On Roleplaying

 *this card kindly prepared by Winter Eldrich. Thanks for letting us use it, Winter *

Roleplaying.

To play and portray a role.

Sometimes described as "Acting without a script"

But how to do it in a good way?

Use poseballs for everything?

Write a dozen lines of text?

There is a lot of variations on Roleplaying.

This text is a try to describe one of them that I preffer to use.

It's split up in a few parts each detailing an aspect of it.

Don't decide it all.

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First of all Roleplaying is about having fun.

One thing that isn't oo fun is when one person tries to decide everything.

Make sure to let the other roleplayers decide on actions involving their character.

Lets see an example...

Example one. The bad way.

Steve Stevenson draws his shotgun aiming it at Amys head and pulls the trigger splattering her brains all over the wall.

Well in this example Amy dies. She doesnt have much of an option does she?

Lets see the same but giving Amy the options of deciding the outcome?

Example two. The good way.

Steve Stevenson draws his shotgun aims it at Amy pulling the trigger hoping he'll hit her in the head.

Amy swallows hard as she sees the gun and quickly runs for the door but as she takes her first step the shot is sound and she feels a sharp pain as the shot hits her shoulder as she falls to the floor fainting from the pain.

This way Amy gets to decide what happens.

She agrees to being shot but not killed and she even fains giving Steve the advantage of having her out of the way without needing to kill her.

The Roleplay can go on with noone having to sacrifice their character for good.

Also It might be a good idea asking the other person in IM's about if something is ok before doing it.

Please speak slowly.

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Often you decide to add both speech and actions to what you do in Roleplay.

But how would the others know when they can do something without interrupting.

When you RP it's nice to simply take one line each when things are going on.

After all if you do everything in different posts it gets cluttered up very quickly with normal posts and /me posts

Steve looks down at Amy

You shouldn't have laughed at me girl.

Steve inhales on his cigarette

This will teach you and everyone else not to mess with me

Steve spits on Amys unconcious body before heading for the door.

Now What if someone else would want to do something there?

How would they know when Steve was done?

To avoid it simply write it all in one post.

If you need to speak in an action or /med post just add " around the speech.

If you need to make an action in a speech just add * around the action.

Steve looks down at Amy "You shouldn't have laughed at me girl." he inhales on his cigarette. "This will twach you and everyone else not to mess with me." He spits at Amys uncouncious body before heading for the door intending to leave.

One line and quite simple at that.

Long posts

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What if you can't fit what you want to do on one line?

Second life has limits in how long you can type.

Well then simply add ... or >>> to the end of the line beginning a new with ... or >>> to let others know you're not finished.

It's a really simple way to let others know and it makes it much easier.

Out Of Character

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Sometimes people doesnt Roleplay.

If others are roleplaying it's decent to take OOC or Out Of Character speech somewhere else or in Instant Messages.

Personally I usually keep everything in IM as OOC speech.

If not IM is needed for other reasons.

Steve leans into Amy whispering something in her ear.

IM: What I say to you is "Remain very still and act like we're in love or I will blow this place apart and you know me better than to know I'm not kidding."

If several is standing around just talking OOC then it's of course free to talk as normal just discussing.

Just remember to inform everyone that shows up that you're not IC, In Character, at the moment so confusion isn't made.

This is not the only way to do it of course, but it is a tried and true method.

There is one thing tho.

Before you play make sure you all follow the same way to RP

Avoiding confusions at the beginning saves a lot of time clearing up misunderstandings.

And in the end don't take it too seriously.

It's mean to be fun after all.