OOC: I've been working on this sort of RPing guide thing for noobs and I have finished the first draft. I was wondering if y'all could possibly give it a read and give me any feedback. Be brutally honest. If I've missed something out then let me know. If something doesn't make sense then drop me a line. If I've mis-spelt something then go fuck yourself. Also, this is aimed at people who are brand new to RPing.
The guide to “Hella Epic” RPing
By Hack3r
I bet some people who have stumbled on to this will be like “Wots RPING? IZ EET COL? LOL”. Those people can be ignored. I only deal with intelligent people. If you consider yourself in the “intelligent” category then carry on reading. If not, leave. Right now. Go on. Leave.
That was a test and guess what? You passed. Anyway, on to business. RPi ng or “Role Playing” (As it’s properly called) involves creating a character and living out their lives through the medium of writing. It can be done by anyone, at any level, at any age and only requires the ability to be able to write sentences. If that can’t be done then I don’t think RPing is for you and I’d ask you to refer to the first paragraph again and re-think your answer.
Still with us? Good. On TWG (Or The Wrestling Game) RPing takes shape in the form of people playing the roles of wrestlers in fictional scenes. These scenes can be anything from one guy calling out another to a grudge match over who has the better smile to a tag team kidnapping their enemy tag team’s mascot, bubble bee, and forcing him to walk off of a suspension bridge in to the cold, cold water below. These RPs are designed to get something across about the characters. It could be anything from simply showing that your character is a fan of Vimto (No endorsements. It’s just awesome) or to show that the character isn’t going to back down in the upcoming “Super, total, utter destruction of death match” that’s coming up next week and in which he’ll be facing the man he’s been feuding with for the past 4 months.
Primarily these scenes are written for wrestling federations. (Think TNA but with better storylines and less old people.) but some people just do it for fun. There are a myriad of different federations ranging from start out feds that will basically accept anyone to the feds that have been around for years and will only accept you if you have a PHD in being awesome/ being able to write coherently. There’s nothing to fear though. If you wish to RP then a fed WILL accept you. If this all sounds attractive and you’re considering joining a federation then your next step is possibly the most important one you could make...
*Drum roll*
CHARACTER CREATION *Fan girls squeal*
Character creation involves doing exactly that; creating a character. I would say that most importantly finding an awesome name would be a good place to start. You may want to RP as “J0hn_Cen@96” but who is a GM of a fed going to choose? J0hn_Cen@96 or Brock Strongo? (Plus, why would you want to play a character based on an IRL character? Originality is the key.)
Once you have your name it would probably be best to think up a back story for your character. Where did they come from? What’s happened to them in the past??What’s convinced them to become a wrestler? Are they nice? (Heel = bad, Face = good, Tweener = somewhere in the middle). Here’s an example:
1 Name – Murder-o
Originally born Algernon Dweebinson, Murdero led a very normal, boring, nerdy life. To no one’s surprise he was bullied in school. It was after a particularly bad day of swirlies, wedgies and wet willies in the 11th grade that Algernon promised himself that he would make something of his life. He devoted himself to his studies (Not surprising for a nerd) and eventually graduated with honours in Robotics. After this he spent several years building a suit. A fighting suit. A suit so powerful that he would be invincible while wearing it. His plan didn’t work. The suit was cool but he wasn’t invincible. One day he noticed that one of his old antagonists from his child hood was a professional wrestler. He decided to become a wrestler simply for the solo reason of beating that bully and showing that he’s not the 15 year old super geek that he used to be. Because of his weedy frame and acne ridden skin he uses his old suit during fights and goes under the ring name of Murder-o .
In that example I made the mistake (purposely) of making the background a bit over-the-top and unrealistic. It’s fine being slightly zany but don’t take the biscuit.
You should also decide on any quirks or habits that your character could have. Continually mentioning that Algernon gets nervous and begins to sweat profusely whenever he hears a toilet flush would be a good example of this. It brings more life to the character. That’s a good thing. Another thing to bear in mind is physical appearance. Obviously no one is ever going to see Algernon but it probably wouldn’t be a bad thing to have a vague idea in your head of what the character looks like. I find being able to imagine my character in a scene helps me to write it.
THE RPING ITSELF.
Now that you’ve got the skeleton of your character it’s time to flesh out them there bones. This is the good part now. The aforementioned “Fleshing out” is done through RPs. A few things you should keep in mind are:
1 The RP doesn’t have to be too long. In fact, sometimes, massive RPs can be a proper mission to read.
2 Good spelling isn’t essential but would definitely be helpful to your respective federation. If truly in doubt over the spelling of a word then try and use a word that means the same thing that you can spell. Also, always proof read what you’ve written. Even the most seasoned of writers sometimes slip up and write “ the penis” instead of “ the pen is”.
