Writeclub: Guidelines to Roleplay

Hey guys, so I'm in the process of writing a small RP guidebook to post across various boards for those that are new to RP. Initially it was for a small guild from another game, but uh... yeah... anyways. Also, feel free to move it if it's in the wrong section!

Anyways, I need from you:
a. subjects to write about
b. additional scenarios to include
c. areas I should expand upon
d. anything else you feel I should include!

I'll credit you forany additions you make. Thanks!

Oh, and sorry for the TL;DR wall of text. Comments and critique highly welcomed!





Writeclub: a short RP guidebook

The first rule of Writeclub: Talk about Writeclub! Help me improve this guide, whether that's spelling or grammatical errors, misleading information, or something that you feel I should expand upon.
The second rule of Writeclub: Write! Hobbies and skills are basically a specialized "muscle" of your brain. You don't get better at drawing if you don't practice, and you'll lose what you learn if you don't keep at it - the same tried-and-true theory can be applied to writing.
The third rule of Writeclub: Believe! Everyone is capable of becoming an excellent roleplayer "What is an excellent roleplayer, though?", you inquire - to which I will tell you what I will tell everyone. An excellent roleplayer isn't the best writer, or the greatest hero in the story; no, an excellent roleplayer is a fun roleplayer. This includes having fun as a roleplayer, and with roleplayers, and other roleplayers with you. If you enjoy yourself, remember that roleplay has no limits! You can't really RP wrong; though some traits are frowned upon, it is all up to the players enjoying themselves.

Table of Contents


*From Pen to Paper: going from ideas to a believable character concept
*IC ≠ OOC: know the line between fantasy and reality
*Let's Roleplay Roleplaying: example scenarios of RP do's and don't's


From Pen to Paper: going from ideas to a believable character concept
Have you ever seen a movie, or read a book, or even seen a piece of art or visual medium that inspires you? Maybe just listening to a song has given you a great idea. Have you ever thought of taking that character and applying it to your favorite video game or table top game? Perhaps to a novel you're working on? Here's a small guide to creating a character you can believe in and enjoy.

There are three rules of the thumb to keep in mind when initially creating a character... this character should be:
a. versatile - a sign of a good character is that they're believable no matter what the situation.
b. flexible - any character must be flexible enough to be able to adjust to the open RP environment you will be exposing them to.
c. open - you may have a specific storyline in mind for your character, but with only a few exceptions, you'll find that characters will often be molded by the hands of other characters and their actions. Be ready for this.

There are five primary "traits" that you can count off on your hand; a sort of go-to list to check off when you aren't sure about a character.
1. Body: What kind of looks do they have? What clothes do they wear? are they human or something not-so-much?
a. Try to keep the looks realistic to the setting. If a horned seven foot tall purple people eater isn't appropriate in the setting, don't use it.
b. Don't make your character look ridiculous (and not the fun kind of ridiculous), especially if it isn't appropriate to the game. Make a character look believable and they'll seem that much more realistic.
2. Mind: Are they a hero or a villain? How do they see themselves?
a. Convincing characters have motives. Good motives are key.
b. Any good hero or villain truly believes in what they're doing; or, you can go the antihero/antivillain route - they're not really sure that what they're doing is right, but they're doing it for the greater good (or evil).
c. A character should have a unique trait about their mentality or persona that makes them differ from other characters, unless you're going for a "plain-Jane in a sea of Janes" kind of character.
3. Personality: Is the personality feasible?
a. A realistic personality tends to be something you'd see in real life - or that setting you're playing in, depending. You don't tend to see most normal people run around with nothing on but a beach towel for a cape, screaming about the end of the world.
b. There's nothing wrong with adding character, as long as you don't go overboard. Perhaps the character has MPD? DID? ADD/ADHD? Various mental disorders that affect personality are great for adding a uniqueness to any character, if you feel that it is appropriate.
4. Spirit/Soul: What are they, at the very core of their being?
a. For the sake of realism, think of your character as a real person in the real world or that setting. How well do they fit in?
5. Believability: In the end, does this character seem like one you'll enjoy and believe in? Does it seem like they'll make it beyond the initial test drive? There is no "A-B-C" ruleset for what you enjoy or believe in for a character... there is only your feelings.

