rpgcentral

[Melcinitan]

Table of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to role-playing
Chapter 2: How does free form role-playing work?
Chapter 3: Building my character
Chapter 4: Building a free from role playing game
Chapter 5: About dice roleplaying
Chapter 6: Conclusion and FAQ



Chapter 1: Introduction to role-playing




What is role-playing?

Basically, the words speak for themselves. Role-playing is playing the role of a character/person. In this case that character is usually your own creation. For the ones that want a more complex and detailed explanation of what role playing is or that simply don't understand what I've said, you can keep on reading if not skip to the next part of the chapter.


So lets start off with the word “role”


Role: A character or part played by a performer


There are three important keywords in this definition.
Character: That would be the character you have created and will play along the while story line. It may evolve and change such as all humans do but you must always remember to play along the lines of what you have written.


Part: The part your character will play in the story line. Not all story lines are the same so try to make your part something minimal; no one wants someone that constantly tries to be the center of attention or be the center of the story line.


Performer: That would be you; the player, the performer, the actor. And of course, we all know that to be a good performer we need to know our role/part *hint* *hint*


Now you see, this is like a vicious triangle with no end, everything relates to the other and people tend to forget that.


On to the word “playing”


Playing:
- To occupy oneself
- To take part in a game
- To act
- To act or conduct oneself in a specified way
- To be performed, as in a theater
- To assume the role of; act as
- To pretend to be; mimic the activities of
- Fun or jesting,
- To participate in; engage in
- And so on!!


Now, you see the many definitions the word playing has? The words in italic are words you MUST REALLY remember when you role-play. The two definitions in bold letters are the most important ones to remember.





Types of role-playing games

There are different types of role playing games?!?!!?!? OMG WTF LAWL I DIDN'T KNOW!!! >______> Sorry it's late I just can't help it, along with a lack of my daily dose or role playing and RO... Yes, I still play RO. Anyway!! That's not important! Back to the tutorial.


Here's a list of the different types of role-playing methods I know. If you can enlighten me on some of them I have no listed or listed and given a wrong description to please tell me.


- D&D type of role-playing with dices and all that stuff... I've never bothered to play yet... but I do like the pictures in the many books they have created. ^o^;
- Dice role playing game, similar to D&D but there are so many systems out there I wouldn't be able to name them all.
- BESM* type of role playing (For those who are anime fans and have probably been to anime conventions you probably seen those books for sale.) BESM uses numbers and has over 100 pages of skills to choose from a little like D&D but if I remember correctly it didn't use dices to play just simple additions and subtractions.
- Free form type of role-playing, which, I am guessing, is what we are using here on the forum. This is also the type of role-playing system I will be teaching you in this tutorial.
- The Elftown system. I'll ahve mroe information on this system once I actually learnmyself how it works ^__^





Definitions

I'm giving Arwen from Gaia Online the credit for this part because most the definitions I will list have been based on her own.


BESM : Big eyes small mouth (yes its an actual book)
RolePlay : To assume the role of
RP : or RPing means RolePlay or RolePlaying
OOC : Out Of Character or (())
IC : In Character (i.e. To resume the role I was rping as.)
God Moding : RPing IC, ignoring all rules of roleplay, making character a super-being who can't die. This is explained in further detail in chapter two at the fighting section.
NPC : Non Playing/Playable Character (i.e. Sometimes a user that you're rping with will go into NPC mode. Reasons maybe he/she needs to go offline.)
Storyline : Every RP has a story in it...read the first page of every RP you're going to participate in before jumping in.
Close RP : A close RP means that it is restricted for ONLY the users that were invited. It's best not to disrupt other RPs that you're not involved with or check around and see if they have any auditions so you might be able to be invited then.
Open RP : An open RP means it's open to anyone. Often happens there are no auditions to pass for those.
Auditions : Consists of giving the GM(s) your character sheet so they can evaluate if you are or are not what they are looking for.
RP Rules : Every RP made by different users has their own set of RP rules, please follow them to avoid embarrassment.
Closed RP : It means the RP has ended, so no need to post.
Quest RP : These RPs are very committed. If you're not the 'serious' role player than this isn't recommended for you. The reason is a Quest RP goes on forever till something finally happens. These RPs are often organized by "serious" role players who know their stuff.
School RP : A place for those that would enjoy a good educational RP. Class is in session!
Anime/Manga/Game RP : These RPs are mainly based on the series itself. For example: A thread was created called "Final Fantasy RP" and that means the RPers on that thread may RP in character as Cloud or Tidus or be original characters that they have made up RP with the FF characters.
Original Characters : Some RPs will have users that have made their own character identity and name.
Symbols : Sometimes you will see those asteriks * used during an RP. Those often times by most users are used to describe motion/action. But not everyone uses it like that. Some may use color on the text and others will use slashes / or make it to italic or small text or :: or ~. I can't really say on this part because everyone is different.


