Draven's Role-play Guides!

by **Draven** Tue Dec 18, 2012 9:01 am

1. Basic Character Creation

A Role-player’s Guide - Section 1

Basic Character Creation

In order to Role-play, you must create a character. It matters not what gender, race or religion are. For me, Role-play is a way of learning about other cultures and religions by creating characters suited to specific places – it gives me the drive to learn, because in order to complete the character, I have to.

But if you're a fan of Japan and decide to create a Japanese character, then ensure you research first. I've seen so many characters with the only relation to Japan being the name, it really annoys me because of how much work I put in.

1a. Name and Appearance

The name of your character is a crucial part of the creation. It’s the name that not only other characters within Role-play will be identifying your character with, but also all forum members too. You cannot Role-play without a name of some-kind.

Names can differ from, keeping true with the Role-play type, to something new, fresh and extraordinary. They can even be named after characters from books; although this does not necessarily mean they must be based off said character.

Some examples can be: The Pevensie family (The Chonicles of Narnia); Jacob Black, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen (Twilight); Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter); Legolas, Aragorn, Eowyn and the hobbits (Lord of the Rings); Grace Brisbane, Samuel Roth, Isabel Culpeper and Cole St. Clair (The Wolves of Mercy Falls).

Modern characters are becoming more popular than the old, classical ones from well-known novels and series.

The name of your character, I feel, is linked directly with their history. Such as, if I was to create a character from the 19th Century, I would research popular names from that particular period – or reference films set in the same time. I would recommend the same sense of dedication from any other Role-player I encounter; unless they were new to character creation. There are many character available for adoption online (unfortunately, I cannot link you, or even nudge you in the right direction – all my characters are original).

A character’s appearance must also represent the time period of either the Role-play setting and period, or the character’s personal experiences. So, modern characters would dress as such. But a character born a hundred years before, could still dress as they did in the early 20th Century.

The way that personality and experiences could link into this is a way of fleshing out your character – it can sometimes be a way of influencing their personality. If I was to create a character that was born in the 1950’s, one way I could influence them would be music tastes.

During those years, Rock and Roll was an extremely popular genre of music, and with the help of musicians such as Bill Halen and the Saddlemen, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins rockabilly music was on the rise. A cult most recognised with this particular genre of music is the Teddy Boy.

So, now we have our cultural influence – we find a name. I’ve done a little research and found that most Teddy Boy’s took on a social nickname, often it was nothing to do with their real name but a reference to their behaviour, tastes or even the vehicle they used. But, common 1950’s male `names were as followed:

This is an example of why well done research can also help with the authenticity of a character.

Another important element of character creation is the appearance dynamics of your character. Such as their hair/eye colour, height and mass, all of these help to create depth and visual guidance for any Role-play partners. It’s always a good idea to add in these details, even if your character’s picture shows them as it is a reassurance and detail giver. So, if in your character picture, the hair is red – define what shade it is in the written section of the biography. Also, add any highlights that your character may have – or a previous hair colour if it is dyed. It’s also an idea to add the texture and length to; but you can always create a new line for that.

The last thing to talk about in the sub-section, is age. This doesn’t matter as much as the others – but is still essential to character creation. This also ties in with your character’s species as some have extended lives. If your character does have an extended life, make sure to include their actual age and the age they appear to be. Most characters on forums appear to be within the ages of 16 and 25.

1b. Personality and History

A character’s personality is another, extremely important part of a character and Role-player’s sometimes continually add to their characters’ personalities during Role-play. Be careful, though, to not change the personality, and just add to it. This is also the thing you will be basing every single one of your character’s decisions from – so is in crucial need of detail, and another thing that you need to be wary of while you Role-play, is actually sticking to the personality that you have created for a character. Too many times I have come across a character that just doesn’t match which the biography which has been created. It confuses me. There is no point creating a character sheet – if you won’t stick to it. So be careful of that.

Something I’ve also come across before are contradicting personalities; such as when a character is courageous and spirited, yet timid. This is an oxymoron – a contradiction. Courageous and spirited are synonyms for confidence – with confidence being an acronym for timid. Therefore; what the person has written about the character, makes no sense.

