Role-Playing for Dummies

Chapter 1: Introduction to role-playing

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

So lets start off with the word “role”

Role: A character or part played by a performer

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

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

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

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

On to the word “playing”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to Role Playing for Dummies
On to Chapter 2. How does free form RP work?