Roleplaying Tips

[Baron]

What things would you suggest to people to better their roleplaying? Genuine thoughts only please, no passive aggressiveness.

 

[Immerael]

Read, write and go experience things outside in real life. My writing of children chars was and still is from an objective point abysmal, however I noticed a marked increase in quality when I had regular interaction with my niece and nephew (9 years and 6 months respectively). Instead of relying on very old biased and unreliable personal memories I could look at my niece and see more objectively how a child that age acts and reasons.

There is a lot of truth in the authors advice to only write what you know. Since RP is nothing but writing, our RP quality I feel will reflect our individual expierences IRL.

Reading books shows you different styles, engages creativity and helps you have a guide in how to advance as a writer. Actually writing is the only way to improve be it in RP or in your own stories.

*Note: I remembered there was a thingy about kid chars and I commented on it. This is not a bash against anyone involved, this is simply a place where my IRL exp has lead me to improve IRP.

 

[Cymic_]

Read, write and go expiernce things outside in real life. My writing of children chars was and still is from an objective point abysmal, however I noticed a marked increase in quality when I had regular interaction with my niece and nephew (9 years and 6 months respectively). Instead of relying on very old biased and unreliable personal memories I could look at my niece and see more objectively how a child that age acts and reasons.

There is a lot of truth in the authors advice to only write what you know. Since RP is nothing but writing, our RP quality I feel will reflect our individual expierences IRL.

Reading books shows you different styles, engages creativity and helps you have a guide in how to advance as a writer. Actually writing is the only way to improve be it in RP or in your own stories.

*Note: I remembered there was a thingy about kid chars and I commented on it. This is not a bash against anyone involved, this is simply a place where my IRL exp has lead me to improve IRP.

I concur

 

[Naelwyn]

Learn to accept criticism and negative attention for poor RP and your RP will get better.

Accepting that 'everybody has the right' to do whatever in their own personal RP and ignoring it leads to never improving.

Likewise, however, accept that nearly /everybody/ starts off rough.

 

[Cukie1]

Research what your character does. If you claim your character if a fighter/herbalist/medic actually look into the field. Not just a quick Google search, but actual research. Get a book, ask a friend that's in that field, or delve into it a bit. Trust me, It helps you understand lore a /lot/ more.

Quick Edit:
The owner of another old server always told us as players and staff. "Your character is only ever as smart as you are. It's impossible go claim he's smarter than you, because then how would you ever play them?"

 

[Spirit]

My usual advice to this would be: "Try to have fun."
But maybe I'll go a bit deeper, throw what my brain has to offer.

My advice to anyone would be to try and have fun, stick to their character, and try your best to not be overcome by the dreaded: "I'm the main character" mentality. When I say try to have fun, I mean do what you like when it comes to roleplay, you do yourself- don't let others change you with their OOC thoughts and behavior. If your character is an orphan assassin- cool, awesome, totally original man- don't let anyone change who you are or pick on you until you do. But try not to be one of those obnoxious players that gloat about your character's achievements while mocking others, or OOCly pick on others for losing to your character, or being tricked by them, or being mistreated by them. It ain't right.

Another thing is, try to actually think like your character for once and not yourself when RPing. If your character was born into a noble house, yet has never picked up a sword or done a lick of actually training a day in his/her life, yet you OOCly have had countless other characters who have fought and learned... don't apply that knowledge to the more recent character. I won't say I haven't done it once or twice- I'd be a damn liar if I said I haven't done it more than once or twice, but I only did that to characters that actually trained even a little- I see people doing it to characters that straight up have zero fighting/training experience. Once again, it ain't right.

And as for the dreaded "I'm the main character" mentality, what I mean is don't just think about yourself, your character, and your experience alone. Don't be a selfish dude who goes out of his way to do things just for his character's self gain. I could understand it if you were a character that is SUPPOSED to do all this, but don't OOCly be that guy. Think about not only your fun, but maybe the fun of the people around you? You'd be surprised how smoothly things go when you actually communicate with the guy you're RPing with as some events go down.

tl;dr - Have fun, be friendly, and don't be a dingus.

 

[MelodyMusica]

My suggestion is to actually put yourself in the character's shoes as if you're an actor/actress acting the character out on stage. How does this character interact with others? How does this character think? How do they feel when this happens or this happens?