And another thing which I find particularly irritating are extremely anti-social characters. This is a pet peeve of mine. It’s perfectly fine to have shy, or introverted characters – but anti-social characters are something a little different. See, the whole point of Role-play is to create a sense of communion through writing, and to communicate ideas and opinions through the use of characters.

I can’t do that if every time I try to talk to your character – it hides behind a bush or attacks out of the blue. And what’s more, it is highly unrealistic… Unless of course you are Mowgli. But even he wasn't anti-social; he had just forgotten how to speak.

These type of characters could also be classified under the Mary Sue banner by a lot of experienced writers – and are frowned upon in most forums.

Although, the normal Mary Sue character is one that is seen as far superior to all other (or most) characters she is typically extremely beautiful, intelligent, kind and strangely mysterious. The writer will almost always try and force a lustful-like feeling from their partner’s character towards the Mary Sue. The male version is a Gary-Stu.

Typical anti-social character behaviourisms are: Extreme and sudden bursts of emotion (anger, fear, depression) and loathes social activity and will run or chase away any other characters. These characters are frowned upon because it means that the other character will have to spend, sometimes, up to a page of unnecessary posts just chasing down the character and convincing them to talk. It's boring, tedious and wastes time.

A character’s history is not always needed in Role-play but almost always a thing desired. It gives other members a little insight to your character and an explanation into any behavioural issues – such as, why is this character so afraid of birds?

Again, it gives depth, but in a different way, it also gives your character complexity, which in terms of a character history, is a good thing and if written well and rationally, gives your character naturalness, realism and practicality.

It’s important not to overdo a character history, but also not to be boring about it either. You can have your character victimized in some way, for example, they were kicked out of their home as a teenager because of their rebellious nature. But, if you were to say that they were kicked out as a young child – this is unrealistic because it’s unlikely they would have been, and they wouldn’t have survived on the street for very long until they were picked up by social services – that is, if social services didn’t take them before they were kicked out, which is far more likely.

1c. Race and Species

Race refers to where your character originated from, or has spent the majority of their existence, and species refers to what creature your character is.
E.g. Human, elf, werewolf, vampire… etc.

But this is only relevant in either Fantasy roleplays, where a variety of (mainly mythological) creatures live, and science-fiction role-plays where aliens and other kinds of creatures can exist.

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2. Character Behaviour

A Role-player’s Guide – Section 2

Character Behaviour

In this section, we will cover characteristics and the way that your character acts, both and alone and in the presence of others.

2a. Voice

Pitch.
This is partially to do with the sound of the voice; it's how high or low pitched it is. You can include pitch every time your character, not only speaks, but makes any kind of audible sound. Such as, low growls and high-pitched squeaks.

The pitch of a character's voice could also link and indicate to their emotions and feelings at the time he/she speaks. Examples of low sounding speech could be with the feeling of the following; lust/seduction, threats/intimidation (and links to other calm anger emotions), natural pitch and confusion.

Examples of a high sounding pitch could
be with the feeling of the following; fear, anger, natural pitch, shock and nervousness.

Tone.
This is the way that a character will say something, and is not to be confused with pace. Tone of voice is linked directly with emotion. Examples are: matter-of-factly, seriously, joyfully/gleefully and questioningly. This list goes on.

Volume.
I feel that this could be left black, but it's often overlooked. Volume is, obviously, how loud or quietly a character will speak. This is harder to add into writing, so is usually only left for extreme emotions. Such as shouting, or speaking of an uncomfortable subject.

Pace.
The speed at which a character will speak. This can be used every time a character speaks, but is usually only used once or twice every post – depending on how much the character will say. Again, this is linked directly with emotion. Examples being: quickly/rapidly/speedily or slowly/unhurriedly.

Accent and Accented Words.
Accent is directly linked with your character's history. Almost every character in Role-plays you will encounter – will speak English. But, if they originated from a non-English speaking country, then will have a particular accent. Even American characters have accents, though. From the first time your character ever speaks; you must reveal their accent. If you do it later, it's harder for your writings partner(s) to imagine this. You will never had to write out exactly how a character speaks – but will have to tell others of their accent.

