Roleplay Section Resources [Updated, 01/04/10]

For your education, entertainment, and information. The links and guides assembled in this thread should help you find your way around the section and hopefully cover any questions you may have about roleplaying on these forums, or at least point you in the right direction. If you have a link or guide that you feel could be helpful, feel to contribute, but read the below rules before posting in this thread.

1. You may only post in this thread to
- Submit a guide after it has been approved. For details about the approval process, see rule 2.
- Comment on an existing guide or ask questions concerning it.
- Suggest a topic for further guide writing.

2. If you want to submit a guide or link, PM it to me for inspection first. This to ensure that all materials submitted in this thread are appropriate in content and up to standards. In the case of guides, I will PM you with permission to post the guide in the thread, or the reasons for why it was declined and suggestions for improvement. In the case of links, I will add them to the index below if they meet standards. Also, do not contact Loki or parallellines about approving guides. They have not been signed up for this project at this time and are not expecting large chunks of text to be dropped into their PM boxes.

3. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Do not submit another person's writing as your own work. This includes copying large portions off another guide and throwing in a few sentences of your own. Also, in the case of links, make sure that you have permission to share the link in question before submitting it.

4. Stay on topic. Discussion in this thread is kept open for the purpose of discussing the guides and the guides only. All other drabble and mini-modding should be taken elsewhere.


Resource Index

Guides by topic

General
-

Plot
- How to Make a Good Plot without losing your soul in the process (Author: Mika)
Part 1 Part 2

Character
-

Posting
-

Miscellaneous
- A Basic Grammar Guide (Author: ArcanineOod)


Additional Material

RP Section Rules

Read them. Embrace them. Make them yours. A must-read for everyone.

Check to see if Your Roleplay has been Accepted

Regularly updated with reports on moderated threads. If you are wondering whether or not your thread was overlooked, check this thread first.

RP Rating Descriptions

Let's keep it clean for the kiddies and let everyone know what they're signing up for. Find the correct content maturity rating for your RP here.

Pokémon Roleplay Discussion

For all things plot-related within PRP. If you have a question about the section that wasn't covered here, you can also ask it here.

Other Roleplay Discussion

Same as Pokémon Roleplay Discussion but for all the other genres of roleplay out there. Again, questions about section workings are welcome.

Bad Habits of RPrs

Anything about roleplayers in general that irks you? Got a rant to get off your chest? Just curious to see what bothers your fellow members or got some time to kill? Read up here. A wide variety of bad habits and how to avoid them is covered in this thread.

A Treatise on Character Profiles

My old guide on filling out a sign-up sheet. The updated version is still a work in progress, but it should cover what you need to know to get your profile accepted.

RP Section Guide Making Power Ranger Taskforce

The only currently active large scale guide writing group. If you feel you have something to contribute but aren't sure it's enough to make a whole guide, or if you just feel like being part of something bigger, make sure to stop by.

Staff Contacts

We won't kill you. Honest. If you are unsure about what to do, feel free to drop a PM or VM and ask for clarification.

Alter Ego

Yours truly. Pokémon Roleplay section mod. If it's about this section, your RPs in this section, or the contents of this thread, contact me first. The others are higher staff with a lot of other responsibilities on their plate already.

Loki

S-Mod, previously moderator for both RP sections. She is the one currently in charge of Other Roleplay, so any concerns about that section should be taken up with her first. If I'm not available, she is the next person to contact on the PRP side.

parallellines

Do not be surprised if the name on the profile is different when you click this link. Higher staff and another former mod for both sections. If you can't reach me or Loki, he is the one to call.

Don't you DARE tl;dr me; the Table of Contents

[a id]leave[/a id]

Leave! Before PRP Eats Your Soul!

The holidays are here! For some of us it's hot, for some of us it's cold but all around, PCers are trotting inside for a bit of a requiem on the roleplaying forums. For some of us, the summer is the time of year when we have time to make an rp of our very own. We don't have school, we don't have as many constraints on our time and neither do most of the people around us. Holidays get boring quickly without something to do and that's where roleplaying comes in handy. :3 For some people, joining a roleplay is all they need to cure their boredom. They're fine with being dragged around and what not and just going with the flow. For others, they need to be the one in charge. They want to call the shots, they want to handle the plot twists and they want to be able to kick those people who never post out the door. These people are Roleplay Masters. :3 –dramatic music-

However! There is a catch! Like everything on the PC forums, there are some rules as to what you can and cannot do as an RP Master. As you know, RP threads have to be okay'd by a moderator before they're up for the world to see. It's a form of quality control, something put in place to upkeep the standards the PC rp forums are known for. It's not because the staff team thinks you're a bad person; threads are not approved or declined based on that sort of thing. Whether or not your roleplay is accepted is based on what you, as the roleplay master, put forth before them.

The basic guidelines have been given to you by Alter Ego and Loki.

[a id]rules[/a id]

The Rules. Read 'em and Weep

What's below is what is needed in every single roleplay before they can be accepted.

PRP Rules said:

Like any fan fiction, you have to have an idea before you can make the story, and this is exactly what a plot is. A plot is a sort of idea given to the members so as they can build on it. Without a plot you cannot produce an RP. For example, at the start of a game or some stories, you normally have a Prologue or summary of what the game or book is about, this is a plot.

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Short and sweet, you need a basis to your roleplay; a story that will unfold like the pages of a book as the players you accept progress through it. This basis is a plot and without it, your roleplay will flounder because it won't be able to get anywhere. I'll explain a little later in detail why this happens, but for now, we're gunna leave it at this. :3

PRP Rules said:

Originality: Which will draw members to the RP, the last thing you want to do is a have a plot about a bunch of trainers going on a journey as you would see in the Pokemon Anime, no, you want a good story with a few plot twists. We are not stopping you from starting a Trainer RP, but it would be an idea to add a few plot twists and some adventure, this is what draws members to your RP.

