Post by Jack Kelly on Apr 19, 2008 10:20:10 GMT -5
JACE'S (EXTREMELY UNOFFICIAL) GUIDE TO ROLEPLAY
ROLEPLAYING 101
1) For The New Kids
New to the wacky, wild, wonderful world of roleplaying? Don't sweat it. We were all there at one point, and we'll be glad to help you if you ask for it. But the one thing you don't want to do is stay in one place when your skill is involved. You want to roleplay, so it's assumed you want to be good at it. The only way to do that is listen, read, and learn. Most importantly, try. You won't be posting anything that's five paragraphs long if you never attempt anything past two. Talk to some of the "veterans" on the site, any leader, or even someone whose posts you admire. If you're polite and willing to learn, anyone on the board will be glad to give you a hand.
2) Read The Rules
Most of the things you need to know are in The Rules thread on the board. The link is at the bottom of this post. I suggest you read it, because it has some valuable information. It should be the first thing you do when you join up on this board: read the rules. It's the same anywhere you go, it takes five minutes or less, and it can only help.
CHARACTERS
1) What's In A Name?
If your character's Russian, give them a Russian name. It she's German-born, she's not going to be named Nina. The most common names for girls in 1884 (around where a lot of our characters were born) were Mary, Anna, Elizabeth, Emma, Margaret, Minnie, Alice, Florence, Clara, Bertha and Rose. Common names for boys were John, William, George, Charles, James, Frank, Joseph, Harry, Henry and Thomas. That doesn't mean they have to have those names and nothing else, but you wouldn't see a girl in 1899 with a name like Courtney or a guy called Garrett. Don’t let yourself fall into the Contradiction Trap.*
2) By Any Other Name…
Most newsies have nicknames. When choosing a "newsie name" for your character, try to think of a name that Jack or Spot or other newsies would give you. Think about the time period, as well. You wouldn't stumble upon anyone nicknamed Ferrari in 1899. Think of a good reason why you have that nickname. What did you character do, or do and say often, to make them earn a nickname like that? Make sure it flows, as well. A nickname that is hard to pronounce or not easy to say isn't a good nickname.
3) Be Original
Open your mind to all the possibilities there are. Although this is a Newsies board, there are many other things in the New York world rather than newsies. Librarians, doctors, police officers, factory workers, dock workers, pickpockets, scabbers, soldiers… There are loads of possibilities for an original character. Do some research: even look at some old pictures for inspiration. You can even take characters from other movies or TV shows and use their personalities (Florence Claythorne is based on Evelyn from "The Mummy"). Also, don't do things that have been done before. The more unique your idea is, the more likeable your character will be.
4) Be Accurate
The year for this board is 1899. Be historically accurate (and accurate in general). If someone's from Germany, they're not going to have red hair. If someone's from southern Italy, they're not going to be blond. Know your geography. It takes at least two weeks to sail to America from Europe, maybe more. And most places you need money: you can hop a train, but good luck hopping a ship. Think of money matters: in 1899, there wasn't much of a middle class. Often, families were either very rich or very poor.
5) Historical Accuracy
The year for this board is 1899. There are lots of things we have today that were unheard of in that year, and even some things that we take for granted today. For example, even umbrellas weren't all too common in that time period. Use Google or some other search engine to look things up. Odds are, if you start to question whether something was used in 1899, odds are it wasn't.
CHARACTER HISTORIES AND PROFILES
1) Say What?
Character Histories are threads in the "Character Bits" section of the board. There are instructions in there, but basically it's a board where you can keep track of your character's relationships with other characters. It's most useful when you want your characters to already have a history: for example, they lived on the same block as kids and grew up best friends, but now they hate each other. It's also good for keeping track of the relationships that are roleplayed out: Race and Joker quite literally ran into each other and started a rivalry.
2) Be Fair, Be Smart
We're just getting canon characters all the time, and their relationship is already established with other canons, and that's expected. Characters need best friends, even boyfriends or girlfriends. But you can't just claim a character. And posting in someone's character history doesn't make it automatic, either. The person has to post it on their list for it to be official. If you put down "Together, Now" in someone's history, and they don't want to be together, they should have a say in it. Just be fair and smart about it. Don't do things to other people you wouldn't want done to you.
