Bills(Beginner Guide)

New to rping? Need a quick refresher? Well you’ve come to the right place.
Welcome to the Beginner’s Guide, where we will discuss the basics of rping.

What is roleplaying?

A roleplaying game (often abbreviated as RP or RPG) is a game where players assume the role of characters in a fictional setting. This site is a play-by-post RP, where one assumes a role of a character and every post they make describes the action of their character. For example:

Sally is rping with Bob, and their characters are Elyea and Fiad respectively.

Sally: “Oh hello there, what a lovely day it is,” said Elyea.
Bob: “Indeed it is,” replied Fiad.
Sally: “Would you like to spar with me? I feel like I need to train more,” Elyea admitted, looking down embarrassingly.
Bob: “Sure,” said Fiad. Even he wanted to train more himself, and was glad that she had asked.

And so every post would be made by either Sally or Bob.

What do the posts have to look like? Do they have to be in huge paragraphs or just one-liners?

Well, it depends. Some sites have a word count, where you would have a minimum amount of words for each post. But this site has a minimum of 200 words. But keep in mind that some people who make large posts might like large ones in return, because they put a lot of effort into them. But if you’re a beginner, don’t feel pressured into making huge posts at first. Just remember there are always members and staff to help you if you’re feeling lost.

What is godmoding, powerplaying, and meta-gaming?

Godmoding

Godmoding is where your character is too strong, and it disrupts the balance of the game when one character is supremely powerful compared to the rest. Usually staff can notify you right when you make a character at first if you’re godmoding, but sometimes as characters progress and get new strengths, powers, etc., they become stronger than the rest, and the rest have no chance of beating your character in a fair fight. (Note: sometimes it’s ok to godmode a bit if it’s due to the plot, but make sure it’s ok with the other members) Sometimes these characters can be classified as a Mary-Sue or Gary-Stu, due to the fact that they are super awesomely invincible and no one can ever beat them or kill them, and they can get everything they want whenever they want. For example:

Lucy makes a character whose name is Ozu Ruhemei. His parents were super powerful vampire demon lords, and he has gained both powers from the parents. He has many pendants that give him lots of magic powers on top of that, and he carries with him all these weapons and he has an invincible body so that no one can scratch him. He also is also given powers by the gods because he was so great. He can also control the world how he sees fit, and can determine who lives or dies.

As you can see, Lucy’s character is way too powerful, and it makes the rp unbalanced if he is the only one with strong powers and no one else can. So what would not be considered godmoding? This is an example with the same character:

Lucy makes the same character, Ozu, and his parents were vampire lords. He gained a few powers from his parents, but is still learning to master them. He has one pendant that adds an additional power, one that lets him control fire. The gods did not give him any additional powers, but instead advised him to combine the powers he gained from his parents with the powers of the pendant.

This is still a strong character, but makes the rping a bit more balanced compared to the last example. Also, the more specific the power, usually the better, because then there can be more limitations and strengths to the specific power. Also, the example gives room for character development, and rather than starting out as a very strong character he can develop his powers along the way and become more successful due to previous battles and encounters.

Powerplaying

Powerplaying is when a person controls a character that is not their own without the consent of the other person who has that character. Usually something as small as a handshake is ok, but something large like death or injuries would be considered to be powerplaying. For example:

Sally: “Gah I hate you Fiad, die!” Elyea screamed at the top of her lungs as she dashed towards him, bringing her sword high into the air, ready to strike.
Bob: “No way,” replied Fiad. He pierced her heart with his sword, leaving bloodstains on her back. Elyea murmured that she hated him again. She slumped down, now dead, and he struck again at her chest again to make sure she was dead. But he saw no movement from her, and he walked away.

Bob was the one who was powerplaying in this example, but only if Sally didn’t say that it was ok for her character to die, or to make that second statement that she murmured that she hated him. An example using that same scene which is not powerplaying is:

Sally: “Gah I hate you Fiad, die!” Elyea screamed at the top of her lungs as she dashed towards him, bringing her sword high into the air, ready to strike.
Bob: “No way,” replied Fiad. He brought out from the sword from his side, blocking her weapon as he tried to shift it away from himself. He was looking for an opening so that he could pierce her heart.

This is a better example, especially if Sally and Bob didn’t discuss what was going to happen. And if they did plan for Elyea to die, then usually it would be that player, which is Sally in this case, would make the post of her own character dying. For example she would post after what Bob posted:

Sally: Elyea’s sword fell out of her hands due to the impact of the other sword. She underestimated his skills. There was a wide opening, and Fiad had taken it. She felt the cold steel pierce through her heart. She slumped to the floor, lifeless.

In this case, even though it seemed like Sally was powerplaying for a bit, it was already hinted that Fiad would take the opening to pierce her heart if it was open. Therefore it could already be assumed that he would pierce it, and Sally had described that. Although, she also could have stopped for the “She felt the cold steel….” and could have left the rest to Bob.

Meta-gaming

Meta-gaming is where the character has the same knowledge as the player. This happens most often when a character has a deep secret, and the other character figures it out easily due to the fact that the player already knows it. For example:

Sally: “Uhh, Fiad, let’s not go through that cave,” she said. She was secretly scared of the dark, but she put on a brave face. “I think that the magic stone isn’t in that cave,” she lied. “Let’s go back to the forest. I think the magic stone might just be lying on the ground or something.”
Bob: Fiad was suspicious. He knew there was something up. He knew that the magic stone should be in the cave, and they should look. He looked at Elyea’s facial expressions. He could see some sweat come from her forehead, and he breathing became faster. He could also see that she was shaking. She must have been afraid of the dark. “Don’t be scared of the dark, Elyea, it’s ok. I’ll protect you.”