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By far, one of the most important factors in a good roleplay is the Originality. For those of you who have seen my plots, for example, I personally tend to fire a ball so far out of the park it hits Chuck Norris. Alter Ego, on the other hand, tends to go for a more twisted approach to simplistic things; taking things like a tournament and gradually unveiling it into a plan to destroy the world that no one saw coming in a million years is more his cup of tea. Both styles are, in a sense, polar opposites of each other, but are unique enough to stick out like Waldo in a crowd. If it's something potential players have never seen before, they're more likely to put effort into writing an application if they choose to apply.

PRP Rules said:

Detail: Description, History and emotions all come into the detail of a Plot; with out detail the plot will have no feel and therefore not attract members. We're not saying it has to be a 14 page essay, but make it more than 4 lines and add some description into it to allow members to have the idea of what the plot is about.

Depth: Unfortunately, we are not accepting Plots that are less then 5 or 6 lines, and that is absolute bare minimum, and only if you managed to fit every little detail into those 5-6 lines. You should have enough so that the roleplayers in your RP are not wandering around trying to find something to do. Some RPer's like long novel-like plots that describe a story that took place before the actual roleplay- That counts as a plot. But other RPer's like plots that are straight to the point, and simply describe what will happen in the plot.

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This is, in my opinion, the tricky little devil that can cause the most problems for people when they're trying to get a roleplay approved. The one thing that can mess people up the most is leaving too much for the imagination and not giving the potential players enough of an insight into the roleplay to want to join. In truth, in my own personal observations, it's one of the main reasons people see a "GARYSTU'S roleplay declined for severe lackings in plot" in the 'has your roleplay been accepted yet?' thread. Again, we'll go more into this later but for the moment, I want to turn your attention to the other side of the coin:

PRP Rules said:

…not saying it has to be a 14 page essay….

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Having too much needless information is just as bad as having too little information in some cases, the most obvious being that a huge mountain of text is very likely to make people go 'tl;dr' and either miss vital points in your plot or sign up or just give up on it all together. It's a balancing act and tipping the scale either way is a big fat no-no. If you're not sure how to balance, never fear, Mika is here! But again we're getting to that later and I don't want to sound like a broken record…yet.

PRP Rules said:

Interest: Originality and Detail all come into the interest of the plot. You want to draw members to the RP so make it interesting by adding a few plot twists and furthermore, just making up your own story.

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This is the hardest part about running a roleplay, keeping the interest alive and well. Everyone has days when their muse is horrid and refuses to obey even with stern prodding but if the muse completely dies, the roleplay often follows suit. It's not really possible to prevent writer's block; it happens to everyone. However, it's possible to reduce the duration of such muse loss by equipping your roleplay with a sub plot twist here and there, to keep your members busy while you sort things out. I'm no master, I've had two roleplays fall into the prp graveyard because of this very problem but I've started to learn that giving the players a little freedom to mingle is a good way to keep my own sanity. :3 Again, we'll go more into this a little later on.

[a id]ratings[/a id]

Ratings. No one admitted with ID. Unless you have cake.

So, now that we've gone over the basics of plot, before we go into much more detail, we're going to talk about ratings because it's A) part of the rules and B) important to keep in mind when you begin to develop your plot. PC has guidelines on what qualifies under what section and, like all other rules, we must obey with happy smiles and cheerful laughter. :3

PRP Rules said:

G- RPs with a G rating are meant for all audiences. There are no mentions of drugs, swearing, or strong violence.

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Believe it or not, my favorite roleplays have been G Rated. I know there's a portion of roleplayers that believe that without violence and gore and romance, a plot won't survive or be anywhere near popular. These people obviously haven't looked at Disney/Pixar movies [Monsters Inc etc] and compared the basic plotlines that are child friendly and for the most part violence free to the popularity that follows it. I don't remember really any movies with a rating higher than PG – 13. You really don't need to have the more adult themes to have something that sticks with people for a long time afterwards.

PRP Rules said:

PG-13- The PG-13 rating is required when an RP may contain mention of drugs, and has some violence and minor swearing.

PG-14 through PG-17- These ratings contain content ranging from weak to mild blood and gore, swearing, and violence. Minor sexual themes are permitted in RPs with a rating of PG-16 or higher.

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All talk of the grey area between G and PG-13 aside, if you're dealing with drugs, serious romance, mild gore, violence and or swearing, your roleplay falls somewhere into this category. First and formost, if you have any sort of concern about where your roleplay fits, pm your section mod posthaste and ask for their professional opinion on the matter. At this point in time, that would be either Loki[PRP/ORP] or Alter Ego.[PRP] There is absolutely no shame in running your stuff by a mod before it's submitted officially but it's always best to ask first. :3 I'm 98% sure they wouldn't mind but a warning before a giant wall of text hits their inbox would probably be appreciated. As they're the people with the shiney bold names, they're the ones who can tell you exactly where your roleplay fits so you don't need to worry about messing it up. While it may not seem like it, I'm sure none of the staff enjoys infracting or warning people so much that they're not wiling to help members out who ask nicely. :3

PRP Rules said:

Restricted- The restricted rating is the most frowned upon rating, usually containing unnecessary amounts of sexual themes, swearing, and gore. You may not make an RP that is R rated!

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To quote Signomi, this particular style of roleplaying is just not my cup of tea. If you need this much sex, violence and bloodshed to keep a plot alive then you honestly don't have a plot to begin with.

So with all of the formalities aside, we're moving on now to the stuff you're actually reading this guide for: how to make a plot people want to join that gets accepted that stays alive despite problems and hurdles along the way.

