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Style
As stated in our board rules, the correct format for posting in character (for most of the board) is past-tense and in third person.
E.G.:
| QUOTE | | "What about this one?" Quinn pulled a plaid sport coat from the pile. She felt it was the most atrocious article of clothing in creation and seriously wondered if a textile machine had blown up while producing the fantastically hideous thing. The colour combination was most unique: goldenrod yellow; teal; snot green; fuchsia; and orange made up the stripes of the pattern. "You could be a Scottish mobster who moonlights as a clown." |
Representational TextThoughts are always italicised. They are not 'italicised plus', super italicised, or "lol wut italicised," just italicised. Speaking, when your character is the one talking, is always represented by "quotation marks." Always. 'This won't do.' "This will." Quoting requires "italics and quotation marks." If a character says something to your character, your character overhears something, or even if your character is reading something and going over a phrase, italics and quotations (together!) are the way to go. Don't repeat EVERYTHING another character says. Only repeat if you absolutely need to do so for the sake of clarification. OOC is the signal that a person is going to talk out of character. This is commonly represent in the following ways:
- [OOC]text[/OOC]
- [[OOC]]
- ((OOC))
There are other ways to represent this, just make sure they are clear. Furthermore, please avoid randomly add OOC notes in a post. Place your OOC text either at the bottom or the top. Don't... Needlessly alter text with colours, fonts, and sizes UNLESS you are in a forum where permission for such extravagance has been given. Nobody cares what your telepathic cheetah is telling you, so nobody wants to hear Fluffy's thoughts by reading blue (in order to differentiate his thoughts from yours). Um, also... don't read a pet cheetah's mind. Or have a pet cheetah. MetagamingWhen a player brings information obtained OOC into the IC realm. Other characters can't actually know what the character is thinking, even when their creator knows what the other character is thinking. For instance, the character, Sally Johnson, could know that Martha looks impatient and that she's sighing while looking over at a boy, but she couldn't know the details of Martha's mind - so she couldn't say, "Yeah, Martha... you should definitely send him that weird fruity drink you like," which is called metagaming. However, Sally Johnson's creator knows what's going on and could choose to have her character pry into Martha's situation or ignore it. God-ModingGod-Moding occurs when a player dictates the actions of others without prior permission from the player. Sometimes it's difficult to avoid god-moding. At other times it is easy to avoid god-moding -- if you pay attention. .Just remember: you can't say what the intellectual property of somebody else does. E.G.: | QUOTE | | Gracie shouted a strange string of words at her opponent. The Spanish words were his only warning. Quite suddenly to him, Bob's legs began to shake. He cried out, only further spurring her to repeat the words rapidly in order to make his legs more achingly fast. Again he called for her to desist. Gracie laughed as she ruthlessly denied his request and watched the large, salty crocodile tears roll down his fat cheeks. |
One quickly sees how annoying god-moding can be. However, it's not always as obvious to spot. Something as subtle as assuming that a particular character did something, and having your character act as though that character had, can be god-moding. For instance, if your character and another character are out in the greenhouse potting flowers, you can't just assume that the character is removing some dirt from the centre of the pot.
Take a Breath!
This is a sub-topic of god-moding, because talking too much and adding in spaces during speaking where those spaces do not exist can be god-moding.
When you first start RPing sometimes it can be difficult to fill space. Generally the natural reaction to that speed bump is to put in insanely long portions of what should be dialogue. When your post is nothing but dialogue, it turns into a monologue. Lots of speaking makes responding for the other member very difficult, simply because there's so much to reply to! Additionally, it makes for awkward transitions because new things are addressed along with old things and these exchanges increase and grow more divided as the post goes on. In this theme, you also need to be careful about adding in long, silent pauses. Not every character your character interacts with is the quiet sort, thus it is likely that character will have something to say during your god-moded awkward silence.
Power Playing
In short, Power Playing is making your character too powerful. A character who is the best wizard/witch/magician in the whole wide word, can control the elements, and knows all there is to know about being magical shouldn't be here. In this spirit, your character should not have a history filled with magical feats, unless perhaps your character is 96 years old and past his or her physical prime. Reading about that fantastic magical prowess of 7 year-olds is not something the majority of board members care to do.
Mary Sueing and Mary Sue
Mary-Sueing (or Gary-Stuing, if you're a guy -- lawl dichotomy) is about one of the most annoying things a person can do. Simply, Mary-Sueing is when your character is perfect, often a reflection of the author's desire to be perfect. Mary Sues are typically extensions or alternate universe versions of their authors. However, characters based on an author aren't necessarily Mary Sues -- some people can admit they have faults and play those faults out.
BLATANT MARY SUE EXAMPLE:
A character who is perfect: beautiful, very intelligent, athletic, ALWAYS nice unless you attack somebody she/he loves, always smiling, and generally they describe their eyes as *fill in jewel or natural wonder (ocean, glade, etc)* coloured and their hair as *insert 6 different syllables including, but not limited to: sleek, shiny, long (as in past their waist), soft, swirly, food description, rare mineral/gem description, and bouncy*. OF course, then they have angst over their perfection. In addition to the prior offences, Mary Sues/Gary Stus, are often both shy and bold, chatty and brooding, disliking 'girly' stuff and piling on make-up, and any other number of contradictory descriptions.
When a character has no flaws, a character isn't interesting. Don't be afraid to let your character have some fault - it's human, after all. If your character is beautiful, always correct and otherwise ultra-smart, and emotionally sound... your character is boring. Give your character some conflict to help her or him grow. Furthermore, your character should never ALWAYS be right, even if s/he believes s/he is always right.
Character Development and Sensitive Issues
Be sure to give your character a history. However, if you're going to add something taboo to their history, make sure you actually know about it. For instance, It can get just plain offensive if a person that has no clue about child abuse starts to write about how their character suffered constant abuse as a child and then translates their reaction to years of abuse to their present character in an unrealistic way. If you're going to have some traumatic past for your character (which would result in emotional problems...), make sure that you've at least researched the effects of that past.
If for some odd reason you choose to post and completely disregard the guidelines, you will be put on moderator queue until you start to show improvement. Should you continue to disregard our RPing guidelines after multiple attempts to correct the action, your account may be suspended or banned.
No portion of this piece of writing may be used without my consent.
© Liz, 2005-2009
All rights reserved
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Roleplaying Guide
