The Pokémon Crossroads Role Playing Guide (Beginners, Advanced, and Role Play Creation)

The Pokémon Crossroads Role Playing Guide

Welcome to the Pokémon Crossroads Role Playing guide! This guide is intended to help you strengthen your role playing skills regardless of whether you're new to the experience, or whether you've role played before and want to boost your skills by learning from us crazy kids that have been doing this kind of stuff for years.

So grab some grub, crank on some tunes, sit back, and relax.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GUIDE #1 THE BASICS

1. Introduction
2. Terms and Commonly Used Abbreviations
3. Common Rules
   
   • Ground Rules
   • Ratings and Mature Content
4. Role Play Mechanics
   
   • The Sign Up Form
   • Sign Ups: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
   • Into the Breach: Get to Role Playing!
   • Extra Tips
5. See You There!

GUIDE #2 THE ADVANCED STUFF FOR ELITE ROLE PLAYERS

1. Introduction
2. Advanced Aspects
   
   • The Header
   • Time Duration
   • Traveling
3. Cautions
   
   • Game Master Tour Guiding
   • Waiting Chains (And when to break away)
   • Rapid Fire Posting
   • Avoid Wolf Pack Scenarios
4. Player Versus Player Etiquette
   
   • General Attack Handling
   • Defending
   • Counter-Attacking
   • Character Injury and Death
   • Other PVP Aspects
5. Alternate Pokémon Mechanics
6. Customization and Final Remarks

GUIDE #3 BUILDING THAT AWESOME ROLE PLAY

1. Introduction
2. Beginning Bits
3. World-Building
   
   • And in the Beginning, YOU said...
   • Put on your cartographer hat
   • Home sweet home
   • Making fantasy races
4. Your Blank Slate (Getting Started When You're Stumped for Ideas)
   
   • The Three-step Idea Generation Process
5. Weaving the Role Play Together
   
   • Putting the Scraps to Use
   • Linking Scraps
   • The Skeleton Framework
6. Fleshing it Out
   
   • Detail and You
7. Some Zen to Think About
   
   • Keep Things Evolving
   • There Are Rules, But...
   • "Training is Over, Soldier!"
   • Chat Room Yakking
   • Never Fear Failure
8. Cheers

GUIDE #1 THE BASICS

1. INTRODUCTION

If you're new to role playing and you're wondering what all this stuff is about, this is an awesome place to start. There's definitely nothing to be shy about as we all started off from somewhere. And no one stays a newbie forever, so read on and you'll feel like snapping off the training wheels in no time.

So what is role playing? - Role playing is about taking on the position (role) of a character created by you. It's like playing pretend where you used to play cops and robbers as a little kid and professional acting, the kind of thing Matt Damon does as he's running from cops as Jason Bourne. All in all, it's all about you imagining yourself in another living character's place in a fictional world. You determine what they say, how they feel, what they do, and what makes them unique to become a believable character. Unlike a fan fiction where you as the lone writer govern what all characters say and do, here you take on the position of a single character interacting with other members and their characters to accomplish goals, resolve conflicts, and embark on epic adventures with other members who take control of their own characters. Or, pummel their characters into goo.

And believe it or not, learning how to role play has real life benefits as well. Many businesses use role playing in practice to train their sales representatives, financial advisors, and those kinds of guys. It also helps you imagine yourself into new roles and see things from the perspectives of others. And it helps overdrive your imagination. So give it a try, we'd love to have you as part of this crew!

What is "the role play?" - The "role play" refers to a story scenario that is already in progress. Each role play has a story that has already progressed past the exposition stages, and from there, the situation at hand is explained and drawn out so that the story can be continued by the characters that you and other members have created. From here on in, each of these characters approaches the storyline in their own way, often creating events, making decisions, interacting with other characters, and overcoming challenges to progress the story. Through this unfolding of events, each role play becomes a story that reflects and takes different directions based on each character's actions and feelings with reflection to the unfolding storyline. The choices you and your character make will change how the story plays out for everyone. Kinda cool, don't you think?

So yeah, you could start the same role play on two different sites and have each story take two completely different directions simply based on the characters people made and the choices they acted upon. You never really know how things may go!

Who enjoys role plays the most? - A lot of people can. Anyone who enjoys writing stories but would rather enjoy the experience with other people are one. Also, for those who want a little escapism and want to imagine themselves away from the everyday norm are also a great potentials.

2. TERMS AND COMMONLY USED ABBREVIATIONS

You'll be happy to know you don't need to learn a whole new language or a lot of confusing, crazy lingo to role play, and that most of these are just shortcuts. Sure, there's a touch of jargon here and there, but it's nothing that's going to cause you to end up banging your head against the wall at the local funny farm. But really, don't sweat too much about these, you'll pick them up sooner than you think.

Role Play (RP) - The term role play is often abbreviated as "RP" or "RPG" (Role playing game). The action of role playing is also abbreviated as "RPing" and so is the term role player, abbreviated as "RPer." You're free to use these abbreviations around the role play areas, but yeah, they won't work for Words With Friends.

Sign Up (SU) - Usually done in a separate thread, the sign up, or "SU," is a character's profile, which includes aspects such as their name, age, gender, description, personality, background, and many other possible criteria. All of these aspects are built toward bringing your character out of your imagination and into written format, so that anyone reading it can get a much better idea behind who your fictional character is, what they're like, and what is unique about them. You can even mention stuff like whether they like their coffee black or decaf (which isn't real coffee).

Game Master (GM) - The "Game Master" is the gentleman or lovely lady that writes up the role play, enforces the rules, reads and accepts sign ups, and keeps watch on how the role play progresses. Yeah, kind of like Santa Claus.

If you're interested in learning more of the specifics about GMs and role play creation, check out Guide #3.

Out of Character Chat (OOC) - Out of character chat (OOC) is used to talk to other members outside of the role play's context, such as if you need to give them a heads up or want to comment on their snazzy new avatar. It helps to ensure what you're saying out of character isn't confused with what your character does and says. So it should look something like this:

OOC: Hey, Doctor Claw, did you read my post? My character was attacking yours! You never accounted for my bunny throwing an egg at your character's head!

Generally, statements of a few sentences like this are okay within the RP itself. However, for big questions or to settle debates within the RP itself, role players should take that to role play’s discussion thread, where an extensive discussion won't keep interrupting the role play itself and set things off track.

In Character Chat (IC) - In Character Chat (IC) is used when you want to switch back to in-character content after making an out of character comment. It's not necessary to use it if you don't make any out of character comments in your post, though.

Player Characters (PC) - A player character, or PC, refers to any character that is under the direct control of a member and has a sign up made for them in the sign up thread. These characters are the ones that will have the most amount of impact on the story.

Non-Playable Characters (NPC) - Non-Playable Characters are typically supporting characters that exist in the role play’s storyline, but aren’t under the direct ownership of another role player and can be controlled by anyone. These characters may be major characters with names and roles in the storyline, or they can be minor characters without names that only appear for very brief periods of time. NPCs can be civilians, soldiers, creatures, and the like. These characters can either be there to help the player characters, be there as enemies, or are neutral parties that are simply interacting with the characters or are in the same place that the character is in. Keep in mind that NPCs still have their own personalities, motives, and characteristics like what normal player characters have. A formal description of these personalities is not necessarily. Instead, use their actions and words to portray their character.

Generally, the rules for attacking NPCs are looser than the ones for attacking other characters. NPCs can be wounded in opening strikes, but the rules of fairness and realism must still be respected. Like characters, NPCs will realistically try to fight for their life, will try to avoid injury, and will try to be resourceful and strategic in their attacks and defense. Even though no one's controlling them, treat them as they would most realistically be treated.

3. COMMON RULES

These rules pretty much persist for every role play. Each individual role play may have its own unique rules, but these rules are the grand daddy rules that really should be followed so everyone can have an enjoyable role playing experience without a mess.

GROUND RULES

Follow the Forum Guide. - This contains all of the basic rules of the forum that carry on through every section, including the role play areas. In addition, respect all fellow role players and don't spam or post unrelated content in the role playing boards or threads. Give a hoot, don't pollute!

Avoid necroposting. This is the action of posting in a thread where the last post made in it is over a month old and no longer has any activity. These threads have been abandoned and discontinued, and therefore shouldn't be revived. Doing so is like bringing up a non-eventful sports game that happened back in 1973 that people stopped caring about long ago. Yes, threads can become zombies too, but the only brain they're feasting on is yours.

Avoid plagiarism. Use only your own ideas and don't steal someone else's role play from another site and post it here, unless you got their permission. Also, avoid being a copycat where you make an RP very similar to someone else's. While they may happen by coincidence (so many role plays have been done so there's a chance of this happening), don't do it on purpose. You wouldn't want someone copying your idea of the perfect sundae and topping combinations and then claiming they came up with it.

Avoid chat speak. Or what Blizzard calls "leet" or "dude" speak in their User License Agreement if you were ever bored enough like me to read it after yet another World of Warcraft update. Posting stuff like "u thik u gonna pwn me lik dat?? lolz!!" really makes other people want to turn your face into a raw hamburger. Just don't do it.

Avoid God-modding. God-modding, also called "power-playing," is the term used to describe someone that is being grossly unfair during a role play and can potentially cause the whole thing to bite the dust. The term god-modding can be used to describe the action of someone giving themselves too much power beyond the allowed scope of the role play, causing harm to another member's character without giving them a chance to defend themselves, bending reality to give themselves an unfair leverage over other characters, or essentially doing stuff that cheats everyone else out of a fair and enjoyable role play.

These kinds of actions could get you booted out of the role play for good, so don't do them. If you're not sure your next move is god-modding or not, ask the GM first and explain in detail what you're planning.

Avoid Bunnying. Nah, this isn't where you slap rabbit ears and a cotton ball tail on someone. Bunnying refers to what happens when one member suddenly takes control of another person's character, either by governing what they say, what actions they take, or allowing something to happen to that character that the other member did not consent to, such as making them go streaking in public or paint their face green.

