Forums » Smalltalk » One Year of RPR (Raffle)

This sounds fun, and I might as well join in!

So, some advice I would give eh? Well, I believe that anything and everything that has to do with a story and/or RP is the characters, but for some people. playing as their own OC is hard. Some chose to make AU of fandom characters while others just use a character straight from it. My advice to them is this, first, make a character that reflects yourself. I will (and always) put a bit of myself in every character I have. Some Examples are Alex Perez being a firey girl who has a quick temper, like myself, or how Joshua Wolf is more of a stoic protector to people he loves, which I can say I'm the same. Of course, this is not saying you need to make a character yourself unless you want to, but to start off making characters, you can always implement bits of yourself into them.
Now, what does this have to do with collaborative writing? This will go on into a second topic, length.
Length of writing is something that effects RPR, separating us between long and short writers. (And sometimes the long writers who I have no idea how they can write that long.) And I know that seems bad, but it's true (Sorry if I offend people!) My advice for being able to write longer is this, first, practice practice practice. Of course, practice helps, it helps you get better at anything! Then you have a problem with WHAT to write, which I understand, even I get stuck in a writing corner and have to respond with a single sentence. Find people who are willing to help you learn how to write longer, and then, just write. Get wild with what your character does, (within reason of course) and just make them go with the flow! Of course, don't dominate the story, you need to have your partner do things as well! (I ended up in this situation and I felt really bad about it ;-; ) Just think about how your character would act in a situation, act on it, and leave wiggle room for your other to react, sorta like a tennis volley really.

Honestly, I could write a ton more, but then it would fill-up the form with just me and I don't wanna hog room.
Let's be honest I might as well talk about HOW to make a character and how to use them(Which I might just make a document for)
I hope that if anyone reads this they'll learn how to write a character and play as them a bit better as well.

After 20 years of roleplay I suppose I have a lot of advice to give. I think many people would disagree with some of it; ask me 10+ years ago and I would say I would disagree with some of it too! But it was advice passed to me that took me a long time to learn in both creating the combination of fun, balanced, drama free RP for me and my partners.

I could go on FOREVER on more, but I feel like other responses touched on a lot of those other aspects. so here are my 11.

1) Adventure, romance and ‘dark’ are not really RP genres but aspects that can occur inside an RP genre. For example, if you look at Lord of the Rings it classifies as a “fantasy” genre with aspects of adventure, friendship, romance, duty, politics and both dark & light atmospheres. Adventure, romance and dark atmospheres are never really standalone. One might argue romance is but see #2 below.

2) Never ever force a romance. Set up the potential for it and let your characters unravel their own relationship choices. Sometimes characters choose to be platonic, enemies, or lovers. If you have a well-developed character with personality, likes, dislikes ect these relationships come very natural. Its better to write a story towards a plot non romantic based and allow romance to be a secondary aspect of RP.. because a forced relationship can be very painful on a player and cause writers block or worse, player to player arguments.

3) Accept consequences and failures. Sometimes our characters make bad choices and get hurt socially, emotionally or physically. The best thing you can do for your character in order for them to grow is to roll with the punches. Let them wear the fresh scar across their face… one day it will be a defining story. Let them suffer in a hospital, pain can lead to strength, revenge or other good plot motivations. Let them have the oopsie baby that changes their life forever. Let them LIVE… and to live is to also fail. The best way to practice this is throwing the dice for success and failures. You never know, your character might be super lucky. This also helps when you don’t really know what to do in situations.. even if its something as simple as weather changes to add to your replies.

4) Let backstories be a personality foundation rather then a IC conversation. One of the most painful roleplay experiences I have constantly had is characters blurting their life story every chance they get. Let these things come out slowly and naturally. No one tells their entire life story like that.. instead we tell small fragments over long durations of time when its relevant to other conversation. This stems from people being SUPER excited about their character. So sit back, calm down.. let your character do their thing.

5) When you write a villain, no one is going to like them. This is one of the hardest things to accept as a player in RP; we want people to like us. As player to player.. people STILL like us.. but that doesn’t mean they are going to like the villain. My philosophy is, the more a character/player hate your villain, then your doing a great job portraying one. Trust me, when you accept and realize this, villains can be 100x more fun to play then a good guy.

6) If you are planning a campaign that has a definitive start and a definitive end (such as deliver the ring to a volcano to destroy it) you need to be able to have different pathways to get there based on the wide potential of player choices. Think of campaign writing/GMing like a choose your own ending novel. What if your players make the worst decisions along the way and lose? Are you ready to write that ending? Despite what some people thing players LOVE cause and effect. They want their choices to matter. So write a campaign that can go different directions based on those choices.

7) Simple is better. You know who my top favorite character on my roster is? The guy with the generic name of “John”; with a very stereotypical career; who is human; with a very predicable personality; who fails about as much as he succeeds at literally everything. Why? Because he is relatable. He is a character that moves people because they can say “Oh that happened to me once” or “I would have said the same thing”. You don’t need a super demon/angel/god/monster with human qualities and a ton of abilities to be unique and interesting. They are a dime a dozen really. Sometimes playing the simple human just trying to get by in a crazy world will make your character favored among the flashy and dramatic.

