Latest Site Notices

Bazinga · #1 (**permalink**) 12-14-2016, 07:17 PM

St. Mungo's RP Basics

Welcome to St. Mungo's, a great SnitchSeeker forum dedicated to roleplaying old characters, new characters, fun plots, and helping you build on your roleplaying skills through interaction with other members. We know for some of you, roleplaying may still be a foreign concept or you might not feel super confident yet, but don’t worry you have come to the right place. Here you will find a basic roleplaying guide, a dictionary for roleplayers, types of roleplaying (RPing) that you can participate in and find in this forum, and ideas to help you get started with your very own plots and threads. If, after reading this thread, you still need help or have any questions, please refer to our Knockturn Alley Question Thread. If you just want to discuss roleplaying in general, allow me to direct you to Knockturn Alley Collaboration Corner. As always you can send a PM to the KA forum mods, emjay or AlwaysSnapesGirl.

Table of Contents

Roleplaying Basics
Roleplaying Dictionary
Grammar Book
The Many Types of RPing - Find What Suits You Best
Genres, Plots, and Storylines

Bazinga · 12-14-2016, 07:22 PM

Roleplay Basics

What does RP and RPG stand for?
RP stands for Role Play/Role-Playing and RPG is an abbreviation for Role Playing Game.

What is the point of RPing?
In roleplaying, a person creates a character or selects a premade character and takes on the qualities of this character, interacting with other fictional characters to tell a story.

How do you do it?
Think of RPing like writing a fanfiction story, except in this case, you have numerous people contributing to numerous characters. No one person is in control of where the story goes or what happens. That’s what makes it interesting. It can also be viewed as a play done in written fashion.

What is RP Courtesy?
Rping is great fun when everyone is interacting and getting involved. The best way to do this is to have RP courtesy. Rping is fun as long as everyone is having fun in the rp. One way to do that is to have an RP order when an RP starts. If you have an order members aren’t feeling ignored or left out. So keeping to the same posting order can help everyone be involved and everyone having fun. If a member is going to be away for a long period of time then the RP order might be changed to accommodate this absents.

What is IC vs. OOC knowledge?
While it is fun to RP and fun to stalk other RPs we as members have to remember the difference in what we know OOC (out of character) and what our characters know IC (In Character). If you are stalking another RP or just reading your RP and a character has not told your character specific information just thought it, that is called out of character information. This information should only be known by the RPer not the character. If information has specifically been told to are character that is called in character knowledge and then that character can react however he or she would to this information.

Bazinga · 12-14-2016, 07:31 PM

Roleplaying Dictionary

Biography: (Also called Bio) This is a written outline of your character. The starter of an RP may have a particular form of biography that they would like to be filled out, but in a basic format, a biography consists of the following: Name, Personal Information (Age, Gender, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, etc), Background/History, Appearance, Personality, Miscellaneous information (information that does not fit anywhere else)

Canon: According to this forum, canon means anything associated with the world that J.K. Rowling has created. Imaginative spells, creatures, etc that are made up by players of an RPG are considered non- canon. Ex: Protego (shield spell) is considered canon while a spell such as Hefiuomouj (causes objects to hit target) would be considered non-canon. A cannon character, then, is a character created by J.K. Rowling Ex: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Godric Gryffindor.

IC: Stands for In Character. This is used whenever an OoC has been made and the person wishes to show that the character is now speaking rather than the player speaking. (See OoC)

OoC: Stands for Out of Character. This is used when the person portraying the character wishes to say something outside of the character’s actions/words. (See IC)

Made-Ups: Most RP’s give the opportunity for made-ups. These are characters that are essentially made-up or created by the player, having their own unique character traits and background. However, these made-ups may have to be tweaked to fit the plot of the story; such as being a particular creature or being of a certain age or sorted into a certain house.

Plot: A plot is basically a summary of what the RP will center around. There are many genres of plots, which will be covered later. In a plot, one should have a clear background, mention of the main characters, and a basic premise of what is expected to happen in the RP.

Setting: This is the time, location, and circumstances in which the story takes place. For example: A plot takes place within Hogwarts in the year 2062 while visiting students from Beauxbatons participate in daily school activities with the other Hogwarts students.

Point of View: This is the perspective that the story is being told from. In the RP's of Knockturn Alley, we ask that you use third person. Ex: Heather bounded onto the train, followed closely by her friend John. "We're finally going to Hogwarts!" She trilled, her brown eyes sparkling in happiness.

