Advanced Roleplay Basics
Slightly less basic than The Extremely Basic Roleplay Basics, but still pretty basic. Once you’ve got the hang of posting as another person, and doing actions using text, you might like to take a look at this information for more about your choices, and some basic roleplay manners.
Star Versus Novel
There are lots of different RP styles, but most of them are following a very basic model. Star roleplay is roleplay in which writing is enclosed with asterisks. Like so:.
*Waves cheerfully!* Hi I’m an example!
Novel roleplaying in a little more involved because valid connections have to be made linguistically. Instead of just shoving in actions willy nilly, you need to have a sort of literary strength to pull it off.
The man waves cheerfully before saying, “Hi I’m an example!”
Novelistic style is considered more “serious” in roleplay, since it takes more time and looks much more professional. Star roleplay can pretty much just crop up anywhere, and one lining happens a lot using it.
Now a note, Star RP doesn’t always have to use asterisks. Tildes (~), dashes (-), and just about anything identifying can be used as well. I’ve even seen backslashes (\) used to identify RP actions, although only from one person. As long as you can tell, it’s very valid.
So why is it important to know this? It shows what kind of a roleplayer you are, and can be an indicator of mood. Not only that but each style lends itself towards a different length, feel, and professionalism. In the case of Star RP it can individualize people, whereas novel style tends to blur the lines between people. It’s a delicate balance on both sides. Here’s some things that connect, you can see if they’re a pro or a con to what you want yourself so there’s no disagreements over what is considered ‘bad’ in RP.
Star RP
• Faster and easier. Takes less time to think through.
• Good for short-style RPs like one lines and medium length RP.
• Individualistic- the symbols you use can mark you as more 'yourself’.
• Can be seen as juvenile or less serious.
• Can be mistaken as 'crack’ (joke) RP which does not influence the actual history of the character, which leads to issues later on.
• Can make a roleplayer lazy, and less detailed.
Novel RP
• Longer and more detailed. Allows you to show ideas more clearly, and lets you get everything out. Whereas Star RP can glaze over a character’s emotions, Novel RP can really let you bring out the details.
• Looks more professional. Looks like 'real’ writing which connects psychologically to the brain to make everything seem more 'real’ for a character.
• Can take a lot of time to write, and the longer you get, the more breaks between posts there are. This might lead to disinterest.
• Allows for easier reading, since everything is one 'type’ of writing it lets the mind take it in as a continual storyline rather than a broken up round robin look.
• More serious tone, which can scare some people off or away, or draw people into a darker or more combative mood.
• Lends itself to length, adding more is the instinctual reaction to writing a novel.
Why Write Well?
There is no you online. You cannot walk into a room and let people get a first impression of you by looking at your body, movements, and tone of voice. Online will show nothing of who you are or how you interact simply by joining in on a conversation. What people know is only what you show them.
If you have a profile of some sort available to people, such as a homepage, you can preload a notion into people’s brains. A well-made homepage is going to make people think you can handle concepts well, understand aesthetics, and can make pretty posts. People with avis who pay attention to how they look, rather than using a low-quality JPG that doesn’t fit well are considered “better looking” because that is their “face”. People judge you for everything they see from you, because they have nothing else to go on.
Now the thing that really defines who you are is how you write. If we wrote this guide with no grammar rules, ignored capitalization, and had bad spelling how well would we come over? We don’t think you’d judge us to be very intelligent at all and would probably dismiss what we say without giving it another chance. Writing professionally however, we look like we know what we are doing.
We always hear “But it’s online it doesn’t matter!” If writing does not matter to you, why are you roleplaying? Why are you using a mode of entertainment primarily driven by text, when you could be out bashing monsters in an MMORPG and lolzing with your buddies? Admittedly, those type of areas still use your text to know you, so those more likely to defend the English language still come across as stronger or more knowledgeable than you. It’s just how our brains work; be lazy and people will judge you for it.
Perspective Tips and Explanations
There are a lot of different ways to write even correctly, and some are more common than others. Being unique does not always mean being good however, and it is nice to remember some people have so much against some of these RP styles they actually state they will never RP with someone who uses them.
Here’s three points of view, or narrative modes with the general outlook on them, regardless of your personal preference which I have no idea about:
• First Person
Characterized by the use of “I”. It makes your character seem more important, too important in fact. It sounds like you are talking about yourself, and doesn’t lend clues to know more about your character. It’s also very limited, showing only the scope of what a character would notice themselves. With lots of people talking about themselves with “I” and “Me” being the only identifiers one can get lost in all the information. It’s okay, but it’s not the best for group settings.
