Elgen, if you don;t mind me trying to explain what you mean, as I feel I may understand.

Some Characters just don;t really fit into a class. Take My Shades Character, Leonardo Landon, for instance. A bit scholarly yes, but his love is in art. A bit of a mage, yes, but his main study is not in the magic itself, but in the knowledge of it and methods of using it. He doesn't really belong in one or the other. Instead, he is a mix of all three. He is a mage-scholar-artist. I essentially had to make up the class, and its rather unique to him alone, but it covers all aspects of his 'professions'.

Class could also refer to PAST professions. Aron could be listed as an Ex-soldier, perhaps, while my Sailor Murrin Darcen is listed as a Retired Naval Captain. Though no longer a captain, he was one, and that profession has defined who he is, and still does despite his retirement.

You can also completely make up a profession, like I have with Jassan Zartuk in Tears of the Nine. He is a Procurer. What one might call a 'gentleman thief', based off a novel series. He wouldn't really fit as a common thief, as his intentions in thieving are more noble than the stereotypical thief. So, he's a procurer.

As for the Skills, I think I have a few of my own character examples to work from. And Elgen had Aron have skill and mechanics, or some such.... There are often skills like cooking, Basic Wilderness Survival, and Martial Arts. For Leonardo Landon I have sketching and painting, and even symbology -a reflection of his scholarly pursuits.

One character I have planned out is a good example for both classes and skills. She isn't offensively oriented, and her class is actually a 'housemaid'. She comes with skills such as cleaning, cooking, sewing, common house cleaning skills, and few game skills thrown in for good measure. This makes her rather unique, and interesting. How does a housemaid become a hero?

Did I explain it any better, Elgen? and you all discuss it while I explain it.. *sigh*

Yeah, I know Elgen. I haven't got around to upping my intelligence: only put one skill point in, and thus only half a rank.

And FC4, I think that's a very good clarification... hmm... Trying to think how I can reword and summarise that...

FC, Elgen and The-Nord are getting mention for the tips.

He's right, that's a -20% experience penalty, unless one is your favored class and the other two are the same level. Makes it real hard to level up later.

And yeah, Classes don't really limit your character. I usually put down a profession or past profession, it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be good or like their job. It only truly limits you if you let it.

Edited once again to try and add more clarity to the Class section... this thing is a work in progress, none of you have any regard for my poor fingers, worked to the bone and beyond... *sniffles*

I would edit for ya, m'lady, but that would require me being a mod, that which I am obviously not....

And of course its a work in progress. The best guide is one that is made by the joined minds of pros. Which reminds me...

Where the bloody hell is HK? We need him.

Ah! Just thought of a new section, although not a long one... don't mention the points of damage things do, tha magnitude, stuff like that, rather describe it... back in a few minutes, I am off a-editing...

Indeed, but since I can put all of that in my bio, I don't bother to put it in a separate spot.

And since Illusionary probably is a human, she could be doing alright, since the favored class of humans can be any. HK's at work, btw.

What makes you so sure I'm human, eh?

Again, I still see your point, but I feel like Class is one of the main sections of a character sheet, no matter how you might use it, and shouldn't be neglected entirely.

And I think you'll find that in many RPs, people either neglect to post useful information in the bio, or neglect to add it in entirely. Guess we all have our personal opinions on what char sheets need. Thanks for the input.

And I'm off for now, so I'll see you all later. Maybe I'll have a big long list of stuff I need to change when I get back...

I am SO going to write one for S*T when I feel like getting active there again. If only a tribute to all the hardworking Roleplayers everywhere who would write a tutorial like this.

And a question, with the armour and weapons and such. You didn't let your readers know how you feel about matching armor and weapons to the characters bio and class. I don't often come accross people with focus on 'thievery skills' walk around with full dwarven armor but there is nothing in your tutorial against it. Maybe if your fingers have healed add a 'realistic characters' paragraph, (not a big one) but it all has an air like it's a tutorial for the worst n00bs. (Appearantly Cirith felt you were thinking of him when you told the world "cool names" don't work. But I'm going to see if he's a new player for myself before I judge ) And back home on S*T I simply hate people making a character that just doesn't match himself/herself. (Jocks and Cheerleaders getting teased at school and stuff like that.)

Just a suggestion mind you. I just like it when I spot something that can be updated with something that's important imo. I just can't hold it, please take no offence (also I'm very polite, you'll either like it or get annoyed with it. Tell me either way xD)

I actually have to second this, since you see it all too often. Heavy armour is NOT ideal when sneaking, and no one who writes a bio about thievery should ever have their character wear it.

And while I'm ranting on about Bios, I also think one should limit oneself to a couple of paragraphs in a bio. It's much more fun to discover the details later.

Though I may have been a culprit of this myself once, (can't remember) I whole-heartedly agree.

