The OP now includes links to halfy's guide and Allerleiraugh's Guide. I meant to do it days ago, but it was pushed out of my mind by other things.

Anyway, now we're all pinned.

I think I might add on to this. I couldn't really agree fully with all the points posted, but for the most part this is a good guide thread and everyone should look it through.

While this IS about roleplay, which involves you taking the role of someone you're not, I still think I should stress this point: Be someone you know you can be.

Don't play a character you can't pull off yourself. Don't play the sword-god if you're not tactful, skilled with PvP and have a good measure of common sense. Don't play the mage if you're incapable of improvising spells, understanding the concept of "magicka" or "mana" and utilizing it in a fair, resourceful and useful way.

And please, as said before, don't play "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinobi" if you don't know what a "ninja" is. (The term "ninja" is actually untraditional.)
Don't play a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai unless you know a good lot about samurai and can write a decent conversion to an Akaviri equivalent. And please, allow your characters some weaknesses, or a lack of a certain profession.
My character, Akronos, will fight like a samurai, but that's because I do know a lot about samurai, and I practice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenjutsu and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujutsu in real life. Does this mean you have to have some real martial expertise in real life? Not at all - it's just RP. But you should still understand the concepts of what you're trying to RP.

My character Akronos cannot for the life of him match a big wizard in magicka, and in fact carries a pendant that increases his potency in casting, but a sword that nullifies those energies when drawn simply to compensate if faced against casters. I am not the king at RP spellcasting, so I wont attempt to do it.

As you can see, I play MY strengths, which helps the RP as my character is what you expect him to be. However, I try to keep him balanced, I don't have him do things he/I don't know how to do. Try to keep things simple if you can, too.

Having one thing you're really good at is kind of neat. Two is alright. Three, I guess. Four, you're pushing it.
And remember, unless you're REALLY good, jack-of-all-trades just means you svck equally at everything. Oh, and please, spellcheck. It's there for everyone - it doesn't take long to fix your mistakes. Some really good RPers I know just aren't much good at spelling, or maybe English isn't the native language. Just take that extra step to make sure your post is legible.

I really want to swear, but I will get a grip of myself and not do it.

I agree with almost everything that has been said here, I never take sides and so I find this thread of bikering and correcting each other rather frustrating to read.

And, from what I've been hearing of late, there has been quite alot of issues between players recently, and I was thinking of returning with a new RP, but now I'm not sure.

Illusionay: I find everything you have said to be very useful, but you can be too perdantic sometimes. I'm glad you got this stickyed, although you really didn't have to include mine. My guide died ages ago.

Uglius: I want to know what your rant would be for mine to be honest, I think you should write it. I also agree with what you have been saying, too many rules can dull imagination.

The simple thing is, Uglius seems to be anti-rules while Illusionary is mainly pro-rules.

That is all I have to say really.....I hope you 2 can forgive me if I offended you.

Nevah!

just joined here to RP (i already played on other forums) and i read that guide to RPing, quite impressive Illusionary Nothing, it will sure help with the differences in RPing (i mean the thing about no OOC threat or the sending of sheets to the GM)

smokaman 343

You can OOC. I use it now and then, although I prefer instant message clients. It's not one rule telling you not to OOC, you just shouldn't abuse it. And you don't always have to PM your sheet to the OP. It's just handy for making sure idiots won't join your RP.

that not what i meant, the rules say you can't have extra topics for pure OOC outside you RP, on Surreal Twilight we have seperate forum sections for OOC and RP threads. and at the Desert Realm they have location topics open for several RPs taking place at one location(verry mmorpg like). Here its all in one thread. i read some of the RPs here and i think i get the general idea of how things work with TES with skills, classes and races you might see me sometime soon joining as soon as i made a good general character.

edit: checked it, its rule number 3 in the fanfiction forum rules

Wait wait wait - A new person read over the rules and as a base respect for them?! I don't know the world i live in anymore!!

Well, good to have you. I'm sure you can be a good addition to our little team here. By the way, http://til.gamingsource.net/dogate/til_fishystick.jpg

Hmm... very strong Vampires and the cold and quiet warrior not being at all that cool... I can sense Kael the Orc and little Kala being in mind here


Oh well, a good rp-guide Wish I'd read it before I started rping, might've cured my ?ber-syndrome


You deserve a Kudos or two :goodjob: :goodjob:

This has been generally stated, but I think some specific examples should be mentioned: Character stat plot hooks.

Everything in a character sheet can be used as a plot hook for that character. For example, a Vvardenfell Dunmer in an RP that takes place in the Second era would probably be xenophobic to an extreme.

A pre-Imperial Altmer would very likely be proud and haughty.