3) Make A Good Profile
When you're creating your character, make sure no one has done something like you're doing. Originality is key. No one wants to read about the same characters over and over: smoking, drinking, gambling orphan who can sell a hundred a day and is best friends with Spot and Jack. Get creative with age, nationality, and even other things: an eight-year-old Hungarian newsie with a lisp is way more interesting than a sixteen-year-old Italian newsie with a gambling problem.
FOR FEMALE CHARACTERS
1) Regarding Historical Accuracy
About one on every fifteen newsies was a girl. Most of them had homes and families, and none of them wore boys' clothes. Among other things, these are the type of things we've allowed people to get away with on the board, but do your research. The internet is full of things you can read and look up, and it doesn't take that much time. You might actually learn something, too. I astounded my friends with my knowledge of the Roosevelt family after making Alice's character. Do research and be accurate to the time period.
2) Tough Girls
A girl can be a snob, they can be witty, cheeky, and sharp tongued. Joker has an attitude. Alice Roosevelt is a snob. However...if a girl smokes, drinks, swears, dresses like a boy, and fights like a boy, it's not attractive, and it wouldn't be attractive to the newsies. For those of you who are buffs on the movie, I seem to remember a whole crowd of newsboys going hats-off to an elegant-looking girl in a dress. Think it would have been the same if she'd been wearing trousers and suspenders? Also, see the Fighting section of this thread for basic guidelines on fighting.
A girl who acts like a boy is trying to be "one of the guys". And, honestly, that doesn't get you any respect. My point is, try to be individual. It isn't at all realistic to see girls in 1899 wearing pants. Not only wouldn't it happen, but it would be regarded as scandalous. Just like the boys manage to find trousers, shoes and vests, girls can find dresses, no matter how poor you are.
LENGTH
1) Try not to use Quick Reply
Yeah, it's easier, and maybe for some people it works better than the regular reply box. But that's a really little box, and "Quick" is sometimes synonymous for "Short". Personally (and you'll be seeing this word a lot in this post) I write better in the regular reply box because I can see exactly how long my post is, and I can even preview it if I want to. Paragraphs should be about five sentences long. Each.
2) A Rule Of Thumb
I thought this would be a good idea as a general rule of thumb to follow for posting length. Go into the regular reply box, and click the word "Expand" just below the box. The box should extend in length. In general, your post should fill up that entire box at least. It's actually not as bad as it sounds: the point on this post above where it says, "I can even preview it if I want to" is the point where the expanded text box is filled. Go above and beyond, and it's fine if you're a little short. But the only way you'll get better is to try and make your posts longer.
3) Another Trick
Take all of the paragraph spaces out of your post, turning it into one big paragraph (change it back before you post it, of course). Your post should still come up to the aforementioned point. A bunch of little tiny paragraphs doesn't equal a good post. Long paragraphs, description, thoughts, details...expand. Long posts are good. Put it this way: if you wouldn't want someone to reply to your post like that, don't post it.
4) Other Character's Speech
In our posts, of course, we put in italics what the character before us said so they know which statement we're replying to. I'm thinking you all know what I'm referring to? A suggestion regarding that should be that your own words in the post should be longer than what you are putting in italics. Another person's words shouldn't account for more than 40% of your post, and that's stretching it a little. Remember, it's your reply, not their's.
GRAMMAR
1) Punctuation
No one's perfect. I'm certainly not perfect. Everyone makes errors in grammar. But try to be conscious. Put question marks at the end of questions and periods at the end of sentences. If you want something in quotations, make sure you close them once your character is finished speaking. Watch your accent marks, apostrophes, commas, etc. This board is in third person (i.e., the use of he/she in posts).
