Roleplayer Guild - Forum Roleplaying Games

Ever read a roleplay where the roleplayers seem to lack the factor to make a certain roleplay exciting? Or you aspire to make your posts interesting to read? Here are just some suggestions on how to improve your roleplaying. Some may be blatantly obvious, while others offer a more creative way to "get in the groove". A few may also be ideas taken and collated from other articles here.

1. Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
Yup, you may be thinking, duh, but this is indeed a highly emphasised point in writing of any sort. Type your posts in a word document with a spell checker, make sure you use the right tenses at all times and please punctuate. A missing comma may not mean much, but if a post is completely devoid of full stops, it becomes messy and quite unreadable. Remember, your character doesn't speak in a monotone.

2. Your Character's Profile
Some say character is the most important part of a roleplay. Your character should have a well-rounded personality. Every character has strengths and weaknesses, don't just focus on one part of a character's personality. Godmodding, of course, is an irritating no-no, and so are stereotypes. That's what a character sheet is for. Another thing, when making a bad villain, make sure that what he/she's doing is right and proper. You can't have a baddie feeling that what he's up to is immoral and horrific, even if it truly is, or else the character will become flat.

3. Your Character's Thoughts
Your character cannot be doing things all the time without thinking something. Pen your character's thoughts and emotions, it makes stuff so much more interesting to read. There are two ways to insert character thoughts. For example, I don't know what to do and, he was clueless. The first one offers a more personal approach and is more advisable, but the second can be utilised when you want a quick mention of your character's feelings.

More coming up!

4. Music
This is a method that is proven to work. Try listening to music that befits the mood of the roleplay. For example, for a comic-based roleplay, you can listen to The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers, and for a romance, try Can You Feel The Love Tonight, or something. This will indeed affect your writing!

5. Story Direction
It is advisable to have a clear direction for your roleplay. Have a clear idea of where you want your story to go, so that the characters can develop throughout the tale. Have your character learn something, face setbacks, solve problems, anything that changes and moulds your character. At the end of the roleplay, you want your characters to be different from before.

6. Detail
Try to add detail to your posts. Don't only state what your character is doing, describe the surroundings as well, and how your character is doing what he/she is. For instance, instead of just saying Alicia went to sleep, try Alicia's eyelids fluttered. Yawning, she fell back onto her bouncy, pink bed which was decorated with lacy pillows and images of her favourite cartoon character.

Note, these pointers don't simply have to apply to Casual and Advanced Roleplays. Roleplayers of Beginners' Roleplays can use these hints to their advantage too. Even more coming up!

7. Plot Twists and OOC
Have one or two plot twists per roleplay, things you do not reveal to the reader and other roleplayers straightaway. This increases the fun and suspense of the roleplay. If it severely affects your fellow roleplayers, though, you can prepare a hint in advance, tell them that a plot twist is coming up. Of course, it is very handy to discuss plot developments in the OOC thread, or through chatting, and not just use them to recruit roleplayers.

8. Realism
This may be a tale, but even tales have to be realistic at times. It is next to nil a probability that your character will defeat tens of thousands of enemy soldiers without breaking a sweat. Create an injury, at least make your character frazzled. Nobody can go through an incident without becoming the same afterwards.

9. Fantasy Roleplays
For a good fantasy to work, you cannot just have a fantasy world and get on with it. You need a goal or an aim in mind, and use the fantasy environment to the utmost. That is why you have a fantasy roleplay instead of a modern one, am I right? As for the fantasy world, it should have a comprehensive history to it. Cities do not make themselves for nothing. Droughts have a reason for starting. Think them out.

I shall end off here for now. Anyone else is welcome to contradict my points, or add some of your own. Our aim is to benefit roleplayers new to the trade, after all!