3 If RPing with other characters that are controlled by someone else it’s normally accepted that you won’t write what their characters do for them. This is called godmoding and is generally frowned upon except under certain conditions.
4 Before you even start writing you should have some kind of idea of what you want the RP to be about. It’s ok to change ideas in the middle of writing but if you go in with no idea then it’ll be obvious in the RP and no one’s going to enjoy it.
5 Keep continuity in mind. If you’re RPing with someone and they mention that their character has crossed the room and sat down in front of the fire then don’t write about how your character just pushed their character to the ground. You’re just going to look like a n00b. This applies to sounds too. If the scene is taking place in a car park then there might be the occasional sound of a car horn or someone urinating.
6 If writing for more than one character then that complicates things. If you’ve personally created a second character then they’re yours to use as you wish. Some feds offer backstage interviewers that can be used by anyone and again, don’t godmod someone else’s character.
7 I always find that dialogue is the most interesting part of an RP. You can really use dialogue to bring a character to life. Do they speak in short, disjointed sentences because they’re nervous, excited or scared OR do they speak in long soliloquies that give them an air of intelligence by avoiding all non colloquial sounding words? (See what I did there?)
8 Include as much detail as you can be bothered to. More detail normally means better RPs but don’t listen to Salt’n’Pepa. Don’t push it.
With these tips in mind let’s write an RP.
First off I’m going to decide on the point of the RP. (Algernon is gearing up for his fight against his child hood antagonist, Mick Dooley, for the first time since high school.) Second will be the setting of the RP. (In Algernon’s mum’s basement.) Next will be to decide who’s in the RP. (Algernon and his mum.)
After that it’s dialogue. (Algernon’s mum walking in to offer him some cookies and juice but he shouts at her telling her to “Get out of his room because he’s concentrating”. You should also try to include any non sequitur stuff. (A bird flying in to the window of Algernon’s room.) It doesn’t ever need to be mentioned ever again but it adds some more realism to the RP and gives us a bit more of an idea of the character. After all. These RPs are supposed to be set in the real world. The wrestlers aren’t the only people who are walking and talking and breathing and stuff.
You carry on in this way until you get to an ending.(duh) There are several ways to end an RP and these are normally dictated by what’s happened during the RP. (If two people were fighting then the camera could get knocked over and sent to static. On the other hand, if the RP involved a guy calmly issuing an open challenge for any “bro” to “come at him” then he might get up and leave allowing the camera to slowly fade to black.
Now’s the fun part. I’m going to use my own advice to write the RP I’ve been planning out. Here goes.
The camera opens on to a dark, dingy room. Algernon Dweebinson is leaning back in his computer chair and staring at the wall. It’s now apparent the camera feed is coming from the webcam attached to his computer. Algernon begins to slowly rock his chair from left to right, increasing in speed until the chair seems in danger of falling over. He checks himself and rises from the seat. He crosses the room and begins to wipe his robotic suit standing in the corner with a duster. He whispers something to himself about “finally having the opportunity and the power to make his dreams come true”. With that he jumps on to his bed and begins to stare up at the ceiling. We can vaguely see that he’s staring at a poster of Mick Dooley, an old enemy of his. It can be seen that a comedic moustache has been drawn on the poster. He stops his muttering sending the room in to complete silence except for the noise of a toilet being flushed. At this noise he jumps to attention and places his hand over his head for protection. A possible side effect of the severe bullying he was a victim of in his younger days. Sweat patches begin to appear on his gray t-shirt. A knock is heard at the door and he shouts for whoever it is to go away. A middle aged woman steps in to the room wearing a mini apron over a flowered dress and carrying a small tray of cookies and some juice.
Mum: Algy. I made these for ...
He begins to raise his voice.
Algernon: MUM! LEAVE! I HAVE TO CONCENTRATE! YOU KNOW I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY FOR SO, SO LONG. Please. Just leave. If I eat those cookies now I’m going to get bloated and that can’t help.
His mum goes to step in to the room but is hit on the head by a stuffed toy being lobbed at her head. She recoils from the room accompanied by screams from Algernon about letting him have his privacy. Algernon soon breaks down in to tears. Several seconds later his mum inches her way back in to the room and crosses it so as to sit on Algernon’s bed with him. She embraces him in her arms and he weeps. The camera slowly fades to black.
NOW. That was just an example RP to demonstrate what I mean. If you keep these guidelines in mind when writing then I can’t see how you can go far wrong. On the other hand you could admit to yourself that you’ve wasted five minutes of your life and ignore everything you’ve read. Who am I to tell you what to do with your character? He’s your guy. It’s up to you to live his life. Don’t let the man (me) tell you how to live your imaginary character’s life.
