-Skwerl's Roleplay Creation Tips-
So you're done with being a player, and for once you want to be the master. You want to start your own roleplay. While there's nothing wrong with that, it's not what it seems to be, and it's no good to start something unprepared. The following can help you flesh out your roleplay and really make it awesome!
Other Roleplay and Writing Tips:
Types of Roleplays
Before you start making your roleplay, you need to first decide what it is. This part is easy: do you want it to be an active roleplay? Do you want it to be slower? Do you want it to be a private group or want anyone to join in wherever? All you're doing here is deciding how you want the roleplay to run.
In Terms of Activity:
In Terms of Roleplayers:
In Terms of Activity:
- Tabletop: "Tabletop" roleplays are usually done in chats, as everyone has to align their schedules so they all roleplay at the same time. Roleplaying is almost exclusively one-liners, and the roleplays tend to have board game or RNG elements. It's just like a classic Dungeons & Dragons campaign. There are versions of tabletop roleplays modified for forum use, so it's like normal roleplay except with no restrictions on post length or OOC since players need to communicate and work together, but the system is truly designed for voice-chat or in-person roleplay.
- Fast-Paced: These roleplays have short Original Posts (OPs), as information is meant more as a guideline, and the posts make the world and sometimes even create the plot. You aren't meant to sit and digest information before posting. Posting here is more impulsive and posts are often small. One-liners are hard to avoid. Fast-paced roleplayers will grow annoyed when a fellow roleplayer can't post for longer than a day or two, because most people who can participate in these roleplays have enough time to linger on the forums, such as children and teens out of school or unemployed adults.
- Fair-Paced: The happy medium of roleplays. The OP is a good size but not overly detailed, posts are short but not dangerously-close to one-liners, and roleplayers only grow antsy when they're held up by someone for over a week. It can be hard to find these kinds of roleplays, especially since people have to strive toward making decent-sized posts. Most tend to have either very short or very long posts.
- Slow-Paced: I have actually seen a roleplay designed to attract people who post rather slowly. Most roleplays tend to start out either Fast- or -Fair-Paced, and end up Slow-Paced due to some unforeseen circumstance. Slow posters can take as long as months to finally write up a post! In most roleplays, doing that will have your character be either killed or written off as inactive, and then everyone proceeds without you. Slow-Paced roleplays don't tend to have activity rules, but they do tend to have very expansive and detailed posts, known colloquially as "text walls", that scare off other, usually younger, players. Most people in Slow-Paced roleplays are working adults with little time as-is.
In Terms of Roleplayers:
- 1x#: If you see a roleplay that says 1x<number>, then that means it will only accept a certain number of people. Why in the world the internet decided to use the equation "1x#", when mathematically that means "this number multiplied by one", is beyond me, but that's what it means. I've found that a good way to think about it is "The OP (1) plus (x) these players (the other number)". So a 1x1 would be the OP (Original Poster) and one other person, a 1x2 the OP and two other people, 1x3 the OP and three others, and so on. It is also sometimes displayed as 1v#, like "versus"; typically that's an indicator that the OP or another person is the antagonist, and everyone else plays either heroes or neutral characters.
- Private: A roleplay that is private doesn't necessarily mean it's a 1x#. All it means is that no one new can join that roleplay. Technically 1x#s are just private roleplays with the number of players mentioned, but there is a disconnect in that, say, a 1x3 has one slot open for an extra player because there are only two people in it at the moment, so even though it says "1x3" it's not private yet because the roleplayers are looking for someone to join their group. Only when all of the positions have been filled will it turn into a private roleplay.
- Invite-Only: These roleplays are one step away from public rolepays. Invite-Only simply means that no one can join that roleplay unless that person has been invited in by the OP or a qualified member. Invite-Only roleplays tend to be rare, since it requires people to cherry-pick players, and of course people are lazy and don't want to do a bunch of research and send invites to certain, potential players. In most cases, Invite-Only roleplays transform into private roleplays, as the group is looking for more people but don't want to make the roleplay completely public in order to do so.
