Minecraft Forums

We all love to write. Or as I would assume since this is more-or-less a sub-branch of a greater tree dedicated to writing in a creative aspect. And maybe many of us would like to improve? Well, how do we improve, since we're all hopefully on this quest?

If you do seek personal improvement, if only for the satisfaction of doing good, and to produce something to be proud of, or more proud of than you were before: brilliant! I like to think this is an adventure we are all on. But to do so, we must all commune and pool our wisdom, for there is much we have learned and would be eager to pass on, and for all of us: there must be new wisdom and information we crave.

Something I should emphasize when using this guide is that I do not necessarily intend to be a resource to learn how to role-play. If it comes down to it though, and a clean article is written and submitted by someone that covers basic Role Play terminology and "proper etiquette" in Role Playing I will add it. But for the larger part, this guide will be skipping the basic information and going into the intermediary and advanced concepts: how to write thought filled long posts, how to create a workable character, establish a setting, plot mechanics, the resources at YOUR disposal. This thread will serve as a fluid and evolving compendium of literate knowledge written and organized for the benefit of you the viewer, all the viewers.

At this note, it will be good to take note that I intend this thread to be meaty. It will be based on articles that not only I have written, but others have as well. So it will be useful to note that when viewing this thread that it will be organized with this in mind. Posts will designate topical sections, the first posts in these sections containing the base, fundamental articles for that field. The following post will compile articles designating advanced - perhaps more subjective - fields on that topic, or just miscellaneous articles more relevant to that area. These proceeding posts will also serve as a storage ground for "best of" articles to be rotated about, as well as a list linking to the location of each not-directly featured article.

By this virtue, the content of the thread will be flexible with given discussion on each topic. It is thus important to say that just because an article has a spot in the sun that it should NOT be discussed, but throughout the thread when new viewpoints arise or that when the topic is raised that the article be discussed, so we may all be consistent and concrete with our interpretation of the fundamentals.

For though even I feel that I am a skillful writer I am not professional, I have not educated myself to advanced fiction; I am merely a college student studying digital graphics, this is my hobby. It is the same for the lot of us I believe, and many people I've RP'd with are not pursuing writing in a professional respect. But does this mean we need to strive for sub-par writing? Well, it depends on the person. And if you are a person who strives for literary awareness and writing skill, able to sweep your writing across the blank page to create a painting of esteemed beauty and respect I invite you: do read, do participate. Now is your time.

As it's been said many thousands of times to the point of a cliche: knowledge is power.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Post 2: ]MECHANICS AND ADVANCED POSTING
- Post 3: MECHANICS AND ADVANCED POSTING ROTATING EDITORIAL - OTHER CONSIDERABLE ARTICLES
- POST 4: CHARACTER CREATION
- POST 5: CHARACTER CREATION ROTATING EDITORIAL - OTHER CONSIDERABLE ARTICLES
- POST 6: YOUR TOOLS
- POST 7: YOUR TOOLS ROTATING EDITORIAL - OTHER CONSIDERABLE ARTICLES

MECHANICS AND ADVANCED POSTING

MECHANICS AND ADVANCED POSTING
-VilageidiotX

First things first, you need to learn how to write longer posts. Why? Because this isn't interesting...

"Jim-Bob built a house."

This single statement amounts to very little. It fails to invoke images in the mind of the reader. Your goal is to put an image in the reader's mind, so a simple 1st grade subject+verb sentence will not do.

So let's flesh out that sentence.

First things first, you need to have an image of what you are writing about. Considering that "Build." and "House" are abstract concepts within themselves, I am certain that you have a much more specific image in your mind's eye. To demonstrate this, let us start with the word "House"

There are an endless amount of possibilities when it comes to what a house is. Does it have on story? Does it have two or more? Does it have shutters? What color is it? Is the ceiling covered in shingles made from the scalps of the innocent? We cannot know any of this if you just give us the word "house".

The first weapon in your arsenal is the adjective. "Jim-bob built a tall house." This is a start, but it is still nothing. How tall is tall? Presumably more then one story, but that is all we know. It could look like a pagoda. It could look like two ranch houses stacked on top of each other. We need more.

As your description grows, it can very well become too unwieldy for a single sentence. "Jim-Bob built a tall, pink, windowed, classical looking, shuttered cottage with chimney that was brick, red, cute, and taller then the house."

That is a lot. It is okay to break the description into multiple sentences. In fact, it is recommended. It sounds better if you structure it like this: "Jim-Bob built a cottage. It's tall, pink frame was dotted with a multitude of four-paned windows. Cheerful shutters flanked each window and gave it a classical feel. An adorable red brick chimney rose from it's side."

Nouns are not the only thing that can be dressed up. The verb in the sentence, "built", can also be expanded upon. After all, there are a lot of things that go into the process. It might be best to describe how Jim-Bob went about constructing the cottage.

"Drenched in his own sweat, Jim-Bob labored tirelessly as he constructed the cottage. Care went into each hammer fall as he drove the finishing nails into the structure."

This is an improvement over "Jim-Bob built." If you add this all together, you get...

"Drenched in his own sweat, Jim-Bob labored tirelessly as he constructed the cottage. Care went into each hammer fall as he drove the finishing nails into the structure. It's tall, pink frame was dotted with a multitude of four-paned windows. Cheerful shutters flanked each window and gave it a classical feel. An adorable red brick chimney rose from it's side."

With a few easy changes, we just turned a four word sentence into a simple 60 word paragraph. The rest of this section will elaborate on this process. As you begin to use these tactics, you will see your wordcount rise signifigantly. Someone who has mastered this method of writing will effortless reach 400 words in most of their posts. Suddenly, high posts counts that were intimidating in the past will become reachable.

Before we get into that though, let us cover some general formatting rules.


Why Third Person/Past Tense is King
-VilageidiotX

Perspective is an important part of formulating a post. You need it to know what pronouns will be needed. Strictly speaking, there is no literary rules governing which perspective to use. A talented writer can easily turn first person into a superb mode of storytelling.

Before we go on, let's define what this means.

THIRD PERSON: He/she/they. Nobody is you, and nobody is I. The narrator is telling us about another group of people. This does not necessarily mean the narrator is discussing the characters as an observer watching from outside the action. Third person can allow the narrator to explain what is going on in the characters. "A rogue pinball struck John. He felt angry and his forehead hurt." is an example of this.

SECOND PERSON: You. This is somewhat rare, and is typically left to traditional text RPG's. Essentially, the narrator is dictating to you what you are doing. "You come across a grove filled with buxom young nymphs. You giggle with delight." I have never seen a forum RP like this to be honest.

FIRST PERSON: I/Me. This is common in Rp's, and it is not unheard of in literature. Essentially, the RPer is describing the character as if it were them. Often this is also done in present tense based on the assumption that they are their character and they are explaining what they are doing in the moment. "I find an apple. The apple has a worm. I eat the apple."

First person does not translate well past the casual RP. For most amateur writers, the formats most associated with third person/past tense tends to be the norm. It is common for people to get used to first person/present tense while doing RPs and try to apply it in intermediate or hardcore. You probably shouldn't do that.

There are several reasons why. Firstly, you usually are juggling more NPC's when writing larger posts. This leaves one "I" in every post. This gets more complex when you consider that the entire RP is being read together by the other players. Which means we have multiple first person narrators. This is not necessarily comfortable to read. It is easier to when everybody is a he or a they. It is also cleaner.

The other issue that comes up is that most of us will need to rely on knowledge outside of a single characters awareness. This makes first person difficult, since first person typically works on the assumption that we are reading the experiences of the character alone. For example.

"I swing a hatchet at the tree. From above, the forest seems to stretch on forever. I cannot see that because I am down here, swinging a hatchet at this tree."

Note that these aren't rules. There is nothing that says that writing in first person is bad. It's just not as easy to pull off. For amateurs like us, third person past tense is best.


Descriptive Language
- AaronMk

A big part of any writing is to describe things. In formal essay writing: to describe the topic and the position of the paper. In informal, entertainment work: to describe the setting, emotions, and actions of the world around you. Description is an important aspect on any front, and is a factor in the message being conveyed to the reader as you - the writer - intended. And description really isn't all that difficult.

As raised earlier: single-sentence posts that only note an action are hardly very descriptive. Sure, in a very basic, primitive way it is descriptive of the action and who is doing it. But that's only because a gramatically correct sentence DEMANDS that. But for it to be an admirable sentence - or even a full paragraph - you will need more.

The first thing one must do to paint his or her portrait of the physical and emotional landscape is to first imagine the situation in his or her mind. If Jimmy is chopping wood: how does the axe feel in his hand? Is it aged? Perhaps its new? The age of the tool has an immense tactile difference and could help add more color to a picture that's a simple sketch, if anything.

Moving beyond that: what's the weather like? Is it warm? Cloudy? Perhaps there's a nip in the air? Is Jimmy cutting wood because it's getting cold and he needs camp-fire wood, or fuel for his hearth?

Beyond this: what's his local environment like? Is it wooded? Is it lightly wooded? Hilly? Mountains? An open prarie? Ansewering any of these questions can lend a lot of support for the post and further the depth. Perhaps give subconcious hints as to his life-style based on location, and the entire area around him (campsite or cabin?).

But even with these questions posed: it's still a sketch with shallow emotion, little value. And really, you can only really write this robotically. But, how do we add color?

Be delving deeper into this.

As an artist, I'm familiar with the interaction of values and colors in a piece. Words to me act in the same way. Metaphors and similies mixing together to make a rough pencil sketch a vibrant painting. Exploring the minute details and exploring the vast spaces.

The axe is no longer "old". It is now "A rugid instrument, whose weathered bones lay bare to the cold alpine air. The drying fibers earthly brown, as if dragged from the mud of the forests and given teeth."

And it could be explored for each important concept. And does not need to be long and dramatic. It could simplified, but stil l drawn beyond, "Jimmy cut wood with his old axe in the cold forest." But you will need to find out how to steer your imagination in that direction. There are infinate ways to do anything. In writing - even for RPs - the entire piece is your sandbox to build; it just so happens that RPs are more cooperative.

