The Role Player's Handbook: A Guide to the Styles and Terms of Online Text Base RP

Hi! I'm Cricket Syamota and I'm gonna be your host today on our adventure through Role Play etiquette and style. Before we get started I have listed some terms below that will be used throughout this admission to Deviant Art's catalog of information that no one ever reads! :D Let's get starts.

Role Play: RP
          Role Play is the act of playing out different rolls. Actors do this, it's a cheap and fun way of talking to people, it also helps people learn to script write. Did I mention it's fun?

Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Games: MMORPG
          This is NOT about MMORPGs, MMORPGs are all just like video games. This is about Text Base Role Play, or just Role Play, as far as I'm concerned. Screw MMORPGs, where you sometimes have to play money to be hassled by bad tech support people. This is free and easy.

Story Line: SL
          The plot of an RP, moved forward by the characters of the story in which they play in.

Multiple Character RP: MCRP
         Where people play more than one character in a SL

Multiple Player RP: MPRP
          Where multiple players, usually more than two, in a SL game. This form of RP is harder to keep up with due to there being more people RPing at once. Clubs and Chatrooms are usually used for MPRP

Single Character RP: SCRP
          Quite simply how it sounds. This is the easier form of RP to do with MPRP so that there is less confusion between characters.

Simpler Player RP: SPRP
          SPRP is usually with less than four players, there is less confusion about who is talking to whom and the flow is much smoother than with MPRP.

In Character: IC
          This is the text or posts that are posted up in character, this means you're playing the game. More information about IC will follow below.

Out Of Character: OOC
          This means you're goofing off and not contributing to the SL at the moment. Conservation that are not conducive to the SL, link posts, questions and the like are done OOC. More information about OOC will follow below

So now we have our basic vocabulary for the rest of this document. The information you'll be getting is invaluable for the people who want to start RPing in chat rooms here on dA or through messengers like Yahoo and MSN.

In Character Information

In character usually consists of at least three elements: character name, character dialogue and character action. each element is important to the RP, especially if you are doing MCRP or MPRP.

Character Name
          This is quite simple. It's the name of the character you're using for your current post followed by a colon ":". An example will follow after the other information of the make up of an IC post.

Character Dialogue
           Nothing too hard about this one. It's what the character is saying to the other characters in the SL or even thinking to themselves. External dialogue needs no special markings to it while internal dialogue is usually closed off from the rest of the post by quotations or other symbols.

                    "---" One of the more common used symbols used for internral
                            dialogue. When a character does a quotation out loud
                            you can use '---' instead

                    <---> Another common used symbol set for internal thought

                    [---] The internal thought symbols I least recommend because
                            these are commonly used for OOC conversational.

Character Action
          What the character is doing, be it simple as a smile to another character or fighting a dragon. Actions move the SL as much as dialogue and are closed off from the rest of the post by several different types of symbols.

                   ::-::  The starter RPer action symbols. I started out using these
                           back on AOL. They are the type of symbols used by an
                           eager young RPer who wants to show that they can type
                           lots of characters fast.

                   -   - This is the common fast typist symbol usage, and the ones
                          I, myself prefer to use. These are the quickest for actions
                          because you do not have to hold down any other keys to
                          use these as action symbols.

                   ~-~  The fancy RPer symbols, mach 1. These are not for the
                           type of person who likes to type fast, rather for the type
                           of person who prefers to use prettier symbols.

                   *-* The fancy RPer symbols mach 2. Again not for the fast type
                         of RPer. These two tend to be combined.

There are many other symbols that you can use to signify action for your SL, but these four are the most common. You can also bold your actions and italicize your internal dialogue for a character if you want to take the extra time and effort to make your posts look neater.

Now that we have our elements let's take a look at the full thing:

Andrew: -sighs and sits back in his chair tapping his pencil on the desk top- "Great this is going to take forever."
Sarah:  -leans over and whispers to him- Andrew, do you know the answer to number fifteen?
Andrew: -blinks and looks over at her then smiles- The answer is 42.

Actions can come after dialogue, between parts of dialogue and so forth, it's really up to you. If you've ever seen a script you could see how this is similar to that.

Out Of Character Information

Basically your conversation with your friends that isn't part of the SL or RP. There are special symbols for OOC conversation like there are for actions.

                   [-] The easiest ooc blocking. You don't have to press extra keys
                          to use these and they are the simplest for the fast typist.
                          Similar symbols are (-) and {-} both types are used for ooc.

                   ooc: This is another type of ooc blocking that is similar to the
                          putting of a character's name at the beginning of a post.
                          This isn't the fastest way of posting but it does help show
                          ooc interactions. I prefer the brackets.

Other Helpful Hints

When you RP, make sure you RP like you would write a story. Net speak is fine for OOC, but for your IC posts, try to keep your spelling and the like at least some what understandable. If a character has an accent, it's fine to mess with how their speech patterns are, but if you're just typing things out a certain way because it saves you keystrokes, you will annoy those you're playing with.

Example, a few years ago I had a RP character named Pynn, but one of our other RPers couldn't be bothered to type out that extra 'n' so she continuously called him "Pen". This eventually got her removed from the SL because she was being rude to the other characters. If it takes you a little longer than other people to type out because you don't touch type, that's fine, but short cuts aren't exactly appreciated by those you play with.

When you do your actions avoid using the pronouns of "you", "your", "me", "my" "I" and "we". Use "he", "she", "him", "her", "they", "them", "it" or the character name instead. This way people know what character is addressing what character and that way you avoid inserting yourself into the SL, unless of course, you're playing yourself... Still it's proper etiquette to keep the story in the third person, it makes things easier.

Also, if chatroom MPRPs overwhelm you, find one or two friends that you're comfortable with and RP in messengers. I myself have been RPing for about ten years, having started out in the AOL chat rooms back when AOL was one of the only ways to get online and it was still dial up [OH GAWD!]

When doing a fight RP, discuss rules of etiquette between you and the other RPer. Avoid doing instant hits, giving the other player no choice of retaliation. This is called God Moding, and you will be removed from SLs for doing it. People don't like having the fun of an SL taken away by people who think that they are better than the other player. I'm the type of person that if you God Mode me, I will let you kill the current character and then rape you with one of my own God Mode characters and I will do it better than you because the usual rule for attacks when I play is you have to do double the amount of text I do in order to avoid an attack. I will take 15 minutes of your time to write a short novella just to kill your character. So, God Mode is a no no. Agreeing on a rule type is your best bet to avoid  God Moding and for creating a fun and enjoyable RP SL.

That's all for now, kiddies! I'll update this with more information later as information arises. :D [Can't tell I was bored can ya?]