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_________________
There's a Land called Passive Aggression.

I own it.

[Melcinitan]

Chapter 2: How does free form role-playing work?



Seems pretty simple but sometimes I wonder, especially when I look some people play... god, the salt... –shudders- So lets get down with it!





System of free form role-playing

There isn't really a system for free form role playing, that's why we call it free form, we have no dices to regulate how hard we stab, slash, punch and kick or how good or bad our luck turns out and so on. Now this may seems complicates, the training wheels from your bike have been taken off. “HO NOZ!!! I'M GUING TO FALL!1!1!!1 WAAHHH!1!1!!”


Really now, calm down.


The way it works is simple to understand and hard to apply but after a while it grows in as a habit so don't worry little ones you'll grow big _some day_ ... I swear.





So, how do I play "the right way"?

There are four important things you should remember to play a good character/role. This doesn't include all the regulations people can apply to their game.


First off the biggest thing you should always and I say ALWAYS remember to use your sense of judgment. If you tell me you have no sense of judgment please give me a gun and I will shoot myself. We all have a sense of judgment; some just have it less developed than other. Those people need to start off by work on developing that sense of judgment before they get yelled at for being stupid. This is the first and ultimate point a player should work on. If you have a bad sense of judgment you'll never be a good player because you'll never be able to judge a situation in order to react to it properly as you would if it was real. Don't be stupid and use your brain, it's there for a reason!


Second, follow your character's personality traits at all times! If you drift off into traits of character you never had mentioned in the personality part of your sheet before and nothing triggered you to evolve this way people will say you suck at role-playing and they'll ditch you soon enough.


Third and fourth, respect others and play fair! These are very important things to remember when you play. If you don't respect the other players OOC you're going to have a hard time playing with them, which could and probably would lead to unfair playing because you might want to over power them showing them you're the best. Respect also applies for the GM(s). If you don't respect them then you can say bye bye to your little character they're going to kick you out of the game one way or another and you don't see the face of light ever again!


Lets recapitulate! First, use your sense of judgment to deal with situation wisely while, second, still following your character traits and third respecting your fellow players and GM by playing fair.


When you think about it, this all comes back to something we like to call GOD MODING. If you go against all the four wonderful things I've listed, you end up having an incoherent god moding character and I swear, no one likes that.





So, how about fighting now?

Mischeif Dragon on Gaia Online has allowed me to rewrite what he has written for my tutorial as long as I gave him credit so, that's what I'm doing! Credit goes to Mischeif Dragon for this part of my tutorial.


God Moding - /godmode on


God moding, also known as power play is VERY and maybe TOO common amongst newbies. Don't know what god moding is? Well, I'll tell you and better yet show you.


God moding is consisted of going against all rules and regulations in a role playing game along with disrespecting other members and GMs. Basically, your character is a total god that can't be killed or have a punch landed on but that can take on anything and come out with not even a scratch.


Auto Hits - You die, I winz!


Auto hits are something I've seen one too many times. They really should NOT be used at any cost what so ever never ever ever ever ever!!!!!!! Role-playing is meant to be consensual, this means generally before you even fight in an RP you'd be best to discuss it with the one your attacking (preferably off the board so as to not interrupt flow of RP) and make sure that the opportunity to attack is well chosen. Don't just walk with the player IC being all friendly to turn on him seconds after.


We understand that people might anger you while you play and you might want to attack him or her. Keep in mind that when you attack you MUST NEVER SAY in any case what so ever that you have done any damage to them. Doing so is considered as auto-hitting.


Example of auto-hitting and how to correct it.


Auto-hitting:


Jack swings his two handed bastard sword at Jill's legs cutting them both off.


Auto-hitting corrected:


Jack swings his two handed bastard sword at Jill's legs in attempt to cut them both off.


Never write the outcome of your actions! Instead it's best to state your characters intentions to his actions.


Now let's see how to reply without auto-hitting or god moding.


Auto-hit and god mode reply:


Jill's legs are slashed but not cut off. She runs over at Jack and slashes at him, aiming for his wrist cutting them making Jack unable to hold his sword anymore.


Auto-hit and god mode reply corrected, possibility number 1:


Jill jumps back as she sees the blade of the sword coming at her. Thought she had jumped back Jack's attempt at cutting her legs off fails but instead it manages to slash at her legs. Still standing despite the pain given by the rather deep cuts on her legs Jill runs over at Jack as she screams out a painful battle cry while attempting to slash at his wrists in order to disarm him.