Fiad shouldn’t have known that Elyea was scared of the dark, and Bob also mentioned things that Sally didn’t say about her character. Sally said that Elyea put on a brave face, while Bob ignored that and made it look like she was visibly afraid. If anything, Bob should have said instead that he took a guess that she was scared of the dark, instead of automatically assuming it. Because she could have been scared of spiders, bears, or anything else related to caves really. Fiad wouldn’t know unless she gave a specific hint or he guessed it. A better example:

Sally: “Uhh, Fiad, let’s not go through that cave,” she said. She was secretly scared of the dark, but she put on a brave face. “I think that the magic stone isn’t in that cave,” she lied. “Let’s go back to the forest. I think the magic stone might just be lying on the ground or something.”
Bob: Fiad was sure that the magic stone should have been in the cave. In the forest? Really? They have been in the forest for hours, searching for it, and the cave was their only hope of finding it. He didn’t want to back out of it now. “Why? Why don’t you think it’s in the cave?” he questioned. Maybe she was afraid of caves. “What, scared of bears?” he joked.

In this example Bob didn’t have Fiad become suspicious right away. He also made a wild assumption that she was scared of bears. Sometimes players could hit the mark, like he could have said “What, scared of the dark?” but it’s up to Sally of whether or not she wants to reveal that Elyea is scared of the dark or not.

Meta-gaming is usually not that big of a deal, like godmoding and powerplaying because it tends to not throw off the balance of the rp. But if it’s a huge secret related to the plot, then sometimes it ruins the fun.

How to get started

Ok, so now you know the rules to basic rping. Now what? How do you get started?
Well that is relatively easy. First, you make a character.

Making a character

How do you make a character? Well, first you go to the Characters board, and you start a new thread for your character. You title the thread with the name of your character, and for the post you follow the character outline that can also be found in the Characters board.

Face Claim

A face claim is where you want your character to look like a certain character from the media, such as TV shows, movies, anime, games, manga, etc., and you would usually add pictures of them to your character’s profile so that people would know what they look like. Once you have that specific character from the media, only your character has that look and no one else can. This site doesn’t require a face claim, but if you want to do one, you still have to fill out the physical appearance so that we know what they look like.

Once you finish making your character, you post it, and can choose to wait for a staff member to accept it, or you can start posting. Just keep in mind if there might be some changes to be made to the character if it does not conform to the feel of the site or is unfair to the other players in any way. If you are unsure you could always look at accepted characters for an example.

So now you have a character, now what?

For this site, just go to a location (and maybe read a little bit about the location) and make a post. People will respond, and the story will start flowing. Or alternatively, you can respond to someone who had already made a post.

There are other ways too, such as planning it out and having a direction for which you want your characters to head in. A way of planning it out is going to the chatbox, finding a group who want to start a thread, and start out from there. Or, you can also go to the Plot Discussion board, and make a post or respond to a post about what kind of plots you want to make.

OOC

What is OOC? What does it stand for? OOC stands for “Out-of-Character,” meaning the player behind the character, not the character themselves.

Also a way to plan during rping, sometimes people will add OOC comments at the bottom of the posts in parenthesizes. For example:

Sally: “Oh that wizard is crazy!” said Elyea. She didn’t believe a word he said about the magic golden apples on the silver trees. (OOC: Do you still want to head to the forest of the silver trees? If you want you can convince my character to go, I don’t mind.)
Bob: “No, I’ve read about the golden apples somewhere in the ancient library. I think he knows what he’s talking about. Come on, let’s go to the silver tree forest. What do we have to lose?” he tried to convince her. (OOC: Ok, that sounds good. Should we describe going there or should we fast forward?)
Lucy: Ozu luckily had the magic of teleportation. “Hey you guys I can teleport us there if you’d like,” he suggested. (OOC: I think we should get into a battle at the silver tree forest.)

And yes, more than two people is acceptable for rping in a thread.

Also, usually the Plot Discussion board is a good place to make OOC comments, so that you wouldn’t have to post everything in parenthesizes at the bottom of each post every time.



Some more specifics

Say if your characters were moving to a different location, then once they were done at the current location, you’d start a new thread in the new location. It will be easier to track if you placed a link to the new thread at the end of the old one, because if someone wanted to rp and catch up they’d know where to post. Also, notify a staff member or a staff member will come and lock the thread once it is done, so that no new players would post on it.

Some people will name a thread using the words “Open” and “Closed,” which mean that if the thread is open anyone can join and post, but if it is closed they cannot.

If you want to only rp with some specific people, make sure to state it in the title of the thread or at the beginning so that people know. Example: My RP Thread [Sally, Sue]

If someone you’re posting with doesn’t respond, or leaves the site, you can just leave the thread open until they come back or choose to end it. Sometimes, especially if it is a thread with more than two people, it’s ok to powerplay the character if the player says it’s ok, or if they’ve been inactive for a very long time and you guys want to get the thread moving. (But it’s probably better if you start a new thread and that way if they come back they can catch up without their character being powerplayed without their consent.)

Thread trackers are helpful for keeping character’s storylines in place. That way you can know what time what thread takes place and who knows who and what better.

Most importantly, have fun! And if you have any questions feel free to ask staff members or other members, and we can help you.