Keep in mind that you can put the novel's worth of information into your character's Wiki article, or post page-long emotes at a time, but nothing will make your character as interesting as a character you enjoy playing -- and therefore others will enjoy roleplaying with, in turn.









IC ≠ OOC: know the line between fantasy and reality
[sidenote: IC = In-Character / OOC = Out of Character]
Keep in mind one very important RP Rule of the Thumb: there is always, always a real person behind the character you're interacting with. Because of this, it is important to always remain respectful and fair to the player behind the character, and to keep their feelings in mind. While you don't have to like the character, or even the player, keep in mind that it makes RP a lot smoother and more fun if you're concious of other players. By keeping a fine line between IC and OOC, you lessen the risk of letting your feelings transgress from the fantasy world to the real world. Remember, you can hate on that villain all you want, you can love that fair maiden to your heart's content, but mutual respect and consent are always direly necessary in any RP situation. A good example of what I'm talking about is: let's say you've got a friendly RP going on between three players-- you, your character's significant other, and your characters' rival. Your character's SO is being threatened by your character's rival. There are two (actually, many, but still) glaringly obvious problems that could go wrong in this situation:

a. you become attached to your character's SO. They are undoubtedly a wonderful person in real life, but you need to keep in mind that everything you do with another player should be done with their mutual consent, as well as respect for them as a person.
b. you aren't exactly fond of your character's rival. Remember, just because they play a bad guy or someone at odds with your character doesn't make them a bad person in reality.

The one ultimate solution to OOC issues with other roleplayers will always, always be the same, however - sit back and realize that it's just a game! These are just characters in a fantasy setting that are doing you no harm, no matter what they do. Just try to space yourself from your character's feelings; I'm not saying don't give the RP your all, but don't let the RP bring it all down on YOU.

Comfort zones are an important thing to keep in mind. Yes, everyone's wary to bring up "The Dreaded Subject", which is pliable enough to vary in definition because of how comfort zones in general work. Some people may be fine with violence and language, others may not; there's also the always-applicable question of whether or not ERP (Eroitc Roleplay) is appropriate. Again, mutual respect and consideration should always be kept in mind. Not everyone is into what you or others are into. A crossed line can become a damaged line, so be aware of the comfort zones you rest in and where others' lines lie. It never hurts to toss a question to another player; don't be afraid to talk to other plays about anything on your mind, as it never hurts to ask, and knowledge IS power... or in this case, safer!

All in all, don't let people tell you how to play your character. DO be open to suggestions, advice and critique, but don't take to heart what you don't like. Let your character be molded by other players' actions, not so much just their words!






[b]Let's Roleplay Roleplaying: example scenarios of RP do's and don't's[b]
Okay, so I'm going to throw some made-up scenarios at you. Try to guess and see if you get it right - is it an RP "DO" or an RP "DON'T"? Each scenario contains a specific situation where one of the "players" has done something frowned upon in RP.

SCENARIO 1: "LoLspeak"
Player 1 says: Hail, citizen. I see that you appear to be new to these city walls. Mayhaps I can direct you to a local attraction?
Player 2 says: hi 2 u 2 im new whers teh tvrn?
Player 1 says: ...pardon?
...
Did you see Player 2's LoLspeak in the above scenario? LoLspeak is generally frowned upon because it isn't a very intricate or elegant form of writing, and using modern-day chat slang can really break immersion. Though great grammar and spelling aren't important, it is important to use appropriate chat terms.

SCENARIO 2: Metagaming (to act or think with knowledge the character shouldn't have)
Player 1 begins to reach for Character 2's wrists as they are detained, preparing to handcuff them and haul them off to the police station.
Player 2 says: ((It's good that Player 1 doesn't know about my character's knife in their boot.))
Player 1 suddenly checks Character 2's boot, withdrawing the knife and tossing it away.
...
Did you see the RP DON'T in there? Player 1 had no prior knowledge of the knife in Character 2's boot until Player 2 said something OOC. Generally, metagaming is knowing IC details as your character when you should really only know them as a player.

