Posted 16 May 2007 - 05:48 AM
An RP is basically a story, composed of small paragraphs describing what each character is doing at the time. Its usually written in the past tense and third person. For example:
Wifle: Bob entered the town looking for food, and so tied his horse up at the stable and entered the nearest pub
Split: Jimmy saw bob enter the pub; and as he was trying to kill him, went round the back of the pub and entered in through a side door.
Something like that, only a bit more detailed, with more emphasis on what each charcter can see/hear/knows etc, and also what the character doesn't know. Even though you've posted that and I can read it, my character doesn't know that you're trying to kill him/you've come in the side door.
Now, I've many options about what to do next. For example:
Wifle: Bob was standing at the bar when he noticed a stranger standing by the side door. sensing that something was amiss with this man, and so decided to investigate. He drew his knife and approached cautiously.
Now, there I've not power-played or Godmodded, but I've had a bit of luck/skill in deducing that somethings up with you. However, this means that I shouldn't post a lot more beneficial things happening to my charcter in the next few posts, as strings of luck and good things happening to your character is called power-playing/ godmodding.
Alternatively, I could have posted something like:
Wifle: Bob gulped down his drink and went to sit at a table in the corner to eat his bread. The noise and smells of the pub were making it difficult to concentrate, and although he was trying to keep an eye out for his own safety, he couldn't help observing the game of cards going on at the next table, where a large gentlemen with red hair was weeping profusely as he handed over his last ingot.
In this example, theres more detail, which is good, and nothing beneficial has happened to my character, in fact the opposite, something negative has happened, as hes distracted by the game of cards. This means that it wouldn't be frowned upon for me to get a bit of luck in our fight (assuming we have one) later on.
Lets say I go for the first option by approaching you:
Wifle: Bob went up to the stranger, his knife grasped firmly in his hand and concealed in his pocket. He approached the stranger, and tapped him on his shoulder. The stranger turned around and looked quizically at him, and Bob asked. "I saw you looking at me before, you got a problem?"
Now, whereas this may seem like quite a good post, there are some problems with it. First of all, I'm starting to control your character, which isn't allowed. Most people think about controlling other people's character as giving them great flesh wounds or stuff, but it can be as small as making someone turn around that can be classed as illegal or frowned upon. A better version would simply be this:
Wifle: Bob went up to the stranger, his knife grasped firmly in his hand and concealed in his pocket. He approached the stranger, and tapped him on his shoulder. Bob asked. "I saw you looking at me before, you got a problem?"
This way you can react as you want to, you don't have to turn around or anything. For example your post could be:
Split: As soon as Jimmy felt the hand on his shoulder he whirled around quickly, his glinting sword out of his holster and pressed against Bob's heart.
Obvisouly, that was a pretty impressive move to be able to do that so quickly without me being able to react. Its prefectly legal, but you'd be expected to not be able to do things like that all the time, or at least allow me some impressive stunts like that as well.
End of part one of 'RP Help' :unsure: I'll write some more later if you have any more questions that need answering.