[a id]plot[/a id]

The Birth, Life, and Death of a Cookie Cutter Plot

To do this, I'm going to show you an example of a plot that starts in a place where neither Alter nor Loki could ever accept it and I'm going to edit it, showing you how I personally do it in the process and offering suggestions you can apply to your own plots. :3 If you'd like to use this as a tutorial, by all means, grab a plot in process and go through this procedure with me. I'd love to see any results that I've helped with as well. >///<

So, here's the basic baby plot we're going to be working with and, for kicks and giggles and sunshine, I threw it at Alter Ego to see if it would be accepted. Low and behold, we've got the official declined without any hint of a doubt stamp on this little baby. We're going to be working on this throughout the rest of this guide. O3o



First thing we're going to do is strip this thing of all formatting. I know, we like to express our creativity with our favorite colors, but remember that on PC we could all potentially be using a different skin. The default font color changes for each skin so if you're using a bright pink font that looks amazing on Midnight Misty, it could burn the eyes of everyone trying to view your thread on Sinnoh Springs. We're a diverse group of people here and because there's no consistent standard, this is just one of things that we need to be aware of and be sensitive towards when making our plots look unique. There's no unspoken rule against font sizes [as long as they're not ridiculously large or small] nor is there any unspoken rule against font style or alignment. Find the simple things you can tweak and do just that; tweak them slightly into a manner you like.

So, taking this concept into play, here's what our plot looks like now:



Alright, so now that we've got the colors stripped, it's a bit easier to look at. :3 Next, let's tackle the basic grammatical problems in this little thing. Basic grammatical errors include punctuation errors, capitalization, sentence structure and spelling errors [including correct usage of words like 'they're' 'their' 'there' 'your' 'you're' etc]. It's also important to remember that we don't use the scripting style of roleplaying here on PC; we know how to string together sentences. This implies that while you may use chatspeak in your posts in the lounge and in other places on PC, roleplays really aren't the best place for it. Chatspeak isn't universal and PC is. :3 Contrary to popular belief, we do have creatures from other worlds. Just look at Alter Ego, a card gaming Deity, and X- 626, a known Robot, fruity lime-like people, that shiny person from OT who makes people lose the game, ADD Pichus, yogurt eating dogs, people who can't keep their signatures for more than 2 hours without exploding and candy obsessed individuals [as well as various other members] who seem to lack the need to sleep to survive. You also want to keep your plot and "Out of Character" sections separate so people can follow the story line without having to pause to read your notes. You can still include these points in an "information section" of sorts or within the rules. For now, we'll put it in the information section. We also want to make sure we're not using the same word over and over and that we're using transitional words like 'and', 'or', 'but', 'however' 'because' etc. With these corrections, the following is what we've now got:



[a id]plothole[/a id]

I swear I didn't see that plothole! [Basic Plot Issues]

Alright, so now, before we go into detail on how to develop this plot skeleton, I'm going to prod at a problem I've seen in several roleplays. It's more of a pet peeve than an unspoken law but it's on the separation of Story and Plot. There really is no difference between these two words and what I think most people are looking for here is History. Most of the time, it's best to keep your plot all together in one little bunch. If you feel the need to separate your backstory from the current plot the players are involved in and a simple double enter won't work, you can separate it into something along the lines of the following, I'll show an example, the words given are just a guide to give you an idea of what the generic field is for so you should be creative and chose new words. n-n

Note, you don't need to use the title ish words if you don't want to. Some people use it but some people don't. However, both parts need to be valid for a roleplay to have the ability to live long and stuff. o3o



[a id]breakdown[/a id]

Plot Breakdown, Get Out Your Red Pens

So, utilizing the above, let's look at this plot we're working with and see what should go in which section, sentence by sentence. While we're doing this, we're going to talk about ways to improve on sentences and see if we should delete them, keep them or rewrite them. It seems really tedious, but it's the first place to start if your roleplay gets rejected or if you've completed a draft and are checking it over for the first time. :3

Did you know that there is a country called Alarayne?

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So we're starting our adventure on a new continent. You don't necessarily have to do this; some of the perks of starting on a new area include people being surprised at every little turn but a downside can include the rp master having to make everything up. Extra work, for some people, is just tl;dw but for others. The extra work gives more flexibility, the canon settings give more time for super special creativity to occur. It depends on your particular style of roleplaying and how you want to go about it. This is a good start, but we need to give it a little more of a sense of special snowflake flair, something to draw the reader in just a little bit faster and give them a reason to read on. Just the title of your new region isn't enough to keep everyone engaged and interested.

It is out in the ocean.

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We're starting to get description here; we're starting to find out where in the world this new continent is located in the grand scheme of things. However, this isn't enough description by any means. One sentence does not describe the location of our new area nor does it describe how the weather is like. Same for any fic, even using a canon area, your potential players need to see in their mind where their characters are going to be. If they can't close their eyes and see, 'hear', smell and feel your setting, you may need a bit more information. You don't want to go overboard, either, leave a little bit of imagination for your players to fill in. :3

Like in Kanto, there are gyms but they are not the same. They are orb shrines.

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This is a good sort of idea, but it's not necessarily required. We're pointing out that this region is similar to the other regions but beyond that we're not giving out much information. At the moment, all we know is it's a new region, and it's kinda like Kanto. That's not very interesting, now is it? We'll need to spruce things up. We're hinting to the reader that the map is different and that the generic journey is different but how hasn't really been specified. Sure, we're talking about orb shrines, but what they are and how it compares and contrasts to the Kanto/Johto/Hoenn/Sinnoh conquest isn't even discussed. This is a no-no. A big no-no. At the moment, all we've done is replace badge with orb. There's no difference beyond that and this is a dangerous little plot hole many people can fall into. You don't want to just do the same generic sort of thing like we do in the gameboy games. If you paint a dog in tiger stripes, is it a tiger or is still mr doggie? No matter how much you change its outward appearance, inwardly it's still a dog. Journey roleplays are the same way for the most part. You can slap on a fancy pants title on the badges [a mystic orb] and you can slap on a new name for the region [Alarayne] but if you're traveling from town to town just to collect some items so you can go beat some people and get a champion title of some sort, but it's still, deep down, a gameboy game of some sort. You may not believe it at first, but it will become blatantly obvious in the later part of your roleplay when you steal from the gameboy plotlines just to keep your thread alive.

