Hello and welcome~ If this is your first step into RPing, please read the following! If not, jump right down to the bottom for the Frequently Asked Questions links for quick-start guides to get things going!

For Newbies! wrote:

If you have never RPed before, I'mma not suggest the Hardcore Event, but do keep an eye on the announcements / GC calendar for when Saturn opens up the Casual Event for the month - there's no profile required and she provides directives throughout so it's a good place to get your feet wet! Additionally, keep an eye out for public RTRP's (Real-Time Roleplays, held in discord - fast paced, everyone's online and writing, and they conclude within 2 hours of starting)(most of the time). We have some RTRP's that are "private" as they are closed to only members within that RP to play, but if it shows up as a global announcement, it's open to the public and no profiles are required!

IN THE MEANTIME Here are some things!
1) The OOC and Discussion forum; check through there and see if there are any storylines you like the sound of that have players missing for different characters or are otherwise not saying that they are full XD   If you find one you like, you can use the links below (in this page) as a quick-start guide to what you need to join, or peruse the Incredibly Detailed List of Everything RP Related to give you everything you will ever need to know about the section.

2) These are the open-play boards: Open-Play Boards. No profile required, these boards are just situations wherein your character can join; you don't have to pay attention to the rest of the thread, just the starting post (as they have all gone inactive)

3) If you join the Writing and Roleplaying Guild, there is a section called the "RP Practice Area" that you can jump in for one-on-one RP practice (no storyline required, no character profile required, etc.). It's pretty much the Open Play boards but available for like one-on-one's with feedback and suggestions available

Welcome to the section!

Startup Questions

• I have an RP story in mind.
  
• I want to make a RP with someone.
  
• I want to join an RP already in progress.
  
• I want to see what’s going on.
  
• I need to create a character profile.
  
  Posting in the RP Section
  
• Out of Character Comments (OOC Guide)
  
• Bumping Etiquette
  
  Roleplaying Dynamics
  
• How does dialogue work in an RP?
  
• How much further can I push the story in my roleplay post when I'm not the creator of the storyline?
  
• What is Metagaming, and what's the big deal?
  
• What is Godmodding, and why can't I do it?
  
  

I want to join an RP already in progress. Where do I go and what do I do?

1. Start shopping. Visit either the OOC and Discussion forum or its subform, the Requests boards and start poking around. Read a short synopsis of their stories (either in the OOC board, in the [url=http://www.thegalaxycauldronforums.com/t10639-list-of-storylines]Approved Storylines Board[/url], or in the RP itself) and ask in their OOC board if they’d like another member (most of the time, it’s a resounding YES).
   
   
2. Create your character.
   
   
3. Join in!
   

How does dialogue work in an RP?

Dialogue can be tricky, especially for new roleplayers. 

Unlike with writing a story or fanfiction, you have zero control over characters other than your own*, and cannot assume they will respond the way you think they will, plan they will, or hope they will. In fact, you cannot assume anything about another person's character - that's one of the joys and surprises of roleplaying. 

Keeping that in mind, the general rule of thumb for dialogue in roleplay is:




*Note: NPC's, non-player-characters, of your creation can be controlled by you and so you can speak for them. If you have an NPC in your rp, it's a good idea to talk in your OOC thread about who mainly controls them, or if everyone is free to control them!

Out of Character Post Guide

Out of Character Posts, or OOC posts, are comments made by you, rather than your character. Here's an example!

Roleplay Thread wrote:

Usagi stumbled! She wheeled her arms about, rocking back and forth in place on the tip of her toes as a high pitch whine of terror escaped her!


((OOC: Lol, anyone want to catch her?))

Here at the GC, we try to keep OOC comments out of our roleplay threads.   It just makes rereading posts cleaner and easier. In order to facilitate OOC planning (and chatter ) we created our OOC and Discussion Forum, where every storyline has their own OOC thread expressly for that purpose. So if you have a comment, a question, an idea, or a suggestion for your roleplay and want to talk to the other players about it, head for your OOC thread and post away!

If it's something short, or a note for readers of the RP, or a comment that doesn't require an answer, you are allowed to post those in your RP posts. However! We request you put all OOC comments in a spoiler thread. So the sample post above would, in the GC RP Sections, look like this instead:

Roleplay Thread wrote:

Usagi stumbled! She wheeled her arms about, rocking back and forth in place on the tip of her toes as a high pitch whine of terror escaped her!

OOC:

To create an OOC Spoiler, copy the following code into your post, and replace the "OOC Text Here" text with your comment!

Code:

[spoiler=OOC]OOC Text Here[/spoiler]

Note! OOC Posts should never be posted alone in a Storyline thread! That is to say, if you are posting in a storyline thread, you have to actually have some roleplaying in that post. ^.~  No OOC-only posts there -- those go in the OOC board.

Bumping Etiquette


Bumping a thread is when you post a post for the specific purpose of making the thread appear "unread" to people, redirecting their attention to the thread. This method is often employed when someone is awaiting a response, or a thread has gone quiet for a while. 

For the flow of storyline reading, we request that bumping only occur in the OOC threads. 

If you would like to 'bump' a storyline thread, add another in-character roleplay post! ♥

What is Metagaming, and what's the big deal?