Now you see here that Jill ‘s legs are hurting very badly. This will affect her balance and endurance in battle especially if she gets hit on her cuts again. You must take in consideration the pain of your character for the following posts.


This could also have turned out in the following way.


Auto-hit and god mode reply corrected, possibility number 2:


Jill jumps back as she sees the blade coming at her. Thought she jumped back she soon realized it wasn't enough. Soon enough Jill crumbled to the ground in pain as he legs gave in on her.


This is most likely the end of the battle for Jill. As you've noticed there are plenty of possibilities to make a simple move turn out either good or bad with out having to god mode.


Now let's move on to things you should take in consideration about your character when you fight. There are two main things I will discuss: physics and weaknesses.


Physics – Damned physics! It's your fault I can't fly!!


People tend to forget about the laws of physics when they gear up their characters. They give them 10 weapons, a big heavy armor and a bundle of random items to carry yet they can still jump as if they were light like a feather and run as fast as the wind.


I understand that some characters might have inhuman strength but take in consideration that not everyone can and that no matter your strength, there is always a limit. This subject touches god moding as well as fair fighting and conscience of your characters state and position. Gravity only pushes down, that's why things fall to the ground.


Lets take a few things in detail now.


Overall clothes and armor: It's always best to research and study on what your character will be wearing, how much it weights and what the movement capacities are with what you plan on making him or her wear.


Knight and armor: If your character is a knight or has a wonderful shiny armor all over him, his armor probably weighs half as much as he does. Knowing that you should remember that this would complicate your character's movement and restrain him from doing certain things. The way armor is pieced together is an important factor to how much your character can move.


Weapons and fighting styles: When it comes to fighting styles and weapons, it's the same thing as clothes. Do your research on the fighting styles and weapons you want to use with your character.


The katana in detail: I've noticed a lot of people liked to use the katana probably due to all the anime they've seen heard of and have been around. I've also noticed that some people were not aware of all the other wonderful Japanese weapons that existed and why they were created. Now well all know what a katana looks like but have you ever heard of the wakizashi? The wakizashi is a sword just like the katana but shorter. It was created for indoor fighting because some have noticed that the katana was too long and that restricted people's movement. Next time, when you choose a fighting weapon try to evaluate if you'll be using it inside or outside in order to judge how much your movement might be restricted.


The sword in particular: A simple sword may not seem that heavy at first grasp after being swung a lot you will eventually grow tired, especially your arm, no matter what your endurance may be. Also remember that thought you may see a lot of people do fancy moves in movies and video games most of the time they will get you killed 9 times out of 10. Even now, the fancy moves in video games are hard to do. I would namely point out Soul Calibur II for Playstation2 and Game Cube as a good resource. Try making fancy moves against the computer when they're at hard or very hard mode. It's not easy... unless I just suck at the game.


Weaknesses – I r the invincible!


This also comes back to god moding. All characters and I say ALL character MUST and DO have weaknesses. If you're thinking about making this ultimate character with no weaknesses please give me a liter of Javex or two I feel thirsty.


The lack of weaknesses is one of the major and biggest problems with newbies. They come online thinking they'll be god like people and I blame their ego for it. Just because you are cool in real life doesn't mean you'll be uber strong out on the internet. Now lets take a certain things into detail.


Gods, angels and demons: I've seen a few role-plays out here about god, angels and demons. I personally dislike them due to the people that over do the lack of weaknesses and the huge amount of power given to their characters. Gods, angels and demons are pretty much like normal people, they can die. The only reason they are considered as gods, angels or demons is because of something inhuman they have once done in their existence. Thought they probably have a longer life span and have superb strong points they also have weaknesses. It's a good thing to research on existing gods such as the popular roman mythology gods and Egyptian pharaohs, which were also considered as gods.


Immortals: No matter how immortal you say you are, you should know you aren't. Vampires and undead are usually countered with holy magic and objects or simple sunlight. Thought in some special cases vampires may be countered by other things such as werewolves and may not be necessarily killed with sticks in the heart. It's up to you to do your research. Usual in vampire role playing game the GMs will set up specifications on how the vampires can be defeated.


Weakness or personal issue – Argh! I'm so scared!!


I've seen people bring up a few “weaknesses” for their characters with out thinking about it too much. Personal weaknesses can be over come and that's why they are BAD! They don't have to be avoided but they aren't things to actually be considered as weaknesses but more as issues and things to make your character more interesting.