2) Spelling
Another good thing about the regular reply box is the Spell Check feature. Get into the habit of clicking it real quick after you type up a post. I've had times where I spelled words wrong I didn't even notice, and it's especially useful for fast typists who sometimes stumble a little. Overall, use the Spell Check every time. And it wouldn't be so bad to read over your posts quickly to make sure it makes sense. Something like "He's over their" when you meant to say "He's over there" won't be picked up by the spell check. Let me put it this way...if you wouldn't hand in your post to your teacher/professor/whatever as an assignment of some kind, don't post it.
GENERAL
1) Character Accents
I have very strong feelings on this. Our role play board is set in New York in 1899, so most of the characters have accents of some kind. My only advice is: Don't Go Crazy. It's fine with a word here or there, but once it gets hard for someone to read, it gets obnoxious. The accents aren't an excuse for poor spelling. Don't exaggerate them. Personally, I don't put a lot of accent in my posts, because my real accent and the "Noo Yawk" accent are fairly similar. Sure, your character's grammar can be poor. It doesn't mean yours has to.
2) Mind Readers
If Sally is talking to John, and John says, "Hi, Sally, great to see you!" while thinking that he'd rather be anywhere else but with Sally right now...unless Sally is a mind reader, she can't know that John doesn't want her around. So she would have to respond in a friendly manner, and not walk away angrily. Character thoughts are used to increase post quality and develop character. You can read someone's thoughts, but your character can't.
3) Stay In Character
You wouldn't see pessimistic Skittery smiling at everyone and giving people flowers singing "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" all day. You wouldn't see tough and hard Spot Conlon suddenly become soft because someone said sorry. Stubborn Jack Kelly wouldn't suddenly admit he was wrong. Flirtatious Mush Meyers wouldn't suddenly buckle down, totally committed to one girl at first sight. If you made your character a certain way, you should stick to that way. You can't have these sudden swings in mood or attitude without good reason. Yeah, a nice guy could get mad. Sure, a tough girl could have a soft spot for someone. But don't make it unbelievable. If you can't imagine yourself or someone you know changing in that manner, it's not believable.
4) Thread Owning
Thread Owning isn't the technical term, I'm sure, but it could be defined as having every event in a thread happen to your character, whether good or bad. If John and Sally are roleplaying again and John gets soaked by a gang of scabbers, is knocked out, gets bitten by a snake and breaks an arm, it's not too much fun for Sally to roleplay with him. It's the same kind of deal if all of a sudden John wins the lottery and finds his long lost parents. Basically, thread owning is focusing all the attention on you, while it should be on everyone. To be as brief as possible, no thread owning.
FIGHTING
1) I Fight, Therefore, I Am Newsie
It's no secret that when newsies aren't hawking headlines or playing games, they're fighting with each other. Sometimes it's less than hostile: Kid Blink and Mush shoving each other out of the way to get to the wash tub. Other times it's out-to-kill harsh: Spot Conlon and anyone who gets in his way. But because we can't have real physical fights, and because we control everything that goes on through our fighting, this makes things more complicated, and certain rules must apply.
2) You Are Not Mighty Mouse
If, in your profile, your character is five-foot-one and ninety pounds, there is no way he or she is going to beat a five-foot-seven, two-hundred-pound kid in a physical fight. It's just impossible. Take size and age into consideration when you're picking a fight. If it's unbelievable, no one likes it.
3) Nor Are You Superman
Sure, you're a newsie. Somewhere along the line, you probably learned how to fight. Heck, you're probably pretty darn good at it, too. But remember this: No matter how good you are, there's someone who's better. You can't win every fight. Race doesn't win every card game, Mush doesn't get every girl. You can't win all the time. It's really not a big deal to lose a fight now and then. But the point is, no one can win all the time. DO NOT block all the punches. DO NOT connect every time you punch. It makes it boring.
4) Got Skills?
Your character can be a pretty fair fighter. They can be good, really good, or even great. No one can be excellent. Even the best get beat up occasionally, and if you walk away from a hard fight with maybe one black eye, there's something wrong. There is always someone better, and sometimes you have to take a fall now and then. Plot it out before hand, if you have to. But get hit. It's what makes it fun to roleplay fights.