Mary-Sue: Mary-Sues are what people define as perfect characters; characters that have absolutely no flaws. They're popular, great at everything they do, and have no faults or have only faults that are hardly noticeable (Ex: blonde hair, blue-eyed girl with perfect skin, who was state champion volleyball player, senior prom queen, valedictorian, student of the year, editor of the yearbook, etc). As we know, there are no people like that in real life, so most of our members don't want to have it in the RP's. It makes things more realistic.

Gary-Stu: Term used for describing perfect male characters. See Mary-Sue above.

Godmoding: Term that is used when another RPer is saying the actions of a character that does not belong to them without permission of that character's RPer.

Bazinga · 12-14-2016, 07:43 PM

Roleplaying Grammar

We’ve noticed that more and more members who create RP’s wish for those joining to have proper grammar when writing. The following are a few tips on how to achieve this.

Capitalization: When RPing, it is much neater and easier to read a post if one uses capital letters in the correct places; particularly at the beginning of a sentence, names of characters, or names of places such as Hogwarts.

Spelling: It’s a great idea to have proper spelling when role-playing. If you aren’t certain how to spell a word, open up a word processor and type your RP paragraph there. The mistakes, if there any, will be highlighted. It is also understood that English is not the first language of all members here, and though we have not had any issues with this, please do not discriminate against those whose spelling may not be up to par with your standards.

Periods and other punctuation: It’s always easier to understand someone's roleplaying when periods and commas are introduced in their appropriate places. Ex: Periods at the end of sentences and commas when making a list (I have a basket of apples, bananas, oranges, and pears.) Also, if your character is posing a question, be sure to place a question mark symbol after the question. If you wish to combine two words such as did not into a contraction, an apostrophe should be used: didn’t.

Paragraphs: Paragraphs are a plus with role-playing. If you’re the type that enjoys writing long posts, breaking it into multiple paragraphs makes it easier for others to read and follow your ideas. One long paragraph may tend to confuse or frustrate the reader.

Quotations: When your character is speaking to another character, quotation marks should be used. It tends to be confusing when the words that are being spoken are part of the sentence, with no distinguishing marks offsetting the speech from the action.

Example: Lucy walked briskly through the grounds, only slowing once as she noticed a close friend. “Hello Jennifer!” She called, waving with a smile before she continued on her way.

Text Speak: This should not happen in the RP, this form of writing is leaving letters out as you type quickly or text a person.
Example: ?4u, lke, bby

Abbreviations: These like text speak should not be used in the RP unless it is for common used words such as Mr., Mrs., Ave.

Bazinga · 12-14-2016, 07:58 PM

The Many Types of Rping

There are so many different styles that can be used to roleplay. The one you choose is based on your preference and your wants for your own character’s developments.

Below are some of the more common types.

The One-Liner

This type is very brief. Many, but not all members, have a rule of no one-liners allowed in RP’s. It is a good way to start as a new member, but we recommend building from this into more developed and thought out posts so that members have something to work with and can easier interact with your characters. An example of one-liner:

Sarah walked into the classroom, took a seat, and pulled out a book.

The Novel RP'er

This type of roleplaying is the most common out of the lot and the most preferred. People who roleplay this way, roleplay as if they are writing a story of some sort. An example of this is below:

'Sarah looked down the corridor and headed slowly to the Professor's office. She was slightly nervous of meeting the Professor. Raising her hand, she knocked on the door. She opened it and greeted the Professor, "Hello there, my name is Sarah, when will class start?" '

The Asterisk RP'er

This type of RP'er uses asterisk's (*) to play out actions. This is probably best used for Normal roleplaying unless the member goes into detail whilst using the asterix. For example:

*Sarah looked down the corridor and headed slowly to the Professor's office. She was slightly nervous of meeting the Professor. Raising her hand, she knocked on the door. She opened it and greeted the Professor* "Hello there, my name is Sarah, when will class start?"

The Italics RP'er (actions)

There is two types of italics RP'ing. This one is where members italic all of the actions that they make. Like so:

Sarah looked down the corridor and headed slowly to the Professor's office. She was slightly nervous of meeting the Professor. Raising her hand, she knocked on the door. She opened it and greeted the Professor, "Hello there, my name is Sarah, when will class start?"