If you struggle with description it may be a good idea to try and experience these environments if you're turely struggling. Walk in the woods and pay attention to the sights, sounds, smells, and feel the forest under your hands or your feet. Take note of things, and if you want: write down some metaphors you can think of to describe the forest, or to draw some from the forest for use in other settings.

Failing that, there are always images to look at. Look at the details of photos, or even other's writing and try to put yourself in there and draw the environment for yourself. Try to imagine and feel it. Can you draw it? Give it the colors needed?

And another things you should come to know is that word I've used a few times already: metaphor. What is a metaphor? A metaphor is a descriptive tool used to "assert a comparison" between something, and a unrelated object. To quote Shakespeare's famous metaphor:

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances"

Similarly, a similie is a metaphor. But at the change of using words or phrases such as: like, same as, similar to, etc. A similie is statement with these expressions, where metaphors are flowed into. And it's been said that if a similie describes a thing physicially as it is, a metaphor describes something emotionally. But both will play large roles in helping to add detail to the detail.


Action Pacing
- VilageidiotX

It is important that you pace out your actions. Jarring moves, or alternatively no movement at all, will make your storylines difficult to understand. It is also important within a post. You want the actions that take place to flow comfortably so the reader understands what is going on.

This does not mean you need to follow a perfect listing of events. This isn't "24". We don't need to know every pop tart your character eats. So long as a reasonable flow of time is observed within your post, you should be fine.

A good way to visualize this is as a scene. Each post is like a scene from a movie. Some actions, like walking a long distance, can be skimmed over. However, If you try to jump awkwardly through long stretches of time, you will only confuse the audience.

The space between posts should also be spaced out reasonably within time. Remember that you are rping with other people, and your times will need to sync.

One way of syncing multiple posts is for the roleplay to have a time span listed for each page. Perhaps each page is a day, or ten pages is a month. This comes with some advantages, and some disadvantages. The main advantage is that this method gives a solid metric for measuring time and controlling where posts are in the storyline. The main disadvantage is that it tends to slow down the RP, and it can stall the progress of storylines. An RP GM will have to decide whether or not this is a good idea.

Within posts, pacing should follow toward a clear conclusion. Think about what you want to achieve. Is your character going to the dentist? The post should declare what is happening (unless you are attempting to deceive the reader). Your character wakes up and thinks about going to the dentist. There should be some time to include any other things you want to accomplish (Perhaps you want to point out your character is afraid of the dentist. Make sure this is explained. Perhaps you want to point out that they are out of cereal, or that a new building is going up. Whatever details you need to include should be included comfortably).

Naturally, the trip to the dentist will end somewhere. It could be when they are going out the door. You don't necessarily have to write about the experience. It could be when they enter the waiting room. Or you can include the entire root canal. It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish.



PLOTS AND THEIR MECHANICS
-VilageIdiotX

“The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself”
~William Faulkner

Above all things, your plots should be about characters. Nobody cares about nameless nations or technical specs. These characters can be anything so long as they have a personality that we can understand and make human in our minds. Pixar has done this with inanimate objects before. If you are clever, you can give a motionless rock a personality.

Before we talk about how to do plots in roleplays, I will introduce you to one of the simplest formula's used: The Three Act Structure.

Now, you will probably not use the three act structure for roleplay writing. It exists as a formula to help screenwriters condense the art of storytelling in two hours. Most writing will be larger as far as plots are concerned. The point of learning this structure is this: It helps you learn what you should set out to accomplish and where you should do it. It also gives you a very simple idea of what a plot is.

With that in mind, the three plot structure is this...

Act 1: The Set Up

First things first, you need to know the basics of the world you have been dropped into. Some movies will do this through character exposition. Others, like Star Wars, do this via an intro that just straight out tells you what is happening.



This isn't always necessarily important. Some stories are better slowly revealed. Secrets can be useful.

Next, you are introduced to the characters. This is Darth Vader, he is evil. You know this because he is part of the faceless enemy who is shooting at the heroic rebels. You also know this because he chokes a man to death right at the start. This is Princess Leia. She is good. You know this because she is the opponent of Vader, and she has done what she can to resist the evil. Here is robots, they are funny. Here is Luke. You get the point.

Once we know the characters, we reach an event that sets our heroes in motion. In Star Wars, this is the events between R2 running away and our heroes aunt and uncle becoming toasted.

Now we know who we have, the plot is in motion. More exposition happens, more characters are met, and we reach the end of Act 1. The first act ends on a major plot point, where the plot turns in a new direction. In Star Wars, this would being caught by the death star. Now we are ready for Act 2

Act 2: The Confrontation

Our heroes are in the death star. They now know that Alderan is gone. The mission has changes: The need to rescue the princess.

The confrontation is full of obstacles that allow us to see our heroes in action. We learned who they were in Act 1, now we get to see who they are played out in action. As our heroes overcome obstacle after obstacle, we grow attached to them. We want to see them win this. And everything is good. They have overcome the odds and rescued the princess.

But then we reach the midpoint, and a new plot point happens that snatches victory from our heroes and sets their quest back. Now they are at their low point. In Star Wars, this happens when they fall in the garbage compactor. The were winning before, but now they are going to be smashed. But naturally, our heroes get out. They fight their next set of obstacles until they are nearly home free, but wait! Another plot point!

The plot point that closes act 2 sets us up for act three. Ben Kenobi has died! Darth Vader is evil! There is a bug on the ship! Now it's time for act 3

Act 3: The Climax

We are now attached to our heroes, and we see how desperate their situation is. We want to see them win. The story has brought us this far, now it needs to deliver what it promised. We get to see our heroes blow up the death star.

How This Applies to Rping

There are numerous ways to do a plot. Novels have their own methods. Even movies don't follow this method religiously. It is not a set of rules, but rather a style. And in that style we can see what we want to accomplish.

Typically, Rp's don't have an end. Instead, they are composed of a multitude of smaller stories. The point of these stories is to add to the larger plot. These smaller stories can follow a similar path to the one outlined above, or they can use their own direction, but in the end they should help us understand the world a little better.

This outline also shows us what things you should accomplish. You need to introduce your character first. If we do not know who this character is, we have no reason to care for them. It is important to remember that readers won't have the same sort of attachment to your character that you do. You made them, and you poured a little bit of your soul into them, but the reader did not. You need to explain your character in the story. Allow them to act in ways that show who they are. Allow the reader to form an opinion about them. Only then do you thrust them into action.

Once we know your character, they need to do something. We don't want to see them mope the sidewalks all day kicking rocks around. We need action! Action can mean different things depending on the nature of the rp, but all that is importance is that something happens that allows us to see the character. Perhaps they fight in the war! Perhaps they ask their crush out on a date! Perhaps they get drunk and paint the town red!

The difference here is that these small character-based action vignettes aren't the entire story. Each little story you complete will add to something to the larger narrative. If you do them write, they will either change the character of they will change the characters situation. Someone tried to kill Sotelo, so now he is angry and is tightening his power! Hassan saw his friend die in battle and now he is contemplating desertion! Little Hou kissed his date on the cheek and now he is more confident!

How Does This Work With Multiple RPers

Rping involves more then when person. Ideally. So now you not only have vignettes and your own storyline to worry about, you need to work these into the interactive storyline as a whole.

The easiest way to do this is to work with people in OOC. Ideally, your fellow RPers will be willing to work with you. You can design story lines that allow several of you to forward their story lines. Hassan is going to attack Sotelo in revenge for his dead friend! You should be willing to work with other RPers when doing this. Perhaps suggestions they make will allow you to make positive changes to your storyline. If you are imaginative, you will be able to adapt to whatever changes are necessary to make it work for both of you.

You should also be mindful of the rising narrative that ties everyone's stories together. If you and your fellow RPers have done their jobs right, there will be a central spine that all of your stories are connected. In Precipice, for instance, this is the conflict between the political left and right in a modernizing world. If you are aware of what the central spine of the RP is, you should play into it whenever possible. This strengthens the larger narrative.

What is the Climax?

There probably won't be an official end to your RP. Your goal will not necessarily be succinct. In the end, all you can do is tell plenty of good smaller stories while you continue to build your world.

The one thing you should not do is assume that there is an end game where you are the winner. This is not a game. Your goals should not be temporary attempts to become stronger, or more important. This breeds gameyness.

After all, if everyone is a perfect hero then there is no conflict. The story lacks soul. If you are in a strategy RP and everyone is trying to be a super power, then you will be doomed to silliness. Likewise, if you are superpower then you should be the most willing to take a dive. Nobody wants to read a story about the evil empire winning everything everywhere all the time. Strife is where the story is.

Is it unrealistic that the superpower looses this round? Too bad, suck it up. Realism is not a crutch to help you get away with boring up the plot. So long as something is plausible, it is realistic. We would much rather see our plucky hero win the day against impossible odds then see statistics decide the day.

I will end this section with this final thought. The goal of the RP is not to win, or to be the best. Nor is it to do nothing, or just the same nothing over and over again. Your goal is to be interesting. If you fail at that, you have failed the rp.

MECHANICS AND ADVANCED POSTING ROTATING EDITORIAL - OTHER CONSIDERABLE ARTICLES

Techwanking (5/9/13)
- TheEvanCat

Technology is a wonderful thing. You are using technology right now, and it is awesome, right? You can be reading this and also be watching kinky Czech pornography in another tab. In earlier eras, you would need two magazines to do that, and that is substantially harder to conceal from your mother when she goes down into the basement to do laundry. So now that we've established why technology is awesome, let's also establish that technology is useful in roleplays. Technology can be defined as pretty much anything, from a giant space laser cannon to a stick your cavemen ancestors used to use to smack the living crap out of saber-toothed tigers before man got all soft and invented guns. Naturally, technology is used in every roleplay. But with great power (i.e., assault rifles), comes great responsibility. But before I hear your screams of: "Jesus Christ, Evan, you're making RPs suck!", I must tell you that this is all for the greater good.

