As said in the title, Roleplaying is an art aswell as a skill. When a RP story has been completed it can be really cool, and it can be fun to make. RPing is not that much different than writing a story book. Each RP has the same elements of a story(AKA a narrative). Also remember, your RP should be kept serious for the most part. Now to begin the lesson.
1. Plot : The sequence of events in a story
Exposition - Writing that provides information about:
a) Setting
b) Some main charaters
c) Hint at conflict
Complication - Single event that begins the rising action
Rising Action - Events that lead up to the Climax
Climax - (AKA Turning Point/Crisis) Crucial moment when the hero's fate hangs in the balance
Falling Action - All events that follow the turning point
Resolutin - Outcome of the conflict (the end)
2. Conflict : A struggle between two opposing forces (Normally Protaganist vs. Antagonist)
Internal Conflict - Struggle within the Character's mind.
There is only one type of Internal Conflict : Man vs. Self
External Conflict - Struggle between a character and an outside force
There are 4 types of External Conflict:
a)Man vs. Man
b)Man vs. Nature
c)Man vs. Society/Group
d)Man vs. Technology/Machine
*Note : Type D won't appear much here... save maybe with Gnimish*
Protagonist - Main character, normally the "Good Guy"
Antagonist - Character who opposes protagonist
3. Suspense : Quality that makes readers eager to know what happens next (to build interest).
4. Foreshadowing : The planting of clues that hint at what events will come later in the story.
5. Setting : Time and Place in which a narrative is set. The setting contains:
a)Time
b)Place
c)Mood
*Mood - Feeling, or atmosphere, created in a narrative.
6. Irony - Irony comes in three types:
a) Verbal Irony : A discrepency between what is stated and what is meant.
IE : "It's perfect fairness was obvious" (Referring to a Corrupted Court)
b)Irony of a Situation : A contrast between what is expected and what really happens.
IE : A soldier catches an enemy scout off guard getting water, and spares him. Later on that soldier is killed by the very same scout.
c)Dramatic Irony : When ready knows something the character doesn't.
IE: There was a tiger behind the right door, and the correct passage was behind the left door. The hero decided to take his chances with the right door.
7. Characterization - Personality a character displays also the means by which the auther displays that personality
Indirect Characterization - The author allows the reader to discover what the character is like through:
a)The character's own actions and words
b)Through the character's thoughts
c)What other characters say about that character
Direct Characterization - When the author tells the reader directly what the character is like.
8. Types of Characters - There are two sets of characteristics for characters in stories. I call them "Shape" and "Dimension". A character can not be both parts of a set, but each character is one from each set.
The "Shape" set consists of:
a) Static - A character who remains the same through the whole story. Keeps his views on something/everything.
b) Round - A character who undergoes a large change through the story. Changes his views on something/everything.
The "Dimension" set consists of:
a) Flat - Character who has one side to its personality
b) Round - Character that has many sides or dimensions to its personality
9. Theme - Main idea in a work of literature.
10. Allusion - Reference to history, myth, music, figure from the bible, or any other work of literature.
11. Symbol - Something that has meaning in itself while at the same time represents something larger.
12. Point of View - (P.O.V. for short)The vantage point from which a story is told. There are three types of P.O.V.s used for story telling:
a)1st Person P.O.V. - When the narrator is one of the characters. Uses words like "I" and "We".
b)Third Person Limited - Outside narrator; can see into the heart and mind of one character
c)Omnicient - "All Knowing" narrator. ('omni' = all, 'scient' = knowledge); Outside narrator - can see into the heart and mind of all characters
__________________
"You will too eventually be part of my collection"
There are four simple ways to lengthen your post, all of which are simple.
1. Banter
Lots of talking does lengthen a post, especially if you put spaces between phrases like so:
I probably wrote:
"Hello good sir," said Sacrial
"Hello ... elf," said the gaurd.