The Italics RP'er (speech)

This is exactly the same as the above apart from this time the member italics the speech that their character uses instead of the actions. An example:

Sarah looked down the corridor and headed slowly to the Professor's office. She was slightly nervous of meeting the Professor. Raising her hand, she knocked on the door. She opened it and greeted the Professor, "Hello there, my name is Sarah, when will class start?"

The Bold RP’er (speech)

This is when a member uses bold for speech so it stands out and the other members can see where their character is speaking easier. An example:

Sarah looked down the corridor and headed slowly to the professor’s office. She was slightly nervous of meeting the Professor. Raising her hand, she knocked no the door. She opened it and greeted the Professor, “Hello there, my name is Sarah, when will class start?”

The Bold and Italics RP’er

This is when a member uses bolding for their character’s speech and italics for their thoughts. This gives other members a chance to see when a character is thinking and when they are actually talking. An Example:

Sarah looked down the corridor and headed slowly to the professor’s office. This is the coldest corridor in the castle she thought as she moved towards the door and knocked. Sarah opened it and greeted the professor, “Hello there, my name is Sarah, when will class start?”

The Multi-Color RP'er

This type of roleplaying is where you can use any of the above types but use colors to show the differences between your actions and speech. An example is below:

Sarah looked down the corridor and headed slowly to the Professor's office. She was slightly nervous of meeting the Professor. Raising her hand, she knocked on the door. She opened it and greeted the Professor, "Hello there, my name is Sarah, when will class start?"'

**Please note that you don't have to follow any of the above, you may choose your own style and you can merge two of the above etc. This is just a simple guideline to the most popularly used ones.

Bazinga · 12-14-2016, 08:10 PM

Genres, Plots, and Storylines

Adventure – The name says it all - an RP predominantly based on pulse-racing action and wild adventure. Chasing the bad guys . . . perhaps the bad guys are chasing you . . . explosions and near-misses . . . plot twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat . . . and perhaps you end up rescuing the damsel in distress.

Drama – Plot twists and turns are all part of a drama RP when the main character and friends/family deal with different situations and react to them in their own unique ways. There may be some action and romance involved, or even some heartache, too, as life's lessons are learned.
Horror – You don’t see many of these, but horror plots are based on fear, naturally. Please note that RPs in Knockturn Alley cannot exceed limits on gore and explicit content.

Humor – Humor tends to be more of a concept that characters bring, though it can be done as a silly plot, or something very off the wall that is meant for a good laugh. This isn’t seen very often, either.

Mystery – Quite simply, there is a mystery and the members of this RP must solve it.

Romance – A Romance Plot tends to be one that is based on the romance of two people or even a group of people.

Supernatural – These are the RPs in which Werewolves, Mermaids, and further lore, such as Vampires, Were-animals, etc. come into play. These have been increasingly popular over the years.

Suspense – If it leaves you anxious and gripping, your RP must be suspenseful.

Time-Turner – These are fun! This involves one person or a group of persons getting ahold of a Time-Turner and finding themselves back in time. Many times, Harry goes back to his parents time.

Tragedy – Driven by or leading to a death of a, or a number of, major character(s), a Tragedy RP usually has a downfall of some kind. (In plays, a Tragedy, as established by the Greeks, has the downfall of a hero.)

As seen above, there are a wide variety of plots that can be created in a certain genre or theme. The most popular of these seem to be romance, which is perfectly fine, but instead of having an entire RP based on just one genre, perhaps place it into the background or share it with another theme. For example, the main theme of a plot could be a mystery set in seventeenth century London, with undertones of romance throughout the plot. See? You just mixed three different genres together: mystery, time-turner, and romance, all in one plot.

By doing this, it becomes easier to contribute and assist in building up the plot for members aren’t restricted to roleplaying as much as they would if the plot was based on only one theme. It’s fun to mix a number of genres together; and as stated, it makes it easier for more people to RP together. Besides, if all the RPs created were of the same genre, things would get rather boring and repetitive. Try to be creative and come up with many different ideas! Romance is fun, but so is Supernatural or Time Turner or Tragedy. Plus, you have the added bonus of being able to expand your skills by roleplaying in many different situations and using many different emotions.

Latest Site Notices

Latest Harry Potter News

Latest FanFics

Latest Forum Posts

Latest Games

Hogwarts RPG

Wizarding World RPG

Members