RP Tutorial Course One: Outlining/Introducing RPs

[fireazula]

Welcome to Course One, Outlining/Introducing RPs! I suspect this one will be shorter than most, since most of us are/should/would be experienced or seen this, but it's an important part nonetheless. (at least in my opinion. -_-!!)


Lets begin with Titles.

...
1) Needs to be related to the idea, or the plot of the RP. -_-
2) Not in ANY case should it be same as another existing RP (in this forum anyhow) unless it's a sequel (i.e. CBY Year Two). (But that's still unlikely, so... -_- Then it's kind of okay. As long as the other one is deleted/trash bin.

Any other rules or guidelines, tutors just add to the list.

The title should be original, and preferred catchy/good/or otherwise creative. It's discouraged to use a particular name or title of OC or even a Canon (i.e. Ozai's Temper Tantrum. -_-;; because there is going to be more than one player.

The title should be broad as well, so that the RP won't be limited, although it's not nessecarily always that way.

For instance, Finding the Avtar is one example. It's still a great RP, and the name fits the idea and the beginning of the RP, but once you actually find the Avatar, the name's meaning kind of drops. (Not that I'm suggesting it should be changed.)

Something preferred would be like this: Sophisticated RP: --- Redenzvous.
Redenzvous means - at least according to my dictionary, - something like gathering or coming together. If the plot of the RP includes and stays with the idea of a gathering, coming together, it would be an appropriate name for the RP.
(For who you are wondering, --- stands for Vampire... -_- My friend made it, it's a RP in AF.net that I'm part of...)
And if you want a sophisticated RP, including it in the name might give a heads up, although it's not that nesscary.

Background info

1) Make sense, first of all. Hopefully no Lost Shadowbenders Nation or a forgotten Ancient Bending Art.
2) As the creator of the RP, you have to give enough of the info for players to join and begin the game.
3) Set rules, if any.
4) Set major character roles, if any.

I'll add more as time comes along, my sister wants me off the computer. NOW.

(Sorry for any spelling grammar mistakes I don't usually speed through all my posts like this. Ugh... )

[Munchkinator]

It's ok I guess.
but like you said, you sped through it...

[amaterasu]

Hi, I'm Amaterasu, and I'm one of the roleplay (RP) coaches. Nice to meet you!
HISTORY--- I roleplayed on Neopets for several years, and then moved to a board called Lindorinand, that mainly focused on Lord of The Rings. After that board died about six months ago, one of my friends said to me, "Oh, you can come roleplay at my board, SilverHearts!" I've been RPing there ever since.
--Now, on to the main feature~!--


Titles
*Murphy's Law (a fantasy thread. Murphy's Law= "whatever can go wrong, will.")
*Another Day in the Life (Furuba RP)
*Darkness Falls (Kenshin RP)
*The Golden Age (Knights of the Old Republic/Star Wars RP)
*Ninjas For Hire: Tsukigakure's in Trouble! (Naruto RP)

There really is no right or wrong title, just go for something that sounds good, and is attractive. If your title doesn't catch people's eyes, they might overlook your RP! D:


Background Info For A Thread
The way I find out about what a thread will be about at SilverHearts (since we're all good friends in real life) is to talk to them at school, or IM. Other than that, the people that start the RP just make really descriptive first entries.

But that may not possible for many of you on this particular forum... especially if you have started a thread with many characters. So, I suggest making a discussion forum, to post info about the RP, and to brainstorm ideas if you get stuck.


If you have any specific questions about these topics, or anything about roleplaying, you can PM me or email me at [e-mail] . I will try to get back to you soon.

[writer]

OK Intro
Hey I'm Bard Child or writer. Another RPG Coach
I have been RPing online for 4 years and I have tried several LARPS and board top games
I'm love to use characters from my books and short stories to RPG, and I'm your girl for chara devlopment

Title tips
-Make sure you make eye catching title and one that makes since to the plot
EG: Grounded! (and RPG about Earthbenders)
EG2: The Assassin's Dagger (a Fanstany inn in Avalon)
Adding a Plot
Make sure you add a proper plot and storyline so it will be a stable RPG.
EG: Children of Hao Long: A this RPG is about a Cult of Firebenders who whorship a divine enity of fire and one of the member is doomed to be sacrificed, Will she/he escape or devored by a being of holy fire.
As you can see it an exciting story, and you want to join in help the herioin or Hero
Setting
This is also curical. A setting will do more then give a place for you RP, but allow the plot to florish
EG: The Setting of Grounded Is an underground city made by Earthbender and refuggees.
build the setting and make it stable and beliveable as well

PM or AIM if you can. if you have ideas or need help ^^b

[Awapuhi]

I’ll introduce myself as well. I’m Ti, another tutor, and I’ve been RPing for about six years total. My first RP was at a site named Terole and I’ve participated in at least twenty different RPs since. The last was a Pern RP called Forgotten Epidemic, which has recently been laid to rest.

My role play experience is in Long-Text Based Forum Role Play. In this format, most of the posts exceed 1000 words and they usually take two or three days to formulate. It’s much different from the current popular style of posting. I can answer any questions you might have, but if I have one specialty it’s in “beefing up” posts. Welcome, everybody.

