Roleplay Basics
because it's an important skill
What is this 'roleplaying' everybody seems to be talking about lately? How do I get in on it?Roleplaying (RP)
So, to begin with: What is roleplaying?
To define it as simply as possible, roleplaying is the act of taking on the role of at least one character to form a conversation or story. Roleplay can have many meanings, such as in theatre, or used in training scenarios of some kind. For our purposes here however, on the internet, roleplay generally means taking your characters and writing about them to develop a story.
It's not as simple as that, though. If you were just writing a story with only your characters, you could just be called an original fiction writer. When you roleplay, you have your characters interact with other people's characters, and in that way actually develop a story together. Not sure how that would work? Keep reading!
Generally, you can either roleplay with one other person, or multiple people. There are also several different types of roleplaying, commonly grouped into either 'formal' or 'informal'.
Formal and Informal basically mean what kind of style you are writing in.
Formal Roleplaying
Formal is full story style-- i.e. with full sentences, punctuation, paragraphs, etc. In it, the actions of the characters are described along with their dialogue as if you were writing a book.
(This little section is part of a roleplay between Koryo and I.)
The morning sun rose sleepily, reflecting off the dew that had gathered overnight. It seemed a lovely time for a walk, at least so seemed to think a kyrii who wandered slowly down her usual trail through the gulch near the Shenkuu used bookstore. She carried a novel under her arm, in fact, one she was currently reading. But her walk back would not be an entirely normal one. The book hit the ground with a light thud as she haulted in her tracks. This shoyru in the grass before her... was she... dead? Why else would someone be lying down here, dressed in muddy, torn clothing? The kyrii squatted down beside her, cautiously, mustering up her courage, and quietly questioned. "Um... are you... okay?" She grabbed a nearby stick and poked Lili's shoulder with it a couple of times.
After a few more pokes, Lili groaned and shifted slightly, rolling her shoulder to try and get rid of whatever it was that was disturbing her. Her eyes slowly opened and she stared up at the kyrii listlessly, a rather vacant look in her eyes. She said nothing, and her gaze almost seemed to pass right through her waker. It was the look of someone who seemed like they couldn't bring themselves to care about anything anymore.
The kyrii seemed nervous, carefully setting the stick down and bringing her hand up to her mouth. She thought long and hard about the situation, before she finally sprung into action. She ran and darted back into town, as fast as she could, gathering her skirt as she ran, until she reached the public well. She wasn't so fast coming back with the heavy water, but eagerly dumped it upon Lili when she returned. Tossing the bucket she had carried it from aside, she gathered her hands into fists and shouted, "Good MORNING! It's time to get UP, Clarence!"
Gasping and sputtering from the cold shock, Lili sat up suddenly to cough up a bit of the water that she had accidentally swallowed. She stared at her lap for a few seconds, blinking in shock as water dripped into her face from her bangs, then looked up in angry astonishment at the kyrii standing in front of her. "W-what the h--" she began, then was cut off by another fit of coughing. She shifted her weight again where she sat, trying to move into a more comfortable position, but gritted her teeth and groaned when she tried to move her foot. "Owww..." she moaned, then lay back down in the puddle of water and covered her face with her arm.
The kyrii felt instantly guilty for the action and glanced around a couple of times before squatting down beside her again. "I'm sorry... Are you okay? It's not a very good idea to sleep out here..." She gasped with realization. "Are you homeless? You poor thing, do you need some money? At least to buy yourself some clothes... and some food..."
As you can see, in the example above there are two people writing, and they each take turns writing a few paragraphs and then send it to their partner to read and then reply to. They do this over and over and over and over and over and... you get the idea. The fun never ends!