Imagine this: the silhouette of a tank appears over the hill, its bulky shape outlined against the orange setting sun behind it. Its massive gun swivels around in a calm, predictable pattern, and a smaller machine gun on top covers its sectors as well. Then, the gunner sees movements in the trees below the hill. He angles his machine gun only to see the figure of a man holding a tube in his arms. Panic races through the gunner's mind as he frantically unsafe his weapon and turns it towards the figure below. But he is too late, and a flash appears out of the corner of the gunner's eye, followed by a tremendous boom and a hiss. The gunner tries in vain to duck below the hatch of the tank as the missile soon collides with the tank.

Even the most uneducated child would know that a missile beats a tank any day of the weak. The gunner is dead, and he has failed. His family is shamed, and he singlehandedly lost the whole war for his country. He is a gigantic ****. However, that may not have been the case. As the dust settles from the impact, the tank is revealed to be an M1A2 Abrams MBT modified with a SEP and a TUSK package. The rocket was defeated by a combination of its DU plates sandwiched between Cobham RHA panels taking the force, with ERA bricks defeating the warhead before its damage could be too intense. The tank survives, and the young gunner lives to see another day. This is followed by a prompt gunning down of the would-be attacker.

But nuh-uh, replies the attacker's general. See, their forces were armed with RPG-30 rocket launchers. Their 105mm PG-30 HEAT rounds could penetrate the RHA and DU plates, because it is a tandem warhead that could kill the ERA before it stopped the main round. The crew is dead, and the gunner is a jackass again.

Nope, says the tank commander. The RPG-30 was too slow to avoid the defensive efforts of a Raytheon Quick Kill APS system. The missile was destroyed before it even got to the tank!

But you fail to forget one thing, angrily shouts the attacker: The RPG-30 was designed to bypass existing APS systems, with only the Israeli "Trench Coat" system able to defeat it. The tank is dead.

So let's stop our story here before it gets too out of control. See what happened, children? This is a curious phenomenon called "techwanking", which originates from the word "technology" and the British slang for the masturbatory arts. Techwanking is when players attempt to Mary Sue through means that while technically are possible and realistic, are also frowned upon and annoying as hell. It is a get out of jail free card, allowing you to take no damage or ignore an enemy entirely. Sure, in real life that tank probably would have survived the rocket round, based on evidence from the First Gulf War in the 1990s. But in an RP, having an army of invincible tanks is no fun. A rocket kills a tank, or at least severely injures it. Trying to weasel out of dying with increasingly obnoxious excuses like ERA, APS, or anything else is bad form, and you should never do it. It's the war RP equivalent of a god-blessed, magical-sword wielding vampire ninja assassin 12 year old weabo.

As said in many of the other columns, RPs are not about winning. It is about a story, and an invincible army of standard issue tanks is not a good story. Why might that be? Read Vilage's column, 'cause I ain't got no time to 'splain. Whereas in an RTS or FPS it would be your number one goal to equip your M1 Abrams tanks to an A2 standard with SEP, TUSK, ERA, QK APS, and other accessories to crush your opponent in a competitive game, it is not fun in a cooperative RP. It ruins the story and the setting. It makes you a giant ****, and I cannot repeat this enough. Techwanking utterly ruins the experience and compels people to engage in frivolous technology races to one-up each other. It detracts from the main goal of a roleplay. It makes you more successful and arguably "better" than anyone else's IC things, but that is not the point. I feel like I have repeated myself enough. Don't techwank.


La Musique
- TheEvanCat (5/12/13)

For the first time in human history, we have the capability to combine two things not normally combined this way: music and writing. Now, I'm guessing everyone has seen a television show or movie, correct? Every single one of you has the Internet, and by extension, electricity and at least some money. TVs are usually included in the bundle. But anyways, TV shows, movies, and even video games have been using music as part of their entertainment experience since before voice was used. The score of a film can evoke emotions like fear, sadness, excitement, or any number of others.

Spoiler'd for your convenience:

So now that we've covered what music can make you feel, music can also directly change the mood of a scene, even if you don't realize it. So take the below video, for example (another Black Hawk Down clip):


The music was heroic, right? Now mute it and play over it. Less heroic, and more desperate, right? That's how the music can be one of the biggest things affecting a scene. So that's what I was getting at. Now, how does one translate it over to writing?

Writing can evoke images in one's head as they naturally paint a picture based on your descriptions of the scene. So, if written properly, a piece of writing can be translated as a tiny "movie" in your head that uses your imagination to visualize what's happening. Thus, music will perform the same functions in a post as previously outlined. But, there is one catch to that. You need to write in a way that matches with the music. This takes longer than writing a normal post, and it's also a bit more complicated. Most of you guys read at an average pace, which is why it's called "average pace." What an author should do is try to match certain events in the post with events in the music. If a music track transforms from a hard-rock anthem to a sudden dramatic tone, make sure it corresponds with something that would be likely to drastically change the mood in a post, like a wounded man or getting a failed grade on a test that ruins a perfect day.

And when the music ends, that post should either temporarily wind down or end with it. You can't have the song stop and the action keep going, so as the song fades out the author should try to write in a temporary break from whatever action's going on to keep up. Now, that's not to say you're being dominated by the song: you can have the ability to control when it stops as well, mostly by simply adding an OOC tag that says: "It stops fitting at 01:42" or something.

So there we have it. Music can be a very powerful tool in literature, and it is one that many people overlook or use improperly. Just remember to write your post to fit with the music (or write the music to fit with the post if you want to expend that much effort), and it will maximize the emotional effect be it victory, irony, or sadness.


- OsakaSun (5/14/13)


The section you’ve just started to read covers metagaming and godmodding. These issues, too, come from the need to be paid attention to. People still want their characters to be the very best (*guitar* like no one ever was!) by giving them superhuman abilities and knowledge that they just shouldn’t have. It’s effin’ crazy.

So we’re fixing that now.


That section title probably gave away what this subsection is about: characters meeting one another.
Now, I wonder what you’re thinking right now. Maybe that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with how your characters meet? Well, uh… How the hell did that guy magically learn the other guy’s name when they’d never introduced themselves! It’s just like, they meet up, say hey, and then go do whatever it was they were going to do without even bothering to exchange names. Then they magically know it later. Not only is this lazy and ignorant, it’s also technically metagaming.
Ooh, snap. I went there.
It is metagaming by definition; you are giving your characters information from the OoC that they technically did not receive IC. So have them introduce themselves.

(I’m done with this for now. If you have any suggestions for changes or additions, I’ll be happy to hear them..)



I’m sure you get this reaction a lot when you see godmodding. You know, a character does something that is totally illogical, even if they do have superpowers, just to show how awesome they are.


Mortal Kombat™!

The number one instance of godmodding, in my opinion, is endurance. I’ve seen fights go on for pages and pages with none of the people fighting even breaking a sweat. That’s because nobody really wants to lose. But the thing is that if there’s a rule against killing in the roleplay, the characters really won’t have much more at stake than their honor.

So why, then, is it so important to win?

Seriously, tell me!

I’ll admit right now that I never try to win fights in roleplays because, for one thing, I think it’s much more interesting to write if you’re trying to lose. Plus, I’m, uh… not very good at fight scenes… As a result, my characters are often pacifistic and will not fight unless absolutely necessary, in which case I don’t let the fight last long so nobody godmods. And I always leave room for people to dodge my attacks.

That brings me to the auto-hits and auto-dodges: sometimes people just automatically hit the other person’s character without leaving room to avoid, and sometimes people just magically dodge some basically undodgable attack.

Whenever I fight (keep in mind that I usually am trying to lose), I always say something like this:




See how I gave the person she’d attacked the choice to let it be effective or not? Now, it may have been godmodding on his part to say he was prepared, but that doesn’t matter. I left him a choice.

(He went with letting the attack work, by the way, but ultimately his character overpowered Piper/notRipper.)

Then there are occasions where people make characters designed to be cheap in battle. Take the massive monsters that spit acid and somehow also have teeth on their tongue example. Also they weigh several thousand pounds and can fit in small spaces and—

See what I mean? That’s just plain… myeergh. The thing’s only weakness was that it feared fire and, although it never did make it into the roleplay, the idea of it doing so made me think of godmodding. So please don’t make characters over equipped for battle; it’s not fair nor is it particularly fun for anybody but you.


The title suggests magical objects that weren’t there before to help characters out in sticky situations, but that’s not all this subsection covers. It also touches on magical knowledge (not metagaming, though), and insertion into backstories.

Here are some examples to get you started provided by my BFF, Cha-Cha.

"It was a good thing that she had prepared a medikit in case she got hurt, Laura thought to herself as she bandaged the injury. The whole works was in there, from bandages to adrenaline to disinfectant to gauze. There was so much that there was scarcely any more room in her backpack. Carefully packing it all away, she brushed back her hair and continued walking.

... *** ... ***

What a relief! If she hadn't been wearing that hardhat, the fall would have given her a nasty concussion! Still, at least it didn't mess up her hair - no protection for her hands though. They were starting to get very sore with all the scrapes they were exposed to.

...***...***

As darkness closed in around her, night falling swiftly in these parts, Laura hastily whipped out her lantern and lit it, checking compass and tightening her gloves. A mountain lion roared in the distance, but Laura wasn't afraid - she had carefully sprayed lemon along her trail during the last couple of hours, the pungent smell sure to drive the creature away."

See how Laura was magically prepared for everything? This actually happens quite a bit. People, not wanting some horrible misfortune to befall their character (like death by mountain lion), suddenly bring up some never-before-mentioned knowledge or object (or weapon in the case of a fight) that would help them out perfectly in the given situation. That, my friends, is godmodding.

It’s even worse if the godmodding involves the plot or subplot. Like, let’s say somebody’s character is horribly ill with some mysterious, incurable disease. Their whole character is based of that fact, and perhaps their purpose in the roleplay is to find out how to get better.

