Roleplaying Section Guide and Information

Welcome to the roleplay section. Please read these useful rules before joining roleplays^^

Important: Some of these sections are optional, but please do ensure to read the ones that aren't. Thank you.

Useful Terms: (If you have never roleplayed before you should read this first, otherwise skip this section)

RP: Role Play. Verb and Noun. As a noun, an RP is different than an RPG. RPs are dialogue and description based, while RPGs use Stats, Points, Money, and usually Health. As a verb, it means to post or interact in either an RP or RPG.
RPer: RolePlayer. Noun. A person who participates/participated in an RP or RPG.
RP’d: Role Played.
RPG: Role Playing Game. Noun. A type of RP that often uses numbers, stats, life, and usually a very strict profile.
Script Form: Noun. A type of post that is made in this format:
Vile: I think it’s ok if we go in.
*Pushes door open*
Calu: I'm still not going in,
Vile: Don’t be a chicken.
Calu: *pushes Vile in*
Bunnying: Verb. To move another person’s character.
Godmod: Verb.
1: To control characters, elements, or factors in an RP to work to your advantage.
2: To keep your character perfect, invincible, or otherwise unfair.
Backtrack: Verb. When the second post contradicts the first to correct Bunnying or to react in a fight, usually like so.
Post 1: Vile swung his sword straight at Calu’s arm, then swiftly jumped back and shot a fire ball.
Post 2: Calu spun to his right, letting the sword cut through the air. He then, however, was caught surprised by Vile’s quick fire ball and was forced to block it with his hand, singing his skin.
One-Liner: Noun. A post that describes only one action, contains only one line of dialogue, or is incredibly short or unnecessary.
Par: Noun. Paragraph. Also sometimes ‘Para.’
Single-Double Par: Noun. A post that describes some actions, contains significant dialogue, or is otherwise moderately well thought out.
Multi-Par: Noun.A very long post that contains immense description, dialogue, action, etc.
Char, Chara: Noun. Short for Character.
OOC: Adjective. Out Of Character, also Out Of Context. OOC posts are the posts that don’t have anything to do with the story, such as the profile, or a message between players tagged on at the end of an IC post.
IC: Adjective. In Character or In Context. IC posts are the actual RP posts.
NPC: Noun. Non-Player Character, or Non-Playable Character. These are characters that only the GM can control, or characters that anybody can control.
GM: Noun. Game Master. The GM is allowed to Godmod (Definition 1 only). He ultimately makes the important decisions and can override anything. On AA this is the thread owner.

How To RP:

Rping is easy for some and hard for others. If you are very new you should try looking at other peoples posts and try to understand how to RP from them. If want to be pronounced at roleplaying your best bet is to read a well-written book, such as Steven King novels, Harry Potter series, Hatchet series, or whatever books you like. If you read almost every night, you'll begin to RP with the same writing styles as whomever you’ve been reading.

Action: To show an action in an RP, you must type it out. Be specific. Make sure your action is possible, aimed, and descriptive.

Examples:
Vile jumped into the air, letting his feet fall before him. He landed on the first bamboo shaft, gripping it with his toes. He felt uneasy though, and he held his arms out to balance himself.
Rale laughed; this would be easy. He darted forwards, his right hand on his axe hilt, dragging the blade on the ground as he ran. As soon as he reached his opponent he swung the axe upwards in an arc, slicing straight through the first man. As the man fell, his laser went off, blasting through the next man.

Dialogue: Dialogue is important, as it is the only way a normal character can communicate to other characters. No matter what language your character speaks (French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Lich, Psypial, Slayre, etc) you’re supposed to post it in English, unless it’s a special thing like a chant or something. Most people post in Quotation marks, but some will use italics (not recommended as it makes it hard for thoughts. See below.) Or different colors/fonts. You also should/can put description and action in there also. Examples:
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Rale stated, not putting his blade away, “So be on your way.”
“Graduca,” Hiro commanded, saying this word in a different voice. He said it in a raspy, harsh voice. “Good, now time for my plans…” Hiro said this part in his normal, light voice.

Thought: Thought is usually just your character processing events, communicating to his/herself, or just plain thoughts. However, there are characters who can read minds, characters that can ‘guess’ what somebody is thinking, special areas that make thoughts out loud, etc. Because of these surprisingly common exceptions, it is necessary to show what your character is thinking. This is done a number of different ways. Most common are Italics. Some will just put it in quotations but describe it as ‘to herself/himself’ while others will keep it third person. Examples:
I wonder what I should do… This isn’t good! Vile thought to himself, watching her get closer. I need to be brave! She was closer. What do I do!!
“I wonder what he’s thinking…” She thought, as she got closer.
“Wow she is getting closer pretty fast!” Calu thought to himself.


How To Fight:

Fighting is a major part in most RPs and RPGs. You'll find yourself fighting NPCs, other players, bosses, and creatures. When fighting an NPC that you can control, your post can be very drawn out, showing the fight in every aspect. When fighting bosses, other players, and when you fight in important situations, you'll find your posts getting shorter.

Attacking: When attacking a character controlled by another player, you have two choices. You can get consent from the other player, so that you can control that player’s character in the fight. If you do this, then make sure you are 100% fair with them. The other option, which is more commonly used, is to have your character attack. The character attacks, but he does not hit. That is up to the defending character. There are exceptions, like when the defender absolutely has nothing to defend with. In those times, then the attack is usually a hit, but you can never be to sure that another character wont jump in and take the hit. Make sure you do not abuse this and ‘assume’ the attack hit.