This is also what is known as one on one roleplay, where you write with only one other person. Since it can take longer to think up and write a segment in that way, formal roleplaying often takes place over email or neomail, where you don't have to be at the computer all the time as the roleplay is taking place. This means that the roleplay can carry on for a number of days or weeks (or even months, and years....*cough*)
Informal Roleplaying
Informal RP has a lot less structure to it, but can be a lot easier to some and perhaps less serious. It doesn't need planning ahead and can usually be initiated without much notice beforehand. (As opposed to asking somebody if they want to formal roleplay, informal usually starts (well, for me, anyways) on a whim and can carry on for however long people are interested.) It is also a lot easier to informal roleplay with more than one other person than it is to do it formally. Informal roleplay doesn't usually require full descriptive sentences or dialogue. Character's dialogue and actions can usually be shown using the *_____* signs appearing after the character's name and a colon, like so:
Kasorr: Hey, this is my petpage! Stop using it for your own selfish reasons! *jumps up and down angrily*
Star: *laughs*
Kasorr: *sob* You don't love me TT_TT
Er, yeah. you get the idea. Since informal roleplay usually goes by fairly quick, it is often found on public chat places (like the guild board) instead of through neomail or email, which is usually best for formal roleplaying.
Since the purpose of informal roleplay generally is to have fun and usually lacks any sort of plot or event, replies are fairly quick and spontaneous and often degenerate into nonsense or very unrealistic events or actions. Usually, unless specified otherwise, it is assumed that what goes on in informal roleplay does not 'count' towards the characters involved. For example:
Staria: Oh, yeah? Well, who has uglier hair now? *attacks Karu with a pair of hedge clippers*
If that there happened in an informal RP on the guild board or someplace, it generally would not mean that Karu is doomed to be drawn and roleplayed with horrible short hair until it regrows. That wouldn't be so nice.
However, it is always rather refreshing when informal roleplay does manage to retain a level of coherency. This shall be observed, actually, during official CAU RP sessions. But more about that later.
How to roleplay effectively
So, now you know the basics of roleplay and how to do it. Now what? That can't be all, can there?
Well, no. Just like anything, roleplaying is a somewhat acquired skill that, like anything, takes practice to become really good at. However, there are some general guidelines to follow to make sure the roleplay stays fun for all participants.
THINGS NOT TO DO
Godmoding (AKA GM)
Godmoding is basically the act of taking control of other people's characters during a roleplay and controlling their actions. DON'T DO IT! It is incredibly annoying to the other participant and basically defeats the purpose of roleplaying. You can't control the actions of other people normally, can you?
For example:
Archier pulled the strange book off the shelf and dropped it on the top on the pile.
After a while's thought, Arian picked up the book and handed it to Archier, who then proceeded to put it back on the shelf.
As you can see in that example, the second paragraph controls not only the actions of Arian (who belongs to Pyro), the writer's own character, but Archier (who belongs to Kaji). It didn't flow too well, did it? x_x (XD Thanks Pyro and Kaji for that little segment.)
Killing other people's characters is also a no-go, unless they give you their express permission otherwise to do so. Usually you will have to have a good reason that will help advance the story or something like that. Things like this are probably best planned out beforehand with your RP partner so you are both in agreement with what's happening.
However, there may be a few cases where controlling other people's characters might be acceptable. For instance, if you have a character that can perhaps manipulate other pets' actions for a short amount of time, then that might be okay. Again, just make sure to check in with the other person and tell them about what you want to do and make sure they agree before you start writing from their character's side. If it helps with the story, then usually somebody should be game to mostly anything, unless perhaps their character has a way to fight back or something. Try not to be so intent on having your characters prevail all the time, though, it's just as fun if your characters don't always win! After all, it's your characters who are the ones being bested, not yourself. Just be sure to remember that there should always be some limits set on everything. (See next section on powerplaying.)
Also, it is good to keep in mind that even though you may not be directly controlling the actions of somebody else's characters, you can also godmode by being too restricting in your writing towards the other character. In other words, not giving the other person an adequate chance to maybe change the direction of where the story is going through the actions of their character. An example would look something like this:
Spyro gave the girl an odd look. "You're insane if you think I'm going to come with you!" he said angrily, crossing his arms defensively and taking a step backwards.
The fangirl paid no notice of this. "You ARE coming with me, and that's final!" she shouted at Spyro, then lunged at him, knocking him to the floor. She tied him up, put him in a sack and hoisted him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes with a satisfied grin on her face.