SCENARIO 3: Powergaming (and other forced actions
Character 1 punches Character 2 in the face, causing his nose to shatter. As Character 2 stands up, Character 1 kicks him in the gut.
...
Did you see the RP DON'T in there, too? See, forcing other players to act or otherwise writing for them isn't fair. You need to provide an opportunity for their own reaction. The same guideline could be applied to the idea of talking for others without their explicit permission. The other player(s) in a textfighting scene are also people!

SCENARIO 4: OMG, You're Psychic?! ('Mindreading'/describing personal thoughts outloud)
Character 1 thinks on an earlier fight, "Character 3 was incredible today!"
Character 2 says: I agree!
Character 1: How did you read my mind? Whoa!
...
Generally, you can't read/see/hear other characters' thoughts unless your character is psychic. In most settings, this is rare or unheard of, so try to keep it realistic!

SCENARIO 5: Mary-Suism (or all-powerful characters)
Character 1: I'm the half-god child of the ultimate deity of power. Fear me!
Character 2: ...how many half-gods is that today?
...
There are many ways to put across a character, but some of them may come off as a bit trite. Remember that in roleplay, it's generally frowned upon to have an all-powerful character or a concept that is simply too far out there in those regards. Players will have a lot more fun roleplaying with you if your character and concept are more plausible and thus, interesting.

SCENARIO 6: Lore-Breaking (and the dangers of subsequent isolation)
Character 1: I'm the child of Dracula, even though Dracula is a heartless fiend that actually has no children:
Character 2: ((gotta go, cat's on fire)) /quit
...
A lot of players stray away from lore-breaking, which can be as simple as a mistake on the player's part or as deep as vastly destroying the canon, intentionally or not. Claiming to be the relative or best friend (etc.) of an iconic character to the IP/universe you are roleplaying in is treading dangerous grounds, because some players will not even acknowledge your character (or may not take them seriously) simply due to this common mistake. It is another Mary-Sue trait, which is -- again, dangerous grounds.

Many of your "RP Don'ts" have been discussed, at length, right here in these very forums. Now, while I can agree with a few of those don'ts, there's a couple of them that I have to say are "gray areas" of RP, which this very game of CoH allows us to explore.

1) The "Mary-Sueism" topic: Granted, noone wants to deal with any sort of over-powered character when RPing...however, this game REVOLVES around beings of all sorts possessing multitudes of varying levels of power. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Players can, and constantly will, make their characters as powerful as they can. Knowing how to build the character up and slotting it correctly will prevent MANY trips to the hopital, and provide the player with a character that can accumulate the in-game wealth of XP and inf at a faster rate. It will allow them to survive in the PvP environment longer if not outright win against their opponents. Not to mention the various ways any single character can be made given the powersets available...
Now, in regards to roleplaying such a character...be it a heroic, villainous, vigilant or roguish character...is a different matter, yet the option to do so is still there, still available to anyone that can make a toon in this game. Frown upon the fact if you must, but people are going to do it anyway, so might as well let them roleplay their character. It could provide any sort of plot with varying paths to take that could far exceed anyone's expectations.

2) Lore-breaking. I'll have to say that Lore-Breaking is also a gray subject. This very game borrows so much from mythology and ancient lore it's not even funny. Hell the devs could plot out the family trees of every single character in this game yet someone would still make a character "related to so-and-so NPC". Players are constantly creating toons based upon something else, as well...they've been inspired to make SuperMegaAwesome Guy! because obviously, Superman is taken but they want to experience what it's like to play a character similar to the legendary comic character. Where can anyone truly place such a limit on something like this in such a game as we play? Of course it will be difficult, challenging, hell even downright dumb sometimes, but it will happen. Also: beginners might shy away from getting into any sort of roleplay if they have it in their head they're gonna play whatever sort of character they want to, consequences be damned. In this regard, I suggest such beginners enter a trial roleplay with one of their pre-existing characters, located oh let's say Pocket D, which is perhaps one small (or major!) reason the devs put that in this game.

