Most important when RPing

If you were to give one important piece of advice to others when they're about to RP, what would that crucial piece of advice be?

Your not isolated, your actions have an effect on the world that other players characters experience. With that in mind it's important to be considerate of how what you write effects other participants in the RP.

Or alternatively be Alvey and blow a whole town to shit without asking first. :')

I think simply stay in character. Its so easy to try and go "Well I would do this." but thats not the point. Its what would the character do.

But most importantly just Git Gud

Be chill. No reason not to be, and even without looking at any of your other qualities, it's sure to make you a more fun person to RP with.

Oddball_ said:

I think simply stay in character. Its so easy to try and go "Well I would do this." but thats not the point. Its what would the character do.

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Very important advice imo

I'd also say that if you want to interact, then initiate interaction. Don't just stand around waiting for something to happen or for somebody to approach you. Discuss with your fellow players how you're going to go about it, or just approach them IC if the situation lets that be a thing that can happen!

Never stop finding ways to get inspired or inspire others.

Fail. Let your characters mess up every now and then. Or all the time! Perfect characters are boring characters, and having a character deal with some screw up they caused can be a lot of fun, and great character building.

Also other players hate your absolutely perfect character with the luck of a god.

Don't be afraid to write characters totally different from you! Especially if they're super flawed. Often we're tempted to write characters like ourselves or who we wish we could be, but the most interesting and freeing characters I've had are ones who would do and say things that I never ever would--like, they are morally fundamentally different from me.

Sweet Dreams said:

Don't be afraid to write characters totally different from you! Especially if they're super flawed. Often we're tempted to write characters like ourselves or who we wish we could be, but the most interesting and freeing characters I've had are ones who would do and say things that I never ever would--like, they are morally fundamentally different from me.

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I think that is super hard though o: most of my characters have a few slices of me in them. Which I would like to step away from, but I feel insecure while doing it, i guess.

adventure said:

I think that is super hard though o: most of my characters have a few slices of me in them. Which I would like to step away from, but I feel insecure while doing it, i guess.

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Oh my gosh it can be SUPER hard. Most of the time I'll put in facets of myself into different characters, maybe warped or exaggerated, to get some realism going. My current Vale character actually shares the most with myself out of any character I've done so far. xD But there are some RPs that I felt okay with going completely over the top--like my narcissistic, amoral doctor with a god complex (who to date is still one of my favourite ideas and if I were ever gonna reuse a character it might be her).

I personally feel like more people should always focus on brevity when it comes to writing their character (unless your character is expressly flamboyant and ostentatious in nature). What I mean is, I feel like a lot of writers in general make the mistake of being absurdly verbose beyond what's required when expanding on their characters. I mean, I always thought it was more fun to leave things completely open-ended so readers aren't just constantly getting bombarded with excessive expedition and freely allow them to come up with their own interpretations.

Ech said:

I personally feel like more people should always focus on brevity when it comes to writing their character (unless your character is expressly flamboyant and ostentatious in nature). What I mean is, I feel like a lot of writers in general make the mistake of being absurdly verbose beyond what's required when expanding on their characters. I mean, I always thought it was more fun to leave things completely open-ended so readers aren't just constantly getting bombarded with excessive expedition and freely allow them to come up with their own interpretations.

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Oh, that's a good one! I tend to fall down this pitfall quite a lot, myself. Getting a handle on "show, not tell" can be quite hard, even if it's the first thing any English teacher tries to drill into your head. ^^'

Stay 100% in tune with the RP's setting, and take creative liberties with it (talk to the GM if need be). Speaking from my experience as a GM, some of the best RPing happens when the players themselves are able to expand upon what's already happening

Make your characters fun to play. If you go too complex, and sacrifice the fun of RPing, you'll drop from the rp much quicker, which always hurts the RP. Simple but fun characters will naturally become more complex as they go through events and interact with other players.

LEARN TO JOINT POST.

I swear to Blarzigord, I cannot stress how much engaging in JPing can not only prolong the life of a RP, but also greatly increase your interest in the RP. Joint posting is basically what RPing was all meant to be about- players writing a story together. I've made some of my best friends though this means, and written some unforgettable stories. Writing alone is never a good idea if done for too long in a RP. You'll end up feeling isolated, and drop out a lost faster. And besides- JPing itself is an incredibey fun experience, where you get to learn about the other person and even more about your own character through their feedback.