Now enter character two, who falls hopelessly in love with the sick character and can’t stand that they’re sick, so they use their magical powers or incredible medical knowledge to cure the sick person. Problem solved, but subplot ruined.

Finally, there is backstory insertion. It’s just plain annoying; your character knows somebody else’s character, right? Their character goes off and then starts saying things that your character apparently said in the past. Now, that’s okay if you gave them permission, but otherwise it’s not only godmodding, but essentially powerplaying because they’ve basically taken control of your character.

This happens too:

Another example of nonviolent godmodding: inserting yourself prominently into someone else's backstory without permission.

"So where are you from?"
"I'm from (name of far-off, undiscovered country here). I was banished, and I'm the only one ever to make it to what you would call civilization."
"Oh really? I'm one-sixteenth (that nationality), and I'm descended from the ruling line. Technically, I should be king right now."
"Bull****. We've had democracy for ten generations."
"But it's true, I really should be king (goes there to retake control and godmods again in his attempt to do so)."

Makes you wanna bash the one-sixteenth (that nationality)’s head in, doesn’t it?


Ah yes, magical knowledge. This is both godmodding and metagaming depending on the context, but we’ll just call it metagaming for now. Pretty much, your character has not let off a particular fact about their past or perhaps even their thoughts. In no way was any of that information implied, but you made the mistake of mentioning it in your post or in the OoC, and this happens:

Perry was shifting his feet awkwardly and kept sneaking looks at Emma whenever she was occupied with something else. He thought she was so pretty, but there was no way he’d go near her… Good thing she didn’t know he was watching.
Emma noticed Perry looking at her and walked over to him. “Hi Perry!” she said.
Swallowing nervously, Perry smiled and stammered, “H-hi Emma.” She was so pretty…
“I really like you Perry. You’re so sweet. Do you like me too?”
“N-no…” Perry lied. He was just so nervous…
“You’re lying, aren’t you?”

See? Emma somehow magically knew that Perry was watching her even though the first post stated she shouldn’t have, then she knew he liked her, and finally she knew he was lying. That’s just so improbable, it’s painful.
It would have been much more entertaining for Perry to have stuttered his way into a perhaps oblivious Emma’s heart, wouldn’t it? Sounds cheesy, but oh well.

Then there’s also this:

"It is pitch-black inside the tunnel and hiding a deadly basilisk, which would awaken the moment a light was lit to fix the unfortunate interlopers with its lethal gaze, although the adventurers could not sense it. Yet if they stayed put in darkness, the wraith pursuing them would have no fear of attacking."

"Ever wary of being caught unawares, I cast a targeted spell to restrain any magical animal ahead so that it cannot move a single muscle. Then I light a torch."

Notice how it said that the adventures couldn’t sense the basilisk, and yet the other person still cast a spell to keep it from moving so that he could light the torch and also prevent the wraith from attacking himself and his companions.

And here’s yet another example of metagaming:

OCperson1: Wanna know something cool about my character?
OOCperson2: What?
OOCperson1: Promise you won't do anything about it in the IC?
OOCperson2: Yup.
OOCperson1: Well, my character has asthma, but she hasn't told anyone.

Meanwhile, in the IC...

Person1: Mary suddenly fell to the ground, her hands around her throat. Her breathing was coming out very shallw and ragged, like something was constricting her lungs. "H-he-elp..."

Person2: John knelt over Mary obviously very concerned about her at the moment. With a bad astma attack like this, she could die! "Everyone! Get an inhaler, or something! She's having an asthma attack!"

See how many different ways you can metagame? I know it may be hard to not include a neat fact you learned in the OoC, but it’s much more fun for everybody if you allow the person whose character it is to reveal it themselves IC the way they’d intended to.


Ah, the character. Not only are they the most fun parts of roleplays (for we all know that a roleplay is not a roleplay without them!), but they are often the most difficult to come up with, get right, and be realistic about. We get all sorts of things that (like everything else according to me) are spawned from the (apparently omnipresent) need to be paid attention to. We get Mary Sues, Gary Lous, drama kings/queens, defective robots, suicidal wolves, drug addicts, monsters that are actually teddy bears at heart, you name it.

It’s kind of infuriating.


A Video provided by VilageidiotX:



Expanding your Sentences: a Demonstration of how a Simple Sentence can be turned into a Paragraph:

http://www.stumbleup...scopictext.com/


Civilizational development for aliens and humans and anything that can make a civilization

By: OZode (9/14/13)

There is a reoccurring thing when it comes to nation building, and it is what makes a reasonable or logical nation tough to pull off. CYOC showed this and even I did it, and that is the problem of cultural development and history. Especially history.

In sci-fi RPs this can be a bigger issue, for in most nation RPs sans those where tech is too advanced to logically have been all independently made in isolation one can look at how in Europe alone we see the creation of multiple ethno-linguistic groups in a small area who are pushed into ever so violent contact. Yet, even with a medieval setting historical connections make things way more interesting.

For instance, in reality Islam, as different as the culture associated with Islam seems actually has many connections with Christianity as well as Judaism because Islamic religion is derived from christian religion. Another thing is that there are some cultures who are formed through long standing rivalry, like the french and germans who despite their distinct cultures have had a long history of contact with each other. Cultural transmission is not something easy to abolish.

Going into the delusional realms of the stars, what has upset me quite a bit has to be whenever I see some naturally hyper peaceful alien race also manage to industrialize. Not because I hate peace, but because it just is non sense. Think of the most peaceful things on earth, do they have steam engines and cash based economies required to go about the push for technological innovation like the British did? No. The Chinese for quite a while were one of the most advanced empires on Earth, having things like the Bessemer process and sophisticated blast furnaces by the eleventh century with the song dynasty- yet they never went industrial in the following five hundred years. Mongols may have ruined it, but that is not the point.

Why?

The Chinese didn't need to. Their society had all the man power in the world already, millions of people in a centralized government that only fractures once every half millennia, if not less often on average. There was no need to forgo innovation or advancement. Not because they were stupid, but because there was no reason to invest in redundant hardware.

Meanwhile the Brits while not that bad in terms of government themselves, had much more need to advance farming techniques with more advanced machines and having smaller populations. Their access to both coal and wrought iron made things all the better. The British had the right ingredients to cook their revolution of industry, but only because there was a need to innovate in that direction.

What complicates things is trying to imagine industrialization of a alien race. Evolution is universal, so it can be assumed that whatever else was capable of industrialization had good reason to industrialize. It is hard to imagine a creature naturally evolving the skill, as why would anything what to leave their own world into the cold hostility of space? Only the irrationality of a "intelligent life form" would do such thing. For that matter the evolution of human genome and society as a whole shows that civilization is a really, really recent thing for the human species. We much rather spent tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years without farming. Agriculture arose from desperation, as humans took up the reins of farming to save/store food in harsher times.

Farming is hard work, more so than being a hunter gatherer stabbing pigs with sharp sticks or picking berries that may or may not be poisonous to eat. Even more so to note, only a few kinds of plant.animal are worth domesticating to these early hunters which is why you see aborigines never advance since they don't have any good plants to start the domestication process with. On earth crops like Corn, Maize, Rice and Wheat all were great crops to farm with which is why you see civilizations sprout up in mexico and all the worthwhile places in Eurasia.

For another intelligent species to want to farm, would be quite exceptional as their ecosystems have to also produce plants that are easy enough to farm to try out. We ourselves didn't for hundreds of thousands of years, why would the aliens?

But there was multiple agricultural revolutions on earth that happened independently of each other. At least one other time in the new world has a agricultural revolution happened without outside contact with other farming humans. So it is not impossible that the aliens we meet may have farming societies, or at least some form of sophistication that is different from ours due to the different needs their alien world may bring to the table.

Now, for that reason for a "realistic" sci-fi, finding some primitive alien farmers with some weird looking temples for their leaders as first contact is possible, but would be a stroke of luck even if the aliens would be to us basically weird animals capable of using complex tools in terms of ability to relate to. [Though people find octopi and starfish cute, so not all is lost]

However, a alien that independently has industrialized? Oh lawd.

There has in human history been only one industrial revolution, mainly since by the time a nation industrializes with the benefits of industrialization spreading conquering the world becomes not that terribly difficult even if the spear throwing foul smelling natives put up a fight. Taking this into account, it is incredibly, incredibly unlikely contact with a superior alien race will be made unless out luck is insanely bad. Think of it. The Industrial revolution was less than three hundred years ago, a alien who has been around for thousands years more than us will be much more powerful. Sure they might stagnate once spare faring, or do things with their industrialization we can barley begin to imagine [like just plugging into VR with geothermal plants for all eternity], but assuming they are like us which is a 1/10 chance they would kick our asses. They'd make negros out of us.

We do not want to meet a alien species like ourselves, believe me. Our right to determine the future of our own species will be taken the second we meet a technologically superior alien regardless of how peaceful they claim to be.

So it's better the aliens we meet don't have industrial capability, and in a space RP industrialized aliens can be hard to justify with realism mode on for the simple reasons that smart aliens are not common, even less common farming ones, even more less common space ones, and of course even less common those who survive long enough to meet us. Which I hope is none!

While I do understand that in a space opera RP like Aquarius that the aliens are pretty much fantasy races with industrial revolutions treated as just a random thing that happens out of thin air anyone who hopes to cry realism must realize - realistic is only fun for novel making, and when you aren't working with people who just wanna use races they made before hand that have set single minded culture and ways since humans are totally like that.

---

Okay that was a bit too realism whoring, so let's go for a more simple approach with civilization development:

-The more peaceful something is, the more stable, therefore less needing of innovation that civilization is.
-The more hostile something is, the more unstable and needing of innovation.
-Despite that, a balance between the order and chaos is needed, as too much violence destroys accumulated knowledge too quickly and nothing gets preserved. Orcs spending a thousand year stabbing each other will probably spend the next ten thousand years only stabbing each other after all.