- Public Roleplays: Your average roleplay is a public one. This just means that anyone from anywhere that has access to that roleplay can join whenever. Sometimes a roleplay will start out public, but will be closed off temporarily in case of an IC event or an influx of players where the roleplayers don't want to be disturbed. Because there are so many different people with different ideas though (and a desire to run their own roleplays), there are less active players who can join at any given moment, so the chances of a public roleplay turning private are slim.
The Outline
The outline is the main structure of a roleplay's main posts holding information about it (also called the OP, standing for "Original Post(s)". It can also stand for "Original Poster" or "Overpowered", so pay attention to the context!). The OP is an essential source of information telling your roleplayers everything they need to know about your roleplay.
What makes a good OP? One that has a good outline! That is, you cover enough information about the roleplay that no one is lost or improvising, but not so much information is revealed that you either kill the excitement of being in the roleplay or end up scaring away potential players. Like writing and making characters, it takes balance to make a good roleplay and to run it!
What makes a good OP? One that has a good outline! That is, you cover enough information about the roleplay that no one is lost or improvising, but not so much information is revealed that you either kill the excitement of being in the roleplay or end up scaring away potential players. Like writing and making characters, it takes balance to make a good roleplay and to run it!
The Plot.
The most essential part of a roleplay, the plot provides the story and details the main force driving the roleplay. These things are important for your roleplayers as they tell them what's going on and what's the point of the story. It's also important for you as it will help keep people focused and on the right track, preventing problems down the line.
The only roleplays that don't have a distinct plot are sandboxes. The point of a sandbox roleplay is that there is no clear plot or direction; the players make it themselves. If you're making a sandbox roleplay you don't have to worry about your plot synopsis too much, but it helps to still have a good setting.
The most essential part of a roleplay, the plot provides the story and details the main force driving the roleplay. These things are important for your roleplayers as they tell them what's going on and what's the point of the story. It's also important for you as it will help keep people focused and on the right track, preventing problems down the line.
The only roleplays that don't have a distinct plot are sandboxes. The point of a sandbox roleplay is that there is no clear plot or direction; the players make it themselves. If you're making a sandbox roleplay you don't have to worry about your plot synopsis too much, but it helps to still have a good setting.
The Setting.
The setting is also a major part of the roleplay, as it tells your players what time period, region, and area the roleplay takes place in. If you intend to have your roleplayers improvise most of the region as they go along, you only need to brush up on a few things about the roleplay's setting, but if you have an established region or map that it takes place in, you need to share it, or people will go nilly-willy and make things up. You can also slip bits and pieces of history into the Setting, explaining why certain things are situated the way they are or in the state they're in. Basically, for this part you want to take the images you have in your head for the environment and write them down.
The setting is also a major part of the roleplay, as it tells your players what time period, region, and area the roleplay takes place in. If you intend to have your roleplayers improvise most of the region as they go along, you only need to brush up on a few things about the roleplay's setting, but if you have an established region or map that it takes place in, you need to share it, or people will go nilly-willy and make things up. You can also slip bits and pieces of history into the Setting, explaining why certain things are situated the way they are or in the state they're in. Basically, for this part you want to take the images you have in your head for the environment and write them down.
The Rules.
The obvious part of a roleplay. Without rules, you could have all sorts of unruly characters joining! (Unless you want that?) Most roleplays have the following rules, though you are free to add your own:
The obvious part of a roleplay. Without rules, you could have all sorts of unruly characters joining! (Unless you want that?) Most roleplays have the following rules, though you are free to add your own:
- Keep things PG13. This rule simply states that you can't be overly explicit with your posts (concerning adult content). Most online roleplay forums have this rule by default, so in many cases this is just a reiteration of what content is acceptable.
- Follow the site rules and guidelines. This rule is just a reminder that the forum hosting your roleplay has certain rules that you need to follow. It also implies that the majority of the roleplay's rules share those same rules (no spamming, advertising, etc.).
- No flaming / Respect other people. This rule means to not start unnecessary drama or fights with other players in OOC. Some roleplays additionally ask that if you have a problem with something, you PM the person in question and settle it out that way.
- No powerplaying. This means not to do something that would make you, your character, or another character overpowered relative to other players, such as having someone instantly figure something out or destroy something without effort.
