Anonymous asked: Can you make a character to RP with that doesn’t actually exist (as in from your imagination), or must it be someone from a book/movie/comic, etc?

BABY COME TO MY ARMS. SCREAM. LET ME SHOW YOU THE WORLD, SHINING GLIMMERING SPLENDID…

You have discovered the world of ~*OC’S*~. (That’s shorthand for original characters.)  That means a character you come up with from scratch, that’s right! There’s actually a category for them! They are more than accepted in most types of roleplays, and while you’ll have a hard time on your journey you should never give up, never surrender!

Okay so Pros of having an OC. You can’t really be out of character, unless you’re playing it completely at odds with how you yourself described the character. That’s why OC’s are usually the first thing people pick up; whether it be placed in a world they already know (Hi! I’m a ninja from Naruto we never saw in series!) or a new world (Hey, I’m from [World of your imagination]!) they’re very common. They let you play whatever you dream could happen and all that jazz. Hell ask around, most canon RPers have that little OC they keep to themselves shyly. Another good thing is they can usually be squished, pulled, and prodded to fit any world. That means more RP.

Issues with OC’s happen all the gott danged time unfortunately. A lot of people refuse point blank to accept OC’s because they’ve had such a bad time with them. There’s so many people who try to enforce things that backhand canon across the mouth, or are generally annoying that a blanket ban has fallen on most of the fandom. While this isn’t always true, there are safe places like generalized settings and even OC lovers, it’s a bad habit that isn’t going to be solved that quickly. People have their reasons, and it’s always good to know you’re going to encounter hell trying to get RP before it even starts. This isn’t to scare you off! I have seen people bring an OC into a room of OC haters, and roleplayed so flawlessly and so amusingly that everyone basically became BFFs. Everyone liked their character because they were so inoffensive and stuff went from ‘tolerating’ them to ‘enjoying’ them. It all depends on how good you are, and what group you end up trying to hang out with. I mean duh, a group of OC’s is going to be one of those areas where an OC is likely accepted.

And resources for the OC creator! Just in case you need them, or someone else reading this needs them, have some stuff that helps you when you aren’t sure where to go. (I mean obviously use what you like and toss the rest, but a lot of these are helpful if you want regular RP because it’s what a lot of (but not all) people look for.)

Character Creation Sheet 1.0 + Mary Sues and Gary Stus + Character Creation Guide: General Edition + Blood Type Superstitions + Wikipedia of Powers + Complete List of Animals + The Ultimate Height and Weight Chart

Anonymous Asked: How does a female (me) RP with a partner who is a female playing him? I just found out, confused.

You pick up your hands… put them on the computer keyboard… and type…

To be marginally less sassy about it; The gender of your partner matters about as much as the germs you murder with mouthwash every morning. That’s why it’s called “role playing” in fact; it means that both of you are playing a role. Unless things are getting hot and heated out of character (in which case this is up to your choice of sexuality) the affect on your roleplay is negligible. The characters are the same, their choices are the same, everything you do in story is perfectly the same way. It’s still a girl and a guy gettin’ it on in a fictional two-player story (but I don’t see why it matters whatever gender you play. I mean a Trans* MTFxAsexual blob is cool too.) and that’s all there is to it.

Gender outside the game is only going to impact you if you have seeds of doubt, a religious upbringing, or any varied social obligations to think that two girls are “icky”. Well too bad, ain’t two girls, it’s a story written by two girls about a straight pairing. Douglas Adams and Neil Gaiman wrote about a girl and a boy gettin’ it on. If one of them happened to have written the female part, is Good Omens suddenly a weird and disgusting book? Hah! My ass it is. No harm no foul! 

Of course there’s going to be a marginalized section who feel that chatting about sex with someone of the same gender as you makes things weird/gay and they’re likely (but not always) very protective over their sexuality/reputation. These people put a comment in their OOC information about whether or not they accept people who play the opposite gender. I… have yet to find one who argues it in a way that makes sense (unless a certain gender really just turns them off, or they’ve been in a bad place with that gender and don’t feel safe with them) so I can’t actually comment on why they would pick this other than feeling bad. But that’s okay too, if they feel bad doing it they don’t have to. The world is a beautiful rainbow and it takes all kinds, yadda yadda.

If anyone is on the fence, most people don’t give two shits. Once again let’s bring out the magic words! “Role!” say it with me now “Playing!” I rather hope the dragon you’re RPing with on the side isn’t actually a dragon either. Imagine melting the screen when you make them laugh a bolt of flame!

courtingdestruction:

Roleplayers are not obligated:

• To follow you because you are part of the fandom they RP in.
• To follow you back just because you appear in their followers list.
• To continue following you just because you don’t want them to “abandon” you.
• To continue following you if you spam/harrass/distress…

This is a lovely post, and deserving of more attention. I thought I’d fill in our quiet time of being lazy assholes with someone else being smart and wonderful for you guys to enjoy. Seriously, ton of great points here. All of them tend to follow what I’m usually blathering on about: Treat roleplayers like people, don’t be assholes, and don’t whine about how other people RP if you’re the one gagging to RP with them.

littlemisslucifer asked: Hi, I was wondering where I can find roleplays, and how to get involved in them once I’ve found them.