Suggested weakness traits:


Elemental weakness - Elemental weakness is the easiest to focus on. If you can blow fire, coldness would likely not appeal to you. Remember, if you're always in the tropics, this wouldn't count as a counter balance weakness.


Counter Balance - You can move quickly, remember that objects have matter. Your brain can't always register and translate data at a fast speed, this means you might hit the tree before you see it. Also remember that speed often associates with lack of defense due to light armor or no armor at all. You can't have both good armor and good speed.





Posting

There are many things to remember when you post to make gaming both interesting and fun for everyone.


- Remember, you aren't alone in the game and you aren't the center of the story. No one is so take consideration of your surrounding and role-play mates they too have evolving characters.
- Don't be afraid to put detail!! People, you lack detail and this is why you end up posting three words! Did you know that if someone write five lines and you reply with three words it's almost like an insult making them wanting to ditch you and go off to find better players? Well now you do. So put in that detail from the biggest sword swing to the slightest hair bounce!
- Follow your characters personality traits!! Also stick with the same background history.
- Don't post too quickly and too often, everyone has the right to reply.
- Take in consideration other people's presence and actions. They aren't invisible you know. Unless you haven't noticed them or that it's spam or god moders, you can just ignore them then.
- Thesaurus.com is a very good tool to use when you need vocabulary variation or word definitions.
- Use the spell checker before submitting your post.
- AVOID THE USE OF SMILEYS AT ALL TIMES!


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_________________
There's a Land called Passive Aggression.

I own it.

[Melcinitan]

Chapter 3: Building my character



“OMG!!! No I know how to play so I will make a character!!” ***Two seconds later*** “I'm done!!”


Wow kitty!! Slow down!! Are you allergic to writing, that character sheet is composted of three lines, what is that?


Yes, I've seen this too often and ... the salt... ow, please no more, it hurts. O, lets learn how to make a character shall we?





Things to remember

To start off with, there are things to remember when you create a character and you should always and yet again I say ALWAYS remind yourself of these things before, during and after you create your character.


- Make sure you decide what type of character you want to create.
- What type of personality it will have.
- Where it comes from.
- How it lived and how it lives now.
- Have a good background history to back up the way its personality is and maybe the way it dresses.


These things are what will reflect who your character is over all and decide what kind of influence your character has on others and such things. They will also allow you to start off with a good base and make your character evolve in a humanly way... that is as long as you role-play correctly. If you have noticed, everything goes in circles. Ask yourselves the following questions when you make your character.


- Why is he dressed this way?
- Why does he know those skills and not others?
- Why does he act this way and not that way?
- Why did this or that happen in his history instead of that or this?


Everything comes back to another make sure it holds itself together. Everything has a reason, everything has a beginning and an end. Remember this and you'll do great. Don't just answer these questions with: “Because he likes it that way.” or “Because that's how it was when he was born.” Go for further than just what he is currently and what happened since he was born. If you need answers go get them.


Other things you should remember when you make your character.


- Make sure you will be able to play your role properly at all times. If you think it might be too hard to play a child because you think too mature then don't at least, not until you believe you can.
- Don't be afraid to give too much information on your character, it's only for OOC use. No player IC should know anything about your character unless it's already planned things between the both of you or with the GM or that your character has mentioned it before.
- Don't be afraid to give detail. DETAIL MY FRIENDS!! People lack it badly and that's why we end up with 3 line posts.
- And lastly, make sure your character makes sense and is original! We all want an original character. Also, a side note, original doesn't necessarily mean tragic history.





Character sheet

Usually, character sheets are pretty much all the same demanding basic information on your character such as age, gender, name, looks, race, history, skills, personality and other though the sheets do vary slightly from one role play to another.


Here's the model I usually use for basic characters.


Name:
Age:
Gender:
Race:
Position(s)/Job:
Appearance:
Personality:
Skills:
History:
Other:


And I can usually fit three pages worth of descriptions and details with that sheet so you guys should be able to do just as much. Ok so at least try to do one page.


There are more complicated models you can use for your characters. I have a few examples I’ve managed to gather around in some role-playing games.


To add the extra depth to your character, make sure the sheet contains the awnsers to some of the questions listed here:
-What is your personality?
-What did you do in your life before you became an adventurer?
-Where are you from and what are your connections to your origin?
-What is your family like?
-What do you look like? (Incl. anything noticeable)
-What do you like and dislike? (Incl. Hobbies & Phobias, if any)
-What would you never do? (Ethics)
-What would you like to achieve in the future? (Personal aims ans Dreams)
-Who do you love and hate?
-Who are your best friends, and worst enemies?
-How religious are you?
-What are your prized posessions?
-What are your favorite, and memorable quotes?