Seriously just walk around your room/house when you're home alone and pretend to be your character. It gives you some interesting perspective on the character.

 

[Centurion]

Instead of arguing over actions, allow them to happen and see where the encounter takes you. Even if it's to death. Things are much more interesting this way.

 

[Smurf]

Instead of arguing over actions, allow them to happen and see where the encounter takes you. Even if it's to death. Things are much more interesting this way.

Agreed. Pretty much my entire motto with Olive.

 

[Sankera]

Make em gay

 

[Archbishop]

Roll with the punches.

Everyone likes to be the protagonist or the hero, but that's not how life works, and certainly not how RP should work. Sometimes it may end in your death, or maiming or disappointment, but it was an experience. Even negative experiences can teach us something.

Don't let OOC salt get in the way of RPing with other and new folks. Cliches are boring.

 

[Bartooliinii]

Get some inspiration from outside HollowWorld, something that makes your heart pound faster. Then build your own original thing from that.
I don't mean copy paste a Dwarf from LOTR because they're so cool (my mistake in early roleplay), but find out what you like about that Dwarf and then use that to create a character you enjoy roleplaying as

of course I had to use a Dwarf as an example

 

[Bartooliinii]

When confronted with something, try to find a way out that does not involve violence. Be resourceful, clever, make a joke of it, have a good discussion, give a gift, apologize, change sides, there are endless options.

At a certain point I got sick of RP just because anything I did in character was met with violence and combat-RP.
In contrast with my early RP days. I think I haven't had to use combat RP for the entire first year I was on HW.

 

[Sybbyl]

^. ^ one thing I've learned from personal experience in RP, via looking back on the ways I conducted myself and wishing I'd done it differently, you should always at least keep this one rule in the forefront of your mind:
If it happened in character, I should respond appropriately in character!

Something I used to do a lot that I regret is that I would argue with people over their IC actions, if something didn't go the way I had planned it in my head, I'd get angry and then try to tell them "I came here into this RP to do [this]! So you need to do [this] so that would happen!" or something along the lines, I was spoiled, basically : P

But now that I've looked back on it I realise things would have been a lot more fun if I'd just gone along with things the way I do now ^_^

Thats my advice

[Edit:]
And another bit! People may sometimes tell you things like, your character is too edgy, or your character is a special snowflake, oh she's a mary sue!
I'd say that most of the time, you can ignore them. If your character makes you happy and you enjoy RPing as them, then by golly you do what you want!

However, don't just blatantly ignore /everyone/ who comments. If someone comes to you with an actual educated opinion on the matter and offers an alternative or solution, see if you'd like it, think about what they say for a while first. Changing a character suddenly because [even if its a lot of people] people say they dont like it can often lead to you falling out of love with your character. That happened to me with several of mine, and I wish it hadn't.

So to a point, listen to people's criticism on your characters if they have any, but if you wanna be a special snowflake then you go be a special snowflake ; )
[90% of my characters are anyways, whats the fun if you're RPing something normal?!]

 

[TheDeester]

Try speaking to new people, IC and OOC. Usually bolsters development of your narrative ability interacting with many different characters and players instead of sticking in a clique. It can be hard to do, but it's often worth it.

 

[Vincentius]

My advice is that you shouldn't be afraid of your character sometimes contradicting the things they say or believe.

So long as you can at least roughly articulate reasoning for why such a thing might occur, that is. I'm not saying let your Shalherana devout go on a murder spree just because they want to, but something like having a character find stealing to be a heinous act, but regardless would steal from someone if it was necessary for them.
Contradictions between what a character says they believe, what they truly believe, and how they act all emotionally and psychologically make a character more complex when they have defined reasoning. Your character shouldn't only have one set of personality traits that all make them into a lovable super-pacifist. There's always more to it than that, and don't be afraid to show it!
And hypocrites are always fun to act out.

 

[pyrocide]

My biggest tip is to treat this as it is meant to be, a collaborative storytelling experience and not a game. However I've talked about this many times before and a number of people have already commented similarly, so I'll instead explain my tips on how to maximize your collaborative storytelling potential.