Anonymous asked: I really want to join rp’s but i’ve never done it before, i’m scared that the people in the rp are gonna judge me on everything because they’ll expect me to have experience and know how everything works. tbh i don’t understand much about rp’s and all the para stuff but i would really love to join, could you explain everything a little for me?

Anonymous asked: So, um. H-how do I start RPing? Where, how, what do? HALP.

Hey there! Halp is here!

Alright, so the easiest way to start roleplaying is to just find a place to do it, and start! No one knows you’re new, no one cares your skill level, you can just RP any time you want! You can also roleplay just about anywhere, any time. There’s people who roleplay in real life, that’s LARPing (Live Action Roleplaying). That ranges from dressing up and hitting each other with foam weapons, to sitting around at school going “Omg what if…” and then just making up a story together with everyone in charge of their own character. There’s people who do it while talking to each other over the phone for goodness sake. Even every time you write a story, you’re roleplaying! (Except you’re doing all the parts, all of them.) 

So to start out with the basics, try my old classic post The Extremely Basic Roleplay Basics which covers the first questions you might ask; what is RPing, how do I RP, What is a character, How do you pick a character, where do you get ideas, How do I respond to… and more resources. Continue with The RP Basics, which covers basic styles (including para!), some tips on your writing, how not to Godmod, and what OOC is. Got the basics down? Time to head into the clutches of Advanced Roleplay Tips, which’ll help out with show versus tell, more unique styling, and how/when to expand a roleplay with new scenes. 

Sweet! Okay that’s the general gist of how to RP and starting out RPing, so let’s turn our heads towards some other helpful things. The Roleplaying Sins is one of my most liked posts, which means I’m pretty sure a large amount of the community knows damn well how bad they can be. Give it a look! It might teach you something about the whole social contract and behaving yourself with other people. Might as well sneak in a link to my Character Creation Worksheet. It’ll help you understand your character, and let you build one from scratch. Hell throw in the Character Creation Sheet 1.0 and you’ll have all the information you’ll probably need to get a real feel for your character. (And it’s great for reference. Don’t get too caught up though! Sometimes you need to roleplay first, fill stuff out later. It’s totally okay to go and do anything you feel is right.)

Okay so, as to where you should RP? That totally is up to you, and I’ve got a post to help you with that already! Chat vs. Forum RP shows you the differences, explains them, and then gives you a ton of websites to roleplay at and a general summary of what they’re like. There’s tons of other places to RP, but I personally haven’t checked many other places out and I don’t want to send a newbie into a raging flame-pit of elitist snobs who will ignore new members entirely. So RESEARCH as I always say, and check stuff out! Find other roleplayers and ask them for suggestions based on where they’re from, and use google! Hell, you can “apprentice” under a roleplaying friend, just ask them to RP with you and give you tips as you go. Keep it light, friendly, and just mess around. You’ll learn a lot!

So checklist: Get a character, pick a place, read up and research, and jump on in! One of the easiest places for newbies is Gaiaonline for the record; there’s a ton of different skill levels, you can hop around and test out whatever you want and you can make some pretty great friends. Try out the Taverns and such section in Barton Town, they let you do one-shot roleplays to test out your voice, and as long as you roleplay yourself in and out, no one will mind! Just remember to read the thread rules or room rules wherever you go. 

Any other questions? Toss them over! But don’t forget to check the Masterlist, and all the cool resources I’ve built up for you there. Good luck on your RPing adventures!

Anonymous asked: ah ive always wanted to know whats an indie blog?? u0u

Independent  blogs are roleplaying blogs that are not connected to any group. It might be an OC, it might be original, but there’s no one laying down the law on how they roleplay or who they roleplay with. They’ve got their own rules on who can contact them or who they’ll RP with, and there’s no big over-arcing storyline that they’re a part of handled by moderators, only what they devise themselves. They simply roleplay using their blogs, and who needs a group anyways? The difference here is it can be harder to find RP if you’re not established, while an RP Group can connect you to people. Sometimes the group leaders can get overprotective of their group and install the weirdest rules, and they can be priggish assholes, so if you’re the type who doesn’t like a lot of rules; go indie. If you want a group of people who are being monitored for quality with the ability to kick people out instead of just ignore them? Go group.

Anonymous asked: What should I do if my RP partner deactivated without a word? Should I hold out until they maybe come back or contact me? Or should I find someone else to play that character?