Accented words are just emphasis put on certain words. This is, for me, often a very hard thing to do as I don't like to use italics. If you're fine with italics, then by all means use them for accented words, but if not – like me, then just write out the emphasis after your character has finished speaking.

For example: “... the last word he spoke jumped out.” (Not very good example – but you should get the idea).

2b. Physicality

Posture.
I believe posture to be the way that a person carries themselves – referring, usually, to the waist up. This is not to be confused with stance, in order to not muddle them, remember this; you can change your posture while sat down, but not your stance. When talking about posture in writing, its easy to mix up posture and stance – but so long you don't actually use those words, you should be fine.

Stance.
Stance is, fairly obviously, the way a character would stand. It's pretty simple to understand and easy to apply.

Example: “He stood tall and defiantly.” - Although, I'm sure most of you use stance within your writing anyway, I still felt like I had to include it.

Gait.
Gait is the same as pace – I just like the word gait more than pace – it's a measurement of speed. This time, it's the measurement of an action, rather than speech. This includes everything from how fast your character is walking, to how fast their arm moves while catching something.

Gestures.
This is not necessarily referring to what your character actually does, but the little movements and habits they make while doing something. It could be a little hand movement they make while speaking, or a foot tap while cooking. It could be anything. But try to make these realistic – it makes your character sound strange if you include them too much, where they aren't needed or unrealistic.

Facial Expressions.
Facial expressions... Pretty self explanatory. But many Role-player's sometimes forget how paramount body language is for conveying information. You must remember that character's are not mind-readers. So even if we, as writers, can read exactly what our partner's character is thinking – we should know that our own character cannot respond to that because he cannot read the information himself.

This is why facial expressions are so important. If a character 1 is annoyed, character 2 can only tell from their body language – and a wonderful way to show annoyance is through facial expressions. Furrowed brows, narrowed eyes and slightly gritted teeth can be a way to show this.

Eye Focus.
This can sometimes get excessive use in posts. I've done it before, I admit. It's because the eyes, like facial expressions, are a great way to show your character's present feelings. Eyes are honest; you can spot a liar from eyes and their focus. Don't be shy on the detail – show exactly where you character is looking and what exactly he/she sees. Don't forget how a little detail like eye focus can give away valuable information.

Head Position.
The head position of a character is often and overlooked aspect – apart from when character's kiss. This tells me that writers seem to forget that people's heads don't stay completely still throughout their lives.

No. Think of us like chickens. Chickens move their heads in every step they take – so do we, we just don't do it as bluntly obvious as they do. Make sure to constantly refer back to body language while writing.

2c. Proxemics

Proxemics refers to where your character is stood. It's not hard to understand and write about, but you need to recap every time a character moves about the space. So, answer one or two of these questions and mesh them into your writing.

Where is your character in the space?
Where are other characters?
Why?

Where is your character in relation to other characters?
Why?

Are there any things of any significance nearby?
Does your character notice or touch them?

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One last note - this is pretty much just an English lesson. If you feel like you don't need help with that - then there are some hints and tips at the bottom for RP Writing.

3. Role-play Writing

A Role-player’s Guide – Section 3

Role-play Writing

This section will cover any terminology and grammar that you may use in your writing and give helpful tips and hints for your writing, too.

3a. First, Second and Third Person Perspectives

First Person Perspective.
This is the personal perspective. The one where the narrator is the character itself. First person perspectives are mainly used in autobiographical writing, such as diaries, memoirs or essays. Most Role-player's tend to steer clear of this perspective, and some forums even forbid it and only allow one style throughout.

Second Person Perspective.
Second person perspective is used to address the reader personally, and I've been doing throughout this guide. The main word for this perspective is 'you', as in the writers speaking out directly to the reader. This style is used mainly during emails of any kind, presentations or business writing.

