All right, after noticing several people either exorbitantly failing at keeping up scenes and stories as well as, seeing many people unsure how to get started in role-playing, I’ve decided to work on a guide on how to even role-play. I am going to do my best to write it as simply as possible, so to avoid confusion and mistake. It is a work in progress, so if you have any suggestions on fixing it, just let me know or comment!
We’ll start with defining the entertainment medium of role-play. Many people are unaware of the extent of our large role-play community; truthfully, it only excites certain types of people long enough for them to stay to create meaningful and exciting stories. Honestly, the largest part of us who live lifestyles and are super active online are the quiet kids who love to read, write, draw, and grew up gaming to some degree; in fact, that is where the idea originated from, in our video games or tabletop games. You can like only one style of role-play or all of them at once! The boundaries are limitless, you are only limited to fitting into your chosen genre of game. Personally, I obviously prefer the Gorean style, but I also take great interest in Mass Effect, Bioshock, and other historical role-plays. Regardless, you can role-play anything! Both Second Life and online forums offer endless places to learn and try it out; it is essentially comparable to fan-fiction but with interaction. I suppose that shows you how it gets sexual so fast.
Now, back to defining it: role-playing, or RP, is when a person takes on a role, or creates a character for a certain role either online or in reality- please note that you are not exclusive to this role; and this role does not even have to be anything like you; in fact, this is important, especially in on line sex things: no one, and I mean no one, has control over you in reality, unless you permit it. If they try to seize too much control, and you are uncomfortable, simply mute and block them and enjoy your game. In reality, my personality is the same as Sefa’s, but physically, I am a tall lanky redhead – she is a petite tanned curved girl with onyx locks. See, what I mean? That doesn’t make me any less Sefa, or vice versa; it is merely a role I prefer. Heck, this even can be used in the bedroom if you are imaginative enough – in fact, many people do use it largely in the bedroom.
I started role-play a good long time ago, as a teenager on anime-based forums. Growing up a well-educated brainy child ahead of her class, I finished all the books really open to me, and so, my friends and I began to essentially, write our own books. So, forums are always an excellent choice! But, my largest and preferred experience is within Second Life. Once in the game client (I prefer Catznip or Exodus viewers), hit your search option, and type in anything you’d love to role-play. Here you’ll get a list of sims, or at least parcels on sims, and when you click on the name, you’ll see a sidebar of general details and tags. Hopefully, if it is a decent sim, it will either give you some backstory on that tab before you teleport –or- when you arrive, you receive rules either from a sign or a greeter. Think of this like as your inner flap of a novel, or even the SparkNotes! Even if you do not read the backstory – though I advise you to – PLEASE (and that’s in caps lock!) always read the rules. Before you begin to jump in though, since SL (that’s shorthand for Second Life) is incredibly visual, make sure you look the part for the role, and I recommend for the new players to create what we call a Character Sheet in forum play.
A character sheet, or as in Gor, we prefer a written and though out personal backstory, is essential to playing out a role. It should largely be in prose, and past tense; though it is easy to get confused, and honestly, no one will get too upset over linguistics and styles, since we are such a multicultural entity. Unless enabled with RLV in-world, or in a BDSM setting, I repeat only you play your character or make them do anything. If anyone does otherwise, please quit the RP or call them out on it; this is something we all strive to avoid, since it makes it impossible to reply and generally, not too fun. This is not to say, however, that each emote and movement does not react and act on the other. When I serve, I am Sefa, and that is her life. It’s just like any other social interaction; it may go well, bad, or not always have your desired outcome – that’s the fun of it! Yes, it requires a smattering of social ability and a desire to work and learn with others. If you control it all, you are god-moding, and everyone will hate you; but, more on that later! That is a problem, you might just have if you can’t get partners or enjoy role-play scenarios long – check your logs (I advise always logging every chat and IM!). While every extent of developing your character is different, here is a sheet with some suggestions that will help you pick out things you need to in order ot create your best character; please, hoever keep in mind, that you cannot be everything and everyone; be equal in strengths and flaws. for instance, Sefa while beautiful, intelligent, and a decent person, she also is petty, snobbish, can forget her slavery, likes to play jokes, and often speaks out of turn; she is trained by savages to be a slave – she will never be able to accept other ideas as valid, unless it is beaten into her. There, we have a complex woman, and that is why usually I can hold my own in scenes without issue.