- No godmodding. Similar to powerplaying, this means not to assume the actions of other peoples' characters in your posts, such as killing off or moving a character that isn't yours.
- No perfect characters / No Mary Stus or Gary Stus. This rule prevents people from making horribly boring, perfect characters. These kinds of characters are further explained near the beginning of the Characters page.
Those rules can be found in almost any roleplay you come across. However, you can find a lot of the following rules too, and even ones that aren't listed here that are specific to the roleplay, such as limitations on powers or pet creation. - Literacy.
Literacy rules will filter your potential roleplayers by their writing skills, which involves vocabulary, sentence structure etc.. Semi-Literate (Semi-Lit) means that mistakes in punctuation, spelling, and especially grammar are tolerated yet encouraged to be fixed, whereas Advanced-Literate (Adv-Lit.) means that you are expected to have nearly-flawless writing skills. - Cursing.
I'm not one for cursing, and if you aren't either you'll want this rule. Saying "No cursing or swearing" will keep people from using typically-censored words in your roleplay. Light cursing simply means that words taken less seriously are still okay, although since that is mostly opinion-based some people might still use "heavier" words, so it might be best to just say no to all of it or to have a list of acceptable words. - Minimum post length.
Having a minimum post length will filter your potential roleplayers by their ability to make larger posts. I usually have my minimum length at seven sentences, though for more advanced roleplays I will bump it up to ten or even higher than that (all excluding dialogue)! For reasons why you want a minimum posting length (even a short one such as five or seven sentences) look at the Write Detailed Posts section under the General Tips page. I do not recommend having a minimum length rule concerning paragraphs. A paragraph is just a chunk of text, and people could easily utilize that as an excuse to post only a few sentences, but separate them out into "paragraphs". - Go minimal on <X content>.
For me, the content is usually romance, because I could care less about romance and don't particularly like reading about it. If you want to restrict certain content in the RP, such as particularly violent scenes or excessive dialogue on one subject, that's what this rule is for. - Activity.
An activity rule tells your roleplayers how often you would like for them to post. Some roleplays prefer posts at most three days after they are expected, though some roleplays are more relaxed and will let weeks go by before becoming worried about a post not showing up. For me, I just choose one week's time after the last post has been made. Most roleplays find it acceptable to leave posts due as long as you notify the other members about your absence. - Absence rule.
This wraps into the above. Usually when someone becomes inactive, the roleplay simply proceeds without him. With an absence rule though you can dictate what exactly will happen if inactivity is an issue. In most cases, the inactive person's characters are demoted to NPCs - meaning anyone can control them - or they fade into obscurity as if they were never there. You can also weave a clever lore reason into how inactive characters are kicked. One roleplay I was in had a plot that was about the multiverse falling apart, and the OP had a centralized hub area where all of our characters could collaborate. If someone went inactive, it was described as "yet another thing in the multiverse breaking" and the person's characters would instantly be teleported to the hub! Nice and convenient for roleplaying. I've adopted a similar system into many of my roleplays because loose ends in interactions from people going inactive bother me. - "Passwords".
A password rule is something that keeps people from joining unless they do certain things. In most cases it's literally a password, either hidden in the roleplay or stated within the rule itself. The purpose of the rule is to keep people from joining willy-nilly without reading - or only skimming - the OP. Because of this, I don't recommend putting your password in the rule itself, because all people would have to do is read the rules and they could join, even though they didn't read anything else. Instead, find creative ways to put in the password. For example, in my roleplays I usually ask my players to quote something from the OP, or place a question with an answer only known by reading the OP into the character sheet. These tactics will keep people from skimming what you've written, which will prevent rule-breaking in the future. - Character Limits.
Some roleplays enforce character limits, which prevent people from making excessive amounts of characters, which will lessen the burden on the owner of the roleplay. The only problem with character limits is that a small group of roleplayers will always be restricted to a small number of characters, which can stall or stump the growth of a roleplay. - Posting Order.