A newborn vampire would not have full control (or any) over his/her blood thirst.

What I'm basically saying is, if it's on your character sheet, both obey it and use it. A second-era RP almost certainly would not include A Nord and Dunmer metting for the first time on good terms. I'm not saying to bow completely to race and class restrictions, more that you should hold to ES lore in an ES RP.

I am offended by all of this!!! Not really... I think it's very good and wish I read it long ago. It actually helped AND will make me rethink using my classic character since he followed those guidelines. Still great read for a boring afternoon...

Wow, that really helped out! THanks!

Illusionary Nothing,

Great guide! You pin-pointed everything that annoys me in RP's. You left me with one question though: You very rightfully stated that guys should think twice before rp'ing a female character. Personally, I have played a lot of D&D tabletop games and I've never been in a group where a guy could truthfully play a woman. However, I'm sure there are skilled diehard RP'ers who can. Which brings me to my question: Is it not allowed at all for guys to play girls?

Which brings me to something else: I'm a woman, but I prefer to rp male characters. Usually the D&D groups I'm in don't allow for cross gender rp'ing, but the times that I did get a chance to try it, it went very well. I hate playing female characters because I feel pushed into a role of having to be attractive and womanly. Either that, or you're forced to be a complete 'butch' as I call them. Therefore, I find a lot of joy in playing male characters, because I feel more comfortable and I'm better able to play as I want. Is it allowed here to rp male characters?

Perfectly welcome to cross gender rp here if you wish. I have quite a few cross-gender characters. While I may not be great at rping women, I do anyways, not entirely sure why I enjoy it, but it's not perverted reasons. My first female was a very emotional character: I feel women to be generally more emotional than men, and therefore more fun in general to rp, I suppose.

Not entirely sure why I do. But I do, and I'm not a complete failure at it, I feel. But it's perfectly acceptable to cross-gender rp on this board, so long as you don't make a complete fool of yourself.

Truth of the matter is that you really shouldn't let the gender of a character affect how you role play their personality as that is stemmed from culture. There is no biological reason why the way your real personaly for example wouldn't work to be a woman and visa versa. People are just immature and have their little petty hang ups.

~Anrel

Thanks for the quick replies, FC4 and Anrel I'll get a character together and see if there's an appropriate roleplay thread to join.

I prefer playing male because somehow it's easier for me to act normal and realistic. Otherwise I feel obliged to play too feminine for my own taste Good thing it's not a problem here.

Culture is hard to step away from in the way the genders are viewed, Anrel. So it plays a big part.

And you don't have to be too feminine. See, depending on how you interpret feminine, my characters are beautiful, but a few of them are hardly lady-like in nature.

I'm sure people especially those who may not have experience with different cultures have that issue. It is a matter of perspectives. I am just disapointed in an almost comical way how sometimes people make comments like "Oh I don't know how to RP a girl." Like girls are some sort of other wordly animal from some distant universe. Dark elves and argonians, piece of cake, but girls! Oh that's out of this world! A couple people within the RP I am in right now are RPing girls just fine, one of them is the owner of this account, i'm just borrowing. :nod:

~Anrel

Women are people too! Just had to say that, because a lot of people fall into the error of stereotyping women as either a soft, femenine damsel or some cold, malicious meanie (don't think they let you say [censored]?). I, in RL, am a man, but I RP both gender characters (or no gender, in the case of SHANA (Sentient, Heuristic, Autonomously Networked Android), the android in my tabletop Star Wars RP). I like to think that each of my characters differ from each other, though since I have at least a dozen, spread across various mediums, some may be similar to each other (such as how Tryl D'ssart (Jedi) and Veyar Nydelvu (Buoyant Armiger) have similar mannerisms).

Anywho, before I start to ramble or rant, let me wrap this up. Trans-gendered RP is okay, as long as you do it right, and not out of some sick perverse pleasure in making your female do things you wished a woman would do. (I've seen that happen before, and it disgusts me)

Aye, indeed. Also, anyone who thinks women are inferior to men, please explain when we lose arguments with them 3/4 of the time, huh? ^_^

Anyway, I RP two ladies, though I laugh at calling them 'ladies' as both of them would get a kick out of being called one and tell me to take a closer look at 'em before speaking such heresy again, and I have to say I enjoy playing them as much or more than men in all honesty. I have two males as well that I'm currently playing, and although both are fairly physically fit, by all means do not think I think all men must be this way: I'm a stick myself and the only hardcoe muscles I have are in my thumbs from all my gaming.

Anyway, My personal view is that you shouldn't stereotypicalize anything, unless you're meaning them to be that way as a character. Both Zant and Aulakauss, my lads, are muscular to some extent, but are not too likely to use their might unless they have to.