Which of the 2? The longer bio or the Armor-character matching?

Why, both, of course.

Ah, another thing. You might want to add a section on making RPs, Illusionary. People seems to have severe problems making decent RPs. (Mwahahaha, we'll never let your fingers rest)

(Dang 90 second Flood control...)

Elgen, in all honesty, that is the hardest guide to write, and should be entirely different from a how to rp thread. Running one is rather different from rping in one, and making a good one.. such criteria is up for opinion as to what makes a good rp, and so it could be rather biased.

Of course, FC4, but putting up a couple of pitfalls to-be-avoided in the guide would be nice. Telling people the very basics of it gets rather tedious after a while.

btw, joining you in the curse of the flood control.

Nice job IN, I like. I'ma sig it. Sigged

Agreed in full, Illusionary. Noobing bothers me immensely. And being a spelling/grammar freak, that bugs me too when it is ignored.
I have a Microsoft Word style spell-check add-on [underlines words it does not recognize with a red line and gives suggestions upon right-clicking] for my Firefox browser that I abuse frequently. Gods, I love that thing. I suggest it to everyone who owns the browser.

Also, another one to add, as I tried an RP with a character that was not and it failed horridly, is that you should develop your character in and out and be able to answer almost any possible question about them without much thought before you enter them into a detailed RP. If not, posting takes forever at times as you might not know how he/she would react to a given situation, and the character may seem to vary unrealistically in personality over time. I tried this once, and it failed miserably. Never again..

Yes, but in all honesty, so is an how to RP tutorial. It's all about local preferences. People who act differently are shunned. I have learned a long time ago that a certain type of roleplay character and post are required to be able to effectively play in an RP on these forums, and totally different posts are favorable in S*T. It's all about what the reigning roleplayers preference.

This was a reply to FC4's argument on roleplay tutorials and their would be biasedness. (I love to make up words, get used to it)

Biasedness.. Love it...

But we have many types of rps here. Political, Adventure, Plot-driven, Freeform, semi-freeform... large scale war rps... In order to do a true and pure rp making guide, we would have to have each type of rp in the guide be done by those who have made good rps of that type, along with suggestions from players and other rp makers about what they feel makes that type of rp good.

If that made any sense, then great.

Besides... a guide to how to make rps would end up being followed too closely, I can see it now. A bunch of rps all the same cause they followed the guide.

I'd say this is a much more 'strict' Rping guide then what Half tooths did. I think I still have her guide in my sig, though I think you both did a grand job. A+ :foodndrink:

First off,, HAlf-Tooth is a SHE. A SHE Argente. Walk up, and stop by occasionally.

And yes.. HER rp guide was well written, but so Is Illusionary's What we ahve here is a more detailed guide.

What are you talking about, FC4? I clearly started Half-tooth as a SHE, see it says so right in my post. Psh.
And actually I think Half-tooths guide is more detailed, bbbbbuuuutttt, since Illusionary mentioned one of my delicious and most satisfying post to be an 'excellent' one, I'll take hers to be better.


Btw, is it a coincidence that the ladies of the forum are getting picky over mostly male behavior in Rp's?

Post editing.. sheesh... <_<
Hmm.. maybe its a female alliance against all men? Maybe they have some dastardly plot to overrule us all?

Or maybe its just that time of the month?

Its women, my friend. Unless they tell you themselves, though shalt never know.

This is great Illusionary, and i see a few flaws in my own work that needs ironing out a bit. speaking of women..

I dont know that this is here somewhere, but i thought id put it out to the 'guys' out there that want to play female characters (as I have been using them for a while).

As Illusionary said, your female character does not have to be one of the 'beautiful people. But more importantly, dont make your female character a 'seductress' to put it in a context that isnt crude.

Be realistic here people. It gets disturbing when people try to do these tings, as one its disrespecting women, and second of which, not alot of people want to see your character trying to bed anyone she sees. And also, dont have a female character that has no emotions, or feelings, same as what illusionary said about characters in general. We are all emotional people when bad things happen in real life, so dont make your character a stone, especially if shes a female character.

The best way to make your female character well more female, is to see how the real deal work, talk to a few of the female rpers around here to get some advice about creating them etc. It is definately a good idea to read other peoples characters to see how they work and is great research for your own characters.

Sure us guys dont know the exact goings on in a woman's mind, but if you be realistic, and keep your female character as close to being a female as possible, people will enjoy it more, and it wont be a boring read.

I can rp one alright, but the best female characters are made by the real deal . So the rule of todays lesson, is dont RP an unrealistic female character.
--

And for the record 'I am a guy', i just rp female characters, as there just isnt enough of them. I may not be the perfect Rper, as i do make mistakes at times (easily atoned for my lack of free time, and sleep), but i do know what to look out for in an Rp.

If ive missed an important aspect in my explaination about female characters, feel free to add.