Avoid making "Mary Sue" characters and races The term "Mary Sue" or "Gary Stu" (the guy version) is used to referred to what people deem as the perfect character, one who can do unrealistic stuff at ridiculously young ages, has god-like intelligence, strength, uncanny and ridiculously dumb luck, looks so attractive that she hypnotizes people, and loads of other completely inane things that make most sanity-loving people cringe and smash glass to relieve stress and frustration. These kinds of characters are often the results of their creators wanting to push how awesome, special, and powerful their character is. If you're not sure if your character or race is a "Mary Sue," run them through the handy Universial Mary Sue Litmus Test.

Follow all internal rules of the role play. Very often, role plays have their own individual sets of rules that pertain to the situation and conditions that exist within that role play, but may not necessarily apply to others. Regardless, you should still pay attention to these and follow them.

Know the difference between what happens in character and out of character. Just because someone else's character is insulting or attacking your character doesn't mean they have something against you personally, nor does it mean that role player is a mean douchebag in person. Said attacks/insults are directed toward your character in the context of the role play's story, not you as a person posting on the Internet. In addition, a character that makes sexist or racist remarks, swears, or commits acts of violence, doesn't mean that same kind of behavior should be applied to and associated with the person role playing them. However, if insults or offensive remarks are made in OOC commentary, that's different and should be reported.

RATINGS AND MATURE CONTENT

Generally, we try to keep things clean and reasonable in terms of adult content, but of course, in the world of fiction, stories can get dark, gritty, and downright ugly. Thus, some role plays may need to be aware of the rating system that is in place.

A role play should be flagged with a PG 13 rating in the title or beginning of the role play if it has the following:

Ultra-Violence - Very often a role play, especially one that involves war, horror themes, murder, or assassination, will have violence and a lot of blood and guts. Even though zombie slaying is a time-honored tradition throughout the world, it's still violent and needs the warning.

Romance - If you've watched stuff on HBO, such as Game of Thrones, the Tutors, the Sopranos, and so on, you know what I'm talking about. Keep it level-headed on the sex descriptions, and don't go too overboard into describing R-rated material. Any bit of foreplay and sex should really be touch and go, but it's best to stay clear of it, especially if it won't have any impact on the story.

Swearing - You're on the Internet, obviously you've seen swearing somewhere or another. Generally, we keep things clean here, but the occasional swear word is permissible with a PG 13 rating. However, obvious attempts to just dump a lot of potty mouth garbage to see how much a person can get away with just isn't going to fly.

Meanwhile, the following are not allowed, period:

Extreme racism and malicious content - This includes themes such as rape, racism and genocide of real life races or ethnicities, and mocking satirical reference to sensitive, real life events such as the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, the Sandy Hook Massacre, or the Holocaust. It's bad enough these kinds of events happened in the first place.

Extreme sexual/pornographic content - Pornography in any form or depiction is a big fat no around here. While most people may know what Rule 34 is (if it exists, there is porn of it), but don't be a contributing member to it. I've stumbled across some really gross stuff even when I didn't mean to.

Threats/graphic situations against real life people or places - Such as a role play about an assassination attempt on Barrack Obama, the bombing of Mecca, or anything of that nature. The last thing you want is the FBI thinking you're actually fantasizing about doing it in real life and your role play is what you're using as a playbook for it. It's no joke, I've heard of stuff like this happening.

4. ROLE PLAY MECHANICS

A role play is usually handled by this pattern:

A sign up thread is created first, detailing the storyline, as well as all the other aspects of the role play such as any special conditions or rules. Then, a blank character sign up form is created as a template for you and other members to use to create their characters. Once the sign up form has been filled out to the GM's specifications, it is then posted in the same sign up thread where it awaits review. Sometimes people do make reserves, which essentially means they're interested in the role play, but don't have the time to work on a sign up. They may also reserve to claim a certain limited character or aspect, such as if the RP has people choosing certain limited starting relics or limited positions in a faction.

The GM will then open up the actual role play itself when he or she feels there are enough characters to get started. Depending on the role play, sign ups may or may not close once this has occurred. Once the actual role play has started, the members involved will take turns posting for their characters.

However, before we get into that, first, the sign up.

THE CHARACTER SIGN UP

Every role play needs to have one of these. These kinds of forms make a template for a member to create their character based toward certain criteria. This form is what helps draw forward a character from imagination into written format.

Role play sign up forms will usually look like this and require these kinds of elements to be filled out for everyone's pleasure:

Name: <Name of the character. Like Jim Bob, or Joe Bob, or The Mad Hatter.>
Gender: <Male or female, or when applicable, genderless. I've never seen a good third gender, so keep it to guys and gals and the stuff that has no gender like robots and Magnemites.>
Age: <How old the character is. As in how many times "Happy Birthday" was sung to them.>
Description: <How the character physically looks. Go into detail regarding skin color/tone, height, weight, hair color, eye color, body size, and possible scars and/or tattoos your character might have. Another paragraph could be used to describe the kinds of clothes they are wearing, and a possible third could go into their strengths and weaknesses, like if a character is perceptive and charismatic, but maybe they’re not physically strong and just don't hulk out as well as some other people can.>
Personality: <How the character behaves and what their emotional intelligence is like. Description is a look into the physical side of the character, and this is the mental side of the character. Explain how they generally behave, what makes them angry, what gives them pleasure, what they find funny, how do they view others around them, and what their interests are. The more you flesh this out, the more believable of a personality you will have.>
Background/History: <This is the character’s history of all the major events and/or generalized summaries of what happened over the years of their life prior to the events in the role play’s storyline. How were they like as a kid, what did they do, what was their immediate family like, and how did their personality affect them throughout the years of their life are just a few of the possible questions you can answer for your character. The more you write to this, the more believable and realistic your character will become. Just don't go overboard and stick to stuff that may have an impact on the role play itself. GMs typically don't like to read a 100 page biography when they've got other characters to check out too. They may even start skimming things quickly if you do too much.>
Other: <Generally, this is considered a miscellaneous category that doesn’t always need to be filled out. Usually this might be used for weapons your character might be carrying, significant mementos or family heirlooms your character might have, or things of this nature. Or if your character is afraid of ants, is allergic to cheese, or has a chronic addiction to Pixy Stix.>

Other categories may include these, which depends on the kind of RP:

Faction/Side: <May occur if the RP has multiple factions in the storyline and your character can choose to be on one of them. Kind of like having to choose between being a New York Yankees fan or a Boston Red Sox fan. You can't be on both sides!>
Race/Species: <Typically appears in the event your character could be something besides a human, such as a cute, plushy Buneary or a badass cyborg. Just make sure your character and their race (if you made it up yourself) is fair and has pros and cons, as well as strengths and weaknesses.>
Powers/Special Abilities: <Could appear in fantasy-style or superhero role plays. This may include manipulating fire, super speed, or summoning an army of fighting cupcakes (just kidding). Generally, if it's up to you to make the power, make it reasonable and don't god-mod. Stay in uniform to typical comic book superheroes if you need a reference or look at what other people who are signing up are doing to get an idea.>
Weapons: <Some role plays may ask for you to detail what weapons your character uses and has. If your character is a chainsaw wielding zombie slayer, well, tell us all about that beautiful, blood-splattered chainsaw.>

And there's plenty of other possibilities.

SIGN UPS: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

Taking on a sign up is like making a sundae. You don't want to make it a mess, you want it to taste good and get a nice mix of great things, but you really shouldn't spend all day doing it (because it melts). So you need to strike the best balance of getting a nice amount of information down that really draws out your character without being an overly-lengthy snoozer. If you're having trouble coming up with a character, use an already existing character from a video game, movie, or book as the model, as long as it fits with the theme and setting of the role play, and bend (not copy) your character to be like them (Change the name, maybe the outfit a bit, and definitely give them a new history).

Here's an example of a GOOD sign up that doesn't try to make itself a mile long to make the GM's eye bug out. The actual sign up is in black, while comments about it are in blue. Not every sign up needs to be written like this, but it serves as a good benchmark until you develop your own style that works.

Again, your sign ups do not need to be in this exact format, but they should be generally in this size and generally have this kind of detail at a minimum. If you want to do more or take a different approach, by all means, fire away, but they should be at least somewhat respectable.

Quote:

---

Name: John Clyde
Gender: Male
Age: 27
These kinds of details are easy and touch and go. You don't really need to go too much into detail.

Description: John stands roughly 6'3" and weighs about 180 pounds. He has a strong, athletic frame and has a slight muscular build. He has a tan skin tone, shaggy brown hair, brown eyes, and a decent smile and good looking teeth. Meanwhile, his hands are a bit rough. He also has a tattoo of an anchor on his left upper arm.
Body details. All pure physical description, covering height, weight, body shape and size, as well as skin tone, hair and eye color, and anything else on John's skin. If it helps, this is what John looks like... naked! Nah, just kidding, but save clothing for the next paragraph.

John wears a white graphic t-shirt, covered by a gray hoodie. He also wears a rugged pair of blue jeans, a brown leather belt with a brass buckle, and a pair of black sneakers that have seen some wear and tear. He also wears a black digital watch on his left wrist.
Here we cover clothing. Cover what they're wearing on their chest in terms of shirt, coats, and so on. Then, move onto pants and if applicable, a belt. Then move onto their shoes and accessories. And yeah, you really don't need to mention what kind of socks they're wearing (never matters), and you really, really don't need to mention whether they're wearing boxers or briefs. Or... a thong with a cheetah pattern...

In terms of physical attributes, John is very agile and is a strong runner, but he is more of a sprinter and not an endurance runner. Meanwhile, John has about average intelligence, and he's not the most charismatic guy out there.
These are some of the physical traits about the character. Such as whether they're strong, perceptive, have strong endurance, charisma, are intelligent, agile, or even lucky or not. If you make them strong or intelligent, that's fine, but then maybe they're not agile, or vice versa. It's more believable if you give them both an above average trait and a below average trait.

