OOC: Hi there! New to the board-RP thing.
By
Blood_Wolffe,
Posted on: 2005-10-09 23:44 in Roleplaying
Hi Kelp, I'm relatively new here too. I wasn't sure how to jump in so I started my own. Now I've seen how others jump in and it doesn't look too bad. Here's what I've seen:
<ul type="square">[*]Witness an event that someone else has staged [*]Link up in a pm with someone who can "introduce you" [*]Learn the theme of the RP thread, determine how it fits in your character's life, and react to it [*]Just jump in with "here's how I became a hero" (need to introduce yourself)[/list]
I hope this helps...I'm no expert. This is really fun though and I can do it from work. 
[url="http://celestialguardians.guildportal.com"]Celestial Guardians SG[/url]: Chris Mas Snow 50 Ice/Storm Ctl, Li Zhou 42 MA/Rgn Scrp, Dui Zhou 32 Ice/FF Ctl, TinyTaxi 35 Emp/Psi Def
[url="http://tinyurl.com/y66drr"]UnAlliance VG[/url]: Shar Chi 37 Nin/Drk MM, La Vida Loca 16 Pl/Psi Dom
What Starstruck said (and yah, newbie here too, after a fashion.)
The 'rules' I usually go by are fairly similar to in-game RP.
Don't write actions for other people's characters without discussing the 'plot' with them first. Many people use MoonEdit (a free 'collaborative' word processor/editor) to co-write stuff that involves multiple people. Personally, I Just write what my character does, and 'hand off' the plot to the person with whom I'm interacting.
Don't go godmode. There's a bit more freedom in defining your experience level/powersets, but it doesn't make sense that someone would have level 50 abilities without ever having interacted with level 20 game elements.
If you write an 'attack' scene, limit it to ONE attack chain, and make it an attempted attack. We tend to take some liberties with this one, assuming autohits and such... but leave the other author some room to wiggle out from under.
Other than that... take what other people drop as plot elements, and have your character react to them, interact, try to solve puzzles, etc. Or, you can write up more social type stuff. Gal's Place and The Whitmoore are two threads that tend toward more 'downtime' type material... although The Whitmoore has a lot of battle scenes woven in.
Someone of your creative abilities shouldn't have any difficulty.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
For the big open RP's read the backstories. I would recommend reading from about 50 pages back (It seems like alot and it is but you can do it) and once you caught up just watch the thread for a while. After that, introduce your character.
Short to-the-point posts with details. Meaning, dont write four pages worth of stuff. People wont read it. But give it some substance. When you post your goal should be to either advance either a plot or a relationship between your character and another. This will avoid those really unnecessary posts (I am guilty of those myself). When you post something, put something in there other people can react to like a question or reveal something or an action.
If you are going to leave for a while, just leave an OOC (out of character) note on your last post. Put your character in an out of the way place, or if you trust someone enough you can have them write for your character (Not usually recommended).
Utilize the PM system. If you ask someone to jump in they will usually be glad to have your company. Its good for developing plots and interesting interactions.
Professor Blues is right. Dont write for someone else's character. Just what your character does. Half the fun is seeing how they will react anyways.
Its rough to start out but it gets easier fast. Hope that helps.
somewhere here there's a board rp guide for noobs... i could probably dig it up on search but i'm supposed to be writing a paper now, so... 
(using noob in a non-perjorative sense, i should add. ^.^ )
the god mode is something i occasionally find myself doing, so the best advice i can give in that respect is to always read over your post in the preview twice before you submit - once for spelling and grammar, cause while not vital, it does count, and once for content. just imagine; if someone else's character did something analogous, would you be miffed?
length is tricky too. there's usually next to no point posting if you're gonna just put in one or two lines, but i must confess i don't usually read all the way through anything that's much longer than one screen, unless i have to react to it. in that case, no matter how much of a hassle it'd be to you, i'd recommend you bother with it. best not to make mistakes and introduce continuity errors. it's not fatal if you do, but best to avoid.
try to react to all the characters present, if you can think of a way to do so that's not too much of a stretch. everyone likes to be included.
if your character has any really unremarkable features, it's best to mention those, not every post, but every other page or so. (page, in this case, being every 10 posts.) i've RPed with people for ten or more pages, only to have them say, 'omigod, your character is black? and when did he get that third eye?' so it's good to go over just the basic details occasionally. if you really wanna, you can just describe in detail in one post and linkie to that post in your sig. just make sure that information is readily available.
it's not necessary or anything, but i strongly encourage you to right-click the reply link, and open it in a new tab (or window, if you're evil and use internet explorer (boo hiss) instead of firefox (cheer)). that way you can easily access the whole page for if you need to react to multiple different posts, as it only displays the one you're replying directly to at the bottom.
oh, and it's okay to enter a scene uninvited as long as it's in a reasonably public area and you don't start off by interfering with the event in progress. in other words, don't be a pansy like me. 
Heya. Dunno if... uh... any of you would know me. I'm from the Virtue server. And, well, I've been looking for more ways to have fun RPing.
And... hey... this board's here! Except I've only had VERY small experiences with board-based RP in the past... it tends to move kinda fast for me, and I feel odd jumping in the middle of a long long topic.
So, I'd like... advice!
How does one normally jump in?
Are short, to-the-point posts or long, details-out-the-wazoo posts preferred?
How should I deal with not being around for a long period of time to post in a thread if I've been rather active there for a while?
And... anything else you guys'd like to grace me with the wisdom of.
Animation major and old-school CoHer.
Art, Animation, and Stuff:
DA Tumblr Vimeo Youtube