• Second Person
Characterized by the use of “You”. An odd style to most people, as they are probably roleplaying a character of their own. The idea of using you is ingrained in having someone manipulate or tell you stuff about yourself. It can be very uncomfortable unless used for the sake of literally imitating a fandom to promote a canon feel. It’s okay in some cases, such as a narrator actually manipulating another character as a GAME MASTER in a game (“You see the Tarn!”) but in most it is simply clunky and annoying to use.
• Third Person
Characterized by the use of “he”, “she”, “it”, or “they”. This is the most common RP style, allowing for everyone to step out of the character and watch from the sidelines. Each character is given their own spot in the story using this style. You can point out things a character would not notice about themselves, like a gash on their forehead or a subconscious reaction to touch. It can let you step outside of emotions more as well, and give you more to talk about. This is the most commonly accepted, and in some cases ONLY accepted style in roleplays. I almost never hear of a roleplay limited to first or second person, but I always hear about them being limited to third.
How Tense are you? Another thing to consider is Past, Present, and Future tense and how to use it.
• Past
Example: He had jumped up to grab the rope.
Okay, he did this. In the past, so how am I going to stop him or interact with it? This mode actually feels like subtle godmodding, and can make people very uncomfortable. The action is done with and sealed, there is no way to change it, and that feels like everything is enforced on a player. Only small cults tend to use this.
• Present
Example: He jumps up and grabs the rope.
The best if you have to stick to a particular tense at all. Constant motion, with no ability to speak of past actions or future ones, but it keeps things moving and things will always happen with it. A lot of new players stick to just this style.
• Future
Example: He will jump up to grab the rope.
Well, has he? If you use Future tense for everything we’ll never know when the supposed action will come to pass. People won’t know you’re intending things to happen now unless you tell them so. This one is also a small cult phenom.
We personally use each tense in almost every post. We use them as we feel they are more important at the time. We usually use present tense for everything as a base of operations. If we did something in the past, we do it in past tense. If we are doing it currently, present tense, and if we plan to do it but want to give them the option of ignoring it: we use future tense.
Example: He moved ahead of the crowd at first, turning back to stare out across the moving bodies. A rope dangles overhead, and he spots it, jumping up to grab the rope in question. He climbs up it, and will simply slide over the window frame with nothing to stop him.
Limited and Omniscient, which is only applicable to third party point of views.
• Limited
This goes from objective to subjective. Objective means a writer can only talk about exterior things; they are forced to ignore emotions and feelings. Subjective means everything is viewed through emotions and views of the characters themselves and can never show the outside world. Both are pretty uncomfortable cramped little holes, but that’s why they are considered 'limiting’.
• Omniscient
This however, is “all knowing”. To quote Wikipedia who says it best, “The third person omniscient narrator presumably knows all the objective occurrences and subjective perspectives of the entire universe where the story takes place, but they tell only the elements necessary to the story. You are free to do just about anything you want, telling emotions and feelings, and pointing out things like the tiger in the bushes if that will be important. You can explain the body that the character is unaware of and more.
Most write in Third-Party Mixed-Tense Omniscient. They can move in and out of view and keep things fresh using it. For more on all these writerly subjects, Wikipedia has enough information to choke a horse.
How To Interact Without Controlling Others
This, oddly enough, actually is a problem with people. Some more experienced roleplayers simply reading for a refresher might not remember having issues with this; but a lot of you totally did. The trick is knowing your limits, where your character ends and someone else’s character begins. This depends on a lot of factors.
Sometimes with a more submissive roleplayer, someone who doesn’t really feed into the storyline as forcefully, you can get away with a lot more. Sometimes a more dominant roleplayer who is very forceful can push their way into taking partial control of others. Whether this pisses someone off or not is how you find your balance. If someone starts pushing their dominance in a situation you may be forcing them into too much, and if someone is getting sheepish you may have to push them more. This is all a feelings thing, and requires the ability to read the emotions largely on their writing. To read between the lines.
Some people are able to let others completely force their hand, if two people have been roleplaying for years they know the limits of one another and shy a few complications, can mostly do whatever. They can go so far as to pick up someone else’s character and force them into being carried, or kiss them without giving them a chance to say no. If someone is comfortable enough with you doing this, and you both know it and maybe even talk about it, it’s fine.