Elements and Powers

Elements and powers, things we all love and want, I agree. But we can;t be all at once now can we?


There are just a few things to remember about this yet some still seem to be fully ignorant about it. It pisses me off when I see someone go around sayng: "I am the shadow element!" and then watch the cast lightning I mean wtf! You're shadow not lightning!!


Another thing to remember is that you ARE NOT indestructible no matter what element you are! Being invincible and all mighty SUCKS! It gets boring people don;t want to play with you or it causes soemthing like this:


Person1: "You can't kill me! I'm the elemenet of air!"
Person2: "Yes I can!"
Person1: "No, besides air si indestructible."
Person2: "Not it isnt" -goes off an some explaning about how air is produced-


Aaaaaaand so on! Do you want to look like that? Seriously I don't and I don;t want ot see people spend half the RP session explaning hwy they are indestructible when in the end they really warn't and no one around isn;t. You're all affraid of losing if you do so!


And finally, if you choose an element play that elelemnt and that one only not 50! You can't have it all! I'm sick of saying it!





Personalities and things seen too often and solutions on how to fix them

Some of the following content may have been said by me previously or can be said later on. That's probably because it's important no?


I've recived Captain Kiva's autorization to use her article for my tutorial. Go to Captain Kiva's Article for the complete version of it. On this oage I will post the essential that I want to point out.


This has been mainly quoted off things Mischeif Dragon has said.


Clichés - Hey, you're a monk exiled from India and the chosen one too? COOL!


Specifications on certain things people don't seem to understand even after being told over and over again.


Vampyres: They are not vampires, Vampyres are a subspecies of "Fire demons" That are able to heal faster by fire, and die faster from cold. While they suck blood as well, and can make someone a vampyre the way a vampire does. They are not a vampire. The term vampyre as reference to a vampire is HIGHLY overdone.


Chosen ones: You're not the last savior of your race, people, planet, and kingdom. You are not the most powerful mage, bard, pumpkin in the universe. People too often claim to be the last and or only hope for their people. If you're original, this is fine and dandy but too many use it as an excuse to god mode instant revival from death.


Royalty: Princes, Princesses, Kings, and Queens. If I had 1g for each prince, princess or other royal type person I've seen I'd be richer than bill gates. Royalty is overdone, if we took the planet and assumed it was earth sized not smaller or larger. The amount of kingdoms that would have to exist for this many royalty would make each of them as small as New Jersey, and likely as prosperous with such small land mass and few people that would have to be there for farming food and self sufficiency.


This has been quoted off from Captain Kiva's article.


Tragic Sue
Why do bad things happen to beautiful people?


Tragic Sue is the beautiful (I have yet to see an ugly Mary Sue, but there's always next week) woman with the hideously tragic past. You know her, you've met her. There's at least one Tragic Sue in every RPG I've ever seen.


The thing about Tragic Sue's problems is that none of them are her own fault. Tragic Sue is always the victim of her environment, be it family, classmates, an evil cult, whatever. There is always some outside group who, for no reason, are targeting Tragic Sue, and making her life very, very sad.


This is a classic escapist fantasy. For when people want to believe that something is NOT their fault. There are problems in your life which may or may not be out of your control, but exhibiting twisted visions of these problems, putting them on display for us, that's not something we want.


Having a little tragedy with your character ISN'T the problem here. We are not saying that your character shouldn't have a difficult past, or some serious problems. It's when your character is faultless. When your character is only a victim, and not an enabler, or perhaps even one of the very problem causers. None of us are faultless in real life. The sooner we accept this, the sooner I can stop seeing some Tragic Sue weeping about her tragic past in a tragic way at the drop of a TRAGIC FREAKING HAT.


Tragic pasts should be a main revolving point, if you choose to have them. You should NOT reveal them within the first five minutes of meeting someone. How boring is that? No building. It is, as one saying goes, "Without meaning, without climax, without conclusion."


Angry Sue
GRRL POWER!!!1


Who is Angry Sue? Why, you see her everywhere you turn these days. Staring at you from web sites, fanfiction, and even popular media, Angry Sue is the beautiful, tough, no-nonsense chick who knows ten different martial arts, fires two guns at once, claims she wears the pants in the relationship, but often ends up crumbling and crying to the first bit of Manmeat that pays attention to her. Angry Sue is often just another part of Tragic Sue. She is jaded, tough, and wears her shit-kicking boots knee-high.