Personality: John is a pretty friendly guy, but he does have the tendency to be hasty and he dislikes waiting around. He also has a bit of a wild side, and enjoys having fun and taking risks, even if it's just for the adventure of it all. He also doesn't really think too hard about the consequences of his actions, and just doesn't like sitting still for long periods of time.
This first paragraph basically determines how your character behaves on a regular basis and what their day-to-day attitude is like. Don't think about times where it's obvious there would be an exception, such as if John was dealing with a death of someone in his family, if he just got robbed, or any kind of scenario that doesn't happen any more than once a year, if at all.

John enjoys sports most of all, but his favorites are track and field, as well as hockey and soccer. He has quite a few friends and always tries to treat them fairly. Meanwhile, John has a good sense of humor, often enjoying practical jokes and pranks. He doesn't like formality much, and hates having to eat at fancy restaurants and any other occasion that makes him wear a business suit or tuxedo. Very often, John doesn't mind getting into trouble, and doesn't really care too much for authority.
So here we get a better picture of John's likes and dislikes. Every character should have something they like and something that reflect what kind of person or creature they are, but they should also have things they don't like and that make sense by contrasting with things they do like. No one likes or dislikes everything, of course.

The last paragraph in your character's personality should be about their feelings and reflections about the role play's storyline situation. Are they hopeful things will turn out right, or are they just trying to save their own behind?

Background: John was born in Flint, Michigan to his mother, Maria Clyde and his father, Luke Clyde. As a child, John enjoyed attention, but the birth of his younger sister Vanessa and younger brother Nathan did take away from that. As a result, John typically sought after friends rather than attention from his mother and father. In his early years of school, John was roughly an average student, getting grades around Cs and Bs. While he did like English and especially gym classes, he never cared much for math and science.
So there's John's childhood and a few details about his immediate family. Unless a major event happened to them with their family or with school that will most likely come up in the RP itself, you really don't need to go much further into detail than this.

As a teen, John was somewhat rebellious and he did get involved in underage drinking a few times, but he never did get in serious trouble with the police besides a few reprimands. In college, John stayed on campus and did let himself get carried away with the parties in the dorms. During college, he studied Sports Marketing, did relatively well with a 3.2 GPA, but he was prone to missing classes and oversleeping.
Basically, his teen and college years. Again, unless it's really important, you don't need to detail every waking day of your character's life.

As for the last paragraph in the history, you should make it a transition between the history of their past life getting connected to the events of the role play's storyline. Otherwise, it's tough to imagine your character was even made for the story, and for all anyone knows, it's a copy and pasted sign up from another role play (don't get into this habit either).

In this case, if the role play was about a war, the last paragraph should be about John possibly getting drafted into it. If it was about a natural disaster ravaging an area, John should be affected by it. If forget to include stuff like this, it does your character seem like they're not really involved in the storyline at all.

Other: John hates reality TV.
I think we all do.

---

Now, if you're feeling plucky, here's an example of a BAD and ROTTEN sign up.

Quote:

---

Name: John
Gender: Male
Age: 27
I'm sure even the most clueless of noobs can at least get these done, at least.

Description: John's tall, has brown hair, a hoodie, jeans, and black sneakers.
So, in other words, if you witnessed John cap someone in the head and this was all you told the police, they'd never find the guy.

Personality: John's funny, hates waiting around, and likes sports.
So do millions of other people.

History: John never really liked school, but he did okay and liked sports.
So do millions of other people.

Other: Nuh uh.
Uh huh.

---

And here's an example of an UNGODLY UGLY sign up.

Quote:

---

Name: jon
Gender: m
Age: 27
Description: jons tall wit brown hiar wit hoodie jeanz n shoes
Personality: funnie n liks sportz h8s waitin
History: went 2 skool h8s class liks sportz lol!
Other:
And this can go die in a fire.

---

Don't be "that guy." Really, just don't.

INTO THE BREACH: GET TO ROLE PLAYING!

So, you made a sign up, it was accepted, the role play has started, and now you're ready to jump in there and get your feet wet. So, how do you get started?

First, you'll need to decide on the following:

PERSPECTIVE

Perspective deals with the viewpoint of how you're going to be writing your role play posts. Think of it like a camera. It will affect how you use pronouns and how you generally stylize your writing. Pick the one you feel most comfortable with, but both are acceptable.

First Person Perspective - When you write in first person perspective, YOU are the character. You see what they see, hear what they hear, feel what they feel, and smell what they smell. You reflect on all of these and what they think about as if you were them. So, if you made a sign up for a dragon in a medieval fantasy setting, you are the dragon! Imagine yourself huge in size, covered in scales, with sharp claws and talons and dozens of razor sharp teeth in your giant draconic mouth. Feel those giant leathery wings on your back and your inner fire just itching to roast up some tasty- looking peasants.

Sounds fun, doesn't it? Well, that's how first person perspective works best: imagining yourself in the skin of your character and if you are really them, documenting all the events of the story as if they were writing a journal to be told to others. You'll use pronouns such as I, me, our, and we when your character talks about things.

And so a sample bit from a role play post would look something like this.

Quote:

---

It was a sunny day in the grassy, placid countryside, and no one suspected a thing. I saw them in the distance, laughing, playing, generally acting like idiot chickens with their heads cut off. They smelled... delicious. So many of them had been laughing and carelessly growing fat over the years. I couldn't have asked for a more savory meal.

I stretched out my massive wings, and then took to the skies, flying over the tiny village to send them all into a frenzy of fright before I eyed one small cottage, ripe for roasting. As the villagers ran screaming in all directions away from me, I opened my massive maw and spewed out a blazing fireball of savage, fiery destruction at the pathetic, little cottage, smothering it with burning fire.

Today was a fine day indeed.

---

Yes, I've role played dragons before and it is glorious fun that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Anyway, as you can tell, this bit was written from the perspective of a fire-breathing and downright wicked dragon. The whole passage is told from his beliefs, his feelings, and what he sees, hears, and smells. If you're going to use first person point view, it's best that you use that character's five senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

Third Person Perspective - This is great for those who would rather envision their role playing as a movie with a camera that is aimed at the target character as opposed to being set behind their eyes. This perspective also brings out more of the environment around the character as opposed to what's going on in their inside thoughts and reflections.

So if we want to use our third person perspective camera on that dragon burninating that village, it would look something more like this:

Quote:

---

It was a sunny, placid day in the countryside. In the distance, a small village was nestled with its citizens peacefully enjoying their day to day activities with children playing and the adults working hard to tend the fields and perform their handiwork. However, they didn't expect the horror that was to become of them and their tiny town.

In the distance, a savage, black-scaled dragon took flight, hungering for the now panicked villagers as he flew over them, causing them to scatter in all directions as they screamed and ran for their lives. With his piercing, red eye, the dragon spotted one cottage, and just to cause more anarchy, he opened his massive mouth and spewed a blazing fireball into the roof of the house, smothering the tiny cottage with a deluge of fire and flames.

Truly, the world had become a much darker place.

---

See the difference? In first person perspective, you're the nasty dragon, while in third person, you're the camera guy capturing the next hit movie "Dragon's Reign" on film for the whole world to see. Don't worry, the guys on Rotten Tomatoes are loving it.

Here's a big difference that's worth keeping in mind. In first person perspective, you also have to think and write from the character's perspective. The dragon thinks all this destruction is great and exciting. He's evil and nasty, but to him, that's okay because he enjoys it, so you need to write like that in connection to his personality. But in third person, all that changes. Here the dragon is portrayed as a wicked creature, and his actions are terrible and make villagers wet their pants. The audience sees for themselves just how cruel and heartless he is, and how dark the world has become.

As a result, in first person, a character's personality will affect the way the entire post is written and narrated. An evil character will delight in destruction, death, and pain, and whatever they say should reflect that. A sarcastic character will look at most things negatively and think of them in a mocking fashion. An optimistic character will generally look at the bright side of things and find hope even in grim situations. And so on and yeah, you get the idea.

But in third person, the events and general narration should not be affected by your character's personality. You're the director and the camera guy in one, and as a result, narration should be more about the "movie" and isn't the kind of personal "journal" format that first person perspective has.

EXTRA TIPS

After you've decided on the perspective you would like to use, here are some tips to keep in mind just before you make your first RP post.

Some good beginning pointers include these:

Read and watch the advanced role players. And follow their good example. As always, you learn best from people who have done this before and have been role playing for a while now. You don't have to adopt their style exactly and become their mini-me, but at least get an idea of what they did to open up, introduce their character to the storyline, and what kinds of things their character did and how they reacted to things around them. If you're not sure, read up on the posts of a few other people as well and strive to follow the example of the best ones there.
Introduce your character. A good way to do this is by having them personally think about and reflect about what's been going on, and how the elements of the role play's storyline have affected them. Did they lose someone or something because of what happened? Are they worried about what the future holds, or what their enemies might do? How are they preparing to embark on this adventure and what do they stand to gain and lose? There's a wide variety of ways to bring your character out of the box, and they will vary depending on the kind of storyline you put your character into.
Take things slow and easy. Don't be too hasty to do things, even if you made your character to be a hasty person. Generally, first posts are best when you don't try to interact with other people's characters just yet. Gently ease into things and spend your first post getting acquainted with the environment and your new character.

