RP 101: For Those Who Can't PK (Kidding!)

[Raargant]

"Role Play Essay Horray by Icor"

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- Introduction –

Role Play (simply known as “RP”) means exactly what it says: playing a role. A role is a person or thing, known often as a “character” that you invent in your head. Roles are always limited to a central plot, which means you can’t be a knight in shining armor in a scifi universe, nor can you be Spock in a medieval universe. The closest thing to RP is [theatre/television] drama, which can be seen every day through the generosity of your flickering TV monitors. Actors, actresses, all playing as people that are far and far beyond who they really are in Real Life (simple known as “RL”). Any student of theatre drama can tell you that RP-ing is very, very, very fun. It is a patient game of learning everything about someone that is not you.

The difference between acting and RP is that in RP, someone else doesn’t generally invent a character for you to play, meaning that not only do you invent everything about the character (history, for example), but you also have to improvise everything that he, she, or it thinks, says, and does. Improvisation is an incredibly important word. It means to to invent, compose, or perform with little or no preparation. It means to act on your toes.

Fear not, however! This shouldn’t be meant to scare you, but rather let you know that the possibilities are limitless. Just be aware that you never know what will happen next when improvising with someone else. The number one rule of Improvisation is never say no. When someone establishes a subject, don’t turn them away because you find the subject material offensive, or hard to understand – try to build on it using whatever emotions the subject inflicts on you, and much more importantly, whatever emotions the subject inflicts on your character.

A side note: improvisation leads to deliberate comedy, I find, 50% of the time, while the other 50% is saved for other emotions, such as fear, hatred, love, sadness, etc, (not to imply that these emotions cannot become comedic). Always be open-minded.

- Finding the Character –

Creating a character in FL is simple, in the short run. You roll some dice, decide if your right or left handed, choose perks, choose a race and a profession, so on, so forth. However, after all of that, writing a description, deciding your goals, do you really know who your character is? Here are a few questions you should answer through the eyes of your character to get started, but remember – true character development comes from RP-ing with other people. Don’t try to get it all down pat at once, that’s virtually impossible.

- Where were you born? Have people told stories to you about your infancy? Do you remember your child-hood? What did you like to do with your time? What were things you were anxious for?

- Who were/are your relatives? Explain them in detail, if any. If you didn’t have any, did/do you wish you had?

- What do you feel about other races of people? What kind of people do you hate or love regardless of race? Are you easily annoyed, or are you very tolerant?

- What are key moments in your past that affected how you perceive, say, a certain part of Val Miran politics? What are key moments in your past that, say, affected how much you like or dislike elves? What are key moments in your past that drive you toward your goals?

- What are your goals? Think about what will happen when there’s nothing left to fight for?

- Do you dream? If so, what about?

- Are you a quiet person? Do you yell a lot? What kind of things disgust you, make you afraid, surprise you, make you happy, or make you tired?

Again, answering these will not smooth out your character perfectly, and there are many more questions like it that will turn up later inevitably while you RP with other people.

- Being In Character & In Aabahran –

A skilled RP-er will know that staying in character all the time not only follows the rules, but it also helps you figure out who your character is. Putting your character on hold while no one is around is no way to progress. RP with yourself if you have to.

The one thing I see people ignore more than anything else is the surrounding universe. The universe is complex and vast, and very, very tangible. You can use your surroundings in any way you see fit to better immerse yourself into the world. It’s one thing to be your character, its another thing to be your character in a fictional world. Non-Player-Characters (simply known as “NPCs” or “Mobs”) can affect you, just like players can, if you let them. Treat every echo like a sound, smell, or sight that rings in your character’s head. Do guild masters talk with one another? Are there secret societies underground in Fallen Dara? Be creative! There is plenty of room for you to invent your own idea of what Aabahran looks, smells, and feels like. It’s just like reading a book; Imagination is key.

- More Tips –

There are a few things you should know before you get into RP.

1) Being good at RP does NOT require you to be able to type quickly. Typing fast is just a bonus, and shouldn’t be used to show off to other players and jumble up their screens. Be PATIENT, fast typists, and be PATIENT, slow typists.

2) Being good at RP does NOT require you to have an enormous, well utilized vocabulary, but it certainly helps. Don’t let players that are faster or more word-wise than you intimidate you. Staying in character at all times is important. If you know your character, you’re set to go.

3) Being good at RP does NOT require you to be good at Player-Killing (simply known as “PK”), but it certainly helps. There’s nothing more irritating than RP-ing with someone, only to be interrupted by a shaman somewhere stabbing needles into a voodoo doll of you. Be on your toes and prepared.

4) Being good at RP does NOT require originality, but again, it does help. Anyone can play a normal, every day gnome, but no two people are ever the same.