8 ) Speaking of flashy and dramatic. When making a supernatural character of some kind… its best to choose ONE thing they are good at. I have learned the hard way over time that too much is too much.. and despite your intent you can make an OP character way too easily. For an example, I am putting one of my characters in maintenance who is a Genius, inventor, a king, a warlock, and trained assassin. While its easy to say “well he is a genius so he learned all these things and royalty is what he was born to” its just… too much. Its better to JUST be one or 2 of those things rather then all of them.

9) READ the replies and take the time to respond to what your partner posted. One of the biggest mistakes I have noticed in new role-players is that they are too involved with themselves, too excited about their character that it’s a one sided show. Sometimes it takes a couple reads to catch certain details that are important that make your partner feel included. On the flipside.. don’t respond to EVERYTHING. allow your characters to “miss” things too. Being too rushed to respond or too detailed in replies can make RP feel… clunky. And rushed responses always feel rushed and often have sloppy spelling and grammar...

10) Try something new. Get out of your comfort zone. Never used dice? Try it. Never played a villain? Try it. Never played a different gender? Try it. Never played a simple human or a powerful demon? Try it. Only play fantasy? Try Sci-Fi or modern! It can be scary to break away from what your familiar with, but you may find that you absolutely LOVE it.

11) My last piece of advice is… don’t always do pairings for romance. Some of the BEST roleplays I have had were two people 100% platonic, getting to know each other. They create brotherhoods, sisterhoods, ship crews… the godfather/godmother to your future children… they are every bit as important as romantic relationships and I feel people miss out on them a great deal when they are too focused on romance. Be open to other possibilities.

Create what you yourself want to create, and don't feel like you need to force yourself to make changes to something just because someone tells you to do so.

If you absolutely love what you've done, you don't agree with someone else's suggestions, then it's okay! And if they keep insisting you change, you put your foot down firmly, yet nicely, and tell them thanks but no thanks.

Your everything you do is your stuff, no one else's.

Someone comes to me and goes: "You know I like this female OC of yours -insert name here-, but she's too -insert problem here-. Could you maybe tone her down a bit? OR. "You know that OC of yours -insert name here- seems really cool, but you know what would make them better? -insert opinion here-."

If I don't agree, I will say so. And if they are insistent and persistent in getting me to change, then I simply remove the person from contacting me. No need to get wound up, or feel down because they didn't like how you did things for your OC. Guess what not everyone is gonna like everything you do. And you know what? It's perfectly fine!

Find the people who like your work for the worth it is, and what you did, for they are the one's who will boost your confidence and you'll have fun with them.

Thank you for everyone who posted so far. Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter the Raffle, if you haven’t. Tomorrow morning the dice would roll.

Just echoing that you'll want to get in on this! Such a wonderful thing to celebrate, and this fabulous sweetheart Dorian is sharing with everyone.

Don't be shy and don't double think about posting if you are feeling self conscious about whether or not your tip has been mentioned before. Your experiences and your input still count and it is all for fun.

Yaay thanks for being so generous Dorian. The community is lucky to have you! Anywhooo, what advice would I give to a friend about writing collaboratively?

I would tell them that collaborative writing is very different to writing solo and therefore to throw all of their expectations out of the window. Sure, the basic components of writing are involved in both activities but they are otherwise, entirely different games. When writing solo, you control every single character, you control the tempo and setting; you are only beholden to yourself and that's it. Writing cooperatively is a team sport and you need to adapt to your partner(s).

OOC communication is key. When in doubt, always speak to your partner and get their opinion on the story. Find out if they would be okay with a certain action before you write it; find out if they're bored or if they'd like things to move in a different direction. You are allowed to have your own opinion too, of course. Set ground rules and strive to be considerate of each other. Remember, the story only thrives when everyone works together and has fun.

Okay lovelies, wanted to do this before getting to work for the day, so it's 9am EST on the dot. Five dice rolls 1d20 will determine the winners! Double winners are possible this time. Good luck all!

AHH! I GOT A BOOK!

Woo, we have our winners!

1. Oil of Epicness to 2. Hikari_Yagaza

2. Book of Pages to 11. Hadeslicious ( it's a sign, that Tam workshop is going to be a blast! )

3. Mask to 15. Volka

4. Wand of Epicness to 5. Crystaldragon126

5. Dragon Tooth to 20. Key-Blue ( again, it's a sign, we need more lovely Key-Blue characters! )

Thank you so much for hosting this raffle! Congrats to all other the winners!

💗

Omg I won! Thank you so much! And thank you for hosting this raffle!

Congrats to the winners

Thank you!

Congratulations to all the winners! A major thank you to Dorian for hosting this raffle and also applying an idea to it that benefitted everyone. Some fabulous advice in here. ♡