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| Thread: How to RP Successfully: All the Rules and Tricks | |
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted November 13, 2006 09:18 PM |
bonus applied. |
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How to RP Successfully: All the Rules and Tricks
What is a successful RP?
This is very straightforward. A successful RP is one in which the thread is active and of quality posts. Though it is a simple concept to achieve, the means by which one can do it is fairly complex. These are all my observations from RPing over the past three years.
Rules to Maintain Activity:
1.) Increase Interest - This sounds simple enough, but really it isn't. There are many different way to do this and you really need to do all of them.
--a.) Have extraordinary posts that inspire people to write more.
--b.) Find ways to get people directly involved in the evolution or creation of the thread. Once people put in effort and see other people build upon what they had created, it's very uplifting and inspiring. You feel as though you want to in turn put in more effort to see where the story goes next and to surprise the other people in the RP.
--c.) Maintain Activity. People lose interest in threads that don't go anywhere. Yes this is a catch22, and this means we really need to make sure that the thread doesn't become inactive for too long. Now too long really depends on how successful and interested in the thread everyone was before the thread became inactive. If people weren't all that interested to begin with, then it's likely the thread will never be revived. However if it was a thread that inspired everyone who posted in it for months on end. People will really want to revive it and put in the effort again, but then you get problems with whether or not some of the members are still visiting HC regularly.
2.) Don't wait for others to post. This in itself is extremely tricky. Often times people don't realize just how much they rely on one person to remain active until they are gone. I saw Woock's Spam Angel die off almost instantly because everyone was breaking this rule. To further describe the method in which to post sucessfully (not waiting for others to post) one or more of the following must be true about your posting habits:
--a.) Numerous people can respond to your post.
--b.) You are certain that the selected member or members will respond in a short period of time.
--c.) You are ready and willing to write around the absence of receiving no response.
3.) Don't go inactive if people are relying on you to post. This is directly related to rule number 2. Sometimes Rule 2 has to be broken in order for the RP to be successful or more interesting. LHW has died and gone inactive, because everyone broke this rule. If your character is vital to the plot and you lose interest or don't take the time out of the day to post, then please do one of the following:
--a.) Put another person in charge of your characters and/or ideas.
--b.) Write yourself out of the thread without ruining the thread dynamics. This means don't just kill off your character randomly so that it ruins any future climax that was going to occur.
4.) Don't use plots that have one-dimensional endings. This definitely makes wonderful novels, but not RPs. This means if you have good vs evil, don't assume that one side is going to win. I wouldn't even assume that either side is going to win. Maybe there will be a truce. Maybe a third party will come in and both sides will join up to fight the third party. LHW made this mistake and the thread slowly grew inactive. Everyone lost interest with the thread, because they knew what the end result was going to be, but they didn't feel like writing it to get there anymore.
5.) Peer Pressure. Get people interested in the thread directly, by any of the following strategies.
--a.) Glorify the RP. Talk about how it's awesome to other people. Tell people it's amazing and all sorts of fun. Send people HCMs trying to convince them that it's fun and interesting. Just don't be too annoying about it. Slightly annoying is okay though. 
--b.) Guilt tripping. Make people feel guilty for going inactive or not joining. Tell them to stop being lazy or tell them you are angry that they have a life.
QP applied. Keep up the good work on this, and thanks for having the initiative to finally get it started. We could even collab on future installments. -Shadow
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Go Red Sox!
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TitaniumAlloy
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Professional
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posted November 14, 2006 08:58 AM |
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you have taught well, master.
hope this will increase interest in the glade
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John says to live above hell.
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted November 14, 2006 09:16 AM |
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Quote:
you have taught well, master.
hope this will increase interest in the glade
k
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Go Red Sox!
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Tenaka
Famous Hero
Makes sense
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posted May 26, 2007 05:42 PM |
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Jusy bumping this thread because I really love it: Good job! 
Yes, it's an old thread, but here on the second page, I was afraid It'd be forgotten...
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted June 17, 2007 08:12 AM |
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Thanks. I should add to this sometime. Unfortunately I doubt Glade will ever be active long-term again.
Edit: Thanks for the QP. That makes up for the QP that mysteriously disappeared a while back. >_>
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Go Red Sox!
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violent_flower
Promising
Supreme Hero
Almost there.
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posted June 30, 2007 04:14 AM |
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That sucks, I had a hot character going too.
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GenieLord
Honorable
Legendary Hero
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posted August 16, 2007 11:51 PM |
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That's a great guide. Very useful and helped me a lot.  It would be good to make it a stickied thread, so everyone who makes a new RP will see that and will be able to use those tips.
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted August 17, 2007 09:26 PM |
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Mytical
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted September 19, 2007 11:06 AM |
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I would like to add a few minor things to this great thread. We all know the common curtesy rules.