We'll learn, a little later on, how to twist the journey into something more but for now, let's move on.

There is one for each element and there's a Legendary there too!

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The sole point I'm bringing up here is to watch your abuse of Legendaries. If you look at the games, the anime and PokeSpecial, you'll notice that Legendaries do not pop up as frequently as Pidgies. This is because Legendary means 'remarkable enough to be famous; very well known' and not every single bloody pokemon is 'Legendary'. You run into Weedles and Caterpies to the point you throw down a repel to prevent insanity. You do not do the same with the Legendary Birds. They're also, in a sense, the de facto gods of the Pokemon World. If you put this power into the hands of every trainer in your roleplay, you're going to have sheer chaos trying to roleplay battles and you're going to pull your hair out trying to placate people if you don't give everyone a legendary. I tend to take my reasoning for allowing or disallowing legendaries from PokeSpecial. If Lance, the most amazing 1337 trainer at the time, got owned in the face by a legendary, your GaryStu doesn't stand a ghost of a chance. Point here, if you're going to use them, keep them to yourself or prepare for one hell of a headache.

The island is open for traffic!

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This could be either the ending of the intro or the beginnings of the 'part for your part of the journey' section; it's a hint at transitions. They're rather important in roleplays, believe it or not, because if your transitions are good, you will flow from point to point without too much of a problem and with as few plothole errors as possible. If you have a sharp stop and start, you can startle your readers and potentially frustrate them. As readers, for the most part, if we read something and feel like we've missed something, we'll read back over and over again, looking for an answer. If the answer doesn't exist, we're likely to become frustrated. This isn't to say you should reveal your entire plot, just keep your plotholes small and sneaky and your transitions clean.

Trainers come here to journey.

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So here is our first section really that focuses on the now. Trainers from all over the world can now come to this place to compete in their league but why now? Why can they come here to journey now? Was the island just opened to the public? This sentence, and its place in the plot, is completely meaningless and redundant. We've already talked about how we need to avoid simple statements and go into further detail; this is no exception. Just throwing down a simple statement like this isn't going to suffice; you need the i-in-information~!

They go get the orbs and fight the six guardians and become champion.

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See point 3. The only difference here is the Champion Title that I'll speak of briefly here. Don't use it unless you've got a plan for it because most regions only have one "champion". I remember a roleplay that I participated in once here that had a tournament sort of spiel. It started out with a general fight your way to the top but towards the end, it became known to the main cast that they were all the champions, a select equal group that were all winners and that now needed to go and save the world as a group, not as one. None of us were expecting it at all. This is a great example of how to do that sort of thing; it doesn't place one character blatently over another. As the roleplay master, your character is obviously important but not the most important. I've made that mistake before and it's killed roleplays for me. Make sure, yourself included, that you're spreading the love around.

TeamRocketAquaGalaticMagma want to take over.They must be stopped. Why? Well, because there mean, nasty people.

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This has got to be my biggest pet peeve with the whole of cliché boring roleplaying on PC: the abuse of the bad guys. I'm not going much into it here as I've dedicated an entire section of this guide to the antagonist and his role in your plot but I will say this for now: According to the Canon, whatever brand you prefer, there is no way in hell these teams would ever fuse. Ever. Not in a million years. I know, you want to use bits and pieces from all of them, but sorry, you just can't. >:C Their leadership teams, styles of evil baddary and over all goals in their individual quests on world domination do not coincide and cannot coincide. Sorry, it just isn't supossed to happen. Ever. *points below* However, as every story needs something to keep it going, I'll explain the dos and don't's at a later point. Moving on.

You must go to Halden Ville.

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As this coincides with several previous points, I'll be brief. Originality is good, if it's used correctly. Your town names shouldn't be generic cookie cutter names; they should flow as nicely as can be expected. Don't go stealing the names of big cities [Tokyo, New York, San Fran. Seattle, etc] unless your story is taking place in them. Paraville, New Port, Shiny Town, these are examples of these cookie cutter city names. Try and avoid this painfully obvious cliché. If you're looking for a unique name with a unique twist, there's nothing wrong with opening up a map in real life or on Google and looking in the area around where you live [If you live overseas, you're luckier than state-side people because we've probably never heard of nor can we pronounce the names of the cities you can get away with using] for an interesting name or two and tweek it to fit your fancy. These names are frustrating and they can be hard to find one that honestly sticks but I promise it's worth it.

Talk to Professor Pine. She will give you a pokedex and a starter.

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First and formost, a word on Professors: It's great to use the canon professors [Oak, Elm, etc] but if you're going to use them and they're going to be remotely important in a general sort of way, make sure they're staying in-character with their canon. Rowan is loud and obnoxious where as Elm is quiet and reserved and Bill is just plain batpoo insane. We don't want a touchy feely Rowan, a loud and explosive Elm or a Bill at the poetry corner talking about his feelings with a cup of MooMoo Java. [Note: I know Bill isn't 'technically' a prof but there are people who think he's the bloody successor of Oak and proceed to destroy his character. Abuse I tell you, ABUSE.]

A note on starters: In the words of my family dog, professors are not candy pokemon dispensers. He's going into much more detail than this in his own guide so I'll be brief. In R/B/Y and G/S/C we've known Oak/Elm since we were small. In R/S/E, we save an incompetent fool from being eaten alive by a hungry pokemon. In D/P/Pt, we steal a pokemon. By no means do we just get a free pokemon from a professor just for being 10. It's no sort of right all trainers receive and if you look at it that way, you can be much more creative and unique in how you establish your 'starter' standpoint. There's nothing saying you have to use any of the 12 starters because not everybody starts with one of them. Have some fun with it. Have everyone receive a Pokemon from a parent, a group of friends going out to travel together, that is somehow related to the type of Pokemon the parents had.