Metagaming is having your character know information that has not been revealed in the roleplay yet. It can be a little tricky, especially if you are up to date on the plotline, are involved in planning the story, or are excited about the story - you just want to get there! You know this by heart, and sometimes that can accidentally pop out as your character knowing something that, storywise, they shouldn't. 

Example: You're playing as Sailor Venus in a Silver Millennium RP.

Silver Millennium Roleplay wrote:

Venus laughed lightly as Serenity caught and cuddled Luna, watching her beloved princess with a fiercely protective adoration. She loved Serenity dearest of all, and was determined to protect her from whatever threats dare face her. And if she were to die in a battle for the Moon at the hands of the evil brewing on Earth while protecting her, she would consider her life good and fulfilled.

See that? That's metagaming. The attack on the moon is known to us, but, as stated in Sailor Moon canon, it was a surprise attack. Sailor Venus should have no idea that it was coming, or have any reason to suspect that the disturbance on Earth was due to an evil force. This is an example of light metagaming, but it is still metagaming and can cause some discomfort in your fellow RPers - kinda like you're almost spoiling the surprise for their characters.

Example: You're playing as your OC in a Free Forum thread. The enemy (played by the creator of the thread) is secret, and is hiding invisibly and undetectable in your OC's favorite doll, a surprise everyone had planned.

Free Forum RP wrote:

Cassandra entered her room warily and heavily dropped her bag at the door. With her last bit of energy, she flumped onto her bed, bounced once, and lay still, staring out her window. Why was practice so grueling? With a groan she turned over, and pulled up a beloved doll from the collection beside her bed. She held the doll close, and then realized something was wrong. She stretched her arms out, holding the doll at a distance, and screamed! Her doll's eyes were glowing red!

It was an enemy!

She jumped up and transformed --

Metagaming. If the enemy were supposed to be secret, your character should not have gotten the feeling that something was wrong. In this case, a prompt or an OK from the person playing the evil spirit would have been alright, or a discussion wherein everyone agreed it was time to reveal the evil had happened, but if it was just you deciding to move the story forward, it would be an issue. Your fellow RPers might not have wanted the doll to be revealed yet, or the creator of the thread had planned a specific way for the doll to be outed, and to take control and spring the situation early is not fair to them.


In a nutshell, metagaming is like spilling the beans too early. It's like in-character spoilers. XD  Keep storyline-specific secret planning information secret until everyone in your roleplay is ready for the reveal! Don't even have your character have a hunch about an upcoming situation! Let them be surprised by the planned surprise!



There is, of course, a character who toes the line of metagaming quite a bit: our resident psychic, Rei. For simplicity's sake, if you are playing Rei and are not the creator of the RP, make a quick check in the RP OOC thread to see if everyone's cool with Rei sensing such-and-such. Or Rei getting a bad feeling. It's just good to cover your butt in case someone sees your post and gets upset with possible spoilers XD

What is Godmodding, and why can't I do it?

There are two broad types of issues that are thrown together and given the title "godmodding." There's the "god-mode" godmodding and "power-play" godmodding; both are terribly rude and frowned upon here at the GC (and most roleplaying communities) because they are unfair, and while we play characters to face unfair obstacles, playing those characters should be as fair as possible to the players. 

God-Mode Godmodding
God-Mode godmodding happens when a player makes their character perfect, to the detriment of the story at large. Their character always hits their mark, they're always right, and they always get what they want and sometimes stand on other characters to get there. They have god-like powers that should not be available to them within the confines of the game.

This form of godmodding is a little tricky to catch in the roleplaying happening here as we work together and keep open discussion threads going for each roleplay. Where we run into issues is if the majority of the players planned, say, a mini-boss battle, and were hoping for an actual fight scene but your character one-shots the mini-boss with a perfect hit without discussing it with anyone first. That'd be unfair to the other players - they've effectively been robbed of what could have been an exciting scene! Similarly, if there were a puzzle that the characters were to solve, and players were expecting to stress over, to struggle with, and to have to find clues to solve, and posts after it is introduced you have your character solve it one go, that would be unfair to those players, too, in the same way the first example was. 

The key to not godmodding in the above ways is communication with the roleplayers in your storyline. Ask before you save the day in one fell swoop!

The second type of god-mode godmodding doesn't happen often here, as it is usually in roleplays where characters are fighting against each other. In those situations, god-mode godmodding would be like someone throws a punch at your character, and you have your character a) evade their punch perfectly then b) kick them backwards and hit them with an energy blast. This kind touches on powerplaying, too, but from the god-mode look of things, your character completely evading their attack and then auto-hitting the next two puts them on a status above the first character - like a god above other players. 

Keep the communication channels open, and god-mode godmodding is easy to avoid!

Power-play Godmodding
Powerplaying is any time you decide the actions of another player's character, in any way, shape, or form. Talking for them, moving for them, responding for them - through actually saying "So-and-so said" to hinting at a response that hadn't happened yet, like ""Do you come here often?" [my character] asked, and then laughed at their response and continued, "blahblahblah."."
Doing so is obviously unfair to the other player - without their permission, you decided how their character acted, and that goes against what roleplaying itself is all about!

We realize that this can happen on accident, but to guard against this, just remind yourself that you have no control over what their character does, you can only act and react, not govern the entire interaction! ((If you want to govern everything, write a fanfiction and post it somewhere so we can read it XD))