Poor Spyro never got a chance to defend himself there, did he? And now he's at the mercy of the fangirl, oh no! That's not very fun!
A better way to do it may go along the lines of this:
Spyro gave the girl an odd look. "You're insane if you think I'm going to come with you!" he said angrily, crossing his arms defensively and taking a step backwards.
The fangirl scowled. "You ARE coming with me, and that's final!" she shouted at Spyro, and lunged at him, knocking him to the floor.
Yaaah! Get off of me!" Spyro shouted, grabbing the fangirl's arms, trying to push her off so that he could get up again.
Not on your life!" the fangirl growled, struggling to keep him pinned down with one hand as she reached into her back pocket with the other and pulled out a roll of duct tape.
You get the idea. It's more interesting this way too, right? You bet! And funner for everyone! :3
This brings us to our next topic of things not to do: Powerplaying.
Powerplaying (AKA PP)
Powerplaying is the act of making your character invincible, unbeatable, unbelieveably strong, smart, or possessing any other type of over-capability that takes the fun out of an actual storyline. It's just... not fun to roleplay with anybody who can't be beat, because what's the point if they're just going to win at everything? It's also quite rude, and can be seen as a bit of a superiority complex as well. "My character is better than yours, and there's nothing you can do about it! Muahahaha! |D" Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, and a character with no weaknesses is likely to bring about many eyerolls and annoyed -disallowed_word-Powerplaying Protagonist) stood.
The flaming, radioactive arrows came whizzing towards him, but with super fast speed he dodged them all, grabbed the bow from his adversary and shot 10 arrows at once at the kougra in one go, all of them hitting right on target!
That there would be an example of powerplay. How would you feel if you were the owner of the kougra character? Not very happy, I would imagine. So, as I said before, give others a chance as well, and don't be afraid to let your characters get hurt a little bit or lose once in a while! (Thanks to Koryo and Ciran for help with that little segment there XD)
Mary Sues
Hoo boy. Mary Sues.
Unlike Powerplaying or Godmoding, a Mary Sue isn't a specific thing you do while roleplaying. Instead, the term 'Mary Sue' is used to describe a certain type of character that seems to pop up quite often in both fanfiction and original fiction, both of which include roleplay.
Wikipedia explains it better than I do, so if you feel like searching up 'Mary Sue' there, you'll probably get all the explanation you need on the concept. However, I suppose I'll do my best to try and explain them as well. I got most of my ideas from the article anyways though, just so you know. XD
Basically, a Mary Sue is a character (usually female, but there are also many examples of male Mary Sues, usually dubbed Gary Stu, Marty Stu, or other such names) who seems too perfect or unflawed to be true. In other words, the amount of positive character traits the character has drastically outweighs any character flaws they may have, which makes for a highly unrealistic, generally cliched and annoying result. A Mary Sue often possesses many enviable traits that the author wishes he/she had (highly attractive, lots of special powers, etc) as Sues are often created to draw attention or fulfill the inner longings of their author. Now, keep in mind that it's perfectly fine to have a very attractive character, for example, but you need to make sure to keep your character balanced.
Also take note that some of these traits may also give the Mary Sue opportunities to powerplay, for example if a character was extremely strong and good at magic, and better at fighting with it than everyone else, that they could basically win every fight. Not so fun.
So, as a general guidline for avoiding Mary Sues: Keep in mind that while you may think your character is the greatest, if you try to make them perfect, the opinion probably will not be shared by the audience/roleplay partners. I say it yet again: everybody has their share of flaws, and it's fun to make characters that have a good balance of both good traits and bad. That's how conflict comes about, and conflict is one of the essential ingredients of basically all good stories!
Not sure whether or not your character could be classified as a Mary Sue or not? If you internet-search 'universal mary sue litmus test', a bunch of helpful results will pop up. Some of these are quizzes (the first result is one- I recommend it) that can help you determine just how Mary-Sueish your character is. Be sure to read the guidelines that come with them, because just because your character may share a few traits that could be taken as 'Mary-Sueish', it doesn't automatically make them one. They could still be a very balanced character.
Good luck!