This doesn't sound like a problem, many of you are saying. We'll discuss this in more depth in Chapter Three, but I feel the need to point out some of the COPIOUS flaws that plague Angry Sue. Angry Sue is, often times, so obsessed with being a total badass, that it becomes outright Godmoding (discussed more with Gary Stu) and she fails to be realistic. None of us want to see ANYONE entirely capable of taking on an army by themselves. That isn't realistic at all, and usually bores us to tears.


Perfect Sue
Martha. Freaking. Stewart.


You know that girl you know who gets perfect grades, and is nice to everybody, and can sing beautifully, and has time to throw wicked-cool parties, and never has a hair out of place? You don't? Me neither.


Because she DOESN'T EXIST. Not outside of crazy freaking RPGs where she rules with an iron fist. Perfect Sue often has an angsty Stu boyfriend who she taught how to love. She is everyone's friend, and usually a princess in disguise or some crap. When the time comes, Perfect Sue might die a noble death, and then everyone can sit around weeping for their loss for a couple pages, and her sacrifice will never be forgotten or some crap.


Basically, Perfect Sue is that girl in high school who you wanted to beat the crap out of, but later you found out that she actually was addicted to cocaine and was obsessive compulsive and got knocked up by her boyfriend and dropped out of college. Only Perfect Sue doesn't do any of the bad things.


Once again: LACK OF REALISM.


Half-Sue/Half-Goddess
That frisky Zeus!


1/4 Vampyre (bring me to life oh nooooo), 1/4 angel (might only have one wing), 1/4 elf (related to Legolas!), 1/4 demon (with photoshopped picture of Ryoko as their signature) and ALL ANGST. Her tragic parentage makes her the target of many people who don't understand her. Her tragic parentage also gives her a METRIC ASSLOAD of powers with NONE of the drawbacks of any of those races. Elvish grace, demon sturdiness, angelic beauty and holy powers, badass vampire who can go out into the sunlight?


Wow, you guys. I don't have a lot I can say about this Mary Sue that the full parentage doesn't say for itself. Let's just leave it at this: Don't play this character. In fact, try to stay away from half-breeds entirely until you are past the age of eighteen. While there's still a very high chance you might be an idiot who will play Mary Sues, there is that snowball-in-hell percentage that you will have grown out of it.


At least... I hope so.


Sex Me Up Sue
Just another facet brought to you by your local rampaging hormones.


Sex Me Up Sue is one who you rarely see alone. You usually see an Angry Sue with Sex Me Up tendencies, or a Tragic Sue. Sex Me Up Sue is just another way for me to complain about you people who don't want to RP as much as you want to hook up with someone else and have a happy Gaian wedding and four billion Gaian children after you're pregnant for about four weeks and then all the children are all grown up within another month. Jesus, what is this, ALIENS?!


Sex Me Up Sue also can't seem to resist prancing around with whatever flavor of the month she has hooked up with. (Or... two months, if you want to go with the cycle. Whatever.) She is beautiful, doesn't play by the rules, is usually strangely a virgin (no matter how many times she's been through this cycle) and is trained in the arts of LOOOOOOVE.


Wow, you guys. Just... wow.


Please stop role-playing if you play this Sue. You are beyond our help entirely, since the worst case we saw of this was played by a forty year old woman. In fact, you might want to destroy your computer and never darken the internet with your wicked presence ever again.


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_________________
There's a Land called Passive Aggression.

I own it.

[Melcinitan]

Chapter 4: Building a free from role playing game



Building a role-play is not easy and managing one is even less easy. To have control over everything is absolutely impossible and people want a little bit of liberty too you know. I suggest role player newbies to role-play for a while before they adventure themselves in the art of creating a role-play for the simple reason that you must be able to point out the things that go wrong in a game you play in before you make one. If you can't point out the things that go wrong you can't control your game and eventually it sucks.


Managing a role-play takes time and effort as well as devotion.





The storyline

We understand you aren't all novelists and good storylines are hard to find. Many of them look alike and end up going on forever till people start dropping out due to boredom. It also depends on the role-play you want to do.


Some people prefer sit and talk role-plays where you just chill and nothing really happens. Basically you just develop your character at the same place with the same people. This mainly applies for tavern, school and club role-plays.


Others prefer adventure role-plays where you get to explore land and face monsters in battle, where something new always awaits. These are also the games that need a good story line and a basic plot to stay alive.


So, make sure that when you create your game that your storyline seems attracting, entertaining, amusing and interesting. Keep in mind that:


- You have a basic plot to lead the players to in order to keep suspense and interest in them.
- Don't center everything on your character if you're playing too.
- Try to make events and such, those are always fun.