ROLEPLAYING 101
1) For The New Kids
New to the wacky, wild, wonderful world of roleplaying? Don't sweat it. We were all there at one point, and we'll be glad to help you if you ask for it. But the one thing you don't want to do is stay in one place when your skill is involved. You want to roleplay, so it's assumed you want to be good at it. The only way to do that is listen, read, and learn. Most importantly, try. You won't be posting anything that's five paragraphs long if you never attempt anything past two. Talk to some of the "veterans" on the site, any leader, or even someone whose posts you admire. If you're polite and willing to learn, anyone on the board will be glad to give you a hand.
2) Read The Rules
Most of the things you need to know are in The Rules thread on the board. The link is at the bottom of this post. I suggest you read it, because it has some valuable information. It should be the first thing you do when you join up on this board: read the rules. It's the same anywhere you go, it takes five minutes or less, and it can only help.
CHARACTERS
1) What's In A Name?
If your character's Russian, give them a Russian name. It she's German-born, she's not going to be named Nina. The most common names for girls in 1884 (around where a lot of our characters were born) were Mary, Anna, Elizabeth, Emma, Margaret, Minnie, Alice, Florence, Clara, Bertha and Rose. Common names for boys were John, William, George, Charles, James, Frank, Joseph, Harry, Henry and Thomas. That doesn't mean they have to have those names and nothing else, but you wouldn't see a girl in 1899 with a name like Courtney or a guy called Garrett. Don’t let yourself fall into the Contradiction Trap.*
2) By Any Other Name…
Most newsies have nicknames. When choosing a "newsie name" for your character, try to think of a name that Jack or Spot or other newsies would give you. Think about the time period, as well. You wouldn't stumble upon anyone nicknamed Ferrari in 1899. Think of a good reason why you have that nickname. What did you character do, or do and say often, to make them earn a nickname like that? Make sure it flows, as well. A nickname that is hard to pronounce or not easy to say isn't a good nickname.
3) Be Original
Open your mind to all the possibilities there are. Although this is a Newsies board, there are many other things in the New York world rather than newsies. Librarians, doctors, police officers, factory workers, dock workers, pickpockets, scabbers, soldiers… There are loads of possibilities for an original character. Do some research: even look at some old pictures for inspiration. You can even take characters from other movies or TV shows and use their personalities (Florence Claythorne is based on Evelyn from "The Mummy"). Also, don't do things that have been done before. The more unique your idea is, the more likeable your character will be.
4) Be Accurate
The year for this board is 1899. Be historically accurate (and accurate in general). If someone's from Germany, they're not going to have red hair. If someone's from southern Italy, they're not going to be blond. Know your geography. It takes at least two weeks to sail to America from Europe, maybe more. And most places you need money: you can hop a train, but good luck hopping a ship. Think of money matters: in 1899, there wasn't much of a middle class. Often, families were either very rich or very poor.
5) Historical Accuracy
The year for this board is 1899. There are lots of things we have today that were unheard of in that year, and even some things that we take for granted today. For example, even umbrellas weren't all too common in that time period. Use Google or some other search engine to look things up. Odds are, if you start to question whether something was used in 1899, odds are it wasn't.
CHARACTER HISTORIES AND PROFILES
1) Say What?
Character Histories are threads in the "Character Bits" section of the board. There are instructions in there, but basically it's a board where you can keep track of your character's relationships with other characters. It's most useful when you want your characters to already have a history: for example, they lived on the same block as kids and grew up best friends, but now they hate each other. It's also good for keeping track of the relationships that are roleplayed out: Race and Joker quite literally ran into each other and started a rivalry.
2) Be Fair, Be Smart
We're just getting canon characters all the time, and their relationship is already established with other canons, and that's expected. Characters need best friends, even boyfriends or girlfriends. But you can't just claim a character. And posting in someone's character history doesn't make it automatic, either. The person has to post it on their list for it to be official. If you put down "Together, Now" in someone's history, and they don't want to be together, they should have a say in it. Just be fair and smart about it. Don't do things to other people you wouldn't want done to you.