2. Physical Description
Physical descriptions of your newly entering character, new rooms, and newly entering NPCs help to lengthen a post if it is long enough. You can go through great lengths of description. Like this post fragment I have here.
"All around the room, weapons were hung on the walls and laid into crates on display. There was a counter near the center of the room, and behind it stood a heavyset human eating a piece of bread like an animal. Upon the arrival of the three heros, he stopped eating and swallowed all that was in his mouth."
3. Inner Thoughts
You are not omniscient, however, you do control each and every action and thought of your character (obviously). Somethings you want people to know what you are plotting for the thread ahead, or, if you have a personal opinion of someone, you can show your true feelings, good or bad, without the person knowing. This is a good example inner feelings being held back (relating to the physical description above).
"What a pig this human is! Uhg. Just looking at his face covered in crums and some spittle makes me uneasy. Of all the blacksmiths in this land, I had to run into this one. Oh well, best not seem discrimanent, thought the elf."
4. Vocabulary
By using a more advanced vocabulary (and hopefully spelling it right), you can lengthen your post further (and hopefully look smarter).
For example, saying that the mans manerisms were extremely odd, even for a gnome, you could say he was an eccentric gnome with grotesque mannerisms.
__________________
"You will too eventually be part of my collection"
Roleplaying is an active suspension of reality. It is using your imagination to create an alter ego, and to interact with others under with the same suspended view. It is an act of imagination, allowing you to visit new worlds, experience new things, and best of all, to be any kind of person you want to be.
Roleplaying takes many forms, and there are many genre's that exist. Shadowlands has a roughly medievel theme, taking place in a society where magic is a prevailing force, and technology is no where to be seen. The people dash around to and from adventures, wearing swords or carrying wands, rather than dashing to their job carrying a briefcase. In this world, even the Gods have their antagonism's, the good battling the evil for their own goals.
Roleplaying is entering a different world, and allowing your imagination to become enmeshed with your surroundings. It is a great way to take a simple hack and slash to a new level, where you are a mighty hero, or a dastardly villain. You can be a sneaking rogue, a valorous knight, a powerful wizard... Whatever your imagination is capable of.
Where Do I Start?
Playing the game is not enough. Characters need depth if you intend to roleplay them. They need a history, goals, passions, hatreds... Simply put, they need a reason for their existence that has nothing to do with "playing a game."
This is not a matter of running around thee'ing and thou'ing someone, which quite frankly has nothing to do with Shadowlands. All the other people in the realm speak without the flowery language, and only Bard's speak in High Cant anymore, except in formal situations of course.
So where do you start? You start with a text editor and you make an outline of what your character is all about. These initial notes will eventually become your characters biography.
Writing a Biography
Biographies are written any number of ways, and I am not writing you this to tell you exactly how you should do it. But, there are guidelines and a few rules to keep it in character and in theme with what is going on around you.
Start Simple
What does your character look like? If you picked an ugly half-ogre, then describe your character as one, not as some dashing young knight in arms. Trolls are ugly, nasty brutes who like to eat gnomes and halflings and anything else that will fit into a cookpot.
A characters looks should depend heavily on their race. Elves are the most beautiful physically, followed closely by half-elves and humans. Gnomes are short and halflings have hairy feet. Drow have dark skin and are inherently evil. Know what kind of features each race has. The racial descriptions can provide alot of this sort of information for you.
Don't forget other matters of physicality... Well muscled, slim, extremely short, tall for their race, overweight, shapely... All of these are good places to start. However, this is fantasy. Your elven Princesess may be extremely beautiful even for there race. Just be sure that you work their looks into a believeable form. Then move on to step two.
Life Before Now
Characters need history for depth. So figure out where your character came from. This can be as varied as you want. It can be simple or complex. Who were your parents? Your character may have grown up on a farm, and always wanted to explore beyond his fathers fields. Or you grew up an orphan in Tel Mivar, and soon took up with a pack of street urchins who pickpoketed for their meals. The variety is there, you need only seize onto an idea that appeals to you. Did you grow up in a palace? In a hut? Were you a slave to the drow, or are you a simple person brought up by shopkeeper parents?