Depends on the situation. If you never talked to them oocly without it being about the RP and it hasn’t been that long? Then they probably ditched, just give up now, and if they come back be pleasantly surprised. It’ll take some time to get someone to replace them really. That’s about how long you should wait.

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Anonymous asked: I kinda need help. I always get scared when interacting with people in a forum RP, and when I did, they wrote 3 paragraphs and I just don’t know how to reply to such a thing. I need to reply but.. I don’t know if it made sense. I just feel worried because they are relying on me to post, but it’s too hard.

Hey! Hold up! It’s okay! Right now I see you panicking, not knowing what to do right? Worried feeling, pit of your stomach is heavy, kind of uncomfortable and want to shrug off this responsibility? Pretty normal actually. A lot of people get it, especially in a situation where you aren’t perfectly at home. So… First things first. Breathe.

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Anonymous asked: Don’t you think Mun or Mundane is a rather insulting term to use? Player or Writer is a descriptive of the real individual’s role without slapping a generally negative quality on them.

Why is Mundane insulting other than a perceived insult, possibly picked up from other people instead of the actual meaning?

mun·dane /ˌmənˈdān/ Adjective

_{Synonyms
          worldly - temporal - earthly - secular - terrestrial}

It’s simply your average ordinary life (which probably a little banal and earthly otherwise you probably wouldn’t have that much time to roleplay your fantasies being in space and all) versus your fantasy life (which if it’s not at the very least should not be dull, or you probably won’t enjoy it that much). So there’s no insult implied? If you see one you’re kind of looking for a way to see one since it’s not meant to have one.

If you were the super powered human, ghost, dragon, elf, or troll in real life you’d be considered “exciting” right? So if you’re an average human you’re mundane. I like Mun, it makes me feel comfortable knowing that it’s not some super powered extremely rich, good looking, genius alien with omniscient powers behind the keyboard sitting there actually typing to me, but a normal human who can make mistakes too. So I don’t have to be the very best like no one ever was; I can just roleplay and feel safe. Also it’s from LiveJournal, most people use that there with it being commonly accepted, and it’s been that way for years. 

Taking it badly is a personal choice, it’s just a word and it can only hurt you if you give it that meaning. Just like bitch, and cunt, and fuck; all words I use on this blog pretty regularly because my Don’t-Give-a-Fuck-Meter is running, haha. This isn’t a PC blog, and this is a gentle reminder of that.

Unless you’re actually an omnipotent alien, in which case sorry but why are you reading my shit anyways?

Another Anon wanted to add: to the anon that said that mun could be seen as an insult- i had actually never known that it stood for mundane! i had always seen it as the huMUN to the MUSE, which isnt really human, i think. Eiter way, muses visited humans to bless them with ideas, so i always saw it ias a compliment! it really matters on how you interpet the word, i’d say.

felhoun asked rpedia:  Just discovered your Tumblr today upon searching ‘How Not To Roleplay’. Gotta say I love all the hints and advice you have here. My fiance’ and I met over a long amount of roleplaying starting on a small online gaming fansite. Since all the rps we did, we developed actual feelings for each other. Long story short, I now live with him :D I guess my suggestion/question is, have you heard of this before, where there’s a lot more than just a relationship of characters and the people as rp friends?

Hi! Welcome to the family and congrats on the fiance. :D Thanks a ton for the love, and how you found us! I love hearing about that hahaha. Lets me tag better. Whoops, question answering time…

YES! ALL THE TIME. Literally all of it. Most of the relationships I know of right now started out as roleplaying pairs. I know a wedded couple or two, a couple just dating… Hell, my last two have started out as just a couple of nutjob characters and progressed from there! (My current and I just moved in together too!) So yes, most of the time this is actually going to be true. When you roleplay you put enough of yourself into your stuff, and your character, that they take after you. If your characters have chemistry, there’s a really high chance you and the mun behind the character will have chemistry too. If you aren’t putting yourself in the characters shoes, chances are your roleplay is going to be lifeless and kind of flat. That means if you’re into a good roleplay with lots of feelings and plot, you’re developing real emotions and attributing them to a character. It’s kind of a case of volunteered multiplicity. So it’s totally normal to get a crush, or more, just by roleplaying! Plus it’s adorable. ♥

At the same time, if you think you’re getting a crush out there kiddos, there are people who are better at compartmentalizing than that. While they might think fondly of you, don’t be too let down if they aren’t interested in an online relationship outside of your roleplay. That’s just cruel, especially if they’re already dating someone else or something. Chemistry is chemistry, if it doesn’t work out don’t destroy what you already have by being vindictive, just let it lie and enjoy the sweet sweet taste of living vicariously through your characters (and for the love of everything good, don’t tell them you’re getting off on the pairing as really being you and them, that is creep-o-matic as hell to know about. Creeps don’t get RP.)