3) Make A Good Profile
When you're creating your character, make sure no one has done something like you're doing. Originality is key. No one wants to read about the same characters over and over: smoking, drinking, gambling orphan who can sell a hundred a day and is best friends with Spot and Jack. Get creative with age, nationality, and even other things: an eight-year-old Hungarian newsie with a lisp is way more interesting than a sixteen-year-old Italian newsie with a gambling problem.
FOR FEMALE CHARACTERS
1) Regarding Historical Accuracy
About one on every fifteen newsies was a girl. Most of them had homes and families, and none of them wore boys' clothes. Among other things, these are the type of things we've allowed people to get away with on the board, but do your research. The internet is full of things you can read and look up, and it doesn't take that much time. You might actually learn something, too. I astounded my friends with my knowledge of the Roosevelt family after making Alice's character. Do research and be accurate to the time period.
2) Tough Girls
A girl can be a snob, they can be witty, cheeky, and sharp tongued. Joker has an attitude. Alice Roosevelt is a snob. However...if a girl smokes, drinks, swears, dresses like a boy, and fights like a boy, it's not attractive, and it wouldn't be attractive to the newsies. For those of you who are buffs on the movie, I seem to remember a whole crowd of newsboys going hats-off to an elegant-looking girl in a dress. Think it would have been the same if she'd been wearing trousers and suspenders? Also, see the Fighting section of this thread for basic guidelines on fighting.
A girl who acts like a boy is trying to be "one of the guys". And, honestly, that doesn't get you any respect. My point is, try to be individual. It isn't at all realistic to see girls in 1899 wearing pants. Not only wouldn't it happen, but it would be regarded as scandalous. Just like the boys manage to find trousers, shoes and vests, girls can find dresses, no matter how poor you are.
LENGTH
1) Try not to use Quick Reply
Yeah, it's easier, and maybe for some people it works better than the regular reply box. But that's a really little box, and "Quick" is sometimes synonymous for "Short". Personally (and you'll be seeing this word a lot in this post) I write better in the regular reply box because I can see exactly how long my post is, and I can even preview it if I want to. Paragraphs should be about five sentences long. Each.
2) A Rule Of Thumb
I thought this would be a good idea as a general rule of thumb to follow for posting length. Go into the regular reply box, and click the word "Expand" just below the box. The box should extend in length. In general, your post should fill up that entire box at least. It's actually not as bad as it sounds: the point on this post above where it says, "I can even preview it if I want to" is the point where the expanded text box is filled. Go above and beyond, and it's fine if you're a little short. But the only way you'll get better is to try and make your posts longer.
3) Another Trick
Take all of the paragraph spaces out of your post, turning it into one big paragraph (change it back before you post it, of course). Your post should still come up to the aforementioned point. A bunch of little tiny paragraphs doesn't equal a good post. Long paragraphs, description, thoughts, details...expand. Long posts are good. Put it this way: if you wouldn't want someone to reply to your post like that, don't post it.
4) Other Character's Speech
In our posts, of course, we put in italics what the character before us said so they know which statement we're replying to. I'm thinking you all know what I'm referring to? A suggestion regarding that should be that your own words in the post should be longer than what you are putting in italics. Another person's words shouldn't account for more than 40% of your post, and that's stretching it a little. Remember, it's your reply, not their's.
GRAMMAR
1) Punctuation
No one's perfect. I'm certainly not perfect. Everyone makes errors in grammar. But try to be conscious. Put question marks at the end of questions and periods at the end of sentences. If you want something in quotations, make sure you close them once your character is finished speaking. Watch your accent marks, apostrophes, commas, etc. This board is in third person (i.e., the use of he/she in posts).
2) Spelling
Another good thing about the regular reply box is the Spell Check feature. Get into the habit of clicking it real quick after you type up a post. I've had times where I spelled words wrong I didn't even notice, and it's especially useful for fast typists who sometimes stumble a little. Overall, use the Spell Check every time. And it wouldn't be so bad to read over your posts quickly to make sure it makes sense. Something like "He's over their" when you meant to say "He's over there" won't be picked up by the spell check. Let me put it this way...if you wouldn't hand in your post to your teacher/professor/whatever as an assignment of some kind, don't post it.