What this kind of information does, is it begins to display the characters personality, and shows a bit of how they got the way they are now. This gives you something you can tell people later, when you meet them. It can explain how you grew to have a great dislike of the Wintermist guards, or why you are so attracted to troll women. You needn't write a 1000 page memoir of your experience, but touch on highlights and major events that may have shaped you.
Training and Adventuring
So, somewhere back in the days of your youth you decided to follow the occupational path you are on now. What caused it, where did you begin training? Who was your mentor? These are all questions to be answered. Your profession is what your life has become. Did you have a religious vision that convinced you to become a cleric? Were you tired of being beaten up by your older brother, so you bulked up and became a warrior? Answer this and you enlarge the vision of your character, allowing you to move easily to the next step..
Purpose and goals
Here is a big one. This involves the here and now of your characters life. What are you living for? What do you hope to accomplish with your characters life? Are you on a mission to abolish evil? Are you there to heal? Do you hope to have your name sung across the world? Why, why, why?
Putting it All Together
After these things are set in your mind, you can put the whole thing together into something that resembles a story. This story should give you all the background information you need to roleplay your character.
Questions to help developing a Bio
1. What is your name?
2. What is your race?
3. How tall are you?
4. How old are you?
5. What color hair and eyes?
6. Where were you born?
7. Who were your parents?
8. How did you spend your childhood?
9. What major events marked your life?
10. WHo played parts as inspiration?
11. Why did you choose your profession?
12. What are your goals?
13. How will your profession help you reach your goals?
14. Where do you see your characters future heading?
15. What motivation keeps you going?
Know Your Background
Now that your bio is there, use it. When you log on, simply step into that personal. Be that character you created. However, don't ignore the larger picture... Everyone else walking around has a story all their own, and you are all living in a pre-existing world where large conflicts are a part of daily life.
__________________
"You will too eventually be part of my collection"
I know i should have asked for permission first, but i posted this anyway, for people that is intrested in learning how to RP in a great way. This was givven to me by a friend, and i recomend you read it trough, even if you think you know how to RP. I have learned alot by only reading some of this. You should atleast read abit of it, and you will probably realise this all make alot of sense.
Ushgarak. Please dont be mad at me, just thought this was a good thing to post
__________________
"You will too eventually be part of my collection"
lol what are you some sort of English major? But in all seriousness this is some good stuff. Some people really don't know how to RP, they don't realize its a form of story-telling. This would be good for all RPers to read, newbies and experienced RPers.
__________________ Thanks to Pittman for the sig
"I don't care if I fall, as long as someone picks up my gun and keeps on shooting." -Ernesto Guevara.
Really, I'm very worried for RPing in KMC. Unhosted has been receiving alot of Bullshit RPing by Newcomers only last year. At least there were a couple decent ones but most of them never came back as the other N00bs stay to crap all over the Hosted and unhosted. I think this thread should be Stickied.
__________________ (MEMBER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
The more you question it, the less you will understand.
It's amazing how many n00bs bombarded the Unhosted section over the last year. They just came in such force that they were overwhelming to almost everyone including experienced role players that have been here and know what's what. Just the thought of some of those role players makes me want to leave KMC right now but lucky for me most, if not all of them, have left.
Well I just want to say on the behalf of the good noob RPers that some of us are really good. The Big EH and me to name a few. (I can't remember the other names. I've rp'd with them b ut can't remember their names. Oops. Sorry.)
__________________ Still looking for that sig....
In the mean time, I never DID see that anime where I unintentionally got my name from. Is it any good
Perhaps, instead of a guideline, we should offer a school? A type of "learning atmosphere" if you will. By organizing willing, experienced RPers and ready-to-learn newcomers I think it should all go over well. We won't have tests or anything but it's just to help with detail, profile-making... Anything really.