Rules!! What kind of rules should I make? Do I really need them?

In role-plays these days, yes rules are rather essential. Why? Because of the huge blinding quantity of newbies lurking around wanting to be part of everything and nothing all at once.


Rule I use and why:


- No god moding!! (This is always the first rule I put in)
We went through god moding and we will again till people learn not to do it.


- When fighting use your sense of judgment. We can all die!!
Yes, we can all die. People don't seem to realize that and this rules somewhat goes back to the god moding one. If you lose your character just make another one, no big deal. It's all part of the fun anyway.


- Use readable English, no internet slang such as: lol, brb, lmao, afk and so on
I've seen this before and I still do, especially in all these three word posts.


- Always check the new, we never know when something important might be announced.
This one speaks for it's self. Being aware of what's going on with the game is a very important thing. If you don't read the news and all of a sudden an even is coming up and you miss it because you went to the movies that night instead of the next day you can't come crying to us about it because we put it in the news.


- Try being active every day, some people here don't have a life and are waiting on you to be able to reply so they can get into the action.
This one also speaks for it's self. You aren't alone in a role play so please try to post at least once a day so we can make it move and not let you fall behind.


- All OOC talk must be down between brackets or announced with OOC:
This is because we don't want people to get mixed up between what is and isn't role-playing and also because if you just start talking OOC the RP can die out and it ruins it. Also, if you talk OOC just include it in you're role playing post, we'll know its not IC because its either between brackets or after OOC:


- All character applications must be sent to the GMs for approval.
This doesn't go for every game but I prefer to have it. It's somewhat like a newbie filter. You'll know when they haven't read this tutorial!


- Be original during your character creations, we won't accept direct copies from characters that have been seen in anime or games.
This is also a newbie filter rule. I personally dislike game base role-plays because they simple aren't all that original. It's like taking someone's novel and rewriting it almost word for word with different character names.


- Respect you fellow role-playing mates and play fair.
You should know why.


Warnings are always good too. Depending on the content of your game, you should consider putting warnings, especially if it contains mature content or same sex relations.





Advice on making a role-playing game

One thing you should always remember when making a role-playing game is to give your players all the necessary precisions on how your game works, what to base their characters on, give them a sheet to do so and be organized. Don’t be afraid to go through the tutorial and steal my basic character sheet in order to modify it to fit your role=playing game


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_________________
There's a Land called Passive Aggression.

I own it.

[Melcinitan]

Chapter 5: About dice roleplaying




Dices, from BESM, Slayers D20 and D&D to Elftown

There are several types of dice games and dices to use while role-playing. The most common I’ve run across is the obvious Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve never personally played and have heard the rules somewhat change depending on the volumes you play by.


Basically when it comes to dices you mainly need them in moments of conflict such as battles, detecting lies, finding hidden things, luck and so on. The GM or game rules decide what dice you will be rolling and what number(s) you need in order to resolve the conflict.


Now, some of you just like me, maybe not own any D&D dices. Yeah, they are kind of expensive and you don’t really need to buy any anyways. There are several programs and websites on the internet that generate random numbers between 1 and 20 to 1 and 100. Also if you haven’t noticed, every Elftown wiki page had a d20 dice in the wiki-page data. The dice’s number simply changes every time you edit the page.





Dice Based Battles

All right, so we covered free form fighting, I’ll go over some dice based fighting.


Basically, in free form fighting we’ve seen what to do and what to not do. In dice based fighting, it’s about the same except in the end a dice calculates the full impact of your attack.


You have to remember there are different dice systems out there. Some are simply and some are a little more complex. I’ll start off by going over a rather easy system and go off into more complicated details later on.


First off, when it comes to dice based fighting, you have a dice based game so your characters have stats and your equipment is likely to have stats as well. There are several methods and a minimum amount of stats in use in a role-playing game. The basic stats I’m most familiar with are the following:


Strength, intelligence, dexterity and luck


Now, some people often use different names for the same stats or tend to add more stats, which could be called sub-stats. Amongst these are the following:


Agility, speed, accuracy, constitution, defense, vitality, attack, charisma, knowledge (could be intelligence) and magic (could also be intelligence)


On a character sheet there will often be an even number of stats. This even number makes it easier to decide which stat counters which and allows a number of combination for character build strategies. These will be covered later in the tutorial.


So, basically when fighting a dice based battle, it’s important to develop a strategy and take a look at your opponent’s stats and sometimes skills, if they have any, in order to develop a strategy and counter points depending on what action you anticipate they might take. To be able to develop these you must know which stat counters which. Normally…


Strength counters defense
Dexterity counters agility or dexterity (depending on if dexterity is both used for accuracy and speed or not)
Luck counters luck


Some of the stats are a little more complicated to counter such as intelligence. It can be counter by more than one stat, it all depend son the situation.


