Play-By-Post Roleplay Basics

[Lowkey (Ithy)]

Hey kids, just a quick how-to on the art of forum / play-by-post roleplaying.

PART A: HOW TO PLAY-BY-POST BASICS

Play-by-post roleplay is like writing a story with one or more people, except you're writing it one scene at a time, and only control the actions of your character and minor NPCs. For example, say Lowkey is talking to Orange and they decide that Lowkey's Yakuza and Orange's Hero are going to meet, and Orange's Hero is going to recognize the Yakuza as one of the men who killed her parents.

Lowkey starts a thread in their chosen location, eg an urban setting. She might say, in an expanded and detailed way, that Yakuza is sitting smoking on the hood of his car.

Orange replies to this thread with that Hero sees him and goes to ask for directions.

Lowkey replies that Yakuza drops his cigarette onto the map.

&c

So long as you remember that you only write what your character does, you're doing it right: you can and should expand, what do they look like, see, think, feel, smell; like you're writing their point of view in a novel. Since we have no roleplay up at the moment, here is a link to what a roleplay thread can/should look like, courtesy of Lowkey's old RPG; here she is playing the part of Cuan: Example. A friend is playing the part of Hope. Make sense?

PART B: PLAY-BY-POST RULES YOU MAY NOT KNOW

Don't Godmod! This means never, ever, control other people's characters unless you have permission to! This may seem obvious, but it gets as subtle as not assuming you character's fist makes contact when you punch somebody else's character.

Don't Powerplay! This means your character must have limitations. They are only as powerful as you have stated they are in their profile, and you have to think about how powerful that makes them in relation to other characters: your 12-year-old-girl will not be able to push off a hulking full grown man unless you have stated that she has the power of then men in her profile.

OOC=/=IC! Meaning, what you know, your character might not know. Unless it would be immediately obvious, don't give your character knowledge about other characters that they could not possibly have. For example, if Hero's profile states that they are terrified of bees, Yakuza cannot sneak a hive of bees into her house unless it is confirmed IC that he knows of this weakness.

[Lowkey (Ithy)]

Some misc notes about roleplay:

FACECLAIMS: Are optional; it's when you decide that your character looks like a canon character and you use that "claim" to represent their appearance. For example, Lowkey feels her character looks pretty close to Ukoku from Saiyuki, so claims him for her character; this makes it easier for people to imagine what a character looks like. They're totally optional but can make things easier. Illustrators are of course welcome to draw their characters.

PROFILES: Won't be accepted/declined or judged on writing; they may however get a gentle "this character may be too powerful," or "please remember that if she was as dense as a quark star the earth would implode, so..." to make it easier for people to work around your character.

WIP.

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