Example: In my Pokemon Roleplay Footsteps of the Goddess, my character Mika received her starter, a Dratini, from her parents as a small child for a companion to play with. She didn't start her journey til much after that. According to what we know of Pokemon laws, you have to be 10 to collect gym badges. You don't have to be 10 to have a pet pokemon. It's therefore logically sound that your character could've had their 'starter' for a long time before ever leaving their hometown. It's just an example, you could of course do the opposite and have an older group of characters who had no interest in going on a pokemon journey and for whatever reason, they have to go on a journey now.

What I'm trying to explain here is that you don't need to follow the game canon to have a journey sort of roleplay. If you go outside the box, further and further into the world of pokemon, you're more likely to find something you've never seen before either. You can do a professor gives out a starter pokemon, by all means, but professors would only give out what they have in surplus they wouldn't give out rare pokemon like Bulbasaurs. Maybe try a journey roleplay with a Rattatta, Sentret, Zigzagoon or a Bidoof. If you really want to make your players work, try a Caterpie, Weedle, Wurmple, Burmy sort of thing. Want to get out some cute pokemon? Try taking a random pokemon with at least one evolution from each gen. An example [using cute pokemon. *-*]: Vulpix, Phanpy, Skitty, and Cherubi. You can easily replace the cute pokemon with babies, have a group of young breeders with baby form pokemon venturing out.

So now that we've gone over why that plot fails, we're going to talk about ways to strengthen in further and make it unique. This is where, while I'll show examples, if you're following along with your own plot, you should try and branch out. Use my guidelines, not my ideas. :3 You all have wonderful creativity inside of yourselves; I've seen it when I've wandered around the forums. You just need to focus your creativity and have just a little confidence in yourself to break the normal routine. If you're at a loss as to how to do that, never fear, for I am Sailor Chibi MikMik. On behalf of the mansion I will right typos and punish cliché plots. Prepare yourself! *sparkle pose*

[a id]setting[/a id]

Settings and Timelines and Bad Guys, oh my!

Now, to kick off the good stuff, let's talk about setting. Setting is where your roleplay takes place. We're not going to focus so much on how to write settings so much as how a setting can help you in creating a deeper plot. Especially when we're dealing with an original location like Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, the extra little twists [like a difference in the generic time range or changes in the environmental state of the region] can make it new, so it's not the same thing they've played already on a gba.

Starting with Pokemon Generation 2, we set a clock when we start our game. It's normally set to the same time as your watch but does that mean it's really the 'same time'? No. The clock may tick to the same beat as your kitchen clock but the pokemon universe and the real universe are far from the same thing. Because of this, in most cases with some exceptions, it's best to try and take a break from the real world and make up your own time line in a sense that your roleplay events take place in.

If you mix it up, you'll either have to incorporate real life events that happened in this specific time frame or deal with people squabbling over how something can't happen because of the time frame etc etc. You can still have technology [or not have it] and roughly be in the same time range ish without directly referencing a specific time and date which means you can be in the 2001~2009 time range without having to deal with the political issues surrounding the world at the time. They're two separate realities. Unless your roleplay is set in the real world, don't mix it, it just makes your life easier.

If you're wanting to time jump, here are some things to remember:

KEEP YOUR TIMELINES REALISTIC AND RELATED

This is easy with things like Medieval Time ranges, when you know for a fact that there's nothing for energy except a fireplace or maybe oil but when you get into grey areas around the industrial revolution or the turn of the centuries etc, remember to do your research. Same with skipping ahead on time. Remember, with your technology, that with new forms of power, old forms would become obsolete etc. If you watch, the technology in Poke Special and the Gundam Series evolve over the seasons, you might get a good idea of what I'm referring to. Just do your research and you'll be fine. If done well, time frame jumps [leaving the 'current' time range behind] can appeal to people because of its uniqueness. However, note that if you go this path, you'll need to include in your information section the basic dos and don'ts of your time range. It's always better to be on the safe side, but like I've said before, don't go over the top.

Setting, how to change the maps​

It's important, it's where you're wandering. It's the place around your characters. The sky or ceiling over your heads, the ground or floor beneath your feet and it creates the mental picture both you and your roleplayers will use when they make their posts. Finding inspiration to write the description can be hard for some roleplayers. Don't lose heart; you simply need to immerse yourself in the picture. The best settings and best descriptions come from the ability to close your eyes and see, hear, taste, feel and smell every intricate detail of the world their character is now immersed in. If you leave a sense out, the description can seem hollow and empty, as though there is something missing. If you can't manage to squeeze out words to match one of those settings, there's no need to mercilessly beat yourself with a bat. Muse at times likes to escape us. Everyone has their own ways to track it back down. For me, the best way to find my muse is to immerse myself in the type of place I'm trying to describe be it through the real world and music. For some people, watching a movie with a similar setting or looking at pictures taken by someone can rouse the muse from its hiding spot and for others, all they have to do is close their eyes. The point all these things share is that you have to immerse yourself in your setting. Find what works for you; it's different for everyone. Don't be surprised if you can't find it immediately and don't get upset if it doesn't come easily. It won't always and that's by no means saying you have no idea what you're doing.

While we're on the subject of time and setting, it's important to quickly point out that the two are part of the same great circle of rpg life. Certain time periods wouldn't have certain setting materials that others would and so on and so on. You cannot have setting without timeline. Saying you're in Johto won't cut it. Saying you're in Johto, post Gen 2 after Neo Team Rocket has fallen is a completely different story. You can have a setting, sure, but without putting a timeframe around it, you're opening yourself up to paradoxes and other disturbing little buggers like that. If you want an example, you could say that the poketech and d/p/pt pokemon have appeared in generation 1, but Red hasn't even left home yet. It's a break in the timeframe dimensions. A more radical example would be nuclear warheads on an industrial revolution era battleship. Timeframe and setting are both equally important but separate parts that must work together efficiently and correctly for a good roleplaying backdrop. Sorry if it means more work for you guys but this isn't something you can skip.