Taking over a character who does not want to be taken over is where the issues start. It’s a movable line, but it’s a pretty good chance that if you have never met a roleplayer before you should take the utmost precautions about controlling them. Learn to read situations, and always start out with a maximum of space between you and taking their character. Always suggest optional actions, suggest that your character might do something, or could do something to theirs, and if they like it, they’ll go with it. As you get more comfortable with one another you’ll find a balance of being able to throw a punch, and have them take it, or not. Later on, there might even be the ability to punch someone and have them take it with no questions asked.
This is very personal, very close to people. You need to work up to things, and in return when people do something that makes you uncomfortable. Speak up!!!. More issues are solved by mentioning someone is being a little heavy handed than just taking it and becoming angrier and having them push harder. If they are offended by it, let them cool off before continuing. If they fight it, maybe they aren’t a person you can roleplay with without being made uncomfortable by their advances. This is fine, perfectly okay, not every roleplayer is going to mesh with every other roleplayer. Just find people you are good with and there’s a good chance they can lead you to more people, or help you show off how you RP and pull in more visitors to learn from. There is no set pool of people.
It’s really hard to get a good feel of someone and what they will allow without roleplaying with them, but watch out for tense wording, or words connected to 'strength’, 'independence’, or 'power’. If they start showing out a lot, there is a good chance you’re being overbearing and need to back off a little. Remember though, OOC questions (Am I being too manipulative?) can be a good measure of what is going on too, and can clarify issues.
OOC How To
How to be Out of Character. We use the double parenthesis((like this)) :
((Whatever words we wrote after /think showed up in these))
This was one of the more effective OOC brackets we have ever seen. The reason this showed up was because people found they needed to say things that the narrative could not, or which were not pertinent to their character. They had to step outside of being the role, to leave information for others. The switch hidden in the lamp, the BRB for dinner, etc. All of this was out of character because a character would never do them or think them, but they let us conversate without issue alongside our roleplay.
Sometimes people would roleplay more “cracky” or not-canon ideas inside of OOC bubbles, such as having villains cuddle the hero for being cute in his post. This kept the suspension of disbelief alive and well, while also letting us break the 4th wall, and personality modes.
To go OOC in most places is very simple, just type some parenthesis, and possibly OOC: before heading off.
(( OOC: Hey look! I’m OOC!))
It’s really simple and it shows respect for the roleplay and other roleplayers. You’re showing people that you believe their posts are in character, that they matter to their personal canons, and that you understand you are stepping between roleplay posts to say something that will not be connected to a roleplay. By showing this much respect for another roleplayer, you can quickly show you understand how seriously people can take their posts and characters, and that you yourself are possibly not even involved. If you don’t do this, posts about yourself in real life, or suggestions that you want to do something in an RP might be taken as actual roleplay, which messes everything up. Don’t do it. Be respectful. Or be a jerk, and get yelled at for it, whatever.
Research
“EVERYTHING. If you aren’t currently researching or planning to research something for a character WHY DID YOU STOP, GO RESEARCH SOME MORE. I may sound a little silly saying this, but it’s an obnoxious thing to find out someone RPing a character you enjoy is doing it incorrectly.”
Research everything you can, so that when you come across something your character should know but you do not, you can either creatively work around it (for instance when your canon doesn’t give an answer yet) or plunge right in and do things in a convincing manner.
If you are roleplaying a physcian, you should probably have a good idea of what kind of medical tools and abilities are common. If you give then the ability to do something new and exciting, you should know and play it as special and unique. Something dangerous for certain people to know about them, or something they have no idea about and are just experimenting with. If you do not have the tools, nor do not recognize a situation your character should have been regularly faced with, you will be in trouble. Research your character’s background and know what you are doing before you get in over your head.
If you have a character tuned to a particular area, you should understand the stereotypes and common knowledge of the people and place.
It helps realism to know the things a character should know, about their family, their history, who they are, what they like. If you play a character who likes tarns, you know about them. At least basics. If you have a character who uses an axe, he should have an idea of prodigy fighting. If you play a Free Woman, you should know that ankles are disastrously cheeky, forward, and sluttish to be showing off in public, how dare you, and you could be enslaved. Yet Panther Girls and Taluna, wear skins and much is exposed. If your character knows fashion, you should know fashion. This is why a lot of people say write what you know, this is why I say research what you want to know.
And in the end always remember, once you know the rules and why they were created in the first place, you can create loopholes and break the rules, so long as you pay deference to the spirit of it.
