Post by The Joker on May 7, 2011 20:04:27 GMT -5
(Matt was and is a good friend of mine who actually worded what I needed pretty damm well already. so, here is his words, heed them well)
let's begin shall we? I'll be covering a few things in this post, so here's a list:
- Starting a Thread
- Replying to a Thread
- Fight Threads
Starting a Thread:
Ok, so let's get started with the Starting Thread. Basically this mean YOU are the one who is setting the scene here. Not the person who replies after you. I've seen on many RPG's where the starter person has done an absolutely shitty job (... wait can I say shitty here? Ah screw it, I'm saying it anyways), and basically the replier has to set the scene in a way through their reply.
DO NOT DO THIS. It pisses people off severely. You are the one starting the thread, so you have establish the scene YOU want. I know that it can be hard sometimes to set a certain scene, but a tip I like to use is using Google Images to find a picture of what I want, and by looking at that image, I would describe it.
Bad Example: A dark city street - It was night-time in the city and the street lights were on as X walked down the street, scared.
Good Example: A dark city street - The streets were shrouded in the darkness of the nights, illuminated by the flickering rays of light which burst from the rows of street lamps. X walked nervously through this dark setting, the flickering lights putting X at an unease.
See that? While not perfect, it sets the scene and actually gives you a sense of what they character is feeling.
NUMBER ONE RULE OF RPGING: SHOW YOUR CHARACTER'S EMOTIONS!!!!!!
I cannot stress that enough. If you show exactly what your character is thinking, first of all, you're gonna write a lot. And secondly, it gives the replier something to work with, leading to more productive and exciting role play. Remember, as the starter, you set the scene, and ultimately the level of RP standard for the entire thread.
- Replying to a Thread:
So you've read someone's awesome start up, or are replying to someone's reply and have no idea what hell to write back? Well this is why you're reading this... I suppose. Ok, writing a reply isn't an easy job, especially when you're going up against someone who averages on about 1000 words or so. You'd probably look at that and go "Yeah... F**k that, I'm gonna go reply to an easier thread". If you do that, stop and think for a second.
If that person has managed a 1000 word post... what's stopping you? READ through that post and see what they have done to achieve that level and try to emulate it. If they spend about 2 paragraphs saying how their character feels, well you do the same. Your character's thoughts are the most important aspect of a thread.
Here are some techniques that will help you increase your word average and help improve your level of RP:
- Emphasize everything. The way your character's hair tussles in the wind, the way the water splashes when you cannonball into it, etc. Detailing everything is the key to long replies and quality role play. You want to describe the actions of everything your character does.
- Expand on thoughts. Show what exactly goes through a character's mind when dealing with something. Are they distracted by something? Are they focused? Are they bored? Show the reader what is on their mind and how they plan to deal with things.
You'll find that once you start doing these two things, you'll start to develop your own techniques and styles when it comes to RPing and it'll actually be easier than writing out a crappy 100 word reply.
Fight Threads:
EVERYBODY LIKES KUNG FU FIGHTING!! NA NA NA,NA, NA, NA, NAAAAAAAAA! OH yeah, fight threads! Something DUFFMAN likes to write. OH YEAH!
Mkay. You're pissed at someone, or they're pissed at you and a fight thread starts to take place. What the hell do I do here? I've never fought in a super-powered fight before? Um, it's called doing whatever the hell I told you just above with more details added. You have be UBER descriptive when comes to fight threads. The more detailed, the more better. And also other issues such as GMing, and such come into play, but that's gonna be dealt with later.
Attacking:
Mkay, so you want to attack, but not sure of how to do it. Here's a couple of examples of what NOT to do when attacking in a fight thread.
Doing a physical attack: X ran towards Y and punched him in the face and kicked him in the leg.
Doing an energy attack: X threw a fireball at Y and it hit his face.
... Um... wow. Craptastic. People gonna read that reply and raise a cyberbrow at you and go, 'Hell no, I'm out'. Those examples also showed an instance of GOD MODDING!!! which in the RPG world is bad. No one is 100% dead on target, so don't write it as though you are. Here are examples of what would be seen as proper ways to write an attack.
Doing a Physical Attack: X looked up as Y stared at him with intent eyes, the pair's focus and determination boring into one another. X frowned as he began to dash forward in a mighty sprint, running towards Y at a fantastic speed. The beads of sweat from earlier flew off his face and X raised a fist, aiming towards Y's head as he reached closer and threw his attack.