Third Person Perspective.
This perspective is the most common found in Role-play. It refers to another omniscient person talking about your character. How they feel, what they think, potential actions and so on. It's one of the easiest styles to write in while Role-playing as it allows you to gain a standby view and almost become an audience member for the Role-play. It's also easier to visualise imagery in this perspective.

3b. Punctuation and Grammar

Punctuation is vital in passing on information while writing. It breaks up big chunks of text and gives for an easier read. I will cover only basic punctuation here. Please not that if something is put in brackets, it means that only one of the two options must be used. With both, it would be labelled as incorrect and with none, leaves the reader gasping for breath while reading.

The Comma and the Dash
The comma and the dash do exactly the same thing; they indicate a pause within a sentence. Allowing the reader to catch a breath. They also indicate a change – this is usually shown by the movement of a character. They are also used to separate clauses from one another. But in order for me to show you an example of this – you need to learn clauses. I will show you an example for the first use of the commas and dash, then demonstrate the other under the clauses.
Robert swung his hand forward(,) (-) stepping back naturally as he did so.

Clauses
Clauses are added parts to a sentence and in basic grammar, come in two forms; an independent clause or a subordinate clause. An independent clause is a minor sentence in its own right, but a subordinate clause will make no sense without the independent one. A subordinate clause will usually start with a conjunction or connective, such as 'because', 'while' or 'if'. The clause can appear at the start, end or in between an independent one.

The cat hissed(,) (-) because Jack ate his tuna.
Because Jack ate his tuna(,) (-) the cat hissed.
The cat, because Jack ate his tuna, hissed./The cat – because Jack ate his tuna – hissed.

Colons and Semi-Colons
There are two uses for both of these pieces of punctuation and both are the same. The first use, is for introducing a list. The only difference between them is that, when listing with a colon, you can use both semi-colons or commas to separate each subject. But you can only use semi-colons when each subject is longer than one word. With semi-colons, you can only use commas. Another use for them is to end a sentence – sometimes with some kind of ethic or moral ending.

Jack went to the shop and bought: a bag of apples; a pint of milk; a couple of CDs and a bunch of carrots.
Jack went to the shop and bought( : )( ; ) apples, milk, CDs and carrots.
Jack turned to face the girl before him( : )( ; ) there was no turning back now.

Apostrophes
Apostrophes are a wonderful, not only for abbreviating words, but for showing particularly strong accents too. In these kind of accents, its could be anything from one or two vowels missing, to more than half of a word.

“I beg of 'ee not to send me.” “ tes close on sixty-five years...” (Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons)

One last few things to remember about apostrophes is when to use them in abbreviation. For example, many writers get 'your' and 'you're' muddled up. But know that 'you're' in an abbreviation of 'you are'. So if you are unsure of which one to pick, change the word to 'you are' and if it makes no sense, then it must be the possessive 'your'.

Grammar is also an essential part of Role-play writing. I’ll just take you through basic grammar must-haves. Most of you will have already learnt or know these; but I still want to go through them for those who don’t.

Adjectives
These are what you will have learnt as ‘describing words’ and are a wonderful tool for adding detail and are often used to form noun phrases. Adjectives can come in two types; pre-modifiers and post-modifiers. Pre-modifiers will usually be one or two words, but post modification can be a phrase. The following sentence has both pre- and post-modification.

“We had to wear tuxedo suits with tails for Hannah’s awful dinner party.”

Verbs
Verbs are ‘doing words’ and are used to convey movement or physicality of some kind. There are four different types of verb: auxiliary verbs; modal or modal auxiliary verbs; stative verbs and dynamic verbs. I will explain them with some examples below.

Auxiliary: A ‘helping’ verb, which typically appear with main verbs. Such as; have, be and do. But note; that these examples could also be used as main verbs.
Modal/Modal Auxiliary: Modal verbs, again, appear with main verbs. They add subtle hints of meaning and suggest things like possibility or probability. Examples: Can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must and ought to.
Stative: Classed as main verbs. Statives express ideas of thought or existence and being, they are processes, not physical actions. Such as; seem, know, realise and mean.
Dynamic: Classed as main verbs. Dynamic verbs refer to physical movement or actions. Such as: walk, hit, swipe and kiss.