Before attempting any character sheet, the best I’ve seen being the example I’ve posted below, READ THE RULES. I hope this is sticking into your head, and you realize the gravity of this. For example, you don’t want to be an Asari and be trying to land in a swamp from the Witcher universe, do you? The locals will be driven crazy, no one will play with you and… just don’t do it. This is one of my pet peeves; on a Gorean note, the amount of ‘Urth’ claimants drives me kooky. Earth abductions were rare; and no one on Gor, unless privy to the highest Knowledges even knew Earth existed – plus it is just Earth, c’mon now.If you plan to play anywhere there might even remotely be sex, don’t you dare play a child – it is a bannable offense in Second Life, and just plain tacky.
Basic guidelines when filling out a back-story, or my character sheet (which I shamelessly stole from Google Images):
- Make it someone you won’t be tired of in a day; it’s not fair to others who might like you like that
- Don’t be a child or an old person. Unless you plan to be bored to tears, unless you are ~18-50, you own’t get played with, or you’ll sit at home. Children have no place in an adult fantasy world, and old people just don’t have the abilities to realistically keep up or just aren’t… exactly favorable. My word, is not law, but just a reccommendation from my experiences. Luckily for us Goreans, the Stabilization Serums keep us largely young and sexy; a convenient loophole for SL ,if I ever saw one.
- Physical descriptions should be accurate, to the point, and realistic.Don’t be a super model and a strong man; it’s not feasible, and alienates other players, just like perfect people would alienate real people. Imagine interacting with a model who is as good as her Photoshop, who is top of her class at Harvard, and the winner of the Olympics; yeah…. awkward.
- Have some depth; please don’t stereotype yourself – this is a surefire way of running out of steam, quick.
- Fit in! Just go with the flow.
With this, it is time for you to address four major areas in establishing a good role-play environment, which we previously discussed in passing. Arguably, the creation of your character, is the most important of all of the role-play guidelines. These facets are to come afterwards. With the creation of your own character, and assuming your future partners have a well-developed character that takes care of the two most important issues. Keep in mind, your character is a starting point; as an organic being, one should always be growing, evolving, and different.
These are four things all role-play needs, as adapted by reading several sites:
1. Setting
2. Plot and Story
3. Your character
4. The other characters.
All right, if you pulled up the search listing, like I discusses earlier, you’ve got a good grip on the setting, or universe you want to join. Pick a universe you know well. If you join a universe you are unsure about, or have no idea about, out of courtesy, at least Wikipedia it – preferably, you know it or have the intention to read or play it in the original media. Otherwise, you risk hurting your or other’s experiences; if a friend drags you into one, ask them for a cram session, or a good starting place in reading the books, watching the movies/shows, etc. It’s like giving a lecture – know your stuff; then you know you will be successful, and everyone should have fun. This is largely the easiest part., especially in SL, sine we have to usually go by a sim, and it isn’t needed for us to establish it with words, like in the forums.
Now, we are down to the nitty gritty….
1. Setting
2. Plot and Story
3. Your character
4. The other characters.
Now, if you really, really have no clue on role-play, ask for an observer tag, or read a few logs online. Heck, you can even ask another role-player if they will share some non-private role-play logs. Now… how do you start into a role-play with your planned out character, awesome outfit, and thorough knowledge? Simple, just act natural. Naturality will carry you far in both RP and in real life social settings; don’t just intercept an RP unless you can either improv why you’re in it, or it is a casual one. Either way, make sure you have a reason to join in; contribute, not just interrupt.