Some rules aren't necessarily good, unless you don't mind the flaws. This is one rule I'm not very fond of: posting order. This means that each player is expected to post in a sequence, so Player A can only post after Player B posts, who can only post after Player C posts, etc., until the sequence ends in which it will start again from the beginning. While this can prevent short, snappy posts from being written too quickly and leaving people behind, it has a major flaw in that if one player goes inactive, the entire roleplay comes to a screeching halt until that person comes back and makes a post, because no one can post until he does regardless of activity levels. I don't recommend this rule because of this, especially if you have a lot of players to manage, as it can become confusing and grueling far too fast. - Love Interests.
I have yet to make a romantic roleplay so I have never used this rule before, but I have seen it in other roleplays, even ones where there isn't a focus on romance. This rule is very simple: you can't have one of your characters fall in love with another character that also belongs to you. People explained this to me as a way to facilitate interaction, since a big aspect of roleplaying is interacting with other people, and having two of your characters in love with each other defeats the purpose of this. I personally don't care either way, but some people like to have this rule in their roleplays. - Starting Location/Event.
Some roleplays - such as multiverses - have all of the characters start in relatively the same location. Sometimes exceptions are made depending on the character, but if you want all of your players to start out in a certain way, you should put this rule in explaining what should happen and what the starting location is. - NPCs.
Some roleplays have specific rules concerning NPCs (Not Player Characters). It is generally assumed that an NPC is just a temporary character that anyone can control, though in some roleplays only the person who created the NPC can control it, and other roleplays may even have a list of rules for NPCs. While it's not necessary to have an NPC rule, if you don't want people improvising with NPC usage you should put one in to keep things from becoming chaotic. - Sandwich Posting.
Sandwich posting simply means that two people roleplay with each other, making entire pages of just Person A and Person B interacting with one another. While this is obviously unavoidable in a 1x1, larger roleplays with busier members may ask that you don't sandwich post, which means you have to wait for at least two people to post before you do. This rule isn't necessary for smaller groups or more active roleplays. - Ranking/Trust hierarchy.
This is something I've seen new or less experienced roleplayers do in order to find a group of roleplayers they can trust for future games. Trust hierarchy, as I call it, is when the OP designates rules for separate groups of people in a roleplay. For example, anyone in the Newbie group may only be allowed to have one character, but after its most active members play for a while they'll be promoted to a Trusted group that can have up to three characters per player. Remaining an active Trusted member may grant you a Mod position, which might allow up to five character per person and allow you to dictate whether an inactive person can be skipped during interaction or not.
Trust hierarchy can be useful for extremely active forums that have a higher concentration of less- to semi-literate roleplayers and/or if the OP is new to a forum. However, I don't recommend it at all if the most recent threads on the forum you're putting your roleplay in have latest posts older than a week. That's indicative of a slower-paced or smaller-userbase forum, which means all these rules will do is limit the few active people who join your roleplay, contributing to a slow death. Always check to see how active other threads are to make sure your roleplay's rules are appropriate!
The Character Sheets.
Some roleplays allow introductory posts, which means you can jump in with a character without anyone knowing about it first, even yourself! The problem with this system is that most people end up joining with poorly-developed characters, and there are no references for these characters that other players could use. So most roleplays use character sheets, forms that you fill out with your character's information and send off (either in an OOC snippet, OOC thread/chat, or in a PM to the roleplay owner) to be approved before you join. Character sheets often include the character's...
Name,
Specie,
Age,
Gender (this is often used as a friendlier term for biological sex, so always make sure you're interpreting it right!),
Appearance,
and History.
Depending on the roleplay, there may be other fields that need to be filled out, such as a familiar's name and history, any powers the character has, an inventory, the password for joining, extra details, etc.. Some roleplays specifically ask that the fields be filled out to a certain point to prevent ambiguity, and a large character sheet template implies this. Smaller sheets imply that not much information needs to be spared about the character, although this isn't always true.
Some roleplays allow introductory posts, which means you can jump in with a character without anyone knowing about it first, even yourself! The problem with this system is that most people end up joining with poorly-developed characters, and there are no references for these characters that other players could use. So most roleplays use character sheets, forms that you fill out with your character's information and send off (either in an OOC snippet, OOC thread/chat, or in a PM to the roleplay owner) to be approved before you join. Character sheets often include the character's...