Intensifiers
A word, typically adverbs, which has little meaning on its own, but provides emphasis and intensity to other words. Examples: really happy, very strong and extremely sad.

Synonyms and Antonyms
Synonyms are two different words which have the same meaning. Antonyms are two words which have opposite meanings. It’s always good to use these type of lexis in your writing as it can become boring and repetitive if the same word is used over and over again. Antonyms are usually used together to create oxymorons.

Oxymorons
Or as I like to say, ‘foxymorons’. And oxymoron is a contradicting phrase, used for dramatic effect. Such as: the scorching cold water, agree to disagree, bad luck and so on. The way I remember oxymorons is by thinking of my ‘foxymoron’ friend – a straight gay guy.

Antithesis and Juxtaposition
Opposites; a contrast of ideas. They are often parallel to each other.

“Better to reign in Don\'t make Kali angry!!, than serve in heav’n” (Paradise Lost – John Milton)

Another way to show antithesis is by using juxtaposition; which, while writing, means to place two subject by each other for effect and comparison.

“The battle between good and evil.”

Metaphors and Similies
A metaphor is like a smilie, but rather than compared with another thing, the subject is referred to as the thing. In similies, we could say that a train was like a speeding bullet. But in metaphors, we would say that the train was a speeding bullet.

Sentence Types
There are four main types of sentences; minor, simple, complex and compound. We have already covered simple sentence structure and complex sentence structure respectively.

A simple sentence is a sentence which contains both a subject and verb. Such as; the cat sat on the mat. In which the can being the subject, and sat being the verb.

A complex sentence is the type of sentences we covered during clauses, which contained two clauses. Of course, these types of sentences can contain more, but there is always one independent clause, and the rest are subordinate.

A compound sentence is the same as a complex one, but contains a connective rather than punctuation. So instead of it being; “The cat sat on the mat, licking his paw”. It would be; “The cat sat on the mat and licked his paw”.

A simple sentence is a sentence which lacks either a subject or a verb and usually follows a question, rendering it useless without knowing what the question was. An example being; “What time does the train arrive?” “Five or At five.”

3c. Tips and Hints

Here I will list a few last things to remember while writing.

1. DETAIL. DETAIL. DETAIL.

The key to successful Role-play is detail, in everything that you do as your character. When speaking with someone in real life – every single movement they make means something. And so, it does in Role-play too. But while keeping this is mind – be careful not to waffle and sound tedious.

2. Note everything.

If every little detail means something with your character – your RP partner's character will be the same. Of course, in real life not every single detail is picked up on – so realistically, you should be missing some of the minor details. But you should still pick up on things in a natural way when responding.

3. Mind readers.

You, as the reader, can read your partner character's thoughts – but you must remember that since they are thoughts, your own character cannot hear them. Even, in their character sheet it tells us that they are mind-readers – as this is unfair to the privacy of other characters. In order to sense them, they must have extremely obvious to detect or have been spoken of.

4. Stick to your personality.

Just to avoid annoying people. It also helps you as a writer. By constantly referring to it, you can insure you do not jump your character’s behaviour around – making it unstable and undesirable for other characters to be around them.

5. Anti-socials and drama queens.

As I talked about before, anti-social characters are undesired to Role-play with as they can be hard to Role-play with. But as a further note, try not to make your characters into drama queens either. This means that they are constantly demanding attention and pity from other characters. Again, they are undesired and can be hard to write with.

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(c) Notice
I wrote this guide, every last word, by myself - so I would appreciate it if you didn't steal it. If, however, you read it, like it, and would like to use it for your site, I request that you inform me that you are sing it and copyright it on the site like I have done by simply copying this little notice, but putting my name under the the subheading (major-threat). I would hate for somebody to take something I worked so hard on, and claim it as their own work. So thank you if you do ask and you do copyright and put my name on.

P.s I intend to continue this guide with another section of Locations, Props and Costumes.
But due to my schedule, I doubt I'll have enough time. Although - I may write each part then add them on separately.