Role-Playing for Dummies

[Tigress]

ROLE-PLAYING
FOR DUMMIES

_{© Tigress, 2010}

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Getting Started
2. Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
3. The Major No-No's
4. Description: Body Movements
5. Description: Your Surrondings
6. Pimping Out Your Post
7. ~more may be added later~

1. GETTING STARTED

First off, thank-you for taking your time to check out my guide, Role-Playing for Dummies. This is my brainchild, and if I find out that anyone is stealing my work (or distributing it without permission), I will promptly eat your brains.

Are you new to role-playing? If so, welcome to our insanely awesome cult! Role-playing (AKA, 'RP'ing') is a very fun and, believe it or not, helpful occupation. Overtime RP'ing will strengthen your writing, spelling, and grammar abilities. But first you must learn how to RP properly. Whether you prefer wolf, horse, human, cat, or any other kind of genre, there are always basic rules you must follow. And trust me; they make it easier for everyone.

2. SPELLING, PUNCTUATION AND GRAMMAR

If you're like me, I absolutley loathe bad spelling and grammar, especially when it comes to role-playing. Du u write liek dis? Yus? Then we have a lot of work to do! If you are currently viewing this on a Proboards forum, when you go to create a reply there should be an option just below the text area entitled 'Spell Check'. Contrary to the name, it will go through your entire post and pick out any spelling errors. Not on Proboards? Try searching 'spell checker' on Google- I'm sure you'll find several.

As for grammar? Well, it's the basis of all good sentences. Here are two examples, one being wrong and the other one right. Which one do you think is correct?

Tyler and me climb tree.
Tyler and I climbed the tree.

If you guessed the second one, then you're right! Let's try one more...

The wolf ran towards the deer, his teeth glistening in the moonlight.
Wolf ran towards deer, his teeth glistened in moonlight.

Did you guess the first one? Wow! You're already on a roll. When creating a post you should always take your time and make sure everything makes sense, including punctuation. Punctuation includes any of these:

, . ? ! ' " - ;

Again, let's look and compare two sentences.

Hey Lets go uptown?
Hey, let's go uptown.

The second one was correct, good eye! When ('s) is after let it means 'us'.

3. THE MAJOR NO-NO'S

Never, ever; power-play, god mod, or create a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu. Power-playing is when you control another person's character without their permission. For example:

Lloyd bit Ron's leg making blood seep into his jaws.

See what I mean? This is the proper way of writing it.

Lloyd sprang forward, his sharp teeth directed at Ron's leg.

On the same token you shouldn't dodge every move, either. Usually every second or third attack should be a hit. Now, god modding is when you make your character 'invincible'. This is similar when creating a Mary Sue or Gary Stu, AKA 'the most perfect, prettiest person on the planet'. In other terms, don't give your character ten strengths and zero flaws. No one is perfect! How would you feel if everyone was the same, boring person?

4. BODY MOVEMENTS

When your character moves or performs some other physical action, you should try to be creative and insert some description. This doesn't sound very interesting, does it?

She danced and smiled.

Ugh, I thought I was falling asleep! Let's turn the heat up.

Her porcelain toes waltzed atop the dewy grass, the edges of her lips curving upwards into a cheerful grin.

It's like taking a plain, green salad and turning it into spicy, Thai shrimp. And guess what? It's not that hard. Oh my gosh, no way!

5. YOUR SURRONDINGS

It's always important to describe where you are and what's around you. Example time!

The sky was dark and the bird's songs were now quiet.

Z,z,z... Wha-? Oh. Sorry, dozed off. Now this is a much better sentence.

The sky above had lost it's once vibrant, sapphire lustre, and was now a canvas of endless obsidian. The talkitive chickadee's chorus had come to a close, like the lullaby for a defiant child.

See? It just takes a little bit of thought. It sometimes helps to close your eyes and picture the scene in your head.

6. PIMPING OUT YOUR POST

I always have to spiff up my posts somehow, whether it be with a little bit of colour or a banner at the top. Here are some of my very own examples...

I used a premade form from Caution 2.0 (Ahem, I'm the person called Tigress...)
Just a quick little thing I made up with colours and such.

Wondering what Caution 2.0 is ? Well, aren't you out of touch with reality! Haha, joking. Anyways, it's a very helpful graphics and role-play resource site that can provide you with pretty much anything RP related. So, I highly recommend checking them out, and next time, maybe try being a bit more creative with your post.

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[Willow]

Ooohh! Very good! I've always been annoyed with bad roleplayers.... I stickied it for you