Doing an Energy Attack: X looked up as Y stared at him with intent eyes, the pair's focus and determination boring into one another. X frowned as he flexed his fingers, opening them abruptly and sparking a fireball in his hands. The flames licked at his fingertips as X raised his hand back, pulling it back over his head as though a baseball player would. He yelled with a mighty roar as he thrusted his flaming hand forward, sending the blazing ball of flame hurtling towards Y.
See that? MUCH better, you've covered a fair amount of words in that. So be descriptive and remember always show your character's emotions. That'll always make quality RP.
God Modding:
Ok, before I even begin with defense, I'm gonna go into God Modding. This is a MAJOR no no in the world of RP. GMing is basically making it so your character is untouchable in any shape or form. I speak for a lot of people when I say that GMing,
Pisses.
People.
Off.
SEVERELY!
Or PPOS for short. With that said, sometimes it is inevitable to GM when it comes to defending with a power/gadget like time manipulation, or teleportation. Those instances are fine, but even The Clockmaster gets hit from attacks. You're not indestructible, don't RP like you are.
Defending:
Mkay, so you're being attacked and you need to defend yourself. Basically the same as above applies here, only instead of always deflecting or dodging an attack, let one or two impact. You're probably saying, "Oh, but a pyromaniac is shooting fire at my hero. That will kill him/her". Um no, it won't, IF you allow attacks to impact with a small amount of damage.
Here's a Bad example of what to do:
Fireball Attack: The fireball missed Y completely as he moved to the side, dodging it.
Um... Yeah...no. Fire is hot, and it's not linear. It does tend to burn things by embers and such. So here's an example of what can be done to respond to a fire attack.
Fire Attack: The fireball shot towards Y at an amazing speed. Y barely had time to widen his eyes as he instinctively dived to the left, attempting to get as much distance as possible from the blazing ball. However while he had managed to escape the brunt of the force, his right arm felt the intense heat of the ball, as well as his sleeve catching fire from flickering embers. Y hit the ground hard, patting out the fire quickly with his left hand, wincing as his right arm had been burnt.
See that? You're alive. You're just hurt. And that's common in fights. You attack, they get hurt. They attack, you get hurt. That's the whole idea of a fight thread!
let's begin shall we? I'll be covering a few things in this post, so here's a list:
- Starting a Thread
- Replying to a Thread
- Fight Threads
Starting a Thread:
Ok, so let's get started with the Starting Thread. Basically this mean YOU are the one who is setting the scene here. Not the person who replies after you. I've seen on many RPG's where the starter person has done an absolutely shitty job (... wait can I say shitty here? Ah screw it, I'm saying it anyways), and basically the replier has to set the scene in a way through their reply.
DO NOT DO THIS. It pisses people off severely. You are the one starting the thread, so you have establish the scene YOU want. I know that it can be hard sometimes to set a certain scene, but a tip I like to use is using Google Images to find a picture of what I want, and by looking at that image, I would describe it.
Bad Example: A dark city street - It was night-time in the city and the street lights were on as X walked down the street, scared.
Good Example: A dark city street - The streets were shrouded in the darkness of the nights, illuminated by the flickering rays of light which burst from the rows of street lamps. X walked nervously through this dark setting, the flickering lights putting X at an unease.
See that? While not perfect, it sets the scene and actually gives you a sense of what they character is feeling.
NUMBER ONE RULE OF RPGING: SHOW YOUR CHARACTER'S EMOTIONS!!!!!!
I cannot stress that enough. If you show exactly what your character is thinking, first of all, you're gonna write a lot. And secondly, it gives the replier something to work with, leading to more productive and exciting role play. Remember, as the starter, you set the scene, and ultimately the level of RP standard for the entire thread.
- Replying to a Thread:
So you've read someone's awesome start up, or are replying to someone's reply and have no idea what hell to write back? Well this is why you're reading this... I suppose. Ok, writing a reply isn't an easy job, especially when you're going up against someone who averages on about 1000 words or so. You'd probably look at that and go "Yeah... F**k that, I'm gonna go reply to an easier thread". If you do that, stop and think for a second.
If that person has managed a 1000 word post... what's stopping you? READ through that post and see what they have done to achieve that level and try to emulate it. If they spend about 2 paragraphs saying how their character feels, well you do the same. Your character's thoughts are the most important aspect of a thread.