Don't powergame. Your character is not meant to be all-powerful, unkillable, ect. Remember it is just a game, and sometimes characters die or get defeated. Yes we all hate for it to happen to our characters, but it is a part of the game.
Don't write for another character. Unless you have that person's permission, please please do not write for them. Too many times have I seen things like. "My character sneaks up on 'x', who fails to notice them, and kills them." this is bad. The person running the game decides if you are noticed, if you are successful in what you attempt, ect. You wouldn't want it done to you, please don't do it to others. The exception of course is the GM or DM, and even they should not put words in a pc's mouth or such.
Along with the above, don't assume your actions are automatically successful. There is a huge difference (in a fantasy setting say) between "I try casting a fireball at the advancing trolls." then "I cast fireball at the troll, incenerating the entire army." Now, this is different in more then a few instances. Please make sure you ask the person running it what they would prefer.
There are other common curtesy actions. They are meant to make it fun for everybody. If you have a problem with something, even a ruling, talk to the person running the game. They want you to have fun also. Just keep in mind their decision is final.
Now lets talk about the less obvious, but seemingly more abused areas. Out of character knowledge used IC. One of my personal pet peeves. So you know how (irl) to make a nuke while standing on your head juggling 12 beer bottles while singing an irish folk song. Your character (unless there is a very logical reason) would have no clue. While catching up, you notice another character learning some information, unless your character is right there they have no way of knowing that info. I've seen people who's character were miles away suddenly 'know' they are about to be attacked because somebody else recieved a warning.
Modern (ish) weapons in fantasy settings. Yes, I have seen people try to make dynamite or such, even having 'logical' reasoning why their character might be able to do so. My personal favorite is the self repeating balista...*shakes head in sadness*. What really worries me is when the person in charge allows it! Of course I not talking about post-appocalyptic fantasy settings..those have their own rules hehe.
Passed down magical weapons. Now I don't mean a +1 dagger, those sometimes even I will allow if the background is convincing enough. I am talking things like : Holy Avenger, Sword of Dragon Slaying, Ring of ultimate magic, or well you get the idea. Please don't try to start a character out with anything more then a minor item, and then only if you have a really good story ready. Starting out characters are supposed to be under equiped..makes it a bit more fun. Again, GM's and DM's might see it differently then I.
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Message received.
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted October 21, 2007 09:35 AM |
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@Mytical - I forgot about the no bull**** post sections
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Go Red Sox!
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Mytical
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted October 21, 2007 10:24 AM |
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It's easy to overlook. Most people know the common sense things, and abide by them. One of my biggest pet peeves is the power gamer tho.
If somebody else can do it, they can do it better. Doesn't matter if they start out a warrior and the other person is a mage, by the end they will cast magic better then the mage and still have all their fighting skills to max.
I used to belong to several boards where there were 'taverns' the point of which were to tale stories about characters you've created. Everybody was supposed to start at 'level 1' (ie a beginner). Everybody was pretty much ok at first, and followed the sane progression idea. Then new people started joining and posts started being a 'one up' campain. Somebody would fight (mind you they were supposedly level 1) 20 goblins single handed and win. The next person would fight 6 ogres (in d and d an ogre is harder to kill then about 10 goblins). Then somebody would kill a storm giant...it got to the point where low level people were taking out whole bleeding armies single handed.
Now don't ask me where all the creatures were coming from. By my tally (right before I got fed up and left) about a billion or so and still counting died. (Ok that may be an exageration but it seemed like it at least). I think the funniest one was how a 'Kid Chaos' took down a flight of Red Dragons. *sighs*.
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Message received.
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Shadowcaster
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Shaded Scribe
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posted October 21, 2007 10:30 AM |
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Quote:
One of my biggest pet peeves is the power gamer tho.
Might want to stay away from the first ten pages of LHW, then.
RSF: If you want the new material added to the first post, just let me know. Erm, I suppose you could always do that yourself, though. >_> The collab offer that still mysteriously hangs at the end of your post remains on the table as well. Some more information and organization of said info could lead to this becoming a Glade sticky, and it has been a while since we've shuffled those around.
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>_>
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted October 21, 2007 10:33 AM |
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Alright. I'll continue putting this together. Try to make this a better guide. Thanks for the tips on etiquite Mytical.
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Go Red Sox!
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Mytical
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted October 21, 2007 12:06 PM |
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If I can help in the collaberation let me know. I am guilty as anybody of 'bending' the rules, but for the most part I try not to. Now I just have to recruit somebody to help publicize my attempt to get the glade back up and running *grins evilly*. I mean...hey look theres bigfoot! *scampers off while people are looking for bigfoot*
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Message received.
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