On Titles and Getting People to Come to Your Role Play:

When you start an RP, remember that you are expected to be the GM.

GM is short for Game Master. This person starts the RP and decides where the setting will be, what the characters will be doing, and what the point of the adventure is. The GM often will also act as nature. If a storm hits, most likely it will be the GM who says so. You are in control when you create an RP.

So it’s good to have a few ideas of where you want to go. Otherwise everybody will meet and then sort of… stand there… and… smile.

Have the basis of the plot firm in your mind. Guide the other players where you want them to go and make things interesting by putting distractions in their way. Introduce Fire Nation traps, flash floods, raging winds, or festivals and markets.

People will want to come to your RP if you know what you are doing. Show them that you’ve got a plan by writing a description saying so.

“The troupe will encounter many perils and thousands of opportunities for adventure in the Earth Kingdom, all the time trying desperately to find the Avatar so that he may save their village.” (The main point not only being to find the Avatar, but to save your village. 3/4s of the action will take place in seeking out the Avatar before you even catch up to him.)

Once you post a short introduction, everyone knows what the point of the adventure is, why it absolutely needs to be done, and how it’s going to happen. (With lots of flashy lights and fun sounds!)

Everyone else pretty much covered titles. I would title this description with something like, “Seeking The Avatar's Peace.” A title should be vague but not lose its purpose. It needs to explain the bare bones of what’s going on but not be a summary of the entire plot.

The title is the worm. The description is the hook. Entice them in and then seize their interest.

[fireazula]

*standing ovation for all the tutors* X3

Now to the beginning post -

(hopefully you know what I mean by it... -_-

Beginning post. The starting post of the RP. When you have all the players who joined and think the RP's good enough to start. It's the intro to the RP, usually written by the one who made the RP to begin with.

So there are about two types;

1) Long written paragraph explaining the background and the author's character, or the beginning of the plot

2) short and simple, just enough to start the RP.

Whether you choose the type One or type Two or something else, depends on the mood of your RP, whether it's serious or just simple.

Hm. Okay as soon as everyone's okay with this, Course One will be considered done. Hopefully Course Two: Your OC will happen within this week.

[Awapuhi]

Um, okay, I’ll just post next, then? ^.^;

The most important things about your beginning post are background and clarity. You have basically covered what’s going to happen in the introduction, but now it’s time to put some meat on those bones. Metaphors, by the way, should be used sparingly in beginning posts. Other RPers will generally take things literally to try to understand you.

The point of making that statement was to emphasize that beginning posts need to be clear. Everything that follows in your RP will be built on the beginning post. Here are some examples of… not-so-good beginning posts.

“As the daw’ bro’e o’er the horizon and e’eryone in the borou’ of Ushala rose to greet the morn’, a gorgeous femme standing five feet in heigh’ stro’ ‘cross a dus’y path.”

Overuse of the apostrophe and the word “femme” are commonly associated with afflicted horse RPs. There’s a smaller chance that you’ll run into these issues in an Avatar Role Play, but it’s best to be prepared. Half of the time nobody has any idea what this type of poster is saying. Try to stay away from the apostrophe as much as you can… and I’d suggest looking up the word “femme” and seeing how it would work in your context before using it…

“as the sun got hghier, Uma wnet down thee path. she looked around and saw Ushala and then looked at the ski i wonder if i shuld go there? she thought”

Now it gets a little serious. First off, always use a spellchecker. Please. Forums are not chatrooms, and they have been created so that people can take some time in writing their responses. Thank you. ^.^ Also, note the lack of punctuation. It’s a little hard to understand the post with everything flowing together like that. As with the first post, most RPers won’t trust you to make the RP interesting if they can’t decipher what you’re saying.

“A bloody orb rose in the sky, searing Uma’s sight. She walked like a wolf down the burning path and drank deep from the river of grace, every step she took Ushala-ward slipping like a sinuous snake across the earth.”

While this poster gets points for creativity, so many metaphors and similes and images and whatnot all thrown together in one post really make no sense. The end impression is of a bleeding circle levitating into the air above a woman doing some sort of sliding dance on all fours towards something called Ushala, and somewhere in there is a river and… The path is on fire! Try to look at your posts objectively and think, “Would this confuse someone else, and when does my brain do a double-check?” Clarity doesn’t just mean having good grammar.

“Uma walked in.”

Okay, now I know you would never do this. Try to make your beginning paragraph at least three sentences long. This is example is on the list because it is vague. Who is Uma? Where is she walking? Everybody needs to know the setting so that they can fit their characters into it.

My overall advice for this course? Just remember you’re the GM. Everything will come naturally if you just pretend to be another RPer who is considering your RP. Make the best impression that you can.

Course two is a go from this post, Captain. *Salute* ^.^

[kaangluv]

Wow, this is really helpful!

So are we going to have to create our characters for the next course, so they're ready for analysis? Or will we get pointers and then create OCs and have them analysed?

Looking forward to it!

[Awapuhi]

The OCs will be created step-by-step during the next course, name, then age, then personality, then description. We'll start from the bare bones and work up.

If the other tutors have nothing else to add then I'll lock this thread and begin a new one tomorrow. Next Course: Writing in Third Person!