Also, these are good to follow when you're formatting your role play posts:

Type your posts in Microsoft Word (or any other word processing program that has a spell/grammar check) Everyone makes mistakes, but using a word processing program will allow you to catch your mistakes before they happen and before you make a goof of yourself. Not to mention you'll save your eyes by having much more of your role play post in front of you as opposed to a tiny message box on the forum itself. When you're ready to transfer everything from your word processor page to the message box, highlight everything, and use copy and paste into the message box on the forum itself. A great shortcut is CTRL + C, (press the Ctrl key and the "C" key of your keyboard) to copy, and CTRL + V (Ctrl key and the "V" key) to paste. Easy money.
Check BB Coding before submitting. BB Code is what VBulletin and many other forums use to make words bold, italic, underlined, and many other functions. Here is a guide to some basic BB code functions if you're new to this stuff or you need a refresher. Make sure there aren't any breaks in the coding and you formatted everything correctly, or else it will stand out and look funky.
Use the Preview button before you post. Unless you're feeling really spunky and don't mind taking the risk of overlooking a possible goofy mistake, preview your post first before you launch it into space. It'll help you see how your post is going to look like when you post it, and you'll be able to make sure all your BB code worked and didn't screw up. Plus, you might catch a mistake that you might have overlooked while you proofread the post on your word processor.

5. SEE YOU THERE!

Soldier, you are now armed with the basic training and equipment necessary to head out into the field and smack some bad guys around. Nah, but really, you've made it all the way here, you're ready to try out a role play or two and see how you get into things. Sure, there's an advanced guide just below if you're feeling up for it, but if you want to try a role play out first, you've got what you need and there's a low chance you'll run into any real problems. Also, sometimes you learn better just by experience and practice.

So yeah, try out a role play or two, and have some fun with it. And when you're ready, come on back for the Advanced Guide. Don't worry, we'll save some good donuts for you.

Cheers.

GUIDE #2 THE ADVANCED STUFF FOR ELITE ROLE PLAYERS

1. INTRODUCTION

So you've role played before, but you're run into problems or maybe you're just looking to get better. Or you just finished the basic guide and you're thirsty for more. Yeah, see, I knew it.

Apart from the basic guide, there's a whole slew of fine, gritty details and aspects that really get deep into role playing and may only come up in special occasions. You may have run into a few of these before, but I'll spell everything out. I've taken part in and have personally run dozens upon dozens of role plays. I've seen awesome ones reach into hundreds of pages, and I've seen others crash and burn right out of the starting gate. After seeing so many role plays, I've learned how to see things most people overlook. After reading this guide, so will you.

Just note that these advanced guidelines aren't super strict and you're free to fudge around with them if you don't 100% like them or think they really don't fit your role play. These are mainly as food for thought and are things to consider as you role play.

2. ADVANCED ASPECTS

These are generally extras you could add to your role playing to help clarify things and make it easier for everyone else.

THE HEADER

Not every role play needs one of these, but they can be a massive help. A header is something you use to start every role play post with. Generally, the style of header that I've found to be most effective is this:

Character name - Helps people remember your character's name and saves them from having to hunt for your sign up in the sign up thread.
Faction/side - This also helps people remember what side you're on and who is their ally and their enemy. If you're playing cops and robbers, it helps to know who is a robber and who is a cop.
Location - Helps other people know where you are and where to go to find you.

So in the end, a role play post header would look something like this:

John Doe
The Cops
The Break Room, Police Station

...Blah blah blah, John spent an hour eating donuts, drinking coffee, blah blah blah... (role play stuff)

And that's pretty much it. It's very easy and it saves people from having to look up your sign up to know the very basics of your character, and it saves them from having to dig through your role play material to try and figure out where your character is. It makes it easier for people to find each other and initiate interaction.

TIME DURATION

The passage of time in a role play is a funny issue. A fight among characters that spans for ten posts back and forward may realistically be spanned over a few minutes, whereas traveling together or building that snazzy hot rod in your character's garage is something that could take weeks. At the same time, it's hard to account for when it's daytime versus nighttime.

Generally, time of day needs to be generally abstract or decided upon early before anything happens. If Bill the dog is meeting Johnny Williams and Bill mentions it's late at night, that's fine if it's a realistic time they would be meeting together. In truth, day versus night generally doesn't affect a role play too much, unless certain specific conditions were made so that it is.

With regards to passage of time, interaction generally means only minutes are passing by. However, generally when a character does something that would span over quite some time, it can be sped up in the interest of time. Such as if they're building a plane, conducting research, learning a skill, or anything of that nature. Normally activities like these may take months, if not years. However, in the interest of time and to keep people's retention, these kinds of activities can be assumed to go on for quite some time as long as no interaction among characters or fighting is going on at the same time. So if Jack the scientist is researching nanotechnology, it doesn't make sense for him to be conducting months worth of research while he's fighting Conan the Barbarian in the laboratory. However, if Jack is conducting uninterrupted research away from everyone else and isn't being approached or interacted by other characters, it's safe to assume research is proceeding at a much faster rate. Since we'd like to see the role player commanding Jack the scientist do something in the role play besides spend the next eight real life months describing Jack's researching nanotechnology (he'd get bored and we'd go tired of reading it), we generally say a task like that could be started and completed over the span of five to ten posts.

The best way to think of this time duration concept in role plays is by using Real Time Strategy Games like Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Command & Conquer, and so on. I'm sure you've played at least one these kinds of games where you build a settlement/colony all while amassing forces and armies. Building and training units, as well as conducting research and upgrades generally goes by within the span of a few minutes, but yet the fighting and combat is all done in real time. And generally, when a building or barracks is training or researching something and is getting attacked, the chances of it finishing before the attacking forces destroy the building is generally unlikely.

TRAVELING

Generally, traveling should be done within three posts. You don't want your character to teleport from one location to another unrealistically, but getting from Point A to Point B shouldn't take eons if it's not the main objective in the role play. Means of transportation should also be considered as well with how much traveling and distance you can make within realistic means. If you're walking, you shouldn't realistically expect to get from New York City to Los Angeles anytime even remotely soon. However, from New York City to Jersey City by walking is much more reasonable. Remember kids, walking is good for your health!

First Post of Travel - This is generally the post where your character prepares to begin their journey. They gas up their car, board the plane, start walking down the road, and whatever, ending their post by leaving their current location. The car leaves the parking lot, the plane leaves the runway, and Elvis leaves the building.

Second Post of Travel - This is the "en route" post. It's when your character is on the journey itself, and maybe sees or does things while they're traveling. Like talking on their cell phone before getting a ticket. Or texting their girlfriend while riding the train.

Third Post of Travel - This is the arrival post. The journey is over and the train arrives at the station, the police car arrives at the Dunkin Donuts parking lot, the plane lands on the runway and for once isn't delayed, and the UFO finally arrives at Area 51. You get the idea.

3. CAUTIONS

These are things I've seen completely derail and destroy role plays. They're things a lot of people typically don't think about when they're casually mucking about in the role play, but after years of role playing, I feel it's best to flag some of these things down before people run into them again.

GAME MASTER TOUR GUIDING

When a Game Master, or GM, makes a role play, it's best to make the role play as "sandbox" and as open as possible, where each role player's character is allowed to bend the ongoing storyline, as well as influence the story's events, situations, and conflicts. As long as it could make sense and opens new doors to possible developments, these things allow everyone to have fun and should be encouraged as much as possible.

GM Tour Guiding is when the GM is making all the choices in the story and they're strictly deciding what happens. And essentially, everyone else is just there for the ride. It does make the role play feel more like a boring tour through a museum and less like a real adventure. Or, like a corny amusement park ride where they just see and hear a bunch of things happening around them, but there's no interaction. People generally get bored if they really don't feel like they're doing much. Remember, a role play is not a fan fiction. People make characters to be a part of the story, not just to be witnesses or feel like they're just spectators.

WAITING CHAINS (AND WHEN TO BREAK AWAY)

So, what's a "Waiting Chain?"

A Waiting Chain happens when one person in the role play waits for another person to post, who is waiting on someone else, who is waiting on another guy who got bored, dropped out, and never told anyone. So if Jim is waiting on Alex, who is waiting on Paula, and Paula is waiting on Bob, who ended up inactive because his computer ate its CPU for breakfast, you're down four role players if they just keep on waiting and don't do anything else. Things come to a screeching halt and eventually the whole role play locks up and goes completely inactive. Sadly, many role plays have died because of this.

As a role player, it helps greatly if you minimize the amount of time someone spends waiting for you to respond. A quick five-minute reply to keep things moving along is better than just sitting there, trying to churn out a mega-detailed five page post that may take the next week and a half. Also, if you're going to need to go inactive, let people know so they will be aware they really shouldn't be interacting with your character too much until you get back. Sure, not every period of inactivity can be foreseen, but whenever it's possible, let people know.

Also, if you're waiting on someone and it seems like they're never going to get around to respond, learn how to break away to keep things moving so other people aren't waiting on you. Generally, if you've spent roughly about 3-4 days waiting for someone to reply and they just aren't saying or doing anything, have your character break away by having something interrupt the interaction, having your character suddenly become distracted, or whatever needs to be done to separate your character from the one you're waiting on, as long as it doesn't bunny them. But if it seems strange and you can't really think of a way to bail out of the jam, consider just moving on anyway and take it as if the conversation or interaction ended or never really happened in the first place. But generally, whenever possible, an outside intervention is the best way to keep the flow of things seamless.

RAPID FIRE POSTING

Sure, you can't break the double posting rule in a role play. However, rapid fire role playing to bust ahead of the competition is not exactly fun or fair. This is when you write role play posts up ahead of time, stalk the role play thread as you wait for someone to post after you, and as soon as someone does, you post. And as it so happens, you're the guy posting after everyone else. So it looks like this:

- Jim's Post
- Your Post
- Dave's Post
- Your Post
- Paula's Post
- Your Post

And so on. It makes it seem like you're racing unrealistic circles around everyone else. And it's especially unfair if it is in a role play where things are being built, and you're using this to justify why your stuff is getting done faster or is much more powerful than everyone else's. Keep in mind, not everyone may have the time to stalk the role play thread like you can. Also, this tends to dump on a lot of extra stuff for people to read. That too, can cause people to feel they've fallen too far behind to have any hope of catching up.