It should be clear that you can be an excellent RP-er while being a slow typist with a small vocabulary that can’t player-kill and can’t be completely original.

Also, I’d like to make it clear that the more you RP, the better you get at all of those things. You will begin typing faster, PK-ing harder, inventing more creatively, and shooting out says more profoundly.

Another thing you should know is that lazy typing is always bad typing. Know your grammar and your spelling, it will do you a whole truck-load of good! Therefore:

say hi, i went to the store 2day and got a gallon of milk

Is worse than:

say Hi, I went to the store today and got a gallon of milk.

Notice that the later required only TWO presses of the shift key and only TWO extra characters (the ‘to’ in 2day, and the period). Not too hard, right?

- Commands –

Know the difference between say, emote, smote, and pmote. I’ll explain how they work here:

EMOTE - emote is the most basic way you can display your character performing actions. I’ll show you an example of using an emote, and pretend that your name is Snazz:

You type:        emote sits down on a bench.

Everyone sees:   Snazz sits down on a bench.


You type:        emote looking down the road.

Everyone sees:   Snazz looking down the road.

As you can see, whatever you type in this matter, ‘emote’ gets replaced with your character’s name.

PMOTE – pmote is the second most basic way you can display your character performing actions. Pmote, however, allows you to interact with other players directly. Imagine being able to make your own social, like ‘kiss’, ‘bow’, or ‘snarl’. For example:

You type:            pmote hugs Bob tightly.

Bob sees:            Snazz hugs you tightly.

Everyone else sees:  Snazz hugs Bob tightly.

Remember, spelling out the person’s name that you are ‘targeting’ is important. Always capitalize their name as well, or it won’t work right.

SMOTE – smote is the most complex of the three action commands. If you can learn to use smotes well, you’ll be fine. Smotes target players, just like pmote, however, the positive side of Smotes is that you can (and have to) put your name somewhere in the string. I’ll show a few examples:

You type:            smote A soft wind blows through Snazz’s hair.

Everyone else sees:  A soft wind blows through Snazz’s hair.

You type:            smote Quietly, Snazz pats Bob on the back.

Bob sees:            Quietly, Snazz pats you on the back.

Everyone else sees:  Quietly, Snazz pats Bob on the back.

WARNING: These commands can be easily abused! Abuse of these commands is against the rules, and if you are caught abusing them, you will end up being punished. An example of emote/pmote/smote-abuse would be:

You type:            pmote kills Bob in the face with his sword!

Bob sees:            Snazz kills you in the face with his sword!

Everyone else sees:  Snazz kills Bob in the face with his sword!


You type:            emote rides south.

Everyone sees:       Snazz rides south.

Everyone types:      scan south    (And see nothing)


You type:            smote Bob cuts his own nose off, shooting blood on Snazz.

Bob sees:            You cuts his own nose off, shooting blood on Snazz.

Everyone else sees:  Bob cuts his own nose off, shooting blood on Snazz.

Those are example of abuse. Do not make the mistake of abusing emote, pmote, and smote!

QUOTES – “Quotes” is not a command, but rather a way to modify the way people see how you say things. Say is a simple command that you should be familiar with. With “”, you can make your own says. Anything inside the quotation marks, when put into an emote/pmote/smote string will appear yellow, just like a say. I’ll show a few examples:

You type:            emote whispers in question, “Where are we going?”

Everyone sees:       Snazz whispers in question, “Where are we going?”


You type:            pmote slaps Bob, screaming “Get off my porch, you son of a *****!”

Bob sees:            Snazz slaps you, screaming “Get off my porch, you son of a *****!”

Everyone else sees:  Snazz slaps Bob, screaming “Get off my porch, you son of a *****!”


You type:            smote While cooking his hotdog, Snazz asks Bob: “When will this be done?”

Bob sees:            While cooking his hotdog, Snazz asks you: “When will this be done?”

Everyone else sees:  While cooking his hotdog, Snazz asks Bob: “When will this be done?”


You type:            smote “What time is it?”, Snazz asks himself in a murmur, staring at Bob.

Bob sees:            “What time is it?”, Snazz asks himself in a murmur, staring at you.

Everyone else sees:  “What time is it?”, Snazz asks himself in a murmur, staring at Bob.

Be aware, however, with smotes – sometimes, they can get fussy with you. Example:

You type:            smote Snazz looks in Bob’s direction and says “No, Bob here can fix anything.”

Bob sees:            Snazz looks in your direction and says “No, you here can fix anything.”

Everyone else sees:  Snazz looks in Bob’s direction and says “No, Bob here can fix anything.”

- Closing Statements –

That’s about everything you need to know. Creativity and diligent typing are up to you, and are very important if you plan on anyone paying attention to you. Always have fun!