The basics of Roleplaying Workshop

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This a more up to date and extended version of Neku's workshop/help thread but it will still remain as it holds use for member feedback.

This is essentially a place where you can learn the basics of roleplaying and how to be more creative if you are lacking in imagination at this point in time. It could even be that you want to just boost your level of skill while roleplaying.

If there is any questions you would like to ask or have something you feel I’ve missed off feel free to PM me.

Credit to Cherry for help and coming up with the idea.

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Okay so here is what we’ll cover in this workshop

1. What is roleplaying?
2. How to create a roleplay
3. Creative thought and detail
4. Character development
5. Story development
6. Character Skeletons/OC forms
7. Extra rules and owner management

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1. What is roleplaying?

Essentially roleplaying is much like playing a game and writing a story at the same time with many others. It could easily be referred to the “create your own adventure” books. A roleplay itself is when a group of people or just one person creates a story, setting, etc and others join to develop the story with custom made characters or characters that can be selected from a list.

Roleplays are exspansive and can be based on anything. At KHV we have seven categories, these are:

Real life, this is for roleplays based on real life such as school or work based environments, they have little action but simulate real life scenarios.

Movies and media, this is for roleplays based on movies, tv shows, music or any other form of media besides games.

Crossovers, crossovers are as the title says, when one or more different subjects combined. The example from the site is “an RP that is KH meets Lost”.

Anime/Manga, yet again self explanatory. This section is for anime and manga based roleplays.

RP extended, This section is for the extremely creative roleplays. Expect long, gripping posts and storylines here.

Fantasy/Sci-fi, Anything that falls under fantasy or sci-fi goes in here. This is where the bulk of average creativity appears seeing how most things on peoples minds are mythological creatures such as unicorns or aliens and hi-teck gadgets.

General, This is the place which connects all the above sections. It is the first area you will go in from clicking roleplaying on the main forum page. This section is specifically for Kingdom Hearts roleplays as well as other games.

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2. How to create a roleplay.

Creating a roleplay can either be simple or difficult. When creating a roleplay have some ideas on your mind and try mix and matching until you get something you like.
A few things I would personally consider for creating a roleplay are:

• A wide range of choices for other members
• A easy to understand but not too simple plot that can give members an idea of what their characters should aim for.
• A few extra rules that will stop your roleplay from going out of control
• Preview posts, I find it good to always ask for a preview post to understand the members ability.
• Attempts at your plot being easily manipulated by other members without it ruining your story.

When you have a few paragraphs (or depending on how much detail you want to go into) for story, setting and other things such as races add your rules and your character skeleton/OC form and you’ll be all set.

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3. Creative thought and detail

The point of roleplaying is to be as creative as possible while sticking to a plot with a character. When your being creative take your time while writing it, this way you can prevent errors in spelling, grammar and length of posts. Most people prefer 3-6 lines a post with the occasional 1 line if your having trouble but it would be better if you could push the average and go father, you would have to do this in the RP Extended section anyway seeing how it is meant for long, detailed and creative posts.

Tips of creativity:

• Try to get ideas from anywhere you want without ripping off anyone or thing.
• When writing try to cover as much as possible even if its just the simple movement of removing a hat.
• Expect anything to happen and keep options open.
• Sometimes talking with others in VM or PM conversations about the RP can help.
• Use colours to help you describe.

When putting detail into your posts try to use as much description as possible, even if that means massive posts. Descriptive words are useful in this situation, try using a sequence of them (usually up to 3) to try getting your point across.

An example would be :
The dark, cold, wet corridors reeked of sewage as the man reached the source of the problem with each step. As he came closer his navy blue jeans and brown leather boots became soaked in the foul water. Once close enough he could see clearly that the sewage pipes had burst and water was gushing out and flooding the corridor. Quickly looking down he could see and feel the sewage reach his knees.

Notice how I did more than just a small amount and made sure that it was all connected so it wasn’t that he was suddenly from the outside to the inside. Colours help some people to think or feel as if they are there, they are the perfect tool for description.