AVOID WOLF PACK SCENARIOS

This happens when you have a LOT of role players putting their characters all in the same location and they're all interacting in a very close-knit group. The wolf pack scenario may not sound like a big deal at first, but it's very hard to compensate for ten characters all doing stuff at the same time. Determining the order of it all is tricky, and if many people are interacting with the same character at the same time, it can be a real clusterfrick for the guy role playing that character. And a situation like this can easily be victim to a Waiting Chain scenario.

Traveling with a bunch of people is also hard when you don't want to bunny them, but you want them to follow. That in turn becomes difficult because ultimately, you can't decide if they join you for the ride, your character can really only assume they're coming with them.

Generally, avoid getting more than three people together at a single time. But, if by chance it happens anyway, just be ready to break away if one of your followers seems to be lagging behind, or if feel the situation is getting to be too crowded.

Also, avoid having the entire RP focus on all of the role players traveling together. I've never see that work well before.

4. PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER ETIQUETTE

Ah yes. In many role plays, things get much, much more interesting and competitive when you have role players on opposing sides, working with their role player allies against other role player enemies. Suddenly, instead of beating up a NPC faction and easily defeating a bunch of nameless bad guys like stabbing gummi bears with the spare plastic knife you got from McDonald's, the role play becomes a competitive game instead, just without all the pesky numbers and stats.

However, you need to be especially careful and to make sure you're handling the situation fairly. You may not entirely agree with the system I've outlined below, but I think it's the most fair and gives people the most amount of control over how a fight between characters plays out.

GENERAL ATTACK HANDLING

At any time, you could make your character attack another role player's character if attacking them is possible. You could be near them and moving in for a melee strike, or you could be attacking them from afar, such as your character shooting a Predator missile from a remotely-controlled UAV Predator Drone. As long as the attack is realistic, it's possible.

However, you can NEVER say the attack hits or injures/kills the character. That's up to the defender to decide how the attack outcome happens. You should end the post with the projectile speeding toward the target or by your character swooping down upon the target to strike, but NEVER say contact was made and NEVER say an injury was inflicted.

DEFENDING

Every character, no matter how distracted or unaware they were when they were attacked, has to have the chance to defend. Every time a character is being attacked, they can do one of the following:

• Take damage/allow the character to be hit
• Dodge the attack
• Parry, deflect, block, and do on and so forth
• Run away from the attack

As tempting as it is, DO NOT let your character simply dodge, block, evade, and otherwise avoid damage for every attack that happens to them. That's god-modding by giving them super luck or unrealistic evasive ability, which also makes the whole premise of PVP pointless. The more your character is attacked, the higher their chances should be of taking damage and injury. And if your character is being attacked by multiple sources at once, that should lessen their chances of successfully avoiding damage from all of them. Sure, if your character is being attacked by three sources, chances should be high at least one of those will hit.

Also, the more your character takes hits and injuries, the more it should wear them down. This isn't like a first person shooter where you can still easily sprint, climb ladders, run around, and do whatever even at 3% health. Also, you don't regenerate health just by taking cover and chewing the fat for a while (I've never been a fan of games that do this).

Let's say Tim the Enchanter is being attacked by the killer rabbit, the three-headed giant, and the Frenchman. The killer rabbit lunges at Tim baring his teeth, the three-headed giant hurls a boulder at him, and the Frenchman fires an arrow at Tim. All three of these attacks were made since Tim's last post, but contact was never declared. At stated, the role players in charge of these three attacking characters are giving the role player who is controlling Tim the chance to defend against each of them. And so, Tim's next moves are determined by the guy role playing him.

- Tim DEFENDS against the killer rabbit by quickly jumping out of the way, narrowly avoiding the rabbit's nasty bite. No damage inflicted.
- Tim DEFENDS against the three-headed giant by ducking, but the boulder hits the ground and rolls at him, which then injuries Tim a bit by grazing him in the shoulder. Some damage inflicted, but definitely not as bad as it could have been.
- Tim DEFENDS against the arrow-firing Frenchman by taking the arrow to the knee (corny Skyrim meme, I know).

Okay, so Tim has dodged one attack, somewhat got out of the second, but not entirely, and definitely took damage in the third attack. So this is fair and generally realistic.

COUNTER ATTACKING

Now that Tim has resolved all of those attacks, he's free to do an action. That could include running his sorry butt out of there (the best defense is simply to run away), hiding and taking cover, or by getting thirsty for revenge and counter attacking. However, bear in mind that despite the fact Tim is getting attacked by three attackers at once, he needs to consider the relative distance between his targets and if he can attack several at the same time.

The killer rabbit is melee striking him, so it's pretty clear he wouldn't be able to attack the rabbit AND either the giant or the Frenchman. However, if the three-headed giant and the Frenchman are generally close by, Tim could attempt to attack them both with a fireball attack. However, realistically, it should be considered that the damage will not be as high or the chances of the attack successfully landing on both of them will not be as successful as if he decided to target one of them specifically. Also, you need to envision what the battle looks like in your head. If the giant and the Frenchman are not on the same side and just happen to both be attacking Tim at the same time, chances are good they wouldn't be working side by side.

Still, in this situation, it's pretty easy to see Tim's in big trouble if he tries to take on all three of them at once. Unless he has help from other role players on his side, of course.

If it still seems hard to understand the system, consider that some role playing games that involve combat are set up in turns, where each character can move and perform an action, such as attacking, using an item, casting a spell, and so on.

CHARACTER INJURY AND DEATH

Nothing's more conversational than character injury and even *gasp* character death in a role play. But let's face it, every adventure, quest, and mission bears some sort of risk and hazard. The danger and challenges the characters face from threats and even each other need to be considered to keep the role play alive, engaging, and realistic in its own context. A role play where all the characters are invincible gods that just one-hit-wallop the bad guys will get staler than a month-old slice of pizza left in an alleyway. Therefore, it only makes sense to have the characters take a beating every now and then.

Injuries

Physical injury should be present, especially if your character is going to get into fights and other creatures, allies, soldiers, and whatever is getting hurt and killed around them. Remember that not every injury has to be crippling. Your character could take a slash to the thigh or a bullet to the shoulder, but still be hard into the fight. It's okay to take a flesh wound here and there, and don't forget that injuries can be healed.

Death

Character death is essentially the epitome of decisions regarding what to do with your character. If done right, a player-controlled character's death can have very interesting, profound, and remarkable effects on the other characters involved, adding incredible spice and intensity to the storyline. Suddenly, your character's friends and comrades are swearing revenge upon the enemy for them killing your character. Not only do you have the original conflict going on, but now you've got oaths of vengeance, honor, and camaraderie pumped to the extreme.

Death could happen if your character just takes too much damage from too many sources, or you feel a certain, climatic result could come out if your character happens to fall at that particular moment, such as them jumping in the way of an attack to save someone they love or feel is more important. But try to avoid having your character croak "just because." If you're tired of role playing that character and you feel killing them off is a good way to dispose of them, at least let them go out in a bang or end themselves doing something important and in character.

Also, don't see character death as you now having to give up all participation in the role play. There's plenty of solutions to this. If you have multiple characters you're controlling at once, bingo, you're already still in the role play and can just focus on those other ones. Or if your now dead character was your only one, simply make a new one that can get involved into the storyline and interact with the remaining characters.

And yes, Virginia, I've run a few role plays that even used afterlife elements, and could have characters fight out of the afterlife to get revived. Sure, there should be some sting of death involved and shouldn't be treated overly casual, but don't be too reluctant to have a character die, especially if they've taken heavy damage or some storyline significance could be made from it.

OTHER PVP ASPECTS

Attacking Vehicles/Equipment

The rules for attacking another character's vehicle or equipment can be a little bit looser, as the actual character themselves isn't getting hurt. For example, if one character is attacking the tank that another character is riding in, it's safe to declare hits and damage, but leave it up to the character controlling the vehicle to decide when the vehicle or equipment has had too much and is busted or just plain dead in the water. As long as you're realistic, no one will complain. If you're piloting an attack helicopter and someone has attacked your gunship's main guns twice now, the guns should either be completely broken or very close to it, barely able to even fire. In all, be a sport, that's all people are really asking for.

Still, this is different from attacking characters because vehicles, weapons, and equipment is replaceable and repairable. Characters... not so much. Remember, you created a sign up for the character, not the tank that character uses or the gun they carry with them. If they lose that equipment, they could always potentially get a replacement, or even use it as a good reason to research and acquire an upgrade.

However, vehicle damage that could potentially seriously hurt or kill the character should be treated with caution, such as destroying a character's oxygen tank or space suit in the middle of outer space will definitely kill them. Destroying a character's plane engines or helicopter rotors is different, thanks to ejection seats and parachutes. Or at least allow them to crash land the vehicle and take a little rough and tumble damage.

Super/Elite NPCs VS Common NPCs

Super NPCs are generally ones that have full names, have been heavily involved with the storyline for quite some time, and have been interacting with the player characters. As such, they should be more difficult to dispose of, although not immortal, obviously. Super NPCs need to be built up over time. Anyone can give any common NPC a name and attribute, but it's their amount of involvement in the storyline that should make them more important and more significant.

Common NPCs refer to the hundreds, thousands, if not millions, of NPCs in the role play's world. These can be the citizens, soldiers, creatures, just about any living thing that isn't a player-controlled character. These NPCs exist, but they have very little stake in the story, and a player character could quickly kill them, if done realistically. Sure, a player character shouldn't be able to take on fifty soldiers in a single post, but taking out one or two of them in a post isn't god-modding. It can be assumed player characters are stronger, better trained, and are more capable than the common soldier or common man. However, taking it to the extreme is not a good idea either.

4. ALTERNATE POKÉMON MECHANICS

Obviously, since this is a Pokémon forum, you're bound to run into Pokémon role plays. You've played the games, watched the anime, and so on, but here are a few things that you might want to consider, even if they go against the norm.

