How to roleplay

[barrios]

Hey guys since this is a learning how to roleplay im asking how do you roleplay i have never done it before.

[Dead Account]

Well, basically, you create a character to represent yourself, be they a thief, a Jedi, an elf, etc... then you write as though you are that character.

[Dead Account]

This double posted for some reason.

[Small Huts]

Well, basically, you create a character to represent yourself, be they a thief, a Jedi, an elf, etc... then you write as though you are that character.

Thank-you Drexyl, but this is not enough of a reply.
To be fair the question was very open.
Perhaps I can get us rolling a little more.

I see OOC and ICC. Who posts where first?
Can I expect much private interaction from the GM of will most or it be open in either of the two aforementioned threads?
How quickly can I expect things to happen?
How does Character play differ from Nation play?
What mistake do all n00bs make that you wish wouldn't happen?

[Vaculatestar]

I'll answer the last question. I hate stupid one sentence posts in an RP. Drives me insane.

[Venico]

Alright well as a person who has been seriously roleplaying for more than...5 years now? Shit time flies. Well let's just say I'm qualified.

First off, OOC is Out of Character. This is where like dice rolls happen or arrangements are made about timing and stuff or if you want to make a comment on the current adventures. This is where you are...you.

IC is in character. This is when you become the character (or nation sometimes) and act. The best way I've ever seen this described is that Roleplaying is a theater production. The GM (or DM) is the writer, director and scenery. They also play the minor characters and the antagonists. But you...you are the actors. You play the main characters of this story.

Nation vs. Individual: I grew up on individual and won't even pretend that I'm not biased. xD I absolutely am and won't hide it. They play similarly but not completely. I find it easier to play Nation Roleplays like you're playing a bunch of individuals and then have them interact with each other. Figure out their responses to each other and the like. Individual is more of just playing a single character and trying to develop them and discover who they are as much as you can. How would they react in certain situations? What do they value most in life? Are they likely to help someone or look out for themselves? When you're focusing on a single character it's much easier to flesh them out and come to actually know them.

Pace: This all depends. I started with live roleplaying which is between 4-6 hour sessions usually but you cover a lot of ground in that time. It also makes dialogue much easier than forum play. This is what I'd call your fastest paced roleplaying, and I suggest you try it some day. Next up is voice/video RPs where we could use skype or something like that in order to get the closest we can to live roleplaying. This is quick paced, but people are shy on the internet about voices, so this is harder to convince people into. Chat roleplays, which happen in IRC (We use #VensRP on Esper), are the next slowest. If everyone sits down and dedicates their time to this, it can have a decent pace. However I've come to learn that without the voice and visual cues, people get distracted and multitask more. This also leads to situations where you don't know the DM is talking and you're talking at the same time, but neither know it because you're both still typing. Lastly there is slow assed forum roleplay. A daily response from people is generally a generous guess. This tends to lend itself to people sitting down and writing paragraphs when a simple yes or no might do. I find forum roleplay like an old man. The destination may be cool. The journey may seem interesting. But damn it's going to be a long a journey.

n00zors: Ok so I'll list two things I wish noobs would stop doing. First one, noobs need to stop using OOC knowledge IC. Theoretically a DM could say, "There is several lifetimes of accumulated wealth just beneath the floor in the next room. However, none of you know this nor is there any indication of it." without the players doing anything. It's tough. The easiest way to abuse this on the forum is through character sheets. You can see other people's and you know their strengths and weaknesses. You know one of them might really value money or something like that. The easiest way to stop this is to ask yourself, "What does my character know? How would they act normally without my knowledge?" Secondly, don't play you. This may seem appealing to play a character exactly like you. You know exactly what they would do! It's an easier play, but much less satisfying. I like to play more sinister or callous characters than myself because I can't be like that in real life. Are you really smart? Try playing an extremely dumb character...and enjoy it! Some of my best sessions have been playing as a dumb character and having them act stupid. But when you play yourself you're not having the experience of being something else. Trying different things. You get to be you all the other time, try something radically different, or try to play something you aspire to be.

If you have any other questions just ask.

Venico

[Vaculatestar]

I'm going to be trying my hand at playing a female character in another region. This should be an interesting experience.

[Small Huts]

hm, I've never played a woman either. I played a dolphin once. It was interesting, but amongst a group of humans it was a pretty solitary experience.

Thanks for the answers Venico. That sounds like a pretty good encapsulation of role playing online.
Let's get back to some nuts and bolts if we can:

Who posts where first?
Will people generally be waiting for me to post or will it go on without me?
Is it ok to PM other players or is that bad form?
Assuming forum play, how long between GM updates? I'd assume every few days to let everyone weigh in and respond to each other.

[Venico]

Generally there is a kind of sign up thread. This is where the GM can post his idea to see if there's interest, and the players can post what they want to play or give feedback to the DM. If individual this might require a character sheet of sorts to fill out. Or if this is a nation RP, a map thread and then it's probably on you to post a factbook. Most Nation RPs don't really have a "GM". They might have someone who handles the map and the person who created the idea. But from there on out it is mostly players introducing things. So if you have Nation X and Nation Y, if they want to trade with each other or set up a ball or something like that, either one can post a thread and initiate it.

If you don't post people may move on without you as long as it doesn't require you. So if let's say, you sent a diplomat to a meeting and they're just covering general things, the group may move on and assume your diplomat was silent. But if you were asked a direct question, they might wait on you and then harass you to post. =P

Talking with other players outside of the game is fine. It would be the same as your character whispering or passing a note to each other. It's all good unless the DM forbids it.

Assuming there is a GM, well it depends on him/her. They might be interacting a lot such as if they are playing a character also involved. Or they might just let the characters handle it and only intervene when necessary. This is something you would want to clarify with them before a roleplay starts.