When fighting magic with magic: Intelligence counters intelligence
When fighting defense with magic: Intelligence counters defense or constitution


Now depending on the type of magic you cast, another stats may be the counter stat. I tend to categorize my spells in two categories: direct magic and indirect magic.


Direct magic: Mainly spells that affect a character physically.


Indirect magic: Mainly spells that affect a character spiritually or indirectly.


When it comes to indirect magic intelligence can be countered with intelligence or constitution. Now, remember that these are not accurate counters and that they may vary depending on the system, the amount of stats and the GM that owns the role-playing game.


Once you’ve figured out the stat counters, you add up equipment bonuses to the stats depending on the anticipation. If the opponent will be attacking with a specific weapon you only need to add the stats of the weapon to the base stats as well as the stats from the armor and accessories that affect the character constantly (boots, gloves, hats and jewelry). Having that you can anticipate the opponents best attack move with out skills or magic. You simply need to do the same with armor and constantly affecting equipments to know the maximal defense of the character. If you anticipate any skill add-ons to the attack or defense, you simply add them as well. By doing the following you will be able to determine the maximum abilities of your opponent and be able to counter them effectively. This method obviously works best on forum and slow going role-playing games because it’s a slightly difficult and long process.


If you see that any adjustments may be necessary or things to correct please notify me.





Dice Game Definitions

Atk : Attack
Str : Strength
Def : Defence
Vit : Vitality
Dex : Dexterity
Agi : Agility
Spd : Speed
Int : Intelligence
Mag : Magic
Dex : Dexterity
Luk : Luck
Car : Charisma
Con : Constitution
HP : Health Points
MP : Magic Points
SP :Spell Points or Skill Points
2D20, 3D10, 1D100, etc. : Basically the number before the D stands for the ammount of dices, D stands for dice and the number after the D for the number of faces on the dice.



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_________________
There's a Land called Passive Aggression.

I own it.

[Melcinitan]

Chapter 6: Conclusion



I finally ran out of things to say and my brain has been thinking too much. I hope all of this helps and that people actually bothered to read all of it and if not most of it. If you have any comments (no flaming please) suggestions or things to add to this please feel free to PM them to me or post them in the thread. I'll be glad to add them to my tutorial.

FAQ



Yea, this is your common faq page!! This is where I'll be posting people's SMART questions and answering them. ^__^ If you ever have any objections or comments on the answers I give please let me know.




Q: What's up with the "skills"? Is there like a premade set list of them or what? Can I make up my own? Does anything determine if I can use them or not?


A: Depending ont he game you'll join you can either choose from a list if they ahve one and if the don;t you simply make them but basically skills are composed of your characters knowledge that can be applied in battle or simply whenever traveling and what not. You can go from hand to hand combat, martial art and magic spells to poison and antidote preperations and medial assistance skills. Usualy when you ahve pells and such it's good to list them with what they do and how long they last.


Q: Can the player have a familiar or guardian creature?


A: Well, this depends on the game. Some GMs might accept it depenidng onw hat the creature is and some might now. If you hang around with a giant dragon u.u; people are likely to say no.


Q: Is there a premade list of equipment and stuff too? I understand physics, and how much equipment the player can handle, and how it will affect their performance, but is there some sort of chart I'm supposed to follow?


A: Ah not really, you go with judging on what your character is and what he would roughtly need to survive. If you're a knight, go ahead and have a shiny armor with a giant sword, if you're a necromancer make sure you have lots of ingredients on you for spells and incantations. There's a limit to how much you can carry but it's judge by your common sense. Try not to have everything and I mean EVEYRTHING! You know, everything like those people that can pull out a giant hammer form their pocket O.o; The limit is judge by you roughtly, if youa hve everything the game wont be fun cuz you'll never get stuck with a problem you can bearly get yourself away from. So anyway, some may have charts but I prety much think most don't.


Q: Race... We all know that there are thousands of different races in fantasy worlds. Am I limited to a set list of them, or can I be anything I want?


A: Roughly, you can be anything you want UNLESS the game you join has restrictions. Example: I used to run a role playing game and people have to go through "Auditions" to get in the role playing game so we can control the races we want in the game, basically people are limited to vampire and human only. We don't allow anything else and we even have trouble accepting people that can summon beasts and such ebcause we want to stay in our focus line which is a vampire RP on a war between vampires and humans.



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_________________
There's a Land called Passive Aggression.

I own it.