I’ve been Hack3r. Thank you for reading.
I’m out.
The guide to “Hella Epic” RPing
By Hack3r
I bet some people who have stumbled on to this will be like “Wots RPING? IZ EET COL? LOL”. Those people can be ignored. I only deal with intelligent people. If you consider yourself in the “intelligent” category then carry on reading. If not, leave. Right now. Go on. Leave.
That was a test and guess what? You passed. Anyway, on to business. RPi ng or “Role Playing” (As it’s properly called) involves creating a character and living out their lives through the medium of writing. It can be done by anyone, at any level, at any age and only requires the ability to be able to write sentences. If that can’t be done then I don’t think RPing is for you and I’d ask you to refer to the first paragraph again and re-think your answer.
Still with us? Good. On TWG (Or The Wrestling Game) RPing takes shape in the form of people playing the roles of wrestlers in fictional scenes. These scenes can be anything from one guy calling out another to a grudge match over who has the better smile to a tag team kidnapping their enemy tag team’s mascot, bubble bee, and forcing him to walk off of a suspension bridge in to the cold, cold water below. These RPs are designed to get something across about the characters. It could be anything from simply showing that your character is a fan of Vimto (No endorsements. It’s just awesome) or to show that the character isn’t going to back down in the upcoming “Super, total, utter destruction of death match” that’s coming up next week and in which he’ll be facing the man he’s been feuding with for the past 4 months.
Primarily these scenes are written for wrestling federations. (Think TNA but with better storylines and less old people.) but some people just do it for fun. There are a myriad of different federations ranging from start out feds that will basically accept anyone to the feds that have been around for years and will only accept you if you have a PHD in being awesome/ being able to write coherently. There’s nothing to fear though. If you wish to RP then a fed WILL accept you. If this all sounds attractive and you’re considering joining a federation then your next step is possibly the most important one you could make...
*Drum roll*
CHARACTER CREATION *Fan girls squeal*
Character creation involves doing exactly that; creating a character. I would say that most importantly finding an awesome name would be a good place to start. You may want to RP as “J0hn_Cen@96” but who is a GM of a fed going to choose? J0hn_Cen@96 or Brock Strongo? (Plus, why would you want to play a character based on an IRL character? Originality is the key.)
Once you have your name it would probably be best to think up a back story for your character. Where did they come from? What’s happened to them in the past??What’s convinced them to become a wrestler? Are they nice? (Heel = bad, Face = good, Tweener = somewhere in the middle). Here’s an example:
1 Name – Murder-o
Originally born Algernon Dweebinson, Murdero led a very normal, boring, nerdy life. To no one’s surprise he was bullied in school. It was after a particularly bad day of swirlies, wedgies and wet willies in the 11th grade that Algernon promised himself that he would make something of his life. He devoted himself to his studies (Not surprising for a nerd) and eventually graduated with honours in Robotics. After this he spent several years building a suit. A fighting suit. A suit so powerful that he would be invincible while wearing it. His plan didn’t work. The suit was cool but he wasn’t invincible. One day he noticed that one of his old antagonists from his child hood was a professional wrestler. He decided to become a wrestler simply for the solo reason of beating that bully and showing that he’s not the 15 year old super geek that he used to be. Because of his weedy frame and acne ridden skin he uses his old suit during fights and goes under the ring name of Murder-o .
In that example I made the mistake (purposely) of making the background a bit over-the-top and unrealistic. It’s fine being slightly zany but don’t take the biscuit.
You should also decide on any quirks or habits that your character could have. Continually mentioning that Algernon gets nervous and begins to sweat profusely whenever he hears a toilet flush would be a good example of this. It brings more life to the character. That’s a good thing. Another thing to bear in mind is physical appearance. Obviously no one is ever going to see Algernon but it probably wouldn’t be a bad thing to have a vague idea in your head of what the character looks like. I find being able to imagine my character in a scene helps me to write it.
THE RPING ITSELF.
Now that you’ve got the skeleton of your character it’s time to flesh out them there bones. This is the good part now. The aforementioned “Fleshing out” is done through RPs. A few things you should keep in mind are:
1 The RP doesn’t have to be too long. In fact, sometimes, massive RPs can be a proper mission to read.
2 Good spelling isn’t essential but would definitely be helpful to your respective federation. If truly in doubt over the spelling of a word then try and use a word that means the same thing that you can spell. Also, always proof read what you’ve written. Even the most seasoned of writers sometimes slip up and write “ the penis” instead of “ the pen is”.