Last but not least, before I go into some basic tips and tricks that'll help you beef up your roleplays, we're going to talk about evil syndicate groups and how to make them nongeneric. Pay attention kidlets, there'll be a quiz afterwards. v-v


As the name suggests, this section is on the antagonist person or persons in the party. Anyone who roleplays in a Pokemon setting is familiar with Team Rocket, Team Aqua, Team Magma, Team Galaxy or one of their little spin off groups from the anime, game or manga series. You, the hero, have to have something besides the gyms standing in your way in the games. Team Rocket will never get Pikachu, Team Aqua and Magma dropped out of highshcool before taking a class on basic environmental science and Team Galaxy wants to obtain nukes. We know who they are, what they want and are about. If we're going to use them in our roleplays, we've got to make them different and unique. Most of the time, the methods people use for this tactic is simply a mirror image of how Team Rocket tries to steal Pikachu every week without fail. They put a brand new big red bow around its neck but it's still the same old pitfall that leads into the same old repatched-for-the-hundreth-time Meowth Balloon. Point here being that it's not unique at all and it can wear on the watcher/reader's nerves.

A note. If you're going to use canon teams, make sure you know the canon down cold and make sure that the timeframe fits the canon you're using. Honestly, using Team Aqua and Magma past 3rd Gen is going to be difficult seeing as they saw the errors of their ways after the chaos of the orbs. In Gen 4, at Stark Mountain, Team Galactic is disbanded so it can't just reappear. If you want to pull something out of your backside, at least follow the example of Gen 2 from Gen 1 and make the bad guys a group of half baked puppies who want to gain master's attention. If you break canon by saying "TEAM MAGMA IS UP TO NO GOOD AGAIN >8C" when your story takes place after the events in generation 3, you're not doing yourself any favors. In my experience, the only team you can possibly manipulate is Team Rocket because Giovanni just refuses to go away. It's why I twist on them on occasion; I personally wouldn't go after any of the other teams unless I was doing a pre-gen sort of thing but even that's pushing it. Instead of stealing from a canon, create your own group of dastardly doom and set them loose on the region, be it old or new.

[a id]abc[/a id]

The ABCs of Dastardly Deeds, Borderline Torture and Naughty Behaviors

When you make your own evil team, the first thing you need to think about is whether or not they do most of their operations out in the open or if they're more hidden behind the scenes. If we look at the antagonist in general, most fall into one of two categories with a good bit of grey matter inbetween. The first is the outwardly evil no-good ruffians. They've got the control, everyone knows who they are and they can act in the open without fear of persecution. The iron fist comes down on the hidden resistance and, for the most part, they're not afraid to do something incredibly dastardly. Most of the time, plots involving these sorts of groups involve a resistance movement that is working under viel of darkness to combat the evil and do it without the bad guys finding out. [I've also seen one plot before where it was an evil resistance within an evil group that was trying to assassinate the big bad. Wrap your head around that one why don't ya. XD]

The second generic option here is the secret evil group. They're the ones you don't expect to be evil. Nobody would really be able to tell they're part of such an evil organization but, through some sort of plot twist, they turn out to be the very worst type of evil villain. Through some sort of underlying scheme or betrayal in the party, they reveal themselves, blowing the players out of water. Most of these groups aren't very well known, if known at all in the beginning and their members don't often, if ever, publically reveal themselves as members to the general public. A double life and a certainly shocking twist when that sweet man down the street turns out to be the head of a group that's just about to cause a disaster of epic proportions. These can be harder to pull off, mostly because your players may figure out things and bring OOC information into an IC environment, but by far, they tend to induce a higher rate of squee-ing upon completion. :3

Most of the canon teams are a combination of the two. The members, for the most part, aren't afraid to say who they're aligned with [unless they're working undercover] but they tend to keep things on the down-low until the big reveal. With Team Rocket, we can look at Gen 2 and see how the group seemed to be full of it until the Tower Scandal, which they'd been planning all along. Gen 3, look at how Team Magma and Aqua kept to themselves for the most part, working behind the scenes until the respective loons decided to cover the world in earth/water. They show their face and have some notion of power but keep to themselves until the generic plot twist.

Honestly, the above is not the way to go. :/ it's generic, it's what happens all the time and it's nothing we haven't see before. Seriously. Since 1998, we've seen this same generic evil team pattern, it's nothing we want to see again. This is why, while it's your roleplay and thus your call in the end, I strongly encourage you to go outside the box, create your own bad guy and swing them and their evil schemes way out of the park, just remember that there is a such thing as too much. :3 Bad guys seeking after nukes to destroy the part of society that they hate or wish to assume control over is perfectly fine. Bad guys suddenly getting nukes to blow up the Indigo Plateau so they can summon the mothership [Cuz the Indigo Plateau is so totally the spot where they first landed some fifty billion years ago] and return to the home planet is just a weeeee bit too much.