Research improv acting. What we do here is almost entirely improv acting, yet I find that the overwhelming majority of people in roleplaying servers like this don't know the first thing about it. While I could go on for a small novel's worth of what to incorporate into your roleplay, I'll list what's considered the top five improv rules and how they apply to us roleplaying:




(pulled these from http://improvencyclopedia.org/references/5_Basic_Improv_Rules.html if you want to check the site out further)

1 - Don't Deny - also known as "Yes, and" - the "collaborate" in collaborative storytelling. We already have a rule for excessive denial which we generally call powergaming. Blocking every attack is boring. Acknowledge your opponent's collaboration, and always give something back. In combat, this means either take the hit, or if you're going to block at least offer something like straining to keep the shield up, or falling prone, or having your blocking shield/weapon knocked out of hand. Another time this would come up is reacting to other characters in a social sense. If a giant earthspawn goes to intimidate your character, your character should likely act intimidated. I've seen way too many players act like they can't be scared or nervous or anything other than defiant, which makes for bad storytelling and character design. Denying input from other players is what kills the enjoyment of a scene, so go with the flow and respect your fellow players by accepting and responding to the input they give you. (also, if any of you have wondered why I'm so against consent rules, it's because it goes against the #1 rule of improv)

2 - Don't ask open ended questions Fully flesh out your character - this one applies to us least, since we all have our characters made beforehand unlike improv where characters are built during the scene. What I will say that is close to this point is instead to make well rounded characters. Starting off a character idea with one concept or gimmick is fine, but you have to flesh out your character to be more than just the gimmick or else it will feel bland to play with for both yourself and the other players that interact with it. Fill in the full backstory: their family, their alignment, belief system, influential friends/enemies, desires and goals, fears and weaknesses, ect ect. Make sure the character has flaws, as these add depth and humanize the character. This will help you play the character because a fully fleshed out one will always have something to work toward and a response for every situation, where a gimmick will not.

3 - you don't have to be funny the winner - here I'd like to simply stress again that being the winner does nothing. You don't get any rl money, or recognition, or anything. If the server shut down tomorrow no one will care that your character always won every time. The only thing we get to take away from all this is the stories we create. Every good story has ups and downs. You need those moments of failure for your character's arc to be remarkable and interesting. If Tony Stark never got kidnapped by the terrorists he would have never become Iron Man. Let "losses" happen, let your characters learn from their mistakes, and enjoy the story that unfolds.

4 - You can look good if you make your partner look good - going off the last point, setting up another character - even an enemy - for a big spotlight moment is often as rewarding or even more than having your own character in the spotlight. Attempting to hog the spotlight also tends to sour any scene where it occurs (players from back when gods would show up will remember everyone trying to crowd close to the gods to get attention, and the resulting ooc fighting about how everyone needs to back up were terrible to sit through). Let another player get the spotlight, and assist them doing so in character if possible, so that you can both enjoy the story that happens to that player's character. Even in combat, if you see a path to a cool death for your character, take that path. A good death is miles better than a OOC complaint into admin decided victory.

5 - Tell a story - the "story" in collaborative storytelling. In every scene you roleplay, try to look at it from a neutral perspective, and always ask yourself how can you make this scene's story play out as best as possible. Often, the answer is to step back and let someone else have the spotlight. Try to always keep the interests of the other players in mind, and work with those and your own to create something interesting for the group rather than whatever is best for just yourself. You'll find that you will go from fighting everyone with words to enjoying yourself, even if your character doesn't end up as the main person of that scene.


tl;dr - read up on improv acting, as that's almost exactly what we're doing.

 

[Ddaug]

Losing is half the fun, let it happen.

 

[Naelwyn]

Learn how to understand and manipulate reputation mechanics for fun and profit.

Whenever possible, frame your opponent as 'the bad guy."

 

[Scardrac]

Read your emotes and dialogue outside of the game. Try to disconnect them from the game and see if you can figure out whats going on just by the words. Imagine it like an audiobook in your head. If it doesn't make sense, and is too short and under detailed, try and adjust.

Try and put yourself "in the moment", consistent OOC commentary really makes it just that: OOC. It can break immersion of others, and can give you the "you don't know what you're missing" effect. Another thing would be to ground your character. Flesh out their experience in one place, or one event, and realize that it isn't easy for a character to go all across the world for every other event and roleplay wherever and whenever they want. Of course, you have the freedom to, but I have found that locking myself to a certain place, or dedicating my character to a sole purpose, really spices up what I am doing in game.