Foxrally said:

LEARN TO JOINT POST.

I swear to Blarzigord, I cannot stress how much engaging in JPing can not only prolong the life of a RP, but also greatly increase your interest in the RP. Joint posting is basically what RPing was all meant to be about- players writing a story together. I've made some of my best friends though this means, and written some unforgettable stories. Writing alone is never a good idea if done for too long in a RP. You'll end up feeling isolated, and drop out a lost faster. And besides- JPing itself is an incredibey fun experience, where you get to learn about the other person and even more about your own character through their feedback.

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Ahhh here's where I have to disagree! xD Joint posting is a relatively new concept on PC, though not a lot of people can remember the days of yore. I can, because I am about 63 years old.

*clears throat* *starts speaking in old person voice*

While I have participated in JPs, I think there's a time and a place for them. JPs tie people up, limits other characters from interacting with them while they're in the JP (and before you say that it doesn't and other people could JP with you, if there are more than two people in a JP, WHAT'S THE POINT YOU COULD ALL JUST POST IN THE RP), are soooo slow to write unless the fates align, and too many of them slows down the pace of an RP to a craaaaaaawl. I think they're fine for quick interactions between two players, like a battle or a conversation after two players end up bumping into each other, which was the original use for them. But I fail to see the point in orchestrating an entire meeting and scene within a single JP after which the characters retire somewhere and aren't accessible to more interaction without MORE out of character planning. It is the prevalence of too many JPs that leaves anyone not participating in JPs feeling isolated because all the other characters are suspended in JP purgatory and nobody spontaneously begins an interaction anymore.

I've made some really great friends and had some really great experiences before JPing became such a fad. Speaking of which, the only RP I've ever participated in that successfully finished had basically no JPs, and almost all of my recent JP-heavy RPs have died much earlier, with myself being able to make much fewer posts in them before their agonizing deaths.

Being able to interject yourself into someone else's conversation or stumble across other character's fight scenes until they were huge exciting messes was half the fun in RPing, and it simply doesn't happen anymore.

*end old person voice*

I have to agree with Mayo, haha. Somewhat! Especially on the points of sudden interaction, JP purgatory and too much planning. You feel more free if you interact through the thread imo; interacting in the thread is not the same thing as "writing alone", like some journey RPs did way too much for my taste...

On the other hand, there indeed is a time and place for JPs too! In one of my most enjoyable RPs, we did missions in every area where players got a goal to reach or a starting scenario to play out through JPs. It had the thread seeming much more like a novel with deep characters, than shorter posts might have done.

So I enjoy both ways, even though I'll probably opt out of JPs unless we're having a fight/battle or longer conversation. Or possibly an event/mission specifically for two players! More than 2 people in a JP, I've found to be dreadful, sadly.

I'm with Fox on this one. Whilst JPing might be a newer concept to RPing and isn't a necessity I've always found reading a joint post preferable to reading fifty short and disjointed posts with stymied interaction and no flow. It just reads so much better when its a single fluid post and on top of that I feel like its easier to write interaction that way as well. It comes more naturally if your actively discussing and planning and writing together.

Of the one RP I'm in, I have gotten to a point where I've JPed with just about everyone lol, and I've done posts where it is not 2 or 3, but 4 people at once. JPs really tie tie players together if done well, and while the slow down can be a little annoying, it's usually fixed with some occasional nudges.

The problem with forum post interaction (FPI?), and this is a problem that I had even 3 years ago when I joined this forum, is that you can't have conversations without pointless filler to pad your post for the limit. Additionally, the interaction can take longer because you make the post, tell the person, they make their post, and then you make yours. In contrast, a lot of my JPs are, "Get in the doc" and then anodded hour or two of everyone adding sentences and character reactions. Things go fast, and I've noticed that our characters can complete tasks and events quicker.

Check out some posts on Dust, I havent done a solo post since something like my 3rd post. Admittedly, our posts are depressingly long, but that doesn't really feel like much of a bad thing to me.

Communicate. Whether it's with the GM, the other players, your character or yourself, always communicate your questions, plans and ideas.