This is all I'll say on the subject of bad guys for the moment because saying much more would just spin this thing out of control. xD I plan on finishing a mini guide on the antagonist as well as correct evil bad guy plot twists. It'll have this topic in much much heavier detail so check it out if you're still stumped or feel free to pm me; bad guys are my favorite part of roleplaying. :>

Don't you DARE tl;dr me; the Table of Contents

[a id]unique[/a id]

The Bits and Pieces Shoved Under the Bridge - How to make it Unique

Much like with Fan Fiction, when we talk about Uniqueness, we're talking about what sets it apart from other plots in the field. There are different types of roleplaying genres and a good long lasting roleplay is the type that people experienced with such genres have never seen before. For example, one of the roleplays I'm in right now is a school setting. The characters go to classes and suffer through detention just like you and me. Oh, did I happen to mention there's a group of assassin like people after our characters for no apparent reason at all and it's driven the group into a rather raunchy part of town and they're still following us? This is an example of a School RP genre with a ridiculously wicked twist that isn't something you would've ever suspected in the sign up phase. It's nothing pulled from any one particular inspiration and it obeys the basic laws set down by the canon. Here, from my observations I've been making since I joined this site, are the seven main categories and their basic canon requirements. Yes, there are more categories than the ones listed that have been used. You should be able to decipher your non-listed genre as well, using the same guidelines. If you can't, throw it at me, I'd be glad to help. :3

[a id]stereotypes[/a id]

The Genre Stereotypes. We think Journey's the emo kid.

Journey. The most abused genre out there. Its basic canon requirements are the starters, the pokedex and the world map. It does not require particular age groups tho most make it the generic 10-13 year old sort of deal getting their pokemon for the first time with all the bells and whistles. Remember how I mentioned earlier that professors don't have to give out pokemon? Keep this in mind kiddies. Keep this in mind. A good portion of PC is sick to death of journeys so if you're going to do one, make sure it gets the ball up and flying.

Tournament. You need prizes, a reason to be participating in the tournament and rules that are enforced or not enforced depending on the competition. Note that you don't necessarily have to eliminate players, tournament genre roleplays are great coverups for dastardly deeds.

School. You need a school. You need qualifications to get into said school. You need classes. You need some sort of twist to make it so you don't fall asleep posting a post in a segment about a lecture in a classroom. Enough said. Timeframes, if you remember my segment awhile up, are very easily manipulated. Keep a tight leash so you don't get people roleplaying in different parts of the week/month/year and be INCREDIBLY specific in ANY time jumps.

Pokemorph. This is the style of roleplaying that I've found to be the most dangerous in terms of rulebreaking. For some odd reason, from what I've seen, Pokemorph = Hormones = Romance = Above the Rules Romance. The canon guidelines for this roleplay often include pokemorphs, pokemorph hunters and pokemorph supporters and often times runs into the stereotypical 'YOU B DISCRIMINATING AGAINST ME BCUZ I AM A POKEMAN' and this can stir up a darker sort of fic. Be careful. Nobody wants to see their hard work go down the drain, ever. As an RP Master, you have the right to tell people to knock it off if they start to inch closer and closer to that all important rule line. It's also part of your job. If they get too out of hand, tell a mod and make it known you won't support that type of nonsense. Watch the racism, watch the guidelines and keep to it. You're in charge. Just like Captain Planet

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. See above. The only difference in many ways between some of the issues in Pokemorphs and Mystery Dungeon roleplays is that you're a full pokemon and you were once human. You mostly have one of two types: you were once human and are now a pokemon with no knowledge of pokemon or you are a human who knew of pokemon and is now a pokemon. Your main goal is to return to being human and there are hurdles in your path. Metagaming, which is when you take outside knowledge and put it into the roleplaying word that your character wouldn't feasibly know, is one of the biggest issues in these roleplays. If you were human and had no knowledge of what a pokemon even was, you don't know that your head slamming into a tree is called headbutt nor do you know that at level 16 you're going to evolve. Keep in character and keep your knowledge separate from your characters.

Evil Team – Canon requirements for this are simple. You're part of an evil team. You have a rank of some sort. You're doing bad things. You're avoiding the good guys. If you use canon teams, you can go back in time before the canon teams did bad things, just make sure you stay in canon. These teams are fun as can be and are certain to provide entertainment, just keep a reign on your members but make sure you don't powerplay. It's suuuper easy to do in both an Evil Team roleplay or a Good Team Roleplay and I promise you, it'll kill support from your players and could kill your roleplay. :D I know because it killed the first roleplay I ever led on PC and I learned this lesson the humiliatingly hard way.

Good Team – Almost the exact opposite of the evil team, Good Teams are a group of people who band together to take down the bad guys for whatever reason. Ranger roleplays almost always fall into this category. However, unlike their evil predecessor, there's a problem some Good Teams face that can be hard to handle. The sometimes need for a spy from the bad guys. Sure, you can have a spy in either Team style of roleplay but the Bad Team is less likely to bond as tightly as the Good. With the bad, you're all bad, you're all keeping secrets and keeping distance. It's easy to slip off and report to the other side. In a good team, you've more than likely got people who wish to make it a family affair. Sneaking off and reporting has more risks involved that need to be covered or you're breaking a fundamental rule of roleplaying. It's like if you did a Yugioh Roleplay with card games and skipped your opponent's chance to respond or had a Pokemon battle and didn't give them a chance to offer a counter. It's bad. Make sure your members, if you have a spy, roleplay out sneaking away to contact the evil people. Suspicions are delicious you know and keep people guessing. <3

With these general guidelines in hand, you must take from the other areas [setting, timelines, protagonists, antagonists etc] and throw in a few bits of yourself into your plot. If you can do this, you're going to create something that's much more readable and eye-pleasing as well as something that will last at the very least a good several months on PC. If you follow what I've preached, I can almost 100% guarantee that you'll pass the PC guidelines and get your role-play approved. I'm not staff so I can't 100% promise you anything but the tips I've given you are the tips that fall under the protocol of the rules themselves. :3 Meaning I'm giving you the tools to smile and nod and follow the PRP rules while still keeping your soul very firmly within your own person.

[a id]credits[/a id]

The Sappy Credits. Get a tissue why dontcha.