In a fantasy setting the same applies. innovation is not something that just happens, it happens out of a need. New weapons are made to counter the weapons of the enemy. New architecture is made to promote religion or show wealth. Laws, government systems and so forth are made to better govern the people into a cohesive force. For that reason when making something it is smart to look at the environment and ask what inventions would be needed for the place they are in. How fast would they go about their innovation? Why did they need that new invention? Is it practical?

One thing one should also never do, is find an excuse to have technology your civ can't logically have. Reverse engineering ancient technology has been a fun excuse, but it runs into many problems on the virtue that it is hard to understand the workings of technology completely different. Papa New Genuans didn't make rifles that worked did they?

Also if you notice multiple military focused civs, please play with different forms of government. It is depressing and dystopian to just have military dictatorships everywhere after all.

CHARACTER CREATION

“O Muse!
Sing in me, and through me tell the story
Of that man skilled in all the ways of contending,
A wanderer, harried for years on end …”
~Homer, Odyssey


THE 99 QUESTIONS
- AaronMK (and Anonymous)

To open this, I would like to present an extremly helpfull, and in-depth tool in character creation. This can be done before or after you apply for an RP to flesh out a character concept. Or even while playing as him to aid in organizing areas where he has been developed. This is, "The 99 Questions".

A little backstory though: I forget where I got this. It was posted on another RP board I frequent and I have since lost the link. I have however posted it around very frequently so I am always in quick reach of these questions. This has kept it on hand very often. So if anyone knows, do say and provide a link so I can make a proper citation to them. Thank you.



So You Want To Make A Character?
-VilageidiotX

The basis of every story is the individuals experiencing it. Whatever it is, there has to be a personality. A clever writer can give personality to things that are not alive. Sadly, I doubt any of us have that sort of skill. For the time being, you should focus on sapient beings.

This does not mean only humans or humanoids. Bambi was sapient. This was important to tell the story of a deer that did more then mindlessly frolic and poop. The Brave Little Toaster was also sapient. All that is important is that the character have a personality comparable to real world humans. That is, after all, what we are. Assuming no chimpanzees have crawled to the desk and joined us, we are all humans. Our emotions are human. Our understanding of the emotions of others is also human. That is the extent of our understanding, and it is what we can relate to.

The Importance of Empathy and Relations
- VilageidiotX

I feel that his is the singular biggest problem facing teen writers. Empathy is learned as one grows into adulthood, and it is learned at different times depending on the person. Some people never really seem to master it. In essence, empathy is the ability to understand the emotions of others despite the fact that you might not necessarily be able to relate to their experiences.

This is important. Unless your character is a copy of yourself, you will need to utilize empathy to write their predicament. How would somebody in a particular situation react to something considering their personality? An angry person who faces a stressful situation might act out physically, whereas a calmer person would react differently.

An example of a common way this is screwed up is the world of the quiet/shy character. I have noticed that it is common for people who are supposed to be quiet to be not quiet at all. If you decide to write a quiet character, it is important that you minimize their dialog to the level you think they should be at. Quiet people don't say as much. They don't necessarily start as many conversations, and they sometimes reply with little more then a nod.

If you have a poor handle on empathy, there is nothing shameful about using tropes. There are many character types that have been used and reused in the classics. Good places to get ideas include Jungian Archetypes and TvTropes.

Another thing that can help if you feel that you are bad at empathy is to install a part of you in the character. There are several ways this can be done. One way is to make the character an exaggeration of one part of your personality. If you are introverted, take the way you interpret your introversion and pour it into a character. The rest of the traits might arise naturally.

Character Development
- VilageidiotX

We like our characters to grow. Growth is the basis of most character based media. Luke Skywalker goes from immature farm boy to wizened Jedi Master. Jean Valjean goes from hateful prisoner to heartfelt savior. Mario goes from silent monkey slayer to goofy go-cart racer.

So how do you develop a character? In truth, this will happen naturally so long as you make sure that the events you thrust your character into are compelling. They have to go through life changing events. This doesn't mean they have to be shot in the streets of Africa. When you look back on your life, you might find that certain important events were actually pretty simple. Perhaps nothing more then gaining a new friend, or seeing a bunch of bats in a cave and freaking out.

You might want to design a direction for your character to grow toward. Perhaps you want your angry character to be come enlightened. You will need to write them into situations that take them in that direction. If you need a douche character to become a decent guy, it can be as simple as chopping his hand off.

Now, you don't want to overdevelop a character. If they keep changing, they'll just look crazy. Changes should be gradual and subtle.

Avoid Stereotypes!
- VilageidiotX

I know that I mentioned that you can write characters based on tropes if you have a hard time empathizing. There is a slight difference between a trope and a stereotype. A trope would be "The quirky girl makes awkward but cute attempts to get the boy." A stereotype would be "Women just PMS all the time and think about nothing but shoes." The former might be overused, but it is still a portrayal of a human. The later is plastic and fake.

Remember that part of empathy is understanding them as if you were them. It's not necessarily a rational thing. There is no such thing as a "Woman" or "Black" personality. Rather, these groups are shaped by their different experiences and upbringing. They still have the same scope of depth.

Experiences Are Important!

Remember that you character should make sense within their environment. You won't have a lot of millionaire revolutionaries. Someone who is faced with a potentially apocalyptic war will be experiencing a variety of emotions. A world leader will be faces with stress of some sort. How they deal with these things will not only be dependent on their personality, but it will also form it.

This ties into the way stereotypes are formed. A minority that has a crime based stereotype attached to them didn't get it because they have a genetic disposition to crime. They get it because they live in an environment that breeds crime. Desperate lives make desperate people.

This doesn't mean that all people are going to turn out the same way. Personality will guide them through the situation, for better or for worse.


Naming your characters
- AaronMK

It may seem like a simple thing. But naming your character can be you treading a line between a character who comes off as being generic, or too fanciful. Names that get lost in the sea of Johns, and Pauls, and Stevens. Or they can be so fanciful they sound stupid otherwise, an abuse of odd syllabulls and apostrophes.

It may also determine how easily the character is remembered or not.

It's not to say the name makes the character and that the only amount of creative should be put into the name. But it should be a defining characteristic of the character. It should be fitting to his basic self, reflective of his ethnicity and cultural background. A man from China is not named Steven, he gets a Chinese name: Hou, Tung, Shing, the list goes on.

It is thus advisable when naming a character that he or she has his name built reflective to his culture. Naming conventions vary between cultures and socities. Some share commonalities, others are widely different. When creating a character from the real world, thought and some research should be given to how he would be named. His he from the Arab world? Then he would be named first with his given name, followed by his father, followed next by a name denoting where he is from regionally, ethnically, or his clan (ex: Abdul ibn-Ali Al-mi?riyyun). Or is he Asian, where his family/clan name would procede his given name? Perhaps he's German and has five or more names, one of which is actually is usable legal name? Thought should be given to the name, as in this nuianced situation it is telling of his or her own culture, and naming a character can establish naming culture for a fantasy society.

And secondly: rhythm A good memorable name will have a cadence, a rhythm to it. A catchy beat and way it rolls off the tongue. Think about some popular characters, what do their names have in common? Maybe their first and last names begin with the same letter as-per Severus Snape? Or maybe there's a syllabic rhythm Give the concept thought, as a easy to remember name will allow not only yourself to recall a name, but a reader or the rest of the people you're Roleplaying with. A fancy name may be good for the moment, but difficult to learn or remember if not structured memorably.

CHARACTER CREATION ROTATING EDITORIAL - OTHER CONSIDERABLE ARTICLES

- OsakaSun (5/14/13)


This is one of the most common instances where I see people being wildly unrealistic. The reason for this, I think, is because people want their characters to be two things:
1. The center of attention.
2. The best.
If you think I’m lying, just look at fight scenes (although that’s covered in a later section); people are always trying to win. Or else look anywhere else. There’s drama like crazy because people want their characters paid attention to. Seriously, I’m not lying. Even I make drama so people pay attention to me. And I’m, y’know, me!

(Note that this section covers the realism of human and human-based characters. Animal behavior is different, unless it’s an anthropomorphic roleplay.)


I am not by any means a specialist on these sorts of things, but I can tell you how you’re being unrealistic in this field.

People always say that you should give your characters flaws so that they aren’t ‘Mary Sues’. That’s very true, but the thing is that too many flaws can also make your character a Mary Sue. Plus, when people thing flaw, they usually think mental illness. Also, I see a lot of noobs/newbs making mentally ill characters, which really ticks me off because they’re so inaccurate.

If you’re going to start roleplaying, start normal, and even if you think you’re ready for mental illness in characters, I’d really suggest that you don’t use it.

Now, I be you’re wondering why I’m covering this issue first. (And believe me, it is an issue.) That’s because it’s the one that bothers me the most, having a touch of mental illness myself, and because it’s horribly overused and exploited. See, mental illness implies silliness, right? It means I can make my character do crazy, stupid things, be the center of attention, and not get in trouble at all!

Well… not exactly. I’m going to show you a few examples of the things I see most commonly and why you shouldn’t be using them for your characters.

Schizophrenia

What do you know about schizophrenia? Really?
I’ve had a friend confuse it with MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder), and I argued with him for about an hour in order to set him straight.

Now, I have only seen people who have schizophrenic characters portray this illness accurately one or two times. In almost all other instances, people use it as an excuse for their characters to be totally random. Like this:

OsakaSun"The government!" Willow started to rant again. "They stole our water and now they're stealing our souls! Lightbulbs are bri- K IS FOR POTASSIUM! Get your umbrellas, folks, it's gonna be a rainy day!" Okay, maybe she'd completely lost it...

Now, Willow wasn’t schizo, she was just totally freaked out and such, but I see a lot of ‘schizophrenic’ characters doing similar (less funny) things. It’s just not accurate.

Let me guess what you’re thinking:
Okay, if you’re so smart then then tell me what is accurate.