SPEED, SIZE, AND EVASION

As the Pokémon games dictate, hitting a teeny, one foot tall Pichu is just as easy as hitting a 47'07" flabby Wailord. Yeah, something seems a little wrong with that when you think about it. Even though the games do have accuracy and evasion stats, that kind of thing really isn't taken into account when it comes to the Pokémon's size.

You may want to try to say "screw that" and make it so that larger, heavier, fully-evolved Pokémon are slower and easier to hit than their smaller, lightweight counterparts. It would also encourage people to not just easily jump on picking every pseudo legendary out there. In essence, it does make more sense.

AGE

The age of a Pokémon is another tricky and abstract kind of thing. Generally, if you're not sure, it's probably best to say that common Pokémon age at the same rate as humans, generally living to about 80 or so. Obviously there are exceptions, such as Ninetales. Then you have the legendaries, which should be ageless, as in they're not immortal, but they don't grow old and die.

AND CONSIDER THESE...

Highly limited teams

Having player character trainers use only two Pokémon makes much more of an impact as opposed to giving them a loaded team of six of them. With only two Pokémon, they'll need to choose wisely and won't have every type compensated for, adding to the challenge. In addition, those two Pokémon will get much more screen time than dividing that among six of them.

5. CUSTOMIZATION AND FINAL REMARKS

In closing, there's really no limit to what a role play can get into. Really, be ready for anything, and try something new every now and then to see how it works out. But most of all, have fun with it, and go all out. You never really know how things will turn out, and for that, it's what makes role playing cool.

GUIDE #3 BUILDING THAT AWESOME ROLE PLAY

1. INTRODUCTION

So, thinking of building your own role play and subjecting a few victims (just kidding!) to bring along for the ride? Building a role play from pure scratch can be done in a variety of ways, and most people who have done it before have their own special style that works great for them. And maybe you've already built a few before but you're interested in seeing one interesting way of doing it that just about anyone can do. Generally, people like to join original, cool, and well-prepared role plays that look like people are seriously interested in taking this idea to a new level. So yeah, it's best not to get lazy about the process and/or recycle something that's already come and gone before. Coming up with a good role play idea isn't the kind of thing that ends up just be a five-minute job. Sometimes it can take a few days or even a week or two.

2. BEGINNING BITS

Before you get started making a role play, there are a few things that you probably should be aware of. Every role play community is different, so be aware of what kind of people may be coming to your role play. Lurk around first and see what kinds of things pass for a role play around there. But, if you're just starting off in a new community, it's better to make a really detailed role play on the side of caution and take it as if that community has pretty high standards. When in doubt, go big and go great. It's just embarrassing to have a locked thread in your name because what you made was too shabby by the community's standards.

Second, a lot depends on what ideas and themes you're basing your role play off of. If you start a Pokémon role play on a Pokémon forum, that works great, but if you post a role play based on something like the anime Bleach or the game series Uncharted on said Pokémon forum, you're already slashing down the number of potential participants by using a fandom many of them may know nothing about. You're better off either coming up with something original, or using a role play based on the fandom that the community is based around. Anything else may mean you're taking a risk. You also can't expect people who don't know the fandom to start spending hours of time researching wikis and plunging into Google searches. Most people are not going to do that.

3. WORLD-BUILDING

AND IN THE BEGINNING, YOU SAID...

For those of you who plan on making an entirely original role play, chances are good you may run into the challenge of building your own world. It may seem pretty daunting, but don't get discouraged. It's something you can have quite a bit of fun with.

First off, don't immediately assume a living, fictional world needs to be pretty much like Earth with different-shaped continents. A lot of stories, games, and movies do this, but you can inject a few things that may alter the normal worldly flow of things, and yet do so much to change ways life have been built around that. Messing with a few things like seasons, gravity, environment, and so on are possibilities, but don't go too overboard. Don't alter too much to the point where reality is now totally scrambled, or else you might confuse your role players and they won't feel too comfortable role playing in this new environment.

Second, don't try to make your own world until after you have a basic idea of what kind of role play you're building. While it's perfectly okay to make changes as you go along, building the entire world completely and then having no idea where you really want to go with it is a mess also. You might have to go backwards after that and stuff like that can get icky.

The "Earth with different shaped continents" approach isn't bad, don't get me wrong. It serves as a good starting point. It's a setting that isn't freakishly outlandish, but it may help to add a little flavor. But yeah, certain assumptions will need to be made first. These are the raw basics that every fictional world needs to have for it to be believable and to have the potential for a storyline:

• This world needs to support sentient, intelligent life in one way or another
• Things like air, food, water, ability to breed, and the basic, physiological needs need to be there
• A basic, sustainable ecosystem with food chains and predator/prey relationships, along with resources these living creatures rely upon for life survival
• Forms of communication, expression, and society

You can look back at any piece of fiction, game, or movie that features an entirely new world and they'll all have these aspects in one way or another. But when it comes to creating an entirely original world, your world may have something like this, but then something different as well that changes how life revolves around the situation. Keep in mind how many different kinds of planets there are out there in the universe. Some of them have really weird stuff going on. Yes, stuff that's even stranger than fiction.

Maybe ask yourself some food-for-thought questions about the world you're building, such as these:

• How warm or cold is it on this world? Are the arctic regions only at the poles, or does this entire world pretty much have snow all over? Or is it very tropical? Maybe a mix of everything the way Earth is? Maybe a new and interesting type of biome exists here?
• Sunlight and day time. Every planet has a longer or shorter day than the next. Are days longer than nights, or vice-versa? Or maybe the world has two suns and that affects the flow of daylight?
• Gravity. Does it still work the same way here? Or can people jump several stories high just because it's much lighter?

Still, keep in mind one thing. If it will greatly affect the RP and the way the world is built, then mention it. But if not, don't really spend too much time on it. A world may have three moons, but if these three moons really don't affect all that much, then you really don't need to mention them. But again, like I said earlier, don't warp around too much. Having the seasons be a little oddball and/or having gravity be altered in a way are good means to create variance, but that should be in then.

But in essence, what people wear, what they eat, how they live, and what they do for entertainment can be greatly affected by the surrounding area and what's available to them in terms of resources, availability, and culture. A planet with lighter gravity may not like playing golf that much.

PUT ON YOUR CARTOGRAPHER HAT

If you're making your own world, I strongly recommend making a map, even if it's just a simple crude one drawn up in MS Paint or some other basic drawing program. A very detailed worded description can be used instead, but still, a map can work wonders. Just about any video game that has you moving from one location to another has some kind of a map involved, even if it's just an outline with dots. Even if you feel your artistic skills are smut and feel your art looks like a kindergartener got drunk off of Heineken, if you can at least draw lines and type letters for city/location labels, you can make a working map for your role play.

Even if all you can do is outline continents with basic black squiggly bubbles, put dots in places, and put city/location labels to create a black and white map, that's already a big step in terms of telling your role players what locations there are in this world, about how close and far apart they are, what their names are, and what kind of geography they're dealing with. As long as people can see the dots and read the city/location labels, that's already a big jump from having nothing. Even if all they have is "Naughty Forest" in the middle of a field of white, at least they know there's a forest there and not somewhere else.

Map or not, it's best to describe at least a little bit about these areas. Chances are good a role player may only take a quick glance at the map and only read about locations they intend on visiting. Everything else may just be skimmed over. Regardless, having the basic stuff gives them an idea of what the world is like. If Naughty Forest is filled with pixies and fairies that like to steal your New York Yankees baseball hat, role players probably should know about that.

Still, if Photoshop is your best friend and you can make a really epic map with all the bells and whistles, then by all means, go for the gusto. A beautiful map will drawn in people and will prove to them that you're serious about this role play and want it to rock the house and get record deals.

HOME SWEET HOME

While you're out creating your world and your story, you may want to start thinking about who or what lives here. If you really want to feature a particular creature or race of beings you had in mind and wanted to create, make sure this world you're building for them can actually support their existence and their ability to survive.

When it comes to making up your own creatures and races, it's good to know a little about biology and about roles and niches, as well was the survival of the fittest. If a particular species can no longer obtain food or has no real place to live, well, they're goners. Species go extinct all the time for various reasons, whether their food or habitats are gone, or just can't produce more offspring to offset their death rate. Also, each species has a carrying capacity, which means a population of creatures can only go as high as the maximum number of resources are available to support it. And sometimes, that may mean going into competition with another species.

In terms of intelligent life, this is typically with regards to creatures that are able to construct civilizations, culture, languages, architecture, trades, economies, technology, and all the kinds of things that humans do. While birds can make their own nests, communicate to each other, and have forms of organization, they're not really considered intelligent life in terms of fiction. Usually with that regards, intelligent life is referred to as any race or creature that is as mentally intelligent as a human and capable of performing most of the same kinds of facilities, such as building structures, reading/writing, creating leadership and law, creating economies by means of currency and exchange, and those kinds of things. A good determination you can use to make this call is to ask if the species uses numbers in any way. Birds, frogs, rabbits, bison, and so on don't use numbers and never really cared for math. Humans use math every day. And fantasy and science fiction races, along with other intelligent life, use math in some form, whether it's for counting money, adding and subtracting personal assets, measurements, and so on.

But, if you need another way of seeing it, a good example to differentiate the two is the Pokémon mainstream games (Black/White, X/Y, Diamond/Pearl, etc) and the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games. In the mainstream games, Pokémon are mostly regarded as wildlife and behave very similarly to animals, whereas in the PMD spinoff series, they're capable of building civilizations and architecture, have working economies and currency, are capable of reading and writing, have organizations and leadership, and share very similar traits to human societies and culture. And the PMD Pokémon use math and numbers, whereas the mainstream Pokémon generally don't. Again, it's not to say Pokémon are stupid in the mainstream games just because they're not building their own villages, but it's just a way of making the determination of who in that world is capable of building civilization.