GENERAL
1) Character Accents
I have very strong feelings on this. Our role play board is set in New York in 1899, so most of the characters have accents of some kind. My only advice is: Don't Go Crazy. It's fine with a word here or there, but once it gets hard for someone to read, it gets obnoxious. The accents aren't an excuse for poor spelling. Don't exaggerate them. Personally, I don't put a lot of accent in my posts, because my real accent and the "Noo Yawk" accent are fairly similar. Sure, your character's grammar can be poor. It doesn't mean yours has to.
2) Mind Readers
If Sally is talking to John, and John says, "Hi, Sally, great to see you!" while thinking that he'd rather be anywhere else but with Sally right now...unless Sally is a mind reader, she can't know that John doesn't want her around. So she would have to respond in a friendly manner, and not walk away angrily. Character thoughts are used to increase post quality and develop character. You can read someone's thoughts, but your character can't.
3) Stay In Character
You wouldn't see pessimistic Skittery smiling at everyone and giving people flowers singing "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" all day. You wouldn't see tough and hard Spot Conlon suddenly become soft because someone said sorry. Stubborn Jack Kelly wouldn't suddenly admit he was wrong. Flirtatious Mush Meyers wouldn't suddenly buckle down, totally committed to one girl at first sight. If you made your character a certain way, you should stick to that way. You can't have these sudden swings in mood or attitude without good reason. Yeah, a nice guy could get mad. Sure, a tough girl could have a soft spot for someone. But don't make it unbelievable. If you can't imagine yourself or someone you know changing in that manner, it's not believable.
4) Thread Owning
Thread Owning isn't the technical term, I'm sure, but it could be defined as having every event in a thread happen to your character, whether good or bad. If John and Sally are roleplaying again and John gets soaked by a gang of scabbers, is knocked out, gets bitten by a snake and breaks an arm, it's not too much fun for Sally to roleplay with him. It's the same kind of deal if all of a sudden John wins the lottery and finds his long lost parents. Basically, thread owning is focusing all the attention on you, while it should be on everyone. To be as brief as possible, no thread owning.
FIGHTING
1) I Fight, Therefore, I Am Newsie
It's no secret that when newsies aren't hawking headlines or playing games, they're fighting with each other. Sometimes it's less than hostile: Kid Blink and Mush shoving each other out of the way to get to the wash tub. Other times it's out-to-kill harsh: Spot Conlon and anyone who gets in his way. But because we can't have real physical fights, and because we control everything that goes on through our fighting, this makes things more complicated, and certain rules must apply.
2) You Are Not Mighty Mouse
If, in your profile, your character is five-foot-one and ninety pounds, there is no way he or she is going to beat a five-foot-seven, two-hundred-pound kid in a physical fight. It's just impossible. Take size and age into consideration when you're picking a fight. If it's unbelievable, no one likes it.
3) Nor Are You Superman
Sure, you're a newsie. Somewhere along the line, you probably learned how to fight. Heck, you're probably pretty darn good at it, too. But remember this: No matter how good you are, there's someone who's better. You can't win every fight. Race doesn't win every card game, Mush doesn't get every girl. You can't win all the time. It's really not a big deal to lose a fight now and then. But the point is, no one can win all the time. DO NOT block all the punches. DO NOT connect every time you punch. It makes it boring.
4) Got Skills?
Your character can be a pretty fair fighter. They can be good, really good, or even great. No one can be excellent. Even the best get beat up occasionally, and if you walk away from a hard fight with maybe one black eye, there's something wrong. There is always someone better, and sometimes you have to take a fall now and then. Plot it out before hand, if you have to. But get hit. It's what makes it fun to roleplay fights.
LINK TO BOARD RULES: newsies1899.proboards55.com/index.cgi?board=rnr&action=display&thread=18
(Thanks to Mels, Mike and Joker for their imput as well.)
(Thanks to Mels, Mike and Joker for their imput as well.)
))