Dec 24, 2021 2:09:59 GMT
Post by CursedU on Dec 24, 2021 2:09:59 GMT
I would like to thank you for taking an interest in Hearts! This section is here to help you get started in Roleplays and site activities. I’m CursedU, and I’m the administrator of this website. This will be a guide to roleplaying. I'm doing this because quite a few people have begun asking me for advice in regards to how to improve their roleplaying ability.
In this guide I'll be covering both the absolute basics of roleplaying and the more intermediate ideas, techniques and guidelines to help you improve.
The Social Contract
Roleplaying is a social activity. It involves interacting with other people, and the elements of compromise and respect are key to your success at it.
Initiating the Contract
[/b]In this guide I'll be covering both the absolute basics of roleplaying and the more intermediate ideas, techniques and guidelines to help you improve.
The Social Contract
Roleplaying is a social activity. It involves interacting with other people, and the elements of compromise and respect are key to your success at it.
Initiating the Contract
- Motivation: A role player has objectives and motivations for initiating a role play. This could be anything from a power fantasy, to emotional and plot development of their characters. Always identify why you want to role play, and encourage your partner to tell you his reasons. This enables both of you to collaborate and coordinate your actions to create a more enjoyable story and role play.
- Assumptions: There are a set of unwritten rules that role players are expected to abide by. One is that both must assume the other is acting in good faith. Each role player must trust the other won't intentionally lie to him- although the characters might deceive each other. Another assumption is that a person can't change his character midway through a role play; his character is the same one the other player agreed to role play with. It is also an assumption that a role player will not steal control of another person's character.
- Establish Goals: Describe the conclusion you want, in discrete terms. For example, saying 'I want my character to show off his superior skills' or 'I want him to save someone'. Combine your goals together and establish a conclusion both of you want.
- Establish the Central Conflict: Figure out why your characters are fighting or otherwise competing against each other. They could have a common love interest... perhaps they wish to test each others strength. Maybe they fight on opposing sides in some larger conflict. Revenge, betrayal, a friendly spar... humans never run out of reasons to fight. A strong central conflict will make the role play itself draw greater attention. By imbuing the central conflict with philosophical stances and emotional investments, the conflict can evolve into a cosmic ideological struggle, instead of a simple exchange of fists. This creates something important, that I'll come back to: Plot Emphasis.
- Read Your Partners Article: This step is crucial. Whenever you post, whenever the opposing character uses a technique, spell or otherwise you NEED to refer back to their article. You should actually read their entire article several times over the course of a roleplay. What's written there is for all intents and purposes LAW as far as the roleplay is concerned. If you misunderstood a technique, you either need to revise or suffer the consequences to your character. If you're in doubt, ask your partner, but never trust your own interpretation. Though feel free to share that interpretation with your roleplaying partner if you feel it's cool and fitting, they might decide to adopt it.
- Beginning the Role Play: Begin the roleplay in motion; the characters are actors, they should be acting, not accumulating dust in their houses. Give them a purpose to act upon: they have an in-character reason to be where they are. This momentum can guide the direction of the roleplay, kickstarting both players to action. Align the motivations of your character so that they will end up in situations that achieve your goals for the roleplay. You want the character to show flashy break-dance fighting moves? He's been tasked with preventing the assassination of some important figure. You want him to develop a romance? A princess is in mortal peril.
- Creating Exchanges: An exchange is any time one player character interacts with another. In simple terms, this could be an "attack". All exchanges must be written open-ended; you cannot dictate how your character's attack will effect his opponent, because anything that happens to a character falls under the narrative control of that character's player. It's easy to simply say, "my character dodges the attack with ease", but this way of responding just as easily falls into a pitfall of role playing- disrespect. A better way is to acknowledge the other character's actions and incorporation them into your response. For example, you would instead say "My character narrowly avoids the sword as it cuts through the fabric of his shirt, slicing a fine line through the flimsy cloth- but miraculously leaves the skin untouched.
- No Pokémon Battles: Where one part makes a single attack, and the other part defends, evades or gets hit, then proceeds to retaliate, rinse and repeat. Put in simply terms, a Pokemon Battle is overly slow, offers very little character development, feels unreal and unrealistic and above all else, it tends to be boring and repetitive. When you fight, give your opponents multiple things to react to at once, combine spells together, attack from multiple angles, use multiple techniques towards a desired awesome end. Be a badass. Not only will your additional attacks push your roleplaying partner to respond in kind, thus making for a much more lively and engaging roleplay, chances are high you'll both learn a lot.