Now, I did say a couple of those topics I'd call "gray area" topics. This last topic, well, there's bound to be any numerous items not included in this last topic that should remain OOC-only. I'm just using an example of my own experience to point out there are ways around it.
3) I think this might be the final thing I'll come around to. The IC ≠ OOC subject. I bring this up due to some recent "trial-type" roleplaying I've been performing with one of my toons, and I'm mostly going to talk about using my personal knowledge of the in-game world with regards to the toon I played having the same knowledge. I was using a level 12 brute from the Isles; yet I played that toon has having knowledge of dimensional portals, various enemy groups, and certain NPCs without actually having the character read any of the history plaques available, fight those certain enemy groups AND even have an encounter with those certain NPCs. Now, my reasoning behind this? The media. Television, radio, propaganda and other outlets, as well as the character's unwritten background, to give the character that knowledge. This isn't saying the character knows EVERYTHING there is to know; far be it. I believe that there's bound to be certain things that should be common knowledge to most toons created for roleplay as to help accelerate things, give a story a bit of push when needed (sometimes they do, not always a bad thing now!) or to just give a character some sort of goal in their career.

I could also go on with the other topics mentioned here and how they can effectively be used in roleplay, and how they can also be annoyingly used. I'm not going to, though, because 1) I feel LoLspeak has very little room in actual roleplay. Unless the player is RPing some sort of clockwork, robot, or ex-Freakshowesque toon, well then ... no. Besides, there's enough acronyms in this game as it is. 2) I know for a fact that I'm guilty of metagaming in roleplays, because for the past 3 years I've kept my RP mostly to the forums for this game (yes I'm also guilty of 'lore-breaking' here too!) However, now that there IS the Architect system, every single active player of this game can tell whatever sort of story they want in their own words. We've all seen how 'meta-gaming' as been abused in AE, though, and I personally have found that doing such things can over-complicate matters. So, I adjusted my own roleplay style, in order to continue to participate without being that type of roleplayer. I also had to remind myself that even though we the players can make over-powered characters, these very creations of ours still have limits. 3) IC ≠ OOC is a major point in ANY sort of roleplay. The example you provided is an excellent one, and while not every single character can be made that has pre-existing knowledge to "search defeated foes for hidden weapons", just also happens to be an example that can mean life or death for any given hero that calls Paragon City home, and vice-versa for villains of the Isles!

One good thing about roleplaying in this game is that there are pre-established limits for all in-game characters (some AT/powerset combos can easily be defeated by others type of thing), so when establishing any form of in-game roleplay storyline, it's always good to establish a sort of common ground for all involved.

Something else which I feel is VERY important to successful roleplay, and all too often ignored what what I consider "bad" roleplayers, ICA=ICC.

In Character Actions = In Character Consequences.

This means that anything you do as your character can and will have consequences, not just for others, but also for yourself. It's therefore encumbent on you to ACCEPT those consequences or rapidly become unwelcome at RP meets.

If you turn up claiming to be a mass murderer and have just killed eleventy ten heroes in a bloodbath you engineered, and you do this in a place mostly populated by heroes; you WILL be taken to task for that and quite probably arrested or attacked. It's your responsibility to accept that this will happen, and take the consequences fairly and NOT godmod yourself out of the self-created problem. This could even include accepting permanent character death.

There are very few RPers willing to go THAT far.

ICC for ICA, is a pretty fun, and compelling section of RP, but only when people remember that the ICC, have to be acceptable on an OOC level too.

When you start demanding that the ICC are extreme enough that a person can no longer play their character, and OOC they don't want that, then you are in the wrong, your view of what is appropriate consequence wise, is never worth more than some ones enjoyment. Ever.

Particularly as those who seem to demand that ICA ='s ICC are the ones that dodge those ICC the most.

While I'm not sure of the need for this thread, tbh, shall we just stop the name-calling now so the OP can have his thread, get his info, and continue in peace?

^ AFAIK, there have been several ages of heroes, each one caused by an operning of Pandora's Box. It then takes several generations to wear off if I'm remembering correctly.

The really unfortunate thing about dev canon, is that for any part of it that says one thing, you can usually find a part that says the opposite. Considering the trouble they seem to go to to keep it straight, that's rather annoying.