Where Do I Go From Here?
Simply chose a link below that best suits your next step you want to take.
Star Versus Novel
There are lots of different RP styles, but most of them are following a very basic model. Star roleplay is roleplay in which writing is enclosed with asterisks. Like so:.
*Waves cheerfully!* Hi I’m an example!
Novel roleplaying in a little more involved because valid connections have to be made linguistically. Instead of just shoving in actions willy nilly, you need to have a sort of literary strength to pull it off.
The man waves cheerfully before saying, “Hi I’m an example!”
Novelistic style is considered more “serious” in roleplay, since it takes more time and looks much more professional. Star roleplay can pretty much just crop up anywhere, and one lining happens a lot using it.
Now a note, Star RP doesn’t always have to use asterisks. Tildes (~), dashes (-), and just about anything identifying can be used as well. I’ve even seen backslashes (\) used to identify RP actions, although only from one person. As long as you can tell, it’s very valid.
So why is it important to know this? It shows what kind of a roleplayer you are, and can be an indicator of mood. Not only that but each style lends itself towards a different length, feel, and professionalism. In the case of Star RP it can individualize people, whereas novel style tends to blur the lines between people. It’s a delicate balance on both sides. Here’s some things that connect, you can see if they’re a pro or a con to what you want yourself so there’s no disagreements over what is considered ‘bad’ in RP.
Star RP
• Faster and easier. Takes less time to think through.
• Good for short-style RPs like one lines and medium length RP.
• Individualistic- the symbols you use can mark you as more 'yourself’.
• Can be seen as juvenile or less serious.
• Can be mistaken as 'crack’ (joke) RP which does not influence the actual history of the character, which leads to issues later on.
• Can make a roleplayer lazy, and less detailed.
Novel RP
• Longer and more detailed. Allows you to show ideas more clearly, and lets you get everything out. Whereas Star RP can glaze over a character’s emotions, Novel RP can really let you bring out the details.
• Looks more professional. Looks like 'real’ writing which connects psychologically to the brain to make everything seem more 'real’ for a character.
• Can take a lot of time to write, and the longer you get, the more breaks between posts there are. This might lead to disinterest.
• Allows for easier reading, since everything is one 'type’ of writing it lets the mind take it in as a continual storyline rather than a broken up round robin look.
• More serious tone, which can scare some people off or away, or draw people into a darker or more combative mood.
• Lends itself to length, adding more is the instinctual reaction to writing a novel.
Why Write Well?
There is no you online. You cannot walk into a room and let people get a first impression of you by looking at your body, movements, and tone of voice. Online will show nothing of who you are or how you interact simply by joining in on a conversation. What people know is only what you show them.
If you have a profile of some sort available to people, such as a homepage, you can preload a notion into people’s brains. A well-made homepage is going to make people think you can handle concepts well, understand aesthetics, and can make pretty posts. People with avis who pay attention to how they look, rather than using a low-quality JPG that doesn’t fit well are considered “better looking” because that is their “face”. People judge you for everything they see from you, because they have nothing else to go on.
Now the thing that really defines who you are is how you write. If we wrote this guide with no grammar rules, ignored capitalization, and had bad spelling how well would we come over? We don’t think you’d judge us to be very intelligent at all and would probably dismiss what we say without giving it another chance. Writing professionally however, we look like we know what we are doing.
We always hear “But it’s online it doesn’t matter!” If writing does not matter to you, why are you roleplaying? Why are you using a mode of entertainment primarily driven by text, when you could be out bashing monsters in an MMORPG and lolzing with your buddies? Admittedly, those type of areas still use your text to know you, so those more likely to defend the English language still come across as stronger or more knowledgeable than you. It’s just how our brains work; be lazy and people will judge you for it.
Perspective Tips and Explanations
There are a lot of different ways to write even correctly, and some are more common than others. Being unique does not always mean being good however, and it is nice to remember some people have so much against some of these RP styles they actually state they will never RP with someone who uses them.
Here’s three points of view, or narrative modes with the general outlook on them, regardless of your personal preference which I have no idea about:
• First Person
Characterized by the use of “I”. It makes your character seem more important, too important in fact. It sounds like you are talking about yourself, and doesn’t lend clues to know more about your character. It’s also very limited, showing only the scope of what a character would notice themselves. With lots of people talking about themselves with “I” and “Me” being the only identifiers one can get lost in all the information. It’s okay, but it’s not the best for group settings.