Name,
Specie,
Age,
Gender (this is often used as a friendlier term for biological sex, so always make sure you're interpreting it right!),
Appearance,
and History.
Depending on the roleplay, there may be other fields that need to be filled out, such as a familiar's name and history, any powers the character has, an inventory, the password for joining, extra details, etc.. Some roleplays specifically ask that the fields be filled out to a certain point to prevent ambiguity, and a large character sheet template implies this. Smaller sheets imply that not much information needs to be spared about the character, although this isn't always true.
The Character Roster.
Bigger roleplays that allow lots of characters will often have character rosters where accepted character sheets are stored. This is mainly for convenience so that players can reference character sheets without having to dig through the thread. If you choose to have a character roster I recommend finding a way to organize it for accepted and active characters, inactive characters, and accepted yet inactive/unintroduced characters. Hopefully you'll have luck and not have to organize it!
Bigger roleplays that allow lots of characters will often have character rosters where accepted character sheets are stored. This is mainly for convenience so that players can reference character sheets without having to dig through the thread. If you choose to have a character roster I recommend finding a way to organize it for accepted and active characters, inactive characters, and accepted yet inactive/unintroduced characters. Hopefully you'll have luck and not have to organize it!
Recap.
As a roleplay goes along and people join while it's going, they won't know what's currently going on in the RP. While reading the last few pages of the roleplay can help, some people like using older information, and as such a Recap comes in handy. A recap is simply a quick summary of what has happened in the roleplay so far. It's not difficult to maintain unless you allow people to roleplay too far ahead of it; updating it every few posts or so will prevent this.
As a roleplay goes along and people join while it's going, they won't know what's currently going on in the RP. While reading the last few pages of the roleplay can help, some people like using older information, and as such a Recap comes in handy. A recap is simply a quick summary of what has happened in the roleplay so far. It's not difficult to maintain unless you allow people to roleplay too far ahead of it; updating it every few posts or so will prevent this.
Extra Things/FAQ/Q&A.
If your roleplay is particularly advanced or contains a lot of information, some people may ask a lot of questions regarding certain, smaller things you didn't mention, such as the sizes of different species, or an elaboration of power use. Having an extra reserve dedicated to answering the questions can help prevent those same questions from being asked in the future, which saves you a lot of headaches! I also find it fun to store tidbits about the roleplay in it, things that may never be used but might make the world fantastical enough to grab a few curious players.
If your roleplay is particularly advanced or contains a lot of information, some people may ask a lot of questions regarding certain, smaller things you didn't mention, such as the sizes of different species, or an elaboration of power use. Having an extra reserve dedicated to answering the questions can help prevent those same questions from being asked in the future, which saves you a lot of headaches! I also find it fun to store tidbits about the roleplay in it, things that may never be used but might make the world fantastical enough to grab a few curious players.
One last piece of advice: if you make an interest check thread, include as much information as you're willing to spare on the roleplay as possible. Don't post links or attachments where the information is stored! I saw a friend once post an idea she's had for a while on a forum with a huge userbase that would enjoy the content, but she linked the idea in a Google Doc and simply asked if anyone was interested; nothing else was in the OP. She had very few bites as a result. Make sure your interest check threads provide immediate information on your roleplay, or people skimming for new roleplays might skip you!
That's pretty much it when it comes to building your own roleplay. All you need is to decide what it is, plot the outline, and you're done! The rest is just spreading the word of your roleplay and staying active to keep people interested. Some forums allow you to bump (add an unobtrusive OOC post) your roleplay to keep it at the top of the page where new players can see it. Always check the forum rules for limitations on bumping before doing it, though; particularly active forums may ask that you refrain from bumping a thread more than once per day, or even per week!
That's pretty much it when it comes to building your own roleplay. All you need is to decide what it is, plot the outline, and you're done! The rest is just spreading the word of your roleplay and staying active to keep people interested. Some forums allow you to bump (add an unobtrusive OOC post) your roleplay to keep it at the top of the page where new players can see it. Always check the forum rules for limitations on bumping before doing it, though; particularly active forums may ask that you refrain from bumping a thread more than once per day, or even per week!
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