Well, for one, it’s not MPD. People don’t develop other personalities from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia entails auditory and visual hallucinations (hearing and seeing things that aren’t there), paranoid or bizarre delusions (this is where people go wrong), and/or disorganized speech and thinking. Thanks Wikipedia
That’s common knowledge, right? So what do you know about anxiety, depression, and substance abuse? Did you include that in your schizophrenic character? Odds are you didn’t; you were just aiming for silly, not ill.
But guess what! Schizophrenia is a mental illness. If you want a schizo character, you need to throw in everything (and throw ‘em in with accuracy!) or else it’s unrealistic and gets on my (and many others’) nerves.

DID/MPD

Do you know what those stand for?

Dissociative identity disorder/Multiple personality disorder. They’re the same thing. What do they mean?

Split personalities.

I’ve certainly seen this several times, often confused with schizophrenia, and like schizophrenia have only seen it portrayed accurately in roleplay characters a few times. Yes, it shares symptoms, but it’s not the same thing.

Here, before I go about telling you why you’re so wrong, here’s a list of symptoms found on Wikipedia:

• Multiple mannerisms, attitudes and beliefs that are not similar to each other
• Unexplainable headaches and other body pains
• Distortion or loss of subjective time
• Comorbidity
• Depersonalization
• Derealization
• Severe memory loss
• Depression
• Flashbacks of abuse/trauma
• Unexplainable phobias
• Sudden anger without a justified cause
• Lack of intimacy and personal connections
• Frequent panic/anxiety attacks
• Auditory hallucinations of the personalities inside their mind

Now, how many of those did your character with MPD exhibit? Maybe the first one and the last one, right?
Otherwise, the characters are just totally random. You know, they run around doing crazy stuff then act normally and call themselves by a different name.

That’s not MPD, that’s a toddler in an adult/teenager’s body.

Really, I can’t do much about this. What I can say is that, unless you’re able and willing to have such a complex, in depth character that shows most if not all of the above symptoms (accurately), you should steer away from MPD. Really, you should steer away from any mental illness at all.

Most people aren’t even aware that they have it, and it can be fairly hard to detect. Really, I’d suggest you stay away from it altogether; it’s too complex for the average—and even several of the more experienced—roleplayer(s) to handle. (And that is NOT a challenge.)

Bipolar Disorder

I don’t see bipolar characters very often in roleplaying, but when I do it’s treated just like the previously mentioned illnesses; it’s used as an excuse for random, wild behavior.

This really ticks me off because my family actually has quite a history of bipolar disorder and I may or may not have it myself, so I know a bit about it.

Bipolar disorder is also known as manic depression.
Ring a bell?

Maybe. See, bipolar disorder is not just crazy mood swings. It’s a series of ‘episodes’ that affect people in different ways. There are episodes of severe depression , and other such things.
Really, you should do research if you want to make a bipolar character, because I may say something incorrectly.

ADHD

Now here’s one that people use very often so their characters can be random. Like with MPD, I’m going to list symptoms:

• Be easily distracted, miss details, forget things, and frequently switch from one activity to another
• Have difficulty focusing on one thing
• Become bored with a task after only a few minutes, unless doing something enjoyable
• Have difficulty focusing attention on organizing and completing a task or learning something new
• Have trouble completing or turning in homework assignments, often losing things (e.g., pencils, toys, assignments) needed to complete tasks or activities
• Not seem to listen when spoken to
• Daydream, become easily confused, and move slowly
• Have difficulty processing information as quickly and accurately as others
• Struggle to follow instructions.
• Fidget and squirm in their seats
• Talk nonstop
• Dash around, touching or playing with anything and everything in sight
• Have trouble sitting still during dinner, school, and story time
• Be constantly in motion
• Have difficulty doing quiet tasks or activities.
• Be very impatient
• Blurt out inappropriate comments, show their emotions without restraint, and act without regard for consequences
• Have difficulty waiting for things they want or waiting their turns in games

Now, if you know somebody with ADHD, then that’s fine and dandy; you know the condition better than I do, so you can skip ahead, but the thing is that people with ADHD usually aren’t super random, they’re just easily distracted. That’s a huge difference. In fact, ADHD is often accompanied by depression and anxiety, which means that people with it aren’t happy-go-lucky, OOH A CHICKEN.

ADHD is also accompanied by more than just depression, usually it comes hand-in-hand with OCD, BPD (borderline personality disorder), bipolar disorder, vigilance problems, etc. If you want an ADHD character, you’re really going to have to go more in depth than—OOH ANOTHER CHICKEN!

Depression *New*

Oh, boohoo! I am so depressed and sad! I think I will wear all black and too much makeup, then go around crying, writing poetry, and cutting myself! I am so emo, woe is me! The world sucks; I hate everything.

That’s what I believe most people think when they hear the word depression. Emo automatically comes to mind. Why? Because we’re stupid Americans. The worst part is that people actually laugh at the kids who are actually like that. That makes things even worse, makes them even more depressed, and probably drives them to at least attempt suicide at one point.

Why do these misconceptions bother me? Well I got hit with depression pretty badly. In fact, when I was cutting, people didn’t know but they’d point at band-aids on my wrists, laugh, and ask if I was cutting myself. They didn’t know that their jokes were actually correct.

Do you know how much that hurts, to have a problem that everybody is inadvertently joking about?

A lot.

See, depression can come from a lot of things. Stress, bad experiences, mental illnesses, etc. It’s usually about the same, though; you feel like sh*t. You hate the world and the world hates you back. You feel like lying in bed all day and doing absolutely nothing, because if you do something you know you’ll find out yet another ugly truth about our society. You think that, if you just died, nobody would really care. Hell, you’d be doing them all a favor. One less mouth to feed and all that. You get irritated at the smallest, stupidest things. Are people listening to music you hate? You yell at them to turn it off or call it stupid or something. People bothering you? You act like a totally antisocial jerk that just ignores everyone. You get these urges to just take some sort of blunt instrument and bash all the annoying, ignorant peoples’ heads in. You put your head down on the desk at school every day and try to sleep because at night, you can’t. You have nightmares, you hallucinate, you toss and turn, whatever. You just can’t sleep.

That is depression. Not poetry and eyeliner and all that crap.

Remember that if you want a depressed character.

In Conclusion…

Mental illness is a hellhole of details when portrayed accurately, and incredibly annoying when it’s not.
If you still want a mentally ill character, I suggest you research the condition in question first.
If you want a super random character, then just say that they’re weird and act accordingly, don’t give them a condition that you only know the common knowledge about.


This gets unrealistic as well, you know. People sometimes forget that their human characters are human and therefore forget some things that come with being human.

Fear

A big scary monster is coming right at you.

You know what adrenaline is, I’m sure; it’s that burst of energy you get when you’re scared out of your wits. It comes with the flight behavior that kept us alive when we didn’t have weapons to fight off bigger, more dangerous animals than ourselves. You may get an adrenaline rush in response to the big scary monster.

Then there’s another reaction. Ever seen a deer get hit by a car? When they see the headlights, their whole bodies just freeze up. They can’t move. That happens to us too (although we might also our pants as well), in moments of sheer terror, and it’s quite often more common than adrenaline rushes.

So instead of,

Justin saw the monster coming and felt his heart begin to pound as adrenaline rushed through his body. He had to get out of here. Grabbing Maiya’s hand, he sprinted for the door as quickly as he could…

perhaps

Justin saw the monster coming and felt his whole body freeze up as icy terror crept down his spine. He had to get out of here! Next to him, Maiya was trembling with fear as well, but he couldn’t even coax his hands to move so he could comfort her…

would be much more accurate.

See the difference? It’s even more dramatic than running away, too, so I don’t see why people don’t use it more often.

I’m guessing it’s because they’ve never experienced the ‘deer in headlights’ response to fear before. After all, I doubt many of you have been faced with a hungry predator or a man with a gun pointed at your head before.

Shock (The traumatic kind)

I don’t see shock very often in roleplaying, which is why it’s so unrealistic. Everybody’s characters take huge, lifechanging news and giant bloodbaths (although that constitutes survivor’s guilt, really) and whatnot perfectly in stride. It’s like stuff like that happens to them every day.

Shock, like fear, can be shown in several ways.

Some people actually do take it in stride and don’t react much on the outside.

Others totally shut down, and just sit or stand where they are with vacant expressions on their faces. Maybe they rock back and forth and mutter to themselves as well.

And then there are the people like this:

"The government!" Willow started to rant again. "They stole our water and now they're stealing our souls! Lightbulbs are bri- K IS FOR POTASSIUM! Get your umbrellas, folks, it's gonna be a rainy day!" Okay, maybe she'd completely lost it...

Yes, I used that example before, but this is actually what she was showing: shock. See, she’d just found out that she was dead; a lost spirit trying to find her way through a forest full of demons so she could get a second chance at life. People in shock usually don’t scream or say random stuff like that, but they often will talk really fast about what just happened and maybe veer off topic a bit, but not as severely. These are the people that you’ll see getting slapped while somebody yells “GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, (WO)MAN!” in movies (or soap operas). If you want experience on this kind of shock, go watch a few horror movies and the most recent season finale of Grey’s Anatomy with the crazy gun guy.

Anger

Whoa, Osaka! We do anger fine! Haven’t you see—

No. Shut up. You don’t do anger fine, nor do you do the reactions of other people.

What I see when people exhibit it in real life:
(This actually happened)

My Dad: Where’s the remote?
My Brother: *on couch, playing on his laptop* I dunno.
Dad: Help me find it please.
Brother: *keeps playing on laptop*
Dad: Hey! Help me find the remote!
Brother: Huh?
Dad: Help. Me. Find. The. Remote.
Brother: But I’m watching my show…
Dad: *a little while later, after finding the remote. Changes channel*
Brother: HEY! CHANGE THAT BACK!
Dad: I’m watching my show.
Brother: I was watching mine first! *changes channel with remote he was hiding*
Dad: *gets up* Change it back!
Brother: *also gets up* No.
*both migrate to the other end of the room, screaming really loudly about the TV shows*
Dad: *throws chair at wall, shattering the chair* SHUT UP!!!
Brother: *runs away to go cry on the porch*
Me: *scared as hell, peeking out of the room she was taking refuge in before running outside to comfort brother*
Me: (brother’s name), are you o—
Brother: SHUT UP, GET THE HELL AWAY! *starts throwing things*
Me: Calm dow—
Brother: SHUT THE F*CK UP!!! *throws more things*
Me: *runs to the backyard to go cry*

That is a real-life argument and also the main reason I hate it when people fight. Trust me, my dad never yells, and he scared the sh*t out of me when he started up.