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4. Character Development

Characters have to have an impact like it was a real story, film or game otherwise it could ruin the flow for creativity. Most people prefer to give their characters a history, personality or base them on another character, this allows the user to give the character a drive to push them forwards or a way of acting that is different from your own and makes things much more interesting. While in the RP you can use your characters traits to create situations that wouldn’t of happened if they had no traits such as if your character came across a switch that did something but it was unknown what they would be able to ponder on the thought or use it from curiosity instead of just simply pressing it from the get go.
Since there is more than one person in a role play you can use your characters traits along with others to have situations or events that wouldn’t happen if you where both as plain as paper. An example would be when your character is talking to another persons character you could use multiple emotions based upon back-story or personality.

Tips on Character Development

• Use a history/personality or base them on already existing characters from elsewhere.
• Allow interaction with others.
• Talk with other members in PM, VM or OOC to plot ahead.
• Take your time.

Another point about character development is that you could even base your history/personality off the description you make or image you find for your character.

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5. Story development

Much like character development story development is useful for giving characters something to do or to progress the plot in mind.

First you’ll want a plot, so come up with any plot you have in mind be it a crossover between shows, something original or something based off of something else. Once you have a plot try to think of a what you want characters to aim for, a common example would be “the ultimate weapon” which is used in the game Soul Calibur and many roleplays.

Now that you have an idea of what you want to do and what you want others to do post it and wait for people to join. If enough people join you can start your roleplay, now that its started make an opening post that should set the scene, push the plot into a start and introduce characters much like a story. Keeping to the story may be difficult at times due to others but an easy solution is to have a rule saying that you want the story to stick and not have something like a fantasy with swords and magic turn into a Sci-fi with guns and experiments.

Story development require imagination and thought and since I’m not an literature teacher I can’t teach you how to use that to your full potential so for some advice think of your school work or if your no longer at school or can’t remember any then think of movies, books, etc.

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6. Character Skeletons/OC forms

A character skeleton or OC form is for members to create characters, quite simple but as I have noticed some skeletons are left a little bare with only like Name, Image and power, that is not a true character skeleton, no offence to anyone but it is just lazy to do it that way.

An example of a basic OC form is this:

Username:
Name:
Age:
Race:
Appearance:
Personality:
History:
Weapon:
Other: (optional)
Preview Post:


I’ll explain each part now.

Username, Simply this is just your username so you can claim that this is your character for yourself.

Name, this is where you put your characters full name.

Age, another obvious one, this one if for age which depends on the story sometimes.

Race, this isn’t always in the skeleton but when it is it is for you to put what sort of race your characters race such as Humam, Elf, Demon, etc.

Appearance, this is for you to describe your characters appearance, a.k.a. what they look like. Some people use pictures.

Personality, like mentioned in section 4 this is where you put your characters personality with as much detail as necessary.

History, also explained in section 4 this is where you put a detailed character history.

Weapon, simply what weapons your character uses, this can either be detailed weapons with powers or just simply regular stuff like swords.

Other, a place for anything else you want to add that isn’t in the form. Sometimes you have things to add from the rules.

Preview Post, as I hate to say it not many of you use these. I’d like everyone to use these since it shows the level of the member so you can compare it to the standard you expect.

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7. Extra rules and owner management

When you create an RP you can have your own set of rules to accompany the rules of the section. These rules are usually stuff to keep your RP in order and to theme or to have members make sure they read the rules.

An example of basic rules are these.

1. The sections rules. http://www.kh-vids.net/showthread.php?t=80885
2. 3 characters max.
3. Do not try to take over the story in any way, I will remove you instantly if you try.
4. Be literate and follow the 20 words per post rule in the new section, in other words no one liners and anything under 20 posts will have to be extended.
5. No singing.
6. Type Mango in your post somewhere.
7. Try to progress the story and not stay in the same place for the whole RP without breaking rule 3.
8. Give a preview post for all the characters you want to use so I can tell what level your at and if you can still to character.

You can have any extra rules you want as long as they don’t break the forum rules.

Ownership of the RP means you’re the one who created it or you’re a sub creator with the one who posted it. When you have ownership this means you have the authority to keep people in check and stop them from breaking any rules be they yours or the sites. As the owner you need to keep your story and rules as you want them otherwise your roleplay will fall apart.

If anyone breaks your rules and doesn’t fix it or doesn’t leave after you have asked them to or challenges your ownership you should report to the sections staff.

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Anything else you want adding? Just PM me.