- Learn how to use your characters: This is extremely important, even if you made a character, that does not mean that you know how to utilize them optimally in a roleplay right off the bat. Talk to people, have them take a look at your character, do some research on the applications of their abilities and just learn how their powers work (an absolute necessity!). Also, read the roleplays of other users who have made similar characters and see how they use them.
- Narrative Emphasis: Narrative emphasis is using the organization of a sentence or paragraph to instill an increased sense of focus on a particular aspect of the writing. For example, "My character deflects the attack." emphasizes the character. "The attack barely misses my character." emphasizes the attack. In this way, certain parts of what you write can be seen as essential- this tips the other role player off, that what you are emphasizing is important. So, when you notice this, you can know that responding to what they are emphasizing is what they want you to do. In simple words, when you say "My attack roars with an awesome power.", you are emphasizing that the power is roaring awesomely. A response that takes your emphasis into consideration would be "My character clutches his ears in pain and stares in terror as the attack barrels down upon him."
- Plot Emphasis: Plot emphasis basically means, making parts of a story relevant by describing them in detail. So, including information about your character's sword, such as what it's made of or where it came from, tells the reader that it is important to you and the future of the story. For example, "My character has a symbol on his back" vs. "My character has a star symbol on his back, instantly recognizable as the ancient coat of arms of his clan."
- Concluding the Role Play: So your characters have had a slew of exchanges and engagements, and you feel like ending the role play. Don't think in terms of "winning" the role play. As long as both of you get what you originally wanted from the role play, you are both winners. Discuss how you want it to end with your partner, and create an ending that is equally fun for both of you.
- Disrespect: Disrespect means showing a lack of respect for your role play partner. Direct insults are one form of disrespect. Dishonesty is another. Showing a lack of effort when you write is also a form of disrespect. Autohitting is also disrespectful.
- Godmodding: Godmodding is modifying or editing your character, and then introducing your new power or ability to a roleplay without the permission of the other player. When you do this, you have violated one of the assumptions of the social contract- that you are using the same character your partner agreed to roleplay with.
- Metagaming: Metagaming is when a player has their character act on information the character does not or could not possess in order to gain advantage in the role play. Knowing all of the weaknesses of a technique, spell, or power the character has never seen is the most common form of this violation.
- Grandstanding: When you roleplay with another role-player, and have your characters duke it out, there's always be egos involved. Grandstanding is when you consistently downplay or berate your partners efforts in your post. This is often done to cement your character as the strongest, examples include:
"James easily deflects Anna's attack, remarking at how silly she is for attempting to use an attack of that caliber against him"
"Susan effortlessly keeps up with June, where every step makes it seem as though she's walking, not running."
Does that mean that your character can never have an easy time with a technique or ability? Of course not, your character can stomp, crush and overwhelm any ability or technique as long as they've got a good explanation. The important part is showing the ease, not telling or mentioning it. Whenever you do something like this, you should be prepared to answer your partners inquiries and questions honestly and respectfully. And if your partner comes with a good counterargument to how your character can't, then you should follow that and change your post accordingly. That proves to your partner that you're taking their character seriously. - Ignorance: Ignorance is when a player ignores another player's contributions to a role play, one way is by being unwilling to read the other player's character to understand how their abilities work, and making incorrect assumptions about them."
- Selfishness: Selfishness is when a role player shows a lack of concern about the other role player's enjoyment. He doesn't care if the other role player is happy, as long as he gets what he wants. And he doesn't want to compromise, either."
- Floating Attack: A Floating Attack is a combination of an attack and it's conclusion. It differs from an autohit due to one fundamental aspect, namely that it does not mention any effect on the opposing character in any way, leaving the role-player able to decide for themselves as usual while still showing the full extent of your characters power. Here's a short example.
"With a wave of his hand, Susan fired off the full force of the summoned spears of fire upon her opponent. Culminating in an enormous explosion that decimating everything in the immediate vicinity"
As you've likely noticed, what happened to his opponent is left open, while Susan got to showcase the full power of her attack all the same. - Expanding: The next roleplaying technique is Expanding, as it's name implies, Expanding is about taking something and making it even bigger. This does not apply to your attacks in this case, but to those of your opponents, this can be done for a multitude of different reasons. The most common one is if you find the attack of your roleplaying partner a bit lackluster you can exaggerate it's features to make it seem cooler and more awesome, but why would you do that though? A huge part about how you manage to make your character appear badass is by how they respond to an opponents attack. If they do so in a spectacular and awesome manner then that can greatly impact how the readers perceive them.