The thing is that people fight about stupid things, usually work themselves up to the screaming stage, and then feel absolutely terrible afterwards. It’s called remorse. Also, some people get scared, usually onlookers (such as me in the example) and will probably not try to get the others to stop, rather comfort them later.

In roleplays, I see arguments (fortunately started over stupid things) that get straight to yelling, then maybe fighting. See, people want their characters to win, while in reality the smaller, weaker one would likely give up and walk away (crying, like my brother) eventually instead of resorting to blows.

I remember in one roleplay, this little toddler character was (unrealistically) standing up to an obviously murderous, terrifying character who had a shotgun. The toddler probably would have gotten freaked out and clung to his mom (who he was protecting) but instead he tried to kill the murderous guy. (He was a werewolf, so technically it was possible.) That particular fight, due to the lack of realism, sparked a massive fight in the OoC thread and ended in the person controlling the murderous guy’s resignation from the roleplay.

The IC fight was unrealistic, but the OoC one was not.

But yeah… Unless you’ve seen a lot of fights and arguments (NOT on TV; those are often unrealistic as well unless they’re in soap operas [and then the making up part is unrealistic]), you may want to steer clear of that argumentative character with anger management problems that you were planning.

Love

Hoo boy… This one is really just playing on what people have seen in TV, or maybe just assume from what they’ve decided love is all about in their heads.

What have I seen?

I’ve seen characters just up and confess their love to another without being nervous at all.

I’ve seen love at first sight. (Highly uncommon in real life, although it does exist.)

I’ve seen—

You know what? I’ll stop right now.

How many of you have actually been in a real relationship?

Not the middle school sh*t—I’m not talking crushes and ‘boyfriends’ and ‘girlfriends’— I’m talking the real deal. Maybe love wasn’t involved; maybe you were trying to find it, but still.

If you’ve had that, then you can just skip this section right now, because you know those feelings. If not, well… random making out occurs, and that’s substituted for the actual emotion ‘love’.

Love is a word that can mean a lot of things to be honest, but the best way that I can find to describe it is that you always want to be with the person you love. Just doing nothing together makes you as happy as you could ever imagine. You don’t need to ‘go out’ or make out or anything, just being there with them is the best feeling.

Love is blind.

Love sucks.

Love hurts.

Love is the sun.

Love is the rain.

Love is a fistful of glitter in the air. Music nerd… Teehee.

Like I said, love is just doing nothing with somebody and having the time of your life.
Now try putting that into writing.

Sadness

Sobbing uncontrollably seems to be the most preferred way to express sadness around here, and once the person who was crying had been comforted everything is alright again.

Tell me, does that work for you? Probably not.

Ever had a loved one or pet die?

Grief is a form of sadness. You cried, didn’t you? It was horrible. It felt like the whole world was crashing down because something or someone you loved just disappeared forever. Maybe you even got to the point of sadness where you became depressed. Everything sucked. You cried and you cried. The littlest thing would set you off all over again; anything that reminded you of the death. You’d cry yourself to sleep every night and wake up in the morning with red eyes and a heavy heart.

When did it get better?

When your best friend gave you a hug and said it would be okay?

Sure, maybe you stopped crying, but you didn’t stop being sad. That couldn’t get rid of the feeling.

So when did it get better?

Maybe it did when you came to terms with it. Maybe it did when you forgot. Maybe when you found something to be happy about again. Or maybe it didn’t.

Why can’t we remember this when our characters are sad, then? They’re supposed to be people, so why do they just forget about sadness?

I don’t know.

You can fix that if you try, I’m sure.

Stress

We get stressed out when under pressure. Like, when there’s a huge test coming or you have to do too much work or whatever. Everybody knows what it’s like to be stressed out; you get annoyed with every little distraction and you pull out your hair and everything.

The funny thing is that I rarely see stress in roleplaying.

Remember that time when the fate of the world depended on that one character?

What’d he do? He just went through with it. He may have gotten a little nervous, but if that were to happen in real life I feel like he’d have been pretty stressed out. Maybe people would have encouraged him and he would have snapped at them.

Yeah. When something really important is about to go down in a roleplay, try to show a bit of stress in the characters.



This section isn’t going to be long, I’m just going to say a few things.

What do you do when you write your posts? Do you put yourself in your character’s shoes and think about what they would do, or maybe think about what you would do? Or maybe you just wing it?

Generally, things are more realistic if you think about them. Just give it a shot, I can guarantee you’ll get results if you try considering all the details and backstories you’ve created for your character and then think: What would s/he do?

Or else: What would I do?

It’s better than just glancing at the previous person’s post and having them just do whatever pops into your head.



- OsakaSun (5/14/13)

Most commonly found in those futuristic space roleplays that I deplore so much, Artificial Intelligence (or AI) is what you give to a robot so that it’s not a Roomba. Essentially, it is an incredibly complex series of programs that gives an artificial being (robot) free will and perhaps even “emotions”.

Now, I generally see two types of AI in roleplays: the Perfect and the Defective.

“Perfect” AI means that the programming is flawless and the robot acts exactly as it should. Now what could possibly be wrong with that? The thing is that humans are very complex creatures, and Perfect AIs act just like them. It would be impossible to perfectly replicate human thought process and behavior, so Perfect AI is therefore impossible unless there were glitches (there always are) that made it act more human. Essentially, I think that a Perfect AI would follow its programming perfectly. If it was made to protect something? It would protect it at all costs unless there was something in the programming that would not allow it to do so. In my eyes, a Perfect AI is not a robot that acts perfectly human, but a robot that acts as it should: like a robot.

“Defective” AI is what you get when people like killing machines. Usually, they have huge glitches or flaws in their programming that turns them into something they shouldn’t be. The thing is that all AIs would have glitches or flaws, and very few if any at all would turn out to be like the killing machines I’ve experienced. The programming for Artificial Intelligence is so complicated that it’s impossible to avoid something that shouldn’t happen. It’s just that those things aren’t usually as drastic as people seem to love making them.


Ah, Mary Sues. Or Gary Lous. We all know what they are, don’t we? Our lovely little perfect characters who do everything right, are super smart and super strong, and never fail to get on our nerves. Some people just don’t have the heart to give their “totally awesome” character a single flaw, and they end up being so infuriating that every other character ends up trying to kill them but ultimately failing because Mary/Gary Sue/Lou godmods their way out of the situation.

So what am I trying to say here?

Don’t be perfect. Give your character a flaw that could potentially be their undoing. Are they really strong? Make them unintelligent or have low endurance. Do they have an awesome superpower? Make it take up a lot of energy or hurt them every time they use it.

Just be careful not to throw in too many flaws, because otherwise they’ll become an attention wh*re like those characters with all the mental illnesses that always grab the spotlight. People get very bored very fast when somebody’s character is always getting captured by the enemy or getting injured or simply complaining about everything.

A good character takes time to make, but don’t be afraid to try and make one. I’m not kidding; everybody will be a lot happier and have much more fun if you do.


Who here hates psychopathic killers? Raise your hand. Please. Raise it now, so I can see it and yes, I can see it. Is it raised? Good.

Those characters that attack others for seemingly no reason and try to kill them and all that crap are perhaps some of the most irksome things in the whole world. They have no purpose other than to cause harm, no thought process other than “He saw the little kid and threw a rock at him, then laughed when the kid started crying”. It’s just plain annoying.

Nothing in real life is like that. Nothing. There is always something that fuels those brutal killers we here about on TV, always a reason for seemingly senseless killings in movies and TV shows. People and animals do not kill each other for the sake of killing each other, and they do not simply move on to their next victim afterwards.

It really, REALLY es me off when someone randomly has their character eat someone. I'm not talking about the werewolf that can't help but staring at you while wondering how loud you would scream if it took just one little bite. I'm talking about those one liners where a normal human character just randomly EATS SOMEONE. Superpowers, etc. or not, why the hell...?

Piper had unwittingly positioned herself in such a way that she was tensed perfectly to spring, and the personality-- not Ripper this time, mind you-- that was taking control used this to its advantage. The instant Matt touched her, her eyes cleared up and, though they weren't visible at all, her pupils had become more elliptical than circular, and then she growled and literally pounced on him.
Her hands pressed hard against his chest and, with the momentum she'd achieved from that tensed position, he'd likely be floored if he wasn't prepared.

I had to cut out the inappropriate stuff, and info you wouldn't understand without seeing the entire thing.

But see? Gabe's mind is like a hurricane, he has lots of sh*t going on, and he happens to be growing lots of hair, having random toothaches, and did I mention the fact that people are looking less like friends and more like something that doesn't have a thick hide to tear through? It's that sort of thing where veins flash like strobe lights, you can't help but block off escape routes, and your buddy smells like your favorite restaurant when you haven't eaten all day.

It really makes me go WTF when a character randomly eats/kills someone.

And while I'm talking, a police officer once told me that when a man starts to cry, that man is probably going to get violent. Just a random bit of info for you to use.

*takes breath*

Stuff like what happened with Gabe isn’t only for eating people; it’s for a lot of things involving violence. Killers don’t just walk up to somebody and shoot them in the face or decapitate them or whatever. They select their target for a reason. Maybe it was somebody who bullied them in school, maybe it was somebody who they had a deep grudge against, or maybe it was just a girl that said no when they asked her out. Either way, there is always a reason for violence.

After selecting their target, they often make plans. These plans take a long time to formulate; usually the killer doesn’t want to get caught, so they follow their target around and select the best time and place to strike.

