How to Roleplay

[Tanaka Ayumu]

Though anyone on this forum should already know how to roleplay literately, here is a little reminder for any of those little mistakes that everyone makes!!!

- Bowman -

Here is a little tutorial on how to roleplay, and how not to roleplay.

Firstly some roleplaying basics, which you need to remember!

If you want to show you are speaking, then do so as if writing dialogue in a story. For instance:

"I hate History" said Bob.

If you want to show your thoughts, you can do so in italics, or like so:

"I hate history," thought Bob.
"I hate history," thought Bob.

To show actions just write as normal,

Bob took out his wand.

DO NOT use ** to make actions more obvious.

To say something out of character, for instance if you want to inform someone on the thread of something, then use double brackets:

((OOC: I won't be on the internet for another two days))

Remeber, posting is always in third person.
What not to do:
I climbed the stairs. "There are far too many," I thought. There at the top I met a black cat, "Hello sweetie," I said.

The above example does follow the basic rule apart from the fact that you are doing it directly from you perspective. That was first person.

This is how it should be: She climbed the stairs. "There are far too many," she thought. There at the top she met a black cat, "Hello sweetie," she said.

The she's or he's you can also replace with the characters name, constanly she, she, she is getting boring to read.

Third person basically means: He said, she said and so forth.

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Also use proper grammar and spelling. Ofcourse not everyone's first language is English. But roleplaying with chat language and loads of shortenings are very annoying. Mostly other members won't reply in a thread if you don't use proper grammar and spelling.

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Now you had the basics, we can start to see how you can use these things in actual roleplaying.

Roleplaying isn't just simple typing a sentence, or have a turned based chat with eachother, like this:

This is how NOT to roleplay:

Peter: Peter entered the Common room. He threw his bookbag besides a chair, and sat down. Starting to read a book he pulled from his bag.

Bob: Bob saw peter sitting down, 'hey mate, how are you doing?'

Peter: 'Owh! Hey Bob, yeah I'm doing great, and what about you?'

Doesn't seem wrong? Does it? Well it is wrong. Of course this can be considered roleplaying. But not around intermediate/advanced RPG's.

Mostly intermediate/advanced rp'ing can be compared to writing a book. Describing suroundings, actions of your character, thoughts, what your character says, and combining this all in one post.

So, what is good roleplaying then?

Good roleplaying is 'Describing'.

Describe your surroundings, describe how you are feeling, describe what you are thinking, describe your actions and reactions.

Inbetween the describing you can of course say something, talk with another person. This way, roleplaying doesn't become boring. It does become boring when you're not describing. When you are simply 'roleplaying' the speech of your character, and get an anwser back, continuing like that.

Let me give you a good example. We will use Peter and Bob again.

How TO roleplay:

'Start of thread'

Peter: Peter entered the Common Room. Yawning slightly, he was a bit tired. It had been a long day, quite a lot of classes. Potions, Care of Magical Creatures. And his favourite lesson, Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Before Peter sat down, he walked over to the notice board. Quickly skimming the tiny notes and the large sheets of parchment. He chuckled lightly to himself, reading some of the notes left behind.

After he finished skimming the board, he walked over to the fire place, and pulled up a comfy armchair. As he sat down, he let out a sigh of relief. Finally some peace, he would start with his homework later on in the evening.

Bob: Bob, who had come to the common room early, had already started with his homework. He needed to finish his Potions homework soon, or he would get detetention with Professor Lonneke.

As he paused for a bit, the quill in his mouth, he saw Peter walking in. After he turned away from the notice board, the boy walked towards the fire place.

'Hey mate, how are you doing?' Bob asked to the boy, who was in his year also.

Peter: As Peter looked around, he saw Bob sitting with large sheets off parchment on a table. Peter hadn't noticed him when he had entered.

Standing up he strolled towards the little table. 'I'm tired,' he said with a grin. He looked at the parchment, seeing it was potions homework. Luckily he had already finished that two days ago.

'It seems your quite busy, I told you before you should start with your homework sooner.' Peter joked.

Look. That's already much better. Do you see how those two react onto the other one's description. If Peter hadn't described he walked over to the Notice board, there was already much less for Bob to react/roleplay to.

If you roleplay like this, you can develop your roleplaying character, you have more fun reacting to another members post, and that member having more fun reacting to your posts.


'How to Roleplay' written by ShinLi of rpg-directory.com