vocabulary and punctuation, but it's also having the sense of how much you should do in one post. This is a sense you develop as you improve as well, but cramming 10 things in one post ends up forcing people to read a thesis every time, and doing a couple of things is too short and you will find yourself disadvantaged because people are doing more than you per post.

- Speak English. Perhaps one of the most important points that can be made; no 1 will read ur post if u typ lyk dis, I wld skm ovr ur post and mute u frm all ma rps. Point made.

- Don't God-mode. Alright. God-modding is when you have unrealistic powers in a roleplay. Like being invincible (cannot die or get hurt) or manipulating time, etc.

- Be consistent. One of the things that is imperative to the logic behind the RP is that you have to be consistent. Although it sounds obvious, what this means is that whatever happens to you in the previous post/s is carried over to your current post - if you got stabbed by someone in the last post, you will not be able to miraculously heal in the next post and go about as normal - you will bleed and your stamina will decrease, and eventually it would lead to unconsciousness and death if the wound is not treated.

In SL , unfortunately, you are destined to meet people whose only goal is to prevent you from having as much fun as you can. These "grief players" are a tiny minority on the overall, but they have a widely disproportional effect on the rest of Gor's population. Fortunately, they tend to either become bored with obnoxiousness and either shape up or quit playing.

Let's take Bob, for example:

Bob is bored. Bob blows up the world. Bob kills everybody except himself. Bob laughs. Bob takes over Jupiter. Bob takes over the world, too. Bob enslaves everybody.

The first sentence is fine. After that, Bob turns into a person with no imagination.

Unless you have the misfortune to be one of these socially-malformed misfits, you will find it is strongly in your best interest to maintain a certain standard of courtesy while engaging in RP.

First of all, it generally pays to be polite to others. It's basic human nature - if you treat others well, they'll treat you well and help you get ahead. Of course, there are valid role-playing reasons for a certain level of in-game "rudeness" - when you meet members of a rival city or camp, for example, or if you're just playing a rather unpleasant character.

The important thing about role-playing discourtesy is to keep it with in the context of the role.

On the whole, the main thing to ask yourself whether you're making RP more or less fun for others. Competing against another will probably make the RP experience more fun for them, even if you come out on top. However, systematically trying to frustrate everything they try to do will ruin their fun, and is not defensible behaviour.

The secret to role-playing is not coming up with a complex back-story, rather, it is just fitting into the world you play in.

Figure out what you want to be, and why, and just go for it. Think about the choices you have made to bring yourself where you are, and let yourself react accordingly.

You become an integral part of the RP when you join it - you are the protagonist - act like one. Take charge, do what you would do, and don't act like an insignificant sidekick. Show us what you can do.