Afterwards, there is guilt. Remorse. You don’t just kill a person and think nothing of it. I am not a murderer, but I can imagine what it would be like to have killed somebody. They would have nightmares about their victim(s) coming back from the dead to get them. They would be paranoid of getting caught. They would regret ending a life. The dying screams, the pleading, and the look in the eyes of the person they killed would haunt them to their dying day.

You can’t just walk up to somebody, stab them in the face, and move on.

You just can’t.

YOUR TOOLS

Your Basic Weapons - Dictionary and Thesauruses and the online reference
- AaronMk

Something I feel that should be continually stressed when writing is the ability to use words well. And to use words beyond the basic casual vocabulary. Words that in use can help spice up and shake a written piece by avoiding drab words such as "like" and can expand the impact of your writing. This not only applies to Role-Playing beyond a casual sense, but life in general; going above story-telling to essays or any other form of writing you would employ throughout your life.

Being able to recall specific sets of words may be the difference between simply stumbling through a scene when a large chunk of it could be wrapped up in a single world, or extinguishing writer's block (as I have found in some personal cases). It is thus the opinion of myself, and of my contemporaries that the utilizing of two very basic tools should be used where possible. These tools are very simply: the English Dictionary and a complimenting Thesaurus.

There is no good excuse to not use these when possible. The wide world of the internet makes both word books highly accessible for use to every man and woman. Marriam-Webster maintains a free and open online dictionary. Often times the definitions may include apt synonyms and related words. But if not, there is always the free online Thesaurus which is accessible to everyone who bothers to use it.

For your use:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
http://thesaurus.com/

There is many a time where I will refer to these two sites in unison to not only look for a word, but to check I am using a word correctly. For though a synonym may be correct by its mechanics and virtue of a synonym: it may not always be fitting which make being able to access its definition all the better. The word may be stronger - or weaker - than it needs to be for its intended purposes. This can also help in spell checking if you want to be archaic.

In addition, depending on how hardcore and detailed you want to be I'll stress the importance of having opened any other references and articles open for miscellaneous searching. Tools like Wikipedia, Google Maps if you're operating in the real world, or maybe a few relevant news articles that give a break down on relevant RP facts may be important to help gain a perspective useful in Role-Playing. Though, I would only stress the last two in relevance to PoW-level activity where believably is expected. Otherwise, Wikipedia or other odd sites can be used to simply double-check facts to ensure things are probable within a certain degree of error, or what you're doing can be considered canonical if you're playing in a pre-created world (Pokemon, Elder Scrolls, Fallout) with deep lore.

However (addendum by VilageidiotX with aid by Robin Williams):



Just because a word is not common does not mean it is good. Using a sentence like "The corpulent legislator gormandized his capacious repast" is not better then "The fat politician ate a big meal". If people don't understand what you are saying, then you will fail to communicate your idea. Also, if the words are too awkward to read, you will fail to keep a persons attention. Your first job is to put an image in somebodies head."

"The purpose of using uncommon phrases and words is assure that the feeling or image you communicate has weight. Words like 'Very' fail to do this because they don't really change anything. Common terms, phrases, and overused words will fail to impress the reader. We've all heard things described as 'Epic' so many times that it fails to really describe what it is supposed to. Likewise, describing someone who is fat as looking like a pig fails to have weight because it is an overused metaphor that does not mean anything.


Your Basic Weapons - Forum Tools.
- AaronMk

Aside from this workshop, I will have to stress the existence of two basic threads which you can utilize to discuss Roleplaying concepts, gather some potential support if you need it, or simply throw caution to the wind and hang about. These threads being the General RP Discussion and Information thread (http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1312565-general-rp-discussion-and-information-thread/) and our faithful compilation and catagorization of RP'ers that is the Official RP'er Index (http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1535246-official-rp-player-index-another-renovation-and-also-second-opinions-on-your-types/).

In conjunction, both threads can be used to get in touch with the RP'ing crowd among other things.

Other useful tools would include the forum search bar, which is that handy little dingy at the top-right corner of the page. Simply punching in a keyword or two will present you with a list of threads related to those terms. You can use this search box to seek out RPs in your interest easily, thereby cutting down on the risk of clutter in the forum.

Though I will stress to read the OP and last post too to ensure it's actually still functioning as to avoid unnecessary necros. Also make sure you do it in the RP forum, or else you'll get every thread in the MCF which has invoked this term in its history.

This function can also be used within a thread to check on what's happened relevant to a certain piece of terminology, whether it be person, place, thing, or action. I have used this many times in Precipice of War to cross-check the lore and to confirm/deny any questions pertaining to the lore of that monster of an RP. I've also used it to find and pull up ancient posts so others may read it.

I'll also admit to skulking the forum with the search bar to track public oppinion of PoW.


Your more Advanced Weapons - Independent Research
- AaronMk

Well, what is independent Research? Well it could as I stated earlier: simply double checking lore, historical, or scientific facts. But it could also be used to expand your mind when it comes to mechanics in writing. whether to inspire or to inform. A bit of side-line research conducted by yourself, or with the assistance of a third party. To that, it brings me to this:

There are hundreds - millions - of potential research outlets. These can range from guides similar to this, videos or essays on literature that break down a piece into its core themes and examines its fundamentals, actually reading another book, watching a TV show or a movie (I'd recommend anything critically accalimed and classic in this area) to see for yourself how it is executed. Alternativly, if you're someone still in high school you could approach someone like your English teacher and discuss with him some fundamentals. If you're on a cool level with him/her: perhaps ask him to go over your own writing samples and provide professional feedback?

Of course, these are the tools that I don't consider basic and fundamental. I don't hope that everyone will use these, or everyone will be comfortable doing so. But, if you - as a person - want to push yourself and excel for greatness than I would advocate for these avenues to be explored. It helps for not only seeing basic fundamentals, but to acquire basic inspiration. Feel free to re-write scenes to fit your purpose. You're RP'ing, this is hardly professional level stuff. And if you want to pursue more professional adventures in it then in mimicry you will be learning how that scene fit into its source. Or, you will learn this all the while just having a bit of fun.

Do feel free to muck about.

And because I'm a kind soul, have some videos from TEDeducation that I have found these interesting and relevant:
[youtube][/youtube]

[youtube][/youtube]

[yotuube][/youtube]

[youtube][/youtube]

And for kicks:

[youtube][/youtube]

There is a whole host of content on the internet that you can explore to learn to write better. Or even to research the feasibility of a subject, or to paint yourself a picture of a world you're creating or re-creating.

YOUR TOOLS ROTATING EDITORIAL - OTHER CONSIDERABLE ARTICLES

Osaka's Guide
- AaronMK (5/14/13)

You may have noticed that sprinkled throughout this workshop I have included articles by OsakaSun. Her original guide can be read here, in full and complete order:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/774957-a-guide-to-realistic-roleplaying-by-osakasun/#entry10060377

RESERVED FOR THE FUTURE

RESERVED FOR THE FUTURE

RESERVED FOR THE FUTURE

This is a sight for my eyes, honestly. Not only that beginners probably will read and learn several important points to this topic with this, but those who seek perfection finally gain a clue what to do or at least some extremely usable tips. And therefore, very clever gentlemen, I thank you.

So here's my latest article:

La Musique
- TheEvanCat

For the first time in human history, we have the capability to combine two things not normally combined this way: music and writing. Now, I'm guessing everyone has seen a television show or movie, correct? Every single one of you has the Internet, and by extension, electricity and at least some money. TVs are usually included in the bundle. But anyways, TV shows, movies, and even video games have been using music as part of their entertainment experience since before voice was used. The score of a film can evoke emotions like fear, sadness, excitement, or any number of others.

Spoiler'd for your convenience:

So now that we've covered what music can make you feel, music can also directly change the mood of a scene, even if you don't realize it. So take the below video, for example (another Black Hawk Down clip):


The music was heroic, right? Now mute it and play over it. Less heroic, and more desperate, right? That's how the music can be one of the biggest things affecting a scene. So that's what I was getting at. Now, how does one translate it over to writing?

Writing can evoke images in one's head as they naturally paint a picture based on your descriptions of the scene. So, if written properly, a piece of writing can be translated as a tiny "movie" in your head that uses your imagination to visualize what's happening. Thus, music will perform the same functions in a post as previously outlined. But, there is one catch to that. You need to write in a way that matches with the music. This takes longer than writing a normal post, and it's also a bit more complicated. Most of you guys read at an average pace, which is why it's called "average pace." What an author should do is try to match certain events in the post with events in the music. If a music track transforms from a hard-rock anthem to a sudden dramatic tone, make sure it corresponds with something that would be likely to drastically change the mood in a post, like a wounded man or getting a failed grade on a test that ruins a perfect day.

And when the music ends, that post should either temporarily wind down or end with it. You can't have the song stop and the action keep going, so as the song fades out the author should try to write in a temporary break from whatever action's going on to keep up. Now, that's not to say you're being dominated by the song: you can have the ability to control when it stops as well, mostly by simply adding an OOC tag that says: "It stops fitting at 01:42" or something.

So there we have it. Music can be a very powerful tool in literature, and it is one that many people overlook or use improperly. Just remember to write your post to fit with the music (or write the music to fit with the post if you want to expend that much effort), and it will maximize the emotional effect be it victory, irony, or sadness.

Quote from TheEvanCat

Then Vilage and Gorgy need to get stuck so the whole crew will have a part of the north.

North syde PoWer!

The South will rise again!

So I was told I could help out here but I'm not quite sure yet what to do.

You possess female sexual organs, no? Maybe write a column for men RP'ing as women so they don't get it wrong.

That depends on the woman they want to play. Also there is a thing about women roleplaying guys, I havn't seen it too often though.

Rping multiple people as we do, it comes up a lot in the large scale nation/faction rp's.

I have a few female characters. A diplomat, someone's wife, a hooker (Sevan), a spy, etc.

I got the feminine half of my Chinese youth arch. One of which is openly lesbian.

Prussia's Red Baron is a female. I haven't really played her much though. Maybe I will once the Armenia stuff takes off.