• Second Person
Characterized by the use of “You”. An odd style to most people, as they are probably roleplaying a character of their own. The idea of using you is ingrained in having someone manipulate or tell you stuff about yourself. It can be very uncomfortable unless used for the sake of literally imitating a fandom to promote a canon feel. It’s okay in some cases, such as a narrator actually manipulating another character as a GAME MASTER in a game (“You see the Tarn!”) but in most it is simply clunky and annoying to use.
• Third Person
Characterized by the use of “he”, “she”, “it”, or “they”. This is the most common RP style, allowing for everyone to step out of the character and watch from the sidelines. Each character is given their own spot in the story using this style. You can point out things a character would not notice about themselves, like a gash on their forehead or a subconscious reaction to touch. It can let you step outside of emotions more as well, and give you more to talk about. This is the most commonly accepted, and in some cases ONLY accepted style in roleplays. I almost never hear of a roleplay limited to first or second person, but I always hear about them being limited to third.
How Tense are you? Another thing to consider is Past, Present, and Future tense and how to use it.
• Past
Example: He had jumped up to grab the rope.
Okay, he did this. In the past, so how am I going to stop him or interact with it? This mode actually feels like subtle godmodding, and can make people very uncomfortable. The action is done with and sealed, there is no way to change it, and that feels like everything is enforced on a player. Only small cults tend to use this.
• Present
Example: He jumps up and grabs the rope.
The best if you have to stick to a particular tense at all. Constant motion, with no ability to speak of past actions or future ones, but it keeps things moving and things will always happen with it. A lot of new players stick to just this style.
• Future
Example: He will jump up to grab the rope.
Well, has he? If you use Future tense for everything we’ll never know when the supposed action will come to pass. People won’t know you’re intending things to happen now unless you tell them so. This one is also a small cult phenom.
We personally use each tense in almost every post. We use them as we feel they are more important at the time. We usually use present tense for everything as a base of operations. If we did something in the past, we do it in past tense. If we are doing it currently, present tense, and if we plan to do it but want to give them the option of ignoring it: we use future tense.
Example: He moved ahead of the crowd at first, turning back to stare out across the moving bodies. A rope dangles overhead, and he spots it, jumping up to grab the rope in question. He climbs up it, and will simply slide over the window frame with nothing to stop him.
Limited and Omniscient, which is only applicable to third party point of views.
• Limited
This goes from objective to subjective. Objective means a writer can only talk about exterior things; they are forced to ignore emotions and feelings. Subjective means everything is viewed through emotions and views of the characters themselves and can never show the outside world. Both are pretty uncomfortable cramped little holes, but that’s why they are considered 'limiting’.
• Omniscient
This however, is “all knowing”. To quote Wikipedia who says it best, “The third person omniscient narrator presumably knows all the objective occurrences and subjective perspectives of the entire universe where the story takes place, but they tell only the elements necessary to the story. You are free to do just about anything you want, telling emotions and feelings, and pointing out things like the tiger in the bushes if that will be important. You can explain the body that the character is unaware of and more.
Most write in Third-Party Mixed-Tense Omniscient. They can move in and out of view and keep things fresh using it. For more on all these writerly subjects, Wikipedia has enough information to choke a horse.
How To Interact Without Controlling Others
This, oddly enough, actually is a problem with people. Some more experienced roleplayers simply reading for a refresher might not remember having issues with this; but a lot of you totally did. The trick is knowing your limits, where your character ends and someone else’s character begins. This depends on a lot of factors.
Sometimes with a more submissive roleplayer, someone who doesn’t really feed into the storyline as forcefully, you can get away with a lot more. Sometimes a more dominant roleplayer who is very forceful can push their way into taking partial control of others. Whether this pisses someone off or not is how you find your balance. If someone starts pushing their dominance in a situation you may be forcing them into too much, and if someone is getting sheepish you may have to push them more. This is all a feelings thing, and requires the ability to read the emotions largely on their writing. To read between the lines.
Some people are able to let others completely force their hand, if two people have been roleplaying for years they know the limits of one another and shy a few complications, can mostly do whatever. They can go so far as to pick up someone else’s character and force them into being carried, or kiss them without giving them a chance to say no. If someone is comfortable enough with you doing this, and you both know it and maybe even talk about it, it’s fine.