RP-ing is improv completed by writing a story with a bunch of other people by your movements and emotes; SL gives this such a depth and life that it is amazing! We can sit, strip, change, move, or anything really adding a truly deep level of reality to our role-play. However, be wary of falling into a chaos; live and breathe, acting and reacting with every actor. In fact, it has many rules to follow, despite being spontaneous!
- Follow the premise. This goes back to the not fitting in thing; being weird or an outcast, is one thing – making the play totally ridiculous, is another.
- Acceptance. This is a pretty big rule, actually, so keep it in mind. In essence, this rule is: Once somebody has emoted an action, it is historical fact for these characters. This keeps you from falling into a big ball of timey-wimey stuff…. Now, arguing is totally ok! But, reneging on past events, is non-nenegotiable
- Work off of other people’s posts, and make your post in a way people can work off of yours.we can’t have fun with you if you go off all lone wolf!
It’s not really that hard to role-play; this guide is essentially just to hand-hold the cripple into it; note: it is a good idea to ry to have some sort of handicap! Sefa is short-sighted with heterchromia iridis eyes, this is accompanied by her unique crooked mischievous grin – this makes her unique!
All right,t his post is at ridiculous levels of ramble. I am gonna leave this for a second part to continue, but first I will leave off with a few tips and warnings:
- Life-styling is an idiotic concept. Ok, you are not and will never be a Gorean in real life. It’s not possible; this is also applicable to people who claims they are professionals. For example, if you are a Green (Physician Gorean castes), you may know some basic healing stuff- plus, a lot of fictional stuff! This does not make you a professional; the only “professional” is the man/woman you play, or even the creator of the sim who sets expectations for you, as well as other Greens. Even then, the practice is not homogeneous.
- How your character responds in a situation should not always be how you would respond. It defeats the whole purpose of RP-ing a character if you’re going to RP yourself. Utilize a position that makes you think – and actually put in the work of thinking up how a person like that would think! The more thought you put into it, the more details you have, generally the better your emote will be and it will receive a better return.
- Your good foundation from your character cheat sheet will help to dictate how a character deals with situations. Once you have your quirks and basic, the history is simple! It is a puzzle game after you create the pieces; keeping this written down on the sheet or a word document will make your RP clear and linear. With all this in hand, it should allow the progression in the creation of your character should be natural, and flow together. Having a bunch of traits just thrown together under a bandage makes you seem fake and awkward.
- Interaction that is actually interactable! An RP would be boring if it were just you and would only be lonely fan-fiction! (Note: I do love fan-fiction, that’s not a rag on it!). Role-play is useless without back and forth as you move the story along. Avoid dead end posts! This equivalent to receiving a text that only says ‘K”.
- Grow your character, and don’t be a brick wall! A brick wall will not change no matter what they go through over the course of the RP, never learns anything from other characters, and never does anything later on in the RP that they wouldn’t have done in the beginning because the RP hasn’t changed them. RPs are typically out of the normal experiences- typically ones that change a person, and force them to adapt – otherwise, it would be like playing the Sims. Now, you shouldn’t force them to evolve, but don’t be afriad to even alter your fundament. Example: Sefa is a murderess, who was enslaved as punishment. She is violent, often raises her hand – and it is my Master or a Free’s job to take care of that for me. She isn’t perfect, but if conditioned, she would be too afraid or in love to raise er hand. Also, as a former Free, she often is a snob or lofty; this slowly grew out of her as she embraced her slavery! This is called character development. It’s an advanced technique that does not come naturally to all RP-ers, but it’s an extremely important one.
- Don’t emote in thought; we have no real way of reading your thoughts in RP! This really could go into the dead-end topic, but it is so annoying, I thought I’d stick it in here. Write from your perspective, and act as you’d think to to – but so not emote things we could not perceive ourselves!
To be continued ~
La Kajira Sefa 