And of course there are teh issues of super pwoered beings/events taking place while the box was unquestionabley closed too :P

So it's not like the box sealed away all hero stuff, just limied it!

There are, indeed, a number of events which happen outside the Heroic Eras. Arguably, the entire magical period, where Mu and Oranbega were in power, is outside of one of those eras. I always thought the box simply caused an explosion of heroes, rather than limiting them, or causing them. Anyway, off topic.

I'd have to disagree with the "dev canon is final" concept ... the "dev canon", although the basis behind CoH/CoV, is the story of the developers, told in-game, of course. There's far too numerous ways to go beyond the "dev canon" ... alien worlds (as previously mentioned with Kheldians, which are part of canon...), other dimensions (as shown in dev canon!), and of course players introducing their own plotlines (whether using AE or not.) There's plenty of story within canon, there's infinitely more stories beyond that canon.

However, there is absolutely NOTHING WRONG with roleplaying within the confines of dev canon.

It's just that RPers don't have to limit themselves to those confines. (Well ok, maybe sometimes certain people should play within those confines before experimenting with going beyond them. /e shrug.) Also: Of course when playing within the confines of canon, canon is the final word.

You can extrapolate and go beyond the limitations of dev canon, sure. But you can't go and blithely contradict it or ignore it in favour of replacing it with your own.

If you do, what's even the point of RPing within the game? You might as well just go and make your own up from scratch.

Simple answer: the box is only gradually collecting power from the world while closed, so by the time Cole and Richter opened it, only those who knew how to muck about with magic in the first place could actually utilise what was left in the world at that point. The End.

Now! *claps hands together* How about shifting this silly little debate to another thread so this one can stay the HELL ON TOPIC? >_<

Love that pic!

If I had something to add to this it's that your guidelines is more of a list of Don't that "Do's and Don'ts" and if there's one thing people don't want to read it's lecture.

And in all honesty the people who make those kind of mistakes aren't reading guides in the first place, so they're of doubtful help.


So some Do's to actually get into RP!


Start the Conversation: It can be a little intimidating to jump into an established setting, especially City of Heroes that's been going for so long. If you want to get involved though you're just going to have to be forward about it. Jumping into a conversation is the best way to get others to take notice of your character, have opinions and try be helpful. Or if you'd prefer to have more control over it, arrive with a few interesting questions to ask. The "Where am I? What's the sky?" character idea isn't one that can run for long, but asking about villain groups or looking for someone who can analyze some weird goo you found? Easy in!

Don't make your first character cringingly shy, abusive or moody. Just like in real life, people tend to ignore or avoid them.


Wing it: If you're not sure about an aspect of your character. Making it up on the spot is not at all frowned upon and is probably one of the best skills you'll pick up while you roleplay. Starting off with a Hero with a Secret Identity really helps you to get an idea of what people are going to ask new characters, while also giving you a convienent excuse for not answering people right away while you think about it. Can't tell all your personal details after all, or it wouldn't be a secret identity. Try not to have the answers to everything though! Even if you're right, it's a bit obnoxious to deal with.


It's Superheroes: Ultimately people like playing Superheroes for different reasons. Some like a mroe realistic approach, while some like the Truth and Justice vibe (And some jus tlike beating up giant robots). Thankfully City of Heroes caters to all of these sides, so feel free to go for the one your prefer! Superheroes are naturally larger than life and so being a colourful personality isn't even seen as all that weird. Everyone else deals with interdimensional travelers, aliens and advanced AI's on a fairly regular basis! So don't feel you have to be an average joe who can shoot fire. Feel free to make something a little weird. Just don't overdo it, people have got to be able to hold a conversation with you after all!

Do... some research. If your character is an ex-Longbow agent gone freelance, read up on Longbow. There are several good sources for in-game material. Turning up and stating as facts things which people know are wrong is a sure fire way to get people's backs up. If it's a matter of opinion, then it's cool, but the stuff's called canon for a reason.

Useful tip: the I'm Typing message.

/bind enter "startchat$$afk I'm Typing"

/bind shift+enter startchat