3 If RPing with other characters that are controlled by someone else it’s normally accepted that you won’t write what their characters do for them. This is called godmoding and is generally frowned upon except under certain conditions.
4 Before you even start writing you should have some kind of idea of what you want the RP to be about. It’s ok to change ideas in the middle of writing but if you go in with no idea then it’ll be obvious in the RP and no one’s going to enjoy it.
5 Keep continuity in mind. If you’re RPing with someone and they mention that their character has crossed the room and sat down in front of the fire then don’t write about how your character just pushed their character to the ground. You’re just going to look like a n00b. This applies to sounds too. If the scene is taking place in a car park then there might be the occasional sound of a car horn or someone urinating.
6 If writing for more than one character then that complicates things. If you’ve personally created a second character then they’re yours to use as you wish. Some feds offer backstage interviewers that can be used by anyone and again, don’t godmod someone else’s character.
7 I always find that dialogue is the most interesting part of an RP. You can really use dialogue to bring a character to life. Do they speak in short, disjointed sentences because they’re nervous, excited or scared OR do they speak in long soliloquies that give them an air of intelligence by avoiding all non colloquial sounding words? (See what I did there?)
8 Include as much detail as you can be bothered to. More detail normally means better RPs but don’t listen to Salt’n’Pepa. Don’t push it.
With these tips in mind let’s write an RP.
First off I’m going to decide on the point of the RP. (Algernon is gearing up for his fight against his child hood antagonist, Mick Dooley, for the first time since high school.) Second will be the setting of the RP. (In Algernon’s mum’s basement.) Next will be to decide who’s in the RP. (Algernon and his mum.)
After that it’s dialogue. (Algernon’s mum walking in to offer him some cookies and juice but he shouts at her telling her to “Get out of his room because he’s concentrating”. You should also try to include any non sequitur stuff. (A bird flying in to the window of Algernon’s room.) It doesn’t ever need to be mentioned ever again but it adds some more realism to the RP and gives us a bit more of an idea of the character. After all. These RPs are supposed to be set in the real world. The wrestlers aren’t the only people who are walking and talking and breathing and stuff.
You carry on in this way until you get to an ending.(duh) There are several ways to end an RP and these are normally dictated by what’s happened during the RP. (If two people were fighting then the camera could get knocked over and sent to static. On the other hand, if the RP involved a guy calmly issuing an open challenge for any “bro” to “come at him” then he might get up and leave allowing the camera to slowly fade to black.
Now’s the fun part. I’m going to use my own advice to write the RP I’ve been planning out. Here goes.
The camera opens on to a dark, dingy room. Algernon Dweebinson is leaning back in his computer chair and staring at the wall. It’s now apparent the camera feed is coming from the webcam attached to his computer. Algernon begins to slowly rock his chair from left to right, increasing in speed until the chair seems in danger of falling over. He checks himself and rises from the seat. He crosses the room and begins to wipe his robotic suit standing in the corner with a duster. He whispers something to himself about “finally having the opportunity and the power to make his dreams come true”. With that he jumps on to his bed and begins to stare up at the ceiling. We can vaguely see that he’s staring at a poster of Mick Dooley, an old enemy of his. It can be seen that a comedic moustache has been drawn on the poster. He stops his muttering sending the room in to complete silence except for the noise of a toilet being flushed. At this noise he jumps to attention and places his hand over his head for protection. A possible side effect of the severe bullying he was a victim of in his younger days. Sweat patches begin to appear on his gray t-shirt. A knock is heard at the door and he shouts for whoever it is to go away. A middle aged woman steps in to the room wearing a mini apron over a flowered dress and carrying a small tray of cookies and some juice.
Mum: Algy. I made these for ...
He begins to raise his voice.
Algernon: MUM! LEAVE! I HAVE TO CONCENTRATE! YOU KNOW I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DAY FOR SO, SO LONG. Please. Just leave. If I eat those cookies now I’m going to get bloated and that can’t help.
His mum goes to step in to the room but is hit on the head by a stuffed toy being lobbed at her head. She recoils from the room accompanied by screams from Algernon about letting him have his privacy. Algernon soon breaks down in to tears. Several seconds later his mum inches her way back in to the room and crosses it so as to sit on Algernon’s bed with him. She embraces him in her arms and he weeps. The camera slowly fades to black.
NOW. That was just an example RP to demonstrate what I mean. If you keep these guidelines in mind when writing then I can’t see how you can go far wrong. On the other hand you could admit to yourself that you’ve wasted five minutes of your life and ignore everything you’ve read. Who am I to tell you what to do with your character? He’s your guy. It’s up to you to live his life. Don’t let the man (me) tell you how to live your imaginary character’s life.
I’ve been Hack3r. Thank you for reading.
I’m out.