Defending: Defending is important for any RP or RPG. This is the most commonly abused rule by newer RPers. If a player attacks and the defender does not mention any sort of defense, dodge, or doesn’t mention the attack hitting, then it is considered Godding your character. When the Attacker attacks, the Defender must defend, dodge, take the hit, or otherwise react. Remember, its godmodding when your character never gets hit. Again, there are exceptions, like if your character is invincible to a certain attack, (like in an elemental RP, if your character is water and somebody throws water at you, it literally shouldn’t do anything). In defending, make sure your character can actually defend the hit. If it’s the attacker’s insanely powerful super move, then chances are it will break your guard. In dodging, make sure there is room to do it. If it’s an enormous attack, jumping to the side or ducking most likely wont help you.

Combos: For most fights, the Attacker will attack multiple times per post. For this, the attacker shouldn’t assume the attacks hit, nor should he assume the attack was dodged or blocked. Even though the defender can always just override the attacker’s assumption, it still doesn’t feel good to have your character controlled, and it ruins the story, as nobody wants to read to many backtracks. What the attacker should do is attack multiple times, using such terms as “if it were to hit,” “if he could reach him,” and “immediately after he attacked,” so as to allow the defender to stop the combo at the beginning. Usually this is the best option for defending, as it cancels most or all of the attacks.

Killing: Killing is a not so common thing. Usually it isn’t allowed. To kill another player’s character, the attacker usually should PM the defender. (note: all Killing is Directed and Needs too be approved by The Co-player (the one you want too kill) and the Mod)

What You Can And Cant Do:

On this site there are some more ground rules, in addition to the suggestions on how to fight and stuff.


One Liners: No. Nobody likes to post a huge mega-post and have it replied to with a small reply. Keep your posts detailed!
Cross Dimensional: Keep your characters appropriate. If it’s a midevil RP, don’t use a gun or phone. If it’s a samurai or ninja RP, don’t come in with a lance, rapier, or claymore. Also, if it’s an RP where the powers are small things, like walking up walls or invisibility, don’t use something like ‘obliteration’ as your power.
Fighting: Yes. If you make an RP, expect fights. Remember that, unless the world happens to be a perfect peace place, like our world there will be fights.
Killing: Depends on the RP. Remember that, when killing, you need to actually be fair. Just like any attack.

Types Of RPs (Optional section, contains useful information)

There are any types of RPs, genres if you will, and they typically can be divided as such:

Space RPs: RPs that take most of the time in space, between planets, and usually involve space ships.
War RPs: Whether they are in the future or not, any RP where it is a war between two sides, and you are involved strictly in the war, it’s a War Rp. This doesn’t apply to those RPs where you are on an adventure most of the time and fight a battle at the end.
Vampire/Werewolf/Night RPs: Very common. These are RPs that usually have a lot of character development, for most characters have a tragic flaw, usually one they need to overcome. The characters generally undergo a transformation at night, which would be the climactic scenes, when during the day the characters are usually human.
Quest RPs: Most common. In this RP, you and a small group are on a mission, usually to retrieve a special item, defeat an enemy, or rescue somebody.
World RPs: These are fun but hard to manage. In these RP types, you can go anywhere, do anything, and accomplish just about anything. Usually, the GM will send trouble towards the wanderers, giving them a motive that they do not necessarily need to follow.
Mission RPs:These RPs start in a common area, usually a town, in which the characters are sent to various places to accomplish small or random tasks. After they are accomplished, the characters return home, where they wait for their next task.
Midevil RPs: Only weapons from Europe between 1200-1600s should be used.
Ancient RPs: These are like ancient Rome.
Asianic RPs: These are like Ninja, Samurai, and Shinobi RPs.
Elemental RPs: Not including RPs that just happen to have Elementals in it, these special RPs are made so that one person controls an element, one country, or one species.
Fantasy RPs: These can be anything. Future, ancient, midevil, elemental, Night, anything and more. Usually they are Future and Midevil combined.
School RPs: These involve the players going to a school, dealing with teachers and peers, but they don’t need to have a school that we go to. In fact, most are something like ‘magic schools,’ giving a good Harry Potter feeling.
Comedies: These RPs are what make these rules necessary. When an RP’s important ‘battles’ are a paintball game, or a game of checkers, then its just wrong. Please, keep the SPAM to yourself.
Non-Violent RPs: These are different than Comedies, because they usually are serious, dramatic, etc.

An RP may involve many genres, of which may not even be listed here. This is just a rough guideline.

Other Rules (Optional section, contains useful information, though these are mostly the same as the AA rules)

NO SPAM: If you want to comment on an IC post, that’s fine. But remember that OOC is still an RP thread, not the Chat Thread.
No flaming, trolling, bashing, or insulting: Even if you don’t ‘directly’ insult somebody, if you constantly give somebody a hard time, annoy them, or are a purposeful douche bag to them, its considered trolling. If you insult somebody, it’s flaming. GMs, its ok if you want to tell a dumb player off, but please keep yourself in line as well.
No sex. Obviously, there are seductive characters and techniques out there, but nothing more than kissing. Be appropriate. Nudity should not be posted in an image for your character, but non-erotic scenes in which a character is nude is obviously debatable. If the character, for instance, was just ‘reborn’ in a new body, and he/she was naked, then that’s not a sexual theme. It’s just the fact that you need to put clothes on. But, if you go ahead and ‘describe’ the nudity, and you know what I mean, then it’s sexual.
No skipping: If you are posting with others, make sure to read and take into account their posts.

So, basically, you type out your character’s movements and actions. Make sure not to attack cheaply, or defend cheaply also. Read every post and respond appropriately. Now, go Role Play!

Note that you Also need To keep in Mind, We like a Good RP, No One-Lining.