I do hope this guide has helped you in some sort of way but I couldn't have done it alone. :3 Thank you, my social group friends who gave me a reason to write this, thank you to the gang on msn/skype for dealing with my tl;dr [too long;didn't read] segments. Thanks specifically to Gummy, Mishi, Valentine, Signomi and Beachy who have done the majority of beta-ing this guide, you're all such amazing people. And then there's that one guy. Chris. 'cuz without his comic relief, I would've pulled my hair out. <3 Thanks to Adam for putting in the quick links [you think I can make any part of PC obey me? What do you think I am, shiny colored?] and BeachBoy for the cute directory up above. Thank you to Mr-Man-In-Red for the link to your roleplay and, last but not least, thank you to my two mamas and my doggie, for putting up with my spazz attacks and encouraging me that I really don't fail at life. <3

One last bit before you leave, like I promised, I've left my finished plot below as well as commentary on how I changed it and what parts of the guide I used to change it. :3 at some point, it'll be submitted so find it if you want to see what some of the points in this guide can do in a real life scenario. Note, what the final product ends up being may not be what's in the spoiler. I often change my ideas, like most of you all, several hundred times before actually shoving it through.




Something I will say tho. :/ warninghissingmikaalert

I worked over a month on this thing. v-v I'm fine with being cited, meaning you steal a paragraph and give me absolute credit, in other guides but so help me Mewtwo, if you steal any part of this and intentionally reproduce it without my electronically signed consent, I will not hesitate to find a staff member to throw a book at you. >:[ I'm a very nice person, but I have my quirks. This is one of them. Ilu all, but don't claim my work as yours.

Mika, signing out~

[And yes, I did double post. I had Alter's permission seeing as I broke the character limit by 15k. X3]

A Basic Grammar Guide
Approved by Alter Ego

It's pretty much only the basics, but I'm sure it'll help quite a lot of you who are unsure.
Credit to some of this information goes to the CGP English GCSE Revision Guide.





A few terms to get started:

The full stop looks like this > .
Americans call it a period, I believe. I will call it a full stop hereafter.

This is a comma > ,

Colon > :

Semicolon > ;

Apostrophe > '

I'll be explaining how to use all of them well in a bit, but first here are some grammar basics that I see people getting wrong everywhere.


Punctuation
if you don't use punctuation properly just imagine how annoying it would be i mean there would be so many run on sentences all the time wouldn't that just drive you batty i can't believe anyone would use no punctuation that would just be so annoying so now i'm going to teach you how to use it properly okay

Capital Letters and Full Stops
This is really quite simple and basic.

~ Always start sentences with a capital letter.
~Always end a sentence with a full stop (unless it's a question or an exclamation, in which case use a question mark or an exclamation mark respectively).
~Full stops mark a definitive pause before the next sentence starts.

Commas, Colons and Semicolons

This area of grammar is one I'm not very good at. I'll misuse commas all the time, even though I do know the rules of how to use them properly.

The Comma
Learn these three rules.

1) Commas are used in order to separate words or groups of words to make the meaning clearer.

In the valley below, the houses all looked quite small.

If the comma hadn't been there, you might have read it as 'in the valley below the houses'.

2) Commas are also used to break up things in a list:
I brought cake, cola, sweets and chocolate.

3) Commas can be used to add something extra to the sentence:
The new members, who joined last night, don't have large post counts.
This sentence would still make perfect sense without the bit between the commas.


The Colon
Again, three rules for a happy colon.

1) Colons should be used to divide sentences if the second half explains the first half:
The nursery had become very quiet: most of the toddlers had fallen asleep.

2) Colons are only to be used if the first part leads on to the second part.

3) Colons can also be used to introduce a list.

You will need: flour, eggs and milk.


The Semicolon
Two pointers this time!

1) Semicolons are used to link sentences in order to make one long sentence.

2) The two parts on either side of the sentence must be equally important.

You don't have enough money; you can't afford that.

Both parts are equally important and can stand as sentences in their own right.


Ellipses and Dashes

1) Ellipses are three dots: ...
2) Ellipses mark a very long pause... Longer than even a full stop.
3) Dashes do pretty much the same thing – and they're useful for separating parts of a sentence.



Apostrophes
Ah, the dear apostrophe. I don't think it's hard to learn the rules surrounding it, and once you do know them you're good to go.

An apostrophe can be used to show one of two things:

1) Possession

The girl's words are wise.

The apostrophe after the girl and before the s shows that the words belong to the girl. Without the apostrophe, still with correct grammar, it would look like this:

The words of the girl are wise.

Please note that when the word that is doing the owning (the girl, in the above example's case) ends with an s, the s after the apostrophe is missed out:

The girls' words are wise.

In the above sentence, the word girl is in the plural form; girls. (By the way, plural means that there's more than one.)
In full, the sentence would read:

The words of the girls are wise

So, because the word girls ends in an s, the apostrophe has no s after it.


2) To show a missing letter or sometimes even a whole word

That's a wise girl

In the above sentence, the apostrophe shows that a space and the letter i are missing.
In full, the sentence would say:

That is a wise girl

When letters or words are cut out, this is called contraction.

Commonly contracted words:

• We are
  We're
• I will not
  I won't
• I would
  I'd
• I had
  I'd
• It is
  It's
• They are
  They're
• Who is
  Who's
• Do not
  Don't
• Does not
  Doesn't
• Can not
  Can't

NB - An apostrophe should never be used to show a plural.
If you are going to put something into the plural, then for goodness' sake please don't add an apostrophe!

The plural of TM is not TM's.
It is TMs.
Just add an s.
Of course, not all plurals only require an s. Some are irregular, and I will put more about them later.

As with nearly every rule, there is an exception:

IT

You know the rules about apostrophes showing possession? It chucks them out of the window.
It is is still contracted to it's, but that's all it's means. When it comes to possession, you just add an s on the end.
It's = It is
Its = belonging to 'it' (when not given a gender)
Make sure you don't mix these two up!


That's it for part one. Part two may be a while.
xX