How to RP properly (v 1.01)

Greetings,

If you are here, you are probably wondering how to RP, or at least, looking for ways to improve your RPing skills. There are some basics that you need to know, but don't worry, we are not trying to teach you to write a book. The following set of tips and rules are designed to help you RP, or improve your RP skills, and basically survive in any RP world. By the end of it, I can guarantee you, you are now better at RPing than at least 70% of the RPer population (please don't quote me on that). Keep in mind, that nothing here is set in stone and can be subjected to changes, depending on how the site goes.

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Tips to improve your RP

• Use whichever tense you are most comfortable with. Some people prefer to make their posts in third person. Others in first person. Pick whichever that is most right to you and stick with it. Do not judge others for picking a tense that you don't like.
  
• Be as descriptive as you can. One way to improve your RP is to describe the world around your character, describe their feelings, their thought process or their actions. An example is using some of your 5 senses. If your character is standing in the middle of the forest, what will they see? What will they hear? What will they smell? Things to add include what they are thinking and how they are feeling. Don't forget to react to other characters as well.
  
• Remember to address and acknowledge interactions other characters make towards you. This means making your characters respond to actions of other characters towards you. If they spoke to you, restate that. If they placed a hand on your character's shoulder, comment on that, and maybe describe how warm it is. That way, you will indicate to the other character that you, indeed, acknowledge their actions and therefore have your attention.
  
• If you can, make your character proactive. This simply means letting your characters do some actions of their own and not just reacting to everything that is happening to them. Imagine yourself starting all the talking subjects, picking all the flowers and ingredients, but the other guy is just standing there responding to your questions with a bland 'yes' and 'okay', not doing anything that stands out in particular. Get your character to participate in discussions, do something crazy (but not too crazy) and maybe plot something.
  

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Rules of RP

• No Powerplaying. Powerplaying means controlling the actions of another person's character within your post. An example of this includes someone controlling Character A posting the following: "Character A punched Character B, breaking Character B's nose and sending him over the table, hitting his head against the floor and knocking him unconscious". Note how they are controlling both Character A and B at the same time. This is powerplaying. Unless you have permission from the other person, powerplaying another person's character is disallowed and considered null and void.
  
  A more appropriate post of the above would be something like: "Character A attempts to punch Character B's nose. If the punch lands true, it may shatter his nose, the force sending him over the table."
  
• No metaplaying. Metaplaying is giving your character knowledge that they shouldnt have in the first place. This includes secrets that are meant to be known only to one character, or just randomly knowing what a character's weaknesses are when your and their characters haven't met previously. There is no real way of counteracting this, but make sure you RP your characters more realistically and consider what they know and don't know.
  
• No Godmodding. Godmodding is making your character invincible and suddenly eliminating any weaknesses they have, or manipulating other NPCs to be stupidly incompetent that they decided not to check the suspiciously looking bush in the middle of nowhere where your character is hiding. This also includes dodging attacks without describing how the dodging is done; just state "Character A dodged" or something akin to that. Another example is forgetting that your character is weak to fire and make him tank a fireball, or describing your attack to be far more powerful than what is stated in the app or what is realistically possible. The only way to avoid this is to imagine yourself in your character's situation and how will they respond realistically. If you are controlling an NPC, you will also need to put yourself in their position and think what would be the most logical thing for them to do. An NPC guard would be very observant and vigilant, especially if they are guarding a VIP, and will dare not to overlook anything as their 'imagination' if a shadow suddenly zoomed by their spotlight.
  
  Keep in mind, no one is perfect, and that includes your characters. Acknowledge what is in their apps and act on it appropriately. It makes no sense that a character who acts on impulse will suddenly stop and think critically like a tactician and search for weakspots, while ignoring his enemy's taunts.
  

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UPDATES

[v 1.01]

• Many uncommon rules are moved to Unspoken Rules.
  

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If you have any questions, feel free to PM any of us staff members or drop us a message on the chatbox if any one of us has logged in.

Good luck and have fun!