Taking over a character who does not want to be taken over is where the issues start. It’s a movable line, but it’s a pretty good chance that if you have never met a roleplayer before you should take the utmost precautions about controlling them. Learn to read situations, and always start out with a maximum of space between you and taking their character. Always suggest optional actions, suggest that your character might do something, or could do something to theirs, and if they like it, they’ll go with it. As you get more comfortable with one another you’ll find a balance of being able to throw a punch, and have them take it, or not. Later on, there might even be the ability to punch someone and have them take it with no questions asked.
This is very personal, very close to people. You need to work up to things, and in return when people do something that makes you uncomfortable. Speak up!!!. More issues are solved by mentioning someone is being a little heavy handed than just taking it and becoming angrier and having them push harder. If they are offended by it, let them cool off before continuing. If they fight it, maybe they aren’t a person you can roleplay with without being made uncomfortable by their advances. This is fine, perfectly okay, not every roleplayer is going to mesh with every other roleplayer. Just find people you are good with and there’s a good chance they can lead you to more people, or help you show off how you RP and pull in more visitors to learn from. There is no set pool of people.
It’s really hard to get a good feel of someone and what they will allow without roleplaying with them, but watch out for tense wording, or words connected to 'strength’, 'independence’, or 'power’. If they start showing out a lot, there is a good chance you’re being overbearing and need to back off a little. Remember though, OOC questions (Am I being too manipulative?) can be a good measure of what is going on too, and can clarify issues.
OOC How To
How to be Out of Character. We use the double parenthesis((like this)) :
((Whatever words we wrote after /think showed up in these))
This was one of the more effective OOC brackets we have ever seen. The reason this showed up was because people found they needed to say things that the narrative could not, or which were not pertinent to their character. They had to step outside of being the role, to leave information for others. The switch hidden in the lamp, the BRB for dinner, etc. All of this was out of character because a character would never do them or think them, but they let us conversate without issue alongside our roleplay.
Sometimes people would roleplay more “cracky” or not-canon ideas inside of OOC bubbles, such as having villains cuddle the hero for being cute in his post. This kept the suspension of disbelief alive and well, while also letting us break the 4th wall, and personality modes.
To go OOC in most places is very simple, just type some parenthesis, and possibly OOC: before heading off.
(( OOC: Hey look! I’m OOC!))
It’s really simple and it shows respect for the roleplay and other roleplayers. You’re showing people that you believe their posts are in character, that they matter to their personal canons, and that you understand you are stepping between roleplay posts to say something that will not be connected to a roleplay. By showing this much respect for another roleplayer, you can quickly show you understand how seriously people can take their posts and characters, and that you yourself are possibly not even involved. If you don’t do this, posts about yourself in real life, or suggestions that you want to do something in an RP might be taken as actual roleplay, which messes everything up. Don’t do it. Be respectful. Or be a jerk, and get yelled at for it, whatever.
Research
“EVERYTHING. If you aren’t currently researching or planning to research something for a character WHY DID YOU STOP, GO RESEARCH SOME MORE. I may sound a little silly saying this, but it’s an obnoxious thing to find out someone RPing a character you enjoy is doing it incorrectly.”
Research everything you can, so that when you come across something your character should know but you do not, you can either creatively work around it (for instance when your canon doesn’t give an answer yet) or plunge right in and do things in a convincing manner.
If you are roleplaying a physcian, you should probably have a good idea of what kind of medical tools and abilities are common. If you give then the ability to do something new and exciting, you should know and play it as special and unique. Something dangerous for certain people to know about them, or something they have no idea about and are just experimenting with. If you do not have the tools, nor do not recognize a situation your character should have been regularly faced with, you will be in trouble. Research your character’s background and know what you are doing before you get in over your head.
If you have a character tuned to a particular area, you should understand the stereotypes and common knowledge of the people and place.
It helps realism to know the things a character should know, about their family, their history, who they are, what they like. If you play a character who likes tarns, you know about them. At least basics. If you have a character who uses an axe, he should have an idea of prodigy fighting. If you play a Free Woman, you should know that ankles are disastrously cheeky, forward, and sluttish to be showing off in public, how dare you, and you could be enslaved. Yet Panther Girls and Taluna, wear skins and much is exposed. If your character knows fashion, you should know fashion. This is why a lot of people say write what you know, this is why I say research what you want to know.
And in the end always remember, once you know the rules and why they were created in the first place, you can create loopholes and break the rules, so long as you pay deference to the spirit of it.
Where Do I Go From Here?
Simply chose a link below that best suits your next step you want to take.