MAKING FANTASY RACES

Most people know what certain races are, such as elves, mermaids, centaurs, harpies, and that kind of thing from fantasy and mythology. Incorporating races like those into your role play shouldn't leave people with a lot of questions as to what they are and what they look like, although they may need a bit of tweaking to be adjusted for the role play environment. However, if you're designing a totally new race from the ground up, you may want to consider a few things.

• Does it have strengths and weaknesses? Compared to everyday humans, there should be things that all members of the race can do better than humans, and some things that all humans can do better than your race. For example, since harpies fly (advantage over humans), you could say their bones are hallowed out and are more prone to breaking under blunt force (disadvantage compared to humans). Same thing with mermaids. They may have better swimming and underwater breathing ability (advantage over humans), but they're a total joke on land (disadvantage compared to humans).
• Is it regarded as intelligent? If the race has its own societies, cultures, and governments (even primitive is acceptable), and has intelligence at least somewhat comparable to a human's give or take, then it's okay as a playable race. A good way to make the call is asking the question, does the creature use numbers in any way? Sure, your mermaids may not be issuing social security numbers, but if they're capable of using even just basic math and/or currency in some way, it's regarded as intelligent.
• Does the race have a role in the environment? Again, what does the race eat, how does it survive and coexist with nature, and what does the race typically do for entertainment? It also helps to make it all make sense, too. A group of minotaurs that eats pizza, lives in the subway, and entertains itself by playing XBox Live is going to get you some weird looks.

In addition, you're definitely going to need to explain what the race looks like, and if you're good at drawing, considering busting out a picture, because often people have trouble visualizing brand new races. But besides the basics, you need to do what you can to make the race seem as realistic as possible. What would a day in the life of one of these creatures be like? What do they do for work and survival, what do they eat, and what kind of recreational things do they do? What cultural values do they have and what are the demographics like? The more you answer, the more believable the race is and the more comfortable your role players will be with them.

4. YOUR BLANK SLATE (GETTING STARTED WHEN YOU'RE STUMPED FOR IDEAS)

Sometimes, just getting started is the hardest part. We've been there, starting at a blank page, trying to get inspired, and being totally stumped on where to begin, where we then go to YouTube to look at a stupid cat video or spend 3 hours looking at TV Tropes. Sometimes, it's tempting to take the easy way out and just import something that was already done before or dive into the recycling bin for a role play you hosted before and turned out okay (The Hollywood Creative Process). But you don't really want to do that.

Relax, take a deep breath, and consider this approach.

Step 1: What kind of role play are you in the mood for? - Simply consider the genres and put that in the back of your mind. Want a fantasy role play with knights, dragons, magic, and so forth? Maybe a little horror, as a lot of people love a zombie apocalypse. Or something along the lines of an action/thriller, running from the cops or getting tangled up in a government conspiracy? It's your role play, you decide! But if you're not sure, guess what? Unlike a cooking recipe, you can just skip this and save it for later. But if you want to aim in a certain direction, deciding on step one may help.

Step 2: Disc Jockey Time - So you've decided on a good genre of fiction to base your role play on. You may think you haven't made much progress, but you've taken that first, decent step toward getting there. And get this, you can change the genre as you move long if new or better ideas develop. Or even have genres cross over. It works and it's been done before.

But to get started, try playing some soundtrack music that corresponds with the genre you've selected. Even if you had trouble really remaining committed to that genre, play some music anyway. If you're going with a fantasy idea, maybe fire up the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, something from your favorite fantasy RPG, or something epic by Two Steps From Hell or Future World Music. For you horror fans, delve into the soundtracks for Resident Evil or Silent Hill to fill the room with an eerie feel. Action fans, there's a million soundtracks for high intensity action movies. Fire them up, or play some metal. It doesn't matter where it's from, just fire up a great song!

Playing music while you brainstorm your ideas helps get you in the mindset. It helps you picture and imagine events, themes, or situations that could be used for your role play, like giving a soundtrack to the imaginary movie in your mind. If you like using YouTube, sometimes these kinds of songs will have a great picture to match with the song. But in truth, find good music that tells some kind of story or idea to you. Not every song will do this and some people get different ideas from different songs, so you may need to jump around.

You may think "hey, I could just watch my favorite movie or anime and just base the role play off of that." Truthfully, songs are shorter and faster, and if you watch a movie or anime to get inspiration from, you may fall into the temptation of basing the entire role play off just that or something extremely similar. It's okay to get one or two ideas using this method, but if you use too many ideas from the same source, other people who have seen it will know where you got it from.

Step 3: Hang onto those scrap ideas - Don't try to come up with the entire plot in one bang. You'll drive yourself barking up a wall and may ram you face into your desk in the process. Instead, start with just the bits and pieces of inspiration, it's much easier to manage. You wouldn't eat a twelve-ounce steak in one bite, would you? Regardless of how insignificant an idea may be, hold onto it anyway. If you really don't like it, you can always file it in the trash later on. Maybe you remembered a cool idea/concept from a video game or movie. Or a particular character's weapon came to mind. Maybe a form of fighting/weapons/magic came up that you remembered that seemed really cool. Hang onto that, and write them down. It's even better if you just keep them vague. Building upon them and going into depth can wait until later.

At the end of a bunch of songs and some thinking, maybe you came up with some ideas, what we're going to refer to as "scraps," basically just figments of ideas and imagination that don't really mean anything on their own, but might be useful to hang onto. Halfway through your role play making, you may decide to go back and do some more inspiration-induced brainstorming. That's perfectly okay too.

But yeah, listen to the songs, and just jot down ideas or any bits of things that may come to your head. Sometimes, it makes a big difference just looking at the stuff in front of you rather than floating around as an abstract mess in your head. For example, maybe the idea of dragons came to mind, or some dark, urban city. Maybe an idea of a castle in the sky or a way of using magic by song came to you while listening to music. That's stuff worth jotting down, even if you later decide it's not worth clinging onto.

5. WEAVING THE ROLE PLAY TOGETHER

PUTTING THE SCRAPS TO USE

Here's where the magic happens. You start taking your scrap ideas, and you start trying to tie them together into a kind of story. However, sometimes it helps to give these scrap ideas some time and let them sink in or become more solid and concrete rather than weird and all abstract-like. Maybe you'll want to go back to add more scraps to your pool, or maybe scrap a scrap (ha ha, yeah, I went there) in exchange for another figment of an idea. Let your imagination play around. And sometimes it helps to keep playing that music while you're doing this. Something cool may pop up along the way.

Also, while you're trying to tie ideas together, take the time to let the ideas incubate. Don't be in a rush to hastily snap everything together like your cramming for some role play creation final exam. Sometimes giving a role play at least a week's worth of time to really materialize in your head and in writing can help give it a boost. And while you're linking things together, you'll probably figure that yeah, it's like a jigsaw puzzle with many different possibilities, but in this case, not all pieces will interlock together, and you may find yourself with stuff left over. You can also take those pieces and alter them as well.

As you're forging these ideas, you may want to start considering the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of your role play. It doesn't need to be super-serious or formally done, just keep these on the back of your mind, one at a time, of course. Some of those can even wait until the last minute or be changed if you don't like what came up. Some of your scraps may start answering these questions and may start to fill in the blanks, so be on the watch for them. Eventually, you'll have to figure all of them out, but don't sweat it.

Who is involved in this RP? - Basically, what living, sentient entities are involved in this story? Who are they and how have they come to be? Don't consider the motives just quite yet. Simply consider the who when you're working on this part. Are they human, animal, monster, what kind of living things will be involved? Regardless of the reason, these are the characters of the role play.

Where does the role play take place? - Basically, you're considering the setting. What kind of physical environment is this role play in? If you close your eyes and picture this place, what does it look like? What would it feel like to be there, and what kinds of feelings, emotions, or sensations would it invoke upon you? The very setting of your role play can greatly influence the kinds of themes, emotions, and culture of the characters and their way of life in this world. And it should also vary, with some places invoking different emotions than others.

When does the role play take place? - This will also affect your setting and can tie a bit with the "Where" part. Does it take place in ancient times, modern times, classical era, or in a possible future? And in a different world, what kind of impact has time made upon the development of this place? How has time changed cultures, ways of life, and demographics? Again, don't get too overwhelmed by it. It's food for thought, but no one said you had to eat it. Sometimes just making one decision can answer a truckload of questions.

Why does the role play take place? - A role play works a lot like a story. So consider what motives, reasons, and attitudes may surround the characters and the setting they're in. Is there a conflict of interest, or a concern about a problem that needs to be solved? What could happen as an outcome, and what are the consequences of these actions? Don't overwhelm yourself, though. More of these bits can be painted along the way.

What is the role play about and what is going on? - Save this for last, because you don't want to start committing to one particular thing until you're ready. And you can't put all your ducks in a row until you have all your ducks. But when you're ready, use the "what" area to figure out what the role play is really about, what kinds of themes are going on, and what kinds of purposes, concepts, and motives are driving the engine of this storyline situation.

LINKING SCRAPS

With your scrap ideas, it's time to take one and try and link it with another. Imagine both of those scrap ideas exist in the same storyline. It may sound tricky, but try to create a way for them both to coexist and use both scraps in the same sentence. There's definitely more than one way to link two scrap ideas together. You just need to play around with both ideas, and try putting the ideas working together in cohesion, or working against each other like polar opposites.

For example, if you had two scraps, such as "Dragons" and "City in the Sky," you could connect them together by saying your role play story is about a group of dragons that live in a sky city. Or, the dragons are the enemy of a sky city and they're at war. Or, the dragons are neutral, but the citizens of the sky city have captured them, and the story is about the dragons trying to escape. There's plenty of ways you can connect two scraps together.

If you have trouble creating a cohesive link that you like and seems logical in some way, maybe try linking two other scraps instead first. Also, a good question to ask is this:

Do I like all of these possibilities?