As for females, Karst, my first RP char ever, and my favorite by far, is tough and hard on the outside, but sweet and gentle on the inside, so she's neither the cold malicious meanie, nor the feminine damsel. She's not afraid to swear at someone, flip them off, speak her mind, or belch loudly in a crowded room just to piss people off. She is, like I said, most certainly not a lady. I threw her together as a character for a totally different story out of elements of myself, my friends, and a few little twists of her own. I took the basic character personality and gave her a TES background to use her for RPing, and I like what I got. She can be a [censored] sometimes, but once you get to know her she's a fun-loving and kind, if somewhat emotionally tormented person.

Fedura, my most recent creation, is a murderer with a twist. She's a cold, malicious meanie, but I gave her a reason for being so that does not involve her gender at all. And as with Karst, she has a somewhat playful outlook on life most of the time. I thought it'd be nice and ironic to have her be good humored as well as a murderer.

Honestly, I think I do a good job RPing my lassies, but I won't be offended if you disagree. I generally shy away from stereotypes when making my people because I'm sure those have been done before enough. Granted, I do shy away from creating a feminine female character, but most of the females I've been around all my life that have been really feminine have driven me nuts, and my best ladyfriends are mostly rougher sorts. I imagine I'll make one one of these days, though. I intend to do that, and create a successful uber character before I'm done RPing.

As a side note, it's a good idea to stick a little piece of yourself in all of your characters. At least, I find it to be. Gives you a connection to them mentally that you might not have otherwise. For instance, Fedura's kind of my dark, twisted side brought to life, whereas Aulakauss thinks logically like me. Just a little tip to new people.

Major issue coming up: There tend to be an awful lot of male characters running around. Probably because most gamers are men/boys, and can't RP a female decently, like me. And, say if some of them decides their characters should actually be able to do stuff they aren't able to, like... say, hit on the opposite six. Well, the moment that happens something very wrong might happen very quickly. Since the men/boys who feel comfortable of RPing female characters might be just as big romantics as the others, initiating an in-char relationship is often easy, thus making romances between two 'males' a common thing. Well, this is not really the issue, since one of their chars are of the opposite six, but the actions and such of the romances might take off, and entire pages of sentimental [censored] might get written without anyone but the two involved really caring about it. No offence, I highly hope people try and make such emotional posts once in a while, but not when there's only two people posting for a long while. It might get overly boring.

So, my point is that if you're going to RP a char of the opposite six, have them act atleast a bit realistic when dealing with males/females. I really doubt it is that easy to sweep a woman off her feet like some RPers tend to make it. So, if you're going to RP a char of the opposite six, be careful. Don't just rush into it, but play it realistic.

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My text is a mess, and I know it, but hell, they haven't locked me up yet

When playing characters of another race or gender you must understand the culture they're coming from, for instance, female dunmers are well known for being very sixually active as I'm sure most of us already know, therefore, characters who are deemed, "[censored]ty" (Please don't censor that. ) are fine in my opinion from the race of the dunmer, but from other cultures such as Altmer where it's all very proper and well mannered then I would find that there might be a fairly large problem with that character.

Ofcourse, that characters past experiences might change their mentality and an Altmer grown up as a six slave might be more inclined to partake in such sixual activities and may be more "[censored]ty" then one born and raised in Summerset Isles.

I don't know much about other cultures but I hope you all understand where I'm coming from here when I say that culture plays a big part in your characters mentality. You're not going to likely have a sword swinging altmer if he was born within the capitol of Summerset, nor would you likely have a fireball throwing redguard who was born in the capitol of Hammerfell. =/

*raises eyebrow* I thought you didn't believe in telling people how to RP, and that I was being horrible and arrogant by presuming to make a guide?

That's an interesting point there. Very few people bother to think about the culture of the race of a character. Race has a huge effect upon the mentality, habits, religion and tradition of the character you create- but only if they led the typical life for that particular race. Thanks for that.

Wowee, I'm glad this hasn't been locked. There's pure gold in the comments alone guys: thanks!

When I play a character of an opposite six, I would not let that character get involved in any romance, firstly because I am not in the least bit a romantic person myself, and also because I might write strange things that would seem logical to me, but would be illogical to real men.

In the fanfiction I'm posting at the moment, there is a certain tension between two characters, but I would never let it evolve into a real romance. I think that giving only small hints to it and keeping the characters circling around each other is much more interesting. Besides, the timespan of that specific story is too short to develop a realistic relationship in that sense.

Ah, you get it. We're not wired in exactly the same way, and thus we cannot really tell how a female/male would act to something as intense as love.