Here are some techniques that will help you increase your word average and help improve your level of RP:
- Emphasize everything. The way your character's hair tussles in the wind, the way the water splashes when you cannonball into it, etc. Detailing everything is the key to long replies and quality role play. You want to describe the actions of everything your character does.
- Expand on thoughts. Show what exactly goes through a character's mind when dealing with something. Are they distracted by something? Are they focused? Are they bored? Show the reader what is on their mind and how they plan to deal with things.
You'll find that once you start doing these two things, you'll start to develop your own techniques and styles when it comes to RPing and it'll actually be easier than writing out a crappy 100 word reply.
Fight Threads:
EVERYBODY LIKES KUNG FU FIGHTING!! NA NA NA,NA, NA, NA, NAAAAAAAAA! OH yeah, fight threads! Something DUFFMAN likes to write. OH YEAH!
Mkay. You're pissed at someone, or they're pissed at you and a fight thread starts to take place. What the hell do I do here? I've never fought in a super-powered fight before? Um, it's called doing whatever the hell I told you just above with more details added. You have be UBER descriptive when comes to fight threads. The more detailed, the more better. And also other issues such as GMing, and such come into play, but that's gonna be dealt with later.
Attacking:
Mkay, so you want to attack, but not sure of how to do it. Here's a couple of examples of what NOT to do when attacking in a fight thread.
Doing a physical attack: X ran towards Y and punched him in the face and kicked him in the leg.
Doing an energy attack: X threw a fireball at Y and it hit his face.
... Um... wow. Craptastic. People gonna read that reply and raise a cyberbrow at you and go, 'Hell no, I'm out'. Those examples also showed an instance of GOD MODDING!!! which in the RPG world is bad. No one is 100% dead on target, so don't write it as though you are. Here are examples of what would be seen as proper ways to write an attack.
Doing a Physical Attack: X looked up as Y stared at him with intent eyes, the pair's focus and determination boring into one another. X frowned as he began to dash forward in a mighty sprint, running towards Y at a fantastic speed. The beads of sweat from earlier flew off his face and X raised a fist, aiming towards Y's head as he reached closer and threw his attack.
Doing an Energy Attack: X looked up as Y stared at him with intent eyes, the pair's focus and determination boring into one another. X frowned as he flexed his fingers, opening them abruptly and sparking a fireball in his hands. The flames licked at his fingertips as X raised his hand back, pulling it back over his head as though a baseball player would. He yelled with a mighty roar as he thrusted his flaming hand forward, sending the blazing ball of flame hurtling towards Y.
See that? MUCH better, you've covered a fair amount of words in that. So be descriptive and remember always show your character's emotions. That'll always make quality RP.
God Modding:
Ok, before I even begin with defense, I'm gonna go into God Modding. This is a MAJOR no no in the world of RP. GMing is basically making it so your character is untouchable in any shape or form. I speak for a lot of people when I say that GMing,
Pisses.
People.
Off.
SEVERELY!
Or PPOS for short. With that said, sometimes it is inevitable to GM when it comes to defending with a power/gadget like time manipulation, or teleportation. Those instances are fine, but even The Clockmaster gets hit from attacks. You're not indestructible, don't RP like you are.
Defending:
Mkay, so you're being attacked and you need to defend yourself. Basically the same as above applies here, only instead of always deflecting or dodging an attack, let one or two impact. You're probably saying, "Oh, but a pyromaniac is shooting fire at my hero. That will kill him/her". Um no, it won't, IF you allow attacks to impact with a small amount of damage.
Here's a Bad example of what to do:
Fireball Attack: The fireball missed Y completely as he moved to the side, dodging it.
Um... Yeah...no. Fire is hot, and it's not linear. It does tend to burn things by embers and such. So here's an example of what can be done to respond to a fire attack.
Fire Attack: The fireball shot towards Y at an amazing speed. Y barely had time to widen his eyes as he instinctively dived to the left, attempting to get as much distance as possible from the blazing ball. However while he had managed to escape the brunt of the force, his right arm felt the intense heat of the ball, as well as his sleeve catching fire from flickering embers. Y hit the ground hard, patting out the fire quickly with his left hand, wincing as his right arm had been burnt.
See that? You're alive. You're just hurt. And that's common in fights. You attack, they get hurt. They attack, you get hurt. That's the whole idea of a fight thread!