Keep in mind, you probably can't do all of them all at once, but coming up with several alternatives will give you choices and things to consider rather than look at a blank slate. You can't really choose every method to relate the two in the end, and that's if you want to choose any of them at all. But moreover, if you really don't like what came up, again, try linking the concept with something else.

When you've linked two scraps together, keep going and see if you can make a chain of three, or set the first link aside and try to make another link of two. For example, with "Dragons" and "City in the Sky," you may find that adding a third scrap like "Eternal Night" could be added to that link to now affect the setting, and plunge the sky city into darkness with the dragons having to deal with it also. Or, you could link "Eternal Night" with "Snowy Landscape" and then later link that with the "Dragons" plus "City in the Sky" chain to create a situation where a world of snow is plunged in darkness, just below a city in the sky. To further link that, you could say the dragons are from that dark, cold world, targeting that city because that's the reason why the world below is flooded with darkness and cold weather. Again, these are the kinds of things you can play with, but as you can see, this is an effective way to come up with feasible ideas that could be turned into a working storyline and role play.

THE SKELETON FRAMEWORK

A skeleton framework is basically a rough outline and summary of your role play.

You get a skeleton framework of a role play story by linking some scrap ideas and finding a feasible way to tie it together by means of relating one scrap to another. Along the way, you'll be making some pretty major, role play altering choices, and you'll easily find there's more than one way to go about connecting ideas. Don't sweat it out though. Even at this point, you may be changing these as you move from step to step and feel that hey, this other idea is starting to grow on me more than this other one.

Again, it's important to remember that you don't want to just cough up the entire role play's story in one big hurl. It's tricky if you're not building a framework to serve as a foundation of your role play. Don't worry if it may seem a little strange at first. Those kinds of things can be fine-adjusted later on into a way you may feel more comfortable with.

5. FLESHING IT OUT

What you have now is just a role play that's currently just a skeleton, and a skeleton is... well, it's still dead. And in this case, a skeleton role play doesn't even make for a good Halloween decoration. If you release what you have already, well, it's dead right out of the starting gate. And that would be a real waste of all these interesting ideas you linked together.

In this phase, you start fleshing out some details and start really giving depth behind the initial, linked details that you came up with from scrap ideas and found a way to connect together. Now is probably a good time to start giving stuff names, such as important NPCs, factions, concepts like magic, and that kind of good stuff.

When you start filling in your Who, What, Where, Why, and When, don't be ashamed by going back and forward between these. You may decide to adjust the time period to make way for a certain faction, or adjust the geography of the setting so that a certain faction seems more in place. Scraps that deal with physical locations may help you work on your Where, and scraps that deal with living things will help you fill in that Who and Why. But again, a lot of the grunt work simply comes from just knowing how to take two scraps and make a bridge to connect the two. After that, a lot of it is really just a process of filling in the blanks and deciding where you'd like to go with things.

DETAIL AND YOU

From here, it's really up to you to decide how far and how detailed you want to get with your role play, I can't really decide that for you. I've seen relatively basic ideas for role plays go epic in scale and proportion. I've also seen very detailed and intricately designed RPs flop and go bust. And yes, some of those were mine. If you make things too complex, sometimes people get overwhelmed by it. Only focus on the things that really need to be focused on and don't make too many things loopy and confusing. Keep things straightforward and make it easy on the reader's eyes. People often get intimidated if the role play seems gigantic and it'll take them all week to read the thing.

6. SOME ZEN TO THINK ABOUT

From all my many years of role play creation, I've come across some various things that may help you when it comes to both making and running a role play.

KEEP THINGS EVOLVING

Or dynamic, if you really want a special buzz word that's used all the time in crazy, graduate-level business classes like the ones I had to slug through. Dynamic means don't let the storyline situation stay static for too long and don't keep things the same way for ages and ages. Let the story change, let things be created, and throw new challenges and concepts into play. And let your role players feel comfortable doing this also. Stories need to evolve, progress, and move around or they go dry. If things don't change and nothing really new happens, people will get tired of the same old ho-hum stuff and will move onto something else. And the reason why people move onto something else is because yeah, they want something new.

Think of it more in terms of an arms race. The bad guys are getting more powerful, but the good guys need to play catch up, or take advantage of a weak spot that the bad guys overlooked. But if both sides are just having a Mexican standoff and everyone's waiting around for someone to do something, but there's a disadvantage for going first and/or people are afraid they might get punished by the GM for taking action from past reprimands, you've got the role play knocking on death's door. That's not good. That kills role plays and beats them up to look like a raw hamburger.

A good way to do this is to ensure your role players aren't afraid of implementing new stuff, building things, or incorporating their own ideas into your role play. Best way to do that is to make sure they aren't afraid of you as the GM, so don't put pressure on them or call them out each time they try to do something. Be casual and don't be too much of a rules lawyer. Let the rules be bent, and if it really is for the better of the role play, heck, even let a rule be broken or two. I've seen role plays where things that some others would have considered god-modding really brought a role play to life and made it take on a whole new perspective.

And that brings me to my next point.

THERE ARE RULES, BUT...

Sure, there's a good reason to have rules and guidelines. You don't want people god-modding to screw around and make the whole role play a piece of junk where only the violator is having fun and everyone else finds it unfair. However, if it seems like the role play could take an interesting turn from a little reality bending and "god-modding," don't be too quick to shoot it down. Even if the "violator" is becoming some godzilla-sized creature or has some crazy power, they could still have weaknesses. And sometimes these kinds of things are only temporary advantages. Think about it this way. What would Mario Kart be like without all the wild items it has to pummel other racers? Just another blah racing game. If they really worked hard to achieve some special kind of form or power, let them have it, just as long as it doesn't make them invincible or makes a real wreck out of everyone else's fun. Again, really establish a kind of work/activity = reward system, but don't make it so strict. Role plays are really supposed to be pretty loose and casual, not ultra-serious.

"TRAINING IS OVER, SOLDIER!"

I highly don't recommend making a role play where the characters are starting off as total newbies and need to train, work, and build themselves up for a long time to become anything remotely cool. Sure, definitely allow them to become bigger and better as time goes on and as they do stuff, but it's a better idea to get things going strong and not focus on the training or preparation stuff too much. For example:

You are a normal person doing normal things, until you find a mystical gem that grants power. However, this power comes very slowly, and at 1x posts, you get blah blah, and at 2x posts, blah blah...

Let me put it this way. Would a battle between two heavyweight boxers be more interesting while they're fully trained adults, or when they're only months old as little babies? Yeah, thought so. And the truth is, this is often why you see Pokémon role plays that start everyone off with newbie trainers with only starters end up in the trash heap even before the first gym battle. That kind of thing's been done many, many, many times before and starting up from the bottom is often sucktastic. It's better if you start characters with seasoning and experience first, and then let them grow from there.

Also, people like having special powers, features, abilities, and so on RIGHT NOW, not come several months from now. Ever order a new video game online and cringe at the week-long delivery estimate? That's what it's like! Don't do that to your role players! And that training session is like having to go through a tutorial mode that lasts for half the game. Play it as if everyone has ADHD when it comes to that. By the time your role play starts, the exposition stuff and getting acquainted to the conflict fluff should be over. The revolution should have begun by now, the fires should be blazing, and the adventure is now underway. Not six weeks from now.

CHAT ROOM YAKKING

There come times when chatting about the role play outside of the role play, such as on a messenger, often comes around. You may chat with other people about the role play and how things are going, but for pete's sake, don't get ultra-passionate about it and start introducing drama into the situation. I've seen situations like this go from bad, to worse, to actually killing friendships. Over a role play! Yes, it does happen. I've had to do it with some people that took role plays way, way too seriously and treated their characters like their own children. It's okay to like your character and to want them to be successful in the role play's storyline, but don't go bananas over them.

People sometimes have the tendency to want to reveal everything they're doing in a chat, and expect the same from you. Everything gets revealed, shared, and passed around, and suddenly the surprise and suspense is pretty much gone, as if you read movie spoilers just before popping the Blu-Ray in. It's really not as much fun if you keep doing this and often, it ends up with people dropping out of the role play because everyone feels the whole thing's been pretty much resolved on messenger and they don't feel like rehashing what they already talked about last night.

Also, again, don't take things so personally when it comes to role plays. Don't get so ultra-passionate about your characters to the point where you start lashing out at real people over fictitious people. You may think it's crazy if you've never run into this, but it's happened before.

It's okay to chat about the role play a little bit, but don't spoil everything to come, get irritated about everything people do, force them to get all their next actions pre-approved like some chess game auditor, or try to pre-plan everything that is to come. It's more fun to read your adversary's next role play post not knowing what kind of dark and devious plan they're about to hatch in the midst of their interesting literature as opposed to just skimming over the whole darn thing because you already know what's about to happen because you asked them to tell you last night over Skype.

NEVER FEAR FAILURE

And there come times when we thought we had a winning role play... and it flops like a goldfish that jumped out of the take home water bag, through the open car window, and onto the interstate. Only two people signed up, ten others reserved and then decided a black hole would be a great dream vacation destination, and the last post was made by a guy even Interpol would have trouble finding. Either that, or the role play was running pretty well for a while, and then it got slower... and slower... and got plugged somewhere between three pounds of sticky bubble gum and a glue trap.

It happens.

Just because you had a role play flop doesn't mean it was bad. I've had role plays work on one forum and then totally crumble apart on another. Also, you tend to learn more from what didn't work than what did. Don't get discouraged from a dead role play and think it was all your fault. Keep trying new things, give things another shot, and let there be a next time to take on a whole new perspective or maybe rearrange things differently than how they were before.

7. CHEERS

Well, that concludes Part 3 of this huge and enormous role play guide. Hopefully it's helped you in some way, and if you've made it all the way here, awesomesauce. When it doubt, give it a try. Sometimes the biggest and most loved things started off as things some people thought were crazy and couldn't be done.

So, good luck to you and all the best. You deserve it.

Rock on. :cool: